Gentoo Ported to PS2 235
kerneljacabo writes "In what is yet another testament to the flexibility of the Gentoo platform, it has been ported to the PS2. It is still in the early stages but more information can be found here."
"It might help if we ran the MBA's out of Washington." -- Admiral Grace Hopper
Shhh.... (Score:2, Funny)
It was just a matter of time... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It was just a matter of time... (Score:5, Interesting)
Gentoo is a "meta-distro," which can be put on top of many UNIX-like systems. The Gentoo Linux we often hear can be percieved as the "reference distro" of the Gentoo meta-distro system.
Heck, there's even Gentoo for cygwin and OSX
Re:It was just a matter of time... (Score:5, Funny)
why is this insightful? (Score:2, Interesting)
But Sony beat everyone to the punch. Their version of linux (Kondara, based on Red Hat, acc. to this article [oreillynet.com]) has been out for awhile, over a year. The code is out there to be tweaked however you want. And since the hard work has been done, it shouldn't be difficult to port any distribution, as long as you have the endurance to add the proper flags to all releva
Re:It was just a matter of time... (Score:2, Informative)
Yup, there's now several distributions:
As far as porting the Linux kernel to the PS2, though, it's not quite that simple. Linux in general is not as portable as you might think, and it's a major pain on the PS2. First some background:
It's
Gentoo Port (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Gentoo Port (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Gentoo Port (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Gentoo Port (Score:3, Funny)
(Fatal exception error: you have got to be kidding.)
Re:Gentoo Port (Score:2)
Keep waiting. Wine only runs x86 code on an x86. It is a OS call emulation layer, not a processor emulator.
Support for PS/2 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Support for PS/2 (Score:3, Funny)
What's a serial mouse?
Re:Support for PS/2 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Support for PS/2 (Score:2)
PS/2 mouse....
get it?
Sony refers to thier latest console as the PS2 not the PS/2.
already! (Score:2)
Google cache (Score:3, Informative)
Direct download link here [playstation2-linux.com].
details? (Score:5, Interesting)
And furthermore, why is gentoo on ps2 special? (apart from the benefits of emerge et al)
Re:details? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:details? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:details? (Score:2)
The first way is to buy the Linux kit from Sony, which does run in a virtual machine.
The second is to run via a hack to a game and apparently some memory option. (I don't remember the full details) Apparently it allows you raw access to the hardware, not sandboxed.
There was a story about a month ago explaining how that worked. I presume that you know how to do a search in slash
Re:details? (Score:2)
-Rusty
Re:details? (Score:3, Interesting)
The only Linux distribution available apart from Sony PS2 Linux (Red Hat 5.2 based) is BlackRhino Linux [xrhino.com] (Debian based), and it doesn't work well at all from my experience with it. A new PS2 Linux distribution such as Gentoo is warmly welcomed by the community [playstation2-linux.com].
Re:details? (Score:2)
Emerge also incorporates distcc into the build process, so if you have a bunch of PS2s (or a few desktop PCs for that matter) you could farm the compile process across the
Great. (Score:5, Funny)
*grin*
Re:Great. (Score:3, Insightful)
Why are developers spending time porting to the PS2, instead of contributing code to Gnome, KDE, OpenOffice, Mozilla, or what ever other end user project needs work. Better yet, work on making the PPC or UltraSparc ports better.
We have a great OS and many great applications, now we need to polish them up. How pretty the icons are is more important to the end user than how many game consoles you can run Linux on.
Altp.
Re:Great. (Score:3, Interesting)
Until it does - which it never will because that's too "mainstream" of a goal for geeks to want to take up their spare time with - the Linux GUI experience will suck compared to the windows usability experience (no, I'm not talking about stability, I'm talking about the ease of doing mundane things)
Re:Great. (Score:2)
Enlightenment doesn't exactly have the buddha nature, but it is very pretty...
Re:Great. (Score:3, Insightful)
PS2 Porting is a great idea (Score:5, Interesting)
You already own a PS2 as "Joe Homeguy". You could go out and buy a new computer, but the guy at the store says "Well, just buy this Hard Drive upgrade for $200 for your PS2, and stick in this CD with Linux on it, and off you go".
