Ok, so we're admittedly jealous that not only does this engineering user have a
PlayStation 3 in his possession, but has the time to load up Fedora
Linux on it while we yearn to just sneak in a few minutes of long-awaited
gameplay. While we're sure this hardcore fellow went to
great lengths to get his paws on a
highly-coveted unit, his endearing patience in firing up a launch title is quite admirable, and he's apparently got Linux not only installed, but up and functioning as well. While we knew that the
Yellow Dog variety would be making its way over to Sony's latest console, we're thrilled to see that all the
Linux hype has a backbone and a new home to boot. So if you're just dying to see what Fedora Core looks like on a
Cell processor, make sure you peep the video after the break.
[Thanks, Klippoth]
posted Nov 19th 2006 6:46PM
lol, I'm not sure that the fact that the PS3 can run linux is going to make a difference to this console's success. People don't buy consoles in order to run linux I'm afraid...
After all, it gives you possibility of learning Cell programming. You can get SDK from IBM website which is freely available and install it under Fedora. Anyway it can be installed only under Fedora dist. Pretty nice stuff also there's lack of couple of things like direct access to the video memory and one CPU core is not available for use since it's a supervisor. I think people who get known how to write for Cell they might have better chance to get involved into real PS3 projects.
well along with when i type in "linux64 xdriver=fbdev video=720p" it says it says some thing about not found
then i type in "game" it says something about error: cant start other boot flag
what do i do??
is there a way i can completely return my ps3 to factory settings from the kboot: prompt because thats as far as it lets me go
please help
Thats awesome! But a bit sluggish, though thats prolly to blame the HDD. It spins at liek 4,200 or 5,400?
Thumbs up, thats awesome. Can't wait to see the hordes of PS3s out there running Folding@home
Think of the ebay value on that!
thats cool but the resolution doesn't look too good first post?
nope lol
Freaking sweet! I heard from a source that there are a few universal PS3 consoles, which can play Xbox 360, Nintendo, super Nintendo, and all that stuff? Maybe true maybe not.
Also heard from a source that the next shipment of PS3 consoles to finish those pre-order lists will be this Tuesday the 21st.
can anyone say ROMS
which means
play genesis, gba, snes, n64, etc, etc
Lol, doesn't seem like a "super computer" now does it?
If this is the same guy running SMB on PS3 from another YouTube video, then hes got it hooked up to some 20 inch CRT via composite (lol)... anyways, this'll be a great way to run emulators without hacking the PS3 firmware.
Can I run Windows Vista on that? If so I might just have to buy one!
No. The PS3 is a Cell processor, which is PowerPC based. Windows Vista is x86 (Intel & AMD) based. It's a completely different architecture, so it won't run. Plus, if it could it'd be hellishly slow.
Ask yourself...does Vista support IBM Cell processors ? Nope, you're out of luck..
I feel sad for you. Vista does less than Ubuntu by a factor of two while eating litterally four times the RAM.
Even if windows was written well enough to be portable between ISA's, it's to bloated for that sleek machine by far.
I wonder if new linux nvidia drivers have support for power architecture and the rsx chip.
It'd be cool to get xgl/compiz running on it. And to be fair, it's running quite quick, cause it probably takes about 2 minutes for me to boot fedora core on my 3 ghz machine, and the video was over in 2:30.
U all know this means the ps3 is already the ultimate emulation platform, expect to see all past-gen consoles emulated on it, including mame and everything which has technically already been ported.
I doubt you'll see it emulating xbox360 though, I bet you wish it could, then maybe you ps3 owners could play some gears of war. To bad it's technically impossible, not to mention that the 360 is actually faster then the ps3 when it comes to common everyday regular multi-threaded code. Although the ps3 would probably cream the 360 at folding@home.
Notice it doesn't recognize the drive as Blu-ray, he'll need to get drivers to fix that one lol
i wonder if we'll see Mac OSX on the ps3. not officially of course. from what i've read it runs the power pc version of linux. i've never looked into it but can mac os be installed on a power pc linux machine?
LOL @ ATT.
wow, the 360 can't be used as a PC. oh wait, i have 2 laptops and a desktop to do those things with and it was a hell of alot easier than worrying about installing linux on a machine with limited inputs and driver availablitity.
hope you have an external DVD or cd drive, cause other wise your not doing much of anything than using that as a network machine.
Way to show off the hardware support!
Sheesh, he didn't even open the system monitor or look at the filesystem.
Really, what's the point of making a video if all you're going to do is flip through the menus; look like a buffoon by staring blankly at the file explorer and clicking the Show Desktop button for no reason; then turn it off?
