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Gentoo on the PS3 - Full Install Instructions
An anonymous reader writes "My friend Jake just bought a PS3, and he wanted to install Linux on it. Since he didn't know much about Linux, it was my responsibility to help him with it. His requirements — Install a distribution which is easy to maintain and run. He wanted to make the full use of his Linux install, so he needed a distro which wouldn't hold him back with frustrating problems. The only solution was using a distro which had a better package management system, and did its work without bothering you, the end user. Having used Gentoo extensively, I knew that this would be the solution to my problems. What follows is full install instructions, plus personal opinions, on why Gentoo is better than Fedora Core or YDL on the PS3"
Come on, this just sounds like another fanboy slashvertisement. Gentoo is a decent operating system (although I'm not a fan myself) but half of the description is just telling how great it is and how good it is for a newbie, a fact many people would disagree with. How about keeping the descriptions on topic? On the other hand this is slashdot.
I really think that someone taking his first steps in linux world should not be left out in the cold with Gentoo!! Gentoo has its benefits ... but being user friendly to beginners is definitely not one of them!!
I'm not sure what you're smoking but Gentoo is a pain in the but to install, and I'm not sure what you mean by a better package management system than say fedora.... this post seems more like a flame towards other distros and how much better gentoo is than anything.
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This whole summary seems to be slamming non-Gentoo Linux distros.. The author was right to submit anonymously, if he hadn't, he would have been burnt to a crisp.
if only I couldn't buy an actual computer for less than it would cost to buy a PS3.
Canthros
Since he didn't know much about Linux, it was my responsibility to help him with it.
* if he doesn't know the first thing about Linux, what does he need it for? on a PS3 of all things
he wants to learn the ropes you say? OK
* why doesn't he install it on his own? no better way to do it and the interwebs are full of documentation
this is not meant to be flamy in any way. I was just wondering how come everyone wants penguin power these days, but at the same time they are not willing to invest time/sweat in it.
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i've a different view, i've used some linux distro back in the 90's (SUSE mainly) but in 2001 when I've decided to start to learn more about and - eventually using a linux distro as my main desktop - I've (re)started with gentoo and here are the main point that i love about it:
1. do everything by "hand" - this way you learn a bit more about the OS "bricks" and you stop calling everything "linux", just the kernel...
2. Best documentation around
3. Best documentation around
sure it takes sometimes to get to a usable system, but after that i think you've got a better view of the system and are more able to diagnose/correct some problem you may get, and more you are no more afraid of the console
but i must admit that this day i use ubuntu on my main desktop (gentoo is still around on server and x(media)box)
*If* I buy a PS3, it will be so I can play cool games and watch Hi-Def (blu-ray) movies, not so I can load Linux and surf the web on a 65" screen.
Just because you *can* doesn't mean you *should*.
friend1: -My requirements Install a distribution which is easy to maintain and run.
friend2: -Gentoo, then! (mouahahaha! Done with this sucker, no, let's get it worse, let's troll slashdot with it!!! Should I put his email online too?)
1. Theoretically, faster than any other distro.
Yes, theoretically. Practically, you don't see or feel the difference. Citing this as #1 reason to use gentoo is stupid.
2. Modular distro, so you have full control over the installation.
Oh yeah, because the other distros dictate which software you have to install
3. It teaches you more about Linux.
Yes, because watching compiler output scrolling by for 8 hours gives me super linux skillz!
4. You can update it whenever you want, don't have to wait for the latest version of the distro like Fedora Core 5/6, Yellow Dog Linux 5
Ah, you mean it's like with the other distros who let you download the latest and greatest. Debian testing is usually pretty bleeding edge, and Debian is considered to be one of the slowest distros to upgrade....
5. Huge community of people, and the best documentation among all Linux distros, so you'll never have unsolved problems.
Hmmm. Google "gentoo problem": 1,520,000 results
Huge community? I would say Ubuntu or SuSe or Red Hat all have far bigger communities.
is there a reason to use the PS3 instead of a PC?
YES
Because you can!
