Video of Fedora On PS3

klippoth writes, "I just thought I would let you guys know, not only do I have Fedora Core 5 for PPC installed on my Playstation 3, but I video-captured running through the boot loader to demonstrate how it works. And yes, I am selling the PS3 on Ebay, although that was not my original intention. But hearing about people making ten grand... well, let's just say my love for my PS3 is NOT unconditional. Metal Gear Solid 4 doesn't come out for another year anyway! (Although it seems that sales of PS3s are starting to slow down... oh well, I can think of worse things to be stuck with!!)"

Not Impressive

[keithpreston (865880)]

Get back to me when you have a beowolf cluster going.

Re:Not Impressive

[tezbobobo (879983)]

A pretty fucking good idea since it runs the Cell.

Re:Not Impressive

[OneDeeTenTee (780300)]

>
>A pretty fucking good idea since it runs the Cell.
>--
>Want a Catholic discussion board? Help me start it. [thecatholicrecord.org]
>

A Catholic discussion board that allows profanity? Sign me up!

Re:

[hump_ (125049)]

Excellent argument! It was used nearly 2000 years ago. "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!" (Romans 6:1)

Re:Not Impressive

[cgenman (325138)]

To have a beowolf cluster Sony would have had to make more than one.

You'll need to wait until after January to see those kinds of numbers.

Confusing write-up

[cgenman (325138)]

Is this an article about how functional Linux on PS3 is? Or is it intended to spark discussion about PS3 sales on eBay?

Re:Confusing write-up

[timeOday (582209)]

Here's my vote for discussing the PS3...

So far I've heard dozens of discussion about selling PS3's on ebay, and none about actually playing games on them. That can't be a good thing, not even for the "long-term" (= 2-4 weeks :) sales prospects for PS3's on ebay.

Slashvertisement

[Baricom (763970)]

I wish I was a subscriber. This is by far the most blatant slashvertisment I've ever seen. It should be tagged as such.

Re:Slashvertisement

[Lord Kano (13027)]

I wish I was a subscriber.

Do you have $5.00?

LK

Re:Slashvertisement

[ArcadeNut (85398)]

Do you have $5.00?

Not if he just bought a PS3..

Re:

[Lord Kano (13027)]

If he just bought a PS3 he should be able to give 500 subscriptions away and still have a profit.

LK

Re:Slashvertisement

[eln (21727)]

Yah, the firehose is basically a way for subscribers to pay for the privilege of doing the job the Slashdot editors get paid to do. It's a great deal.

Re:

[DigiShaman (671371)]

How was this "Slashvertisement". I watched the video. I heard nothing in regards to how the PS3 is this or that, etc. It was nothing more than Linux running on a game system. I thought it was rather nifty.

Now only if he could get network connectivity to work....

Slashdot, you're the best.

[bigmaddog (184845)]

Oh man, way to get advertising for your nerdy eBay sale on the busiest nerd blog in the universe, for free. I don't blame you for trying, but nonetheless, a part of me has died inside.

Oops, I may already be a troll.

Re:Slashdot, you're the best.

[minus_273 (174041)]

where is this ad everyone is talking about? All is the link to a youtube video.

what's the ACTUAL worth of doing this?

[ystar (898731)]

So what works under fedora? Ethernet? Wifi cards (usb ones at least)? How about more than 640x480 resolution? Output to an actual monitor? Video and sound? It would be nice to have some basic questions answered.

Re:what's the ACTUAL worth of doing this?

[CronoCloud (590650)]

From reading the various message boards, most of the people installing Fedora and posting about it are Linux newbies being walked through installs and setup by Linux guru's without PS3's.

I know Ethernet works, WiFi apparently doesnt. Some people had sound issues, (I bet they need to configure ALSA or something) I saw an X conf file somewhere, monitors are supported. ah here we are, output from the ps3videomode utility

YUV 60Hz 1:480i 2:480p 3:720p 4:1080i 5:1080p
YUV 50Hz 6:576i 7:576p 8:720p 9:1080i 10:1080p
RGB 60Hz 33:480i 34:480p 35:720p 36:1080i 37:1080p
RGB 50Hz 38:576i 39:576p 40:720p 41:1080i 42:1080p
VESA 11:WXGA 12:SXGA 13:WUXGA

Does it play video?

[kerecsen (807268)]

My first and foremost question is whether the framebuffer driver that comes with Yellow Dog/RH5 fast enough to do video playback. If yes, PS3/Linux would make an awesome media center.

Using Linux instead of the native media player would be pretty much mandatory, since the built-in one won't uprez DVDs to 1080 -- if rumors are to be believed. Otherwise, since the Sony abstraction layer doesn't allow direct access to the GPU, Linux on the PS3 is just a big useless gimmick. The box is way too expensive for text-only purposes (except perhaps for researchers who just gotta have a cell CPU).

Weak.

[jericho4.0 (565125)]

That guy is clearly not a linux user, or even a Windows power user. The one useful piece of info I got from that was that it boots and loads KDE quite fast. Some benchmarks would have been nice. Compiling some Cell code on the SDK would have been nicer.