Hoping to see a better video soon...
Piracy! Awesome!
Another great reason not to make games for the PS3!
>Piracy! Awesome!
>Another great reason not to make games for the PS3!
Running linux on it has nothing to do with piracy.
Umm... yeah. Linux is free, bud. Even if it weren't... if he had a license, it still wouldn't be piracy.
"People don't buy consoles in order to run linux I'm afraid..."
I bought an Xbox to run XBMC - haven't ever used it for games. If this PS3 can run "homebrew" code out-of-the-box, then a media player distro seems inevitable. Well, I hope so anyway. The xbox is noisy (and ugly).
I have seen a video of a NES emulator running on the PS3 through Linux. This seems possible as there are alot of emulators for Linux this could be very interesting.
Cool. Not too big a stretch of the imagination to see the arch-dependent parts of mplayer and ffmpeg ported or bypassed so you'd have divx/xvid/etc working.
Upgrade that hard drive.. usb tuner..
looks like sony release*
Install Manual of Open Platform for PLAYSTATION3
Requirements for Installing "Other OS"
* Personal computer (PC)
* PLAYSTATION3 (a free space of 10 MB or more must be available on the hard disk)
* Environment that allows your PC to connect to the Internet
* Any of the following recording media with a free space of 10 MB or more
* Commercially available USB memory device
* Commercially available USB-connectable hard disk
* Empty CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVE+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, BD-R, or BD-RE disc
* Memory Stick *
* SD memory card *
* CompactFlash *
http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/manual.html
Mine has been working great running XBMC. Who knows if it is ugly cause I never see it or hear it. My projector isnt any louder than the xbox. Clean your fan.
Has this guy ever used Linux before?
Yep my life would be complete if i could run linux on a $600 box with 256mb of ram, because that wont hold back the processor at all.
Nice! Notice that in the bootloader (lilo?) every penguin stands for a CPU...
As much as I hate Sony, this could be tempting for one reason: MythTV. Myth (for those not in the know) is one of the best PVR suites out there, and it runs on Linux.
So... while $500 (plus a large hard drive) looks fairly steep for a console (I definitely wouldn't buy one for games) it is damn cheap for a well designed media center PC. You would be hard pressed to beat the form factor/power/noise level buying components from NewEgg.
If Fedora runs, Myth will too. In all seriousness, I might buy one (once they actually become available) and never boot it into gaming mode.
I tought about MythTV too. However, no TV tuner != DVR :-(
USB TV Tuners/Capture Devices ?
http://avreport.com
wow, now i'm impressed. My question, is this offically supported? Is this something that will be disabled in future updates, like what sony did to homebrew for the PSP? I want to do this when I can get a system earley next year, but hopefully they don't lock this feature out.
It's officially supported:
http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html
another reason for me to buy a ps3 YAY!!!
btw, the ps3 has usb ports, so an external video turner would fix the MythTV issue. As long as the drivers exist. If not, you'll have to be a true geek and write them yourself!
Actually, the reason for the lack of high-resolution is that I captured the video by hooking up my PS3 to my old workhorse MythTV computer, which didn't support High-Def input. So, unfortunately, composite it is... Although I didn't think it would make much difference once Youtube compressed things down to 320x240 anyway...
Uh, how was that "up and functioning well?" He just browsed through the menu for a minute, he didn't test the sound card, he didn't test the network, nor did he test any kind of hardware accelerated video. I'm going to guess that none of those things work, yet. Granted, they will eventually, but I don't think you're going to be dropping MythTV on there for a few months at least.
Still, that with MythTV or Freevo on it will make a nice set up (especially if you can get a decent USB capture device). I'm now slightly more interested in a PS3, but it has the same issue that the original Xbox had (with XBMC), it just doesn't look right with other AV components. Hopefully a replacement case design will come along, because I'm far too lazy to design my own.
First off, I'll admit right now I am not the most knowledgeable on Linux, which is why I didn't go too deeply into all of the software apps and whatnot (although I think we all know what Mahjongg or a movie looks like by now without me showing you). This was just basically a "proof-of-concept" and I am currently rendering a version with full voiceover to explain everything. I should have that posted up on Youtube within an hour or so. And as far as resolution goes, I captured the footage with my old MythTV box which didn't have High Def support, so composite is about as good as it gets. I'll probably do some more captures of various software applications later, since people seem to be wanting that sort of thing, although I don't want to mess with it too much, since this is an Ebay item. But thanks for the feedback, and for all the haters, make a better video! I'll be glad to watch it! Thanks!
