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Linux for the PlayStation 1
OberonX writes: "Blockman Trading has released the alpha version of Runix,
which is a working verion of Linux 2.4 kernel working with PS2. [ed. note: for the original Playstation, though they plan on porting to the PS2 also.] You can read
an article about it at zdnet and you can download the 26MB file here.
The final version is expected to be released by October while office software
for PS1 is due by the end of the year. Pretty neat stuff..."
So saddam was right after all!
no, thats for DEVELOPMENT - not for end user.
;)
A developer could create a CD with minimal Linux boot + enhanced Framebuffer or MicroWindows + minimal services for the Linux - and the game itself.
All you have to do is just put the cd in - wait for the game to load, and play...
Not bad, eh?
Hetz (Heunique)
We're sorry about your bandwidth. It should be back in a day or two. I'm up to 23 hops away and it's getting slower after each one.
Back a few years ago, I wrote in a column of mine about setting the User Agent string for a Perl LWP fetch to something odd like "Mozilla/3.0 (Sony Playstation)". Looks like I was off only in the version number. {grin}
Their banner says "We decide problems of any complexity."
Wow. I wonder how they'd cope with the Halting Problem...
Gerv
I have only one thing to say...
"MAME"
The idea of running MAME on the PS2 and playing Crazy Kong from the comfort of couch just puts me in a spin.
Sure you'll need the HD and Network adapters, which'll cost you. But system price is supposed to drop to $200 sometime in the fall, so it's not that bad. And I challenge you to find a PC for $500 that has similar graphics performance.
Besides, DOA2 still rocks the house!
:)
--
InstantCool
Linux on a PS2 (IMHO would rule...)
In our business we use MIPS based SGI equipment for doing image manipulation. I believe it wouldn't take much work to port those libraries to the PS2. We use a simple cluster of XMLRPC servers to handle image conversion requests and the data is transfered over simple NFS style filesystems.
The problem I have right now is that the image conversions have to happen on demand and in real time (well, there is a user waiting). Most of the images on the fastest PC's I can get my hands on happen in around 2 seconds. (I use Image magick, there are probably better things out there). On the Irix machine we have we can do the same conversion less than
I believe that the reason the SGI machine does so well is because of the internal bandwidth and system architecture, not so much the CPU speed. (Again, AFAIK).
Now, if I can use 13-14 playstation2's in a small cluster to get similar results (even close) would be MUCH MUCH MUCH more cost effective than a Origin class server.
Strangely enough those little machines are designed to maintain a fairly intense sustained level of io/cpu internaly without keeling over.
Just a thought... anyway. It might very well be the pro-c compilers for Irix give me the edge and with GCC I wouldn't see much of a performance gain over a normal ia32 system.
--------------------
Would you like a Python based alternative to PHP/ASP/JSP?
Kids have this habit of trashing CDs - big time. It might be nice to have backups of your good games and let them trash junk CD-Rs would it not?
Wake up - not everyone is in your special situation or playing by your rules. Sheesh.
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
> Why on Earth would I want to run Linux on my PS2?
Just off the top of my head, I would say there is a lot you can do. eg, many open source linux games can now be ported to the PS much more easily since all the neccesary linux libs etc will be available.
Also off the top of my head: With just linux, a framebuffer driver for the PS, an opendivx codec and a bit of work, it shouldn't be too hard to get a bootable linux based cd whose sole purpose is to play back the divx thats also recorded to the cd. In other words, an alternative to DVD that plays on any PS and is easily copied and distributed. This would be ideal for people wanting to send copies of their summer party video to their friends, none of whom own a pc, but all who have playstations.
When someone says that linux runs on the PS, don't automatically think that they are talking about a complete GNU/Linux system together with all the usual shells and servers etc. That will probably not be the case. I expect a bootable linux CD could be set up to go straight into a game from init. The user may not even know they were running linux at all.
This could be the start of lots of free-software games releases ported to the PS.
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
Not just pirates chip their PlayStations. I regularly travel back and forth between Japan and the UK. Purchasing games in Japan was a way to get games before they came out elsewhere, on the PS1...
--- There's no place like 127.0.0.1
Ok, so maybe it isn't, but at least I made you look! Honestly, the things people do to entertain and amuse themselves...
If there was ever a use for 'Gesture Recognition', PS is the platform for it.
To me, this is proof of what I have said ever since being introduced to Intel based Unix/Unix look-alikes : Linux for fun, BSD for work!
I got to thinking about people who have neat ideas like this, Runix, NewOS, AtheOS, etc., and I wonder about how this helps the community (showing the different ways Linux is being used, etc) and thought about someone creating the all in one marketing site for Linux to show how many different configurations, installations you could create with it.
The site of course would be a non profit site sort of like a Source Forge, where developers could post their latest work, which could be referred to in trade shows, LinuxWorld Expo's etc., so Fortune 500's could see all of the neat things that could be done from this OS (Linux) and others like it.
