Installing Linux over PS3 Op/Sys

[ppietro]

thank yiou, your replies have helped a lot.

although i have just found YDL version 6.0 on ebay? Is this any good to buy when compared to YDL 5.1 Free Download?

Also as I'm now seriously considering upgrading the HDD, I understand that I need to go for a 2.5" SATA 5400rpm drive - but any particular make I should purchase or even avoid?

Why not download free YDL 6.1?

http://ydl.oregonstate.edu/iso

The ebay version is a rip-off unless you only have a modem and/or no DVD burner.

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. For most PS3 models, you want the "yellowdog-6.1-ppc-DVD_20081119.iso" download. However, certain PS3 models have issues with that version, so there's also a "yellowdog-6.1-ppc-DVD_20090201_NEW_PS3.iso" that removes the ps3vram driver to allow those affected PS3s to boot. We've posted some threads about that in our forum - a quick search should turn up some useful info.

[Spyhunter]

thanks, ill post the hdd question on the forums as a new post.

thanks all for your comments - helped alot.

[panddeb]

I understand that you can either select from PS3 format disk, 10Gb for Games and the rest for linux, or the other way around.
I have a 320Gb disk. I plan to use linux to store my media, since I need a file server that supports DNLA (as a server), and the ps3 os does not. That's why i want more than 10Gb to my linux partition. But also, I dont want to leave only 10Gb to the PS3, since I'm afraid to get short in the future.
Is there any workaround to assign a custom size partition for linux in the HD?
If not, how much space does the ps3 takes only for loading games?

thanks a lot for your reply!

[ppietro]

Is there any workaround to assign a custom size partition for linux in the HD?

No - there isn't. Sorry, but that's a Sony decision.

If not, how much space does the ps3 takes only for loading games?

It can use quite a bit of space. Many PS3 games pre-load to your hard disc - usually around 5 gigs of space per pre-loading game. Considering that Blu-ray discs can hold 50 gigs of data, they can pre-load quite a bit.

Add a few downloaded PS3 demos, movies, etc. and you can fill your PS3 GameOS partition fairly quickly.

Personally, if I were going to use YDL as a DLNA server, I would use an external drive to hold my media. That way - both the PS3 GameOS and YDL could see the same media files.

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. What software are you planning on using in YDL as a DLNA server?

[ohm]

I have a question about certain details concerning my experiences in installing Linux on PS3. So to install what I did (as I recall) was this:

0. downloaded ydl6.2 and made an iso DVD
1. backed up my game data (had a bunch) on usb attached drive
2. put in a new 2.5 disk (not taking chance with my game data).
3. had to re-install firmware 2.8 before I could do anything
4. let the system format the disk
5. restored the previous system (it reformatted the disk)
6. created the new partition for linux (again reformatted the disk, that deleted my game data)
7. restored the game data again (it wanted to reformat the disk yet again - very worrisome!)
8. picked install other os from xmb, with the iso DVD in the drive
9. picked change default os to other
10. install system boots and installer found ps3sa of 10GB size despite the reformat in (7)
11. I found the install to be much like Fedora and others and no sweat (but I'm not a noob either) .

I have booted up Linux got wireless working in no time - YeeHa. I booted back and forth between Linux and Game OS a few times. It seems like a very reasonable Linux but there were a few things I have some questions on.

In step (5) when creating the 10GB partition, it is (just barely) reasonable the disk be reformatted. But when I installed the game data later, I am supposing that despite the vague warning about reformatting the disk, it only reformatted the presumably smaller game partition or at least remembered the information about the other os partition. I asked the question in an email to Sony but (not surprisingly) they could not give a reasonable answer.

It would be nice to know exactly what went on in steps 5, 6 and 7. In the normal Linux world, you can easily find out what partitions are on a disk and you can be sure that when you make a filesystem (which is what I suspect PS3 "format" really means) you are dealing with a particular partition. In this case there is not that comforting knowledge, only vague messages. It seems to have worked but it took some faith on my part that the restoration of the game data did not clobber the Linux partition. I suppose that the partition will stay around so long as you do not go back to XMB format and reserve all the system for the PS3 OS (you would have to backup first and restore after words). The documentation leaves a lot to be desired but it does work.

I was by the way able to start my disk based games and some of my downloaded game (Like nucleus and MGS4 DataBase) but I was not able to start Fat Princess or Flower. It asked that I go to account management to activate the system which I did do but it would still not let me start the game. I eventually got around that by deactivate the the system first and then activate it again. DRM? UFDA!

