Slashdot Mirror
Sony Announces Version 1.0 Of Linux for Playstation 2
ResearchBuzz writes: "Sony has announced the May 2002 release of Linux (for Playstation 2) Release 1.0." He quotes from the press release: "The company expects the kit to sell for about $199 USD when it is made available in May 2002 exclusively through its website, http://www.us.playstation.com."
Here's a blurb on an adapter that should do the trick for you...- hp pa-200111/msg00001.html
http://lists.debian.org/debian-hppa/2001/debian
Beta only seems to work for Google. Such a shame.
http://netbsd.org/Ports/playstation2/
Not too hard it seems.
With my end-user hat on , I think this is a good thing, as I know that all commercial PS2 bootable DVD will have at least some sort of minimum quality control
With my hacker/geek hat on, I'm kinda disappointed that this won't allow non Sony sanctioned s/w to be produced for the PS2
I'm not sure which way to lean on this one, so it's just an observation at this stage !
Darren Kruse CCNP CCDP
WAN/LAN Networking Consultant
mailto://darren_kruse@hotmail.com
www.geocities.com/darren_kruse
the software is Free as in GPL and can't legally be sold at a profit.
Actually, the under the GPL license, you can make all the money you want. It's free as in speech, not beer. You just have to make it available to others, including source code.
Nope.. sorry. too slow and windows is way to bloated for the memory spec of that machine , especially as a guest OS.
Also, VMWARE is i386 only (binary remember).
After I wrote my Playstation Documentation Project I have had to dance with Sony playing the intellectual property game with me and Connectix. I've taken up a hobby of watching Sony pretty closely when it comes to them protecting thier I.P. and tend to become even more intrested when they start becoming "generous" like this. It's hard to think that there are no strings attached. Allow me to give you a little history.
/dev you are going to be sorely disappointed. If you can access the CD-ROM, color me suprised.
When Sony released the "Net Yaroze" (A grey PSX painted black for hobbiests), there was a very restrictive licence in the contract you had to sign. This included a "all programs created with the Yaroze are property of Sony" clause. They also popped in an NDA for good mesure too. It was a little too resticting for me.
When I was halfway though my Doc, I let my e-mail show up on a PSXDev mailing list informing them of the Doc I was working on. I almost immidiatly got an e-mail from Sony of Japan(!) asking if I spoke Japanese. When I answered that I did, I got a real nastygram in Japanese basicly saying that if I even think about publising any of the libary commands to the PSX I'd be up the proverbial estuary without means of locomotion. A few months later I published, had a little tussle about the BIOS hooks, and now I'm here.
I haven't played with the Japanese Linux for PS2, but it still stinks. I used to live in Japan and know first hand that they have very restrictive intellectual property laws. (Like music CDs that are made for rental and others that you can buy, but they have to be at a sold at a particular price set by the company.) I can tell you right away, If you are thinking of doing anything that reqires accessing the CD/DVD-ROM, such as DVD Playback, reading files files from a disk, or even finding something in
Be aware that were will probably going to be proprietary drives/libs that you will not be able to reverse without Sony calling the lawyers. I know you will have *ZERO* access to the bootloader. Once again, if this isn't the case, I'll be pleasently suprised again.
Finally, I doubt that you will be able to play PS2 games/DVDs out of the moniter adapter. If you do, if I remeber, you will only get the green channel to show up.
I'm also sure that if you make a copy of the Linux disk for some sap with a hacked harddrive and a modchip, Sony will be knocking.
Just a heads up.
-Joshua Walker
The PS2 boots off the second layer of dual-layer DVD-ROMs. Such DVD's can't be produced by Apple's or anyone else's drives since producing dual-layered disks requires fusing two single-layer disks together, which can only be done in a factory.
Sig goes here
Can I use a TV as my display ?
Yes. However, it is necessary to install Linux (for PlayStation 2) for the first time using a compatible VESA Monitor that supports "sync on green". Once Linux has been installed, it is possible to configure it to boot using TV display from then on. Some digital TV (DTV) modes are also supported (separate cables may be required for DTV).
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
More:
Linux (for PlayStation®2) Version 1.0 FAQ
Sig goes here
>> I wonder if Wine or lindows
>> would efficiently run on this now.
Nope.
Wine only runs on x86 CPU's, Wine does not provide a CPU emulator.
Below is quoted from the Wine FAQ:
>> Wine is being developed specifically to run
>> on the Intel x86 class of CPUs under certain
>> UNIXes that run on the x86 platform.
The idea of perhaps running Bleem or some other emulators on the PS 2 would be great.
Hmmm. Bleem is a PS1 emulator. The PS2 actually runs PS1 games in HARDWARE. So, while it might win you some geek-points to run a PS1 emulator, on top of a windows emulator, on top of linux on your PS2, those of us who like playing games at more than 5fps will probably just insert the PS1 CD in the drive before we power up our PS2s ;-)
But then... since when has Linux been about doing things the easy way?
The main processor of the Dreamcast runs at 200 mHz. The main processor of the PS2 runs at 300. The main processor of the Gamecube runs at 405, I think. And the xbox at 733. I'm not getting into the differences between graphics chips.
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 Race
12112
Have you not seen my rants aboutSony blatently [slashdot.org] and knowingly [advogato.org] being in direct violation [advogato.org] of the GPL
Perhaps Sony f****d up with respect to POSE, but not in this case. All the source code for the included GNU/Linux software comes right on the disc.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Hi... Someone with a clue here (NDA'd PS2 developer). Not only does Sony give out the source and all modifications for the toolchain, but they have the next version up in CVS on their support site for people to tinker with. Source is NOT provided for some original tools written by Sony that have no code in common with the toolchain, nor are they required to provide it.
Your source doesn't sound very knowledgeable.