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Games Software Entertainment Linux

Gentoo Ported to PS2 235

Posted by CmdrTaco from the ls-with-a-gamepad dept.
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."
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Gentoo Ported to PS2 More

Gentoo Ported to PS2

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  • Shhh.... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Dieppe ( 668614 )
    ...don't tell Sony...

  • It was just a matter of time... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fudgefactor7 ( 581449 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:23PM (#6933998)
    Linux is portable...so porting it to a PS2 (or a sufficiently advanced toaster) is just a matter of exercising the will to do so. Not a surprise that it was done...Gentoo or otherwise, one distro or another eventually would have done it.

    • Re:It was just a matter of time... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Sexy Commando ( 612371 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:33PM (#6934183) Journal
      Don't know how to say it... Yes Linux is flexible, but not in the sense of porting a distro to another platform, becasue if a distro is ported, it's not the same distro anymore. Redhat can just build a dstro from scratch on PS2 and still call it Redhat Linux.

      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)

      by YE ( 23647 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:45PM (#6934389)
      Obviously you've never seen a PS2...it IS a sufficiently advanced toaster, especially when propped up on its side.
    • Yeah, linux is portable--we all know that. So is BSD, esp. NetBSD (how many platforms does that run on? They pride themselves on portability [netbsd.org].)

      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

    • Linux is portable...so porting it to a PS2 (or a sufficiently advanced toaster) is just a matter of exercising the will to do so. Not a surprise that it was done...Gentoo or otherwise, one distro or another eventually would have done it.

      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)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm waiting for the hack to run a Gentoo-ported PS2 emulator on my XBox.

  • Support for PS/2 (Score:5, Funny)

    by clem ( 5683 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:23PM (#6934006) Homepage
    That's great news. Now I no longer have to use my serial mouse with Gentoo.
  • If only it wasn't slashdotted :(

  • details? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by anthonyclark ( 17109 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:23PM (#6934009)
    Can someone explain to me how the ps2 runs linux? I remember an article a while back saying linux runs in some kind of virtual machine or sandboxed application.

    And furthermore, why is gentoo on ps2 special? (apart from the benefits of emerge et al)

    • Re:details? (Score:4, Informative)

      by chobee ( 555901 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:33PM (#6934184)
      The distro from Sony requires a linux cd to be in the ps2. The kit comes with a hd, keyboard, mouse and video cable that allows you to plug up a vga monitor to it. When you first boot of the disk it formats the hd, installs linux, an then formats a memory card and installs lilo on it. After this process is done, you still need the linux disk in the ps2. This disk is read only when you first hit the power button, it then uses lilo memory card to boot off the hard drive your installed on. I haven't read the artical yet since its slashdotted but I bet the process will be to add a gentoo package that will convert your system over to the gentoo way of life. Very cool. -Cho
    • Without reading the article, which apparently is slashdotted, My recollection is that there are two ways to run Linux on the PS2.

      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:3, Interesting)

      by ShadeARG ( 306487 )

      And furthermore, why is gentoo on ps2 special? (apart from the benefits of emerge et al)

      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].

    • Gentoo never goes stale because you can suck down the source for software and compile it natively. So, if BlackRhino (the default distro) didn't include Apache, you would be SOL. Not so with gentoo, you simply emerge apache and it figures out all the software required to run Apache, and what order to download, compile, and install it in.

      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)

    by reverendslappy ( 672515 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:24PM (#6934025)
    Now if only they could port it to 95% of the desktop market share.

    *grin*

    • Re:Great. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by altp ( 108775 )
      Agreed.

      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)

        by kin_korn_karn ( 466864 )
        improving the Linux user experience carries no geek cred.

        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)
        • I'm sure you have noticed that "Rasterman" is a name known to tons of Linux users. What's he known for? Enlightenment.

          Enlightenment doesn't exactly have the buddha nature, but it is very pretty...

      • Re:Great. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by spencerogden ( 49254 )
        Typical "Open Source developers have their priorities out of whack" comment. Who says the guys who did this (the port) would consider contributing to Gnome or KDE, who says they have the skills? All of that aside, if you aren't paying these guys, then how can you assign them priorities?

      • PS2 Porting is a great idea (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Dark Paladin ( 116525 ) * <jhummel.johnhummel@net> on Thursday September 11, 2003 @03:41PM (#6935164) Homepage
        Just take a look at this vision:

        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)

          by Yaztromo ( 655250 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @05:54PM (#6936797) Homepage Journal
          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".

          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)

    by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:24PM (#6934028) Homepage Journal

    NetBSD runs on the PS2 [netbsd.org] and has for some time. Too bad it's dying. ;)
  • Unfortunately, I can't read the details, but I presume this would mean that there's a gcc port for the ps2? Would someone care to discuss how much stuff needs to be modified from one of the original Gentoo releases to get this to work?

