Slashdot Mirror

According to the community site, the Sony Linux kit was launched on May 22nd, 2002, however there was a Beta program sometime in 2001 (the site I'm referencing doesn't give a date for the beta). As for the Dreamcast Linux port, the earliest image I can find on the FTP server is April 1st, 2001. The site for the distribution itself has a timestamp of June 6th, 2001, which is probably just saying that the site hasn't seen any updates in years.

The PS2 was the first console to run Linux "out of the box". Sony opened the PS2 a little with PS2 Linux, an open Linux distro that runs on PS2 HW. It was apparently a strategy by Sony to get official game developers started on something programmable, but cheaper than the dedicated HW dev system. But it's in a cage: it doesn't run on the actual HW (instead, a kind of HAL that emulates the HW on the HW itself), and the OS must boot on a firmly DRM'ed DVD. And Sony prohibits the distribution of PS2L SW (apps, drivers, etc) on discs, so a LiveCD that boots into your wicked port of NetHack could never compete with their latest NBA licensed blockbuster. Maybe now that they're opening the UMD, they'll open the Magic Gate to Linux on PS{2,3}. That could put cheap, powerful, consumer-stable grade multimedia HW (subsidized by gamers) under the control of Linux programmers, who could target a market of millions of potentially Interneted consoles. That would really steal the thunder (and developers, developers, developers, developers) from Xbox - go, Sony, go!

GC is certainly 32-bit . The 970 (Power4/G5) is the first widely released 64-bit processor in the PowerPC family aside from the defunct PowerPC 620 (circa 1994). I believe the 620 didn't yeild the kind of results IBM was hoping for so they canned it.

And the PS2 does use a 128-bit MIPS-based processor designed by Sony and Toshiba. MIPS-"based" means that they bought a 64-bit MIPS architecture license from MIPS (about the only thing they sell) and adapted it to their application. Now, I'm not an expert on that architecture and and there is some argument as to what truly makes an n-bit processor (its data bus or address bus). I'm going to have to say that it is at minimum 64-bit data bus with a 128-bit address bus or 128-bit data bus with a 64-bit address bus, but it could just as well be fully 128-bit.

Not that ANY of that matters, like you say. The PS2 CPU isn't what's interesting about it at all. It's the VPUs , which have caused oh-so-much pain for game developers around the world.

As an Open Source developer myself, who likewise has their project hosted on SourceForge, maybe I can help somewhat.

This can be a really hard question to answer. Ideally you'd like to find yourself a maintainer to work with you on this sort of thing, but finding one is a different matter. Such a maintainer will either worm their own way out of the woodwork, or they won't. Recruiting one yourself will probably be a lengthy and fruitless prospect.

In the more than two years my project has been Open Source (it was closed source freeware for 5 years), recruiting more people to work on the project has been nearly useless. In that time, after lots of recruitment campaigns, I've found only 4 or 5 people who have actually made any significant contributions to the project and all of its sub-projects (the last time I tried to run a recruitment campaign a few weeks ago I got about 50 responses, virtually all from India, who somehow interpreted "looking for a volunteer developer" to mean I was looking to hire someone for a job :P).

Depends completely on your project. SourceForge is a good general place to host your project if nothing else fits -- they provide a good service IMO -- but they also host any project which is Open Source. If you can find one, you might be better off using something which is a more targeted community for your type of project, whether it be by language/develpment environment used, target OS, application type, etc. That is, if you're developing a Java-based project, java.net is a good choice, as everyone there is working in Java. If you're developing on OS/2, netlabs.org is where you'll find other OS/2 developers (what few there still are). If you're coding for Linux on the PlayStation 2, playstation2-linux.com is the place for you.

Don't forget -- nothing really prevents you from registering your project on every project site that suits your project, although maintaining all of those active communities might prove very time consuming!

Create your own. Typically what I do is credit the user by name and e-mail address during the CVS check-in. As I use the CVS log as the basis of the changelog for each release, this information also becomes part of the changelog. I also try to add an entry for them to my "Special Thanks" section of my Release Notes, and sometimes a comment crediting their fix/addition right in the source code. If the contribution is really significant, they usually also get a credit in the copyright statement.

