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Hardware Hacking Operating Systems PlayStation (Games) Linux Build

Linux for the PlayStation 1 122

Posted by michael from the up-up-down-down-fsck-fsck-fsck dept.
OberonX writes: "Blockman Trading has released the alpha version of Runix, which is a working verion of Linux 2.4 kernel working with PS2. [ed. note: for the original Playstation, though they plan on porting to the PS2 also.] You can read an article about it at zdnet and you can download the 26MB file here. The final version is expected to be released by October while office software for PS1 is due by the end of the year. Pretty neat stuff..."
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Linux for the PlayStation 1 More

Linux for the PlayStation 1

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  • Pretty Neat? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Neat stuff? This has no appreciable practical use besides the "geek" factor.

  • Re:What am I missing here? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I mean what are you going to do, run a web server from your PS2?

    jeez, quit putting ideas into peoples heads :)

  • Linux on all OSes (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    So you've got Linux running under PCs, PPC, Dreamcast, PS1 (next PS2, Xbox)...etc. In that case - why don't game developers (or whatever) develop software to run under Linux? Couple that to a unified API under all of the above hardware and developers would have the broadest gaming platform by OS under the sun.

  • So Saddam was right, after all! (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01, 2001 @05:33AM (#184439)
    So saddam was right after all!
  • no, thats for DEVELOPMENT - not for end user.

    A developer could create a CD with minimal Linux boot + enhanced Framebuffer or MicroWindows + minimal services for the Linux - and the game itself.

    All you have to do is just put the cd in - wait for the game to load, and play...

    Not bad, eh? ;)
  • Well that's exactly the reason I would like to run linux on my PS2. With a firewire interface I can connect any firewire hard disk, and I already use my PC USB keyboard and mouse (infact the wheel button works on games too), I'm sure a driver for a USB network connector can be made...
    So It's actually a better deal after it runs linux...
  • Try using a USB keyb, try it with the basic software that ship's with the PS2, works great...
    I used a cheap Taiwan USB keyb (costs less than 10$)

  • Dear Russia, (Score:3)

    by djweis ( 4792 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @05:36AM (#184443) Homepage
    We're sorry about your bandwidth. It should be back in a day or two. I'm up to 23 hops away and it's getting slower after each one.
  • Why on Earth would I want to run Linux on my PS2?

    Because you can.

  • This is just what countries like Iraq have been waiting for: standardized, general-purpose computing on cheap, reasonably powerful hardware that isn't embargoed or considered a munition.

    in which case they can buy them anyway, no?

    (btw, don't know how far they'll get through those the thermonuclear babymunching calculations - the PS1 has 2Mb of RAM)

  • Back a few years ago, I wrote in a column of mine [stonehenge.com] about setting the User Agent string for a Perl LWP fetch to something odd like "Mozilla/3.0 (Sony Playstation)". Looks like I was off only in the version number. {grin}
  • PS2 is noisy like hell.

    I would love to remove it from my room when I am playing quiet games.
    --
    Leonid S. Knyshov

  • The real story... (Score:3)

    by Gerv ( 15179 ) <gerv@@@gerv...net> on Friday June 01, 2001 @08:05AM (#184448) Homepage
    Their banner says "We decide problems of any complexity."

    Wow. I wonder how they'd cope with the Halting Problem...

    Gerv
  • I've been waiting for something like this for a long time, now maybe it'll be easier to port SNES/NES/SMS/Genesis/TG-16/Atari/Coleco/etc.. emulators to playstation. Throw 650mb of ROMs on a CD and your PSX is all of a sudden so many more systems! I've seen info about other PSX console emulators float by on the net, but none of them ever led me to any real meaty products... Anyone seen any emulator projects that actually work on PSX?
  • Where are you getting that Hard Drive price? They haven't annouced a price as far as I knew. Also, HD will be internal. Mose and Keyboard? I got an old iMac Keyboard and Mouse that work just fine. And if owning an iMac has taught me anything(and it hasn't), it's that floppies truly are not necessary.
    --
  • I have only one thing to say...

    "MAME"

    The idea of running MAME on the PS2 and playing Crazy Kong from the comfort of couch just puts me in a spin.