And by the way, I am having issues with Network support, sound support, and mounting the optical drive, but that could be my unfamiliarity with Gnome (I'm a KDE guy) so I'll keep working on it and post some video once I get the machine fully functional. Unless someone else beats me to it, because I'm sure there's someone more qualified than I to figure it out!
Here's the new version (with voiceover explanations to break the monotony)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZXcuhJkwx4
for those who are not familiar with linux, the boot process was FAST!
well, faster than any Intel machines I ever used.
(provided the video is running at normal speed)
LOL who wnts to use a pc on a INORDER EXECUTION PROCESSOR its dog slow incomparison to even older generic processors lol
lol its not a fast bootup its a stripped down bootup and i've seen faster on both my gentoo boxes...
And whats the sense in a ps3 linux box if you need a PC to get it completed why not just run it on the darn PC????
And if this is one of those "we can do it" running linux... impressive was an ipod running linux not a ps3...
But as i said, why run any desktop OS linux or otherwise if the cell processor doesnt have any branch prediction? Like i said in the previous post, a friggin inorder executive processor is enough to slam anyones hopes of the ps3 as a relevent alternative to standard desktops (athlon / core duo etc)
and a pretty stupid question... let me get this logic here... a ps3 to run mythtv?
So lets see a hard to find 600$ device, that if you buy it now will cost 2000-9000$ and wont include any tv tuners and is non upgradeable in anyway except harddrive... so you'll need to get other compatible tv tuners via usb as well....
or the alternative, a htpc with mythtv for around the same price if not less than the cheapest ps3 you can find... and it'll be faster because it doesnt use the stupid cell and uses a proper general processor.
I just really cant see peoples logic in the least
wow Chris' htpc which doesn't use the stupid cell and uses a proper general processor can play ps3 games~
Yes and what HTPC for $500 has HDMI 1.3 and can playback Blu-ray Disc Media? Go spread your fud somewhere else.
seriously, what is wrong with chris?... its not all about mythtv
I know that rad
the point was there are people saying "i think i'll get one to run mythtv on" and it just didnt make sense... yes as a console it might be good (though recent reviews of ps3 games is quite lacking) the fact is the ability to use a desktop os as it is just a gimmick and i hate to see people eating it up.
Especially when places like engadget are saying the ps3 is a "supercomputer" when in actuallity the hardware inside the ps3 is not designed to be any type of general purpose computer in the least by sheer hardware design.
I completely agree... in-order execution is not going to allow performance like a 3.2 GHz desktop (any processor type). However, for my HTPC needs I don't WANT blazing speed; I want quiet.
For the record, the Cell is fast but only on specific applications (like scientific calculations, hence the Folding@Home client). Very few desktop applications benefit likewise, which is what you are commenting on.
There is, however, at least one notable exception (and it ISN'T games!) - video encoding/decoding. That is pretty much all you need for a HTPC, so this should serve the purpose.
Did I (or anyone) suddenly get the urge to drop 10 grand for one on Ebay? No way. But when they are available in bulk, this will be interesting. Especially after the Linux community starts compiling video recording/editing/decoding programs optimized for the Cell.
That's all...
not many with those specs but then again i dont know of any HTPC's with in-order executive processors with no branch prediction either... its not fud its fact.
i think he meant game piracy, like playing backed up games, not linux piracy...
thats just my interpretation
Does mplayer work? Isn't there a port to PPC?
And are we sure we can't access the PS3's 3D hardware, or is it just that there's no driver yet?
Does anyone else see he goes to the video tab last.
Wonder is this a fake and he's just playing a vid (its pretty bad quality tbh)
Its neat, certainly not blazingly fast as I thought it would be (notice how long it took to draw the icons in the menu). Yeah I'm sure it will be faster with some optimization but I figure the design of the cell processor and definately the lack of memory is whats holding it back. Doesn't mean I don't want one EVENTUALLY. I'm still waiting for the VGA cable Sony. And I also disagree the comments suggesting that the fact this box runs linux is going to make it an Xbox 360/Wii killer. Yeah maybe there is 1-2% who will actively use linux on this....the other 98-99% are buying one to simply play games. I'd be willing to bet that Sony releases software to make this unit internet friendly. If that happens it would definately add to the attraction and I'd almost bet you Microsoft and maybe Nintendo would do the same.
please help
well along with when i type in "linux64 xdriver=fbdev video=720p" it says it says some thing about not found
then i type in "game" it says something about error: cant start other boot flag
what do i do??
