Update: 2007/01/20 - Thanks to bram.sara.nl (replace "." with @) for sending me an email and correcting some typos. Please, feel free and let me know
if you see some blatant typos as I was on 72 hours of non-sleep and a 12 pack of pale ale when I typed this up. Thanks!
Update: 2006/12/16 - Thanks for the emails I'm glad I'm able to help out!
You can email me at [[>louis at ossh dot com<->Subject: PlayStation 3<]]
as its always nice to see who else was able to get Ubuntu / Debian on their PS3!
These
are the items I
used:
I went ahead and followed sections 01 - 03 from these
instructions:
I'm going to give it to you real quick breakdown here:
- Plug your USB storage drive into your main boxen and create
the directory structure USB:\PS3\OTHEROS
- Download otheros.bld and otheros.self onto USB:\PS3\OTHEROS
- Remove the USB storage drive and plug it into your PS3 and
boot that sucker up!
- On the XMB go into Settings Menu > System Settings
> Format Drive
- I have a 20GB PS3 so I chose the option of making two 10GB
partitions. Please edit this section as needed if you have
the 60GB PS3.
- Once you are done formatting the PS3's internal drive, go
into Settings Menu > System Settings > Install Other OS
- Click "OK" and it will install the kboot image onto your
PS3.
- Once you are done, go back into Settings Menu >
System Settings > Default System > Choose "Other OS"
- Restart your PS3 and you should be on the kboot prompt
Now once you are on the kboot prompt you are within a minimal Linux
environment.
02 - Installing a Base Linux Distribution to ease our
cross-install of Ubuntu on the PS3
Note: You can probably skip this step if you are an advanced
user as you can do a lot with the kboot/busybox environment.
I'm providing this section as I had already installed Fedora
Core 5 on my PlayStation 3 before getting the urge to install Ubuntu.
This will be real quick I promise! :)
Here is more information on kboot if you are interested:
Once you have both the Fedora Core 5 DVD and the ADDON CD burned follow
these steps:
- Insert your freshly burned Fedora Core 5 DVD into the
PlayStation 3.
- Once on the kboot prompt type: install-fc sda
- It will ask you to insert the Fedora Core DVD. Type 'y'
then press Enter.
- Remember, choose option '1' - Fedora Core Minimum Install
- Type 'y' when it says Caution!! All data in /dev/sda will
be removed. Remember, you can always resize /dev/sda with
parted once you are done.
- Go grab another beer as you have a few minutes before the
install is done.
- Once done, the Fedora Core CD will pop out.
- Insert the ADDON cd you burned earlier and type 'y' when it
requests the ADDON CD.
- Once the install is done you can type in your root password
and then type reboot.
- Reboot into your Fedora Core system.
- Log in as root with the password you created.
- Since this is a minimal install - go ahead and insert your
Fedora Core 5 DVD into your PlayStation 3 and mount /mnt/cdrom
- Then go ahead and issue the command yum install dhclient
- Type: 'dhclient' as root and it should give you an IP
address if you are a DHCP person, otherwise, google on how to configure
ifconfig for a static IP address.
- Type: 'yum install cfdisk' as root to install cfdisk - only
if you feel more comfortable with cfdisk and find fdisk too cryptic.
Once you are at this step you are ready to install Ubuntu.
Like I said, you can probably skip section 02 if you are an
advanced user, but I'm sure a majority of you have Linux already
installed on /dev/sda so its not a problem.
03 - Cross-Installing Ubuntu / Debian on the PlayStation 3
I followed the instructions on
Installing
Ubuntu from a Unix/Linux System but I will show you what
steps I followed. This assumes that you have either
repartitioned /dev/sda2 with
GNU Parted or have an external USB
storage device with at least 500MB for a minimal debian install or
2GB of available space for an Ubuntu desktop as it depends on
how you want to use your PlayStation 3. At this point you
should be within your Fedora install on /dev/sda with a working
Internet connection, as we are going to install a minimal debian
install and then upgrade it to Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Kubuntu... whatever you
want. These are the steps I took. I'm going to
assume your USB storage device is /dev/sdc, so go ahead and change it
to whatever comes up on dmesg. Here we go:
- As root within Fedora Core - type dmesg and find what your
USB Storage device. Let's assume it is /dev/sdc
- Type: 'fdisk /dev/sdc' or 'cfdisk /dev/sdc' as root depending
on what partitioning tool you feel comfortable with.
