PS3 and Linux...please help

[painted_klown]

Hello all.

I am a noob to the ps3 and blu ray. I just recently bought an 80 gb "fat" ps3 from a friend of mine and started doing some reading about its potential uses. I already knew that it was a blu-ray, dvd player, and video game console before hand and that was really the main reason I went the route I did.

I am somewhat savvy about technology and electronics but completely clueless about the potential of the ps3. I would really like to see what these machines are capable of beyond what they can do out of the box. I have tried looking on various other web sites but I cannot seem to find any real clear cut answers to my questions.

Since my purchase I have discovered that you can rip audio cd's to the internal drive and format the drive on the ps3 in order to install the linux os. This brings me to my noob questions.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of installing linux?

When re-formatting the internal drive what is the best ratio to use for ps3 os vs. linux os? I believe it lets you select 10 gb for one os or the other.

What will my ps3 be able to do with linux installed that it cannot do now?

Will my ps3 be able to run any/all linux programs?

Where can I obtain the linux operating system/software?

Is it difficult to install, setup, and operate linux?

That's all I can think of for now and I apologize for all the "l\l00b" questions. I am just really curious about this. Thanks in advance. -Dave

[curse]

most of the information is available with a simple google. however im in the mood so ill give you the low down.

the most popular linux distro for the ps3 is yellowdog. easy to install.

get a usb mouse and keyboard. and a decent tv to read the desktop. after all that your ps3 is now bascially a computer.

downside it splits the resources of the system in the middle. So you cant use linux to emulate windows applications as it will be slow.

Also alot of people upgrade the harddrive to 400gigs or more to increase the space of both the ps3 and linux parition.

good luck

[Jello]

There is a thread about yellowdog here
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=105196
Google shows about 9,640,000 links to ps3 linux
As for linux emulating windows on the ps3 it has been done and took about 20 minutes to get to the windows desktop lol

[TL OWNS U]

if u are a PC gamer and have a steam account you can play PC games you bought from steam

[androvsky]

Originally Posted by TL OWNS U

if u are a PC gamer and have a steam account you can play PC games you bought from steam

You've tried that? You might have heard you can do that in linux... but that only works on Intel x86-compatible PCs. The PS3 isn't x86 compatible.

Short version: You can't play games from Steam on the PS3 in linux.

Long version: You can play old PC games that run in DOSBox on the PS3 in linux, but it's a bit too slow for something like Dark Forces or Doom. You should be able to run Steam as well, but you'd have to run a full Windows emulator (wine will NOT work on the PS3), so it'll be incredibly (unbelievably) slow. And if you did manage to download an old game through steam onto the PS3, you'd have to make the game use the linux DOSBox instead of Steam's. I don't know if that's possible.

[bhampton]

Or,.. If you have a place in town that recycled computers you could just buy a $30 PC that got recycled and install linux on that.

Someone gave me an old PC and I installed Ubuntu Linux and made it a Linux based HD PVR. It was fun and it provides the one thing the PS3 doesn't have yet (PVR abilities... which PS3 does have in Europe.)

=Brian