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Linux has been available on the PS2 for quite a while now.

Yes, you are right, it is not a linux version, it won't run on PS2 and Zaurus! Let's not forget all the other linux devices! Down with Never Winter Nights! Only support TRUE linux developers!

Now that I got that sarcasm out of my system, may I suggest that anyone who wants to see more Linux games buy NWN, even if you won't play it. I am not into that game, but I feel that I should support it, so I am buying the Linux version.

If it does well enough, it might convince other developers to make linux versions of their games.

Then through hope and the grace of God we might be free of the Microsoft beast!

Or am I just crazy?

Side note: Never buy Microsoft Windows 666.

If someone goes through the trouble of modchipping their console, then they're going to want a return on their investment in the form of free games.

"Free games"? I'd be happy with free as in speech, as has happened on the PS2 and on the Xbox. I play a lot of freely redistributable games on my GBA, and I've written a couple GPL'd GBA games of my own.

I can't speak for the efficacy of the method, but apparently you can get away without a sync-on-green monitor. Good luck.

Some people might need to use SSL while connecting to the playstation2-linux site, or you'll get a blank page:

https://playstation2-linux.com

Not a chance. Playstation 2 linux is designed for the MIPS architecture; the Xbox has a good old-fashioned x86 under the hood.

Also, Sony's linux distribution for the PS2 is based on a 2.2.1 kernel (old old old!), XFree 3.3.6 (again, quite old), gcc 2.95 (somewhat out of date, though plenty of systems still use it). The FAQ here says that the software is only slightly more recent than the software included with Redhat 6.2.

In short, there's nothing worth porting when you can get all of the Debian goodness for so much less work. I personally don't know why I'd want to shell out that kind of money for some second-rate hardware and a profoundly old linux distro with the price of commodity hardware being as low as it is these days.

Or were you just kidding?

Apparantly this runs on Sony's own version of Linux

See more about it here: http://playstation2-linux.com/

Maybe an XBox port in the future? :)

No wait, Sony did that for the community.

If I had a good reason to hack an XBox I'd do it, but as it stands, it's best for playing video games. It would be fun to buy a bunch of XBoxes, mod them, and continue to screw Microsoft, though. Oh well.

Community site: http://playstation2-linux.com/
and
Source for kit: http://www.linuxplay.com/

I don't know much about it other than there are some restrictions on what it can do. Give it a look and see if it's what you want.

isn't it convenient that MS was the butt of this bounty and not the Playstation 2?

Or is it because of this?

Well,
I don't suggest something that's not possible.
Check this out TV Out on PS2+ Linux

but some of us are big into application development for the ps2 and that requires a mod chip.

It requires either an independently produced mod chip, or the official PS2 mod chip produced by Sony.

Why mod when you can have official support

> can people build and boot their own kernels?

Absolutely. 99% of our PS2 kernel development at xRhino is done directly on a BlackRhino box. (However, the same support is native to the Kondara PS2Linux kit - we haven't added anything special to allow kernel development.) You can check out our latest kernel release over at playstation2-linux.com.

> I don't suppose people can read CD-Rs, can they?

On a factory machine, no. That is a PlayStation hardware limitation.
(But you might want to experiment with DVD-Rs.)

BlackRhino only adds Debian methodology and a plethora of extra software to the PS2Linux kit - circumventing Sony's protection mechanisms is not in the charter. ;>

> it struck me as being awfully crippled.

There's really only one crippled limb on the kit: the bootloader. It is closed and set-in-stone on the PS2Linux boot disc.

