Early on, it was a bit of a challenge to get Linux natively installed on the PS3. Time has passed, and a great deal has changed. Fedora 7 installs on the PS3 out of the box, with the most challenging installation steps eliminated. This article introduces the basic configuration knobs and widgets specific to the PS3 running Linux, shows you how to use them effectively, and suggests the kind of trickery that gets improved performance.
but be sure your monitor supports High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). If it doesn’t, you’ll get a black screen, or possibly brightly-colored static. If you’re using a KVM switch, note that the switch too, not just the display, has to support HDCP! Unfortunately, there appears to be no way to turn this “feature” off; you simply can’t get an unencrypted signal.
To get a realistic desktop res (>480p) you’ll need a nice new shiny DRM-laden Sony screen to be going with that DRM-laden PS3 you have there.
DRM-laden Sony screen? It sounds like you are trying to imply that the DRM restrictions are due to Sony. With the obsessive references to DRM you are clearly just a troll as which other console doesn’t feature rights management??
From Wikipedia:
”
High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is a form of digital copy protection developed by Intel Corporation to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across DisplayPort, Digital Visual Interface (DVI), High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), Gigabit Video Interface (GVIF), or Unified Display Interface (UDI) connections. The specification is proprietary, and implementing HDCP requires a license.
”
Edited 2008-08-03 17:37 UTC
Sony are every bit as responsible for the ridiculous concept of a “trusted path” as those who implement it in their own equipment. You’re forgetting that Sony delayed the PS3 by a year in order to finish off the DRM in Blu-Ray. You are also forgetting the Sony Rootkit fiasco. Oh, and MagicGate before that…
You mean the public and media going buzzword crazy over a rootkit that wasn’t?
Yes, same as the recall, the “fix” that opened a massive security hole, and the lawsuit they lost that wasn’t too.
uh, it was a pretty big deal, especially when malware started using the rootkit to hide. Here read these, and learn something:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scand…
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2…
http://news.cnet.com/FAQ-Sonys-rootkit-CDs/2100-1029_3-5946760.html
Surely Sony had the choosing the video interfaces used by the PS3. No one forced them to use HDCP, they chose it – so please stop making them out to be less-than-willing saints, ok.
The truth is all the big companies will take your money but they don’t want you to have any digital rights whatsoever. They don’t trust us at all – and who can blame them, most people disregard copyright entirely when it is convenient for themselves.
Edited 2008-08-03 18:38 UTC
Sony, acting both as a content and technology provider, indeed decided themselves to cripple the technology they provide to enforce their control on the content they provide.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t make Sony any special compared to their competitors.
Sony is DRM and DRM is Sony. I cannot think of a company that has been on the dark side of things for more time than Sony.
Many years ago I bought an “mp3 player” by Sony. That rounded piece of crap needed proprietary DRM software to transfer anything into it, also wouldn’t let you recover your own files. Last thing I will ever buy from them.
Blue DRMay is Sony’s format.
Sony. Releasing crippled hardware and contents since the 1990s.
That rounded piece of crap needed proprietary DRM software to transfer anything into it
Do you have iPod? =)
“Sony is DRM and DRM is Sony. I cannot think of a company that has been on the dark side of things for more time than Sony.
Many years ago I bought an “mp3 player” by Sony. That rounded piece of crap needed proprietary DRM software to transfer anything into it, also wouldn’t let you recover your own files. Last thing I will ever buy from them.
Blue DRMay is Sony’s format.
Sony. Releasing crippled hardware and contents since the 1990s.”
More mindless anti-Sony sentiment. Apple anyone? Their mp3 players (iPhone and iPod Touch) are even more locked down with DRM than their previous generation. Sony has been actively doing quite the opposite with their portable media player lineup moving away from DRM. Sony are NOT the big DRM merchant you make them out to be, and NOT the worst by a stretch.
Another ridiculous misconception (and one I’d expect to thrive around here) is the hopeless Sony = blu-ray nonsense. blu-ray was invented by a _consortium_ and Sony was simply the most aggressive advocate, with it included in the PS3. Nothing more, nothing less.
Now, as for the fools saying ‘Sony could have ditched HDCP’. What utter rubbish. If Sony didn’t follow specs and thus couldn’t interconnect with all the TV sets that require HDCP for 1080p you’d all be up in arms wouldn’t you? Sony are actually adopting standards here.
