Looking Closely at the Restrictions of Linux on the PS2

Hal-kun writes: "I wrote an interesting article about Sony's upcoming Linux distro for the PS2 and some intellectual property concerns I have with it. It's an intresting look at how Sony limits the ability to have full access to the system, yet being able to keep it under GPL."

Comments

just try a little belief

[atari2600]

Umm the saints are here - and they need to perform three miracles.

*Hack into the hardware
*Hack the Sony "prop" Linux
*Post a webpage and /. it

I have faith - the most absolute faith in todays dear hackers. :)

Yawn.

[NiftyNews]

Yawn. Why exactly do people try to put (or run) OS's on video game hardware, other than the fact that "I can?" You can get better results with a dedicated PC for a couple hundred bucks...

Re:here's a mirror in case the site gets slashdott

[Hes Nikke]

hear is a readable version (actuly it's more readable then the orignal!):
Linux for the PS2 and Sony's Intellectual Property

In a few months Sony Computer Entertainment of America will be releasing a version of Linux for their terribly popular Playstation 2. I can't help but to feel a little worried about this. Is Sony's PS2 Version of Linux Free, as in Freedom? Sony's never been one to be very forthcoming when it comes to giving their intellectual property away for free. Anyone familiar with my Playstation Documentation Project know that I have a past with Sony. Thankfully only by proxy. Not to go into outrageous details, but my documentation came about from a bet that I had with a Sony representative. It was during the first volleys of Sony's litigation with "Bleem!", a small two-man company that set out to make a commercial Playstation 1 (PSX) emulator for PC. Sony, at the time, was claming that the creation of the "Bleem!" violated countless patents, copyrights, and trade secrets. I, for one, thought the trade secret argument was a bunch of hooey. I speak and read Japanese and seen all kinds of documents about how the PSX functioned from both sides of the pond. Also homebrew developers and professionals were swapping notes in a wildly open mailing list that I had subscribed to. With this wealth of information in hand, I bet my Sony rep that I could peg about 75% of the internal architecture of the PSX without signing a Non-Discourse Agreement (NDA) with Sony, or using any official Sony documentation.

I still have no Idea how close I got, but from the kudos and pats on the back I have received, I must of gotten pretty darn close. I was also asked to be a witness for the Sony vs. Connectix trial to show that Sony's claims of trade secrets was a pretty moot point. Before I was called to trial , Sony bought the Virtual GameStation division from Connectix. That in itself also proves to me that the doc is a little more than just a bunch a numbers I pulled out of my butt.

After I published the doc, I kind of picked up intellectual property law as sort of a hobby. I figured that between Linux programming and studying Japanese linguistics, one more esoteric hobby couldn't hurt. I watched as intellectual property disputes raised issues that was supposedly solved over 100 years ago, but somehow it's different today simply because the media is digital now. I also watched as John Q. Public didn't care and continue not to do so. I also sit, bemused, as companies take advantage of this. In the future people won't care simply because "it was always like that"

So imagine my shock when I learned that Sony was releasing a version of Linux for the PS2 in Japan. I was so used to seeing Sony fight tooth-and nail for their intellectual property, especially when it came to their game console. Now here they gave giving away the keys to the store, or were they?

Allow me to segway for a bit;

When I lived in Japan from 1992-1996, I saw the state of intellectual property there first hand. For example, normal broadcast radio does not play top 40 hits. Actually any transmission of copyrighted songs over the air, even a sample, must have a royalty paid to the publisher. If you want to listen to music on the radio, you find an American military station broadcasting on base. Japanese singers also do not commonly own the copyright to their own songs, they couldn't give them away even if the wanted to. Concert recordings are also illegal. There is also royalties you have to pay for the subtle music played in department stores, doctor's offices, and on the phone when you are on hold. Videos are divided into "rental" and "non-rental" versions. The "rental" version commonly cost more to the rental house, and the non-rental version must be sold at a particular price point set by the manufacturer for an allotted amount of time. As I'm writing this I have three Japanese items published by Sony that I purchased during a recent jaunt to the country. The first is a concert video, next is a CD, and lastly a PSX game. Along the spine the video, written in big bold Japanese letters are the words "Rental Prohibited". It's also set at a price of 6,700 yen (about $67 USD at the time) with a "Pull Price" of 6,505 yen ($65) This second price is when Sony gives the store permission to "clear the shelves" and can then sell at that price without getting penalized. These are prices set by Sony.

