Minimal Linux for PS3

Investigation into how Linux on the PS3 might lead to homebrew development.

Moderators: cheriff, emoon

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mgillespie
Posts: 20
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:36 pm

Minimal Linux for PS3

Post by mgillespie »

Being totally hacked off with the onboard PS3 browser, I was thinking, what I need, is a very stripped back Linux, that provides nothing but essential networking/Keyboard/Mouse/X and a single browser support.

I want to boot a minimal Linux to a single user X session, which opens Opera web browser (and hence gives me chat, news, email and RSS too), when I close Opera, I want it to reboot back to GameOS.

Anyone done anything like this? Does it sound feasible?

If not, anyone got any tips for starting points for a project.
JFReyes
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:51 am
Location: San Juan, PR

Post by JFReyes »

I have been using Fedora 9 successfully for the past few months. I got decent performance by doing the following:

1) Customized the kernel to eliminate any unneeded drivers and features, activated most PS3 specific features and converted most of the needed features to loadable modules (instead of in-kernel).

2) Added the ps3fb=4M parameter to the kernel boot line to increase available RAM (about 20 MB!) from unused video memory.

3) Disabled unneded services.

4) Use the XFCE desktop, which is very lightweight.

Try these suggestions and see how they work out for you. You may also want to check out this thread on fedoraforum.org: F9 on a PS3

You might want to try this way. Good luck.
José
mgillespie
Posts: 20
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:36 pm

Post by mgillespie »

Likely to head Gentoo way, because it's far more customisable (and I am more familiar with it), unless you can tell me otherwise..
JFReyes
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:51 am
Location: San Juan, PR

Post by JFReyes »

I'm not familiar with Gentoo so I can't help you there, although I've read elsewhere that it's very PS3 friendly. However, the above tips are kernel level and XFCE is ubiquitous so therefore should work with any Linux distro.

I forgot to mention one more tip:

5) Keep your partitions simple (no LVM, just /boot, swap and /) and I use ext3 on /boot for compatibility and XFS on / because my setup is multimedia oriented.
José
project23
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 24, 2008 6:17 pm

Post by project23 »

mgillespie wrote:Likely to head Gentoo way, because it's far more customisable (and I am more familiar with it), unless you can tell me otherwise..
I have been using Gentoo on my PS3 for a very long time now. I used Yellowdog and Fedora for a few weeks back in early 2007... Once I got Gentoo installed and running I have had no reason to think of needing another OS on my PS3. It takes some time to get right, but once it is installed I believe it is the best choice for linux on the PS3. Except for maybe rolling your own with Linux From Scratch. (hhahahahHAHAHahaha)

If Gentoo is noob UNfriendly, LinuxFromScratch is noob a murderer. But if you have the skills to do LFS on the PS3, you can build this project your asking about.

There is a good Gentoo stage4 for the PS3 to speed up the install. http://overlays.gentoo.org/proj/cell/wi ... entooOnPS3

(Im still a noob myself, but Gentoo on my PS3 has opened my eyes and I am learning all the time)
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