On its own, its nothing more than a novelty (Runix) but when you have hundreds of different creations all in one place, I think it strenghtens the notion that Linux and others like it should be looked into more often, as opposed to dumping money buying, or leasing for that matter (*cough XP*) software when it's freely available.
Sorry I couldn't post on the gaming side of this story because I don't play them (well actually XBoard, Dopewars, and XBill I'll admit it) so forgive my gratuitous post
Want Root?
> Why would anyone but a CRIMINAL have his playstation modded to play CDR copies of games?
It is FAIR USE for a legal customer to backup their cd's and use the backups to play.
Guess you never have kids in your house that destroy CD's.
Stop making the assumption, copying = pirating dumbass.
You're looking at it as if people would be buying the ps2 *just* for the linux stuff.
See, it's a game console, and there are a lot of really cool games out for it. It also plays DVDs.
So it becomes the "living room appliance" that everyone has been trying to achieve for the last 5 years. I don't understand why people are so against it....
Go back and read any of the 10 million previous debates on this subject. Every time they post something about a port to a console, this debate gets run through again. Here, in a nutshell, are some of the main reasons:
1. M.A.M.E. -- run a bazillion and one arcade games with a nice controller from your couch
2. XMMS -- burn off a CD of a bootable kernel, audio drivers and XMMS with a CD full of MP3s and you've got an MP3 player hooked up to your home theater
3. Because it is there. Why the hell not port it? If you don't want to use it, it's quite simple -- don't. I know a lot of people who enjoy getting things ported just for the fun of it -- why not see the linux boot screen scrolling by on your television? Seems pretty cool to me.
PS2 $200
External Hard Drive ~$250
External Floppy Drive ~$50
Mouse & Keyboard ~$35
You get the picture.
And those great graphics you talk about are designed for a TV. It'll make a nice DVD player, but I'd hate to write software using a TV as a display. I've heard rumors of LCD displays comming out, but at what resolution, and what cost?
If you can put a network card in it it might make a nice firewall computer, but Linksys already makes those cheap.
Linux on PS2 is interesting from a hobby aspect, and it shows how portable the Kernel is, but it doesn't appear very "usefull" to me.
I wouldn't hold your breath for the PS1, at least. I once tried scouring the net for a software MP3 player for the PS1, to no avail. There are plenty of hardware players (that plug into the parallel port in the back), but none that can do it all in software.
I found at least one person who had tried writing a software MP3 player, first in C and then in assembly, but couldn't make it work because the CPU for the PSX runs at 33MHz and is much too slow to do the decoding in real time.
Therefore, the porting of emulators and such doesn't seem likely until you reach DC- and PS2-class hardware.
> PS2 $200
> External Hard Drive ~$250
> External Floppy Drive ~$50
> Mouse & Keyboard ~$35
Geek factor: priceless.
On May 30th, "The Register" had the same article with the same problem of confusing "1" with "2". The Register has since pulled the article alltogether (this distribution has been available for more than a month -- not big news).
I downloaded the kernel -- it's for the PlayStation I only. The PS2 version should be available in a month.
When I die, please cast my ashes upon Bill Gates -- for once, make him clean up after me!
Square,Square,R1,L,R,U,U,D,D,R1,R1,D,D,L2,L1,U,U,R ,R,R,R,Square,Triangle,Square,L1,L1. New paragraph. L1,L1,Square,Triangle....
Syllable : It's an Operating System
I've been trying for a couple of days to get this file. I only have 300k so far. Has anyone managed to download the whole thing yet?
Tried getting it with 'wget' or any other download manager? That way you can resume part way through a broken download...
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
Install onto a CD the kernal, sound/video drivers, gamepad drivers. Then your choice of: MAME, snes9x, an MP3 player, whatever, and a bunch of appropriate data files. Then you carry it around, and wherever there may be a PS1, you're golden.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Productivity Software? Are you nuts?
[right] [left] [left] [right] [up] [button 3] [right] [up] [up]...
Be quiet! I need to finish this report tonight!!!
And I thought typing on that half-keyboard mentioned here a few days ago was going to be hard!
You don't need to port an entire operating system in order to run MAME. It would be much simpler to port MAME directly to the PS/PS2 in the same way its been ported to Win32, Mac etc. Probably its the only way you could use it anyway what with the low memory constraints.
I believe you just completely backed up what he was trying to say instead of challenging it.
I've often dreamed of being able to use a gamepad at work, but not for office productivity software.
Special Relativity: The person in the other queue thinks yours is moving faster.
How hard could this possibly be to explain, and yet the question comes up every time someone announces a port like this?
Because it can be done. Because you're talking about putting a general-purpose OS on a fairly powerful (okay, by '96 standards, but still...) $99 box. Because there's a great deal of satisfaction in cracking a closed system (though demosceners have been doing it for a while now). In two words: hack value.