Re:Weak.

[Kangburra (911213)]

loads KDE quite fast

How did you figure that out? I saw a Gnome DE but I don't know the calculations to work out KDE from that? Just double the time it takes? ;-)

Re:

[Chris Tyler (2180)]

s/kde/gnome/

What about cure@ps3?

[still_sick (585332)]

http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-PS3.html/ [stanford.edu]

They claim to get "Supercomputer speeds" out of the PS3 - can anyone confirm this? How many points-per-day can it really do?

Re:

[SnarfQuest (469614)]

Depends on what your definition of supercomputer is.

(as it boots)

[Time Doctor (79352)]

I like how the maroon talking over this is discussing that it is "compiling the kernel" as the fedora boot messages flow past.

Re:

[kestasjk (933987)]

I also like how he provides no interesting information, walks you through the GNOME desktop's icons, and loads up GNOME as root. Clearly he had to hack away like crazy to get it running on the PS3.

And I like how he expects to get $10,000 for his used PS3 while unused ones are selling for less than $1,000.

Yeah, That's Nice

[Quantam (870027)]

But does it run Windows?

Re:Yeah, That's Nice

[AKAImBatman (238306)]

The PS3 requires a rather complex series of steps to setup an operating system

Strange wording, but fair enough.

the Windows setup is incompatable with this method.

Getting weirder. Perhaps he's referring to the boot process?

Believe me, I already tried to install Vista on mine.

Wait, you tried what?

I hope you realize that Post-NT versions of Windows are compiled only for x86. The Cell processor is based on the Power/PowerPC architecture. You'd have about as much luck running Windows on a G5 Mac as you would on the PS3. :-/

Just one thing I want to know....

[Howard Beale (92386)]

BogoMips dammit!!!

If I had only known...

[klippoth (1029528)]

If I had known the message I sent in was going to be printed verbatim, I think I would have been smart enough to include a link to my Ebay auction...as it is, I could throw a plug down here but it would get buried in no time. As a note though, I actually went through a lot to get that captured, voiced, cleaned up, composited, etc, so I think if I do get any decent price out of this, I earned it more than the guy who threw in a free candy bar. As a side note, I did learn an awful lot about compositing... So as far as Linux goes, I haven't had any luck with the Network yet, but then again, the Optical drive won't mount and I seem to lack any audio as well. That being said, I am currently re-loading the unit, and this time I am vid-capturing that as well, since a lot of people have asked how this was done. Hopefully I'll have that vid up tomorrow. Personally, this makes for a great exercise in Linux troubleshooting, but I really can't wait for Yellow Dog Linux to come out, seeing as how it is optimized for the PS3. I expect excellent results. Where video quality is concerned, I am capturing it on my old (like way old) MythTV box, so to start with, it's not the best, having an ATI AIW 9000 in it. And since that card doesn't support HD, it's running through a good old-fashioned composite cable. On top of that, Youtube asks that vids be resized to 320x240, so you can do the math. You're lucky it's legible at all. That was really late at night when I did that, so trust me, "Compiling the Kernel" is not that bad....as close as I was to passing out, I'm amazed I didn't refer to its "Registry" or "Guru Meditation Error"....

reading the responses to klippoth...

[RMH101 (636144)]

...I am reminded of exactly what is wrong with Slashdot these days. That irritating, whiny, continual attempt to get the last word in from kids trying to outgeek one another. The guy's done something interesting - don't flame him for not being a linux guru. If you want a better, more technical explanation then go do it yourself...

Re:

[the_humeister (922869)]

There is still the issue of actually obtaining a Playstation3 for such purposes...

Re:

[klippoth (1029528)]

I'm doing a video of that right now, actually. And I don't run as root in any PC that I actually plan to use. It's just that most of my Linux distros have you create a user login when you install, and this one didn't. And I really don't think someone is about to create a virus to take over my Linux PS3. So I just don't feel it's necessary to create a user profile just to appease a bunch of voyeurs. Sorry, getting a little testy, with all the flame war crap going on just because I followed instructions from

Re:

[avm (660)]

How much are low account numbers going for now anyway? Enough to fund my own PS3 acquisition? :-p

Re:

[Blakey Rat (99501)]

Dude, relax. Are you new at this whole "Internet" thing? Here's a tip: develop a thick skin or you'll have an aneurysm inside of 5 months.

Re:

[Muad'Dave (255648)]

Klippoth,

I read your earlier post mentioning that you're an older gentleman getting a late start in computers. Welcome! Please ignore the rantings of immature children here on /. - for every idiot there are at least a hundred reasonable folk that appreciate the trouble you took to develop your video and story.

PS3's were designed with additional OS' in mind

[flimflammer (956759)]

I've been testing PS3 at SCEA for quite a few months now, and I'm not sure about the retail units (we have a special testing units), but there is a means right from the PS3 menu to setup multiple operating systems, with a partitioning tool included in it.

