PlayStation 2 - Major progress, help me finish!

Chewi · Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 12:14 am Post subject:

I do know of the patch to allow full access to the memory card. If you know of someone who already has Linux running on the PS2 with this patch then you can get them to create an exploited memory card for you. If you don't have the official DVD, you still need Swap Magic or a modchip though.

I have explained the HDLoader situation on my wiki. To cut a long story short, it doesn't really work. I also tried putting all the IRX modules on a memory card and hacking the RTE with a hex editor to make it load them from there. There is some evidence that it can load them from different places but I didn't have any luck.

I also know of the HDLoader hard drive limit but I don't have any drives that big! I hadn't really thought about how it would affect Linux. Unless they're trying to use HDLoader on the same drive, would they really need that much space? I think the limit is 120GB.

mysticrider92 · Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:13 am Post subject:

Hi, I found this thread after looking for a way to get Linux on my PS2 (I live in the US, and didn't know about the Linux kit until long after it was sold out). I just wanted to know how legal all of this is. I read the wiki part that said it is questionable, but I don't see where Sony or anyone would really care.

Also, would the Action Replay Max let you use burnt cds in the PS2? Or is there another way of booting this?
_________________
I feel so special being a n00b.

Chewi · Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:25 am Post subject:

Heh please stop making me repeat myself. I know it's confusing but I did my best to explain it all in the wiki.

Basically, you need a modchip or Swap Magic or some other way of installing the Independence Exploit such as an Action Replay Max. Unless you're using a modchip, you will also need a slide tool or a flip-top lid. If you're not using a modchip or Swap Magic, you will have to use something called cogswaploader. I haven't tried it myself but I think it would involve first inserting a PS1 disc (to trigger the exploit) then inserting a PS2 disc (to read the TOC) and then finally inserting the burnt disc using the swap trick. This would get quite frustating. With Swap Magic, you don't have to insert a second disc.

xbskid · n00b Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 12

mysticrider92 · Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:42 am Post subject:

mrbig4545 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Jun 2004 Posts: 124

Hi i have just recently got a ps2 linux kit and have been looking at your work, which looks really promising and was wondering if theres a baseimage or similar availble, and if you needed a hand. Anyway keep up the good work

Mark

Chewi · Posted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:12 pm Post subject:

I wish there was. I'm still battling with trying to get a newer, less troublesome toolchain. Progress is really slow at the moment, too much work.

mrbig4545 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Jun 2004 Posts: 124

Hiya again, now that the weekend is over im seriosly lookin at sorting out this ps2, so far I am just in the process of setting up the cross compile environment using the guide on this post on page 4, however I have ran into a problem which is that binutils wont compile, the error im getting in /var/log/portage/cross-mipsEEel-scei-linux-uclibc-binutils.log is:

!!! ERROR: cross-mipsEEel-scei-linux-uclibc/binutils-2.14 failed.
Call stack:
ebuild.sh, line 1611: Called dyn_unpack
ebuild.sh, line 751: Called qa_call 'src_unpack'
environment, line 3567: Called src_unpack
ebuild.sh, line 1301: Called toolchain-binutils_src_unpack
toolchain-binutils.eclass, line 154: Called tc-binutils_apply_patches
toolchain-binutils.eclass, line 124: Called die

!!! sorry, but this binutils doesn't yet support uClibc

!!! If you need support, post the topmost build error, and the call stack if rel
evant.
!!! A complete build log is located at '/var/tmp/cross/mipsEEel-scei-linux-uclib
c/portage/cross-mipsEEel-scei-linux-uclibc/binutils-2.14/temp/build.log'.

!!! This ebuild is from an overlay: '/usr/local/portage

Now ive searched abit and cant find any reference to this, so do you have any ideas?

Sorry to be a pain, but cross compiling is all abit new too me lol

Mark

Chewi · Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 1:06 am Post subject:

That's the wrong version of binutils. You need to edit /usr/sbin/crossdev as instructed. Maybe you did but didn't make the edit before the existing mips* entry. On page 4, I said to use 2.14-r1 but 2.16.1-r1 should also work now.

Hmm thinking about it some more, it would have picked a later version if you hadn't made the edit. Maybe your PORTDIR_OVERLAY setting was incorrect and it didn't find the overlay?

mrbig4545 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Jun 2004 Posts: 124

Hmm i just checked /usr/sbin/crossdev and its defiantly got the new line in, just before the existing mips* entry, ill have a play with it a bit more.

