Ubuntu on PS3

[Gorgazm]

http://ps3.qj.net/Kernel-patches-and...g/49/aid/72608

The day of the Japanese PS3 launch came and went. And with it, it brought along a ton of news. But you still haven't seen the best bit yet! You see, before Sony even released more info about Yellow Dog Linux for the PS3, Power Developer has already released kernel patches and a bootloader so that you can try out Linux on your PS3.

Yes, this is huge news in itself. But that's not all. Apparently, you can install ANY linux distro on your PS3 as long as it has a PowerPC build available - and that includes just about every popular distribution of Linux out there. A quick hop to my favorite distro websites shows that all of them run on PowerPC processors, which means that all of them will probably run on the PS3.

Here's a small list of the Linux distros which run on PowerPC (PPC)
Ubuntu
Fedora Core
SUSE (Paid) / openSUSE (Free)
Gentoo

I'm sorry if I haven't listed your favorite distro here. You can make your way to DistroWatch.com and check out your distro's site to see if they have a build for the PPC. There's a very good chance that it will be supported. Also, some sites might list the PPC builds as "Apple Macintosh" versions. They are built for PowerPC and they should run on the PS3, though don't come after my head if they don't. Now here's some of the info from the PS3 kernel patch documents.

The patch is for kernel 2.6.19. You can download the plain vanilla kernel here and patch it yourself. But that's beside the point, because the documents which are released here, have a small how-to on installing Fedora Core 5 on your PS3. And the only things you need are:

* Other OS installer (otheros.self)
o You can get the binary from http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/
* kboot image compressed by gzip (otheros.bld)
o You can find this in Addon Packages CD.
* Fedora Core 5 PPC install DVD
o You can get Fedora Core 5 PPC install DVD from Fedora Project (http://fedora.redhat.com/)
* Addon Packages CD.

The only thing which we currently don't have is the Other OS installer. A quick check on the mentioned site reveals that Sony hasn't yet put it up there. A few more days, I think. The Addon Packages CD would probably be supplied with the PS3 itself, or so I think.

And finally, for everyone here who's hungry to tinker with the material before the PS3 is released in the US, here's the kernel patches, the bootloader, and a bunch of documents to make it easier for you. I'm so envious of our Japanese friends right now who'll probably be busy tinkering with their PS3.
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--That should be great

Development Documents : http://dl.qj.net/Documents-for-Linux...1259/catid/514

[PriceChild]

Wow.... So sony are actually embracing the ability for you to run your own linux on there?

[Gorgazm]

Thats a good way to get a leg up on competition. MAke it possible to use it as a computer, a good one at that. Maybe Ubuntu will make full use of the cell processor.

[PriceChild]

Well it is ppc... its fine.

[Patrick K.]

It's a nice and all that you can run an OS on it like a regular computer. However... When are Game consoles going to be just game consoles and less like your average home computer?

[maniacmusician]

from now on? probably never. Wii's the only one doing it right...but the future shows game consoles being computers as well.

[Polygon]

i like the wii. Its saving money by not having a hard drive (using flash cards.. which will also means its more quiet and the hard drive wont ever die!), it does not have dvd playback, becuase honestly, who DOSENT have some form of dvd player in their house already

and will you still be able to play games on the ps3 if you install a different linux disto?

[Old Pink]

This will conquer the "I use Windows for my games" attitude that's out there.

A high spec Linux computer, ready to play the latest Blu-Ray Games.

This could completely eradicate Windows, with the right marketing.

[Polygon]

so baiscally what the ps3 means is that all the ps3 developers are basically creating games that run on linux and are written for opengl?

if so thats really cool.... could mean more linux ports

[engla]

great news.

will this bring goodies to all of us? I hope for games that work on linux -- not just ppc but all platforms. And I hope for some more action on the ppc side of things, right now some things are going slow with ppc builds -- prop stuff like flash, acroread, google earth are not available, and no builds for the latest beryl. More users, more action is of course welcome!

And yes, making linux a gaming platform is probably the best news I heard in a long while.