    Sure you'll need the HD [ign.com] and Network [ign.com]adapters, which'll cost you. But system price is supposed to drop to $200 [theregister.co.uk] sometime in the fall, so it's not that bad. And I challenge you to find a PC for $500 that has similar graphics performance.

    Besides, DOA2 [instantcool.com] still rocks the house!
    :)
    --
  • I have a PSX -> USB adaptor so making a USB -> PSX shouldn't be too hard...

    My adaptor and a copy of Bleem is the only way I can play US PSX games without getting my UK PSX chipped.

  • I believe this could be very interesting.. (Score:5)

    by Pengo ( 28814 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @06:18AM (#184453) Journal

    Linux on a PS2 (IMHO would rule...)

    In our business we use MIPS based SGI equipment for doing image manipulation. I believe it wouldn't take much work to port those libraries to the PS2. We use a simple cluster of XMLRPC servers to handle image conversion requests and the data is transfered over simple NFS style filesystems.

    The problem I have right now is that the image conversions have to happen on demand and in real time (well, there is a user waiting). Most of the images on the fastest PC's I can get my hands on happen in around 2 seconds. (I use Image magick, there are probably better things out there). On the Irix machine we have we can do the same conversion less than .1 seconds. Also I can have up to four concurrent conversions happening at one time and keep that conversion rate.

    I believe that the reason the SGI machine does so well is because of the internal bandwidth and system architecture, not so much the CPU speed. (Again, AFAIK).

    Now, if I can use 13-14 playstation2's in a small cluster to get similar results (even close) would be MUCH MUCH MUCH more cost effective than a Origin class server.

    Strangely enough those little machines are designed to maintain a fairly intense sustained level of io/cpu internaly without keeling over.

    Just a thought... anyway. It might very well be the pro-c compilers for Irix give me the edge and with GCC I wouldn't see much of a performance gain over a normal ia32 system.




    --------------------
    Would you like a Python based alternative to PHP/ASP/JSP?
  • unfortunatly because of the graphics chipset limitations the ps2 cannot do some of the transforms nessicery for efective mpeg2 playback which is why it is concidered as a very inferior dvd player.
    from what I remember it is motion compensation that trips up the chipset and has to be performed totaly in software. divx requires more complex calculations and so I wouldnt keep my fingers crossed for it to come to the ps2 anytime soon.

    but it would be an interesting problem to try and solve.
  • Kids have this habit of trashing CDs - big time. It might be nice to have backups of your good games and let them trash junk CD-Rs would it not?

    Wake up - not everyone is in your special situation or playing by your rules. Sheesh.

  • Allow the PS2 to fall into American hands, they will use them to do nasty things like *build an illegal National Missile Defence System*.
  • This is just what countries like Iraq have been waiting for: standardized, general-purpose computing on cheap, reasonably powerful hardware that isn't embargoed or considered a munition.

    Not that I think this project should be stopped. The more Unix there is in the world, the better I like it!

  • On the question on how much is ported to a new architecture. I think most times people just make a new version of any assembly for the new processor and write a new processor compiler template for the compiler to manage to build code for the required processor. All the rest of the porting work can be done at the c, for which the only real modifications are for hardware quirks.
    Any other new hardware can be delt with buy writing new drivers (usually using a piggy back driver for source code). New complex systems are controlled by daemon processes

    DISCLAIMER

    I post this information in an attempt to give people a clearer understanding of the rational in linux If i'm unclear anywhere, try looking for other associated linux matterial. If you are looking for coding help I am not likly to be available. I make no effort to check for errors or omittions I am replying purely from memory if I am wrong just ignore.
  • Agreed.. Why do people expend the time and energy to write these kinds of things? IBM's port of linux to a wristwatch pretty much demonstrated linux could go anywhere.

    There are plenty of useful apps that can be written. I cant think of a good reason for linux on the PS/2. and talking about MAIM - why not re-code it for the PS/2 and distribute the damned thing? After the initial lawsuits are passed, and the PS/2 disk drive comes out, you might make all of $2 per disk. :)

    And for my next trick, i shall port linux to my brain. (hmm.. that WOULD be useful.)

    I guess, perhaps, its the same reason people climb mountains..

