PS3 firmware 3.21 is out: say goodbye to 'install other OS'
By Ross Miller 
posted March 31st 2010 11:48PM
posted March 31st 2010 11:48PM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted March 31st 2010 11:48PM
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In Geohot we trust.
@Nitesh Yes indeed, he made my iphone, he can make my ps3. I'm not just gonna give up my perfect ubuntu linux install like that..
Sony: In response to attempts to crack the PS3 through XMB, we have removed XMB.
I've heard that they're gonna remove the power function in firmware 3.5 due to 'security concerns'
@Nitesh I'm definitely waiting for his CFW. Sony can screw themselves if they truly expect me to update.
PS3 Proxy Server Gui works.
Can still get online without updating firmware.
Have a nice day.
@Nitesh It's geohot's hacking that prompted Sony to remove this in the first place.
@Nitesh Screw you Sony.
Geohot's argument is right...why should they take some functionality away from a product which has been there for years? They should actually be sued for doing that.
@Nitesh
If it wasn't for Geohot's hack "Other OS" would not have been removed in the first place.
Not that Linux for PS3 was useful to begin with. For over 3 years we had Linux for PS3, we had a legitimate and legal path for homebrew. There were some educational institutions and some companies using it for clusters, and there have been some novel projects, but in large nobody used it.
As a feature it sucked. Linux could only access 256MB of RAM, and after overhead you could only access closer to 200MBs. And no RSX. Worse, PowerPC builds are pretty much no longer actively maintained after Apple went to x86. Granted you did have full access to a 3.2Ghz multi-core Cell which is powerful if they utilized it. But its was a serious chore getting even Flash to even remotely function in my YDL6.2 install on the PS3.
The PS3 Linux community has been barren over the last couple years. There was only a small group of people that actually cared when the feature was actually around.
@Temple
Listen, nobody is arguing the fact that running Linux on a PS3 was optimal. It ran through a freakin' Hypervisor for god sake. But the memory thing, easily solved via memory swap with the HDD. To take it even a step further, and faster, do it with a couple of flash drives. A few command lines later and you're running with swap space evenly distributed between the two flash devices
@Nitesh I rather not trust him. Geohot is what caused this mess. Who here or anyone with some knowledge about gaming/tech industry does not know what is the fate of the PSP? The exploits and hacks were out of control which lead to a lack of decent games.
If Geohot did not release the exploit, Sony wouldn't have removed OtherOs. The risk here outweighs the harm of hurting the small Linux based. Sony obviously would have looked into this first before making this decision otherwise they would have locked out Linux a few days after the exploit was released. It usually takes one person to ruins everyone's fun.
@SaggyBalls
Right, Linux on PS3 was gimped, but even hypothetically speaking, even if RSX was available the PS3 would never really be an ideal Linux device. A cheap used x86 PC or Netbook would still trounce it in any measurable way outside of actually using the Cell.
My point was, look where we are right now. PS3 Linux, while flawed, did offer an opportunity for real legal and legitimate homebrew. But not many people cared, and the state of PS3 Linux homebrew 3 years out is abismal.
Commercial companies and educational institutions that have shown Cell development can produce real interesting results, and those PS3s won't be updating their firmware or are interested in playing games so this update has no impact on them.
You didn't need to hack it to run unsigned code on the machine. As you pointed out, there are work arounds, but there isn't any killer homebrew of note on the PS3 Linux (Megabox is probably the closest). There hasn't been enough community support to even get XBMC to run on PS3 (and that originally ran on a 733Mhz Pentium III with 64MB RAM).
Let's put it this way, Geohot has made sure that we all will never see a major gaming console that was as open to legitimate homebrew as the PS3 Phat was ever again. No company would ever dare put an "Other OS" install feature in their console from here on out.
