Installed Linux On My PS3 Last Night..., Take a look :D Options

[illriginal]

click to enlarge

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Finally got the chance to install linux onto my PS3... it's running so much faster than my computer. Supposedly 2 of the processors are running in linux.

Anyways, I just wanted to show off a good 6 hours of work put into my PS3 so far. Tommorow I need to setup my Media Server so I can watch movies and listen to music or upload images from my PC strictly into the PS3 OS.

On linux, so far I have no problem listening to mp3s, watching blueray, dvd format, surfin the net, downloading files, chatting on IRC and GAIM. The only real problem I'm having is Flash. It only plays version 7 flash, which sucks because websites like youtube have certain flash options that can't be accessed, like the pause/play button and rewind/fast forward.

Best of all, my linux recognized my Samsung blue tooth ear piece and my Motorola ear piece (that ones for my phone) so I can speak in chatting programs that allow voice chat. Also recognized my wireless printer, mouse, keyboard, and PSP. The next update on my PS3 will be adding a 300GB internal hard drive and an additional 1TB external hard drive specifically for music and movies that will be ported.


The biggest project right now for linux on PS3 is compiling a better flash player, supporting 5.1 Dolby Digital instead of DTS 5.1. And finally hacking the PS3's video card in order to make new changes in the settings so us Linux users can fnally install Beryl/Compiz and get full advantage of the processing power of the PS3 w/Linux.

Anyways, enjoy :P

Reason for edit: Good for you about Linux, but please thumb in the future. - Cristy

[Heathasm]

u so smart, congrats!

[illriginal]

u so smart, congrats!

Thanks :D

[Comptine]

You make me want a PS3 with Linux right now. All those specs sound sexy and I don't know shit about computers.

Any chance you'll replace the regular PC with your PS3? It's like an all in one guy machine.

[illriginal]

You make me want a PS3 with Linux right now. All those specs sound sexy and I don't know shit about computers.

Any chance you'll replace the regular PC with your PS3? It's like an all in one guy machine.

lol I am. I decided I'll make my desktop PC a Windows machine and make my PS3 my official entertainment console.

Best of all, after I showed my mom last night... she decided to buy herself a PS3 and wants me to install Linux on her machine. She figures why spend $600+ on a computer when she can simply spend $425 on an Entertainment Console, that's literally 20 times faster and more powerful... (I have an AMD Quad processor, it's faster than this) o.O;

[*Steven*]

lol ps3

[illriginal]

lol jealousy

[illriginal]

Bumpin this for the fun of it... ;P

[*Steven*]

Jealousy? I think not. I've a friend who had a PS3, and not only was it easily outperformed by pc's (which is a given, tbh), it was outperformed np by the xbox 360. Not to mention the severe lacking of games for it.

[weed]

De Pinga broo. Thats hot nasty. Ive never used linux but the thought of a machine better than a PC; fasinates me!

[lkajsfklajskds]

Ive never used linux but the thought of a machine better than a PC; fasinates me!

worddd
tis pretty =]

[illriginal]

Jealousy? I think not. I've a friend who had a PS3, and not only was it easily outperformed by pc's (which is a given, tbh), it was outperformed np by the xbox 360. Not to mention the severe lacking of games for it.

Erm... specification have proved otherwise (Typical home PC vs PS3). You should do some reading.


And the PS3 is still a baby... lol XBOX has been out many years prior to the release of the PS3. XBOX has already hit it's prime long ago and is slowly descending. You can thank Peter Moore for that one... the guy that left Microsoft in shame of it's performance and lack of reliability. =\

De Pinga broo. Thats hot nasty. Ive never used linux but the thought of a machine better than a PC; fasinates me!

Yes I forgot to mention that making the PS3 more powerful will take some hacking.

PS3 with its limitations (no one in the consumer world knows why SONY put limitations on their consoles) is more powerful than the PC... but in terms of processing power. If we can get SONY to give us a firmware in which releases the lock on the hardware specs, we could in fact prove that PS3 is by far faster and more powerful than home PCs. If it wasn't for SONY... these processor companies would have never thought of creating the Cell processor.

[deactivated]

that seems really neat. :D i'd hella do that if i had a ps3; i want one for the hell of it 'cause i don't know what else i want for my birthday. :| either that, or CA$HM0NEY. yee!

[kryogenix]

Run some benchmarks on it, and I'll run the same benchmark on my laptop and we'll compare. PS3 has some SPEs disabled for non PS3 games.

[illriginal]

Run some benchmarks on it, and I'll run the same benchmark on my laptop and we'll compare. PS3 has some SPEs disabled for non PS3 games.