  • Re:What am I missing here? (Score:3)

    by MartinG ( 52587 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @06:34AM (#184460) Homepage Journal
    > Why on Earth would I want to run Linux on my PS2?

    Just off the top of my head, I would say there is a lot you can do. eg, many open source linux games can now be ported to the PS much more easily since all the neccesary linux libs etc will be available.

    Also off the top of my head: With just linux, a framebuffer driver for the PS, an opendivx codec and a bit of work, it shouldn't be too hard to get a bootable linux based cd whose sole purpose is to play back the divx thats also recorded to the cd. In other words, an alternative to DVD that plays on any PS and is easily copied and distributed. This would be ideal for people wanting to send copies of their summer party video to their friends, none of whom own a pc, but all who have playstations.

    When someone says that linux runs on the PS, don't automatically think that they are talking about a complete GNU/Linux system together with all the usual shells and servers etc. That will probably not be the case. I expect a bootable linux CD could be set up to go straight into a game from init. The user may not even know they were running linux at all.

    This could be the start of lots of free-software games releases ported to the PS.
  • Not just pirates chip their PlayStations. I regularly travel back and forth between Japan and the UK. Purchasing games in Japan was a way to get games before they came out elsewhere, on the PS1...
  • Take a look at this http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/news/0,10870, 2766033,00.html [gamespot.com] first.

    Of all the consoles out there, or due to be out in 2001, this would surely be the one that has the capability of making the most of the Linux/BSD/etc. OSs. It is made to accept off the shelf accessories (with the exception of the HD and Ethernet attachment.
    Hell it is the first console trying to live in the space between Console and PC. It accepts USB keyboards and mice for God's sake!
  • I don't get it, what are you trying to say? I must be dumber than you think....
  • Ok, so maybe it isn't, but at least I made you look! Honestly, the things people do to entertain and amuse themselves...

    If there was ever a use for 'Gesture Recognition', PS is the platform for it.

    To me, this is proof of what I have said ever since being introduced to Intel based Unix/Unix look-alikes : Linux for fun, BSD for work!
  • if you think it is only a novelty, you miss the point.
    <soapbox>
    i will help you there.
    the point: a linux operating system can be ported to just about anything. here is one more platform developers have conquered.
    </soapbox>

  • while Runix is Slashdotted... (Score:3)

    by joq ( 63625 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @05:37AM (#184466) Homepage Journal

    I got to thinking about people who have neat ideas like this, Runix, NewOS, AtheOS, etc., and I wonder about how this helps the community (showing the different ways Linux is being used, etc) and thought about someone creating the all in one marketing site for Linux to show how many different configurations, installations you could create with it.

    The site of course would be a non profit site sort of like a Source Forge, where developers could post their latest work, which could be referred to in trade shows, LinuxWorld Expo's etc., so Fortune 500's could see all of the neat things that could be done from this OS (Linux) and others like it.

    On its own, its nothing more than a novelty (Runix) but when you have hundreds of different creations all in one place, I think it strenghtens the notion that Linux and others like it should be looked into more often, as opposed to dumping money buying, or leasing for that matter (*cough XP*) software when it's freely available.

    Sorry I couldn't post on the gaming side of this story because I don't play them (well actually XBoard, Dopewars, and XBill I'll admit it) so forgive my gratuitous post ;)
  • > but PS1 is only 33mhz. You might as well buy an old 386.

    The graphics capability of a PSX (PS1) doing 320x240 is equivalent to a P100 doing 640x480 in software or at least that's the impression I got when I was doing PSX development back in 95/96.
  • > Why would anyone but a CRIMINAL have his playstation modded to play CDR copies of games?

    It is FAIR USE for a legal customer to backup their cd's and use the backups to play.

    Guess you never have kids in your house that destroy CD's.

    Stop making the assumption, copying = pirating dumbass.
  • And isn't life all about getting a woody?

    not if you're female, friend.
  • You're looking at it as if people would be buying the ps2 *just* for the linux stuff.

    See, it's a game console, and there are a lot of really cool games out for it. It also plays DVDs.

    So it becomes the "living room appliance" that everyone has been trying to achieve for the last 5 years. I don't understand why people are so against it....

