HELIOS offers free simplified Linux distribution for Sony PLAYSTATION®3 page

This page is intended to provide a step-by-step instruction on how to prepare the PLAYSTATION®3 for the installation of another OS and eventually install Linux on it. In addition, it gives background information on common video modes and it features a glossary to explain frequently used terms from the video environment. The installation instructions are split into two parts:

• Chapter 4.1 describes the HELIOS Linux installation from CD.
• Chapter 4.2 shows the installation of the standard Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 from DVD.

The PLAYSTATION®3 uses a 64-bit Cell processor which runs at 3.2 GHz, is PowerPC compatible with 256 MB of main memory, and has performance comparable to a G5 single CPU. The Cell chip includes one PPE (PowerPC) CPU and 7 additional SPEs (which each contain a Synergistic Processing Unit (SPU)). Each SPE has its own local 256 KByte memory to handle special computing tasks. The spu-gcc generates SPE code which must be loaded into the SPE. Also, the NVIDIA RSX GPU has its own 256 MB memory. The PS3™ includes WLAN, Gigabit Ethernet and a 2.5" swappable serial ATA disk. The TV can be connected via the AV jacks using PAL (576 lines) or NTSC (480 lines), higher resolution requires an HDMI or DVI monitor, the monitor must support HDMI DRM (called HDCP), otherwise the high resolution is not available.

The Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 is basically the PPC based release (RPMs) with additional kernel support for the PS3™. The Linux runs fully virtualized, it is based on IBM's virtualization engine. The benefit is that Linux has already support for IBM's PPC LPAR. The virtualization hides almost the entire PS3™ physical hardware (except USB) and protects Sony's OS against patching and stealing keys. The PS3™ graphics processor (GPU) and its memory cannot be accessed/used from Linux, only the video frame buffer is mapped.

Advantages of the HELIOS Linux Installation:

• AppleTalk is already enabled in the kernel
• IBM Java is pre-installed
• HELIOS services are pre-installed
• Easy installation
• Installation in a few minutes
• Optimized performance (about 50 MB more memory available compared to default Yellow Dog 5.0 Linux installation)
  
  

1. Background on analog and digital video modes

In the computer industry monitor resolutions are defined by x (width) and y (height). Popular resolutions are:

2. Prerequisites

• Ethernet network (DHCP server recommended)
  
  Note: WLAN is not supported by Yellow Dog Linux 5.0.
  
  
• PLAYSTATION®3 firmware version 1.7, 1.8 or newer (can be downloaded from within the PLAYSTATION®3 OS)
  
  
• TV with CINCH/AV (RCA jacks) or SCART input, or HDMI TV with digital input
  
  
• USB PC keybord (and optional USB mouse if X Window System is used)
  
  
• Memory Stick™, SD Memory Card, CompactFlash®, or USB mass storage device such as a USB flash drive; FAT formatted (needed only once to prepare the installation)
  
  Note: The USB flash memory is NOT needed for the HELIOS Linux installation.
  
  
• Download the HELIOS Linux installation (600 MB CD image) from:
  
  http://webshare.helios.de
  User Name: tools
  Password: tools
  
  Login, go to "HELIOS Tools", open "HELIOS Linux for PS3" and select "HELIOS Linux for PS3 v1.iso". Then click the "Download" button.
  
  
  OR
  
  
  Download Yellow Dog Linux v5.0, e.g. from one of the following mirrors (3.5 GB DVD image):
  
  http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/yellowdog/ (Canada)
  http://ftp.yellowdoglinux.com/pub/yellowdog/ (USA)
  ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/yellowdog/ (Germany)
  http://mirror.pacific.net.au/linux/yellowdog/ (Australia)
  
  Download the bootloader "otheros.bld" from:
  
  http://webshare.helios.de
  User Name: tools
  Password: tools
  
  Login, go to "HELIOS Tools", select "otheros.bld" and click the "Download" button.
  At the top level of the Flash drive create a directory named "PS3". Underneath the "PS3" directory, create another directory named "otheros" and copy the bootloader "otheros.bld" into the "PS3/otheros" directory.
  