One thing you should do, however, (something that I try to do at least), is to ask them if they want credit. Some people won't (and I've had a few contributions like this) for various reasons. Maybe they don't want to be bothered with questions, or maybe their employer has a draconian policy against this sort of thing (although in the latter case, you probably don't want to accept anything new from them so as to CYA. A minor fix that won't be subject to any copyright problems should be fine, however (ie: someone pointing out that an "i--" should be "i++", etc.).

Well, there used to be a standard, but far too many projects have v

What will sell me on the PSP is how developers will harness the capabilities of it. Supposedly, there have been prototypes for a GPS, and a DVD player as well. Being able to dock my PSP in my car and use it for in-car navigation (hey Delorme - hint hint), or some other useful utilization of its capabilities besides games will sell me.
I was disappointed at the lack of innovative uses for the Playstation 2's USB (and on earlier models, IEEE1394). Thankfully, Sony released Linux for it, which have allowed me to use it for watching movies, a file server, etc.. I certainly hope Sony will do it again with the PSP (can you imagine wardriving with a PSP?)

Old hardware rocks, I can't get enough of it :)

You said it. If you actually want some more details on what I have on my network, the systems involved are:

• A PIII-450 system with 384MB RAM running OS/2 WARP Server for e-business as my general workstation for running DOS, Java, OS/2, and X sessions,
• A Celeron 550 box with 128MB RAM running RedHat 8. This acts as my network fileserver, DNS (I'm starting to build up too many systems to want to worry about coordinating the hosts files between them all), and automated nightly build system for jSyncManager Project, running in headless mode,
• My 1.33Mhz PowerBook G4 laptop (which has been taking over most of the duties I used to use the OS/2 box for these last few months), networked wirelessly (everything else is wired),
• The P-133 with 32MB RAM acting as my own personal mail server, running RedHat 8 (a brutal install to pare it down to fit on the 1GB drive in that system, and yet still be semi-useful. :P), also running headless,
• An AMD K6-2 running at 450Mhz with 128MB RAM, an old CD-ROM drive, and absolutely NO hard drive, running Knoppix. I use this as a guest machine -- it has Mozilla and OpenOffice on it, so if a visitor wants to check their e-mail or surf the web or work on a document, they do it on this machine (as they can do whatever they want to it, and all I have to do to restore it is a reboot),
• A PlayStation 2 with Sony Linux for the PlayStation 2 installed. With the kits 40GB of hard drive space, this acts as both my file server and my media server (I did the first official port of Ogg Vorbis to the PS2 on this system) -- being able to do 48Khz output via optical cable to my home theatre makes this a wonderful media box,
• A SitePlayer Developers Kit. Not doing anything particularily useful, but I'm eventually going to get into the microcode and make this into a web-enabled controller for my homes X10 network,
• An IBM WorkPad c505 (mostly for jSyncManager network sync development).

I've had more systems, but that's what's currently running on my network. I've had a few people promise me some more systems -- I'm just trying to figure out what to do with them before accepting them (after all, have to put them to good use...;) ).

Yaz.

Well not really an 'application', but it should be linux when it comes to the *real* consoles

XBox-Linux
PlayStation2-Linux

Which console do you want to use today?

*ahem*! :)

Linux for PS2

Nethack, rogue, moria, angband, ADOM...

Seems like you found your console.

Nope.. Don't forget their Playstation 2 Linux Kit / Distribution...

• Can I use the monitor cable with commercial PlayStation 2 games and a monitor ?
  
  In general, no. The Computer Monitor Cable (for PlayStation 2) (with audio connectors) which is provided in the kit will work with PlayStation 2 software that outputs VESA compatible signals. Currently, there are very few commercial PlayStation 2 games available that output in VESA display modes (varies within territory). Very few games offer alternatives to the TV signal standards NTSC and PAL, which cannot be displayed on most computer monitors.
  
  The list is growing however, with games such as Socom offering 'progressive scan' options. Some users have been able to play games that support progressive scan options on their monitors. Please note that playstation2-linux.com does not offer customer support in configuring this to work.

• Can I use the monitor cable with commercial PlayStation 2 games and a monitor ?
  
  In general, no. The Computer Monitor Cable (for PlayStation 2) (with audio connectors) which is provided in the kit will work with PlayStation 2 software that outputs VESA compatible signals. Currently, there are very few commercial PlayStation 2 games available that output in VESA display modes (varies within territory). Very few games offer alternatives to the TV signal standards NTSC and PAL, which cannot be displayed on most computer monitors.
  