Partitioning a drive with fdisk or cfdisk is trivial and well
documented on google.com - I used fdisk to partition my 80GB drive as
follows: 1.) swap:/dev/sdc1 @ 512MB -- 2.) /boot:/dev/sdc2 @
100MB (for extra kernels and initrd's and wot not) -- 3.)
/home:/dev/sdc3 @ 30GB --- 4.) /ubuntu:/dev/sdc5 @ 10GB --- 5.) Left
the rest as free space for other Linux Distributions and what not.
Once done partitioning your USB storage device - you will need to
create a filesystem on your partitions
- $ mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdc2
- $ mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc3
- $ mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdc5
- $ mkswap /dev/sdc1
- $ sync; sync; sync
- $ swapon /dev/sdc1
You now have enough to start your Ubuntu installation.
- $ mkdir /mnt/ubuntu
- $ mount /dev/sdc5 /mnt/ubuntu
- $ mkdir /mnt/ubuntu/boot
- $ mount /dev/sdc2 /mnt/ubuntu/boot
Once you are done mounting your partitions you will go ahead and
download
debootstrap binary from a
remote or local Ubuntu mirror, and follow these following steps:
- $ cd /tmp
- $ wget
http://louiscandell.com/ps3/debootstrap/debootstrap_0.3.3.0ubuntu7_all.deb
- $ ar -xf debootstrap_0.3.30ubuntu7_all.deb
- $ cd /
- $ zcat < /tmp/data.tar.gz | tar xv
Or you can just be lazy and do the following:
And you are done... either way will work. I'm just lazy I
guess. I downloaded a xubuntu 6.10 Edgy iso just to have in
case I needed it, so you can do so if you like but its not required
since it will technically be a net install.
Once you are done with the above then just issue the command:
- $ /usr/sbin/debootstrap --arch powerpc edgy /mnt/ubuntu
http://archive.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu
And sit back and watch the screen fly as a base Ubuntu system creates
itself from your hard work. I would suggest another
"beverage" at this point in time and oh maybe some junk food.
04 - Configuring Minimal Install of Ubuntu Base System
I want to get us into our Ubuntu Desktop as quickly as possible and
with minimal work, so lets copy the kernel from Fedora Core 5 and use
it to quickly get into a GUI we all know and love:
- $ cp -a /boot/* /mnt/ubuntu/boot
- $ cd /mnt/ubuntu/boot
- $ cp vmlinux-2.6.16 ../vmlinux
- $ cp initrd.img ../
- $ mkdir /mnt/ubuntu/lib/modules
- $ cd /mnt/ubuntu/lib/modules/
- $ cp -ar /lib/modules/2.6.16 .
The above will have a 2.6.16 kernel, initrd and modules at your
disposal in case you mess something up in the near future and will get
us into our Ubuntu Desktop as quickly as possible.
Once done with debootstrap you will go ahead and configure your Base
System.
I'm partial to
GNU Emacs, but you might be a vi,
vim or nano type of character so just to make this as easy as possible
do the following:
- $ chroot /mnt/ubuntu /bin/bash
- $ source /etc/profile
- $ apt-get install nano
The above command has you in your new Ubuntu system in its infant state.
At this point you will configure your /etc/fstab file.
Here is a basic one for me:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# file system mount point type options dump pass
/dev/sdc5 / ext3 defaults 0 0
/dev/sdc3 /home ext3 defaults 0 0
/dev/sdc2 /boot ext2 defaults 0 2
/dev/sdc1 none swap sw 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sys /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,rw,sync,user,exec 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro,user,exec 0 0
###### /etc/fstab done
Once done configuring your /etc/fstab file you can manually mount each
filesystem once you are chrooted into your Ubuntu System, or you can
automatically mount them.
