• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

PS3 Linux thread.

think you can install it from a usb device. if you have a spare hdd, you could use a external ide->usb enclosure ..




hmm ... about HD movie playback, i doubt rsx will be unlocked by sony for a while if ever, but shouldn't cell be more than enough to decode hd video on the fly?


is it just a case of waiting for a media player to be written that makes full use of the multicore nature of cell?
 
son of a bitch!!!!

was fiddling around with my kboot.conf file trying to get find a good res for video output on another tv i have ... and i must have typo'ed ..and now i can't boot .


so at the kboot prompt i try to nano the file, make some changes but the filesystem is read only, how can i get it read/write so i can try to get this running again?
 
CueTheMusic said:
You need to edit it as root.

So assuming you are in the correct directory:
sudo nano -w kboot.conf
Click to expand...

Shit, am I still reading GAF or has this turned into slashdot forums all the sudden?
 
lambchop said:
hmm ... about HD movie playback, i doubt rsx will be unlocked by sony for a while if ever, but shouldn't cell be more than enough to decode hd video on the fly?


is it just a case of waiting for a media player to be written that makes full use of the multicore nature of cell?
Click to expand...

It's a matter of waiting for software that takes advantage of what's there, yeah. I guess the argument is that this would be a faster process if GPU access was there, since some work was already being done in accelerating video decoding on GPUs.

It would be really nice if Terrasoft's HPC Consortium focussed a project on video decoding to get the ball rolling. They've seen some seemingly impressive results in some of their projects (e.g. mesa) in some very short periods of time using things like Rapidmind etc. They seem to be focussed on stuff related to life sciences for now though, and video processing may not fall under that remit,
 
lambchop said:
according to this guy, he managed to playback some HD video with mplayer, without ps3 breaking a sweat ...

http://www.mail-archive.com/yellowdog-general@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com/msg03549.html


haven't tried this myself ...
Click to expand...
Not sure if the new mplayer builds incorporate some type of use of spe but around the launch of the PS3 I couldn't even run some h.264 encoded files with high bitrates so it makes me wonder what changed. I will recompile on Friday and give this a shot (midterms are killing me right now!).
 
is there a guide to compliing mplayer on ps3? does what you use to do it effect mplayers performance?


found this post here:

"Could you use ppu-gcc where available from Barcelona Super Computing Center http://www.bsc.es/plantillaH.php?cat_id=252 to compile geekbench?

In our evaluation ppu-gcc has nearly 20% improvement on speed compared to current gcc which generate pure PowerPC instructions while ppu-gcc generates Cell optimized binary. Sony Computer Entertainment is currently pushing cell optimization code to go into mainline gcc which expecting to be merged around gcc 4.3.

Unstill the merged gcc become the default compiler for common Linux distribution, using ppu-gcc will be greatly appreciated for benchmarking purpose."



which talks about this:

http://www.bsc.es/plantillaH.php?cat_id=252
 
I went through the install process for YDL, but I installed it on a USB HDD.

The install went fine as per the guide, but after I reset the PS3, YDL would not boot from the USB HDD.

I assume I need a different bootloader to get YDL to run from a USB HDD.

Anybody else got YDL working from a standalone HDD?
 
DoctorWho said:
I would mostly use this for playing DIVX files from my Mac. Sadly, from what I am hearing the wireless doesn't work so I wouldn't be able to transfer files over with ease. Oh well, hopefully we'll see some better use of the PS3 hardware over time.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I use the PS3 for. I have Xvid, etc on my Mac in the back room, so on the PS3 I mount (snicker) my user share on the Mac and stream video using VLC... which wasn't fun to install, but wasn't that difficult. It's nice because I don't need to lug the Mac around since the PS3 is already plugged in via HDMI and works pretty well.
 