  The list is growing however, with games such as Socom offering 'progressive scan' options. Some users have been able to play games that support progressive scan options on their monitors. Please note that playstation2-linux.com does not offer customer support in configuring this to work.

Yes. (Reboot out of Linux and boot a normal game.) PS2 Linux FAQ - Can I Play PS2 Games under Linux?
It takes some memory card space and installs itself to the included harddrive. Other than that, it doesn't change the PS2 at all.

I doubt they will "unbundle" it. It's been out for a while and it seems like they have no intention of selling the individal components. They want to make sure whoever buys it can use Linux immediately (assuming they have a PS2 and memeory card).

Here's the link to the PS2 Linux FAQ discussing the HD and other games: PS2 Linux FAQ
IMHO, I think the HD will work for FFXI, but either PS2 Linux or FFXI at a time (requiring a format in between). Will we ever see FFXI without a harddrive? I dunno.

Actually not as stupid a question as it sounds - the PS2 has an official linux site, and the dev. environment is pretty similar (well, once you use the SPS2 stuff, anyway :-).

Given the advances in NUMA architectures in the Linux kernel, and the Cell processor being designed for parallel processing, it actually begins to sound reasonable... I'm sure there'll be developers who hit the metal, but given how fast the thing is supposed to run, I think it's a viable option :-)

Then of course, it'll *really* be a war - closed MS Xbox-2 versus PS3 running Linux :-))

Simon

No, the emotion engine (made up of vector units and central processing unit) is seperate from the graphics synthesizer, which has a memory bandwidth of 48 gigabytes/sec. The Geforce3 (similar to the graphics chip in the xbox) has approximately 7.36 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Unlike what was said in another post, the PS2 -does- do trilinear filtering - Along with "Texture Mapping, Bump Mapping, Fogging, Alpha Blending, Bi-...Linear Filtering, MIPMAP, Anti-aliasing, and Multi-pass Rendering".

The problems, of course, are that the emotion engine and graphics synthesizer require a PhD in mathematics and computer science to be able to code for them, so their potential has barely been reached - even by Sony's own programmers.

No, the emotion engine (made up of vector units and central processing unit) is seperate from the graphics synthesizer, which has a memory bandwidth of 48 gigabytes/sec. The Geforce3 (similar to the graphics chip in the xbox) has approximately 7.36 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Unlike what was said in another post, the PS2 -does- do trilinear filtering - Along with "Texture Mapping, Bump Mapping, Fogging, Alpha Blending, Bi-...Linear Filtering, MIPMAP, Anti-aliasing, and Multi-pass Rendering".

The problems, of course, are that the emotion engine and graphics synthesizer require a PhD in mathematics and computer science to be able to code for them, so their potential has barely been reached - even by Sony's own programmers.

Can't speak for the capacities of the Xbox, but Linux PS2 hackers have been able to write files to memory cards for a while. So there's some basis in fact for taking the controllers.

...the only console that supports 720p is the Xbox, and its hardware isn't powerful enough to handle it for most games.

Not true!
From the FAQ at the Linux for Playstation 2 community website
Which Display Resolutions are supported ?

* NTSC/PAL interlaced and non-interlaced
* DTV 480P, 720P and 1080I modes
* VESA modes 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 at 60/75 Hz ...It's only a matter of choosing the right cabels and having developers write the software, PS2 is physically capable of doing all the standard DTV modes, it's just that no-one has bothered to do it. Probably for the same reason you're dissatisfied with Xbox in 720p, the CPU isn't powerful enough to make most games worthwhile in that resolution.

Im not sure whether or not you are being sarcastic as this has been mention numerous times on slashdot.

Will PlayStation Linux run on it? I heard Sony released a distro of linux for their playstation, will thay also release one OR update it for the PSX?

I do hope so!

cies.

Depending on which monitor he has, it might work with PS2 Linux. He could get a KVM switch. Of course, a PS2 into a TVin card would be really cool, especially with a digital AV switch on the Linux PC, feeding from PS2, DV, cable, etc, and feeding to monitor, PS2, DV, and various TVs. That's why I'm reading this story's discussion.

