Instructions

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Updated march 23, 2007

These instructions are based on Ciego’s HowTo at ubuntuforums, but has some simplifications (the psubuntu.zip file for your USB-pen). They show how to install Ubuntu Edgy Eft (6.10) on a 60GB PS3 using a 10GB portion of a partitioned PS3 hard drive.

$ Anything that looks like this is to be typed at the command line

What you need

Prepare your media

  1. Burn the Gentoo ISO onto a blank CD. How?
  2. Extract the contents of the psubuntu.zip archive to the root of your USB storage device. How?
  3. Open the file USB:\doc\PlatformSpecificUtilities.html and note the resolution that you will be using.
  4. Remove the USB storage drive from your computer and plug it into your PS3.
  5. Insert the Gento Live CD into the PS3

Install kboot on the PLAYSTATION 3

You might want to backup your data saved on the PS3 hard drive before you format and partition the drive.

  • On the XMB go into Settings Menu > System Settings > Format Drive
  • Choose 10GB for the “other OS”
  • After the drive is formatted, go into Settings Menu > System Settings > Install Other OS
  • Click “OK” and it will install the kboot image onto your PS3.
  • Once finished, go back into Settings Menu > System Settings > Default System > Choose “Other OS”
  • Restart your PS3 and you should be on the kboot prompt with a minimal Linux environment

Partition and format the “Other OS” portion of the hard drive

We will partition the 10GB portion of the hard drive as follows using fdisk.

LABEL PARTITION SIZE SYSTEM

  1. boot /dev/sda1 256MB ext2
  2. SWAP /dev/sda2 512MB swap
  3. / /dev/sda3 the remaining space ext3

We need to boot into Gentoo to do this since the Kboot environment does not support the creation of swap partitions. (If you have some experience with Linux, you may want to take care of the root and boot partitions now and worry about the swap partition after you can chroot into Ubuntu. If so, you can do this from the kboot prompt rather than booting the Live CD)

Use the TAB key to select your screen resolution and press ENTER. Gentoo will boot up. This takes a while since the entire operating system is booting from the CD. You should be looking at the Gentoo desktop. (Note that you may boot into the command line by adding a space and “nox” after the resolution command).

Open a terminal (Click Applications > Terminal)

$ sudo -s
$ /etc/init.d/xdm stop

You should now be looking at the command line.

$ cd
$ fdisk /dev/sda

At the fdisk prompt:

  • Create partition 1
    • N (new)
    • P (primary)
    • 1
    • (default)
    • 256
  • Create Partition 2
    • N (new)
    • P (primary)
    • 2
    • (default)
    • 769
  • Create Partition 3
    • N (new)
    • P (primary)
    • 3
    • (default)
    • (default)
  • Mark partition 1 with the boot flag
    • A
    • 1
  • Label Partition 2 as a swap file system
    • T
    • 2
    • 82
  • Write the Partition Table
    • W
  • Reboot the PS3

$ reboot

This will shutdown Gentoo and reboot the PS3. It should automatically boot into Kboot.

TAB to select your resolution and press ENTER to boot the Live CD again. (Remember we can type “nox” at the end to boot straight to the command line.)

Open a terminal

$ sudo -s
$ /etc/init.d/xdm stop

You should now be looking at the command line again. Now we will need to create a filesystem on our partitions and then mount them. The “-L” option adds a label to the partitions.

$ mkfs.ext2 -L "/boot" /dev/sda1
$ mkfs.ext3 -L "/" /dev/sda3
$ mkswap -L "SWAP" /dev/sda2
$ sync; sync; sync
$ swapon /dev/sda2
$ mkdir /mnt/ubuntu
$ mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/ubuntu
$ mkdir /mnt/ubuntu/boot
$ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/ubuntu/boot

Install Ubuntu on the PLAYSTATION 3

$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://archive.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu/pool/main/d/debootstrap/debootstrap_0.3.3.0ubuntu7_all.deb
$ ar -xf debootstrap_0.3.3.0ubuntu7_all.deb
$ zcat < data.tar.gz | tar xv

We need to edit debootstrap since we are running it off of a Live CD

$ cd usr/sbin
$ vim debootstrap

Now you will be inside the vim text editor. Go down to line 11 and over to the “/” in that line. Hit the [INSERT] key to go into edit mode. Add “/tmp” to the beginning of the path. Hit the [ESC] key to exit editing mode. That line should look like this now.

