Arch linux ps3 project

spoonie_aus · 2009-04-04 13:00:51

I have a ppc Arch PPC on my ps3 woho. Built a ps3 kernel 32 bit tho. Will clean up install and tar it up and host it on bit torrent some time in the week.

Will try to recompile binutils and gcc with ppc64 so we can build a 64 bit kernel at least.

uncholowapo · 2009-04-04 13:47:10

Did you follow the guide directly? Or did you do something different?

spoonie_aus · 2009-04-04 14:24:27

Yea I followed the guide had to update the script a bit. Built the kernel from scratch http://linuxonps3.wordpress.com/2008/12 … l-for-ps3/. Its not a real clean install but it works, now I know what todo ill try clean install tomorrow.

To get the script to work you need to change the location of pacman from

wget -c ftp://ftp.archlinuxppc.org/core/os/ppc/ … pkg.tar.gz

to

wget -c ftp://ftp.archlinuxppc.org/unstable/os/ … pkg.tar.gz

remove alsastuff from the addpacks list.

once the script is done chroot into the install.

Then pacman binutils and base-devel

hear are some giudes to help with the kernel

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ker … sers_Guide
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ker … rom_Source

have fun

soleen · 2009-04-05 01:33:06

Arch specific PS3 distro would be great. PS3 has single hardware specs so everything that is needed can be built right into kernel.
spoonie_aus: how is performance? Is it usable at least to the point to watch movies? what window manager, desktop enviroment are you using?

The biggest draw back PS3 has, is that it has only 256M RAM. This is why I am not even sure 64bit will help. Smaller memory prints with everything compiled -Os might provide much bigger advantage over having 64bit binaries. But this need to be tested.

uncholowapo · 2009-04-05 01:53:12

Think of linux on the PS3 as having linux on an old G3 PPC Mac.

The 64-bit mainly goes to aiding the PPU and SPU's with number crunching and multimedia decoding. Altivec is a powerful SIMD instruction set and along with the SPU's can kill an GPU+CPU combo in number crunching. Take a look at PS3GRID. It might seem useless to us but if you are a Cell developer, you would need the 64-bit addons. And who knows, there maybe some Cell developers who are using arch.

I am looking to compiling the kernel with the ps3vram patch that uses the nVidia video memory (256MB also) as swap which would be way faster than the swap partition on the hard drive.

Last edited by uncholowapo (2009-04-05 01:59:26)

soleen · 2009-04-05 02:16:30

uncholowapo: if video memory is accessible and without and special firmware version, than this is defiantly awesome. And this should be part of PS3 specific distro by default. Having 256 ram plus 256 swap in video memory is enough even for 64bit binaries.
Do you know if YDL uses video ram as swap? (Sorry I did not do my research on this topic.)

uncholowapo · 2009-04-05 02:43:30

Yes it does. And coming from 6.1 it is much faster than 6.0 IMO.

spoonie_aus · 2009-04-05 10:55:07

soleen I just have a base install on mine atm. I was runnig gentoo on my ps3 witch is 64bit and running xfce as wm and it works quite well and is very stable. With the ps3 we can build a fork of archlinux just for it so hopefully the end user can install arch linux on there ps3 with everything set up and optimised for the platform. Thats the plan

uncholowapo · 2009-04-05 22:47:28

I don't think I can build a 64-bit kernel. I tried the toolchain from PS2Dev from svn and it error'ed out on me on building binutils. If anyone could point me to atleast a working ppc64 toolchain, that would be useful.

EDIT: Oh and spoonie, did you use kboot or yaboot?

