Geohot Brings Other OS Support To PS3 With Custom Firmware

suraj.sun tips news that hacker Geohot is following through on his promise to fight Sony's removal of the "Install Other OS" feature on the PS3. He posted a video of the work he's done so far that shows a PS3 console booting into Linux. Quoting Engadget: "While it's not available to the public just yet, Geohot's 3.21OO custom firmware will apparently be simple to install and, as you can see in the video after the break, it works just as you'd expect and simply restores the 'other OS' option to its previous place. Geohot even says that the custom firmware might actually enable the other OS feature on the PS3 Slim, but he hasn't yet had a chance to try it out."

Comments

Well done Sony

[cyborch]

I hope you are happy Sony.

You made it this far without people building custom firmware. Now you've forced people to find ways to put custom firmware on the PS3. Next up is "indie" games followed by pirates followed by the game industry going back to PCs or over to other consoles.

Too bad. I actually liked by PS3. Hopefully something new will come along soon so I won't have to buy an xbox...

Re:Somethings messed up his MAC address

[WrongSizeGlass]

It says FF:FF:FF etc in the info screen. Thats not right. I wonder if his "firmware" has any side effects he's not letting on about.

You mean that maybe it stutters?

Re:Repeat After Me:

[Thanshin]

PS3 is a GAME CONSOLE, not a COMPUTER.

Mustang is a MUSCLE CAR, not a VEHICLE!

Re:not on slim

[millennial]

No, that's definitely not true. The hypervisor isn't what made running Linux possible; it's what made it limited when it did run. The hypervisor is also actively involved in the regular PS3 OS. It's an essential part of the PS3, and they'd never build a retail version without one.

Re:not on slim

[PhunkySchtuff]

I don't believe they have dropped the hypervisor - that's one of the major security strongpoints and partly what has kept the PS3 from being totally pwned by now...
From the osnews article you linked, they say (with emphasis mine)

I’m sorry that you are frustrated by the lack of comment specifically regarding the withdrawal of support for OtherOS on the new PS3 slim. The reasons are simple: The PS3 Slim is a major cost reduction involving many changes to hardware components in the PS3 design. In order to offer the OtherOS install, SCE would need to continue to maintain the OtherOS hypervisor drivers for any significant hardware changes – this costs SCE. One of our key objectives with the new model is to pass on cost savings to the consumer with a lower retail price. Unfortunately in this case the cost of OtherOS install did not fit with the wider objective to offer a lower cost PS3.

What I read into this is that they don't want to keep updating the hypervisor drivers for OtherOS support with the major hardware changes they made for the Slim, not that they're dropping the hypervisor altogether...

Re:Inevitable, really

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

"Somebody", specifically "Sony".

I'm getting tired of this "But that insolent peasant just wouldn't know his place and show proper gratitude for the scraps he'd been given, so poor Sony was forced to retroactively remove a feature; let us all shed a tear for Sony." crap.

Re:Ha.

[sortius_nod]

The whole point of the removal was to thwart Gehot's efforts on the PS3 hack.

I'm not 100% on this, but I really don't see Sony taking this lightly. They want to remain unhacked, so this is the way they see fit.

To me, this expands the base of people hacking their console.

Re:Ha.

[MoonBuggy]

Hacking the PS3 to run 'backup' games would be a suitable punishment for sony imho

Which would be precisely the reason they made this change in the first place and does nothing but prove them right.

I'm inclined to believe that the 'Other OS' functionality did more to prevent copyright infringement than it did to assist it.

There are plenty of very skilled hackers out there who have no interest in copied games, they just want the freedom to use their hardware as they wish, or even just the challenge and the kudos for breaking a supposedly secure system. Once the work is done, however, it is often a relatively simple matter for the same exploits to be used by others to run copied discs.

By giving the hackers (used in the traditional sense of the word) what they wanted in the first place with the 'Other OS' functionality, Sony prevented them from needing to bother cracking the security, and that meant that the pirates didn't have anything to build on. As soon as Sony took that function away, we see exploits to restore it - I don't know how much this is linked to the DRM on the game discs, but my instinct would be that some of the work there has already been done now.