DEBOOTSTRAP_DIR=/tmp/usr/lib/debootstrap

Type “:wq” to save and return to the command line.

Run debootstrap

$ /tmp/usr/sbin/debootstrap --arch powerpc edgy /mnt/ubuntu http://archive.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu

This will install your base Ubuntu system. We still need to copy a few things from the CD onto the PS3 hard drive.

$ cp /boot/* /mnt/ubuntu/boot
$ cd /mnt/ubuntu/boot
$ cp kernel-genkernel-ppc-2.6.16-ps3 /mnt/ubuntu/boot/vmlinux
$ cp initramfs-genkernel-ppc-2.6.16-ps3 /mnt/ubuntu/boot/initrd.img
$ cp -R /lib/modules/* /mnt/ubuntu/lib/modules/

Now we can reboot the PS3 and take out the Live CD since we no longer need it.

$ reboot

Configuring Minimal Install of Ubuntu Base System

We will have to mount the partitions manually for now.

$ umount /mnt/root
$ mkdir /mnt/ubuntu
$ mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/ubuntu
$ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/ubuntu/boot

Copy the “fstab” file from your USB drive. We have to mount the USB drive first. You can find the location of your USB drive by typing

$ fdisk -l

Try to locate which one your USB drive is by the size. If it says “sdd” then your drive will be recognized as “sdd1”

$ mkdir /mnt/usbdrive
$ mount /dev/sdd1 /mnt/usbdrive
$ cp /mnt/usbdrive/config/fstab /mnt/ubuntu/etc/fstab

CHROOT into ubuntu and install the text editor nano. (You can use nano to create your config files or you can create them on your computer to save some typing and then transfer them via the usb drive)

$ chroot /mnt/ubuntu /bin/bash
$ source /etc/profile
$ apt-get install nano

The above command has you in your new Ubuntu system in its infant state.

You can manually mount each filesystem once you are chrooted into your Ubuntu System, or you can automatically mount them with

$ mount -a

The above game some errors, so make sure that both /proc and /sys were mounted. Check to see if they are mounted by seeing if there is anything in them:

$ ls /proc /sys

If /proc and /sys are not mounted then you will manually mount them like this:

$ cd /
$ mount -t proc proc proc
$ mount -t sysfs sysfs sys

Installing The Ubuntu desktop

At this stage you have a choice of installing whatever desktop you like. You can either install the Ubuntu, Xubuntu or the Kubuntu desktop. You will want to issue one of the following commands depending on what desktop you want. (The Ubuntu desktop install had too many dependencies to resolve and eventually stopped after running out of system memory in my case. You may try it, but it would not work for me. Don’t worry though … we can install the Ubuntu desktop later. Install Kubuntu for now)

$ aptitude -y install '~txubuntu-desktop'
$ aptitude -y install '~tubuntu-desktop'
$ aptitude -y install '~tkubuntu-desktop'

Once the above is done you are finished. You have installed Ubuntu on your PS3!

More Configuration and Adding Users

We need to create a username and give the user the ability to use sudo.

$ passwd root
$ adduser YOUR_USER_NAME
$ addgroup --system admin
$ adduser YOUR_USER_NAME admin
$ adduser YOUR_USER_NAME audio
$ adduser YOUR_USER_NAME users
$ visudo -f /etc/sudoers

add this to the end of the file so that users in the admin group can use sudo

# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

Configure the Keyboard

$ dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

Configure /etc/network/interfaces

$ nano /etc/network/interfaces

Make it look like this

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Configure /etc/resolv.conf

$ nano /etc/resolv.conf

Make it look like this (just an example … you will have to configure it for your internet connection) If you are running linux on another computer in your house, just look at the /etc/resolv.conf on that computer.

search hsd1.ma.comcast.net.
nameserver 192.168.1.1
nameserver 192.168.1.2
domain YOUR_WORKGROUP

Edit your hostname (this can be whatever you want)

$ echo playstation > /etc/hostname

Edit /etc/hosts

$ nano /etc/hosts

Make it look like this

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 YOUR_HOSTNAME.YOUR_WORKGROUP

Don’t leave that command line because we will be using it in the next section.

