Last month, I decided that I had way too much money on my hands, and decided to rectify that by purchasing a PlayStation 3! Well, three weeks later, I still can't bring myself to actually shell out 60 dollars for any PS3 game that's currently available. I was thinking about buying Motorstorm, but that game isn't worth 60 bucks IMO. I almost bought Ninja Gaiden -- until I remembered that I already played the game three years ago on the original Xbox.

So, with a PlayStation 3 sitting on my shelf with no games to play, I decided that I needed to make my shiny new console useful. So what did I decide to do? I turned my PlayStation 3 into a full-fledged computer!



Yep, that screenshot above you shows Linux (Ubuntu) running on my PlayStation 3. So, how did I turn my 600 dollar game console into a computer? Well here's a quick run-down on how you can get some use out of your 600 dollar game system!

First of all, you need to reformat your PS3 Hard Drive, so unless you have a USB Hard Drive to back-up your data, or you just bought a new PS3, then you'll probably want to skip this mini-tutorial.

When reformatting your Hard Drive, you'll be given the option to use 10 GB for the "Other OS" and use the other 50 GB for the PS3 console, or vice-versa. Unfortunately, you can't select any other option, and unless you want to limit you PS3 game console to 10 GB of data, your Linux partition will only have 10 GB of space. I guess you can theoretically buy another Hard Drive and switch them out whenever you want to either use your PS3 or Linux, but that's not really a practical option.

Once you decide to properly reformat your PS3's Hard Drive, you'll need to download a PS3 compatible version of Linux -- in my case, I downloaded the Ubuntu version -- and burn the ISO to a CD-Rom disk. Once finished, pop the disk into the PS3, and chose "Install Other OS." Once it's done installing, plug in a USB Keyboard and Mouse then select " Settings > System Settings > Default System, and select Other OS." Select yes and reboot the system.

Once it's rebooted, press enter at the prompt screen to boot off the Live CD. After a few minutes, you'll be at the Ubuntu desktop screen (since it's running off of the Live CD, the desktop will be excruciatingly slow). From the Live CD, click on the Install Icon and follow the on-screen instructions.

Note: There are a couple of quirks that you should know about: First of all, if you're installing Ubuntu from the regular PS3 install CD, then you'll need to do this before clicking on the install icon...

1) Open System > Administration > Services and uncheck (disable) everything but: CPU frequency manager, GDM, and System communication bus.

2) System > Administration > System Monitor, selected the "Processes" tab, and killed any process that is would let me with: right click > kill process.

Also, you'll notice that the resolution is a bit "off". Basically, you'll need to hold down the Alt key and scroll the screen in order to see all your options to installing the OS. Once you manage to install the OS and reboot, click Applications > Accessories > Terminal and type: sudo gedit /etc/kboot.conf , you will then be prompted for your password so enter it and hit enter. Once the file loads look for an entry like this "linux='/dev/hda1 ...etc. at the end of that line before the " ' " add "video=ps3fb:mode:#" where "#" is the correct number from the table at this site.

So, how well does Linux run on the PS3? Well... surprisingly well, considering that the OS only detects half of the system RAM (256 meg). Right now, I haven't had too much time to delve deep into the OS, but I did get a chance to install IRC chat, some codecs for video playback, and a NES emulator (lol!)




Right now, most of the programs run pretty well, with the exception of video playback, which is a little choppy. One thing that pisses me off is the fact that the RSX -- the PS3's GPU -- is inaccessible, thus rendering any 3D acceleration useless. While this doesn't affect any run of the mill programs like an Internet browser, the lack of access to the RSX does prevent you from playing 3D games and running other 3D apps like Beryl. Now obviously, the reason why Sony won't allow access to the GPU has to do with Blu-Ray copyright protection and the prevention of playing pirated games, but still, it would be nice to have access to the RSX.

As for the Cell processor, it seems to detect three out of the seven available SPE's, judging by the screenshots, but I'm not totally sure (keep in mind that Ubuntu wasn't designed for the PS3 in mind). One thing I would like to see is how well the Cell CPU is at encoding video in Linux -- but that will probably have to wait until someone makes a dedicated app that takes advantage of the Cell processor.




I'm going to play around with this a little more over the weekend to see what other interesting bits I can figure out about running Linux on the PS3. Honestly though, with less than 10 gigs of Hard Drive space to play around with, not to mention having less than 200 megs of ram and lack of access to the GPU; running Linux on the PS3 is more of an odd curiosity than a real useful application. Sure, this will make a great "Back-Up OS" if my regular PC was to blow up, but for now, it's not worth going thru the hassle unless you like tinkering with your new gadgets.