Linux On The Playstation 3

The PlayStation 3 is capable of running Linux as well as other operating systems if installed on the console’s hard drive. Because it’s so powerful yet so cheap with Linux installed, it’s actually become somewhat of a favored research tool in academia. Many distributions are compatible with the console, including Yellow Dog Linux, Debian, Fedora 8, Gentoo, OpenSUSE and Ubuntu. However, this isn’t the experience for the faint of heart but definitely a cool little hobby if you are the tinker type.

Your user profiles and account information will remain on the XMB, but remember to back up any saved games or media files you want to restore after formatting the PS3 using a USB stick or an external hard disk. Your game saves are located under Game > Saved Data Utility. All downloaded games you paid for can be downloaded again without having to pay for them. They’ll be in your account history in the PS Store. Attach your PS3 to a HDTV or monitor using an HDMI (digital) or Component (5 RCA jacks) cable. Composite (yellow RCA jack) is not supported as the resolution is too low.

Before you install anything, it is most important to follow these steps:

• Connect the ethernet cable to the PS3. Be sure the network has a DHCP server on it. If this is a fresh-from-the-factory PS3, go through the setup steps as it prompts you on your first bootup, including setting the language, time, and a username for the PS3 system.
• Go to Settings, then System Settings, and choose Format Utility.
• Select Format Hard Disk, and confirm your selection twice.
• Select that you want a Custom partitioning scheme.
• Select that you want to Allot 10GB to the Other OS. This will automatically reserve the remaining disk space for the PS3′s game operating system. When finished, it will restart the system.
• When the system restarts, go to Settings then System Update. Choose Update via Internet.
• Follow the screens for the system update to download and install the latest system updates. Some screens only have cancel buttons, with no instructions on how to move forward. In order to move forward on those screens, use the X button on your controller.
• Once the PS3 restarts, it’s ready to have Linux installed on it.

Most newcomers should probably try Yellow Dog Linux (extremely helpful installation PDF) or an Ubuntu version for PS3 (incredible PS3 Ubuntu install resource) burned on a CD. For information on how to burn iso file to a cd/dvd, see this page. For install help with other Linux distros, try putting “(linux distro name) install ps3″ into Google and you should be able to figure it out from there.

Some helpful sites that I’ve found include PSUbuntu, an unbelieveably awesome Yellow Dog Linux FAQ, Wikipedia’s Linux on the PS3 article, PS3 Linux World, and more. Feel free to leave your links in a comment in this topic to help others.

Advanced users: There are several projects, like spu-medialib [sourceforge.net] and mesa3d [sourceforge.net], which accelerate PS3 graphics/video on the Cell’s SPEs. spu-medialib is actually a general framework for acceleration, while mesa3d offloads OpenGL onto the SPEs as a GPU.

There’s a narrative tutorial [linux.yes.nu] for installing the spu-medialib mplayer driver, with links to files, that plays video on the SPEs quite well, including 1080p HD videos.