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

[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