[ppietro]

In step (5) when creating the 10GB partition, it is (just barely) reasonable the disk be reformatted. But when I installed the game data later, I am supposing that despite the vague warning about reformatting the disk, it only reformatted the presumably smaller game partition or at least remembered the information about the other os partition. I asked the question in an email to Sony but (not surprisingly) they could not give a reasonable answer.

Here's the way I understand it.

Your PS3 does not format the drive with regular partitions like an PC or Mac. Instead, the entire drive is encrypted.

When you re-partition the drive to have an OtherOS partition, the drive is effectively broken up into two master partitions - a GameOS partition and an OtherOS partition. At this point, anything you restore to GameOS restores to GameOS only - you cannot backup and restore the OtherOS partition from the XMB.

It's been a while since I did this, but if I remember correctly, reformatting (as opposed to repartitioning) the GameOS leaves the OtherOS partition alone.

When you boot to OtherOS, the hypervisor layer accesses the encrypted OtherOS partition, and translates it into something resembling a regular Linux partition table. This same hypervisor layer prevents Linux from seeing any of the GameOS partition. You cannot access any of your GameOS data from Linux, nor can you use any of the Linux utilities to map out the structure of the GameOS partition. You are effectively sandboxed from the GameOS when you run OtherOS.

I suppose that the partition will stay around so long as you do not go back to XMB format and reserve all the system for the PS3 OS (you would have to backup first and restore after words).

Or if you change the partitioning to reserve only 10 Gigs for GameOS. (Remember - there's three Custom partitioning options). Any change to the PS3s partitioning will wipe *all* the partitions.

I was by the way able to start my disk based games and some of my downloaded game (Like nucleus and MGS4 DataBase) but I was not able to start Fat Princess or Flower. It asked that I go to account management to activate the system which I did do but it would still not let me start the game. I eventually got around that by deactivate the the system first and then activate it again. DRM? UFDA!

BTW - did you use the official Sony backup utility to do this? Or just copy files to your attached USB drive? The backup utility I'm talking about is here:

http://manuals.playstation.net/document ... ility.html

It should fully restore your entire system without re-downloading - except for possibly trophy support.

The way it works is - well - remember I was mentioning that the PS3's hard disc is encrypted? It turns out that the encryption key is contained in your PS3's firmware. Using this backup & restore should perform a full system backup keyed to your specific PS3 encryption key.

So - you can't use this to backup your PS3 then migrate to a new machine. However - you should be able to use this to restore an image back to your same PS3 without re-authenticating. Swapping out hard discs should work fine with this backup/restore utility. If that's not the case, that's worth mentioning here.

I will fully admit - I haven't done a backup/restore cycle on my PS3 since I put my 250 gig HDD in about a year or so ago - but it worked as I described. I did not lose any of the games or movies I'd purchased from PSN, nor did I have to do anything special regarding activation. This was quite a while ago, though.

Cheers,
Paul

[ohm]

Incidentally, I am using ushare on an X86 linux box (Fedora Moonshine) as a DLNA media server. It works OK but the PS3 will not reliably connect to the server. Don't know why for certain, but I suspect that there is some issue in the firewall setup since if I turn off the firewall or power cycle the PS3, the PS3 seems to connect fairly reliably. I set up the ports according to Sony documentation and have done a packet trace in the case that PS3 makes a connection to server; it seems that all the necessary ports are available. It works well enough to keep the firewall.

[ppietro]

Incidentally, I am using ushare on an X86 linux box (Fedora Moonshine) as a DLNA media server. It works OK but the PS3 will not reliably connect to the server. Don't know why for certain, but I suspect that there is some issue in the firewall setup since if I turn off the firewall or power cycle the PS3, the PS3 seems to connect fairly reliably. I set up the ports according to Sony documentation and have done a packet trace in the case that PS3 makes a connection to server; it seems that all the necessary ports are available. It works well enough to keep the firewall.

Yeah - it's your firewall. Does the Fedora firewall disable multicasting? If it does, you'll have to find some way around it.

See here:
http://forums.opensuse.org/network-inte ... ewall.html

NOTE: DLNA uses UPnP AV for its magic.

I do have this working on my network pretty flawlessly. My setup is streaming from a Windows XP box using Windows Media Connect (predecessor to WMP 11's built-in DLNA support), via a D-Link wireless router with UPnP enabled. I don't have to do any setup with this - the PS3 (and my Xbox 360) pick up the WMC DLNA broadcasts automagically.

