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BlackRhino Linux Now Available for PlayStation 2
Mr. Spock writes "BlackRhino Linux has been released for the PlayStation 2. It's developed independently by xRhino, a middleware developer. Check out the details and download instructions on the official website. A Playstation 2 Linux kit is required to use BlackRhino."
What is BlackRhino GNU/Linux?
BlackRhino is a free Debian-based GNU/Linux software distribution for the Sony PlayStation 2. It contains over 1,200 software packages to aid in using and creating programs for the Sony PlayStation 2 Linux kit. The programs range in functionality from simple games, to text editors, compilers, web servers, windowing systems, database systems, graphics packages, mail servers and a variety of other tools and utilities.
Why was BlackRhino developed?
Initially, BlackRhino was created by xRhino in an effort to bring a commercial Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution to the Sony PlayStation 2 for hobbyists and developers alike. As events unfolded, BlackRhino became useful in other ways and it was finally apparent that a public release should be made. For more information, see the project history.
What are BlackRhino's vital statistics?
Package Count Breakdown by Section:
admin: 49
base: 55
comm: 9
deprecated: 94
devel: 258
doc: 49
editors: 31
games: 8
graphics: 40
interpreters: 106
libs: 169
mail: 21
main: 6
math: 6
misc: 8
net: 95
oldlibs: 7
otherosfs: 11
shells: 9
sound: 57
tex: 17
text: 50
utils: 46
web: 14
x11: 73
Package Count Total: 1,292
Total Size: 1.2 Gigabytes
Help! BlackRhino doesn't have a package I need!
Then you should consider becoming a package maintainer and submitting that package!
How may I contribute?
There are plenty of ways! To name a few...
Become a package maintainer and submit new packages (or maintain existing ones).
Generate discussion on the BlackRhino listserv.
Generate discussion on the BlackRhino forums.
Provide a repository mirror.
If you have other ideas, please feel free to contact xRhino.
What is a package maintainer?
The person who is responsible for maintaining a package. This can entail initial package creation from software source, keeping the package up-to-date with the latest software version, testing the package contents and verifying correct interaction with the BlackRhino system, and releasing an updated package into the official BlackRhino repository. For more information on the Debian packaging system (which BlackRhino uses), have a look at their FAQ.
How do I submit new packages?
There is no automated way of submitting packages at this time, so a small submission proposal must be sent to xRhino. Once the proposal is approved, binary and source packages will be accepted and added to the official repository.
May I provide a repository mirror?
Absolutely! We're always happy to give BlackRhino higher availability. Contact xRhino and all the arrangements will be made.
AWESOME!!! Now I can finally play games on my PS2!!!
Very popular slashdot journal for adul
First off, where the hell do you get it from?
And I'm wondering about this:
"NOTE: Linux Kit (for PlayStation 2) is a tool for Linux enthusiasts and programmers only. It will NOT enhance your PlayStation 2 games. The hard disk drive formatted for Linux cannot be used with HDD-compatible PlayStation 2 games."
So can you still play games? If you wanted to play a HDD compatible game (if one existed) would you have to switch HDDs?
And whats the deal with the requirements?
"REQUIRES A PLAYSTATION 2 SYSTEM, VGA MONITOR [WITH SYNC-ON-GREEN CAPABILITY] AND MEMORY CARD (8MB) (FOR PLAYSTATI0N 2) [DEDICATED TO LINUX KIT USE], ALL SOLD SEPARATELY."
1st off, why cant I use the TV as a display? And what is an 8 meg memory card needed for if it comes with a 40 gig HDD?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Let me get this straight - I need the linux kit to run this linux distro?
:P
Wake me up when there's a bootable DVD distro that doesn't require any additional hardware.
Back in my day all we had for input devices were dual shock controllers
Mike Tyson just destroyed Clifford "Black Rhino" Etienne about a week ago, ya see.)
"I got nothin against Linux....but I'm definitely gonna make orphans of its child processes."
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
I could go down to Wal-Mart, slap $300 down on the counter, get one of those generic PCs (loved by /.'ers everywhere) and stick linux on that!
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" -- Homer Simpson
This is certainly fun/interesting/cool etc. but I don't really see the point of putting Linux on your PS2 - other than to say you did it. I bought the PS2 to play PS2 games, if I want to run Linux I'll scoot over to my PC.
Don't get me wrong, 'yay' for doing things for the hell of it, but what's the point of this past that?
Posting as directed.
Here I am surfing around looking for stuff to do with my PS network adapter. I come across the Linux for Playstation 2 site, but none of the other pages on that site will load. Database errors and all that. "Well somebody needs to fix their site." i thought. Well off to Google to find some other sites. What do I see at the top of the search results?
News: BlackRhino Linux Now Available for PlayStation 2 - Slashdot - 4 minutes ago
Well, that explains it.
