PS2 Several questions about Linux and HDD

donmor3000

donmor3000

Forum Noob
Hello there! Currently I have an APA-parted disk and have HDDOSD (Browser 2.0) and OPL installed. Now I'm looking for woalthroughs for installing linux on a PS2 and have some questions:
  1. According to kernelloader's readme, The HDD should be formatted with mbr partition table, but it is also said in thread "linux-for-playstation-2-need-help-to-properly-organize-hdd-from-community.32515" that linux can run on an APA-parted disk. Does it require a module, or a customized initrd? I think the fstab needs modifications too.
  2. Is there any way to boot kernel and initrd on the HDD? If so, what tool should I use and where should the kernel and initrd go?
  3. Having HDDOSD installed from HDDUD110 boot disk, is it possible to add FHDB to the system and get HDDOSD integrated with it? Do I need to reinstall the whole stack of homebrews to do that? I can already boot uLE from HDDOSD though.
  4. Does anyone have both PSBBN and HDDOSD on one machine? How is it look like?
  5. I'd like to backup the whole disk to an image and restore from it if anything goes wrong. Can linux dd handle this? If not, what else should I use?
 
Some addition:
If we can use GPT with these old kernels, then we can use @Brieon's APA Jail mechanism, with some modifications:
  1. GPT at the end of the drive. Said to not supported by windows, but we are installing linux...
  2. __jail protected ext2. Used as root filesystem of linux, with swapfile inside (I'm not sure if we can boot without swap partition.
 
donmor3000 said:
  1. Does anyone have both PSBBN and HDDOSD on one machine? How is it look like?
Click to expand...

There's disk images floating around the interweb (try my site) that have both installed.
I've been told that these images can corrupt, but I've never had any problems with them.
 
Ad1. AFAIK only official Linux Kit offering APA support. All homebrew works on MBR unfortunately.

Ad2. No. Official Linux using "bootloader" from MC, homebrew a Kernel Loader which supporting only MC and USB.

Ad3. FHDB can emerge HDD OSD. See "APA Partitionology" tutorial for details. Looks the same as original, except main browser menu of course is modified by FMCB/FHDB.

Ad4/5. In official way it is not possible because each: FHDB, HDD OSD and PSBBN using their own bootstrap written in __mbr. In not official way, You can boot to FHDB, he can adopting HDD OSD, and PSBBN You can run from loader written to FHDB menu or as bootable partition run from HDD view.

Ad6. Yes. dd making sector by sector copy and that's enough You need to make such copy and restore it.
 
donmor3000 said:
Some addition:
If we can use GPT with these old kernels, then we can use @Brieon's APA Jail mechanism, with some modifications:
  1. GPT at the end of the drive. Said to not supported by windows, but we are installing linux...
  2. __jail protected ext2. Used as root filesystem of linux, with swapfile inside (I'm not sure if we can boot without swap partition.
Click to expand...

Actually it is Windows which will see GPT from end, but Linux userland doesn't. Anyway, it is kernel 2.2 up to 2.6, they didn't have GPT support if I'm not mistaken. In assumption that they can and can be used GPT copy, You still needs a lot of gymnastics in command line to not kill APA logic (or hex editing; because Linux filesystems doesn't use fixed LBA addresses in fs tables but relative, those partitions can be freely moved without impact to its contents). So You could still follow by APA Jail idea but with MBR instead to GPT.

Swap must be a partition, not a file in so old environments.
 
[QUOTE="Berion, post: 357868, member: 1431"
Ad6. Yes. dd making sector by sector copy and that's enough You need to make such copy and restore it.[/QUOTE]
Okay I'll try something safer instead and, what will happen if I dd an old SSD (OEM Micron MLC, I guess)? Will APA being treated as junk to be trimmed by linux?
 
Trim works on filesystem level and only if such parrams are set in fstab. So on PS2 HDD can be used only on EXT2 and RFS partitions (only Linux and PSBBN using them), all other (raw, ISO9660/UDF and PFS) are unknown. However mounting cannot be done just like that because Linux will not understand APA (for this You need apascan or PFSFuse).

It is not related to sector by sector image making by any way until You invoke trim and before he finishing, you started making/restoring such copy. Read fstab documentation and Your distro documentation when it is set/perform for SSD.
 
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