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PS3 Hacked?
Several readers have sent word that George Hotz (a.k.a. geohot), the hacker best known for unlocking Apple's iPhone, says he has now hacked the PlayStation 3. From his blog post:
"I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3. The rest is just software. And reversing. I have a lot of reversing ahead of me, as I now have dumps of LV0 and LV1. I've also dumped the NAND without removing it or a modchip. 3 years, 2 months, 11 days...that's a pretty secure system. ... As far as the exploit goes, I'm not revealing it yet. The theory isn't really patchable, but they can make implementations much harder. Also, for obvious reasons I can't post dumps. I'm hoping to find the decryption keys and post them, but they may be embedded in hardware. Hopefully keys are setup like the iPhone's KBAG."
No access to the GPU before this!
You can't access some of the hardware, particularly the GFX from an "Other OS" and the new slim models don't even support the Other OS option, so no, this is not just for cheating and piracy and there is no current way to run homebrew well.
We can even run linux better in a hacked system as currently the graphics performance is pretty dreadful. There is far more to life than piracy and cheating. I welcome this development.
Helll, I'd welcome it even if there were few to no forseeable applications, just the opening up of a new computer platform...
No it's not. In this case there is a very valid reason to hack the PS3. Linux with full access to the hardware! So far you couldn't use the GPU and you where only using a small part of the CPU processing power. Now imagine having this great multiprocessor architecture completely unlocked for you to program it. These are great news.
PMS works on Linux too - might not matter for some, but it's a killer feature for me.
You rock so hard. I've been using TVersity under windows because I couldn't find a good Media server to run under Linux. I can't wait to get home to try this out.
Sorry, but Wine and its derivatives can only ever work on x86 hardware (or hardware with x86 compatibility) as I understand it. You can move binaries between OS's by emulating.intercepting.translating system calls, but not between architectures.
It would need native linux games to be compiled for PPC, preferably designed and built specially for Cell hardware.
Actually there is no longer any way to run homebrew on PS3, unless you manage to run it as BD-Live content from a disc somehow (like BluTV).
With PS3 Slim the ability to run "Other OS" disappeared with Sony citing costs to maintain the feature as the reason to kill it off.
The homebrew option was never really that interesting as (like others have pointed out) there was no direct GPU access and there was no option to VSYNC, which makes for horrible media playback.
While both PS3 and 360 have reasonable video playback features, we all know they come nowhere near the power of XBMC and similar solutions. If you only want one device under your television and would prefer not converting/transcoding everything, this hack might well end up being very useful.
I certainly hope to add XBMC functionality to my PS3, because now that the Slim is out, it's pretty easy to move around the house and hook up to and old device (easier than moving my 360s).
Against the grain
Sony is perfectly fine with you running software sold for the PS3; that's how they make their money. Hacking it so that you can give that software away isn't in their best interest, so they build in DRM. The Windows comparison doesn't hold water in this case.
It keeps their developers happy and maintains a semblance of sanity on their system. It's ugly, but seeing that its main purpose is to be a gaming system, it does the job. They don't stop you from remotely streaming or locally playing any kind of media; you're free to knock yourself out. Heck, they even support DivX.
Given a choice, Sony would rather restrict their infinitesimally small Linux base because, quite frankly, nobody really cares. People who are bloody-minded enough to use them as a processing farm are more curiosities than mainstream, and I'm sure that serious efforts, such as by universities and the like, get one-on-one support from Sony if they want it.
Linux users on the PS3: zero profit. PS3 gamers on the PS3: the whole reason the system was made. I think that the line of reasoning is pretty straightforward here.
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
Not to come off as too aggressive, but games have nothing to do with it. I want to run Fedora on my PS3, and I want to have uninhibited access to the hardware when I do that -- I want the graphics card, I want all the RAM, I want all the SPEs. I do not want to deal with the hyperviser; it gets in the way and slows things down. Yes, the PS3 is powerful even with the hyperviser, but I want more.
If you think games are the most important aspect to breaking the PS3 hyperviser, you are dead wrong.
Palm trees and 8
a) The other OS function was ONLY cut from the Slim version. Fat versions still have it, and its still available on firmware updates for the fat version. Nevertheless, how you say it limits CPU does not make sense, as you do get the same CPU cores, that native PS3 games get IF you run other OS (1 general dual threaded PPU, and 6 SPUs, with 1 being reserved for the system, same as for native ps3 games). If you have a slim PS3, you cannot get other OS anyway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_on_the_PlayStation_3
b) the other half of the RAM used by the GPU CAN be accessed by Linux too, either as a framebuffer, or as swap memory.
Have a nice day!
Like they didn't touch the GC/Wii after it got hacked: http://www.gc-linux.org/wiki/Main_Page ?
There's also the later fat ones that don't play ps2 games but still have the other-os feature...
Its also worth pointing out that the PS3 will even let me rip a CD down to high quality AAC from its drive and then copy it onto my MP3 player or a USB stick. They're not exactly being evil here.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)