BlackRhino v1.0, a Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution for Sony’s PlayStation 2 has been released by xRhino: “This release constitutes a 1200+ software package Linux distribution that will hopefully be added to and extended by the general community.”
Anything that widens the range of options for my ps2 linux box (a lovely fileserver at the moment) is a good thing.
Can you still play games on it? I’ve never really looked into it. I always find it interesting how Linux hackers (ment in a good way…) can seem to put Linux on anything.
Sony has agreed to sell a kit which will make it so you can install Linux on your PS2. Microsoft’s XBOX still requires a modchip. There’s a XBOX Linux project group http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/index.php that’s been trying to get Microsoft to allow Linux to be installed without the modchip. I wonder if this will put any pressur on them to allow it.
What i’m wondering is with linux running on so many consoles now, what can it all do? More specifically, if it can run X, can it do hardware acceleration and take advantage of the nice video cards in these systems?
> Can you still play games on it?
Of course, you can still boot PS2 games from CD like you currently would. However currently one cannot launch PS2 games from *within* Linux (requires an HD), only Linux games. An extensive FAQ regarding Linux on the PS2 can be found at the following link:
http://playstation2-linux.com/
Yup, as Mike pointed out you can still play PS2 games – you just have to reboot.
It would be nice if someone could get one of the psx emus working under ps2linux – I don’t like losing access to my 40 file share when I’m playing, say, Xenosaga, but hey if I’m playing Xenosaga I don’t really need anything else to much about with… It’s mostly a minor quibble.
40 == 40gig
don’t mind the man behind the curtain, he’s just tired
seems like a lot of effort (and money) to get this thing to run on a ps2.
seems like a lot of effort (and money) to get this thing to run on a ps2.
Well, the idea behind the PS2 Linux Kit is to make homebrew game development easier. If you think Sony’s Linux Kit is expensive, look at the price for their professional devkit. If I’m not mistaken, it’s about $20,000.