Howto: PS3 Video (YDL 6)

[FrostEternal]

You typed init 3 and it gave you that message?

Nevermind - I figured it out.

You typed

init 3 -

You need to type

init 3

I use dashes in my sentences a lot - it helps me organize my thoughts. I did boldface just the init 3, but it probably wasn't clear enough. Sorry about that.

Cheers,
Paul

That is what I did. I figured out, too, that you later meant without the hyphen.

I tried just typing "init 3" (no quotation marks, obviously).. and that doesn't do anything.. it outputs the following:

bash: init: command not found

>_>

Also, every time I log out/reboot/shutdown, it tells me "<so and so> will not close, log off/reboot/shutdown anyways, closing it?"
and it lets me choose to wait (which will go on forever), or just shut down.. the problem is it seems to erase any settings I adjusted in the process. >_>

[ppietro]

I tried just typing "init 3" (no quotation marks, obviously).. and that doesn't do anything.. it outputs the following:

bash: init: command not found

>_>

The init command is root user only. In this case, you'd want to log in as root. (I did mention that in my previous post. )

If you're already logged in as a normal user, you can switch to root with the su command. To do this, open up a terminal window, and type these commands:

su -l

init 3

That's a "dash L", not a "dash one" after su.

Cheers,
Paul

[FrostEternal]

The init command is root user only. In this case, you'd want to log in as root. (I did mention that in my previous post. )

Okay, lol. I believe you.

I went back to root, tried "init 3," and it worked! I'm in text mode.

I'll tell you where I go from here. =P

--

Okay, I'm there and I'm testing resolutions. They actually work! It's letting me switch resolutions and not causing the screen to go to a single white bar fritz with any resolution outside of 480i! Success, so far.

[FrostEternal]

I've gotten 720p working, and I think it's what I'm going to use. Now I need to edit the file, right?

I hit a speed bump.

"Look for this section next to append =, and use the arrow keys to move to it in the editor:

video=ps3fb:mode:3 rhgb"

I can't find that. I got the file opened, but there is nothing like that next to append. o_o

[FrostEternal]

Don't give up on me now. I'm so close. xP

The "Append" part of the file says this for me, by the way:

append="rhgb quiet root=LABEL=/"

[ppietro]

I've gotten 720p working, and I think it's what I'm going to use. Now I need to edit the file, right?

I hit a speed bump.

"Look for this section next to append =, and use the arrow keys to move to it in the editor:

video=ps3fb:mode:3 rhgb"

I can't find that. I got the file opened, but there is nothing like that next to append. o_o

Yeah - I think I know what's going on here. When you perform a 480i install, I don't think it creates that section in /etc/yaboot.conf. I think you have to add it manually. It should look something like this:

Code: Select all

image=/vmlinux-2.6.23-9.ydl6.1
        label=linux
        read-only
        initrd=/initrd-2.6.23-9.ydl6.1.img
        append="video=ps3fb:mode:4 rhgb quiet root=LABEL=/1"

HOWEVER - this is from my computer, so it won't match exactly. Specifically the root= section might be different. DO NOT CHANGE YOURS TO MATCH MINE - BAD THINGS COULD HAPPEN.

Instead, just follow the procedure about editing just the mode parameter.

Cheers,
Paul

[FrostEternal]

HOWEVER - this is from my computer, so it won't match exactly. Specifically the root= section might be different. DO NOT CHANGE YOURS TO MATCH MINE - BAD THINGS COULD HAPPEN.

Instead, just follow the procedure about editing just the mode parameter.

Cheers,
Paul

Okay, so I leave the "root" part the same? What parts should I change?

[ppietro]

Don't give up on me now. I'm so close. xP

The "Append" part of the file says this for me, by the way:

append="rhgb quiet root=LABEL=/"

Ah - good - thanks.

So - you'd want to edit it to look like this:

append="video=ps3fb:mode:3 rhgb quiet root=LABEL=/"

Except that you'd put the mode you want in there - the example I gave is for 720p.

As long as we're here - you might want to try a fullscreen verson of the mode. You get that by adding 128 to the mode number. So - if you wanted 720 p - which is 3 - a fullscreen version would be 131.

Cheers,
Paul

[ppietro]

Okay, so I leave the "root" part the same? What parts should I change?

No worries - see my other post.

Cheers,
Paul

[FrostEternal]

Okay, I edited the file.. it's rebooting now . . .

. . .

. .

Let's see what happens

. .


Hmm.. it's back to 480p? I wonder what I did wron--wait. It's 720p now.. Yes! Success! It's beautiful.

Thank you so much for all your help, and your many posts, sir. You have been a great assistance to me.

[FrostEternal]

But... it seems I have a new problem.. =P

When I logged into the graphic gui, I noticed all the icons are in the bottom middle. The screen is 720p, and the menubar is at the top..

Upon closer inspection, I noticed there is a lighter than the rest of the bg square at the bottom right of the screen--I can't move the icons outside of this square. Weeeird.

Not really a big deal, though.. I can still have windows that fill the whole screen.
But if you had quick answers to any of the following, that would be awesome:

- Do you know why every time I log off/reboot/shutdown, it resets the settings on my PS3 WiFi and makes me have to re-input them again the next time I log in?
- Do you know how to install a recent version of Flash in Firefox?