@Temple If we could get access to the RSX from Linux then it would really be a great (homebrew)game/multimedia center. PS3 via the XMB is useless as a mediacenter (even a cheap 60 dollar mediacenter is much better), but through linux it would have been possible to create a good alternative.. Also just like professional developers had trouble with getting started on the CELL, the community also has that same problem, difference is that a professional developer is getting paid to learn how to develop (and has 8 hours a day at work to do it) but the community doesn't and is also has a bit less documentation/resources at their disposal.
Only the last half year you see slowly programs arrive which makes use of all the SPU's available..
The other point why a lot of people are not even trying to run linux is comments like yours about how bad linux runs (even though it runs great, hell even firefox runs much better as that crap browser Sony is giving us through the XMB.
Yes getting stuff run on PS3 linux can be tricky, but that problem isn't the PS3, it's linux which just isn't userfriendly with having to go through so many hoops just to get something installed (I personally have the same problems on an x86 based version)..
@Nitesh indeed. i don't even use the otherOS option, but I'm not about to see a feature leave my machine.
@coolbho3000 So much for your MW2 ranking.
@brrip
Well I did install YDL awhile back but I never use it. My question for everyone is this: Does my linux partition on my HDD get deleted with this update?
@(Unverified): Hey, I heard Supermarket doesn't sell kitchen knife anymore, start from August 2010. They said someone kill others with it, and what they do will prevent that incident to happen again. LOL
@(Unverified) - Talk about a MASSIVE EGO STROKE! Can you imagine ? A company going to such a draconian step of removing functionality from millions and millions of consoles to placate the shenanigans of one dude?! GH is ROFLHAO right now!!
@andrewwg94
hate to post-jack but... here - http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps3/index.htm
it says that "This system software update includes all features contained in previous versions"
@fnybny
it does not at all mention a lack of other os capability.
@fnybny Yes it does, right under settings it says;
"Settings
Install Other OS / Default System
The [Install Other OS] and [Default System] features have been deleted. If you update your system software to version 3.21 or later, you will not be able to use [Install Other OS] or [Default System] under (Settings) > (System Settings).
Notice for customers who are using another operating system
Before performing the system software update, follow the steps below:
Back up data from the other operating system"
@Temple
You and your kind are the reason that I wrote about the ninety-percent-user myth:
http://matthew.chaboud.com/?p=11
So it was a small minority of users. If you think about only aiming for the majority, you eventually find that you've alienated the majority of your users, as they're each likely to be part of *some* minority at some point.
It's not geohot's fault that Sony went knee-jerk instead of plugging the hole. If you allow companies to pull crap like this any time they get hacked, the crap they pull on their customers while blaming hackers will just get worse and worse.
Witness, for example, the crap we pulled after 9/11.
We're all doomed!!!!
Difference between now and at launch
- Hardware-based PS2 backward compatibility
- SACD support
- Flash card readers
- 2x USB slots
- Software-based PS2 backwards compatibility
- Linux OS installation
PS3, it only USED TO DO everything
@JeremyBenthem
4x usb slots.
@JeremyBenthem
You forgot: $599.99.
@JeremyBenthem
Giant enemy crab still available.
@JeremyBenthem There never was software PS2 compat. It was always hardware based, but the 2nd version used some hardware and some software.
Of those features you list, the ONLY one with any value to me is PS2 compat. Flash card reader? I can get one for $10, in fact I already have one. USB ports? I can get a hub, again, I already have one. SACD? I don't have any SACDs and never will (I borrowed one once and played it!).
At $299, the PS3 is a far better machine without these features than $599 with. Now, would I pay $399 for a slim with HW PS2 compat? I dunno, maybe.
Now that I think of it, my $599 50GB PS3 also came with a SIXAXIS, not a DS3. And a SIXAXIS that didn't even work right at that (intermittent loss of control over wireless)! I know some features are gone now, but in many ways, the PS3 sure has gotten a lot better.
Just seems kinda odd to me...
2010 PS3 model has less features than launch PS3.
2010 360 has more features than launch 360.
