PS3 Linux [was - Re: OpenMoko and LCD TV]
roguemoko at roguewrt.org
roguemoko at roguewrt.org
Wed May 6 05:43:33 CEST 2009
On 6/05/2009 12:31 PM, The Digital Pioneer wrote:
> Maybe boot Linux on it from a USB CD drive? :P
That'd be nice but I suspect I'm limited to umass attach/detach, fs
indexing and the like, not boot related features. Even if possible, I
doubt it would be worth my time with so many other resources available
to me. I can get a portable media player with USB/DVD made by maya for
AU$25 here. It's about the only gift I give to people these days and
makes sharing media with the non-technical all that more accessible :)
> Do you run Linux on your PS3? I'm thinking about getting one sometime,
> and I'm trying to determine what my options of Linux are on one.
Yeah I do. Xubuntu is way too slow, although once you map the GPU's vram
as prioritised swap it's acceptable ... it's a bit of a hack though.
YDL functions a lot better primarily due to there distro being more
focused on the PS3. 3D acceleration doesn't exist (hence the mapping of
vram) and there's a limit of around 250MB of available RAM ... so either
option is going to be less than impressive. It's a bit like OM in that
respect :) ... you get used to it :)
Standard 2D apps function fine, just don't expect perfect streaming from
youtube.
In saying all that, I've found that running linux, although good, is
kind of redundant from the media/connected to TV perspective. It'll be
great if we ever get 3D acceleration but as is, I can do it all from the
PS3's gameOS. Once you come to grips with the controls ... and hook up a
wireless mouse and keyboard, it does pretty much everything. Oh, and you
are limited to a 10GB partition for linux :S
I run mediatomb from a xen NetBSD domu and have been able to play all
files except MKV and VBR encoded AVIs via the PS3's gameOS. The former
simply needs to be remuxed with an mpeg2 header (less than a minute) and
the later just needs the mp3 stream to be reencoded as CBR (a minute or
two per standard episode ... virtualdub batch encoding works a treat
here, though I should prolly find a unix alternative). If you run a
centralised download server like mldonkey, coupled with mediatomb, you
can watch downloads as they arrive, meaning you never have to touch a
file to determine if you are going to keep it. I love that.
If it wasn't a domu and it was a dedicated media backend, mediatomb
allows for on the fly transcoding, though you are presented with some
limitations in that scenario.
Honestly the best AU$600 I've spent on a computer system, for all that
it entails. Possibly the cheapest computer I've bought since the late
90's. I couldn't recommend a PS3 highly enough.
I haven't tested this yet but apparently being able to run linux makes
it a tax write off aswell from a home office perspective :)
I could probably go on but I'll leave at, it's a must have geek
accessory. I spend so little time hunched over an actual PC now, it's great!
Sarton
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