  
• Burn image file to CD (or DVD respectively). This will be your Linux installation CD/DVD
  
  

3. Preparing the Sony PS3™ OS

	Use the wireless PLAYSTATION®3 controller as an input device for these tasks.
1.	Start the PLAYSTATION®3 by pressing the power button. Press the PS button to switch the wireless controller on (the port indicator LEDs must light up) and navigate to Settings > System Settings. Press the button and then select Format Utility. Confirm with the button.
2.	Select Format Hard Disk, and confirm your selection twice. Then select Custom and press the button.
3.	Decide whether to allocate 10 GB for the PLAYSTATION®3 or 10 GB for the other OS (Linux). We recommend to allocate 10 GB for the PLAYSTATION®3 system, to have 50 GB for the Linux installation. Confirm your choice with the button. Then select Quick Format and press the button. When finished, the system restarts.
4.	The system reboots into the PS3™ system again.
5.	If you are installing from the Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 DVD: Insert the Flash drive (e.g. USB stick), which contains the bootstrap loader file "otheros.bld", into the corresponding slot on the PLAYSTATION®3. If you are installing from the HELIOS Linux Installation CD: Insert the HELIOS Linux Installation CD.
6.	Navigate to Settings > System Settings. Press the button and then select Install Other OS. Select Start and confirm with the button. Then press the button to go back to Settings > System Settings. If you are installing from the HELIOS Linux Installation CD skip steps 7 and 8 and continue with step 9.
7.	Remove the Flash drive from the PLAYSTATION®3.
8.	Insert the Linux installation DVD (or CD-ROM) in the PLAYSTATION®3 disc slot.
9.	Press the button and then select Default System. Then choose Other OS and press the button.
10.	You will be asked if you want to quit the PS3™ system and start the other system. Select Yes and confirm with the button. Important: The system reboots now. After a few seconds, the kboot: prompt appears on the screen. You will then have about 10 seconds to enter the first commands before the system will start in default mode. Make sure to enter installtext (for YDL) or sh (for HELIOS Linux) before that happens. If you should have missed to enter the command in time, switch the PLAYSTATION®3 off and on again. You will get to the kboot: prompt again. Then continue with 4. Installation.

4. Installation

Note:
The PS3™ OS resides in a secure area which is invisible to the Linux installer. It cannot be modified by the following actions. From this point, use a USB PC keyboard that is connected to the console for navigating through the installer:

4.1 HELIOS Linux Installation CD

What the HELIOS Installer does:

• Create partitions and formats the hard disk
  • "root" partition with 8 GB
  • Swapping partition with 1 GB
• Create data partition with left space – irrespective of the disk size (data partition is preserved as long as the partition layout remains the same, e.g. on update installation or re-install)
• Restore the HELIOS Linux Installation system on the root partition
• Mount the data partition as "/data"
  
  

1.	At the kboot: prompt enter sh to get a shell. This will stop the 10 second time-out.
2.	To mount the HELIOS Linux Installation CD enter the following command: # mount -r /dev/cdrom /root The shell may issue the error message UDF-fs: No VRS found. This can be ignored!
3.	To start the "HELIOS PS3 installer" enter: # /root/installer
4.	On the installer menu type the character i (for installation) and press ENTER.
5.	The installer will now install the HELIOS Linux.
6.	As soon as the installation is complete the system will automatically reboot to the Linux login prompt. Log in with user root and password ps3.