So you take it home, and do that. You can surf the web, get your email, write up documents, and you're good. Want to play your games? Just shut it off (and you don't know it's using a journaled filesystem, so all of your files aren't ruined - and besides, it just stores the data on the hard drive, the OS "lives" on the CD you stick in).
Remove the Linux CD, stick in Metal Gear Solid 3/Kingdom Hearts/Disgaea (which is probably one of the best games this year) - and you're playing. You can even play online with the Broadband adapter in the back if you want.
Want to use the TV? No problem. You don't worry about upgrades - when the Linux Service, they send you a new disk every month, and it only costs $10 a year, and it includes demos of new games. Just stick in the disk, and you can do more 'stuff'.
This is the kind of thing that Linux in the home could be great for. And since there are 60,000,000 PS2's in the world, all with 99% similiar hardware, the Linux distribution wouldn't worry too much about compatibility - if you want something else to work, like a USB hard drive or a USB keychain storage media to transmit files between work/home (or that stores your basic settings, so you could go to a friends house and use their "computer" - I mean, PS2 to check your mail and 'stuff' if you like.
So I'd say Linux on the PS2 is just as important as working to make Gnome and KDE better. It gives a possible leverage that could avoid the desktop computer monopoly, by bypassing it altogether
Re:PS2 Porting is a great idea (Score:5, Interesting)
Linux for the PS2 also extends the useful lifetime of the console hardware.
I own the PS2 Linux kit. Admittedly, I don't boot up into it terribly often (I have two other Linux boxes here to work on as well), but it's all installed and setup.
However, as we all know, consoles eventually hit an "end-of-life" after 4 or 5 years, when Sony releases their next console and everyone starts developing for it instead. How many old PS1's are there out there sitting in closets and garages because the gamer of the house now owns a PS2 and no longer needs it?
Linux extends this useful lifetime. When the PS3 does come out, I don't have to relegate my PS2 to the closet. It's already running Linux. I can simply put it into a closet and let it run a mail server, a file server, a media server (having the digital optical audio out on it makes it a lovely Ogg Vorbis/MP3 jukebox), or any one of a number of other useful tasks.
Yaz.
NetBSD (Score:5, Interesting)
NetBSD runs on the PS2 [netbsd.org] and has for some time. Too bad it's dying.
slashdotted already.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:slashdotted already.... (Score:3, Informative)
PS2 not PS/2 (Score:3, Insightful)
[...] testament to the flexibility of the Gentoo platform, it has been ported to the PS/2 [...]
Don't tell me you cannot make the difference between an old IBM PC and a game console
It's ideal for the process. (Score:4, Interesting)
Not that the process would be any fun on the platform, of course -- I imagine glibc being an overnight compile, for example -- but it does testify to the strength of the source distribution system's portability.
Re:It's ideal for the process. (Score:2)
Slackware has supported the Microchannel bus based PS/2 machines for years.
Re:It's ideal for the process. (Score:2)
It's not the first mainstream Linux distro ported to the PS2. If we ignore Sony's Linux for a second, BlackRhino [playstation2-linux.com] was released for the PS2 last March, and it's completely Debian based.
Yaz.
The difference (Score:2)
Your install disk is arch dependent and so are the packages you download via apt.
With Gentoo your install disc may be arch dependent, but since the packages are downloaded and compiled automatically they don't have to be. The guy on the pcc uses the same ebuilds as the guy on the intel box.
It's not just about speed increases, it's about having the install process completely cust
emerge finalfantasy (Score:3, Interesting)
Making a PVR with that is impossible, no tuner!
I don't really see the point of always trying to fix some linux or some BSD distribution on every freaking piece of processing hardware there is. A commitment to portability?
