HOWTO: PlayStation 3 - Installing Ubuntu on the PS3

[candell]

The original and current version of this howto will be here:

* HOWTO: http://www.louiscandell.com/ps3/
* Images: http://www.louiscandell.com/ps3/images/

Installing Debian Linux / Ubuntu Linux on the PlayStation 3 - (PS3)


Introduction


Ah, the PlayStation 3... people getting shot... people standing in line for days just to get their hands on one. I noticed a lot of you are trying to install Ubuntu on this badboy, so I am going to show you how to cross-install Ubuntu Linux / Debian Linux on your PlayStation 3 from an existing Linux system. Please don't moan and complain about having to install Fedora Core 5 onto your PS3 before installing Ubuntu. I had already installed Fedora Core 5 onto my PlayStation 3 before getting the urge to install Ubuntu, and I'm sure a majority of you have already installed Fedora on your PS3 so it's not a big deal. You can probably skip section 01 if you are an advanced user thats comfortable with the kboot prompt, as it's a minimal Linux environment with enough tools for you to skip to step 02, but I'm showing you how I got Ubuntu on the PS3 so here we go.


Here are some pictures of my PS3 running Xubuntu: http://louiscandell.com/ps3/images/



01 - Installing kboot on the PlayStation 3


These are the items I used:

* USB Storage Drive (Thumb Drive, Compact Flash, Pro Duo, etc.)
* USB External Drive
* DVD Burner
* debootstrap_0.3.3.0ubuntu7_all.deb - http://archive.ubuntulinux.org/ubunt...d/debootstrap/
* Fedore Core 5 DVD - http://fedora.redhat.com/Download/mirrors.html
* http://www.louiscandell.com/ps3/file...1110-ADDON.iso
* http://www.louiscandell.com/ps3/file...1110-SRCCD.iso
* Few Blank CDR's and DVD's
* Beer

I went ahead and followed sections 01 - 03 from these instructions:

* http://www.louiscandell.com/ps3/doc/...ourDistro.html


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:

* http://kboot.sourceforge.net/


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/debootst...buntu7_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:

* $ cd /tmp
* $ wget http://louiscandell.com/ps3/debootstrap/data.tar.gz
* $ cd /
* $ zcat < /tmp/data.tar.gz


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 /boot/* /mnt/ubuntu/boot
* $ cd /mnt/ubuntu/boot
* $ cp vmlinux-2.6.16 ../vmlinux
* $ cp initrd.img ../
* $ cd /mnt/ubuntu/lib
* $ cp /lib/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 / ext2 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.

* $ mount -a


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:

* $ ls /proc /sys


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.

06 - Configuring /etc/X11/xorg.conf and ps3videobuffer to make everything look great.

[Ciego]

Is it possible to install Ubuntu from the kboot promp without installing Fedora?

[ebryn]

To run Ubuntu off the PS3 hard drive just debootstrap back onto the hard drive after following the howto.

Rather than reformat I left /etc/kboot.conf, /boot, and /lib/modules on the drive and deleted everything else. I'm still using the FC5 kernel.

I just finished bootstrapping feisty and now I'm installing the desktop packages.

[Ciego]

Originally Posted by candell 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 /boot/* /mnt/ubuntu/boot * $ cd /mnt/ubuntu/boot * $ cp vmlinux-2.6.16 ../vmlinux * $ cp initrd.img ../ * $ cd /mnt/ubuntu/lib * $ cp /lib/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.

Can you please tell me what files were copied here other than the kernel and initrd.img. Are they the files from the /target folder in the addon iso? I am attempting to install Ubuntu without installing Fedora first. I know that I will have to convert these files to .deb from .rpm but I am not sure exactly where they need to go. I see the /etc/kboot.conf and the /boot files on the addon disc but there is not a /lib/modules there. I am assuming that they are the files in /target but I am not sure.

[Ciego]

For those interested, I created a thread for sharing PS3 aliases for the Playstation network.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=319528

[cyber pete]

I'm going to attempt this when I pick up a USB keyboard tomorrow. Queston for you..where you able to get the XGL DESKTOP to work on unbuntu on the PS3?

This is my eventual goal is get VLC MEDIA PLAYER and the XGL DESKTOP running on ubuntu on my PS3.

[[Nirvana]]

If I install Ubuntu onto the PS3, I can still use the console right? What is the command?

[gorilla_king]

haha, i wish i had a ps3 now. they're so fast...

[CheddarBot]

Is there a way to instal ubuntu on a jump drive, than boot from that on the console? I kind of want to keep as much space as possible on the ps3, for when it is possible to back up games on the hdd.

[Morbett]

Does anyone have any feedback on how Ubuntu works on a PS3? Are there any major limitations? (i.e. the low memory thing)

This looks too good to be true.

Thanks for your input!