From Fedora Project Wiki

PS3 PlayStation Port of Fedora.

  • Last modified: [[Date(2009-02-11 T02:40:01Z)]
  • Owners: Edward O'Callaghan.
  • Targeted release: Fedora 7

Status

Current Fedora

  • Fedora 10 works with a usb stick bootloader.
  • Please read PlayStation/Ps3ReSpin for more info on creating a custom ps3 boot media with the needed bootloader from iso.

Fedora 11 Alpha

There is no ppc kernel working at this time 2/11/2009

  • Should there be a ppc64 bit ps3 kernel that is small and fast for the ps3 ?
    • Pro: all the ps3 patches could be there , spu , bluetooth , etc
    • Con: one more kernel version that would be need to be supported, qa etc

Fedora 10

Fedora 10 supports the PS3 our of the box minus the ps3 bootloader on the default fedora install media


Fedora 9

Fedora 9 supports the PS3 with minor problems.
Installation works "out-of-the-box".

453311 "pulseaudio does not start"


Older and additional information

The Fedora rawhide kernel supports PS3.

An 'otheros.bld' bootloader for Fedora, using petitboot , can be found at [1] . Work is ongoing to get this automatically generated with the Fedora install tree.

The installer doesn't yet work out of the box -- we still need minor patches to kudzu and anaconda .

The "PlayStation 3 support tracker" bug is [2] .

We don't yet have libspu and the spu compiler in Extras.

Instructions on installing a rawhide-based tree can be found at [3]

  • WiFi will now be supported with a firmware update to 1.6 or higher

See below for details...

usb stick bootloader (petitboot)

  • You can install Fedora 9/10 with normal ppc iso with a ps3 boot loader, please have a usb stick to add your boot loader.
  • Note you only need to boot once from the usb stick , then petiboot will be the default boot loader
  • Please check your Firmware , later greater.

links

install the usb stick

  • 1. Put your otheros.bld file on to a USB disk, in a file called /PS3/otheros/otheros.bld. Assuming your USB disk is mounted at /media/usbdisk:
  cd /media/<USBSTICK>
  mkdir -p /ps3/otheros
  wget http://ozlabs.org/~jk/projects/petitboot/downloads/bin-0.2/otheros.bld

If you don't have a USB disk, you can use any sort of media that the PS3 can read - CDROM, DVD, compact flash, etc. Just make sure that the file is called /PS3/otheros/otheros.bld.

  • 2. Plug the USB disk into your PS3, and navigate to System -> System Settings -> Install Other OS. The PS3 should find the new file on the USB disk, and install it.
  • 3. To boot with petitboot, just set your default operating system to "Other OS" (System -> System Settings -> Set Default OS), and reboot.

using petitboot

When petitboot starts, it will try to find existing Linux installations, by looking for /etc/kboot.conf, /etc/yaboot.conf or /boot/petitboot.conf files on any storage device connected to the system. Each discovered device will appear on the left-hand pane of the screen, and bootable options appear on the right.

You can navigate the boot options with the arrow keys (if you have a USB keyboard connected), or the D-Pad on the PS3 controller. If you're using a PS3 controller, you will need to have it connected via the cable; wireless controllers aren't supported (yet!).

If you only have a blank screen with no device icons, then petitboot has not found any bootable options. You can flip to a text console (using Alt+F1) to investigate.

  • note need to create a wiki table
  The keys available are:
  Keyboard 	                PS3 USB Controller 	Function

  Up, Down, Left, Right 	Up, Down, Left, Right  Navigate between boot options
  Enter 	                Circle 	               Select boot option
  Delete / Backspace 	        Square 	               Boot to GameOS
  1 	  	                                       Switch to 720p mode
  2 	  	                                       Switch to 1080i mode
  3 	  	                                       Switch to 1080p mode
  Alt+F1 	  	                               Switch to text console (Alt+F2 to switch back)
  console

If you're using the petitboot console (either by hitting Alt+F1, or logging-in over the network), you have a fairly standard Linux system available. Some notes: 

   * Discovered storage devices are mounted under /var/tmp/mnt, named by their device. For example, /dev/ps3da1 is mounted at /var/tmp/mnt/ps3da1.
   * To boot a kernel, use kexec: kexec -f --append="root=/dev/ps3da1" /var/tmp/mnt/ps3da1/boot/vmlinux .

booting from command line from the normal fedora cdrom install media

  1. type Alt+F1
  2. hit enter
  3. type the following
  cd /var/tmp/mnt/sr0/ppc/ppc64
  kexec -f --append="text" vmlinuz --initrd=ramdisk.image.gz

Summary

  • PS3 PlayStation port of Fedora. i.e. - PPC with Cell patches and optimization.
Cut out unneeded services and packages and build a PS3 only spin of Fedora optimized for a multimedia user.