How about spending more time fixing bugs in actual useful and popular software for linux instead? It would be pretty sweet to have PCs with better hardware support than running gentoo on my refrigerator. "Yay! Kernel support for FridgeLight and TempProbe"
Laurent
Re:emerge finalfantasy (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:emerge finalfantasy (Score:2)
Re:emerge finalfantasy (Score:2)
I have heard it could make a good missle guidance system. Too bad it only runs a proprietary OS. Oh wait...
Re:emerge finalfantasy (Score:2)
Re:emerge finalfantasy (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, how about these [newsforge.com] janitors [sourceforge.net], for example?
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
I'm not really sure I'd call Open Source strictly volunteer, anyway. Personally speaking, about 40% or so of the OSS hacking I do is fixing bugs that I personally need fixed.
Granted, the other 60% is probably making new bugs for other people to fix (I like to think of it as "adding features")... but somehow we still seem to come out ahead in the end. ^_-
Gentoo on PS2 != new linux distro most likely (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Correction (Score:3, Funny)
Duh, it's a hazing ritual for new Sony engineers. They have to drink beer on a block of Ice and port the latest Linux kernel to either the PS2 or the gameboy advance.
Re:Correction (Score:2)
Now (Score:1)
PCJr. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:PCJr. (Score:2)
or the banana jr...
Re:PCJr. (Score:2, Interesting)
Every disk fetch and all I/O on a PCJr. has to pass through the CPU's registers. There are special kludges and BIOS 'features' in the junior that make it capable of even running DOS.
It makes for a glacially slow machine. I used to be fond of running 3-Demon on my PCJr. The machine was so slow that if you turned to face down a long hall of the 3-D wire-framed game, the rendering o
Re:PCJr. (Score:2)
perhaps also ... (Score:4, Funny)
Go Microchannel!!!! (Score:1)
Vertical
*Sigh* Some people have no humor.... (Score:2)
Vertical
Re:*Sigh* Some people have no humor.... (Score:2)
Having been one of the engineering student victims forced to buy (the wrong) PS/2 when they first came out, I'm familiar with the machines, their strenght's and their weeknesses.
I was just getting tired of seeing the same comment over and over and over where some "person" was misidentifying the machines. Linux already runs on the PS/2 (provided it's a 386); but, has had limited availability on the PS2...
Good! (Score:1)
I sure hope Gentoo will run in 640K with 2M of extended RAM...
Gaah! (Score:2)
When I read that I was thinking: I wonder if there is any good support for microchannel hardware?
PS/2 == IBM Crap
PS2 == Sony Crap
Yes, Microchannel is supported (Score:2)
You should recompile your kernel sometime. Under "General setup" you can enable MCA support if you are so unfortunate as to have a Microchannel computer (I used to back in the day, I feel your pain).
Linux on PS2 has been done many times :) (Score:3, Interesting)
Someone above said 'don't tell sony'. Sony sells the kit [playstation.com] to do this! Anyone who wants to run Linux on their PS2 can easily do so by ordering it.
Re:Linux on PS2 has been done many times :) (Score:2, Insightful)
Gentoo on PS2 = mod chip, complete access to the hardware, and not buying the kit.
Yeah, you can get Sony's kit. But it's extremely crippled so far as accessing the hardware.
Re:Linux on PS2 has been done many times :) (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Runtime can't read recordable discs (Score:2)
Re:Linux on PS2 NOT really crippled (Score:4, Informative)
The only thing that Sony dont provide is documentation on the encryption stuff and / or reading the CDROM drive.
It is possible to get around this by using an USB cdrom drive. And there are also ways to bypass the linux kernel by writing code that will boot directly from the Memory Card.
All in all I think Sony have done a sterling job in serving the Linux and open source community in this way. I have one of these linux kits and I have been very happy with it.
I for one have more respect for Sony for doing this, and there continuing enthusiasm for linux.
Well done Sony ! Lets show Microsoft who rocks !
My personal PS/2 confusion (Score:1)
So I have a whole cycle of "Why did they bother to develop on such and old and proprietary.... Oh yeah, wrong PS/2" every few weeks or so.
Re:My personal PS/2 confusion (Score:2, Informative)
PS2 is the Sony PlayStation 2.