Get a clue!
Or Sharp or Panasonic or even a cheap LG or Onn from ASDA (Wal-mart as the over-puddlians would call it). Or you could use Component output instead.
While you have point on DRM the way you’re making sound like a Sony only thing makes you look like a bit of a prat.
I said “Sony” screen, because Sony want to up-sell you a screen because of HDCP, you suddenly “require” one. Yes, you can buy a screen from anyone, but it’s convenient for Sony that they sell the PS3, and the TVs to go with them. Sony know that a number of sales for TV upgrades will go to them solely because people are forced to upgrade to meet HDCP requirements. It’s called a Vertical Monopoly.
People are “forced” to upgrade because their TV only do 480p, nothing more. Since HDCP LCD screen can be had for a mere 10 to 20$ more than other 1080p screens, I fail to see how Sony is forcing you to anything. It’s hardly their fault your TV only do 480p and Fedora isn’t designed for 480 lines screens.
Now if you’re talking about the few privileged people that got their 1080p screens before HDCP got available, they’re first buyers and certainly had the income to waste their money when the TV where insanely priced.
“To get a realistic desktop res (>480p) you’ll need a nice new shiny DRM-laden Sony screen to be going with that DRM-laden PS3 you have there.”
And how does that explain the fact that I have successfully run about 5 flavours(current favourite being Gentoo running Freevo) in… 720p over component and also over HDMI? Tada! More false nonsense from someone like you who hasn’t ever used a PS3 yet seems compelled to educate on a topic you know nothing about. Oh the whole ‘this article said it’ doesn’t make up for anything – if you were qualified to comment you would have known that HDCP is not required for any content (Linux or otherwise) up to and including 720p resolution from the PS3.
Edited 2008-08-05 08:19 UTC
First, I must admit that I know little about the PS3 hardware (computers just for gaming isn’t my cup of tea), other than that it’s based on the Cell CPU. From what I understand, basically a PowerPC core with a half dozen DSP-like cores stuck onto it, with fast interconnects.
So, an awesome platform in theory for any application that has massive amounts of numbers to crunch (including games). But I have to wonder: how much of the PS3’s potential will actually be ‘unlocked’/used by Linux installs on this machine? For people who run this, what are they doing with it?
Just for kicks, for the fun of it? Homebrew games? Simulations? Mediacenter use? Raking in high scores for Folding@home? Put together a small cluster for scientific work?
In other words: what are Linux-running PS3’s really used for? Other than: “hey look, it boots!”
I don’t follow it as much as I used to, but all of the above. There’s a few stories of scientists using PS3s as a cheap cluster.
One thing some people do is learn to program it, another thing is to see what you can speed up with Cell, DSP like apps is the obvious one but given the papers published the answer is, with sufficient time and creativity, pretty much anything.
If I recall correctly, the PS3 runs the operating system in a hypervisor that restricts access to the GPU so all you get is a 2d framebuffer, gives you about 212 megs of memory, and access to a partition on the disk drive.
The core PS3 operating system does have Folding@home built in already, I’ve not tried it myself. Terrasoft sells PS3 clusters, though I’ve not heard of anyone using Linux on PS3s for more then ‘because I can’. Though I have some Pi approximation software that I think would be nifty to try and port to use Cell SPUs.
FFTW supports the SPEs in the Cell processor.
This is interesting as FFTW is a library extensively used on Linux for audio processing and analysis.
I’d like to know how many more voices a soft synth like Zynaddsubfx would get, or how long a convolution reverb would be possible. As far as I know, it would not require any changes to the audio software to take advantage of FFTW compiled for Cell.
Just for kicks, for the fun of it? Homebrew games? Simulations? Mediacenter use? Raking in high scores for Folding@home? Put together a small cluster for scientific work?
My plan is to use Linux on the PS3 for media playback from a Linux server, if setting up a compatible server is too much of a PITA. The PS3 wants to see a DNLA server. Windows Media is one, and there are a couple OpenSource projects, but it may be easier to use Totem and SSH.
Also, the PS3 should make a decent X11 display. It would be nice to be able to display things off my desktop on the TV.
I broadcast my music to my PS3 off a linux server using mediatomb and transcoding. Wasn’t hard to setup at all!