  • PS2 not PS/2 (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Salica ( 471564 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:26PM (#6934060)

    [...] 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)

    by Future Man 3000 ( 706329 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:27PM (#6934077) Homepage
    Given the methodology of Gentoo's packaging system, I'm not surprised that it's the first mainstream Linux distribution that's making it over to the PS2. Compiling the whole system from source on-the-fly isn't just for optimization purposes.

    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.

    • Given the methodology of Gentoo's packaging system, I'm not surprised that it's the first mainstream Linux distribution that's making it over to the PS2.

      Slackware has supported the Microchannel bus based PS/2 machines for years.
    • Given the methodology of Gentoo's packaging system, I'm not surprised that it's the first mainstream Linux distribution that's making it over to the PS2.

      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.

  • emerge finalfantasy (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Wayne247 ( 183933 ) <slashdot@laurent.ca> on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:27PM (#6934078) Homepage
    Too bad that once linux runs on something, the something isn't of much use anymore. What would a Linux Playstation2 be used for? One would need to hack away at least the video drivers for it to become something of a MAME arcade emulator.

    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
    • The point to this is not practicallity. People that assume that are misunderstanding, IMHO. The people that do this kind of this do it as a hobby. For example, I'm almost finished making my own MAME arcade cabinet. Basically you put a computer in side an old arcade machine and hack a keyboard so that the arcade buttons actually press keyboard buttons and you can play MAME games on it. You could just as easliy say "you already can play MAME on your desktop, what is the point in going through all that trouble
    • The PS2 has a pair of USB ports, not to mention a firewire port. With all the tools portage can throw at you, it would be no small shakes to compile the drivers and support software needed to adapt a USB or firewire tuner.
    • With the port it has on it, (joystick, usb, firewire, ethernet) I can't imagine how you could connect it to much.

      I have heard it could make a good missle guidance system. Too bad it only runs a proprietary OS. Oh wait...

    • When you're right you're right. I installed the Linux kit in my PS2 about a month ago. I used it for about a week before switching it off. Since then I think I've demoed Auto Modelista for about 5 minutes and watched three episodes of Coupling on the PS2, but I certainly haven't booted Linux.

  • Gentoo on PS2 != new linux distro most likely (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GweeDo ( 127172 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:28PM (#6934093) Homepage
    This probably means that they have brought portage over to the PS2 Linux kit. The PS2 Linux kit uses a version of the 2.0.x kernel redone for the MIPS processor in the PS2. If they brought portage over (which is what Gentoo is) then you get the power of portage on the system you are already familiar with, just like what the Gentoo team is doing with Mac OS X. Gentoo on OSX != Mac OS X running some new kernel or something, just means you get the power of Portage for getting apps and depenedencies and what not.
  • Now we can finally find out what happens when you introduce penguins into the bandicoot's habitat.

  • PCJr. (Score:3, Funny)

    by yonex737 ( 260369 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:29PM (#6934109)
    So when's the port to PCJr?
    • So when's the port to PCJr?

      or the banana jr...

    • Re:PCJr. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by IM6100 ( 692796 )
      The PCJr. will be a particular challange. Not only doesn't it have memory protection, it doesn't even have a DMA controller.

      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
    • I think we have a copy of Xenix floating around in the company that might work...

  • perhaps also ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:30PM (#6934119)
    their webserver is running on a PS2.
  • I can dig out my first non-IBM compatible PC. I loved the PS/2 and the PS/1.

    Vertical
  • Now we can dig out out those 2 model 50's and the model 70 we have in the closet and make use of them.

    ...now if we can only find a 100Mb Ethernet micro-channel architecture NIC....

    I sure hope Gentoo will run in 640K with 2M of extended RAM...
  • Please don't call it the PS/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 :) :p


    • 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).
      CONFIG_MCA:


      MicroChannel Architecture is found in some IBM PS/2 machines and laptops. It is a bus system similar to PCI or ISA. See Documentation/mca.txt (and especially the web page given there) before attempting to build an MCA bus kernel.

  • Linux on PS2 has been done many times :) (Score:3, Interesting)

    by qmrq ( 648586 ) <qmrq@hotmail.com> on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:32PM (#6934166) Journal
    This has been done before, and there is actually a cluster [uiuc.edu] of PS2s.

    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.

    • Umm

      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.
      • How exactly is it crippled? The only resrictions it the fact that you don't have documentation on the IOP (presumably to prevent you from producing software that will boot on any PS2 without a sony liscence) and you have to use the provided runtime enviroment. Other than that you have pretty much full access to the unit, except where the antiquated version of linux restricts you.