Yeah the SPE/SPU's are locked =\

People are trying to crack/hack it so that they can use at least 2 processors for memory speed while the other 6 processors are used for processing power.

I found out what's up with SONY. It seems that they want the consumer to use the GameOs to develop home brewed games (which is ok... but GameOs won't unleash it's pure power) instead of letting open source software to home brew games. Their 2.10 firmware upgrade stopped devs from creating home brewed games and porting games from any system into the PS3 GameOs.

As for running benchmarks.. I wish I could, but I can't... no one can unless someone finally got access and isn't tellin anyone.

But I will update this thread on the next mods I do whether it's within PS3 GameOs, Linux, or hardware.

The only thing I'm working on right now, is compiling MythTV to be 100% compatible with PS3's GameOs. I need a media server that'll let me watch TV and listen to radio stations through PS3's GameOs o.o;

[kryogenix]

Can't you install software?

http://www.primatelabs.ca/download/Geekbench2-Linux.tar.gz

Install that.

[heyo-captain-jac...]

The next update on my PS3 will be adding a 300GB internal hard drive and an additional 1TB external hard drive specifically for music and movies that will be ported.

Damn, a whole terabyte? Thats... excessive.

[Insurmountable]

I guess its neat, what type of ps3 did you get?

[illriginal]

Can't you install software?

http://www.primatelabs.ca/download/Geekbench2-Linux.tar.gz

Install that.

You're not understanding... lol It'll install but it's not gonna work... it's gonna give me errors claiming "access denied", "no such file or directory".
At least running it in shell*

We have barely any control on our PS3's hardware... the video modes alone is a pain in the ass and we can't even change to the true respective resolution.

Plus that might not even be compatible with my PS3 PPC Kernel/distro. =\

[Maccabee]

Can you check how much ram there is? Or does it not display? Can you still play games?

[Uronacid]

Can you check how much ram there is? Or does it not display? Can you still play games?

Yes, I'd like to know as welll.

[none345678]

Does anyone just play games anymore?

[Uronacid]

Does anyone just play games anymore?

I totally do!

[illriginal]

Can you check how much ram there is? Or does it not display? Can you still play games?

512mb.. but that means nothing with a cell processor. As the cell processor acts like RAM as well via SPE.

[illriginal]

While on Linux?... Naw. It's like a typical PC, nothing else. It'll play DVDs/Blu-Rays etc, surf the net, download stuff, play music etc..

[heyo-captain-jac...]

And that's why we have computers to run Linux.

Just out of curiosity, how well does the PS3 handle Linux?

[Maccabee]

huh cool. I was checking put a netbook with a 10 inch screen 2gb ram and an atom processor. I think its a steal now.

[illriginal]

And that's why we have computers to run Linux.

Just out of curiosity, how well does the PS3 handle Linux?

I honestly much rather have a multi-multimedia console than have multiple machines that do pretty much the same thing.


What do you mean how well does PS3 handle Linux? PS3-Ubuntu is a distro specifically made to work with the Playstation 3. Especially the PowerPC architecture. As of right now it is limited, but many people within the Linux community have huge ideas with the PS3 as a whole. There's certain limitations (like the RSX) that SONY has which will not allow us to access. When many of the limitations are removed... it'll be a whole new age with the Linux side of the PS3 a lone.

[Deospeon]

YAY. YOU GOT LINUX I GOT LINUX..

[Uronacid]

While on Linux?... Naw. It's like a typical PC, nothing else. It'll play DVDs/Blu-Rays etc, surf the net, download stuff, play music etc..

Ok, why would you apply Linux to the PS3 if it keeps you from playing the games. Do you have a separate partition for the PS3 OS?

[mipadi]

Ok, why would you apply Linux to the PS3 if it keeps you from playing the games. Do you have a separate partition for the PS3 OS?

Yeah. On a PS3, Linux is installed on a separate partition -- Sony actually makes this really, really easy to do.

[Uronacid]

Yeah. On a PS3, Linux is installed on a separate partition -- Sony actually makes this really, really easy to do.

Gotcha ;)

[illriginal]

Ok, why would you apply Linux to the PS3 if it keeps you from playing the games. Do you have a separate partition for the PS3 OS?

That's one thing we must all understand. Right now SONY thinks or probably knows that Linux on the PS3 will not some how interfere with the games what so ever. But the Linux community who are working hard on the PS3 version distro are actually now tryin to get Linux to play PS3 games. Since the blu-ray works and is able to play all formats that the PS3 can play, now we need to work on the gaming aspect of things. If that happens we can stop caring about PC games for Windows. We can enjoy PS3 games on the Linux side instead.

But... as a prerequisit we need to gain access to all the devices/hardware. Otherwise playing PS3 games on the Linux OS side will be nearly impossible.