The above game me some errors, so I made sure that both /proc and /sys
were mounted. Check to see if they are mounted by seeing if
there is anything in them:
If /proc and /sys are not mounted then you will manually mount them
like this:
- $ cd /
- $ mount -t proc proc proc
- $ mount -t sysfs sysfs sys
Once done, you will configure your keyboard, networking, timezone,
locales, install a kernel and all that good stuff so you can boot up
into your Ubuntu desktop and kick some butt! I'm sure you're
probably tired of being in the CLI and we do need a kernel, but
remember we copied over the 2.6.16 kernel from our Fedora Core system,
so lets get into our Ubuntu System and then start customizing and
tailoring our system to our specific needs:
- $ apt-get install dhclient
- $ apt-get install openssh-server openssh-client
- $ apt-get install whatever else you need to make your
experience as nice as possible.
You can download a kernel if you like, but I'm sure you would rather be
inside your Ubuntu Desktop as quickly as possible, so just use what
I've given you and go from there.
05 - Installing The Xubuntu / Ubuntu / Kubuntu desktop
Congrats as you've made it this far! At this stage you have a
choice of installing whatever desktop you like. You can
either install the
Ubuntu,
Xubuntu
or the
Kubuntu
desktop at this stage of the install. You will want to issue
one of the following commands depending on what desktop you want.
I went ahead and installed Xubuntu, as I'm more of a CLI type
of person.
- $ aptitude -y install '~txubuntu-desktop'
- $ aptitude -y install '~tubuntu-desktop'
- $ aptitude -y install '~tkubuntu-desktop'
Once the above is done you are finished. You should be inside
your Ubuntu Desktop, but what is this... it looks like a big block
party and everything is so large and in charge! Not to
fear... you just need to do a few more things to make everything fit
inside your Ubuntu Desktop.
Now go ahead and reboot.
06 - Using kboot to boot up Ubuntu Linux
You can save boot kernel parameters in /etc/kboot.conf file so you can
automatically boot into Ubuntu vs. Fedora which is still installed in
/dev/sda. This is what I type @ the kboot prompt when I want to
use Ubuntu on my PS3:
$ kernel=/dev/sdc5/vmlinux initrd=/dev/sdc5/initrd.img root=/dev/sdc5
I press enter and wait 10-15 seconds and voila... into my Ubuntu Linux Distro!
07 - Configuring /etc/X11/xorg.conf and ps3videomode to
make everything look great.
The first thing you are going to notice when you go into your new
Ubuntu Desktop is everything is so large that you can't really get much
done. You will need to either download the ADDONN iso to
your harddrive or pull out the ADDON cd you burned earlier and used
with the Fedora Core 5 install and install a few things. I'm
going to assume you burned the ADDON iso onto a CD so go ahead and put
it into your PS3 and mount that sucker up, or you can download the
files needed from here:
$ cd ~
$ wget
http://www.louiscandell.com/ps3/files/cell-linux-cl_20061110-addon/ps3pf-utils_1.0.9-3_powerpc.deb
$ wget
http://www.louiscandell.com/ps3/files/cell-linux-cl_20061110-addon/vsync-sample_1.0.1-5_powerpc.deb
$ dpkg -i ps3pf-utils_1.0.9-3_powerpc.deb
$ dpkg -i vsync-sample_1.0.1-5_powerpc.deb
You should now have ps3videomode installed on your system. Before
you go any further, you should do CTRL+ALT+F1-F6 to get into the CLI.
Log in as root and:
$ kill gdm
$ kill Xorg
You should be back to a black screen with no purty colors... the horror!
Make your life easy and just download my xorg.conf file:
*
http://louiscandell.com/ps3/files/xorg.conf
Go ahead and check out this chart:
*
http://www.louiscandell.com/ps3/doc/PlatformSpecificUtilities.html
And find which ps3videomode option applies to your situation. I have a 720p/1080i capable HDTV so I type the following:
$ ps3videomode -v 3
$ gdm
That alone gets me into a nice sized desktop!
This should be enough to get you going as I have spent quite some time
writing this up vs. trying to get sound out of my speakers, but I'm off
to install some emulators to test out some um... yeah. :)
I'll continue this later. Please let me know of any corrections.