C-ya,
Gray

BlackRhino Linux press release
http://blackrhino.xrhino.com/main.php?page=press

Sony PS2 Linux Kit Community Webpage
http://playstation2-linux.com/

Sony PS2 Linux Kit coding contest
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/codingconte st/

BlackRhino Linux download page
http://blackrhino.xrhino.com/main.php?page=downloa d

xRhino Linux kernel website
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/xrhino-kern el/

BlackRhino PlayStation 2 Linux Community Project Page
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/blackrhino/

BlackRhino Linux Project Mailing List
http://playstation2-linux.com/lists/listinfo/black rhino-general

-- manu

BlackRhino Linux press release
http://blackrhino.xrhino.com/main.php?page=press

Sony PS2 Linux Kit Community Webpage
http://playstation2-linux.com/

Sony PS2 Linux Kit coding contest
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/codingconte st/

BlackRhino Linux download page
http://blackrhino.xrhino.com/main.php?page=downloa d

xRhino Linux kernel website
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/xrhino-kern el/

BlackRhino PlayStation 2 Linux Community Project Page
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/blackrhino/

BlackRhino Linux Project Mailing List
http://playstation2-linux.com/lists/listinfo/black rhino-general

-- manu

BlackRhino Linux press release
http://blackrhino.xrhino.com/main.php?page=press

Sony PS2 Linux Kit Community Webpage
http://playstation2-linux.com/

Sony PS2 Linux Kit coding contest
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/codingconte st/

BlackRhino Linux download page
http://blackrhino.xrhino.com/main.php?page=downloa d

xRhino Linux kernel website
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/xrhino-kern el/

BlackRhino PlayStation 2 Linux Community Project Page
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/blackrhino/

BlackRhino Linux Project Mailing List
http://playstation2-linux.com/lists/listinfo/black rhino-general

-- manu

BlackRhino Linux press release
http://blackrhino.xrhino.com/main.php?page=press

Sony PS2 Linux Kit Community Webpage
http://playstation2-linux.com/

Sony PS2 Linux Kit coding contest
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/codingconte st/

BlackRhino Linux download page
http://blackrhino.xrhino.com/main.php?page=downloa d

xRhino Linux kernel website
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/xrhino-kern el/

BlackRhino PlayStation 2 Linux Community Project Page
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/blackrhino/

BlackRhino Linux Project Mailing List
http://playstation2-linux.com/lists/listinfo/black rhino-general

-- manu

BlackRhino Linux press release
http://blackrhino.xrhino.com/main.php?page=press

Sony PS2 Linux Kit Community Webpage
http://playstation2-linux.com/

Sony PS2 Linux Kit coding contest
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/codingconte st/

BlackRhino Linux download page
http://blackrhino.xrhino.com/main.php?page=downloa d

xRhino Linux kernel website
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/xrhino-kern el/

BlackRhino PlayStation 2 Linux Community Project Page
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/blackrhino/

BlackRhino Linux Project Mailing List
http://playstation2-linux.com/lists/listinfo/black rhino-general

-- manu

You can then point the DVD-based bootloader to the image on memory card and boot without the need of a HDD unit, which is pretty useless but fun to do anyway.

You can download the CRAMFS enabled kernel from the xRhino Linux Kernel project located at:

https://playstation2-linux.com/projects/xrhino-ker nel/

If memory serves, which it usually doesn't with me, we used blackbox to provide most of the basic linux commands. The system had samba, full networking support, a web server and some other neat stuff.

As a compute cluster the PS2's raw number crunching power is pretty impressive... but its relatively high price and lack of a high-speed network interconnect kills it as a good clustering solution.

What it is good at though is teaching programmers how to write MIPS assembler, work with relatively small memory requirements, do advanced embedded development, program vector processing units, program sound processing units, perform DMA by hand, and mess with incredibly low-level graphics programming. Its a great embedded development training platform...

-- manu

The HDD is incompatible with games, however your PlayStation(r) 2 can still play games just fine. Just wanted to make sure people don't get the wrong idea. Also, it turns out that it is possible to boot your kit the first time on a TV, you just have to hold the appropriate keys down on your DualShock controller at boot time. Check out the faq.

I still recommend a monitor though. TVs aren't the greatest when it comes to reading text.

-Adam Bertsch
Sr. Systems Administrator
Sony Computer Entertainment America

Here's the Offical Site.