  • Re:Pardon me... (Score:4)

    by AugstWest ( 79042 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @06:06AM (#184471)
    Go back and read any of the 10 million previous debates on this subject. Every time they post something about a port to a console, this debate gets run through again. Here, in a nutshell, are some of the main reasons:

    1. M.A.M.E. -- run a bazillion and one arcade games with a nice controller from your couch

    2. XMMS -- burn off a CD of a bootable kernel, audio drivers and XMMS with a CD full of MP3s and you've got an MP3 player hooked up to your home theater

    3. Because it is there. Why the hell not port it? If you don't want to use it, it's quite simple -- don't. I know a lot of people who enjoy getting things ported just for the fun of it -- why not see the linux boot screen scrolling by on your television? Seems pretty cool to me.
  • PS2 $200
    External Hard Drive ~$250
    External Floppy Drive ~$50
    Mouse & Keyboard ~$35
    You get the picture.

    And those great graphics you talk about are designed for a TV. It'll make a nice DVD player, but I'd hate to write software using a TV as a display. I've heard rumors of LCD displays comming out, but at what resolution, and what cost?

    If you can put a network card in it it might make a nice firewall computer, but Linksys already makes those cheap.

    Linux on PS2 is interesting from a hobby aspect, and it shows how portable the Kernel is, but it doesn't appear very "usefull" to me.
  • I wouldn't hold your breath for the PS1, at least. I once tried scouring the net for a software MP3 player for the PS1, to no avail. There are plenty of hardware players (that plug into the parallel port in the back), but none that can do it all in software.

    I found at least one person who had tried writing a software MP3 player, first in C and then in assembly, but couldn't make it work because the CPU for the PSX runs at 33MHz and is much too slow to do the decoding in real time.

    Therefore, the porting of emulators and such doesn't seem likely until you reach DC- and PS2-class hardware.
  • > PS2 $200
    > External Hard Drive ~$250
    > External Floppy Drive ~$50
    > Mouse & Keyboard ~$35

    Geek factor: priceless.
  • What's it have to do with being a "selling point" for a PS1? PS1's are already out there by the millions. I can think of 2 friends of mine, right off the top of my head, who currently poke along with old-tech PCs due to being strapped for cash, and who also own a PS1 in their living room. If you can get the PS1 to work as a simple Internet terminal, even, it will be of real use to them.

    This isn't about cost-effectiveness compared to a price of a new PC. This is about getting more use out of the stuff you spent hard earned $'s on a couple years ago....
  • Well, now we might see some text editors ported compiled for the Playstation or the Playstation 2. Is this starting to remind anyone else of the old Atari/Commodore 64/etc. situation (relatively cheap "computer" that hooks up to a TV with very little storage, is designed to be a gaming console, and doesn't have enough input/storage capacity to be a real computer by any stretch of the word)?

  • Re:So, is it... (Score:4)

    by cworley ( 96911 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @05:48AM (#184477)
    On May 30th, "The Register" had the same article with the same problem of confusing "1" with "2". The Register has since pulled the article alltogether (this distribution has been available for more than a month -- not big news).

    I downloaded the kernel -- it's for the PlayStation I only. The PS2 version should be available in a month.

  • I stand corrected. It seems that Sony is going to support Linux on the Playstation [zdnet.com] Still .. I have to wonder if it will be used to get round PS2 copy-protection. :)

  • Take a letter please Mrs. Jones... (Score:3)

    by Vanders ( 110092 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @06:21AM (#184479) Homepage
    Square,Square,R1,L,R,U,U,D,D,R1,R1,D,D,L2,L1,U,U,R ,R,R,R,Square,Triangle,Square,L1,L1. New paragraph. L1,L1,Square,Triangle....
  • Linux on a PS2 (IMHO would rule...)

    It's been done... oh, hang on. that's PS/2 :)

  • I've been trying for a couple of days to get this file. I only have 300k so far. Has anyone managed to download the whole thing yet?

    Tried getting it with 'wget' or any other download manager? That way you can resume part way through a broken download...

    Cheers,

    Toby Haynes

  • Install onto a CD the kernal, sound/video drivers, gamepad drivers. Then your choice of: MAME, snes9x, an MP3 player, whatever, and a bunch of appropriate data files. Then you carry it around, and wherever there may be a PS1, you're golden.

