Gentoo on Playstation 3

EmperorofUnivrse · n00b Joined: 21 Sep 2004 Posts: 58

I don't know if you've heard, but Linux is supposed to be shipped with the PS3 (or at least the deluxe edition, I am not sure), including a compiler for the Cell Processor. I can't wait to get my hands on one of those and get portage running.

I really doubt they will, but it would be very cool if they provided 3d drivers for us to use

I'd love to eventually get wine up and run Warcraft 3 on this incredible machine. Even if they don't, it will still be a kickass machine.

Thoughts? Who wants to organize a gentoo-on-PS3 when it comes out?

sageman · Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 7:52 pm Post subject:

Actually, this was just mentioned in the Gentoo Weekly Newsletter (make sure you subscribe!) sent out today! They are working on porting to the Cell processor. Below is the blurp from GWN:

EmperorofUnivrse · n00b Joined: 21 Sep 2004 Posts: 58

This would be such a sweet system.

I'd love it if there were graphics support and a way to upgrade the system memory. I don't think it's likely we'll get either, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Even still, I'd have to use qemu to run anything x86.

This is entirely wishful thinking but wouldn't it be cool to use qemu to run older Windows games under Wine/Cedega! Right now I'm really excited about the Cell, and I'm itching for a Conroe as well. What a great time for processors!

sageman · Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 12:07 pm Post subject:

Don't know tons about Qemu, but I do know that it is *very* doubtful to get Wine working, since there is some x86-architecture-specific assembly code in Wine (hence why there are no ports for anything but x86).

On a related note, the Cedega team just released "Cider", a version of Cedega for x86 Macs that runs in OS X.
_________________
Carlton Stedman
Gentoo Metalheads on Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/group/Gentoo+Metalheads

Redhatter · Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 1:49 pm Post subject:

It's also worth noting that 99% of software written for Win32, is written for the i386 port of Win32.

There was some software written for Win32/Alpha... PuTTY being a notable example.
I've got some apps written for Win32/MIPS (Windows CE 2.11) on my PDA... these are hard to come by.
There's also a PowerPC port of Windows... but none of your big desktop games/apps were ported to it.

Thus... WINE only supports x86... as that's all the Windows community supports.
_________________
Stuart Longland (a.k.a Redhatter, VK4MSL)
I haven't lost my mind - it's backed up on a tape somewhere...

Gentoo/MIPS Cobalt developer, Mozilla herd member.

dancingmonkey · n00b Joined: 06 Feb 2005 Posts: 4

I've been pessimistic about this before, but how much software is expected to be able to or even be re-written to take advantage of the way the cell works.
That is to say as how I understand it, the cell wont be able to take advantage of programs that simply split a thread off, being the main 'intructor' core has to manage passing work to the other cores.
Im sure that a library will be able to wrap most of this up, but a lot of applications will have to be re-written to take advantage of this, right?
Wont the ones that dont use this library and are just simply compiled so that they just use the main core not suffer quite a bit of a performance hit when other applications are using this main core to direct their work?
Im sure theres certainly enough power behind all of it to get any work done decently, Im just skeptical about how much power is going to be available in a linux operating system environment.

tcx · Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 7:58 pm Post subject:

Well, after reading the wikipedia page on the cell processor, namely this and this, I have to say I do believe we are going to have cell specific code on many GNU stuff and in the linux kernel.
According to the info mentioned on the wikipedia, IBM is going to have servers with cell processors running linux. They are already helping some developer teams to make things work with the cell, not just on the cell.
I think this will come out well.
I think the IBM needs the opensource community to work with them. They have lost their contract with Apple. They need to sell their new product. They need this fast-moving fast-developing community to make their tools 100% available to cell powered machines and using 100% of the cell's features.
I think the playstation 3 is a good promise of a linux machine. This is more of a hope than of an opinion, but an opinion nevertheless.
Perfection would be if Sony would release some Vaio with cells running Linux or if some of the cell IBM machines would be affordable.
Ok, this is a REAL dream...

moskvax · n00b Joined: 15 Sep 2006 Posts: 1

I would be very eager to take part in a project porting Gentoo to PS3, if it turns out that Sony really has made the console open enough for people to run anything they like on it without much hassle (the way they're treating PSP homebrew developers makes their promises of openness dubious). This project could realise the dream of the PS3 being a cheap PC rather than an expensive console, and what's more, a cheap PC which people have no choice but to run Linux on :wink:

.

saty · Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 8:28 pm Post subject:

Looks like others are faster...

* Doggy *

Looks promising... and they use E17.

_________________
Satyrium - Retro-Gaming

tokka · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Posts: 99

tokka · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Posts: 99

A coule more things...

Digging through screenshots on a Japanese website last night, I stumbled over the option in the PS3 system menu - "install other system". So I guess that takes care of the issues of a bootable distribution.

In an inteview with one of the ydl peeps on Ars Technica:

http://arstechnica.com/articles/columns/linux/linux-20061018.ars

"Our work with Sony has granted us a unique opportunity to have in our possession beta PlayStation units (the same that the game developers have used) in order to work closely with the system to ensure a high quality end-user experience, from bootloader to halt, from installation to playing CDs and configuring the desktop."

So looks like we have access to the optical drive:)

brewin · n00b Joined: 12 Nov 2006 Posts: 5

Linux kernel patches, a bootloader, and some pretty in-depth documentation for Linux on the PS3 was just released.

The docs tell exactly what works and what doesn't yet. Of particular interest is this part in LinuxKernelOverview.html:

drdope · n00b Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 38 Location: Germany

thepustule · Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 9:57 pm Post subject:

whitesanjuro · n00b Joined: 17 Nov 2006 Posts: 11

there is a newer thread on this topic for those still interested: check it out - i got my ps3 and am working on getting gentoo going right now :)