Well i changed it too:

mipsEE*) TARCH=mips; KPKG="ps2-headers"; GVER="3.0.4"; BVER="2.16-r1";;

and it seems to be compiling, so ill see where it gets up to

*Edit*

Yep that fixed it all right

Mark

icantthinkofascreenname · n00b Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Posts: 5

I don't know if this will help, but...

http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/Download/PlayStation_BB_Navigator.html

Official Sony source stuff...

Again, not sure it it will help any, but I don't recall reading anything about that anywhere in here. I figure even if you don't use one of the sources directly, they may help figure some things out.

I hope it's useful.

Chewi · Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 2:45 am Post subject:

Those are the MontaVista sources that we've mentioned many times in this thread. Thanks anyway.

icantthinkofascreenname · n00b Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Posts: 5

ohhh ok. Sorry about that. I wish I could help, but I don't know anything about cross compiling or C or anything. I don't understand probably a quarter of the stuff in the forum.

Anyway, i look forward to any updates. Really exciting stuff.

On a side note, do you know if there's a homebrew RTE or if anyone has been able to figure out how to make a disc able to boot on the PS2?
If only sony would fire a developer who wants revenge... haha

Chewi · Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:23 pm Post subject:

We've already mentioned that too. Hehe.

http://gps2.aura-online.co.uk/trac/gentoo-ps2/wiki/RTE (seems to be down right now, will probably be up later)

icantthinkofascreenname · n00b Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Posts: 5

Now here's what I don't understand about the RTE, after reading that page and the "TGE" page. A couple of things...

1. If someone were to finish developing TGE, could TGE be run from a regular DVD disk? or are there still issues with the disk having to be official from Sony?

2. If you could just burn it and run it in the PS2, (big if, and trying not to sound rude) why wouldn't that be the first thing you tried to do? I don't think as many people would bother putting linux on their PS2 if they have to mod it or do the disk swap than if they could just stick a disk in and run it.

3. If I were able to download a copy of Sony's PS2 Linux DVD disc 1, could I burn it and use it, or do I still have the issues from question 1?

Sorry about all this, I don't mean to be a pain in the ass, and I know you have a lot to do already, so you probably don't want to answer a n00b's questions, haha. Thanks to all of you on here for being so polite and cooperative about all this. I've noticed that anywhere else you read about this stuff, the people who "know what they're doing" yell at people who don't, but none of that in here. Refreshing to see, once in a while.

icantthinkofascreenname · n00b Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Posts: 5

P.S. You guys write this stuff in C?

Chewi · Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 9:36 pm Post subject:

I try to be polite in general but I certainly wouldn't throw my wait around on this subject because I myself am trying to mess with things I don't really understand like the toolchain. I am still very much a newbie in the eyes of the real toolchain hackers. I can't stress enough how complicated this stuff is!

1. Firstly, it depends what you mean by a regular disc. All burnt discs, regardless of what it is on them, require one of the workarounds such as a modchip or the swap trick. For non-burnt discs, the answer is yes and no. All non-burnt PS2 discs are supposed to be distributed through Sony but there are a couple of somewhat dodgy companies who press discs not authorised by Sony like HDAdvance and Swap Magic. If one of those companies was used for a Linux RTE, there would probably be an uproar in the community because of their associations with piracy.

2. I don't quite understand this question. I think you're assuming that it is possible to boot an unofficial RTE on a burnt disc without using one of the workarounds - but it isn't possible.

3. As I said above, all burnt discs require one of the workarounds. I used a downloaded copy with the swap trick for a while before buying my own official copy of the DVD from linuxplay.com.

The only thing I have written from scratch for this project is Magic Cross. I tried writing it in Bash and then Ruby before finally settling with C because it doesn't screw up the command line arguments and it's also a lot faster. Other than that, the kernel and the toolchain are both written in C so yes, C plays a very big part.

icantthinkofascreenname · n00b Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Posts: 5

To tell you the truth, I don't even know what the toolchain is! Haha, good to see some humility, though. For real, you're a smart guy, from reading all you've written in here. I could never do that, though I'm trying to learn as much as I can.