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Apparently, you can now develop Linux apps on PS3. High-end Cell machines, like a Cell Blade CBE from IBM, cost about $20-50K. And those CBEs are not really finished, stable HW architectures, and are in short supply, making their OS/SW environment very changeable.
A good strategy is to start developing on a PS3, while CBE HW catches up. If development takes 6-9 months, by then the CBEs will be cheaper, more stable, better understood by both their vendors and the community for getting support and working around weak links. And that time can be used to fundraise and team recruit around a PS3 prototype.
But the $64,000 Question (literally) is what it takes to port a PS3 Linux app to CBE Linux. Does anyone know yet? Whitepaper? Walking/talking expert for hire/bribe? If porting a PS3/Linux app to CBE/Linux is harder than porting an embedded x86 app to a Xeon, or an embedded R6000 to a multiproc R6000 server, then it might be worth it just to wait to start on the CBEs when they're ready. Though a PS3 running a supercomputer DSP app prototype could be cool enough to be worth the whole trouble, anyway.
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make install -not war
With 218GFLOPS available on the CPU (not considering disabled daughter cores) the PS3 has way more floating point number crunching power than your average P4. At least an order of magnitude more. While MOST users have no need for this power, some do. I myself play with designing neural networks that would definately benefit from this power. Other applications that come to mind include things like Folding@Home and SETI@Home.
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while they're not bad in any sense, they do have problems which are associated with any RPM based distro- dependency hell. I'm sure that any of you who've tried to install any applications would have faced the problem of missing dependencies sometime. And it's all too common to have a few packages totally missing from the repository which means that you have to search for their respective RPMs on the net, download them and install them separately. While functional, this can get a little frustrating over time.
"Dependency hell" existed before YUM (which came from Yellowdog's Seth K. Vidal) solved the problem. YUM is explicitly a dependency solver. It builds on top of the RPM system to automatically find and install the dependent RPM packages.
I knew it wasn't going to be Fedora Core or Yellow Dog since they seemed to have lots of problems when it came to media players.
Fedora Core (don't know about Yellow Dog) explicitly chooses to stay away from software which relies upon non-Free, patent-encumbered material. As a project it considers things like Ubuntu's binary graphics driver distribution, or the inclusion of mp3 decoding software (which is encumbered by the Frauenhoefer Institute's ridiculous patent) to be against the GPL and Free Software. As a result it helps to foster the development of free alternatives, without which there would be a much smaller software ecosystem. This is sane, long-term thinking which steps away from opportunistic, short-term compromises which seek to cannibalize market-share from other Linux distros by spreading confusion and misinformation. Debian has a very similar attitude. There are some non-Fedora run repositories where people have packaged up things like the mplayer codec bundle, mpg321, flash etc. If you really have to have them it's easy to edit /etc/yum/repos.d to add the repository.
The only solution was using a distro which had a better package management system, and did its work without bothering you, the end user.
Look, if an ebuild isn't in the portage tree then you're not going to have much luck installing it unless you make your own. Ditto for an rpm being available to yum in a repository. Your article is uninformed fanboi-ism. To your friend: don't let him near your PS3!
To anyone not using Gentoo, don't take this article as representative of the community, it's a great distro with many advantages and not everyone involved with it is as much as a moron as the article writer.
I've been using GNU/Linux since about 1998, and I used Gentoo for approximately 3+ years. I've even written and submitted an ebuild or two. It definitely has some advantages over other distros and definitely has disadvantages. But it (like all man-made things) is far from perfect. Statements like these simply aren't true:
In Gentoo packages are installed using scripts called ebuilds which are intended to contain all of the dependency information for the packages. People write the ebuilds. People (all of them) occasionally make mistakes. Its not unheard of to have a dependency bug in Gentoo.
The ease of installation also depends on the quality of the ebuild. Were all possible combos of USE flags even tested for a particular ebuild? Do those combinations actually work? Again, ebuild aren't magic and they contain to contain errors. Also, portage only gives you a default configuration file. You have to make (and test) any configuration file changes yourself. So the statement that portage will "setup everything" is misleading.