is there a way i can completely return my ps3 to factory settings from the kboot: prompt because thats as far as it lets me go
first off, fedora is a horid choice, especialy witht e gnome desktop. it takkes all 256 meg of ram just to boot it to the desktop. so yeah it's gonna draw the icons slow, it's probably already swapping.
an opimized kernel takes no time at all to boot. the generic kernels that come with distro's have hardware support and detection out the wazoo, 3/4 of the boot time is spent trying to detect hardware that you don't have.
something like xfce would be much more at home on there. for instance, a default xubuntu install plus accelerated nvida drivers uses less than 80 meg ram, it's actualy usable on a pc with 128Meg! and xfce has all the nicities one would expect in a desktop, and since it's GTK based it's not ugly or unfriendly at all.
as for a mythtv box, show me a silent, attractive, small form factor x86 box for under $600 with 1080p output capabilities and the kind of video encoding possibilities that the cell processor hints can be done.
which bring the final test: just how fast is it anyway? mencode a dvd and see how many fps it averages. of cource, it may be a while before any codec's are optimized for the processor, so initial number are likely to be pretty poor. and what does `cat /proc/cpuinfo` look like anyway?
>>Lank
Ok...number one, I don't even know WTF you mean by me "going to the video tab last" Huh?
Yeah, it's bad quality. I have explained that. It's composite connection into a MythTV machine, then Youtube asked that uploads be shrunk down to 320x240. You do the math. Not gonna be pretty. Now if you'd like to invest in a streaming server for me with unlimited bandwidth, I'd be happy to share the original higher res version, but until then, just deal with it. And google the whole Fedora/PS3 thing, you'll see I didn't make it up. Google pretty much taught me how to do it. In the meantime, for all you haters out there, I am now compositing a vid capture of the actual install process (and no, I won't post all 2-3 hours of footage, I'm thinking I may need to massively speed that video up).
Surprised I noticed? Yeah, I'm here reading with the rest of you...
You mean the Video tab in the Playstation interface before I rebooted? Sorry, I wasn't following a script so I may have wondered off course while deciding what to do before rebooting. If anything, that vouches for authenticity, not the opposite. Watch who you're calling a liar.
>> Klippoth
Chief, firstly my name is Ian K not Lank. Secondly I am not doubting that this can be done/or you did it, I was just wondering if it was someone trying to fake it by playing a video.
Oh and as for hater...Dont think so mate, I have my 360 yes, and getting a Wii before christmas, and I'll be getting a PS3 when it comes out in Europe, then I'll see what I like and sell the rest.
So as I'm sure you'd agree the only thing I hate are fanboys.
Enjoy!
And just to let the editors know, I didn't actually go through much trouble at all to get my PS3, because thanks to a little site called ENGADGET I knew about the pre-sales the night before and got in line first thing in the morning! Thanks Engadget!!
This is awesome guys! The standalone PS3 cannot do DVD upconverting. Many DVD upcoverters in the market runs on Linux. We may be seeing DVD upconverting on the PS3 very soon! Sweet!
Bad @ss video Klippoth... anymore exciting plans for this PS3?
I'm reinstalling Linux on it right now, and this time I am capturing that footage as well. Beyond that, I dunno...depends how busy a week it is...
I'd love to know if you can play back media under FC5. Specifically: DVDs, (you'd think so, but they are copy protected and given Sony's record...) DivX/XviD files, and anything else you can think of that the PS3 doesn't play back natively.
Also, if you have any higher-resolution files I'd be interested to know if there is any slowdown due to the lack of NVidia official drivers.
Just if you have the time... and thanks for the service you're doing!
K all i want now is ps3 to be hacked to play burned games, Then have the dude use fedora to download the iso, burn it to an external bluray drive, boot back to the ps3 os, and run that shit!
VideoLAN(VLC) can play anything..and is available for linux
Not sure if itll run on PS3 tho :o
I am trying hard to think of anything less interesting than using a $600 game machine as a Linux box.
is the ps3 hombrew friendly or somthing, because it ask what os you want to run
This is very promissing... eventually people will build specific distro's for the PS3 with everything working out of the box.. custom media players, etc. I LOVE my modified Xbox running XBMC but I'm thinking once people custom-write apps for the limited RAM and the cell processor we are going to see something far more powerful than XBMC...mainly something with high def output capabilities (the original Xbox isn't powerful enough to handle high def video in my experience).
This is a SMART decision too.. it means that the Home brew scene won't have to go looking at chipping the PS3 to get it to run media players, emu's, etc. so it might actually discourage piracy.
