PS3 What linux distro to use and how to select specific amount of space dedicated

Samilop "Cimmerian" Iter

Samilop "Cimmerian" Iter

Member
Hello, I have used the tutorial posted in this website to install linux on the PS3, using red ribbon but OH GOD ITS SLOW.

I understand that 256MB of ram doesn't make it easy for the PS3 linux environment and i shouldn't hope to use it as a modern pc but cmon even the system settings lag...... Trying to setup a network device take an excessive amount of time for something simple and straighforward.

So what is the best distro to use on PS3 ? One that stock works fine (so no big lag)

My aim is to install the CELL SDK and mess around with the SPU

Also how to chose myself the space dedicated for linux? The guide automatically size it to 20GB but let's say for a 1TB hard drive I want 100 GB for the Other os. How would I do that

Thanks

(PS3 is slim)
 
So truly none are what I would call acceptable. Had the best results with Ubuntu. And if you want more space you gotta patch the firmware yourself. The reson they make them that size is the space is no longer useable under GameOS. Honestly the best it ever worked was before Sony removed the option. There is a 3.15 CFW and while still dated does retain the original OtherOS
 
atreyu187 said:
So truly none are what I would call acceptable. Had the best results with Ubuntu. And if you want more space you gotta patch the firmware yourself. The reson they make them that size is the space is no longer useable under GameOS. Honestly the best it ever worked was before Sony removed the option. There is a 3.15 CFW and while still dated does retain the original OtherOS
Click to expand...
thanks for the answer.

Honestly that disapoint me a lot, hearing tons of "wow PS3 other os is soo powerful that it was used for army" just to have a this kind of system speed.....
I'll give a try to ubuntu and fedora 12 (although on slim it will be more painful to set up), but if this continues i guess it will be terminal only for me.

As for patching the firmware is there any guide specifically about what to change to modify the other os partition?

And when you say it worked best on 3.15, what do you mean specifically? Just the ease of use or there is also performance changes on the os itself?
 
Samilop "Cimmerian" Iter said:
I understand that 256MB of ram doesn't make it easy for the PS3 linux environment and i shouldn't hope to use it as a modern pc but cmon even the system settings lag...... Trying to setup a network device take an excessive amount of time for something simple and straighforward.
Click to expand...
I don't mean to crush your dreams, but any distro will be too slow for comfortable use. Like you said, 256 MB of RAM is very low amount for any modern desktop environment, let alone for any kind of advanced IDE.

Perhaps you could stick to terminal only, but is it even worth it at that point?
Samilop "Cimmerian" Iter said:
My aim is to install the CELL SDK and mess around with the SPU
Click to expand...
If all you want to do is to experiment with PowerPC / GPU / SPU, you can both write and compile the code on your PC. Nowadays, we are lucky to have both official and unofficial SDKs, with full access to the hardware in GameOS. Honestly, I'm not even sure if there are any benefits for using OtherOS at this point.
Samilop "Cimmerian" Iter said:
Also how to chose myself the space dedicated for linux? The guide automatically size it to 20GB but let's say for a 1TB hard drive I want 100 GB for the Other os. How would I do that
Click to expand...
This is done by modifying emer_init.self, where you can specify HDD partition sizes during firmware install. There are apps like PS3MFW Builder that help you modify the PUP file. Alternatively, you could browse the forums for PUP files with emer_init.self patches already in place.

The latter option is better if you are worried about bricking the PS3 with improperly patched firmware files.
 
kostirez1 said:
I don't mean to crush your dreams, but any distro will be too slow for comfortable use. Like you said, 256 MB of RAM is very low amount for any modern desktop environment, let alone for any kind of advanced IDE.

Perhaps you could stick to terminal only, but is it even worth it at that point?
Click to expand...

Indeed i'm asking this question myself

If all you want to do is to experiment with PowerPC / GPU / SPU, you can both write and compile the code on your PC. Nowadays, we are lucky to have both official and unofficial SDKs, with full access to the hardware in GameOS. Honestly, I'm not even sure if there are any benefits for using OtherOS at this point.
Click to expand...

It's more of just wanting to experience other os which is what I was motivated for. Also Modern Citizen on youtube and his work done on other os is what made me jump on the ship.


This is done by modifying emer_init.self, where you can specify HDD partition sizes during firmware install. There are apps like PS3MFW Builder that help you modify the PUP file. Alternatively, you could browse the forums for PUP files with emer_init.self patches already in place.

The latter option is better if you are worried about bricking the PS3 with improperly patched firmware files.
Click to expand...

Yeah I guess so, I'll search for some and hopefully not find dead links. Thanks for your answer
 
All are slow. No RSX access, one SPU access only (I'm not sure about that), 256MiB RAM.

Official OOS (up to and include OFW 3.15) sets 10% of total capacity left from user partition, cache partition and vflash partition for OOS partition. OOS+ (hacked, since 3.21 Sony killed it officially) size is set by authors of hacks.
 