  • Office Productivity Software? (Score:5)

    by Isldeur ( 125133 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @06:06AM (#184483)
    Productivity Software? Are you nuts?

    [right] [left] [left] [right] [up] [button 3] [right] [up] [up]...

    Be quiet! I need to finish this report tonight!!!

    And I thought typing on that half-keyboard mentioned here a few days ago was going to be hard!
  • You don't need to port an entire operating system in order to run MAME. It would be much simpler to port MAME directly to the PS/PS2 in the same way its been ported to Win32, Mac etc. Probably its the only way you could use it anyway what with the low memory constraints.

  • Contra! You know what I am talking about you dam cheater.


  • i don't know what model sgi's you are using, but every benchmark we've run shows a modern intel or amd based linux box blowing the crap out of our origins...often 2-10x faster...sometimes more.

    i seriously doubt the playstation can approach a high end gaming pc in price/performance, unless you have code specifically designed to take advantage of the ps2 gfx. so, you would have to benchmark the linux/ps2 against a good pc gaming platform.

    if they are using 2.4 kernel, they pretty much have to be using xfree 4.x...if they aren't you can give it up anyway...anything pre xfree 4.x is worthless for serious graphics.


    Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
  • Get it while it's hot... Not sure how long it will be up there.

    http://www.umsl.edu/~s976489/kernel-psx-2.4.0.ta r. gz
  • The Ethernet adapter/modem is comiing out this November at $39.99 Keyboard, mouse, hard drive and LCD screen are coming out at the same time but no price has been given (but I don't really expect the HDD and LCD screen to come cheaply).

    And, by the way, the PS2s at E3 were running Unix. I was there when they shut them down on the last day. And it was really weird to see somebody turn off a PS2 with a 'shutdown' command ;)
    ---------------------------------------------- -------------

  • All your Up,Up,Down,Down,Left,Right,Left,Right, B,A,B,A,Select,Start are belong to us!

  • I believe you just completely backed up what he was trying to say instead of challenging it.

  • Office software? (Score:5)

    by Lozzer ( 141543 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @05:38AM (#184491) Journal

    I've often dreamed of being able to use a gamepad at work, but not for office productivity software.

  • It does, have you seen :- http://www.jp.playstation.com/linux/image/screensh ot.jpg How can they port it and then not release it? doesn't that go against the licence??
  • How hard could this possibly be to explain, and yet the question comes up every time someone announces a port like this?

    Because it can be done. Because you're talking about putting a general-purpose OS on a fairly powerful (okay, by '96 standards, but still...) $99 box. Because there's a great deal of satisfaction in cracking a closed system (though demosceners have been doing it for a while now). In two words: hack value.

    Do you need any further explanation?

    /Brian
  • Linux/PS1 is actually pretty useless except for things like the above, but it also has the advantage of (like Linux/Dreamcast, NetBSD/Dreamcast, etc) being a good way to make your own games. And the PlayStation in both forms is not going away soon, so this is really not a bad idea.

    Think of it this way: the PSone is the last of the stand-alone game consoles; everything else is bleeding into PC territory.

    Actually, here's a diversionary thought for you...

    Are we witnessing a convergence in system design? I think so. The video game console sort of split off from the personal computer tree right at the beginning, while the dumb terminal was absorbing PC traits and eventually developing into things like the X terminal and then things like the iOpener and WebTV. Now we're seeing something that started with the Dreamcast where the video game console of old is merging with the descendants of the terminal. I don't actually know if this is a good thing, though -- seems to me there should be a point of principle about opening closed systems as quickly as humanly possible, as most of these are at least nominally closed systems...

    /Brian
  • I was thinking the very same thing. Perhaps even use several PS2's for a pcig cluster for something in the middle of an SGI Onyx IR system and an SGI Graphics Cluster.
  • Anyone know of an ethernet interface for PS1? If so, I could easily have 6 webservers going here before the week is up!
  • In fact, I had it do my taxes for me in April. I hear memachine is going to be merged with emacs soon.
  • But they do have to do with consoles. If you had read all of the above posts, you'd see they were responding to a recommendation that they just go out and buy a Japanese PSX. Which would be difficult, since Japan is NTSC and the UK is PAL.
  • I think the whole point of the guys post is that he _didn't_ want to buy a new TV.
  • Another idea: burn a bootable cd with Linux, a movie player and a movie; you insert the cd and the movie starts. Best would be a player which supports psx hardware

  • I'd like to begin with the fact that I'm full or respect towards the guys that had written this port of Linux. Great job, guys.