[ppietro]

But... it seems I have a new problem.. =P

When I logged into the graphic gui, I noticed all the icons are in the bottom middle. The screen is 720p, and the menubar is at the top..

Upon closer inspection, I noticed there is a lighter than the rest of the bg square at the bottom right of the screen--I can't move the icons outside of this square. Weeeird.

Not really a big deal, though.. I can still have windows that fill the whole screen.
But if you had quick answers to any of the following, that would be awesome:

So - let me clarify some things here - cause this desktop is unique to YDL.

Linux is basically a text-based OS - it uses a program called X Windows for its GUI. X Windows is kinda odd, though, because all it knows how to do is draw windows. Everything else - scroll bars, close buttons, move bars, etc. - has to be provided by a separate program. We call these programs "window managers".

This was fine for early days of Linux - but eventually people wanted more. File manager, desktop icons, etc. So - a new class of program was developed - the desktop manager.

Normally, Linuxes use GNOME or KDE for their desktop managers. However, YDL uses Enlightenment - sometimes called E17 - which is only a window manager. To get the desktop icons, YDL loads a separate program called Nautilus - it's actually the file manager from Gnome.

Nautilus and E17 both have their own desktops. That's what you're seeing. What you need to do is align them. Luckily - it's easy. From the YDL "button", select Windows --> Clean up windows. I think that will fix the alignment.

- Do you know why every time I log off/reboot/shutdown, it resets the settings on my PS3 WiFi and makes me have to re-input them again the next time I log in?

Normally I would say it's a file permissions error. But - since you have to become root user to edit networking settings - that should take care of it. Root user can overwrite any files. I'm not sure why this isn't working for you. You might try logging in with the root account to see if that can make the settings stick.

- Do you know how to install a recent version of Flash in Firefox?

Ah - the eternal question. I get this a lot.

Here's the deal. You can't.

Adobe customizes Flash for operating system and processor architecture. As of this posting, they have not released a version for Power PC Linux. Your PS3 runs Linux on a PowerPC core in the Cell processor. PowerPC code is not x86 processor compatible. And, although there are Linux versions, they're all x86.

You might wonder if you can use the Mac OS X PowerPC version of Flash. This would make sense, since Mac OS X is Unix based. Unfortunately, Mac OS X uses a different binary format - Mach-O - instead of the Linux standard ELF format. So - that won't work either.

So - no Adobe Flash. We have to rely on open source, reversed engineered Flash work-alikes - gnash or swfdec. They work....okay. Not great.

Gnash - and the Firefox plugin gnash-plugin - should already be installed on your system. Unfortunately, they don't work with YouTube very well. Some folks on this board have work arounds for this - you'll want to look here:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4439


Cheers,
Paul

[FrostEternal]

- The desktop issue.
I just placed a graphic bg on my desktop to see what that would do. The hardly-visible square where the icons are stuck in is a solid blue space. It's over the wallpaper and I can't really do anything with it. I don't know if this helps. It's not a big deal--just ugly. =P

- About Flash
That's cool. I still love using FireFox on my nice HDTV. Facebook chat works great.

- The logout/shutdown/reboot glitch
I just tried again. It tells me that some programs refuse to close and gives me three options:
[ Logout anyway ] [ Wait Longer ] [ Cancel Logout ]

This happens to me every time I log out, without fail. This does not happen when I'm in Gnome. I think this is the reason my PS3 WiFi settings reset, among other things like Gimp uninstalling, but I don't know.

[ppietro]

- The desktop issue.
I just placed a graphic bg on my desktop to see what that would do. The hardly-visible square where the icons are stuck in is a solid blue space. It's over the wallpaper and I can't really do anything with it. I don't know if this helps. It's not a big deal--just ugly. =P

I know it's ugly. Did you try the Cleanup Windows trick I posted earlier? That should fix that.

- The logout/shutdown/reboot glitch
I just tried again. It tells me that some programs refuse to close and gives me three options:
[ Logout anyway ] [ Wait Longer ] [ Cancel Logout ]

Yes - that's a bug in E17 because it can't shut down Nautilus. (See my previous post about why Nautilus is loaded in E17) It happpens to everyone who runs E17 in YDL. That's not the cause of your issues. And - you're correct - it doesn't happen in Gnome.

I think this is the reason my PS3 WiFi settings reset, among other things like Gimp uninstalling, but I don't know.

Nope - that's not the reason. I'm not sure why the reason is.

I still wouldn't mind a link to that YouTube video that showed you how to install. Sounds like they might have messed up a step.

Cheers,
Paul

[FrostEternal]

I still wouldn't mind a link to that YouTube video that showed you how to install. Sounds like they might have messed up a step.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Here are the videos:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dytwecqIokg
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL0FG-KBaDg

I know it's ugly. Did you try the Cleanup Windows trick I posted earlier? That should fix that.

Okay. I'm going to try that and see what it does.

Yes - that's a bug in E17 because it can't shut down Nautilus. (See my previous post about why Nautilus is loaded in E17) It happpens to everyone who runs E17 in YDL. That's not the cause of your issues. And - you're correct - it doesn't happen in Gnome.

Should I only use Gnome then? How do most PS3 owners use Linux--in E17/Nautilus or Gnome? Is there a way to manually close Nautilus?

Thanks again for all your help, by the way.