Why not use the PS2 Linux distribution? The Linux1394 project offers strong support for FireWire, especially DV gear. You could use your gifts to get your video on the TV, with Open Source editing tools. Along the way, you'll get your PS2 on the network, and much more portable gear in the PS2 formfactor. And you'll support the OSS FW and DV communities with your feedback.

if any console released an SDK, they would beat the others overnight.

That would be PS2 and GBA, the top two non-PC game systems in the States. The PS2 console has Linux for PlayStation 2, and the GBA handheld has the unofficial DevKit Advance and a community around it. So the systems with publicly available development tools have the biggest market share, even if the relationship isn't exactly causal.

That doesn't even make sense. The fact that the Xbox uses the same architecture as a PC doesn't make it a PC? The fact that it uses the same processor and nVidia chipset doesn't make it a PC? Well, I guess mini-ITX boards aren't PCs either. In fact, PCs aren't PCs!

Irrelevant.

Again, that doesn't even make sense. The fact that the PS2 and Dreamcast use a different architecture than PCs thus makes them PCs? What are you smoking?

Dreamcast has all kinds of apps for it, Sega didn't restrict it the same way Sony did.

Oh really? NOT!

Yes, they did handle it differently. And if Microsoft provided that option, everybody here'd be mad about it.

Yeah, some people probably would. Then again, some people would buy it, like some people bought the PS2 Linux Kit. So what?

"WTF? I have to buy a $250 kit to boot into Linux? WTF? Only people who have the $250 kit can use the app? WTF? I can't get at 3D bits of the video card?"

Just to shatter your implied argument:

• The Sony kit isn't $250.
• You can access all of the 3D hardware. Don't believe me? There is code.

Um, if I had an unhealthy aversion to Microsoft, wouldn't I use a different OS, buy different hardware products, and not purchase their development books? Your argument is absolutely ridiculous at this point.

And even if you don't, you're certainly willing to hang Microsoft over it without giving it a second thought.

You sure haven't been paying attention. I haven't said anything to imply that I have any negative feelings towards Microsoft. I've certainly given them a fair shake considering how much software and hardware I've bought from them.

If I had reason to think you were at least weighing what I had to say, even if you end up disagreeing, then I'd take that comment back and even apologize.

Weighing what you had to say? If you had actually been weighing what I had to say, you'd realize that I've been supporting Microsoft the whole time.

You know what my theory is? I think that in actuality, you're the one who can't come to terms with the fact that you hate Microsoft. Your signature reads, "Linux: Where do you want to stay today?", leading me to believe that you are, in fact, a Linux zealot. Anyone with a such a deep Microsoft hatred as yours is a borderline psychotic, and probably a communist. You should just admit it to yourself and seek counseling.

Yes, it is.

1.) It's not a PC.

Yes, it is.

2.) It only plays games. No apps have been ported to it.

Lies. That's because they don't need to be ported.

3.) Nothing different going on here that Sony or Nintendo has going in their camps.

Sony is a completely different story.

Microsoft is hostile to supporting Linux on their own platform as it undermines the business model of the X-Box and obviously Linux is the closest competitor to their own flagship operating system (XP or Server .NET 2003).

I find Microsoft breathtakingly arrogant and their products extremely inefficient and bloaty but you cannot be surprised when they want to patch their own product to reduce the likelyhood of hackers messing about with the X-Box Live network!

No, the most worrying aspect about all of this is the support that it lends (to average users) to the 'Palladium' initiative and to trusted computing in general - i.e. to turn all computers into turnkey systems that cannot be modified by the end user.

My suggestion? Support other vendors that actively encourage Open Source such as Sony and their PS/2

Playstation 2 Linux Kit

Playstation 2 Linux Home Page

and withdraw any support for products (such as the X-Box) that encourage 'trusted computing' and Palladium.

BTW I use both M$ XP at work/home and various flavours of Linux.

There is no support for the IEEE 1394 (firewire, i.Link) port under PS2 Linux.

I'm assuming that you think that after one installs Linux on a PlayStation 2, it can't be used to play games anymore.
Well, guess what? You can still play games on a PlayStation 2 even if it has Linux install on it.

What would a Linux Playstation2 be used for?

It's primary purpose is for creating PS2 games without having to spend thousands of dollars on a T10K. Other than that, you can use it like any machine that has Linux installed. If you don't want to use Linux at the moment, you can play PlayStation games with it.

One would need to hack away at least the video drivers for it to become something of a MAME arcade emulator.