    However, I must also say that the hardware in the PS/1 is simply not enough. If it only had some kind of a network interface, I'd be the first to get it. However without a network interface it becomes quite useless. I can cope with the absence of a hard drive or good input, as long as I can burn the system on a CD and telnet in.

    What I would have been glad to find is a box similar to the PS/1, plus a network interface. There can be countless areas where it could be applied - from mp3 playing to firewalling.

  • Call me back (Score:4)

    by SomeOtherGuy ( 179082 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @06:43AM (#184502) Journal
    Ok I have Linux for my Dreamcast -- Linux for the ps2 and ps1....Linux for my toaster, etc, etc....I have yet to here of anyone porting MAME to run on these....(Sound support, Joypad Support, and acceptable speed please....) Has anyone worked on this --- or do they just port the base OS and move on to the next toy...Hell if the OS was all that mattered I would be running CP/M or maybe even BeOS.....It's the apps that make the world go round.
  • Playstation 1, or Playstation 2?
  • Carlos,

    Interesting about the Unix, are you implying a paid for Unix instead of a GPL *nix like Linux?

    The AOL folks (man and woman to be specific) said the AOL client they were showing was for Linux. It is possible the Linux client was ported to run on a "real" Unix, but I have to wonder why.

    What did you see that let you know it was Unix and not Linux or *BSD?

    One other tidbit I did pick up at the show was related to whether or not they would be coming out with a 802.11b supporting device for the PS2. The Sony rep (not AOL) I asked said he didn't know, but thought he had seen them testing one. If Sony did release a WiFi adapter, that could be really useful if your stereo/TV/console is in a different room from your hub.

    Morgan

  • Sony has PS2 w/ Linux and AOL running. (Score:5)

    by morganew ( 194299 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @06:06AM (#184505)
    To all doubters,

    Just a brief note here, but at E3 (the Electronics Entertainment Expo) the Sony area had two AOL employees demonstrating AOL on the PS2 running linux. Additionally, there was an ethernet card adapter "thingie" (for lack of a better term) stuck on the back. From what I could tell, it was a production unit rather than a one-off. The demo personnel said there would be an ethernet adapter for PS2 out "soon". Unfortunately, the folks working that corner of the booth were from AOL (despite their PS2 shirts) and were not 100% familiar with Sony's plans.

    Morgan

  • "We decide problems."

  • First, a correction: the GPL does not require that you distribute source to a GPL program that you modify--only that if you distribute it in binary form then you must also distribute it in source form. This seems to be a pretty common misunderstanding, but if you come from out of nowhere and ask Sony (or anyone else) to fork over the source for some GPL'd software XYZ, and they say "screw you," well, tough luck--they're completely within their rights.

    Second, Sony is including the source to all GPL components of their distribution. They even say as much (in Japanese) on their license terms page [playstation.com].

    --
    BACKNEXTFINISHCANCEL

  • No text here move along
  • Perhaps this is the foothold linux gaming needs. The i386 platform is in a windows stranglehold, but if we can make it very easy to transfer games written for linux to the playstation platform and make images available for people to burn to a cd that will boot linux on the playstation/playstation2 and run the game, this adds a serious level of added value to any linux platform game programming project. Perhaps game companies could even target a linux ps/ps2 system by distributing two discs, the runix disk (all gpl) and the game disk (proprietary, if they feel they must)? I'd love to have a port of tuxracer for the ps/ps2. Intriguing, Bryguy
  • Because it's there, and because I can! Where's your sense of adventure? Where's your scientific curiousity?

    Okay, so maybe I have a really geeky sense of adventure, but still... This kind of thing really is for people (like me) that like to turn on every experimental option when compiling their own kernel "just because".