So I have to say I'm as impressed with this story as I was when I received a link from someone detailing the success of someone who thought he was newsworthy by replacing the stock hard drive, as if it wasn't designed to be replaceable.

PS3 prices on eBay already in screaming dive.

[Animats (122034)]

The PS3 speculators are already in trouble. Sure, a few idiots paid $10,000 on day zero, but that's over. Auctions of unsold PS3 systems at bloated prices are now getting zero bids. There are "Buy it Now" prices of $3000, but reality is that units are going unsold at $1100 [ebay.com]. A sale of the 20GB unit just just occured at $925. [ebay.com] Then at $840 [ebay.com]. One seller writes "I waited over 30 hours in walmart so you don't have to!" He got $780. [ebay.com]

The original poster should hang onto his PS3. He's not going to make much money selling it. If you want a PS3, one will be available tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that. At a modest premium over retail.

Re:$10,000?

[Kangburra (911213)]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Playstation-3-PS3-Premium-w-Fe dora-Linux-Installed_W0QQitemZ250051615791QQihZ015 QQcategoryZ62054QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewI tem [ebay.com]

Sitting at $800 right now, I'd hate to click the Buy it now button though! :-)

Re:

[Kohath (38547)]

They all start out in that range. The trend is that they hit $900 at about 1 minute left and then go to $1000-$1200 at the end.

I've been watching them all weekend because I want one but won't pay the amount they're selling for.

Re:The Single Greatest Console Ever

[grommit (97148)]

Oh Noes!! A company that wants to make money, will the madness ever end!?!

Re:WTF?

[CronoCloud (590650)]

there was Slashdot article on Friday with links to how to do it.

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/17/ 1327239 [slashdot.org]

Download the otheros.self file from SCEfoo,

http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/ [playstation.com]

download FC5 PPC DVD,

download the addon's disk (theres some detailed instructions on it too)

ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/Sony-PS3/ [linux.org]

and install.

You can find more detailed instructions in various places on the net

In a about a week you'll be able to buy Yellow Dog 5.0 for the PS3, supposedly it has 1 click install.

http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/ [terrasoftsolutions.com]

I really don't know why you're so skeptical, this is not the first game console from Sony that supports LInux, officially mind you, this isn't some sort of hack.

Re:nice resolution

[CronoCloud (590650)]

The boot/install other OS feature is in the Cross Media bar interface, so yes, it's relatively easy. I've read that you can actually set it so that Linux becomes the default boot environment, which will be a heck of a lot more convenient (when I finally get a PS3) than on the PS2 which requires the "magic" RTE DVD to boot into Linux from being turned off.

Re:

[rm69990 (885744)]

FC5 is not optimized for the PS3. It isn't even using all of the Cell's cores. Wait until YellowDog Linux 5.0 for PS3, which will be optimized, comes out. Apparently Sony provided them with dev boxes so they have been working on it for a while. That will be the one to test, not FC5.

Re:Console launches are becoming

[Jello B. (950817)]

But then again, stock certificates don't spontaneously overheat and combust.

Yeah, tell that to anybody that had stock in Enron.

Re:

[bigberk (547360)]

Actually, enron took many months to fall. I don't mean to sound like an ass, but a simple sell-on-stop order would have protected against catastrophic losses (same with Nortel). That doesn't excuse the management of these companies from the fraud they were involved in, but I'm pointing out that market prices for things like stocks don't spontaneously evaporate. Even though there are large 'gaps' in price sometimes, usually a catastrophic price change such as Nortel from $100 down to $1 takes months, even ye

Re:Console launches are becoming

[Tweekster (949766)]

exactly the point.
go to ebay, pick one up for a hundred dollar premium right now.
wait a few more, the market is flooded.

the problem was that people were not buying the ps3 for themselves, they were buying it to resell. the market has corrected.
check the prices...all of the prices.

they are quite reasonable (compared to the retail price of the ps3)

Re:Console launches are becoming

[BecomingLumberg (949374)]

...bedtime stories...

Is that the new euphamism for porn?

Re:

[dangitman (862676)]

Uhh, why? In the English language, it is normal to pronounce the letters in an acronym separately. I actually can't stand the way people turn acronyms into words. The "gooey" pronounciation is comparitively recent. In the old days, people would actually say "Graphical User Interface" or "G.U.I." The contemporary usage is just a form of laziness, and pronounciong the letters separately is perfectly acceptable.

Do you pronounce "CLI" as "klee"?

Re:noob

[coldmist (154493)]

How about SCUBA, do you pronounce it S. C. U. B. A.? How about NASA? If the acronym lends itself to pronunciation, then say it as a word. If not, then don't. NSA, USO, or CLI, for example.

Re:

[DrXym (126579)]

And there wasn't anything about the PS3 launch either. If you want to see impressions of how the Wii launch went, go over to Joystiq.com. Seems to be very positive though there are some critical comments about some of the games (especially Red Steel) and problems with the system itself (crashes, faulty discs).