[Uronacid]

That's one thing we must all understand. Right now SONY thinks or probably knows that Linux on the PS3 will not some how interfere with the games what so ever. But the Linux community who are working hard on the PS3 version distro are actually now tryin to get Linux to play PS3 games. Since the blu-ray works and is able to play all formats that the PS3 can play, now we need to work on the gaming aspect of things. If that happens we can stop caring about PC games for Windows. We can enjoy PS3 games on the Linux side instead.

But... as a prerequisit we need to gain access to all the devices/hardware. Otherwise playing PS3 games on the Linux OS side will be nearly impossible.

You are correct. Windows uses the DirectX or OpenGL API to communicate with the hardware. They'll have to reverse engineer whatever API PS3 games use to gain to access hardware. That's hell-a-difficult.

[heyo-captain-jac...]

I honestly much rather have a multi-multimedia console than have multiple machines that do pretty much the same thing.
What do you mean how well does PS3 handle Linux? PS3-Ubuntu is a distro specifically made to work with the Playstation 3. Especially the PowerPC architecture. As of right now it is limited, but many people within the Linux community have huge ideas with the PS3 as a whole. There's certain limitations (like the RSX) that SONY has which will not allow us to access. When many of the limitations are removed... it'll be a whole new age with the Linux side of the PS3 a lone.

I was asking how well it runs. General performance.

[Maccabee]

Yeah. On a PS3, Linux is installed on a separate partition -- Sony actually makes this really, really easy to do.

Would that make playing games slower? If the ps3 is some much like a computer like he says?

[Uronacid]

Would that make playing games slower? If the ps3 is some much like a computer like he says?

If the PS3 OS was on a separate partition then it would run just like a normal PS3.

[Maccabee]

But would it be slower?
Cause a ps3 sounds like an investment if you can put linux on it! But not if you cant play ps3 games anymore. Thats what a computer is for.

And id want to find some details. Like what the resolution would be and stuff.

[mipadi]

But would it be slower?
Cause a ps3 sounds like an investment if you can put linux on it!

It depends on what you're doing with it. The PS3 uses a Cell processor, which is uniquely suited to certain intensive tasks, such as playing games, decoding DVDs, etc. But is it significantly faster than a top-of-the-line Intel chip for common, everyday tasks like browsing the Internet, emailing, &c.? Probably not -- not significantly, anyway.

[illriginal]

Sounds interesting. how's the internet speed, and the computer game playing (hopefully) you can still play some sort of video games on a video game system.

Internet speed is sick. It uses a Gigabit Lan card which can go full duplex @ 100mpbs. So if you have fiber optics instead of your typical ethernet cable, you'll get the full enjoyment of playin video games online without an issue, EVER. And roaming the internet etc..

The PS3 + Linux are literally are two different partitions. So it's like having Windows XP and Windows Vista, you have a dual boot. Where you can choose to either play with your PS3 on the PS3 OS or you can choose "other OS" inside of the PS3 menu and it'll restart your PS3 and then load up Linux. To go back to PS3, you just have to click start then click restart, then when it reboots you type in the command to start PS3 so you can log back into the PS3 and enjoy your PS3 games or whatever you wanna do.

I was asking how well it runs. General performance.

Performance wise... it's like a typical PC. I don't really know how to compare it... I would say it runs like a PC with 1gb of ram but that's not good enough of a comparison, honestly. Again you must remember that there's limitations that SONY set. If those limitations are taken away or simply bypassed, the PS3 would literally become a Linux super computer, literally.

To get an idea... Look up IBM's PowerPC processors. Look at the power of those processors, then put them into a cell of processors, then create 8 of those cell processors. lol...

Would that make playing games slower? If the ps3 is some much like a computer like he says?

No.... I'm tryin to assume what you're asking here. If you mean playing the game on the PC side? I would have to say that if we had full access to all of the PS3, that no way would it ever be slow. In fact it could more than likely out perform a PC that was built around the original Crysis. If you mean on the PS3 side... then no, nothing on the Linux side will effect the PS3 side since they're on separate partitions. The only thing IF anything, would be that Linux would gain access to the files on the PS3 partition.. which could mean A LOT of goodies later down the road.

But would it be slower?
Cause a ps3 sounds like an investment if you can put linux on it! But not if you cant play ps3 games anymore. Thats what a computer is for.

And id want to find some details. Like what the resolution would be and stuff.

Naw you can switch between PS3 OS or Linux OS... all it takes is for you to choose, "other os" then the PS3 will automatically restart and log you into Linux. While in Linux you just need to restart like you would a typical computer, then once it restart you'll get a "command prompt" where you simply type the command to log back onto the PS3 OS.

