[GRLUG] Linux on the PS3

[Michael Mol]

(Reposted from my blog post last night)

It took me about three hours, but I got Ubuntu installed on my PS3.
All in all, it was disappointing.

The first problem was that my TV didn't support whatever resolution
kboot (the boot manager; akin to LILO, grub or NTLDR) operated at via
HDMI, so I had to switch to Composite video to see text-mode graphics.
 This was a scary problem...Until I tried switching to composite, I
was getting a "No signal" blue screen on my TV, with no kboot in
sight, and most of the walkthroughs I found indicated that you used
the kboot prompt to get back to the PS3's core OS.  There was mention
of holding the power button down until the console beeped twice, but
it took me a while to discover that that referred to turning the
system on, not turning it off. (At that point, I'd been stuck with the
system on and no useful video.)  I was worried I might have bricked my
PS3.

The second problem was that Ubuntu's PS3 live CD doesn't work well at
anything less than 800x600, so it's 720p or up.  And for whatever
reason, the TV and PS3 had settled on a resolution of 480p.  So I
switched to Ubuntu's alternate (a.k.a. text-mode Debian installer)
install disc.

The third problem may have been subjective; The install process is
slow.  I mean, damn, it felt like doing a fresh install on my P4 would
be faster.

The fourth problem was that the PS3's built-in wireless hardware isn't
visible to Ubuntu.  There's no driver provided with 7.10 (the version
that the walkthroughs I found linked to).  So I had to hook up the
second WL-330gE. (Odd, that, it's doing what I bought it for again.)

So I eventually got it installed and running.  That part took three
hours.  Then came the problems with actually running it.

First, Ubuntu's xorg-server package doesn't come with video modes
native to 480p, 720p, 1080i or 1080p, though it did detect that the
modes 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 would "work".  So I'm running at
1024x768 over 1080i. (Scaled down to 720p by the TV.  I have to sit
relatively close to the screen to be able to read it.  Bleh.)

Second, mplayer is slow on the PS3.  I wanted to try Linux on the PS3
as a cheaper alternative to buying a box beefy enough to transcode
videos on the fly.  No dice.  Checking /proc/cpuinfo revealed two 3GHz
PPC processors with Altivec support, which should make it more than a
match for my x86_64 Ubuntu install on my laptop (a dual-core Intel
T2370 running at 1.73GHz).  At least, I thought it would.  I tried two
Nostromo Divx 5 AMVs (HypnoStrobe and HypnoStar) and an h264 AMV
(Woolongs for Nothing), and they both stuttered terribly.

So it's back to saving up so that the beefbox doesn't put a royal dent
in my savings.  Hopefully newer and better parts push more and better
parts into the not-so-new price range in time for Black Friday next
month.

-- 
:wq