As for the system requirements, you can use a TV, but you need a sync-on-green monitor to initially install linux (why, i'm not sure, but the website has a list of tested monitors). You can also find instructions for a "blind" install, that will guide you through the various keystrokes of installing and changing the boot configuration file to TV mode. The most obvious advantage to having a sync-on-green monitor is the higher screen resolutions and refresh rates - a TV just doesn't cut it.

The 8MB memory card stores the linux kernel. Sony's Linux distribution (redhat based) comes on two PS2 DVD's. In order to boot into Linux, you need the PS2 DVD which loads as a game would on the PS2. The DVD has a boot menu on it, which loads the kernel from the memory card into memory. Then it detects the hard drive, network adapter, etc.. and begins the boot process.

There's a ton of information on sony's site, as well as very informative discussion groups. I've had mine for almost a year now, and have had a ton of fun with it. The requirements have discouraged alot of people from getting one, but to be honest, they are worth the burden. Sony's willingness to open up the PS2 to developers is truly awesome -- there still hasn't been a game written (or ported) that makes use of the PS2's graphics power.

Here are some more links I found while searching Google...

• xRhino
  
• official website
  
• Linux kit
  
• More on Debian
  

The Sony Playstation 2 has had Linux available for it for almost a year now. Click here

Sure you can just go an install any Linux distro on it; however, it not x86 based and noone makes a full alternative distro for it.]

If you really wanted you could do a minimal install and then upgrade everything you want to run by recompiling from source.

As for the GameCube, the lack of a hard drive will limit the use of Linux on it. Sure the Dreamcast didn't have a hard drive and it ran Linux; however, I see writeable media as a neccesity. And don't give me those 2-8MB memory cards are all you'd ever need.

Its a real shame that there isn't a team developing cool stuff like this for the Playstation 2 Linux.

> And it ain't the number of PS[1|2] sold, it is the number of games sold that is so staggering.
It's both actually. I'm amazed at the amount of hardware sold, and even more amazed at the number of games sold !

> What is the track to get into PS development?
The inexpensive way ($200), is the PS2 Linux Kit
The expensive way ($20k+), is the TOOL T10K, along with Metrowerks CodeWarrior PS2, or SN Systems ProDG.

You'll find this interview interesting.

> Is there a PC based emulator that you can use for design?
With 7 CPU's in the PS2, don't hold your breath waiting for an emulator anytime soon!

> Or is it something reserved for good sized software houses that requires you to learn on the Job?
Usually it will be on the job, unless you had prior experience with the PS1. (Mostly because you won't have access to all the docs and newsgroups, unless you are a professional licensed developer.)

Cheers

And if you hurry now, they will throw in a USB=>PS2 convertor plug Absolutly free!

But you don't even need an adapter to plug a USB mouse into a PS2. You may need it for a PS/2, however.

</bad-ps2-joke>

Supporting Linux would be a key advantage over existing console makers, who go out of their way to prevent customers from running a real OS on their devices.

I wonder if you've ever heard of this little company called Sony...

Anyway, yeah, what-ever. An advantage, yes. A key advantage, no. They might sell more consoles. They wouldn't sell any more games, thus they would get no more money from royalties. That's where the money in the console market is.

So, is there a problem? Yes, there is. You can't modify the kernel. If you try, it will not be trusted by the TCPA chip and so no application running on that kernel can gain access to any feature, media or application that requires TCPA. Certifying a Linux kernel (or any other OS) as TCPA-compliant is expensive and you would need to do it for every modification of the kernel. What value is the GPL if you can't use the source to create your own kernel?

Ross Anderson's TCPA / Palladium FAQ has a more detailed discussion (excerpt from section 18):

[TCPA hardware is referred to as the "Fritz chip" in the FAQ]

TCPA will undermine the General Public License (GPL), under which many free and open source software products are distributed. The GPL is designed to prevent the fruits of communal voluntary labour being hijacked by private companies for profit. Anyone can use and modify software distributed under this licence, but if you distribute a modified copy, you must make it available to the world, together with the source code so that other people can make subsequent modifications of their own.