No you don't, Sony did a fine job already of writing Linux video drivers. And MAME is already ported.

Making a PVR with that is impossible, no tuner!

True enough. You'd have bigger problems than that, though. There's only one spot for an IDE drive, and it only supports 40GB. You could use the USB ports to hook up a hard drive, but the PS2 only has USB 1.1. The PS2 wasn't designed to be a PVR.

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?

Sony ported Linux to the PlayStation to promote the creation of PS2 games and allow developers to become familiar with the PS2 hardware interfaces without having to purchase a very expensive PS2 development station license. It wasn't just because they could. Sony uses Linux on their development platform, the T10K, so it wasn't too much of a stretch. The Linux kit comes with almost all the PlayStation hardware information and manuals that the T10K development kit comes with, so not only is it a good deal in terms of cost to the developer, it was a nice gesture by Sony.

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 was released for the PS2 last March, and it's completely Debian based.

Yaz.

Yup, there's now several distributions:

• Sony
• BlackRhino
• Gentoo

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 impossible to run Linux on stock PS2 hardware. Why? It's because the stock PS2 DVD-ROM drive is unable to physically read anything other than the Sony proprietary game-disc format, audio CDs, and DVDs. The drive has been specifically designed in hardware to be unable to read CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVD-recordables, etc. in an attempt to keep people from pirating games. Note that you can get a MOD chip to get around this limitation, however, that is a moot point, because...

The way you run Linux on a PS2 is to purchase the Linux Kit from Sony. This kit comes with a bootable Sony proprietary DVD-ROM that loads a hardware adaptation layer upon which the Linux kernel can run. This disc is required to run Linux on the PS2, and all of the kernels for PS2 use the hardware interfaces provided by the runtime environmrent on this disc. The kit comes with a modified version of RedHat that contains a 2.2 kernel. TMK, Sony has never upgraded this, nor do they have any plans to, as the kit is purely for hobby-oriented development of PS2 games and for becoming familiar with the hardware.

Now, that being said, there has been an attempt to upgrade the stock 2.2 kernel to the 2.4 kernel. However, it has been a slow process. Why? It's because of various incompatibilities with GCC, the Linux kernel code, and the PS2's odd version of a MIPS processor. In other words, a lot of the kernel code needs to be ported by hand, and is rather difficult. So far the xRhino project has succedeed in upgrading the 2.2.1 kernel to a 2.2.21 kernel, but they have not gotten further than that.

Yup, there's now several distributions:

• Sony
• BlackRhino
• Gentoo

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 impossible to run Linux on stock PS2 hardware. Why? It's because the stock PS2 DVD-ROM drive is unable to physically read anything other than the Sony proprietary game-disc format, audio CDs, and DVDs. The drive has been specifically designed in hardware to be unable to read CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVD-recordables, etc. in an attempt to keep people from pirating games. Note that you can get a MOD chip to get around this limitation, however, that is a moot point, because...

The way you run Linux on a PS2 is to purchase the Linux Kit from Sony. This kit comes with a bootable Sony proprietary DVD-ROM that loads a hardware adaptation layer upon which the Linux kernel can run. This disc is required to run Linux on the PS2, and all of the kernels for PS2 use the hardware interfaces provided by the runtime environmrent on this disc. The kit comes with a modified version of RedHat that contains a 2.2 kernel. TMK, Sony has never upgraded this, nor do they have any plans to, as the kit is purely for hobby-oriented development of PS2 games and for becoming familiar with the hardware.

Now, that being said, there has been an attempt to upgrade the stock 2.2 kernel to the 2.4 kernel. However, it has been a slow process. Why? It's because of various incompatibilities with GCC, the Linux kernel code, and the PS2's odd version of a MIPS processor. In other words, a lot of the kernel code needs to be ported by hand, and is rather difficult. So far the xRhino project has succedeed in upgrading the 2.2.1 kernel to a 2.2.21 kernel, but they have not gotten further than that.

Yup, there's now several distributions:

• Sony
• BlackRhino
• Gentoo

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 impossible to run Linux on stock PS2 hardware. Why? It's because the stock PS2 DVD-ROM drive is unable to physically read anything other than the Sony proprietary game-disc format, audio CDs, and DVDs. The drive has been specifically designed in hardware to be unable to read CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVD-recordables, etc. in an attempt to keep people from pirating games. Note that you can get a MOD chip to get around this limitation, however, that is a moot point, because...