Last edited by uncholowapo (2009-04-06 00:38:13)

.:B:. · 2009-04-06 09:37:24

I think the Barcelona Computing center has one online - but only RPM though):

http://rbm.pc.ac.upc.edu/tools.xhtml

spoonie_aus · 2009-04-06 10:19:25

Yaboot but the boot loader was peitiboot

http://ozlabs.org/~jk/projects/petitboot/

uncholowapo · 2009-04-06 13:43:36

Hmmm. I'll try it on Fedora 10 and see if I can get something decent.

uncholowapo · 2009-04-06 23:04:49

Hey spoonie I don't think I can go on anymore with this project. Somethings have come up in my personal life that I have to take care of and will not be using my PS3 for a while. Sorry this came up so unexpectedly.

uncholowapo · 2009-04-22 00:13:29

Ok well I have resolved my problems and have gone back to building the 64-bit PS3 kernel. As of right now the kernel is compiling with a ppc64 toolchain that I built using the crosstool-ng-svn package from AUR. It is supposedly still experimental but I have yet to see an error in the compilation of the kernel.

EDIT: Ok well the compilation was a success. There were no errors at the end of the compilation and I have compressed the build directory and is sitting pretty on my laptops desktop. If anyone wants I can upload it for them. Not at the moment though, a good game of COD4 is in order.

I will be testing it tomorrow after school to see if it actually works or not. Hope for the best....:D

Last edited by uncholowapo (2009-04-22 01:06:39)

KuroYoma · 2009-05-20 01:05:02

Can we get an update on how the testing went?
I am very interested to see if this works

cmtptr · 2009-05-28 13:55:34

I would also be interested in an update on this. I sort of regret having a PS3 since mine does little more than play DVDs and collect dust, but turning it into a home server would make me very happy!

spoonie_aus · 2009-06-09 13:19:28

havent been around for a while due to work and home stuff. I have a archppc install on my ps3 works pritty well. I haven't had time to get the install recompiled as cell and 64bit as of yet. uncholowapo how did the kernel go, what ppc64 toolchain did you use? I tryed recompiling all the build stuff for ppc64 cell and had no luck at all.

uncholowapo · 2009-06-09 16:12:21

I am currently at a halt with the project too because of me getting a summer job. I didn't have a chance to install the kernel but I know it would of worked. I used a custom toolchain compiled from the crosstool-ng-svn AUR package. Pretty neat tool. Anyways I'll get back on it when I have the time.

spoonie_aus · 2009-06-13 16:33:59

I was thinking the other day about how we could get a working toolchain. We could try using gentoo for the ps3 (gentoo has a ps3 ppc64 userland working) to build need packages for arch (eg pacman, devel-build, kernel etc) then we could install them on the ps3 using that archlinux ps3 script then we could have a base env to start building other packages on the ps3. We would have to build of the archppc abs tree so it could be up todate. what you guys think?

uncholowapo · 2009-06-13 20:14:55

Seems probable. Tell me when you get started so I can get my feet wet.

cmtptr · 2009-06-16 16:54:25

I would like to contribute to this project, but unfortunately I have little time or knowledge in this area to be of much use. However, as of Sunday I finally got ahold of a USB keyboard (you wouldn't think that would be so hard these days would you?), and I now have a working 64-bit Gentoo installed on my PS3. If it would help, I don't mind letting people SSH to it for use as kind of a public building environment. Just let me know.

Last edited by cmtptr (2009-06-16 16:54:44)

uncholowapo · 2009-06-26 01:56:47

Ok, well following the Wiki I have the built the kernel again with a 64 bit powerpc toolchain and have the vmlinux right here. Now all you need to do is copy it to /arch/boot on your PS3 following the wiki. I need people to test this out.

MethodOne · 2009-06-29 15:54:23

The kernel on the previous post boots, but my USB keyboard doesn't work.

Last edited by MethodOne (2009-06-29 16:21:55)

uncholowapo · 2009-06-29 16:00:07

Yea I found that out too. I seemed to have compiled it as a module I'll recompile and upload again.

uncholowapo · 2009-06-29 17:06:13

Ok here is the new vmlinux, this time I disabled loadable module support since this is just to get a base system to work. I don't know why I didn't do this in the first place. When some replies with good news I'll start with some good ol' package building.

Arch Linux

#26 2009-04-04 13:00:51

Re: Arch linux ps3 project

#27 2009-04-04 13:47:10

Re: Arch linux ps3 project

#28 2009-04-04 14:24:27

Re: Arch linux ps3 project

#29 2009-04-05 01:33:06

Re: Arch linux ps3 project

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