Stupid Cheap Guitars
I'm curious as to what kinds of projects people might use this (or any flavor of linux on a PS2) for. The only practical thing I can think of is some kind of a cheap game development platform, but then who is your target audience? Other PS2/Linux owners? What are people using these platforms for? (not a flame, just curious)
i have seen alot of people buying the PS2 Linux Kit as altenative to a linux based PC, sure you can do it but whats the point?
the reason to play around with a PS2 Linux Development kit is _not_ as an alternative to a PC running Linux. If you want that, go buy a PC. Also, its not really an appropiate setup for learning about 3D graphics, once again a PC is cheaper and easier with DirectX and OpenGL etc.
what it is appropiate for;
1. another 'embedded' platform for hardcore kernel hackers to get intimate with the exotic hardware porting etc. These ppl. may find the black xRhino of interest.
2. the number one reason, is for up and coming game developers to have a better chance getting a foot in the gaming industry. it is a chance to understand and develop for a modern and relevant console...anyone who wants to take it on, should already have a strong grasp of low level C, assembler, 3D graphics etc. for these ppl, the release of the black xrhino is not really so important, as they are already trying to cut the OS out as much as possible ( or using special OS modules eg. SPS2, which open up the hardware to user space) to get as low and and dirty to the hardware as possible.
remove NOT from email.
...is that this is NOT about the cool things you can do with linux. It's about a tool for people who are interested in learning how to develop games for console systems.
I agree, if you just like playing games on your PS2 and working with linux in general, then the PS2 linux kit is a HUGE waste of money.
HOWEVER: For the people out there who would like to someday make a living actually developing games for the PS2, it's a VERY inexpensive way to come really close to Sony's actual Playstation DevKit (last time I looked, the prices for a DTL-10K from Sony was WAAAYYYY more than the price of the linux kit.)
Remember, it's just a matter of the right tool for the job. If you're coding for AMD, use an AMD system. If you're coding for the PS2.....
The PS2 Linux kit lets an aspiring developer get to grips with the most popular console in the world. The coding experience gained on this kit is in many cases identical to that which you would gain using the T10k pro dev kit. There's some fascinating hardware in there, including the two Vector Units that give the PS2 its power. These are custom parallel vector processors with dual pipelines and can perform four floating-point multiply-adds plus an integer op per cycle.
There's nowhere you can get your hands on this kind of vector hardware outside of your local supercomputing facility. There's no compiler for these either, so it's asm all the way - a real challenge.
The kit is available worldwide, online only:
US
Europe, Africa, Middle East
Japan
Australia
New Zealand
...can you run linux on it? Oh wait... nevermind.
The kit is 200.00 usd. What you get. Black usb keyboard, and mouse that say ps2 on it, a 40gb hd, ethernet adapter (ethernet only not ethernet/modem combo). I recently playtested the everquest online game and used the keyboard instead of the game controller to comunicate. I could have used any usb keyboard really. I used the network adaptor that came with the linux kit instead of buying one. So almost all the items you get from the kit can be used in your normal gaming. I'm using the kits ethernet adapter to play SOCOM, atv rage 2, and all of sony's other online stuff. Also the only thing that stops you from using the hd as a hd for your other games is you don't have any utility to partion it and format it. If you friend bought the hd kit and loans you his setup cd your in business. You don't need all 40gb to run linux anyway. So all in all I could have bought the parts seperatly and saved some 50 dollars but wouldn't have been able to play with linux on my ps2. Just cool to play around with. All these add-ons I want for my ps2 plus it runs linux. FYI the additional 8mb memory card is basically the holder for your lilo install. Check out the forums in the /. artical and read all about it. TONS of info there.
-Cho
I use my PS2 Linux kit as a set-top embedded device. It makes a very nice home MP3 player (I have a cherry GTK GUI going on it), and I can play old NES games on it. These are things you could do with a cheap PC, but if you already have a PS2, I think it's better to go with the Linux kit.
Oh, and that 40G hard drive it came with is by far the biggest one I have outside my TiVo, so I sometimes use it as a file server, though it's not great for that.
i have the network adapter for ps2, and i noticed it has what looks to be a hard drive connector and power connector. has anyone tried using the regular network adapter to do something like this? i realize i might need to format/install linux on the hard drive before putting it in my ps2, but i'd rather do that than spend some money on a linux kit.
here's the Google cache of playstation2-linux.com, as the site has been Slashborked.
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
I had a friend who got the Linux kit for his PS2, instead of buying a walmart PC. I was skeptical of it at first, especially since he knew nothing about Linux or computers in general, and was looking for this to be a cheap first PC (I had a hard time explaining how it wasn't really a PC). I did have to walk him through the install a little, but as soon as he had a desktop he was using it as well as many Windows user's use their desktops. He's since moved on to a real Linux PC as well, as well as moved away from the RedHat based Kondora Linux(that's what the Sony Linux distro is based on) but he still uses Linux on that machine as a desktop.