@JeremyBenthem
Well, if you were an early adopter (like me), you wouldn't need to complain. And hopefully you were not one of those people complaining about the price... cuz that would just be lam3.
@erasure25
the problem now is that they are actually taking away a feature from you, this is a first
meh
@djsiek Agreed, I wont miss this feature.
@djsiek
Hopefully you will equally not care about other companies taking features for maybe something other product you ACTUALLY care about.
Maybe you are a college student that has a care free attitude towards everything right now, but sooner or later you will have to get your head out of your ass and realize when a company is taking something that you paid your hard-earned money for.
This is only going to set a precedent.
@BMills
I don't remember ever paying for linux compatibility. I remember paying for a video game system that allowed me to play online and visit websites as well as play Blu-Rays and DVDs on. It happened to have an additional feature but I've got a notebook running Ubuntu so there was no need for that. It was a side feature that Sony knew most people were never going to use. Like the use as a blunt object for smashing heads in feature, or the so shiny I can fix my hair in it feature. Both of which have been reduced in some way. Didn't pay for those either.
Fact is, if you paid that much to have a machine that doesn't run linux to it's full potential, you probably should have looked into some less expensive alternatives. Like a netbook or something.
@Maverick128
You must have a PS3 slim then.
@Maverick128
Who cares about what cost-model someone used when buying something? Feature-removal willy-nilly will eventually bite all of us if it is treated as acceptable. It's the ninety-percent-user myth, and it's a *massive* mistake when considering an existing product life-cycle. Users have every reason in the future to be wary of promises made by Sony regarding persistent product capabilities.
It's merely a *giant* mistake to think only about the ninety-percent-user in new product design. In that case, you just end up not selling your product in the first place.
This sucks man, we were getting to the point where we could use our ps3s as full on pcs and here they are raping us of our freedom , Sony blows
@markolic
No you weren't. Not even close.
@WP7S Yes, because you can install Linux on a 360.....
I'd like to know why after installing this update, LittleBigPlanet crashes on me for the first time in two years? Or how about how when I turn my PS3 back on afterwords I get a Windows9X style message I've never seen before telling my I didn't turn my PS3 off right (it crashed!) and I should do it right next time yada.
Removing the OS option isn't their only grief it seems.
@WP7S - Ain't he cute . . .
@Granger: The shutdown message is a 3.0 addition for phat PS3's; it only appears if you turn it off via the back switch. Even if a game crashes, you shouldn't need to equivalently pull the plug on the device since the XMB runs over the game...
@zwaldowski - I've never shut it down via that switch so I wouldn't know, but I definitely didn't this time either. Used the power 'button' until it beeped while the game/system was crashed, turned it back on and got the message.
@Granger It happened to me when I was playing mw2 as well. First time it has ever crashed and my tv screen turned black but my ps3 did not turn off. Weird.
@yankees368 Jtag
@Crahzee Not if you've connected to Live recently.
I don't even mind losing linux, but this is a required update and it won't download. Stuck at 4%. Sony, how about deploying the firmware to your servers before requiring us to try to download it?
I find it interesting how mad people are about this.
Installing Linux was an option that very few people used. I tried it and found it incredibly slow. Sony did not put any resources into optimizing the experience and it showed.
If you are willing to lose online functionality for PS3 Linux, you probably didn't want a PS3 in the first place.
Do we really want another PSP debacle on our hands? Looking at the quality and amount of games for PS3 vs. PSP, its pretty obvious what piracy did to the PSP. Not only that, but the cat and mouse firmware game was a big waste of time for everyone.
Am I bummed that yet another feature is retracted from the PS3? Yes. But its not that big a deal. And considering I got my PS3 to play games, I don't really want piracy to get out of control. It has effected the amount of games on the PSP especially from third parties.
@AndyL
Agreed.
I installed it and realized that I couldn't do anything practical...especially since I had a laptop that was 4x's the RAM, hard drive space, etc...
I quickly realized that I was wasting space on my PS3 having it there and thus, I removed it.