At least two companies have started work on a TCPA-enhanced version of GNU/linux. This will involve tidying up the code and removing a number of features. To get a certificate from the TCPA corsortium, the sponsor will then have to submit the pruned code to an evaluation lab, together with a mass of documentation showing why various known attacks on the code don't work. (The evaluation is at level E3 - expensive enough to keep out the free software community, yet lax enough for most commercial software vendors to have a chance to get their lousy code through.) Although the modified program will be covered by the GPL, and the source code will be free to everyone, it will not make full use of the TCPA features unless you have a certificate for it that is specific to the Fritz chip on your own machine. That is what will cost you money (if not at first, then eventually).

You will still be free to make modifications to the modified code, but you won't be able to get a certificate that gets you into the TCPA system. Something similar happens with the linux supplied by Sony for the Playstation 2; the console's copy protection mechanisms prevent you from running an altered binary, and from using a number of the hardware features. Even if a philanthropist does a not-for-profit secure GNU/linux, the resulting product would not really be a GPL version of a TCPA operating system, but a proprietary operating system that the philanthropist could give away free. (There is still the question of who would pay for the user certificates.)

People believed that the GPL made it impossible for a company to come along and steal code that was the result of community effort. This helped make people willing to give up their spare time to write free software for the communal benefit. But TCPA changes that. Once the majority of PCs on the market are TCPA-enabled, the GPL won't work as intended. The benefit for Microsoft is not that this will destroy free software directly. The point is this: once people realise that even GPL'led software can be hijacked for commercial purposes, idealistic young programmers will be much less motivated to write free software.

Other systems such as the playstation2 or the gamecube have been sucessful because they have a large amount of propreitary games and use propreuitary hardware. For instance you can't buy a gamecube or playstation2 to and run linux on it, but on the x-box you can.

Actually, you can run linux on a PS2. Here's the FAQ.

Other systems such as the playstation2 or the gamecube have been sucessful because they have a large amount of propreitary games and use propreuitary hardware. For instance you can't buy a gamecube or playstation2 to and run linux on it, but on the x-box you can.

Actually, you can run linux on a PS2. Here's the FAQ.

AFAIK the PS2 and GC both have proprietary graphics libraries (and in the PS2 case, not much of a library at all).

But what about SDL?

They've actually embraced the independent developer very nicely, by first offering their "Net Yaroze" for the Playstation, and now, a actual port of Linux for the Playstation 2..

Sony (and on the software side, many game software companies like id and Valve, with their mod-friendly games) seems to understand that the hobbyists/indie developers of today often are the professional game developers of tomorrow, unlike Microsoft and their efforts toward an Xbox (they've got their "incubator" program, but that is still only for actual game developers, not individuals).

It would be good to provide feedback to other companies to embrace such models like Sony has.

However they can use those figures to get more games to the platform, and more sales

Hi, i already opened a thread on the page this morning. Maybe you could help us out, Im a bit new to the world of Linux and therefore im having a hard time compiling it myself right now.
Mine keeps breaking...heres the Link to our Phoenix Thread.

Well, sad if its not just i396 architecture and you cant upgrade...like these folks...

Yeah...costs about 200$$, but it's pretty damn worth it, you get a network adapter, 10G hard drive, 2 CDs with linux on it (1 might be linux and something else...don't recall), usb keyboard and mouse and maybe something else I'm missing... You can check out the pages here: Linux for Playstation . As far as I'm concerned, for the hardware you're getting, it's damn worth it. You'd prolly spend that much buying the individual pieces anyways!! I've wanted one as soon as it was released...gonna have to talk to someone about possible Christmas gifts!! ;)

Many people have asked in the forums on Sony's PS2 Linux site regarding the possibility of modchipped PS2's being able to play back non-PS2 media. There hasn't been a clear answer to this, and it's pretty obvious Sony won't respond to the question.

