LinuxMCE on Playstation 3

[los93sol]

Update:  I updated the kernel to 2.6.25.4 and it resolved all of the immediate issues I was having, I've got built-in Wifi working, I've got Bluetooth working, the SIXAXIS controller is working wirelessly, the system is outputting 1080p in full screen, etc.  The hardware is working nicely on it's own with just kubuntu so now it's time to start fumbling through building lmce.

I'm currently waiting for the sources to finish checking out, once this finishes I have no idea what to do next so I guess I'm going to attempt to start compiling as per the instructions on the wiki and see where the error messages are popping up.

[los93sol]

I need some guidance on this, I really don't know where to start, what commands to be running, etc.  Attempting to follow the guide here: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Building_From_Source is failing miserably for me with more errors than I could fit in a thread.  It almost looks like the guide is outdated as it's failing on things like copying files from the tree with file does not exist, etc.  I'm willing to try and willing to do some learning for this, but I'm really at the mercy of the Linux gurus as this whole linux business is quite new to me and I'm on an incredibly steep learning curve right now.  Anyone please have some guidance on what commands to be running and I can post errors, etc.  I'm really just trying to get this project rolling since it seemed like there was an incredible amount of interest, but yet nobody attempting to get it going, just a lot of talk about how cool it would be.  So, there's my speil, at the very least nobody can say I'm not giving it an honest try. 

[digilifellc]

I just discovered this thread. What about installing LinuxMCE on a 32GB or greater USB drive and use the drive for not just HD space, but for RAMdrive as well? Partitions could be:

4GB RAMdrive
4GB HD swap
24GB HD storage for LinuxMCE

This way you wouldn't have to reformat the PS3's hard drive at all and unplugging the USB drive will take the entire LinuxMCE OS with it.

I know that flash drives are not typically used for RAM, but in the case of the PS3's inability to upgrade its internal RAM, and the increased write cycle life of flash drives, it's a reproducible investment worth trying at $180 for at least 5 years.

The only contingency is an alternative install CD (for low RAM) for LinuxMCE to install from.

Going back to using the established way to install Ubuntu onto a PS3, it is suggested to use the 2 CD set to install from when installing onto an established Kubuntu computer. I would personally hope that the available RAM will be sufficient to allow the install to complete, even though the wiki says that 256MB RAM is sufficient to use LinuxMCE.

A better question is if the PS3 can PXE boot, then we wouldn't have to install LinuxMCE in the first place!

[digilifellc]

Or you can upgrade the hard drive altogether and increase the swap partition on the hard drive...

[tschak909]

The system still needs to be ported to ppc cell. Our build system would support the concept of this, but you would need to put a nice chunk of ram and disk in a ps3 if you wanted to compile everything.

If anyone is serious about wanting to push this forward, ask in the chat.

-Thom

[qvindesland]

Well since it is a ppc then you could also try out the lx86 from IBM, it becomes a 86 based installation on an excising ppc install, works really well but I am unsure how it would work out on a different distro then redhat, ok granted I am a noob when it comes down to ps3 but I would have liked to see linuxmce working on a ps3.

I have some install files for lx86 so I would not mind giving it a go if I can get my hands on a ps3

More info about the lx86 is here:
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/software/virtualization/editions/lx86/index.html

Per

[hari]

i'd assume the emulation layer would create additional overhead. Memory is quite limited on the PS3.
If one is serious about running pieces of lmce on the ps3 fix endianess in SerializeClass. It is not hard. Then compile on the ps3 (and be _really_ patient) or cross compile (welcome in the dependency hell) or compile on a ppc linux box with more mem.

br Hari

[Seer]

If your goal is the same as mine, to use it as a media front end you can take advantage of the 1.8 firmware addition of DLNA media streaming and use a Core/Hybrid to service your PS3. I built a Hybrid LinuxMCE box to service my bedroom and then compiled an SVN version of Myth with uPnP streaming and the PS3 will see it and access it.

I don't mean to needlessly repeat the above, but I've been doing this for a little while now.  I don't even have an MD (yet!) in my living room, but I've been enjoying a single place to stream all my media.  I have to admit that I did install ps3mediaserver to augment the transcoding of my mkv anime files, but I've been lovin' DLNA for quite some time now.  Granted, it doesn't have the HA stuff, but media should be taken care of using FUPPES, or MediaTomb, or ps3mediaserver.

BTW, good luck with that PPC conversion!  I hope you can make it work.

[qvindesland]

Well here is the beauty of lx86 it has extremely little overhead, we use it a production envinroment for our servers for some of our legacy x86 apps and we could never see any performance decrees we actually got a far better performance, ok granted we went from a 64 bit x86 plattform to a risc ppc 64 so yes on all levels there where performance increase but we where afraid that lx86 would be a bottleneck but no not at all, since it don't work on the same way as vmware or other virtual systems, it installs it self as a second os under /x86 with it's own kernel and libs.

Will give it a go if I can get my hands on a ps3

Per

[phenigma]

I setup up kubuntu 8.10 on my ps3 last night and attempted to setup an lmce0810 build environment.  Created a conf folder for the ppc arch and began grab -dev packages.  Lots of unmet dependencies in -dev packages due to versioning and the kernel packages do not all align (no source for the installed kernel).  I'll play with it for a little while and see what happens.

[domotiqa.com]

did you see that:

http://www.libsdl.org/cgi/viewvc.cgi/branches/SDL-1.2/README.PS3?view=markup&pathrev=44

look interesting for the future

[andybrauer]

This does take quite some time. I have used http://sourceforge.net/projects/inversendian/
The only issue out standing now is the /usr/pluto/install database_initial_data.sql file which need to come from the pluto site and add the code and device to the data base
I have a built pluto intall .deb for the (PS3)

[los93sol]

Are you saying that you have a PS3 running as a MD?  What purpose does /usr/pluto/install database_initial_data.sql serve?

[domotiqa.com]

I have a built pluto intall .deb for the (PS3)

share !!! share !!
 

[los93sol]

Yes, please do, I'd like to test this.