Samilop "Cimmerian" Iter said:
Honestly that disapoint me a lot, hearing tons of "wow PS3 other os is soo powerful that it was used for army" just to have a this kind of system speed.....
Click to expand...
Well, you also have to take into consideration when and how it was used by the US army. 2006 - 2010 used to be times when the hardware was too powerful for its price. They definitely could have bought POWER systems directly from IBM, but that would be much more expensive than the heavily subsidized price from S*ny. (they expected you to buy additional games)

Compute clusters are also not wasting CPU/GPU power on UI rendering, they only used it to pool PowerPC / SPU cores together. It's not like if they had thousands of monitors and keyboards hooked into the cluster. :biggrin2:

Edit: I can't tell for sure, but I highly doubt they had the official SDK by S*ny at that point. If they did, there was no point in using OtherOS, imo.
Samilop "Cimmerian" Iter said:
It's more of just wanting to experience other os which is what I was motivated for. Also Modern Citizen on youtube and his work done on other os is what made me jump on the ship.
Click to expand...
Cool. I've tried T2_SDE by René Rebe (main channel, secondary channel) 2 or so years ago. T2 works somewhat like Gentoo in the sense that you have to compile everything yourself. It took 10 hours to compile just the basic linux administration tools. Then I've tried to set up cross compilation toolchain on my x86 machine and... distcc never worked. My journey was more or less over by that point. Perhaps if it had precompiled packages (deb, rpm) like most distros do, it would have been more useable on the PS3. :glee:

But hey, at least it's still maintained, and René is a cool guy. :encouragement:
 
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kostirez1 said:
Well, you also have to take into consideration when and how it was used by the US army. 2006 - 2010 used to be times when the hardware was too powerful for its price. They definitely could have bought POWER systems directly from IBM, but that would be much more expensive than the heavily subsidized price from S*ny. (they expected you to buy additional games)

Compute clusters are also not wasting CPU/GPU power on UI rendering, they only used it to pool PowerPC / SPU cores together. It's not like if they had thousands of monitors and keyboards hooked into the cluster. :biggrin2:
Click to expand...

Yeah you're right, it's not like they directly interacted with it.

Cool. I've tried T2_SDE by René Rebe (main channel, secondary channel) 2 or so years ago. T2 works somewhat like Gentoo in the sense that you have to compile everything yourself. It took 10 hours to compile just the basic linux administration tools. Then I've tried to set up cross compilation toolchain on my x86 machine and... distcc never worked. My journey was more or less over by that point. Perhaps if it had precompiled packages (deb, rpm) like most distros do, it would have been more useable on the PS3. :glee:

But hey, at least it's still maintained, and René is a cool guy. :encouragement:
Click to expand...

I saw his work about the RSX implementation, T2 seems great (this is the iso for PS3 right ?) but unfortunately I'm not (yet) on the level where I can survive off a gentoo like distro. So here I am ^^


Moving forward I'll settle for a 1/8 HDD other os 3.55 PUP, then try to get fedora 12 working on the slim PS3.

https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/OtherOS++#3.55_.28Custom_CFW.29
Curse my luck the fedora12 faster way with everything setup is not possible due to dead iso link, so I'll have to do it the "fun" way.

Thanks all for the information
 
it is possible to use 6 spu with linux or 7 spu if you use kernel with necessary patch like red ribbon 7. Maybe rr kernels after rr7 also have the patch. There is some question as to whether it is possible to use all 8. Certainly not possible on console with only 7 spe marked as available in the spe available register. It only takes one spu to do much research; of course, more to study spu communication.
a little more info here:
https://www.psx-place.com/posts/308923/
and
https://www.psx-place.com/posts/311088/

I wonder what you guys are using linux for that you have slow response. I never had any problem with rr5 or rr7. In fact, I was surprised how responsive rr7 is from usb stick. Oh, I forgot it is very slow compiling kernel so suggest cross compile instead. Also, I never have it connected to network or internet. I am sure it would be too slow for browsing.
 
Samilop "Cimmerian" Iter said:
I'll ask him thanks
Click to expand...
I asked him a couple of days ago here:
Evilnat said:
Currently my CFW reserve 22GB in GameOS HDD region for OtherOS (patched in emer_init.self). Do you mean to create the partition to install OtherOS on the internal HDD? You need to go to Recovery Menu and select [Restore PS3 System], this will create the partition. I don't know any other method other than this
Click to expand...
 
bucanero said:
I suggest you to check http://ps3linux.net/

They're hosting the site on an actual PS3 running linux, and you'll find instructions and ISOs for different linux distros (fedora, yellow dog, t2)
Click to expand...

Yes thank you but unfortunately that doesn't really solve my main issue here. Modern Citizen has a fat ps3 downgraded to 3.15 to have official other os support.

My slim ps3 isn't supported out of the box by fedora (i need to make it recognize the hard drive naming that changed from fat to slim) and I am still limited by either throwing 22GB to other os or 500GB (too less vs way too much)

It would be nice if i could swap hard drives, like having my 1TB for games, and a 160GB hard drive for Linux but if i install petit boot on the 160GB hard drive the PS3 refuse to boot with the 1TB hard drive
 
atreyu187 said:
So truly none are what I would call acceptable. Had the best results with Ubuntu. And if you want more space you gotta patch the firmware yourself. The reson they make them that size is the space is no longer useable under GameOS. Honestly the best it ever worked was before Sony removed the option. There is a 3.15 CFW and while still dated does retain the original OtherOS
Click to expand...

3.15 CFW? can i check it out?
 
IDare said:
3.15 CFW? can i check it out?
Click to expand...

If you can find it. I haven't used it in a very very long time. 3.55 was the latest firmware when it came out. It didn't have Cobra or anything like that. Just a very basic one like Kmeaw & WutangRZA at the time. Uses the older 3.55 keys as well so your games and homebrew would need to be signed again to work.

You can use MFW builder to make your own CFW with updated features but seems like a lot of work. Would be easier to just install 3.15 OFW to try out the official Linux as you can install CFW right over any firmware 3.55 or below.

Now all that being said the only thing I find better with the official OtherOS is ease of launch. As far as I recall modern-ish builds of Linux do not work.
 
Would be cool if whatever it is in FW 3.15 OtherOS that allow certain linux builds be integrated into current CFW. I ain't no developer so ain't got a clue how it works.
 
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