    ~~
  • Just because the PS2 will play most PS games does not mean that it will be able to boot this copy of Linux. It isn't really a game, and even has different types of libraries. PS2 is designed to run PS1 games, which are built using very strict standards. It probably won't run the PS1 Linux to be honest with you.
  • I would like to see someone try to port a copy of XP over to a PS1

    Hahahahahahah.... man that's a good one. :)

    -- juju
  • The aim, according to Blokman co-founder and chief executive Vadim V Veshchezerov, is to "transform [the] Sony PlayStation and Sony PlayStation2 into a low-priced desktop computer".

    Just watch some wanker give me DDoS attack right in the middle of $GAME_NAME_HERE. :)

  • unfortually this is th ps1 they are talking about, no usb ports...
  • I've been trying for a couple of days to get this file. I only have 300k so far. Has anyone managed to download the whole thing yet?

    Tried getting it with 'wget' or any other download manager? That way you can resume part way through a broken download...

    I am using wget! :)

  • Mirrors? (Score:3)

    by kyz ( 225372 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @05:36AM (#184516) Homepage
    I've been trying for a couple of days to get this file. I only have 300k so far. Has anyone managed to download the whole thing yet?

  • Re:Inside the PS1 and PS2 (Score:3)

    by kyz ( 225372 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @06:46AM (#184517) Homepage
    What about Full-geeks? They'll want real PSX programming docs [classicgaming.com]. Because they're not five year old kids [howstuffworks.com].

  • Now we need to get to work... (Score:5)

    by JohnTheFisherman ( 225485 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @05:32AM (#184518)
    We now need to build a PS1 emulator so that it can run all the stuff it used to run in emulation mode, only slower!!! No more constant crashing of the PS1 console! Er, um, wait....

  • Related news... (Score:4)

    by 3-State Bit ( 225583 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @05:50AM (#184519)
    The aim, according to Blokman co-founder and chief executive Vadim V Veshchezerov, is to "transform [the] Sony PlayStation and Sony PlayStation2 into a full-featured, low-priced desktop computer".
    In related news, Apple Computers announces plans to work with Sony to market its recent purchase of Connectix's Mac-based PlayStation emulator, Virtual Game Station. [theregister.co.uk]
    The aim, according to Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs, is to "transform [the] Apple G4 and G4 Cube into a full-featured, high-priced gaming console".



    This is a joke. Don't find it funny? move on.
    ~
  • This has no appreciable practical use besides the "geek" factor.
    Really? How about if we get development tools that let people make Linux-based games for the PSx? Without having to pay Sony any licensing fees.

    There is a device (DexDrive, IIRC) that hooks up to a serial port on a computer that allows PS1 saved games to be up/downloaded to the HD. I saw it priced at 10 bucks at Electronics Boutique. A creative person might use this as a "floppy" to store the .rc file for a brute-force crypto crack, and the output of same.

    The same device could be used to store a scene description file and the corresponding animated .GIF output of a rendering engine (like POV-Ray).

    And that's jut off the top of my head without even thinking about it.

  • Oh. By that standard, /. "is of no practical use". So why are we here?
  • I've had a couple of rejections like that too. The only thing I can come up with is maybe they didn't like the way I wrote the run-down of the story. I've found that screaming at the top of my lungs with my rejected story on a sign in Times Square is more effective anyway.
  • Not necessarily...there are a handful of games that were using some direct-to-the-metal routines that won't emulate and so Sony keeps a list [scea.com] of what's not compatible. Some PSOne periphs don't work well either (Twin Shock Home Arcade Stick). Fortunately, GT and Vagrant Story are not on that list.

    Even if it does run (and it probably will), why not wait for a PS2-specific distro? Anything written for PSOne will be unable to take advantage of the PS2's forthcoming HD and net access anyway.

    GTRacer
    - I didn't come here to play. I came to win!

  • Come on guys, don't forget the serial port. Plug it into a cheap external modem (or just serial link it to your broadband NAT box) and you have a compact, attractive, CHEAP web browser that works on your TV.
  • "Blockman Trading has released the alpha version of Runix, which is a working verion of Linux 2.4 kernel working with PS2
    So which one is it? PS2 or PS1?
  • >> Sure you'll need the HD and Network adapters... well, actually, no you wont. You could make a sort of 'roll your own' type distribution, where you burn a cd-r with the linux, the emulator, and as many roms as you want.