Resolution... this is one thing that annoys me. For some reason the resolution is limited to 1680 X 1080. Which sucks if you're using a 32"+ screen. RSX is the part of the PS3 that we're tryin to gain access to. This way we can change the resolution to HD 720p or 1080p. I'd much rather have HD resolution than your typical LCD computer resolutions. So the Linux community isn't caring about resolution as far as #x#, rather the Linux community cares about Linux being able to access the RSX thus giving us the capability of having HD quality resolution.

[mipadi]

To get an idea... Look up IBM's PowerPC processors. Look at the power of those processors, then put them into a cell of processors, then create 8 of those cell processors. lol...

The Cell has 8 processor cores, but that doesn't mean it has the same performance as 8 equivalent processors. The architecture of the Cell is such that there's a single "primary" core, and 7 (on the PS3, 9 normally) secondary processors. The secondary processors don't really do the work of 7 "normal" processors, though. They're auxiliary cores that do smaller tasks, such as decoding audio and video, or doing stuff with graphics.

It's also really, really difficult to use all 7 secondary processors to their fullest potential. The Cell has such a radical architecture that programming software to make full use of all cores is difficult, and the Cell's compilers still don't do an adequate job of distributing jobs around. I also believe that most PS3 games are written using C++, and it's notoriously difficult to write multithreaded software in C++, even on "normal" CPU architectures.

The Linux kernel on the Cell might do an "okay" job of making some use of the auxiliary cores, but only the most processor-intensive applications will keep all 8 cores working at max, and only then if the program is written in a sufficiently parallel manner.

8 cores does not generally equate to an 800% performance increase. The only programs I've seen that can really do parallel/distributed computing in an extremely efficient manner are those written in Erlang (which is uniquely suited to parallel computing), and even then, performance typically only scales by 80-90% at best -- certainly not 100%.

[Maccabee]

Can you connect a keyboard and mouse or do you have to use the ps3 controller.
And is there a dvi plug on the ps3? So you can connect it to a computer monitor instead of a tv?

[illriginal]

From my understanding. Each cell processor works, in a sense, independently but at the same time intertwines with the other cell processors. What if in fact the PS3 side is designed that way, but once hacked via Linux we can manipulate it to work 100% independently? That literally means we can have a cell processor for each service being used... that's literally a super computer when the processors are designed to handle each process or service independently. At least that's how the architecture is set up.

[illriginal]

Can you connect a keyboard and mouse or do you have to use the ps3 controller.
And is there a dvi plug on the ps3? So you can connect it to a computer monitor instead of a tv?

You can connect via USB or via Bluetooth (wirelessly) on both the PS3 and Linux side.

[Maccabee]

But ive never seen a monitor you can plug in via usb?

[illriginal]

But ive never seen a monitor you can plug in via usb?

The T.V. is hooked up via HDMI.

You'll notice a lot of new monitors, the real out of the world expensive monitors come with HD quality picture, which obviously requires HDMI port on your video card.

[Maccabee]

is that the sqaure plug that macs use? Im just asking can you connect the ps3 to a computer monitor!

[mipadi]

From my understanding. Each cell processor works, in a sense, independently but at the same time intertwines with the other cell processors. What if in fact the PS3 side is designed that way, but once hacked via Linux we can manipulate it to work 100% independently? That literally means we can have a cell processor for each service being used... that's literally a super computer when the processors are designed to handle each process or service independently. At least that's how the architecture is set up.

Weeelllll...yes and no. It's important to understand that the Cell is not simply 9 processors linked together. The architecture is basically thus: there's one "supervisor" processor, a Power Processor Element (PPE), that is similar in nature to a typical processor; and (on the PS3) 8 Synergistic Processing Elements (SPE) (although only 7 are operational). The PPE essentially acts as a supervisor by splitting up jobs into smaller units that can be run on SPEs. However, this doesn't happen by "magic", and fully utilizing the SPEs generally requires software to be hand-tuned. This is also partly due to the fact that the SPEs have severe memory access restrictions (the SPEs can't read/write directly from/to main memory).

Finally, the SPEs are specifically designed to do single-precision floating point arithmetic, and aren't particularly well-suited to integer arithmetic or double-precision floating point arithmetic. Turns out that most desktop software predominantly employs integer arithmetic and, to a much lesser extent, double-precision floating point arithmetic.

[illriginal]

is that the sqaure plug that macs use? Im just asking can you connect the ps3 to a computer monitor!

You could... but you would need an adapter, iirc.

HDMI looks like a flatter and wider USB end.

This is exactly what you need:



Just in case you can't see the image: http://www.jdr.com/interact/..%5Cimages%5C...bl-hdmi-dvi.jpg