4.2 Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 DVD

1.	At the kboot: prompt type installtext (text based installation) when using a standard TV, or install (graphics mode installation) when an HDMI monitor is connected, and press ENTER. You may also toggle with the TAB key between these two possibilities. Note that you have to enter your choice within 10 seconds, otherwise the installer will start in graphics mode (X Window System). The following procedure uses the text based installation (installtext command). The graphics mode (install command) works basically the same as the text mode.
2.	A welcome message appears. Confirm with OK.
3.	Select the desired language from the scroll list and confirm with OK.
4.	Select the desired keyboard encoding from the scroll list and confirm with OK.
5.	A warning appears that all data will be erased while initializing the hard disk. Confirm with YES. Remember that the PS3™ OS resides in a secure area which will not be affected.
6.	From the Partitioning Type menu select Remove all partitions for <selected drive> and confirm with OK.
7.	A warning appears asking whether you are sure to remove all partitions. Confirm with YES.
8.	You are asked to review the partition layout and apply modifications. You can deny with NO.
9.	Now enter a root password, re-enter it for confirmation. Confirm with OK.
10.	The system retrieves installation information and performs a dependency check.
11.	Confirm the Installation to begin dialog with OK to start the Linux installation.
12.	Now the installation starts while showing several progress bars and windows. Note that this will take about one hour.
13.	Once the installation has finished, the DVD is ejected and the Complete dialog appears. Then select Reboot and press the ENTER key.
14.	After the system has rebooted type ydl480i at the kboot: prompt and press the ENTER key.
15.	Unless you have a special interest in setting up the keyboard, network, printer, etc. configuration, you can leave the Setup Agent dialog with Exit.
16.	For use with an analog TV AV connection log in to the Linux system as "root" and view the boot configuration file "kboot.conf": # less /etc/kboot.conf (Click here to view the complete "kboot.conf" file.)
17.	Connect an Ethernet cable to the console (WLAN does not work under Linux). If a DHCP server is available on the network the system will get its network configuration automatically.
18.	Enter the following command to have the IP address displayed. An SSH remote login will now work: # ifconfig eth0 The output is similar to this: eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:19:C5:7B:C8:A2 inet addr:172.16.3.235 Bcast:172.16.3.255 Mask:255.255.252.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:8159 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:27564 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:490186 (478.6 KiB) TX bytes:6836194 (6.5 MiB) Interrupt:160

Handy Tips

• Shutdown:
  
  a) Press the power button for a few seconds until you will hear a "beep". Linux will shutdown.
  
  b) On the Linux shell enter the command shutdown -h now.
  
  
• Boot back into PS3™ Game OS:
  
  a) If the PLAYSTATION®3 is powered off, press and hold the power button until you will hear a second "beep".
  
  b) If Linux is running, enter boot-game-os on the shell.
  
  Note:
  You can enable Linux again via: Settings > System Settings. Press the button and then select Default System. Select Other OS and press the button.
  
  

5. PLAYSTATION®3 video modes

The "ps3videomode" command shows current video settings such as resolution, frame rate, color space, etc., and switches them dynamically.

Usage:

ps3videomode [options]

Options:

Video mode IDs:

If no arguments are specified "ps3videomode" displays the current video mode.

Example:

ps3videomode -v 3 -f (720p; 60Hz in full screen mode)

Notes:

• VESA resolutions are only valid for the HDMI port. The signal from the HDMI port supports the RGB color space regardless of the video mode ID.
• Do not change the display resolution while sound is playing.
• Do not change the display resolution on the X Window system. If you did, you need to restart the Xserver, because the current "ps3fb" driver does not use a fixed size frame buffer. It is required that line_length of frame buffer is used as a fixed value to realize a changing resolution via X.
• If you want to boot Linux in a specified video mode, you may use kernel parameters.
  
  

6. Installing Java

(Only needed for the Yellow Dog Linux DVD, already included in HELIOS Linux Installation CD)

The GNU Java Runtime 1.4.x does not work with "websharewoa". The IBM Java 1.5 for PPC-32bit Linux does. The following steps are required to get it working:

# yum install compat-libstdc++-33 (Installs "/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5", which is required by the IBM Java.)

