The recent developments for restoring Linux on the PS3 are heating up and it seems we may have our very missed Linux support back on our PS3s. Kmeaw has released a video of linux running PS3 firmware 3.55, to quote via IRC:

kmeaw: it is gentoo

kmeaw: marcan’s rootfs

stuntcock: does your linux install have access to gameos from within linux and also to all spus?

kmeaw: no

kmeaw: it doesn’t need usb stick

kmeaw: linux has access to all spus

kmeaw: gentoo is running from my laptop’s hdd

kmeaw: but if you change your kernel parameters then you can install it on ps3′s hdd like marcan did

Lush: is this a different approach than graf_chokolo?

kmeaw: i don’t change VFLASH

GraFfiX: kmeaw:does X launch?

kmeaw: haven’t tried yet but I think of a reason why it shouldn’t

kmeaw: Xfbdev will definitely work

kmeaw: in this video ps3 boots gentoo from the network via nfs

kmeaw: laptop’s harddrive partition is exported using nfs kernel server

GraFfiX: is nfs efficient?

GraFfiX: like speed-wise

kmeaw: yes, i have a home NAS exported via nfs

kmeaw: works faster for me than samba

kmeaw: there are no full support for rsx yet

kmeaw: s/are/is/

GraFfiX: kmeaw:do you see any reason why xbmc would not run when we have full rsx?

stuntcock: someone has to code a driver for the video

stuntcock: right

kmeaw: no

kmeaw: when we have full rsx support in linux drivers, then everything should work

You can see his video below:



Great news indeed for those looking forward to Linux

Thanks to FABS for news tip

UPDATE 1

Tutorial on how to do this has been released via pastie, a bit disappointing to some of you this method requires a LAN connection to your PC, so it would seem the PC is doing most of the actual “work”. We advise those interested for a fully PS3 only linux to keep up to tabs with graf’s work. Its a small step, but nevertheless those interested the tutorial is below:

ubuntu-desktop% sudo apt-get install dhcp3-server tftpd-hpa nfs-kernel-server http://marcansoft.com/transf/gentoo-ps3-20101020.tar.bz2 = rootfs

http://www.multiupload.com/E8IQAO2PB3 = kernel image and modules extract rootfs into /mnt/experimental:

% sudo mkdir -p /mnt/experimental

% sudo tar -C /mnt/experimental -xvpf /path/to/gentoo-ps3-20101020.tar.bz2 then copy 2.6.36-rc7-01073-g47a9595-dirty from ps3linux.tar.gz into /mnt/experimental/lib/modules. Set up the DHCP server. Put this in /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf: option domain-name “example.org”;

option domain-name-servers 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4;

default-lease-time 600;

max-lease-time 7200;

ddns-update-style none;

authoritative;

log-facility local7;

subnet 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {

range 192.168.2.128 192.168.2.250;

}

next-server 192.168.2.1;

filename “kboot.conf”;

option routers 192.168.2.1; Set up your wired network interface (eth0) to have a static IP address “192.168.2.1″. Copy vmlinux file into /var/lib/tftpboot. add this line to /etc/exports (requires root privs): /mnt/experimental 192.168.0.0/16(rw,async,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check,anonuid=0,anongid=0) Then everything is done. Let’s start up the services: % sudo service tftpd-hpa restart

% sudo service dhcp3-server restart

% sudo service nfs-kernel-server restart Create a kboot.conf file in /var/lib/tftpboot with this line inside: linux=’vmlinux video=ps3fb:mode:2 root=/dev/nfs rw ip=dhcp nfsroot=192.168.2.1:/mnt/experimental panic=5′ That’s all. Run Linux from lv2patcher v9 and see if it boots.

[Download AsbestOS]

[Download Kmeaw LV2 Patcher v9]

[Download Gentoo PS3 (Marcan)]

[Download PS3 Kernal Images/Modules]