The way you run Linux on a PS2 is to purchase the Linux Kit from Sony. This kit comes with a bootable Sony proprietary DVD-ROM that loads a hardware adaptation layer upon which the Linux kernel can run. This disc is required to run Linux on the PS2, and all of the kernels for PS2 use the hardware interfaces provided by the runtime environmrent on this disc. The kit comes with a modified version of RedHat that contains a 2.2 kernel. TMK, Sony has never upgraded this, nor do they have any plans to, as the kit is purely for hobby-oriented development of PS2 games and for becoming familiar with the hardware.

Now, that being said, there has been an attempt to upgrade the stock 2.2 kernel to the 2.4 kernel. However, it has been a slow process. Why? It's because of various incompatibilities with GCC, the Linux kernel code, and the PS2's odd version of a MIPS processor. In other words, a lot of the kernel code needs to be ported by hand, and is rather difficult. So far the xRhino project has succedeed in upgrading the 2.2.1 kernel to a 2.2.21 kernel, but they have not gotten further than that.

I actually received my PS2 linux kit just two days ago and have been doing a writeup on my experiences at my site. 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 link up my controllers directly to mame and get some heavy Asteroids gaming going on.

D'oh, I just realized I might've /.'ed myself. 8I

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

Direct download link here.

I stand corrected, thanks for the info.

One of the more useful links I found when looking into this:

http://playstation2-linux.com/faq.php#Which_Displa y_Resolutions_are_supported

For those not in the know, there is another '1337' way to get your ps2 online, and a nice online community to support it.

The "official" Sony line is that you need a sync-on-green monitor to use the Linux PS2 kit, but there are other ways to skin that cat.

For those not in the know, there is another '1337' way to get your ps2 online, and a nice online community to support it.

The "official" Sony line is that you need a sync-on-green monitor to use the Linux PS2 kit, but there are other ways to skin that cat.

You can already run Linux on the playstation by paying for the PS2 Linux kit at http://playstation2-linux.com/

That kit allows you to run any code that you want to anyway. Plus getting one allows companies to see that there is a paying group of individuals that would like configurable/extensible electronic products.

It's funny that many people criticize the software and media industry for promoting DRM and DMCA type laws, but then the same people turn around and promote/utilize cracks like this.

What do you expect the companies to do? Sit there and watch this happen?

sony's ps2 linux kit is crippled. read THE PLAYSTATION LINUX FAQ for more info. i'm assuming with this, someone can run a regular linux distro on the ps2.

Am I the only one having problems understanding why you'd want to do this? I mean sure .. there's hack value and everything. But is the goal to run Linux on the PS2 or something? Maybe it will enable you to run import games, like Zettai Zetsumei Toshi without having to install a modchip.

Someone please explain why this is so important? (And yes, I did RTFA.)

-jh

If you read this page, you might find some interesting info:
Ms Ewen said Sony hoped to recreate the strong community that sprung up when the company released Net Yaroze six years ago.
Net Yaroze was a specialised version of the original PlayStation that allowed amateur programming.
The Net Yaroze software ran on a standard PC where the programmer would compile the code and a serial cable connected the PC to the Net Yaroze console.
"It was more limited because it did not access all the capabilities of the machine and there were non-disclosure agreements involved," she said.
There were 6000 Net Yaroze consoles sold across the PAL territories, mainly in the UK and Australia." Sony had developed the Linux Kit for PS2 in response to demand in Japan. The company sold 7000 beta copies in Japan last year but the full version was only released there in late April. "

Since most of the Net Yaroze consoles sold across the PAL territories, mainly in the UK and Australia, you might wanna look for websites in these countries...

Also check out the forums on this website

-- Sig
REJECTED STORY:
Making real money from virtually nothing on Online games
BBC has an interesting article about people making a real living buying and selling goods which only exist in the virtual world of an online fantasy game. A player says that he will declare to the US Internal Revenue Service in April 2004 that his main source of income is the sale of imaginary goods.

Can I read my own CD-R discs using Linux (for PlayStation 2) ?
No. The PlayStation 2 is designed not to read CD-R "gold" discs. Only PlayStation CD-ROM and PlayStation 2 CD-ROM and DVD-ROM discs are compatible.