I've got a few questions regarding Linux on PS3:

1. Will I somehow be able to use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse when I've completed installing Linux (which HAS TO be with USB ones, hasn't it)?
2. Is Linux on a PS3 a (fairly) good alternative for a PC? (as in: I'd only like to use Word, MSN Messenger, watch avi files, surf the internet and maybe some Limewire every now and then.)
3. What's the boot-up time for Ubuntu? (through XMB)

I'm considering installing Linux to use my PS3 as a replacement for my PC, it just has to do the basic things as I described in question 2, so thanks A LOT if answered :)
 
FoxhoundNL said:
I've got a few questions regarding Linux on PS3:

1. Will I somehow be able to use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse when I've completed installing Linux (which HAS TO be with USB ones, hasn't it)?
2. Is Linux on a PS3 a (fairly) good alternative for a PC? (as in: I'd only like to use Word, MSN Messenger, watch avi files, surf the internet and maybe some Limewire every now and then.)
3. What's the boot-up time for Ubuntu? (through XMB)

I'm considering installing Linux to use my PS3 as a replacement for my PC, it just has to do the basic things as I described in question 2, so thanks A LOT if answered :)
Click to expand...

It doesn't support the bluetooth or wifi yet. There are some issues with different video playback. Until those issues are resolved, I don't think it's a good alternative.
 
i think it's adequate as a spare pc .. takes a few seconds for aps to launch, but meh .. does the job.

one thing that pisses me off tho is the lack of flash player for firefox on power cpu's .... what browser is the xmb based off ... flash works in that ..but not with linux ... hmmmm
 
lambchop said:
i think it's adequate as a spare pc .. takes a few seconds for aps to launch, but meh .. does the job.

one thing that pisses me off tho is the lack of flash player for firefox on power cpu's .... what browser is the xmb based off ... flash works in that ..but not with linux ... hmmmm
Click to expand...

I read an open source implementation of Flash can now play Youtube videos:
http://swfdec.freedesktop.org/wiki/

You might be able compile that for PPC.
 
big things are coming soon for ps3 linux, full speed snes and 1080p video among others, watch this space .....
 
I'm wanting wireless internet the most. Without it, it's too much of a pain for me to manage the system.

No media streaming witout it, either. A big bummer.
 
kiz_ said:
big things are coming soon for ps3 linux, full speed snes and 1080p video among others, watch this space .....
Click to expand...


Orly? From where?

Oh and the processing Delta between full speed SNES emulation and 1080p video is hilariously vast. So I fail to see how the two are even related.

But on a more encouraging note, dish.
 
One way to work around most of the speed issues with PS3 Linux would be to include a SPE accelerated scaling directly in SDL. Maybe that's what these guys are doing, or maybe it's more than that I don't know.
 
kiz_ said:
big things are coming soon for ps3 linux, full speed snes and 1080p video among others, watch this space .....
Click to expand...

what! what!

it would be nice to get some good news, it seems that it's going quite slow so far.
 
has any one had any luck compliing mplayer with ppu-gcc ?

when i run the ./config --cc=ppu-gcc it just reverts to using gcc instead :(
 
Blimblim said:
One way to work around most of the speed issues with PS3 Linux would be to include a SPE accelerated scaling directly in SDL. Maybe that's what these guys are doing, or maybe it's more than that I don't know.
Click to expand...

The PS3 is never going to be fast at general purpose processing: in fact it was designed to be the complete opposite. No recompile will cover up the lack of cache, branch prediction, ram, etc.
 
stewacide said:
The PS3 is never going to be fast at general purpose processing: in fact it was designed to be the complete opposite. No recompile will cover up the lack of cache, branch prediction, ram, etc.
Click to expand...

Although it would be perfect for video. CELL is perfect for it.
 
antiloop said:
Although it would be perfect for video. CELL is perfect for it.
Click to expand...

The PS3 (and the 360) are media-crunching throughput monsters. If it's predictable and it can be paralylized it can be made fast with clever programming (so video, graphics generally, etc.)

But in terms of the kind of desktop applications you'd run with Linux, or general game-code for that matter (AI, physics, etc.) they're extremely limited, at least in comparison to the PC.
 
antiloop said:
Although it would be perfect for video. CELL is perfect for it.
Click to expand...
As long as the codec has been optimized for the 256 KB memory zone each SPE is capable of using at least. That, and actually making the codec multithreaded. The first one could be easy enough, the second... not so much *at all*.
 