Cheers,
Paul

[ohm]

It's been a while since I did this, but if I remember correctly, reformatting (as opposed to repartitioning) the GameOS leaves the OtherOS partition alone.

When you boot to OtherOS, the hypervisor layer accesses the encrypted OtherOS partition, and translates it into something resembling a regular Linux partition table. This same hypervisor layer prevents Linux from seeing any of the GameOS partition. You cannot access any of your GameOS data from Linux, nor can you use any of the Linux utilities to map out the structure of the GameOS partition. You are effectively sandboxed from the GameOS when you run OtherOS.

OK, I guessed fairly well then. I was a bit worried that when I rebooted to Game OS that I would have found the disk trashed. But if the actual reads and writes to the disk are through the hypervisor then it SHOULD prevent each OS from clobbering the other. I wish Sony would document this behavior.

BTW - did you use the official Sony backup utility to do this? Or just copy files to your attached USB drive?

It should fully restore your entire system without re-downloading - except for possibly trophy support.

I backed up and restored using the XMB utility and on the same system but I used a different disk (A 7200RPM WD Black something or another). I did have to reload my trophies (such as they are).

If that's not the case, that's worth mentioning here.

It worked except for the registration glitch. One other aspect is that when I put in the new disk, the firmware refused to do anything but moan about my needing the 2.80 firmware file I now have a copy of that on a DVD since I fear that when 3.00 comes out that 2.80 will vanish. IMHO the XMB changes in 3.00 are utterly frivolous.

On other thing is that in 6.2 linux, I could not do the software update (using PUP). It complained about libdhcp6client-0.10.so.0 being a prerequisite. I got around this by deselecting the dhcpv6 update entry. Then the update then went OK, the system would reboot. A little later, I tried installing just dhcpv6 package. It installed OK (or so pup claimed) but when the system rebooted, the libdhcp6client library link was biffed and when dhclient ran, the boot failed. Oh yippee.

I just re-installed rather than try to fix the links (hey, where is the frapping rescue option for this distro?). I really do think that there is something wrong with the dhcpv6 package, there is a similar issue mentioned in viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6490&start=45#p32887 as well. I am not upgrading from 6.1 just installing 6.2 and running pup, so I doubt it is my bad (I've said that before though).

[ppietro]

One other aspect is that when I put in the new disk, the firmware refused to do anything but moan about my needing the 2.80 firmware file I now have a copy of that on a DVD since I fear that when 3.00 comes out that 2.80 will vanish.

Unfortunately, Sony will basically force you to upgrade to 3.0 - it won't allow you on PSN or to use any of their Network services without it. And - once the firmware is flashed to 3.00, it will no longer use the 2.80 firmware file. Just like the PSP, you can't downgrade PS3 firmware.

So - yes - 2.80 is history at this point, I'm afraid.

One other thought. I think I might know why it asked you to re-install the firmware when you installed the new drive. It's our understanding that the PS3 maintains a safety copy of the installed firmware in hidden sectors on the hard disc. By putting a new drive in your PS3, it may have needed to write this out to the hard disc, hence requiring a copy of the 2.80 installer.

Cheers,
Paul

[ohm]

Unfortunately, Sony will basically force you to upgrade to 3.0 - it won't allow you on PSN or to use any of their Network services without it.

Are you sure? I believe I have used down level firmware when visiting PSN.

One other thought. I think I might know why it asked you to re-install the firmware when you installed the new drive. It's our understanding that the PS3 maintains a safety copy of the installed firmware in hidden sectors on the hard disc. By putting a new drive in your PS3, it may have needed to write this out to the hard disc, hence requiring a copy of the 2.80 installer.

That is quite plausible though none of the common descriptions of the replacement procedure mention the need for a firmware object. So I was a bit concerned when it was asked for. Good thing that there is google

All of this would be much easier if the disk was not encrypted. I hate closed systems. Fortunately closed systems eventually topple under their own weight.

[ppietro]

Unfortunately, Sony will basically force you to upgrade to 3.0 - it won't allow you on PSN or to use any of their Network services without it.

Are you sure? I believe I have used down level firmware when visiting PSN.

Ahhh yeah - okay - you're right - I think you can still use the store. I meant the PSN service part. I don't think it will allow you to "Sign In" once they've pushed the update. That means no friends list, no messages, no trophies, etc. (Not quite sure about the trophies - guessing on that one. )

Programs that use Sony's DNAS system won't authenticate either, I believe.

Cheers,
Paul