openSUSE 10.3 On PlayStation 3

Posted by Sathya

October 8, 2007

The Sony PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) is based on a 3.2GHz Cell Microprocessor, with 256MByte GDDR-VRAM. The processor is PowerPC compatible. The alliance of (IBM/Sony/Toshiba) who created the Cell processor have been active creating Linux kernel patches for the processor since Linux Kernel 2.6.13. Sony has created kernel patches specific for the PS3 in Linux Kernel 2.6.22, as well as maintaining the GNU toolchain (gcc, binutils etc).

Hardware Requirements

A computer to download and copy files on to media.

Playstation3 with:

USB Keyboard and Mouse

Any of the following recording media:

USB Flash or HD drive
CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVE+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, BD-R, or BD-RE disc
If the PS3 has memory card slots: Memory Stick, SD memory card, or CompactFlash.

Software Requirements

openSUSE 10.3 for PPC

Other OS Boot loader available on installation media aswell

Instructions

Preparing Media

Just download the PPC edition of OpenSuse 10.3 and burn it to a DVD media using your favorite burning tool.

NOTE: PS3 bootloader can now be updated from OpenSuse 10.3 installation media

Technical Note

On your recording media there is the following folder structure, It is a requirement to use single-byte characters only.

PS3
|-otheros

It is possible to download the Boot loader here otheros.bld

Installation

Preparing the PS3

NOTE: Updating your PS3 to the latest firmware is recommended before proceeding

Select Settings -> System Settings -> Format Drive. Create two partitions one for the PS3s normal use and one for openSUSE. Note that you will lose any saved game info.

Insert the media in the PS3

Select Settings -> System Settings -> Install Other OS. The PS3 will display the installers it can find. Click OK to start the installer.

Follow the instructions of the Sony installer.

To boot into the Other OS, select Settings > System Settings > Default System > Other OS. This causes the ‘Other OS Boot loader’ to be loaded on every boot.

To force the PS3 to boot up normally hold down the Power button for about 5 seconds or more at power on. This is in case you do not have a keyboard. with a keyboard you can use ps3-boot-game-os command to reboot to the PS3 game os.

Installing openSUSENOTE: it is not recommended to enable Online Repositories during installation as the PS3 might run out of memory. Please add Online Repositories *after* the installation using YaST.

Installation for OpenSuse 10.3 Final

Insert openSUSE 10.3 installation media in the PS3

Boot Other OS, select Settings > System Settings > Default System > Other OS.

Select the “install” boot option from boot screen and press enter

Graphical installer will start, just follow onscreen instructions

Installation for OpenSuse >= 10.3 Beta 3

Insert openSUSE 10.3 installation media in the PS3

Boot Other OS, select Settings > System Settings > Default System > Other OS.

Select the “install” boot option from boot screen and press enter

You will get a warning saying that the repository is broken, the system propose 1) OK or 2) Back, just ignore and enter 1

Graphical installer start then, just follow onscreen instructions

Installation for OpenSuse 10.3 Beta 2

MD5 checksum of PPC edition is missing on download page Here is mine, burn successfuly, and after an installer media check

$ md5sum.exe openSUSE-10.3-Beta2-DVD-ppc.iso

69f49fca918ad7c72de027617b4cc97d openSUSE-10.3-Beta2-DVD-ppc.iso

Insert openSUSE 10.3 installation media in the PS3

Boot Other OS, select Settings > System Settings > Default System > Other OS.

Select the “install” boot option from boot screen and press enter

You will get a warning saying that the repository is broken, the system propose 1) OK or 2) Back, just ignore and enter 1

Graphical installer start then, just follow onscreen instructions

A media check will occur, it is recommended to run it

Do not skip the network install, the repository cache (remember warning at beginning) will be rebuild

Estimated Time for install

KDE default package 58 min but real 35 min

After reboot, the system hang while trying to unmount a device, just reboot PS3 by pressing power off/power on button, install will continue

You can create root password, user logging etc…

bluetooth is detected, video unrecognized (but working) and sound unsupported

the screen went black in runlevel 5 for at least 4 minute before displaying finally the desktop

Load displayed by command top is quite high (> 2.50), sad that PS3 main memory (256Mb) not bigger is…

Installation for OpenSuse < 10.3 Beta 1

NOTE: openSUSE 10.3 Alpha7 is the first release to have initial support for Playstation 3

Following are some basic steps to have a first glimpse at what you can expect from openSUSE on PS3. Please keep in mind that this is in an early stage.

Insert openSUSE 10.3 installation media in the PS3

boot Other OS, select Settings > System Settings > Default System > Other OS.

select the “install” boot option from boot screen and press enter

select 3) Kernel Modules (Hardware Drivers)

select 1) Load ppc Modules

select 17) ps3rom : PS3 CDROM

go back to Main Menu by just pressing enter

select 4) Start Installation or System

select 1) Start Installation or Update

select 1) CD-ROM

Now you can perform a normal installation with YaST. This may take some time so please be patient, the PS3 only has a very limited amount of RAM.

Known Problems

General issues

The kernel tries to autodetect the best resolution for your screen. In case you end up with a black screen and your monitor is out of sync try pressing ‘c’ and afterwards ‘1′. This will switch the resolution to 720p. However, this will not affect the kernel you are going to boot via kexec. In case you want to manually specify a resolution append the following to the kernel commandline “video=ps3fb:mode:<X>”, where <X> specifies the video mode you want to use. [0 <= X <= 42]

Issues with openSUSE 10.3 Beta 1

CDROM driver is broken, after loading it (select 3) Kernel Modules (Hardware Drivers) select 1) Load ppc Modules select 17) ps3rom : PS3 CDROM) I can choose CD-ROM as source, but it is not working and I am blocked in that menu

Issues with openSUSE 10.3 Alpha7

Restart during installation fails. Manual reboot is required

After the installation is finished the network interface may not be brought up properly

boot-game-os is broken, returning to Sony OS is only possible by holding down the power button for about 5 seconds or more at power on