[GRLUG] Fedora Core 5 on PS3

[Olding, Jim]

I installed FC5 on my PS3 last night and thought I would share my
experience, and see if anyone else here has done so.

I followed the instructions at
http://ps3.qj.net/PS3-Linux-The-void-has-been-filled-Full-install-instru
ctions-for-Fedora-Core-5-/pg/49/aid/73144

First of all, Sony's partitioning utility is very limited.  It is
launched from the 'System Settings - Format Drive' menu.  It allows you
to partition the drive as 'All for PS3', '10GB PS3, remainder Other OS',
and '10GB Other OS, remainder PS3'.  I did not see an option for custom
partition sizes.  Once the drive is partitioned, you need to use the
OtherOS installer to install a bootloader on the new partition, and set
the new partition as the default OS.

Sony's installer basically scripts the install of FC5, giving you
barebones or full install options.  The full install takes about 2.5
hours.  After the install is complete, it will ask for the addon CD,
which has a couple RPMs for some PS3 utilities, kernel modifications,
and programming samples.  Make sure when it asks for the addon CD, you
correctly type 'y' to proceed.  I typed 'ty' by accident, and it
cancelled the whole install, leaving me with a pretty base system.

Once the install is done, you can reboot into your shiny new
environment.  The system boots quickly, until it wants to load X.  Then
it just dogs down.  The system only recognized 200MB of memory, so
loading the full Gnome or KDE desktops will take forever.  Although the
system did recognize the onboard ethernet, it did not configure it to
start on system boot.  Onboard wireless does not work.  I also did not
have working sound, although several sound modules were listed as
loaded.  X defaulted to a resolution of 512x384, even though I had a
1080i TV hooked up.

/proc/cpuinfo shows as a dual-core 3192MHz Cell w/ altivec support.  You
can use PPC and PPC64 binaries on the system.

I called it a night after running yum update on the system and being
told that it would need to download 2.1GB of updates, which is about
twice the amount free that is left on the 10GB partition.

FYI, if you decide to give this a try and accidently get stuck in
linux-only mode, you can get back to the default OS by running
'boot-game-os', or holding the power button for 5 seconds as you turn
the system on.