The PS2 Linux kit isn't for everybody, but it's not JUST for developers either. If you think you would like it or could use it, then it's probably for you. If you can't think of why anyone would want to Linux on their PS2, then it's probably just not for you.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
I've been a PS2 Linux kit owner/user from day 1. Some people think that owning and using this kit is silly unless you're a game developer, but I dismiss those allegations as quite incorrect :).
I see two excellent uses of the PS2 with Linux installed on it in my home:
When the PS3 comes along, chances are good that, like the PS2, it will be backward compatible. If this is the case, and I buy one, I normally wouldn't have any use for my PS2 anymore. However, with the PS2 Linux kit installed, I can continue to make use of my hardware investment by dedicating the system exclusively to Linux, running network tasks. The system is more than fast enough to act as a mail server, a personal webserver, a file server, or any number of other tasks.
I initially bought my PS2 for games. But they won't be making PS2 games forever. Linux, OTOH, will be around forever, making the hardware investment more useful for a longer amount of time.
Yaztromo.
I'm one of the guys that put the BlackRhino Linux distribution together and also, one of the founders of xRhino.
We started the company for the sole purpose of bringing Linux to the PlayStation 2, this was far before we even knew of Sony's PS2 Linux efforts. How great would it be, we thought, for everybody to have access to this incredibly advanced piece of hardware through Linux. As we now know, Sony was thinking the exact same thing.
A typical PlayStation 2 developer sits at a standard PC, edits his/her PS2 code, compiles it on the PC and then uploads it to a big honkin' machine called a DTL-10000. These big honkin' machines aren't cheap... infact, you could buy a good used car for the price of one of these boxes. Couple that with you have a team of 15 developers and that is a huge amount of up-front investment for a start-up game company... and thats just for the hardware.
While developing our PS2 commercial application, we were able to use much cheaper PS2 debug units to write, compile and test our code on. Instead of a big honkin' machine that cost the same as a good used car, we spent 1/10th of that on an equally powerful development machine for each developer.
Coding on the PS2 Linux kit allows a PS2 developer to test out ideas and use pre-built Linux libraries to speed development along without tying up expensive development hardware.
So, the PS2 Linux kit lets a developer save time during product creation by using cheaper hardware to accomplish the same code, compile, run, debug cycle.
It also helps the developer in another way, which was our main point with BlackRhino Linux and our PlayStation 2 product. Our commercial product is called RockSteady and it is a MP3 and Internet Radio player for the PlayStation 2. It would play MP3s off of any Samba share on your network, and it would also stream Internet Radio from the web and play it on your home stereo system.
While developing the product under BlackRhino Linux, we didn't have to worry about writing a networking stack from scratch, or a MP3 decoder, or a scripting engine, or an XML parser, or anything a typical Linux programmer takes for granted. Since we were running Linux, we could use all the development tools available under the open-source sun.
Linux has one of the most solid networking stacks out there, libmad was our MP3 decoder, Python our scripting language, libxml2 was our xml parser and SDL was used for graphic display. It wasn't nearly as fast as coding natively, but we were able to put a complete application together using about 1/5th of the resources it would have taken to do it the traditional way... and that is the true power of using Linux to do PS2 development, it saves you precious development resources (time and money).
I thank those of you that have Linux kits for explaining why somebody would want to use one... again, its not for everyone... but it sure is a great little development box.
-- manu
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
For example, if you wanted the source code for the entire compiler, you just go into the BlackRhino Debian-esque repository like so:
http://blackrhino.openlists.com/pool/main/g/gcc-2. 95/
and then you can download the gcc_2.95.2-16.tar.gz file and there ya go, full source code. This applies to any package available on BlackRhino Linux. You might want to check out how to build Debian packages first in the Debian Package Maintainers Guide.
-- manu
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
The PlayStation 2 has a SPDIF digital optical out that could connect to a very nice home theatre system.
Use Samba to mount your MP3s from your PC.
Using XMMS, you could play all of your MP3s over your home stereo system in full digital glory.
The same goes for most Internet Radio stations.
-- manu
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
That option is open to the project now, if the Debian people want to support the small PS2 Linux development community. We welcome them to contact us... it would be very cool to merge BlackRhino into the Debian collective, the real question is... will it be practical and legal for the Debian community to support such a small developer distribution?
There are also things that don't quite fit with the Debian way... such as the PS2 Linux kit is not freely available/open. The bootloader for the system is still closed and thus the PS2 Linux Kit is not an "open" system by definition... Debian requires that all core packages be made of unencumbered software, which the bootloader clearly is not... this is probably the main reason why we haven't bothered contacting the Debian community.
As for your other comments... Blackrock people!? Jeeez, we spent all that time coming up with such a witty distribution name only to have people mock us... =P
We prefer to be called "BlackRhino people", or "those freaks over there", or even "half-crazed crack-monkeys"... but "Blackrock people", you wound us deeply, my fellow Slashdotter... :P
-- manu
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.