  • The correct download URL is ftp://ftp.ware.ru/pub/unix/linux/kernel/kernel-psx -2.4.0.tar.gz [ftp.ware.ru]

    Makes me wonder if the slashdot editors asked for permission to link directly. Hotlinking 26 MB. is quite a lot if you are paying for your bandwidth pr. megabyte.

    You are "welcom [runix.ru]".
  • 1 or 2
    or 0 or 1 ?
    Damn I just confused myself more.

  • First of I have nothing against BSD, heck anything I wright*, is being released under the BSD licence. The only reason I have RedHat GNU/Linux rather than FreeBSD is because I live in a small town and the only way to get FreeBSD is to drive two hours away and buy a $110CAN Book and I'm 13 and have no credit card to buy it online.

    Now that the disclaimer is out of the way... The fact that someone ported Linux to the PS1/Dreamcast/PS2 does not make it so you can not do work on it. Until I got my Macintosh I did all my work in KOffice using XFce as my Window Manager. I found it quite easy to use and powerful for the price of $0. I'm sure I could do just the same on FreeBSD or any UNIX. I really don't see why anyone makes a big deal about which UNIX they run. When someone asks me what I run I Anwser "My Mac for working and gaming and UNIX for Programming."

    Arguing over which UNIX is better is pointless because until you get to the source level they look, feel and behave about the same. Most GNU/Linux programs will Compile on BSD/Tru64/AIX/HP-UX/QNX/BeOS or anything that has a POSIX layer, thus making the argument that "My UNIX is better than your UNIX!" worse. I don't see why UNIX people can't get along: vi vs emacs, KDE vs GNOME, GUI vs CLI, BSD vs GNU/Linux...

    The funny thing is the only thing UNIX people will agree on is that UNIX is the best.

    *All I've got written right now is a dice roller in Perl, I AM only 13...


    --Volrath50

  • I'd download FreeBSD if I could even with my 56k connection, but I don't have a CD-Burner. I got RedHat in the book "RedHat Linux for Dummies". The book was crap but it's the only way I could get any UNIX in the Middle of Nowhere(tm) (Southern Ontario). It sucks when the only way I can upgrade to RedHat 7.X is to buy a new dummie book.

    --Volrath50

  • It gets worse: I have a Conpaq that refuses to boot from a floppy. The RedHat CD was bootable so I was able to install it. I've looked into it and the only way for me to get FreeBSD without driving to the US or Toronto or something is to buy that FreeBSD book for $110Can. It looked quite good but I can't remember the name...

    --Volrath50

  • My, doesn't that bring back the memories. Does that code still work in any newer games?

  • Thank god its not Windows (Score:5)

    by Astrorunner ( 316100 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @05:55AM (#184537) Journal
    I can just see MS Office with Lara Croft instead of that infernal paper clip giving me tips:

    "It appears that you're searching for ancient treasure! Would you like me to:

    • Load my sidearm?
    • Find a better camera angle of my ass?
  • I am obviously missing something huge here. Why on Earth would I want to run Linux on my PS2? It has no network access, no keyboard, and no HD storage (granted, I know it is coming. Someday.) I'm not sure how much of a selling point this is for people looking to buy a PS2 either. If I'm John Q. Public looking to buy a computer for word processing and email, should I buy a $300 system, plus whatever the future HD and broadband adapter and a keyboard costs, then install Linux on it and learn how to use UNIX, or should I go to Best Buy and buy a $500 PC which comes with monitor, printer, and a preinstalled OS that has thousands of pieces of software available for it? This would seem to be a geek think only. I mean what are you going to do, run a web server from your PS2? I'm willing to bet that a good majority of the people who would be even remotely interested in this, probably already have an extra box set up somewhere with Linux already installed.

  • Inside the PS1 and PS2 (Score:3)

    by K4GPB ( 413101 ) on Friday June 01, 2001 @05:56AM (#184544)
    Semi-geeks will want to see what's under the covers at PlayStation1 [howstuffworks.com] and PlayStation2 [howstuffworks.com]

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