And you did answer all my questions there. Does anyone know what exactly it is that makes Sony's discs different from a regular burnt dvd? And why will the PS2 play a regular video dvd or audio cd but nothing else? (minus the Sony stuff)

If possible, and again, I feel like I'm bugging you, and appreciate your patience, could you point me in a good direction to start learning C? Maybe a book or website?
Thanks

sonyman · n00b Joined: 30 Nov 2005 Posts: 31

Chewi · Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 11:56 pm Post subject:

While I agree that it's probably a waste of time for him to try the PS2 stuff, I don't mind a small bit of off-topic stuff.

I think the difference between a Sony disc and a burnt DVD is that one is burnt and the other isn't! The copy protection mechanism probably checks for that and it's that mechanism that you bypass when using the swap trick or modchip.

I learnt C and C++ at university, with a lot of help from C++ For Dummies. I was taught C++ first from the perspective of its differences to Java because we'd just been taught Java. I didn't feel this was the right way to learn it and if it hadn't been for the book, I probably never would have grasped it. I was taught C in a different university and the fact that I had learnt C++ first made things very confusing.

Okay, best stay on-topic now!

_mic · n00b Joined: 08 Feb 2007 Posts: 1 Location: Down Under

I've been playing around with the "slightly less legal" alternative to getting Linux on the Playstation 2, so I thought I'd report some findings and some links. I used the independence exploit and HDLoader.

The RTE bootloader (or maybe Linux) doesn't support 48-bit HDD addressing. So drives over ~128GB will be reported as being 128GB. I found this when using my 250GB hard drive in my PS2. Recent versions of HDLoader and friends support drives over 128GB.
For those not using the Linux kit, in many instructions it asks you to mount the memory card in Linux to copy files. You'll need to make a 'BWLINUX' directory on the card, and store your kernel and RTE configuration files in there. You do not need to have the icon.sys and penguin.ico files in there, however in the PS2 Browser the directory will appear as "Corrupted Data".
The RTE bootloader doesn't seem to support loading uncompressed initrds over 10MB. I tried this using my 16MB (double capacity) memory card - I still had to compress the initrd. Or maybe it doesn't like uncompressed initrds all together... I'm not 100% sure. I was trying to save some RAM.

LordManiac · n00b Joined: 24 Dec 2003 Posts: 7

Hello,

This project seems pretty cool and im eager to try it out myself. Unfortunately i ran into an error while running crossdev (as you described on page 4 of this thread). It seems the package for GCC is missing.

Chewi · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:04 am Post subject:

I didn't host that file. I thought it was supposed to get pulled down from gnu.org but they only appear to have the .tar.gz file. Maybe it was on Gentoo's mirrors but it's gone now? In any case, you can get the file here.

http://cygwin.mirrors.pair.com/gcc/old-releases/gcc-3/gcc-3.0.4.tar.bz2

LordManiac · n00b Joined: 24 Dec 2003 Posts: 7

Oke thanks, managed to built my kernel now. Will test it this evening
Only i need to figure out how to net boot first, as i have a slim line.

Did anyone try that HDCombo solution yet? I've got the right PS2 version for it so maybe i'll give it a try,
only the soldering isnt that attractive.

I had a small problem during compiling though, the smbfs driver would cause an internal compiler error

After disabling that one in the config everything worked fine though.

Anyway what is the next step? Obviously i need some userland programs. Should i get those stages from https://playstation2-linux.com/projects/gentoo-ps2 ? What do you use Chewi?

Chewi · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:13 pm Post subject:

I've not heard of HDCombo before. Interesting. My first thought is to say that if you're using HDLoader or HDAdvance, you'll experience the same problems that the rest of us have but thinking about it some more, you may be able to do one thing that hasn't worked so far - start the RTE from the hard drive and net boot into kernel 2.4. Until now, that has only worked for kernel 2.2. My reason for thinking this is that the hard drive and the network adapter aren't part of the same unit in this case.

You've missed all the fun so far. Getting a recent working userland has been the main goal. I haven't even touched those ancient stages you linked to there. As I stated in the first post of this thread, I did have a working userland at one point but it was hell to build and relied on some horribly old stuff - namely gcc 3.0.4 and kernel 2.4.17. I have managed to get 2.4.19 and 2.4.20 almost working but gcc 3.2.2 still evades me. I have simply had no time to work on this at all lately. I'm really sick of saying that now.

For the time being, you could have a play with BlackRhino for what it's worth.