HOWTO: PlayStation 3 - Installing Ubuntu on the PS3

[allaryin]

Is there a way to install 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.

The partition utility in the ps3 console only seems to have options for the following:
- all ps3
- 10gb ps3, remainder unix
- 10gb unix, remainder ps3

So... 50gb should probably suffice you even if you can't use usb

I'll play with USB hd on it later tonight...

[TmP]

Can you please do some performance tests? I was wondering how the CELL would be useful for video encoding? I bet it is not yet supported well but it would be amaizing to harness all that power to something usefull.

I heard that Sony wasn't willing to give Yellowdog access to the accelerated graphics capability of the PS3. So I guess XGL is out of the question at the moment. Maby in the future?

What i would love to seen in the future is a ISO of Ubuntu to install on Linux, that would start up with a beautiful Beryl animation...

[TmP]

Ehem....

Your second screenshot?
Last line?

"* Restarting OpenBSD Secure Shell server..." ?

I didn't know XUbuntu wasn't a Debian...

And my... your gear is impressive!

[the Goat]

I'm trying to follow these directions and a have a questions.

How do I run GNU Parted on the PS3? I need to resize the sda1 partition to make room for
ubuntu.

Also, I couldn't install cfdisk. I greped the packages yum listed and couldn't cfdisk anywhere. I'm not too concerned. i've used fdisk before.

[inee]

hi,

its been maybe ten years since i've gone on a red hat terminal, so treat me as a noob.

im trying to install ubuntu onto the ps3. i got fedora and yellow dog running; but my ultimate goal is to get ubuntu and darwin on the machine. im running into several roadblocks and hope the more experienced members here can lead the way.

a guide for ubuntu on ps3 was written here:

http://louiscandell.com/ps3/

but it goes through several steps and requirements that i think we can skip. it requires that you install ubuntu on a usb hdd where you can partition it, PLUS, it also requires fedora as a base install, then cross-installing onto debian and then upgrading to ubuntu.

i want a simpler way where i can install ubuntu from kboot prompt with a dvd-rom installer ready.

keep in mind there are a few things that make the ps3 installation different:

1. the ps3 boots into kboot only. cannot boot from hdd and cannot boot from cdrom or usbdrive.

2. only 1 partition available: /dev/sda (i imagine parted can fix this)

3. ppc architecture



okay, some issues i want cleared.

1. can i modify kboot to load the cdrom such that i can install from the cdrom? if this is possible then i can just plug in the installer cd (whether ubuntu, osx, or darwin) and let it run its course.

2. can i do without partitioning the hdd? id imagine just making a /ubuntu folder and installing everything there. the guide above requires partitioning of the hdd which the ps3 does not allow by default (although yellow dog's druid was able to do it).

3. can kboot boot ubuntu instead of yaboot? in that case, can kboot boot darwin/osx too (darwin/osx requires bootx)?

4. i get this error:

w: failure trying to run: chroot /mnt/ubuntu mount -t proc proc /proc

after typing this:

/usr/sbin/debootstrap --arch powerpc edgy /mnt/ubuntu http://archive.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu

specifically after "i: validating libatu1" step. what does that mean and how do i fix it?


this error happens after i chose "minimal fedora install". i dont get it when i choose the full install (2.5hrs wait); but the guide above states to use the minimal install.



all the help is greatly appreciated. hope i can get ubuntu running NATIVELY on the ps3 without an external usb hdd.

[Ciego]

1. can i modify kboot to load the cdrom such that i can install from the cdrom? if this is possible then i can just plug in the installer cd (whether ubuntu, osx, or darwin) and let it run its course.

You can modify the kboot.conf file to your liking. This file tells kboot what to execute after it boots up. I believe it is located at /etc/kboot.conf

2. can i do without partitioning the hdd? id imagine just making a /ubuntu folder and installing everything there. the guide above requires partitioning of the hdd which the ps3 does not allow by default (although yellow dog's druid was able to do it).

You can partition the hard drive for linux from the PS3 XMB (either 10GB for linux or 10GB for PS3 ... you have to choose) but once you are at the kboot prompt, you can format the linux partition however you would like using fdisk. If you have the 60GB PS3 and you choose 10 GB for the PS3 partition, that will leave you with 50GB for the linux partition that you can manage with fdisk from the kboot prompt.

3. can kboot boot ubuntu instead of yaboot? in that case, can kboot boot darwin/osx too (darwin/osx requires bootx)?

Again, as far as I know, you can modify kboot to our liking to boot up whatever you want.

[seuaniu]

Ehem....

Your second screenshot?
Last line?

"* Restarting OpenBSD Secure Shell server..." ?

I didn't know XUbuntu wasn't a Debian...

And my... your gear is impressive!

The fine folks over at openbsd started the openssh project many many moons ago. Every linux distro that uses openssh is using a port from bsd. The "starting openbsd ssh server" line is just part of the script that lets you know whats going on. If you wanted, you could do a

 sudo vi /etc/init.d/ssh

and edit that to say whatever you want, ie "Starting Microsoft ssh server", if you get a kick out of reading boot messages

[theBishop]

Just a heads up, I didn't feel like downloading/installing Fedora to do all this.

So I downloaded the Gentoo LiveCD (brilliant piece of work BTW) from here:
http://gentoo.mirrors.pair.com/exper...ppc64-beta.iso

(any mirror will have it in experiemental/ppc64/livecd)

Press tab at the kboot prompt to choose the resolution compatible with your TV and press enter.

The live CD will load up to a Gnome desktop. I opened up a terminal and typed "sudo -s" to get root access. Then, i wandered over to /etc/init.d and typed "./xdm stop" to kill X dead.

then I wget'd the bootstrap file from the OPs server to the /tmp folder.

NOW HERE's THE TRICKY PART (its not too bad):

because the liveCD is a read-only file system, you can't unpack data.tar.gz to /. You have to unpack it to /tmp. I did this with "tar zxvf data.tar.gz". This created the usr folder whose contents would usually be in /usr/.

so then i tried to ./ debootstrap from the /tmp/usr/sbin folder. But it didn't like that because it was looking for a "functions" file in "/usr/lib/debootstrap", big mistake pal!

No big deal, just fire up VIM (or whatever), and change line11 from:
DEBOOTSTRAP_DIR=/usr/lib/debootstrap

to

DEBOOTSTRAP_DIR=/tmp/usr/lib/debootstrap

then run the debootstrap command from /tmp/usr/sbin instead of /usr/sbin, it'll run for a while, and follow the rest of candell's guide.

[Ciego]

then run the debootstrap command from /tmp/usr/sbin instead of /usr/sbin, it'll run for a while, and follow the rest of candell's guide.

What is the command that you run at this point. I am getting an error "bash: debootstrap: command not found"

RESOLVED:

I guess the command is

$ /tmp/usr/sbin/debootstrap --arch powerpc edgy /mnt/ubuntu http://archive.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu

I just typed that and off it went

BTW: Great find theBishop. I have been looking for a way to install Ubuntu without installing anything else first ... and yes, that live CD is a masterpiece.

[Andaconda]

When I am at the kboot promt and I type in "install-fc sda" I get the error "eval: 1: install-fc: not found" I have done everything else on the instructions. I am a complete Linux noob and I know nothing about linux. If someone could help me that would be great.