Those of you using Linux to really put your PS3 through its paces are probably doing so through the underground community’s trusted Yellow Dog.
Well, there’s some new competition from Ubuntu, the highly acclaimed Linux distributor, which has released a new version of their popular operating system specifically for the Sony PlayStation 3.
For those of you still scratching your head, wondering what this Linux talk is all about, essentially it allows you to boot your PS3 into more of a desktop PC style mode, to check your email and browse the web – pretty much like a mini PC. Also, the PS3 doesn’t suffer from any of usability issues that the PlayStation 2 version may have had.
Installation of the new Linux operating system is very easy, all you have to do is use a Live CD method, which is a wizard tool. Go in the XMB of the PlayStation 3, then go to settings > system settings > format utility > format hard disk. From here, you can partition the hard drive to allow for the space needed for whichever Linux software you chose to use. Follow the steps and you will be up and running in no time.
Your PS3 sets itself to boot either Linux or PS3 OS by default, so you can switch back and forth but you need to reboot each time.
For more info, the review here from Eurogamer should help clear things up - they installed Fedora Core 5, another version of Linux that also runs well on the PS3:
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=70611
Ubuntu
Comment by Grammar Nazi — Apr 27, 2007 @ 3:39 pm
It’s Ubuntu, not unbuntu.
Comment by Laurens — Apr 27, 2007 @ 4:03 pm
Cheers, typo spotters!
Comment by Three Speech — Apr 27, 2007 @ 4:17 pm
Please tell Sony that Linux is nearly useless without some kind of basic graphics acceleration.
Comment by solidunit — Apr 27, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
Linux - OSX’s ugly older sister…
Comment by Ben Furneaux — Apr 27, 2007 @ 5:09 pm
+1 for hardware gfx. What is the point without?
Comment by Robert — Apr 27, 2007 @ 5:32 pm
With Linux you can use the VLC Media Player, which can play ALL audio and video formats.
Comment by Olivier — Apr 27, 2007 @ 5:33 pm
LET LINUX ACCESS THE RSX!
Comment by ben — Apr 27, 2007 @ 7:05 pm
Yes you can play all formats with VLC, xine, and mplayer under Linux, but playback is jerky and stuttery on most content and pretty much unplayable with HD content. Thats why we need real hardware acceleration.
Pretty please
Comment by solidunit — Apr 27, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
Without wireless support and some better hardware support…the linux is indeed pretty hampered. Why not assist the community with these issues?
Comment by guthrie — Apr 27, 2007 @ 8:53 pm
does it work with wireless networking yet though? thats what i’m waiting for.
Comment by mikeh — Apr 27, 2007 @ 10:23 pm
Thanks for the start-up tips. I needs me a PS3!
Comment by Demonwebs — Apr 27, 2007 @ 10:28 pm
SCUMMVM
Comment by loomis — Apr 28, 2007 @ 5:17 am
If you use framebuffer output at the command line, mplayer runs just fine. Yellow Dog is rumored to be porting OpenGL to use the Cell’s spe processors, and others are working on porting other cpu intensive applications to the Cell. The audio problems were just fixed with the latest kernel update this week.
But it’s still all useless to me since we can’t set the video mode properly, and have to rely on the TV having adjustments most TVs don’t have. At the moment, I’m stuck with a big black bar on either one side of the screen or the other, depending on whether I enable overscan or not. As a long-time Linux user, I’m accustomed to not having 3D acceleration, but not even being able to set the video mode is very frustrating. Rumor has it Sony’s working on opening up at least part of the RSX, but who knows when that’ll happen, or if the rumors are even true.
That being said, this is approximately a billion times cooler than running linux on any other console, because a) we don’t have to mod the console, and b) it’s officially supported, so there’s plenty of people working on the improvements from both the Linux world and Sony.
And if anyone’s curious, USE THE UBUNTU LINUX. It’s made so normal people can use it, Fedora and Yellow Dog is meant for back-room server junkies… and even the junkies don’t like those distros that much any more.
Comment by androvsky — Apr 28, 2007 @ 4:22 pm
If they just lifted the restriction they set on the hypervisor for accessing the RSX or giving us some basic video accelaration.
Ubuntu and all is nice, but without video acceleration it seems rather useless. What if we want to use compiz or beryl ?
Comment by silence — Apr 29, 2007 @ 12:26 pm
Ubuntu install to PS3 video here:
http://game.salesmunn.com/index.php?p=65
Comment by Salesmunn — Apr 30, 2007 @ 4:16 am
Im using Ubuntu edgy 6.10 right now, no point to putting it on my PS3 as YDL sucked as nothing worked! Linux is best for REAL PC’s…
Comment by Rice_slayer — Apr 30, 2007 @ 4:46 am
the CPU is fast enough to even decode 1080P video, so that’s not that important.
Comment by mark — Apr 30, 2007 @ 10:20 am
I wish they’d at least give us 2D acceleration on the RSX. Maybe give us some really easy to use 2D API platform.
Apparently YDL has some 2D API platform, but I’ve seen no documentation, and it’s not accelerated.
Wifi access would be nice too.
Remote Play access would be a godsend
Comment by Techni — Apr 30, 2007 @ 6:03 pm
Unaccelerated 2D API? It’s called SDL, available on Windows, Linux, and even OSX iirc. SDL can be accelerated if the video drivers support it, and it can also be used to handle joysticks, sound and 3D (through OpenGL).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_DirectMedia_Layer
Comment by androvsky — Apr 30, 2007 @ 7:47 pm
A truly open console would be a revolution in the industry. Sony has nothing to fear (on the PC, Linux gaming is non-existent) , and everything to win: the PS would become a fantastic media player, a must-have to connect a TV to the web (internet TV, Joost, Video-on-demand, …) An open console will crush the competition ! Just do it, Sony !
Comment by Olivier — May 1, 2007 @ 5:55 am
Anyone know if it is possible to create a virtual graphics card coded to use the spe’s as the gpu. (Lack of ram would still be a problem though).
Comment by sawel — Jul 8, 2007 @ 9:48 am
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