Although if non-gamers start buying PS3's ONLY to run homebrew software that isn't good for Sony's bottom line considering they only make money on PS3's if you buy a bunch of games.
I love my 360 for gaming, but I was sorely dissapointed in MS when they didn't make it a fully functioning media player... the original crap where you could only stream video from MCE machines, and now the still crap WMV only codec support makes me not want to support them in the least. I might consider buying their TV shows and movies if I could also run my own content without having to encode to their video codec.
So, whether you think I'm a noob or an idiot or whatever doesn't matter at this point. The fact is, Sony expressly designed the PS3 to run Linux - any version, and they say so on thier site http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index. html [playstation.com] . We all know that Fedora is open source, and you can sell computers with Fedora installed without a problem. But my auction was cancelled without any notification from Ebay over "Unauthorized Copies (Copyright)". To quote: Dear klipp0th, You recently listed the following auction-style listing: 250051615791 - Playstation 3 PS3 Premium w/ Fedora Linux Installed The listing was removed because it violated eBay policy. All fees related to this listing have been credited to your account. We also notified members who placed bids on the item that the listing has been canceled. What kind of crap is that!?! Since when is installing Linux on a system that supports Linux violating copyright? It wasn't a paid distro, it was a free one...
still not impressed, plus no where near a super computer.....
so much to say!
Klippoth: go read the license for the "the installer". "You may not copy, lease, rent, sublicense, transfer, publish, modify, translate, transmit or modify to transmit to the public any portion of the Software without SCEs prior permission." I think installing it on the PS3 and selling it on ebay falls under copy, transfer, publish, and maybe even transmit. so yeah, copyright voilations, just not where you thought.
joe smith: how about paying $600 to watch wine ferment? and sampling the result is an extra charge. that sounds less interesting :D feel free to not comment on any engadget stories that you aren't interested in.
tristan: although there are a few exceptions (like certain IBM servers) in general "PPC Linux" runs on apple hardware, so I would certainly hope that OSX would run on a "PPC Linux machine"
and finaly to the "burned game" crowd: no. hell no. this is for running other operating systems, as not NOT ps3 games. and for homebrew, I'm sure if someone writes an OS for a homebrew platform (maybe linux based?) the games will run just fine, but you aint getting at the PS3 docs and API without a license (duh).
Chris, you' re wrong about that. He didn't modify Sony's software, he used a legal interfaze to install a OS licenced by the GPL, so it doesn't seem illegal to me at all.
I think that this is amazing. You can use the PS3 as a Media Center, also emulate, to play almost every previous-generation games you may think of, and, with the aid of bluetooth and usb, you can use any hardware that has drivers. Also, I don't think it's a distro problem, it could have been with any distro that supports PowerPC, but yes, there is a lot of room for improvements. The kernel could be optimized, it could boot almost instantly and work blazingly fast. Also, with a VGA cable and 1080p support, it makes an awesome Media Center.
The better choice would be to wait. This has a lot of potencial. I would like to see what enthusiast can offer on the future.
maybe I'm reading it wrong, but the installer is a seperate download, it doens't comes with the PS3. and putting that installer on a hard drive or cdrom or flash disk and selling, or even giving it away free, to someone else is against the license and thus a copyright infraction.
again, maybe I'm reading it wrong and the installer doens't stay on the hdd, and if that's the case then eBay needs an education on the matter. Even better, ask sony if it legal to install Linux on a new PS3 and sell at auction.
Hmm, maybe you're right, because supposedly Sony licences the boot loaders. The best way to know would be emailing sony
regarding the lack of a tuner for the likes of myth and so on , thats easy enough, just go and get any USB DVB tuner than already works with the linuxTv and use that.
there are plenty of current PPC linux distro's (maintained by mostly Genesi/Peg2 devs) that can use these apps today, so go and use them of you have a ps3 and a web connection, then you might even ask the devs if they want access to your machine to help you get these appa working and help feed back in a constuctive way for everyones benefit (even Xbox360 users if they ever make it easy to install your PPC based linux distro some day ;) )
I have created a wiki-style walk-thru / howto for installing both FC5 and FC6 on the PS3, complete with files/links to the all the required components. I hope this helps anyone looking to accomplish this task. :)
http://www.fedora-ps3.com/
-Lott
Running an alternate OS On the PS3 makes it possible to play almost all media types not supported by the PS3 itself but rather by the OS. You can play emulators thus converting the system into a universal game console not limited to just PS3 games. Its a sweet step forward for Sony.