Note the lack of a / in the second.
Hope that helps you in the future.
what i really want to know (Score:1, Funny)
Stop Downloading! (Score:5, Informative)
sigh...i can see this is gonna fall on deaf ears.
It's a Trick (get an axe) (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Stop Downloading! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Stop Downloading! (Score:2, Funny)
psshaw (Score:2, Funny)
Re:psshaw (Score:2)
The GBA has an ARM32 running at 16.7 MHz.
Kewlies! (Score:2, Funny)
Hmmmm... When the giant snails explode, will it make the controller vibrate?
Oooohhh... vibrating is gooooood...
Mnem
" I'm a little teapot short and stout, here is my handle and here is my.....other handle..... OH GOD I'M A SUGARPOT!!! "
This is going to a lot of trouble... (Score:4, Funny)
Mirrored (Score:2, Informative)
Yippie skippy. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Yippie skippy. (Score:2)
Re:Yippie skippy. (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, just because it *can* be done IS the reason to do it. How many great inventions would we be without today if it weren't for that exact line of reasoning? And even so, what's so wrong with doing something just to prove that you can? Or do you feel that since it has no immediate value to you personally that it must be useless? If you don't like it, fine. But you don't need to bitch about someone else doing
Re:Yippie skippy. (Score:2, Insightful)
I run NetBSD and X11 on a Macintosh SE/30. With it's tiny little black and white screen. It's so cramped that I have to run the Tab Window Manager (TWM) because FVWM has too much 'eye candy' and crowds the windows.
I could go to an auction here and get a Pentium 100 box for one buck (sometimes that price for a whole pallet of Pentium 100s) if I wanted to just run a freenix on cheap hardware (a Mac SE/30 isn't even particularly ch
Re:Yippie skippy. (Score:2)
So turn it off. Fvwm is almost infinitely configurable. It's why I still use it. I've tried some of the newer window managers, and always end up returning to fvwm2. Nothing else has the flexibility I need.
Incidentally, I also use fvwm2 on my PS2 Linux box, and on that I use narrower borders than I do on my main desktop machine, purely to save valuable screen real estate due to the lower resolution.
Already happened (Score:2)
emerge beowulf (Score:2, Funny)
Now I can play Angband on my PS2!!!! (Score:2)
Just need to map keys to the game pad!
HAWT!!!!!
Re:Now I can play Angband on my PS2!!!! (Score:5, Funny)
To unlock the whole hard drive use the combo TRIANGLE - CIRCLE - RIGHT - X - TRIANGLE - SQUARE - DOWN
Not a good idea... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not a good idea... (Score:2)
When you start running out of space, use the compression command rm -rf
Re:Not a good idea... (Score:2)
Re:Not a good idea... (Score:2)
PS/2? (Score:2)
Pretty easy to tell the age of some people... (Score:2, Funny)
Young: Cool, I can use my dual shock controller with it!
Think they're old: Cool, no more serial mouse!
Old: Cool, but does it support microchannel?!
Personally, I'm waiting for the PDP-11 port of linux
Re:Pretty easy to tell the age of some people... (Score:2)
Thank god they have GRP binaries (Score:2)
Re:Thank god they have GRP binaries (Score:2)
Can we get a Gentoo topic icon already? (Score:5, Interesting)
CB
Man, this is a *tough* game... (Score:3, Funny)
I'm pretty much stuck on the first level of this Gentoo game
Anybody know a cheat code?
Couple tidbits (Score:2, Informative)
I actually received my PS2 linux kit just two days ago and have been doing a writeup on my experiences at my site [blackcow.org]. So far I have xmms running, and xine running at 1 fps. =/ Screenshots, copies of /proc files, and pictures of the kit are included.
I have a binary package of xmame which will be tested soon. The memory cards and controllers are all accessable via /dev files, so I should be able to
hahah cool (Score:2)
It compiled for over 24 hours when I installed it from stage 1 - That was a 450MHz P2 with 396MB RAM - I wonder how long it would take to compile on a PS2!
Quite obvious to me (Score:2)