Do you need any further explanation?
/Brian
Linux/PS1 is actually pretty useless except for things like the above, but it also has the advantage of (like Linux/Dreamcast, NetBSD/Dreamcast, etc) being a good way to make your own games. And the PlayStation in both forms is not going away soon, so this is really not a bad idea.
Think of it this way: the PSone is the last of the stand-alone game consoles; everything else is bleeding into PC territory.
Actually, here's a diversionary thought for you...
Are we witnessing a convergence in system design? I think so. The video game console sort of split off from the personal computer tree right at the beginning, while the dumb terminal was absorbing PC traits and eventually developing into things like the X terminal and then things like the iOpener and WebTV. Now we're seeing something that started with the Dreamcast where the video game console of old is merging with the descendants of the terminal. I don't actually know if this is a good thing, though -- seems to me there should be a point of principle about opening closed systems as quickly as humanly possible, as most of these are at least nominally closed systems...
/Brian
Anyone know of an ethernet interface for PS1? If so, I could easily have 6 webservers going here before the week is up!
In fact, I had it do my taxes for me in April. I hear memachine is going to be merged with emacs soon.
Ok I have Linux for my Dreamcast -- Linux for the ps2 and ps1....Linux for my toaster, etc, etc....I have yet to here of anyone porting MAME to run on these....(Sound support, Joypad Support, and acceptable speed please....) Has anyone worked on this --- or do they just port the base OS and move on to the next toy...Hell if the OS was all that mattered I would be running CP/M or maybe even BeOS.....It's the apps that make the world go round.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Just a brief note here, but at E3 (the Electronics Entertainment Expo) the Sony area had two AOL employees demonstrating AOL on the PS2 running linux. Additionally, there was an ethernet card adapter "thingie" (for lack of a better term) stuck on the back. From what I could tell, it was a production unit rather than a one-off. The demo personnel said there would be an ethernet adapter for PS2 out "soon". Unfortunately, the folks working that corner of the booth were from AOL (despite their PS2 shirts) and were not 100% familiar with Sony's plans.
Morgan
A sig?!? I don't think so.....
First, a correction: the GPL does not require that you distribute source to a GPL program that you modify--only that if you distribute it in binary form then you must also distribute it in source form. This seems to be a pretty common misunderstanding, but if you come from out of nowhere and ask Sony (or anyone else) to fork over the source for some GPL'd software XYZ, and they say "screw you," well, tough luck--they're completely within their rights.
Second, Sony is including the source to all GPL components of their distribution. They even say as much (in Japanese) on their license terms page.
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BACKNEXTFINISHCANCEL
Perhaps this is the foothold linux gaming needs. The i386 platform is in a windows stranglehold, but if we can make it very easy to transfer games written for linux to the playstation platform and make images available for people to burn to a cd that will boot linux on the playstation/playstation2 and run the game, this adds a serious level of added value to any linux platform game programming project. Perhaps game companies could even target a linux ps/ps2 system by distributing two discs, the runix disk (all gpl) and the game disk (proprietary, if they feel they must)? I'd love to have a port of tuxracer for the ps/ps2. Intriguing, Bryguy
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
I've been trying for a couple of days to get this file. I only have 300k so far. Has anyone managed to download the whole thing yet?
Does my bum look big in this?
What about Full-geeks? They'll want real PSX programming docs. Because they're not five year old kids.
Does my bum look big in this?
We now need to build a PS1 emulator so that it can run all the stuff it used to run in emulation mode, only slower!!! No more constant crashing of the PS1 console! Er, um, wait....
+5:offtopic,but anti-American
The aim, according to Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs, is to "transform [the] Apple G4 and G4 Cube into a full-featured, high-priced gaming console".
This is a joke. Don't find it funny? move on.
~
Even if it does run (and it probably will), why not wait for a PS2-specific distro? Anything written for PSOne will be unable to take advantage of the PS2's forthcoming HD and net access anyway.
GTRacer
- I didn't come here to play. I came to win!
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
"It appears that you're searching for ancient treasure! Would you like me to:
I am obviously missing something huge here. Why on Earth would I want to run Linux on my PS2? It has no network access, no keyboard, and no HD storage (granted, I know it is coming. Someday.) I'm not sure how much of a selling point this is for people looking to buy a PS2 either. If I'm John Q. Public looking to buy a computer for word processing and email, should I buy a $300 system, plus whatever the future HD and broadband adapter and a keyboard costs, then install Linux on it and learn how to use UNIX, or should I go to Best Buy and buy a $500 PC which comes with monitor, printer, and a preinstalled OS that has thousands of pieces of software available for it? This would seem to be a geek think only. I mean what are you going to do, run a web server from your PS2? I'm willing to bet that a good majority of the people who would be even remotely interested in this, probably already have an extra box set up somewhere with Linux already installed.
Semi-geeks will want to see what's under the covers at PlayStation1 and PlayStation2