Small but neat - these people got the Sixaxis working wirelessly under Linux (wireless Sixaxis support is not natively supported in Linux thusfar), and also patched it in to control a robot they're developing, puppet-like with the Sixaxis. Pretty neat video, and nice to see someone get motion tracking working.

sixaxislinuxef3.jpg


Using the PlayStation 3 controller in Bluetooth mode with Linux


Youtube Video
 
kiz_ said:
big things are coming soon for ps3 linux, full speed snes and 1080p video among others, watch this space .....
Click to expand...
I hope that is true. I want to install linux, but I also want a better and easier version to be released before I do. + I do not want my ps2 saves to be deleted. (Maybe I can backup them on a usb memory stick?)
 
Something coming soon?

Posted by some YDL developer onn the YellowDog General mailing list:

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:04:06 -0700
From: Owen Stampflee <ostampflee@terrasoftsolutions.com>
Subject: [ydl-gen] YDL.net Enhanced PS3 Users, I have a surprise for
you all.
To: yellowdog-general <yellowdog-general@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com>

Update your GameOS so you'll be ready ;)
Click to expand...

http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?t=8281&sid=0d3d72247deafeb364d343fff08682cf

Wi-fi drivers or something else?
 
I wouldn't get too excited about what that might be. At a guess I'd say they're preparing a new build of YDL for release, and they'll take advantage of whatever changes to the hypervisor Sony has made since December, when I think the last YDL build update was made. But how much new or different stuff that might allow..I don't know, it might be pretty minor.
 
gofreak said:
I wouldn't get too excited about what that might be. At a guess I'd say they're preparing a new build of YDL for release, and they'll take advantage of whatever changes to the hypervisor Sony has made since December, when I think the last YDL build update was made. But how much new or different stuff that might allow..I don't know, it might be pretty minor.
Click to expand...

Hopefully wi-fi and bluetooth. It would be nice to see some acceleration of the graphics too. I think its totally unreasonable to think Sony will open it all up, but there must be parts they can put shims into the hypervisor so they are partially accessible.
 
I'd really like a working Nintendo 64 emulator. How awesome would it be to get goldeneye and super smash bros working? What has to happen in order for this to be possible?
 
gofreak said:
Small but neat - these people got the Sixaxis working wirelessly under Linux (wireless Sixaxis support is not natively supported in Linux thusfar), and also patched it in to control a robot they're developing, puppet-like with the Sixaxis. Pretty neat video, and nice to see someone get motion tracking working.

Using the PlayStation 3 controller in Bluetooth mode with Linux


Youtube Video
Click to expand...

There's some discussion over the legitimacy of this video. But hopefully, if it is real they'll send the sixaxis patches upstream.
 
Firestreak said:
I'd really like a working Nintendo 64 emulator. How awesome would it be to get goldeneye and super smash bros working? What has to happen in order for this to be possible?
Click to expand...

Time.

there's no reason PS3 linux shouldn't be able to handle all the usual homebrew goodies.
 
theBishop said:
Time.

there's no reason PS3 linux shouldn't be able to handle all the usual homebrew goodies.
Click to expand...

Linux has emulators for just about every retro platform. I imagine you could set up a PS3 to play all of them. I expect it would be a little rough around the edges but it's doable.

I wish there was a Linux dist that booted straight into MythTV and offered modules for running emulators, video players etc. I think that is what most people would be most happy to see.
 
DrXym said:
I wish there was a Linux dist that booted straight into MythTV and offered modules for running emulators, video players etc. I think that is what most people would be most happy to see.
Click to expand...
I can bet you that it will happen with the 2 weeks after someone gets HD videos from every codecs supported by ffmpeg playing perfectly on the PS3. It's so frustrating to be so close and yet so far from a practical replacement of XBMC.
 
Blimblim said:
I can bet you that it will happen with the 2 weeks after someone gets HD videos from every codecs supported by ffmpeg playing perfectly on the PS3. It's so frustrating to be so close and yet so far from a practical replacement of XBMC.
Click to expand...

In terms of video decoding performance, is XBMC still better then the PS3, or is it about the same now?
 
joaomgcd said:
In terms of video decoding performance, is XBMC still better then the PS3, or is it about the same now?
Click to expand...
I'd say the PS3 is worse than XBMC for the moment , since it has to deal with 1) Non optimized codecs 2) Software scaling. So even a 640x480 video may have issues since the resizing to 1920x1080 will have to be done by the CPU.
 