But if you're particuarly after remakes of old games, there's probably an emulator you can compile on the PS2 to play the original ROM. I haven't gotten around to Stella yet mostly because I own a Cuttle Cart and a working 2600. MAME is available.

Can I read my own CD-R discs using Linux (for PlayStation 2) ?
No. The PlayStation 2 is designed not to read CD-R "gold" discs. Only PlayStation CD-ROM and PlayStation 2 CD-ROM and DVD-ROM discs are compatible.

But if you're particuarly after remakes of old games, there's probably an emulator you can compile on the PS2 to play the original ROM. I haven't gotten around to Stella yet mostly because I own a Cuttle Cart and a working 2600. MAME is available.

With the Playstation 2 Linux Kit, they managed to use a playstation 2 game disc as the runtime environment, where you would boot to whatever kernel you wanted (stored on a memory card). They could easily make a bootloader for the PSP with BOOTP support with the 802.11 interface, or hard drive with the USB 2.0 interface.

The PS2 Linux Kit (which I am a proud owner of) is bundled with a 40 gig hard drive (with mounting brackets). This was a big factor in driving up the price of the kit and thus discouraging more geeks from buying it. The kit includes an ethernet adapter, hard drive (with mounting brackets), usb mouse/keyboard, vga adapter and the linux distribution.) With a $200 price tag, and the decline of hard drive prices, it makes it even less economical to buy one today (as opposed to when I bought mine about a year and a half ago).

I would certainly hope they decide to make linux available, and for a cheaper price. Besides, what could be more cooler than wardriving with kismet on a PSP? :)

With the Playstation 2 Linux Kit, they managed to use a playstation 2 game disc as the runtime environment, where you would boot to whatever kernel you wanted (stored on a memory card). They could easily make a bootloader for the PSP with BOOTP support with the 802.11 interface, or hard drive with the USB 2.0 interface.

The PS2 Linux Kit (which I am a proud owner of) is bundled with a 40 gig hard drive (with mounting brackets). This was a big factor in driving up the price of the kit and thus discouraging more geeks from buying it. The kit includes an ethernet adapter, hard drive (with mounting brackets), usb mouse/keyboard, vga adapter and the linux distribution.) With a $200 price tag, and the decline of hard drive prices, it makes it even less economical to buy one today (as opposed to when I bought mine about a year and a half ago).

I would certainly hope they decide to make linux available, and for a cheaper price. Besides, what could be more cooler than wardriving with kismet on a PSP? :)

What about the PlayStation2-Linux project? I believe that is with the help of Sony.

They are a smart company and will give the consumers what they want. The Clie is on the Palm OS, so in theory there shouldn't be any problems. If there are, then clearly there is something wrong with the MP3 player or with Clie breaking some Palm OS licence.

Why wouldn't Sony want to use their own MiniDISC? It is theirs and they want to keep the money within the company. Sounds fair enough to me. They're there to make money.

you won't be able to instll GNU/Linux on your PS2 without the hard drive

Oh yeah?

As far as I can tell from the documentation here, there're pretty much completely custom chips (they run a completely different assembler to the core, and have various other quirks (double instructions for one)).

The fact that only VU0 is setup as a coprocessor (VU1 is on the bus but you can't easily talk to it at the speed you'd want for a coprocessor, and it only has 32kb or ram, so it needs regular feeding from the main core), means that it was never really designed for it, which is more the design of the console than any flaw in the Linux system they give you.

And in reply to someone above who said that you needed custom Sony bits, you don't actually need them (you can just boot Linux off a memory card using the RTE CD that comes with the kit), but then you only have 8mb of data, which is painfully slow, and no network access or HDD, so the bits that come with the kit are really mandatory for a passably useable system.

While we're here, I'll refrain from plugging my PS2 Quake 2 port, 3 FPS is enough for anyone right?

I take it that by saying that you can't access the VUs seperately or suchlike you mean that you can, as shown by the various
Vu programming competitions that they've had, where the gfx demo is run on VU1 only, and the overly large pdfs you get that tell you how to do it (anyone fancy printing out >600 pages?).

The PS2 linux kit is basically a subset of the proper PS2 SDK, and apart from running in a special Sony enviroment you can do pretty much everything (apart from playing too much with the DMAC, but there're people working on that)

The lack of ram is annoying, but it's all 'proper' PS2 games use, and they seem to run well enough to me.....