      • Re:Linux on PS2 NOT really crippled (Score:4, Informative)

        by polyp2000 ( 444682 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @03:21PM (#6934877) Homepage Journal
        Actually its surprisingly not crippled Sony have pretty much opened up most of the hardware , infact they supply a lot of sourcecode and examples on how to program the VU unit and other bits of hardware, There are even complete developer kit reference manuals in pdf's on the CD's that come with the thing. The PS2 Linux kit is the closest you are going to get to a professional PS2 Development kit, only it costs under 200 quid as oppose to the 20,000 odd it will cost you for the kind of thing a software house gets.

        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 !
  • Despite the fact that I own a Sony Playstation/2, every time I see some release about the PS/2, my first thought is of those old IBM Personal System/2 (also abbreviates PS/2) nightmares I learned on.

    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.

  • what i really want to know (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    what i really want to know is how come my PS2 mouse doesn't seem to be able to plug into my PS2? seems like fraudulent advertising to me...

  • Stop Downloading! (Score:5, Informative)

    by terradyn ( 242947 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:33PM (#6934191)
    My friend/co-worker is the one who did this port... He's trying to upload a fix right now and this /.ing is making it hard for him to do that!

    sigh...i can see this is gonna fall on deaf ears.

  • psshaw (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    port it to the gameboy, and I'll be impressed

  • Kewlies! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Mnemennth ( 607438 )
    Now I can play Vectorman 2 on my PS2!!!

    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)

    by smittyoneeach ( 243267 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:40PM (#6934316) Homepage Journal
    just to play Tetris under Emacs...

  • Mirrored (Score:2, Informative)

    by qmrq ( 648586 )
    There you go [countrypure.net]. Enjoy.

  • Yippie skippy. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by untaken_name ( 660789 )
    Now I can have another useless linux box. Oh, look, the system I used to play games on now just sits there contributing to my distributed.net score just like the 3 or 4 other useless linux boxes I have sitting around. Yay. Here's an idea: spend the 180 bucks it costs to buy a ps2 on a p3 or old AMD box instead and it'll run linux better than the ps2, and then you can play ps2 games on your ps2. Just because something *can* be done does not mean there's any real point to doing it.
    • I don't take kindly to being besmirked as "Yippie."

    • Re:Yippie skippy. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by liquidsin ( 398151 )
      Just because something *can* be done does not mean there's any real point to doing it.

      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)

      by IM6100 ( 692796 )
      Just because it CAN be done is a cool enough reason to do it for some of us.

      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
      • FVWM has too much 'eye candy' and crowds the windows.

        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.

        Style "*" BorderWidth 1, HandleWidth 1

        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.

  • Linux has been on the PS2 for more than a year now. Sony released the distro themselves. They sell a kit [playstation.com] with everything you need to get up and running with a RedHat-like distro.

  • emerge beowulf (Score:2, Funny)

    by JoeD ( 12073 )
    I'm sorry, I just can't go through with the remainder of this post.

  • Just need to map keys to the game pad!

    HAWT!!!!!

  • Not a good idea... (Score:5, Funny)

    by eniu!uine ( 317250 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @02:57PM (#6934572)
    I have nothing against gentoo, but it really sucks as a game. It has no plot whatsoever. I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to do with it?!?

  • And I thought IBM discontinued those years ago!

  • Pretty easy to tell the age of some people... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It's pretty easy to tell the age range of people that are posting replies here.

    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 :)
  • Wouldn't like to compile KDE and XFree86 on a PS2 :)
    • I hate to break it to you but I seriously doubt there are GRP binaries for PS2. The gentoo-mips port (gentoo PS2 is really just gentoo-mipsel) doesn't even have GRP binaries yet. I compiled *everything* including X on my SGI Indy (with the help of distcc and cross-compilers!).

  • Can we get a Gentoo topic icon already? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Chuck Bucket ( 142633 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @03:28PM (#6935005) Homepage Journal
    Here's the one [lefttochance.com] I'm using, /. has topic icons for RedHat/Mandrake/Debian/Corel(?)/etc - please add one for Gentoo. Thanks in advance.

    CB

  • Man, this is a *tough* game... (Score:3, Funny)

    by popo ( 107611 ) on Thursday September 11, 2003 @03:32PM (#6935044) Homepage

    I'm pretty much stuck on the first level of this Gentoo game ...

    Anybody know a cheat code?

  • Couple tidbits (Score:2, Informative)

    by activesynapsis ( 706402 )
    There's an openGL-ish driver [playstation2-linux.com] available for PS2 linux. It's a bit of a pain to get installed, but it's possible.

    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

  • Don't think I'll be trying this. Gentoo is a source distro - Granted it's really really cool! I run it on one of my servers.
    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!

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