We have Wireless....with YDL/PS3

After a whole weekend we were able to configure the embedded WiFi device in the PS3. It was not out of the box up and working, there is a detailed method to "update the YDL kernel" and "configuring the WiFi device" on the PS3 using YDL.

The devils in the details of this and special attention needs to be placed in the WiFi device to be attached to. Specifically, the ESSID, the Channel, etc. Which needs to be retrieved by logging into the DSL/Modem itself.

We tried it with WEP, but it choked on that and gave an error message (but I did see the little green flashing light on the PS3 console sputtering so I knew it was trying to work.

So thus far we have an install of YDL on a 10 gig area allocated for it.

Our impression so far...its a work in progress. Although Sony has stepped up to the plate and made its PS3 unit more accessible to alternate operating system installs we are still looking for ways to access directly with the totality of this device.

Unless someone finds a hole in Sony's Hypervisor, it won't ever be possible to use hardware video acceleration in Linux on the PS3 without hardware modification.

The Hypervisor, in fact, does something valuable: it makes it possible to install any PPC (Power PC) version of Linux, without special modifications. Without the Hypervisor, Linux would have access to the entire hard-drive, and in theory, it would be possible to overwrite the GameOS when installing Linux, so Linux distributions would have to be carefully crafted to the PS3 before a new Linux install could be initialized. It would be important to avoid formatting the drive when installing Linux. With the hypervisor, Linux can't actually see the GameOS partition, and can't write to it, making Linux installations much safer.

Of course the obvious downside of the Hypervisor is that Sony decided to make it impossible to use the on board video card on the PS3 from within Linux, which means the PS3 Linux experience is disappointing, unless you wanted to use your PS3 for word processing. It makes a decent low-powered server, but not a very good home theater PC.

Yellow Dog Linux

We decided to re-install with Yellow Dog Linux for its "built-in" wireless features specifically for the PS/3. We installed version 5.0.1 but were having problems with our SDTV. The screen would go blank while loading Linux.

This stumped us for a good day of scowering the forums for an answer. Finally, we found an artical explaining that installs of Yellow Dog Linux on a SDTV were diffrent than a HDTV. We had to type a specific "configuration" line-command.

We were able to resolve this by typing this line-command after the ' kboot> ' prompt.

kboot>ydl480i

PS3 with Fedora 6 Linux

Well after many days of guesswork I finally picked up a PS/3 unit. Yes the choice was tough but I relented on the fact that installing Linux on it was on of the perks.

The PS3 has some nice features, if one could bear the brunt of its intimidating price tag of $700, first off it is one of the most "powerful" game systems out there, built in blue-ray making it one of the inexpensive blue-ray players. Powerful does not mean the best, in-fact the Wii is far more fun to play and the XBox360 has a greater selection of titles. We will get into DirectX development and XBox/360 game development in the future.

But the main deal is the capability to install other Operating Systems. This may seem quaint by some, but the fact of this exercise is to experiment with different methods of development of the games themselves.

Fedora 6, is the linux operating system we are utilizing. Installation of another variant Yellow Dog Linux, was our first choice but due to some anomaly in our original install we were unsuccessful in the installation.

So Fedora 6 it is.

After downloading the PPC version of the Fedora operating system, we then had to download the CELL Linux ADDON CD ISO image, which has the boot-loader (kboot/otheros.bld) and instructions needed to install the PPC version of Fedora Core 6 Linux distribution.

The installation went "well" and everything seems to work so far. We are having trouble with the wireless from the Fedora Linux side. Line-command usage may be required as the GUI (startx command) is awkward on our TV.

Now not everything is "perfect" with Linux on PS3, right off the back we are having issues with the built-in wireless adapter.