Usage cases/rationale

PS3 user who browers the web, looks at photos, listens to music and watches DVD's.

Scope

Requires the PPC build; Un-needed packages to be removed and any patches required to get ALL hardware supported.

Test Plan

Unknown, maybe three Builds:

  • Alpha
  • Beta
  • RC or Final.

Dependencies

Depends on the PPC Kernel and Cell patches...

  • Kernel patchs are here:

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/geoff/ps3-linux-patches.git;a=summary

  • (See Below) Add driver support for the built in WiFi module and add a small X11 app to bring the adapter up and down in the main menu, will add more to this later on...
  • Add support for the BD Bluetooth PS3 remote control and map buttons on startup by default.
  • Think of ways to get around the Hypervisor to get access to the GPU ? - Real help is needed here !
A idea was too use the SPU's as a GPU for basic OpenGL 3D so that videos can be watch in full screen ! This is not a fix but would help for the moment, any one who would like to help code this please put your name here and I will contact you ASAP:

FirstnameLastname MarioTorre

N.B. Using the SPU's for a Graphics Accelerator would use up some of the valuable system RAM.

  • "A petition has been created to ask Sony to open the access to the RSX for Other OS. Maybe will it contribute to make the firm hear our need, maybe not... but if we don't ask for sure it won't.

You'll find it there: http://www.petitiononline.com/RSX/petition.html

Please if you sign do it with your real name, nick names won't give a serious credit to our ask. Thanks"

Details

... insert design & implementation details here, including links to other features ...

Design

Fluxbox as the Desktop as of low RAM available.

or maybe OpenBox with fbpanel like:

Fedora 9

Its very fast and looks nice!


Package collection

PackageKit should not be part of a ps3 build. It has a poor performance.
Also we should ship some alternative solutions for OpenOffice, Pidgin, Firefox....


Hardware

Ram

Video

  • By default the video is slow frame buffer from the sony hypervisor

SPU Mesa OpenGL Driver

  • Pro No Nvidia, OpenGL Driver Today
  • Con Takes ram from the total 256 Meg ,Also buggy
Links

RSX Nvidia

  • Pro True Hardware Speed
  • Con Buggy/ Deps on Firmware Version / Not Stable No OpenGL Driver as of 2/09
Links

WiFi Support and Configuration

Status: Driver should be back ported soon... Status: More to come; http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/geoff/ps3-linux-patches.git;a=commit;h=5ba09ee3f727508064c25d3bbb07e262f79e4380

Configuration

Run system-config-network as root. Note: eth0 is both the wired and wireless adapter.

Driver Support

It would seem that YDL has a driver for the WiFi in the PS3, I will look into this in more detail over the coming days and if and when it will be back ported into Fedora and or the Linux kernel.

Blue Tooth

Howto : Enable the PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Disc Remote

Pairing the Device

Make sure the services bluetooth and hidd are running. With a clean install of current rawhide, hidd fails to start. If this is the case, stop bluetooth, start hidd, and finally start bluetooth again. This problem disappears after the first connect. A bug report about this already exists.

While pressing the 'Start' & 'Enter' keys down, run the following command: 

$ su -c "/usr/bin/hidd --search"

After a while this should display something like this: 

Searching ...
Connecting to device 00:19:C1:2D:91:F2

The remote should be paired now.

Something needs to be done to get it in a usable state, though. Additional developer information is available at PlayStation/BDRemote .

Howto : Enable the PlayStation 3 Sony Controler in BlueTooth Mode

Documentation

End user documentation should be linked from here...

Ps3ReSpin of Fedora

Linux Configuration

Ps3 Fedora install guide

Ps3 Howto guide from IBM on Cell SPU Super Computing

Comments

Community comments here - FirstnameLastname

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