Posted on by Robert Rose

Installing the latest Fedora Core 7 on PS3

Even though it appears to be the “official” linux for Playstation 3, Yellow Dog Linux on PS3 was a bit of a dissapointment.. everything is way out of date, and it turns out IBM is only supporting Fedora Core 6 at the moment for the Cell SDK. So if you want to be on the bleeding edge you’ve got to have Fedora Core installed.

But why settle for Fedora Core 6 when Fedora Core 7 for PS3 is right around the corner? dwmw2 on #cell (irc.oftc.net) convinced me to try out the development branch of FC7. Here’s how you get it installed:

Update your PS3 (at least 1.60 or 1.70)

Download the latest otheros.bld that’s built on petitboot and put it on a memory card in /ps3/otheros. Go to System Settings -> Install Other OS and install it.

Download the latest Fedora Core boot.iso and burn it to a DVD.

Reboot your PS3 in Other OS and select Linux64.

HD users: If you want to do the install in 1080i or 720p, wiggle the mouse on the Linux64/Linux32 selection screen and leave the mouse on Linux32. This will stop it from booting in 480i automatically. Then hit Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get to a TTY. From here, cd to /var/tmp/mnt-scd0*/ppc/ppc64 and run: ‘/sbin/kexec -f –initrd=ramdisk.image.gz –command-line=”video=1080i” vmlinuz’ (or video=720p) At the moment you can’t just select “720p” or “1080i” from the graphical boot menu, as it does not pass video information on to the installer. πŸ™

When prompted for where to pull the install material from you can select HTTP, or you could just download it yourself and put it on a DVD which is much faster. Either way, the install material is here. If that’s too slow you can try one of the mirrors, but beware — the mirrors can be 1-2 days behind, which could cause you grief when you’re pulling the latest from the development branch.

Observations after a day with FC7…

* I wouldn’t recommend installing FC7 over HTTP! It took me 8 hours. The PS3 doesn’t have enough RAM to manage the install very well.

* No sound in FC7

* No wireless in FC7

12 Replies to “Installing the latest Fedora Core 7 on PS3”

  1. YDL is cutting edge, not bleeding edge, and IBM doers support them according to their web site. Remember the U.S. DOD uses YDL and depends on stability rather than bleeding edge apps that are not proven and can cause crashes.

  2. IBM Cell SDK 2.1 is not supported on YDL 5 for PS3, because it requires a newer glibc 2.5.So I just installed Fedora Core 7, and all is up and running, but very slow. Are there any tips how to speed up FC on PS3? In particular switching between applications can be extremely slow.Thanks,Erwin

  5. I can’t get FC7 to run SPE programs, and I can’t get the kernel from the add-on CD to boot. Any ideas? When I try to boot from the other kernels it tells me that it can’t find the root device. I’ve tried specifying root= on my kexec line, but no go. Do the initrds not have the Volume Manager drivers installed?

  6. Is there any possibility for the bootloader to be corrupted? I’ve downloaded it several times and it keeps returning the same error 80080002, I think, everytime I try to install it, meaning that it’s corrupted.I’ve tried formating the falsh media I’ve transported the .bld on, but it didn’twork.

  11. Cool!Tried it yesterday- works fine accept the max res seems to be 576p.. I tried ps3videomode but the only res that works is 576p.. I want my 720p!!I didn’t bother with that “hd users” section- and regretting it.

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