Download Java from: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/linux140/ and use the follwing commands to install the Jave runtime:

# rpm -i IBMJava2-142-ppc32-SDK-1.4.2-1.0.ppc.rpm
# /usr/local/helios/bin/stop-helios
# ln -s /opt/ibm/java2-ppc-50/jre/bin/java /usr/local/bin/java
# /usr/local/helios/bin/start-helios -i

7. Building a custom kernel with AppleTalk enabled

(Only needed for the Yellow Dog Linux DVD, already included in HELIOS Linux Installation CD)

# cd /usr/src
# bzip2 -d <yellowdog/SOURCES/linux-2.6.16.20061110.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -
# ln -s linux-2.6.16.20061110 linux
# cd linux
# cp /boot/config-2.6.16-20061110.ydl.2ps3 .config
# make menuconfig

Go to "Networking" > "Networking options" > "Appletalk protocol support". With the space bar toggle whether the selected kernel component should be built-in (*), or built as a module (M). We recommend to select (M) to built AppleTalk as a module. Then navigate to the "Exit" option and confirm "Exit" until you are asked to save your new kernel configuration. Confirm with "Yes" to save your new kernel configuration.

# make
# make modules
# make modules_install
# cp vmlinux /boot/vmlinux-2.6.16
# mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.16 2.6.16

1. Open "/etc/kboot.conf", and with an editor such as "vi" create a new kernel configuration entry. Use "ydl480i" as a template. Have a look at a typical "kboot.conf" file.
2. Reboot with a TV AV connected, and enter the desired configuration name from "kboot.conf" at the kboot: prompt.
3. Verify the new kernel version by issuing uname -a and change the value for Default: in "kboot.conf".
   
   

8. "kboot" standalone information

The "otheros.bld" is installed in a 4 MB flash disk area ("/dev/sdb"). It includes "kboot" with BusyBox and some utilities. BusyBox has very limited utilities therefore mount a file system with more utilities, and the required libraries will help to get better "kboot" command line capability. The following steps are required:

• At the kboot: prompt type sh and press the ENTER key. This allows using some Linux system utilities:
  # kboot: sh
  
  
• Additional utilities are available using the HELIOS Installer, insert the HELIOS Linux Installation CD and type:
  # mount -r /dev/cdrom /root
  # sh /root/installer
  
  
• Type s and press ENTER to select the maintenace shell option.
  

Tip:
Remount a read-only disk read/write via:
# mount -o remount,rw /dev/sd?? /mnt/??

9. Manual TCP/IP configuration

Our HELIOS Linux installation is designed to use a DHCP server.automatically:
Usually, in an already existing network (company network or home network with broadband router), there is a DHCP server available, which automatically provides the PLAYSTATION®3 with IP address and adequate network settings. The configuration can be checked by entering the ifconfig command on a shell.

If no DHCP server is available, the network interface will not come up on first boot and issue an error. The IP address must be specified manually:

1.	Login and enter: # system-config-network The Network Configuration dialog appears. Select Ethernet and navigate to Configure. Then press ENTER.
2.	In the Ethernet Configuration dialog specify the desired configuration and navigate to Ok. Then press ENTER.
3.	Select "Exit" and press the ENTER key to save the network settings changes.
4.	To make the changes active, reboot the PLAYSTATION®3 or type the following command to restart the network subsystem: # /etc/init.d/network restart

1.	Login to Yellow Dog Linux. Click the blue "Yellow Dog" button and go to "Applications" > "System Tools" > "System Config" > "Network".
2.	Double-click the "eth0" entry. The "Ethernet Device" dialog opens. Activate the "Statically set IP addresses" radio button and enter your network configuration. Then confirm with OK. Back in the "Network Configuration" window choose" File" > "Save" from the menu. This is most important, otherwise your network settings changes will not be saved.
3.	To make the changes active, reboot the PLAYSTATION®3 or type the following command in a terminal, to restart the network subsystem: # /etc/init.d/network restart

10. Glossary of used terms

11. See also

PLAYSTATION®3 documentation

Wikipedia PLAYSTATION®3

PS3™ Linux Kernel Overview

How to Enable Your Distro

Booting Linux and Installation

PS3™ Platform Specific Utilities (video modes, boot options)

Application Programming Environment

12. Feedback

Feedback is appreciated!