If in fact a mod chip would allow PS2 Linux users to read other media types under Linux, I can see many legitimate purposes. It seems no one has tried (or wants to) mod their PS2 to see whether it works or not (I don't blame them). But, if it does in fact work, I might consider it, if the driver isn't reverse-engineered/written from scratch first :)

Even worse, consoles, which have the larger market, don't have enough storage (except maybe for the XBox) and aren't open enough to encourage players to create their own games and share them."

Thats not entirely true. Sony does have the Linux kit, with the purpose of being mostly open and encouraging players to create their own games... but unfortunately not open enough to share them with your non-linux-ps2-ing friends.. Still, some respect for Sony is deserved here.

If only we could get mozilla working we could switch our moms over to ps2 linux.

It's cheap, it fits in their living rooms (mine keeps complaining about the grey box) and with Linux it's up to the task of checking mail and surfing the web. Let's equip this baby with a usb-printer and we're set...;-) If only...

cu,
Lispy

Say, nice job on tranquility -- it's quite soothing.

Regarding the ethernet thing, I've had mine running for as long as a week without trouble, but then again, I'm probably not doing anything particularly network intensive. You might want to check the forums to see if anyone else is experiencing something similar.

Regarding the keyboard cable -- I hear folks have had success using Logitech's wireless keyboard, although their mouse may need GSConfig changes to work properly. Again, the forums have more details on this.

Thanks to this article, I've noticed that the kit is now available for order in europe. w00t! I'll be doing some serious PS2 coding soon :)

Interesting. I wonder if the third link you provided is in any way related to Linux PS2 tech support request number 50. (That one's worth a read if you're still noodling about picking up a Linux kit and you have a recent-make PS2.)

Back on topic though, sounds like the early days of the PSO launch. Hopefully they'll work out the kinks before it gets rolled across the pond.

Actually, it is a good price.

To find out which monitors works, go to PS2 Linux Monitor DB
But what I heard from a friend, he said pretty much almost all monitors manufactured after 1997 have sync to green ability.
As for PS2 network game, I heard a rumor that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 support the Ethernet Port supplied with PS2 Linux kit.

I use the binaries from an RPM someone posted on the Linux for Playstation2 home. Here's a link to the RPM.

I use the binaries from an RPM someone posted on the Linux for Playstation2 home. Here's a link to the RPM.

Wow I was so excited about mine... to bad I have'nt had a chance to try it out. You know why? Because not a single one of my SEVEN monitors work with it. Old ones, new ones, whatever dont worry... Head over here and you will see that almost all the Sony monitors work, and the other brands are hit and miss. Talk about lame. Only one good thing has come out of my purchase of the kit so far, and that is that I can play Tony Hawk 3 online, and I have a keyboard to chat with... and until I go out and have to buy a monitor, this is all I can do with my kit. Talk about a big disappointment. Good job Sony, keep up with your memory card shortages, empty promises (cough, cough PlayStation 3), and nice open development support, and you sure as hell will loose my business.

We only guranttee patch work Sony monitors. Other monitor you see Monitor DB

Mike Hirohito

Please address further questions on our forum we'd be able to help faster. Thank you. Brian the EE guy who did a quick patch for sdlquake. Also please look in there to see if the current pack would work with your monitor or not, we have got a lot of comments from users and therse are updated live on our monitor DB page.

I also found out that alas -- my monitors did not support sync on green, so I was stuck in the same boat as many other folk: I was desperate to get Linux set up, but unable to use my monitor. The blind install was a god send.

If you happen to have to run through the blind install, make sure that you select the appropriate display setting near the end. Without thinking, I put in display=pal, which naturally didn't work for me in the states. (Fortunately, they've ammended the doc to tell you to choose pal or ntsc; when I ran through it, it only listed pal.)

The 320x240 resolution you get with a standard TV isn't flattering, making me long for an HTDV. *sigh* One can always dream.

Was I the only one who, upon checking the forums at the Playstation 2 Linux site, found that a lot of the wrong types of people are getting this kit? I'm talking about the ones wondering why this is better than installing Linux on a PC, or who have never used Linux before. If you're a complete Linux newbie, the PS2 kit will be...frustrating.