The CD is set at 2,800 yen ($28) with a pull price of 2,718 yen (a buck cheaper) These prices were set until July 15, 1992. The CD was published in 1988. Lastly, my Japanese PSX game just set at a pull price of 5,800 ($58) It's up to the store to set something higher for profit

So now you could understand why I was so amazed to see Sony selling a Linux kit! Linux and proprietary hardware do not go hand-in-hand. What about all the trade secrets that Sony waged a war in order to protect? It wasn't adding up. Their last PSX "hobby system", the Net Yaroze, game with some pretty steep intellectual property requirements. They required you to sign a Non-Disclosure agreement, relinquish all copyright control to the programs you made to Sony, and you had to use statically linked run-time libraries that not only bloated code, but kept you fingers out of the hardware. You also had no access to the CD-ROM. You have to upload your code (no more than 2 meg, including the library) via a slow serial connection and execute remotely.

As more information came out about the PS2 Linux, I have found that even though they don't technically violate GPL, they are doing some pretty shifty things to make sure that their intellectual property is intact. From both the Japanese and English FAQs I have read, I have found out how they did it. Now I haven't played with the Japanese PS2 Linux system, but I've read Japanese reports. I'm also a Linux enthusiast, and though I can't claim I know every facet of the OS, I know how to roll my own distribution from scratch. What bothers me to no end, and the key to Sony's ability to keeping the PS2 locked out of even the most uber of superusers is the use of what called "The PlayStation 2 Runtime Environment"

This is how the Runtime Environment (RTE) works. In order to get Linux running on your PS2, you must boot the system using the PS2 Linux DVD. During boot, after all the copy-protection stuff is taken care of, the system lays down the Runtime Environment. This is basically a layer that hides access to the SPU2 (Sound Processing Unit), the input/output processor, the hard drive, the CD/DVD-ROM system, the controllers, memory cards, USB, i.Link and other peripherals. The RTE does supply hardware looking hooks, an educated guess being faux-memory address and registers. Then the Linux kernel is loaded onto of this. There are Linux device drivers that accesses the Runtime Environment that are open source, but it's just a device driver calling in all actuality, another device driver that's closed.

What you can and can't do with the system is limited. You have no ability to read a normal PSX or PS2 memory card directly. For example you can't open a Final Fantasy X save, edit how much cash you have, and save it again. Through the RTE you can format a whole memory card(!) and mount it like an 8 meg hard drive, but that card would be worthless for saving normal PS2 games. Once you put the Linux formatted card without Linux running (i.e. you are in the browser) it's ask to reformat the card.

The RTE also not allow audio CDs to be identified. It also can tell if you have put in a CD-R or not (it can see a wobble track, which all CD-Rs have ) and likewise not allow the disk to be seen. A PS2 can read CD-Rs fine, the RTE is just doing copy protection first to make sure you can't. You will also have no access to the CSS portion of the MPEG decoder, but you can decode raw MPEG-4. Direct access to the Dolby subsystem is also denied. Anything dealing with region locks are also restricted.

The first DVD (The boot disk) has a Linux boot loader and the RTE on it. This disk is not allowed to be copied. It also has the manuals on it too, which I'm sure are also copyrighted and not allowed to be publicly distributed. The Linux kernel is on the second disk and also on the hard drive after it's installed.

In order to use a monitor, you must one that is "Sync on Green" . This means that the refresh rate is only in the green channel. The monitor must use that sync pulse to sync red and blue channels so they all get painted in the screen at the same time. The reason why you have to use that is because a PS2 can turn it's sync on green ability on and off. If you try and use the monitor adapter for playing PS2 games or watching DVDs, sync on green will be turned off and only the green channel will show up. Direct video output defeats Macrovision. Sony doesn't want you making copies of DVDs to tape.

Keep in mind that your network adapter is going to have a MAC address that Sony, no doubt, knows. Also removing the PS2 hard drive and attempting to mount in a PC will also likely not work and possibly damage the drive.

That's about it. Any questions or comments can be directed at me. I'm probably not going to pick up a Linux kit for my PS2 because I really can't afford it and I have a much more open version of Linux on my other PC. I'm not trying to dump on the system. I'm just trying to make people a little bit more aware. If I have anything wrong please correct me. Any negative comments must be processed through /dev/null before sending them me. ^_^

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halkun@execpc.com