This definitely isn't always true. As the Gentoo devs struggled to get a handle on quality, packages began to take a substantial amount of time to work their way into the stable arches. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but at one point new ebuilds had to sit in ~arch status (sort of like test repository in other distros) for one month without complaint before being marked as stable. It didn't seem to matter if anyone actually tested or even looked at the ~arch ebuild during that month. It was just a mandatory waiting period in which the dev hoped that some users bothered to test the ebuild and complain if it broke. I think the quality of the ebuilds are improving with the refinement of Gentoo's architecture herds, but with more process and more people comes delays. Quality and speed are almost always at odds in development.
Performing work always takes time, even installing binary packages, and the default behavior of Portage is to install from source.
As an experiment, I'd like to see everyone interested in Linux on PS3 to log onto IRC and ask somebody to install Gentoo for them remotely. Report back here with the results. ;)
Basically Gentoo can be great if it fits your needs, but pretending that Gentoo is perfect and problem free isn't going to change the reality that it isn't.
My brain exploded when I read that. This author is WAY out of touch with reality. Of all the widely-used Linux distros, Gentoo, by FAR, requires the most administration effort and expertise.
Gentoo is for people who want the very latest in technology and the highest possible customization ability, but don't mind manually rewriting config files every week when a new version of a given package is released. Clearly, the author of this article is not qualified to--actually, no, he's just on crack.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
If I had a friend who knew nothing about Linux and owned a PS3 and thought it would be a good idea to learn Linux by running it on a PS3, I think I would just have to slap them down. You spent $600+ to play games so play games.
On a side note, has anyone managed to screw their PS3 by installing Linux yet - is it possible the combination of shiny new toy and no real Linux knowledge could lead to expensive shiny looking bricks?
:(){
His requirements -- Install a distribution which is easy to maintain and run.
So you installed Gentoo. You bastard. Did you run over his dog at the same time?
Look, I also like Ports, but come on - how long would it have taken for you to Google:
apt-cache search
yum search
To search package names and metadata?
I like and use both FreeBSD and Gentoo, but there's no need to disparage the great work done by other distros to justify your choices.
"Among his biggest needs was an office suite..." ? Friend1: Hey, man, whatcha playin? Is it co-op? Friend2: Hell yeah, grab a controller. I'm just workin on this bitchin spreadsheet.
I use Gentoo and can't stand Ubuntu, but I still recommend Ubuntu to people with no experience or Unix-ish OSs. It's far better to start of using something that works easily and tinker with that till you know what you're doing, before switching to anything that actually requires tinkering.
To be fair, I don't know what Gentoo's install is like now. Maybe you can do an install without knowing much.
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
You know what I like best about (Insert Non-Gentoo Distro Here)?
1. Not having to do everything by hand.
2. Not having to read the documentation for most apps.
3. Not having to read the documentation for most apps.
Dear Lord: I don't want to go back to college, so please help me be sexy. Amen.
I would reply to this, but I'm quite busy installing Linux on my digital shirt. 'course, the shirt is rather uncomfortable now that all the hardware is in place. Most discomfiting.
I use gentoo too, and like it very much and use it every day and might even be a "gentoo fanboy". I might even rant about how powerful, flexible and elegant Gentoo is, but when my friends where curious about linux I give them a knoppix CD. They can try out linux without disturbing their hard drive. I can't see myself recommending gentoo to a newbie; it is like measuring a parking space in millimeters (or in microns).
:)
My second favorate distribution is knoppix.
I use knoppix when there is a problem for the same reasons some people use duct tape to fix something that are broken. Just as a temporary solution until a permanent solutions is arranged. The GUI gets in my way most of the time especially when I'm in a hurry. So I guess my most used boot parameter is: "2"
The time required to setup knoppix is the time required to make sure the PC will boot from the CD. I'd like to see another distro beat that setup time.
If you want to play a game on your WORKSTATION 3 running Gentoo OS, you push a button, and it becomes a PLAYSTATION 3 ready for inserting a game disc.
Like every other distro, Gentoo comes with sensible defaults. Gentoo just gives you more flexibility in overriding those defaults. But then, you shouldn't bother with Gentoo unless you are going to take the time to customize some things.
There really is no reason to complain about having options. If you don't like having options, get a mac and get off slashdot.