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.