Blimblim said:
I'd say the PS3 is worse than XBMC for the moment , since it has to deal with 1) Non optimized codecs
Click to expand...

Despite that they're not optimised, if we're talking raw decoding performance, I'd imagine in most if not all cases decoding performance is still better. XBMC hardly deals with any HD video AFAIK, but at least a couple of codecs allow for 720p or 1080i playback as is at the moment on PS3.

If we're talking performance relative to that hardware's potential, then sure, XBMC is making much better use of its hardware than anything on PS3 at the moment.
 
DrXym said:
I wish there was a Linux dist that booted straight into MythTV and offered modules for running emulators, video players etc. I think that is what most people would be most happy to see.
Click to expand...

I completely agree.
 
DrXym said:
I wish there was a Linux dist that booted straight into MythTV and offered modules for running emulators, video players etc. I think that is what most people would be most happy to see.
Click to expand...

God, that sure as hell would shut up a lot of PS3 haters.
 
Firestreak said:
God, that sure as hell would shut up a lot of PS3 haters.
Click to expand...

I think most of the 'PS3 haters' are more focused on the system cost and the actual PS3 games more so than the media players and emulation.

Even the 'modbox' geeks like me wouldn't pop a huge rod over such a distribution unless it unlocked the RSX and full RAM.
 
Wireless supported in latest kernel.

The latest YDL newsletter states;

1. Update the firmware on your PS3
This can be achieved from GameOS with the Software Update function
in settings.

2. Download the new PS3 wifi enabled kernel:
URL: http://ydl.net/enhanced/updates/yellowdog-5.0/RPMS/kernel-ps3-2.6.16-20070425.ydl.3.ppc64.rpm

3. Install the new kernel
rpm -ivh /path/to/kernel-ps3-2.6.16-20070425.ydl.3.ppc64.rpm

4. Edit /etc/kboot.conf
Take your default kernel line, and make a copy of it and then modify
the original line to point to the new kernel.

For example, if your default kernel line is:
ydl='/dev/sda1:/vmlinux-2.6.16-20061110.ydl.2ps3 initrd=/dev/sda1:/initrd-2.6.16-20061110.ydl.2ps3.img root=/dev/sda2 video=ps3fb:mode:3 rhgb'

The new section would like this:
ydl='/dev/sda1:/vmlinux-2.6.16-20070425.ydl.3ps3 initrd=/dev/sda1:/initrd-2.6.16-20070425.ydl.3ps3.img root=/dev/sda2 init=/sbin/init video=ps3fb:mode:3 rhgb'
oldydl='/dev/sda1:/vmlinux-2.6.16-20061110.ydl.2ps3 initrd=/dev/sda1:/initrd-2.6.16-20061110.ydl.2ps3.img root=/dev/sda2 video=ps3fb:mode:3 rhgb'

Where oldydl is your original kernel.

5. Reboot

6. Configuring Wireless
a) Unplug the ethernet cable, eth0 is both the wired and wireless
Ethernet port on PS3s.
b) Launch system-config-network (Network in the Settings menu)
c) Delete the eth0 (gelic_net) interface.
d) Create a Wireless connection.
e) You may now configure that wireless connection as you would with
other YDL versions. One note here that confused me when I did this
was that the ESSID specified as "Auto", when I actually needed to
remove that and select the Auto radio button.
f) You can now activate the interface.

7. Enjoy your new wireless enabled PS3.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Linux on PlayStation 5 is now possible, and people already emulate PS3 on it
2 3
124
2K
winjer replied
  • Locked
PS5 running Linux
5
517
Hudo replied
DF: PS3 Emulation On PS5 Linux Tested: Killzone, MotorStorm, MGS 4, Ridge Racer 7 + Many More
Analysis Hardware  2
78
1K
Bojji replied
Pathtracing on Playstation 5 (Linux) - Digital Foundry
2
55
1K
winjer replied
Security PSA for CEMU Linux users.
News 
0
207
Holammer replied
Top Bottom