Configuring /etc/X11/xorg.conf and ps3videomode.

We need to copy a few more files from our USB drive. We will also have to install alien to tranform our rmp packages into deb packages.

$ exit
$ cp /mnt/usbdrive/target/ps3pf_utils-1.0.9-2.ppc.rpm /mnt/ubuntu/tmp/
$ cp /mnt/usbdrive/target/vsync-sample-1.0.1-4.ppc.rpm /mnt/ubuntu/tmp/
$ cp /mnt/usbdrive/config/xorg.conf /mnt/ubuntu/etc/X11/xorg.conf
$ chroot /mnt/ubuntu /bin/bash
$ cd /tmp
$ apt-get install alien
$ alien ps3pf_utils-1.0.9-2.ppc.rpm
$ alien vsync-sample-1.0.1-4.ppc.rpm
$ dpkg -i ps3pf-utils_1.0.9-3_powerpc.deb
$ dpkg -i vsync-sample_1.0.1-5_powerpc.deb
$ sudo nano /etc/kboot.conf

We need to create a kboot.conf file. It should look like this

default=ubuntu
timeout=10
root=/dev/sda3

ubuntu="/boot/vmlinux initrd=/boot/initrd.img video=ps3fb:mode:5"

Make sure you edit the video mode to match what you found on the chart earlier. Here is the chart for reference:

Video mode ID:
0:automode
YUV 60Hz 1:480i 2:480p 3:720p 4:1080i 5:1080p
YUV 50Hz 6:576i 7:576p 8:720p 9:1080i 10:1080p
RGB 60Hz 33:480i 34:480p 35:720p 36:1080i 37:1080p
RGB 50Hz 38:576i 39:576p 40:720p 41:1080i 42:1080p
VESA 11:WXGA 12:SXGA 13:WUXGA

full screen mode: <video mode ID> + 128
dither ON mode : <video mode ID> + 2048

Now you should be in good shape.

This is the command for starting Ubuntu from kboot

$ mnt/ubuntu/boot/vmlinux initrd=mnt/ubuntu/boot/initrd.img root=/dev/sda3

We should go ahead and reboot first just to make sure that Ubuntu will boot automatically now.

$ reboot

You should then be booting Ubuntu and end up at the login screen. Do not press any keys when the kboot prompt comes up. It will take 10 seconds for the command to kick in.

If all went well you should be at the login screen. Use the user name that you just created and login. You will then be prompted to setup your KDE configurations.

Install the Ubuntu Desktop
(this section is optional and should be used if you wanted the Ubuntu desktop and it wouldn’t work during the normal installation)

If you would like to use the Ubuntu desktop rather than the Kubuntu or Xubuntu that you installed. Open up a terminal and issue the commands

$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

Choose “gdm” as your desktop when the install screen pops up at the end.

When that is finished installing everything, you should reboot (you can do this using the graphical interface or by issuing the command in the terminal).

After the system reboots, you should be looking at the Ubuntu log in screen. Go ahead and login. Open a terminal by clicking Applications>Accessories>Terminal and issue the following command to uninstall the KDE components of the desktop (if you installed them earlier).

$ sudo apt-get remove adept kaddressbook kaffeine kamera kappfinder karm katapult kate kaudiocreator kcron kde-guidance kde-systemsettings kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdebluetooth kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdemultimedia-kio-plugins kdenetwork-filesharing kdenetwork-kfile-plugins kdepasswd kdepim-kio-plugins kdepim-wizards kdeprint kdm kghostview khelpcenter kicker kio-apt kio-locate klipper kmail kmenuedit kmilo kmix knetworkconf knotes konq-plugins konqueror-nsplugins konsole kontact konversation kooka kopete korganizer kpdf kpf kppp krdc krfb krita kscd kscreensaver ksmserver ksnapshot ksplash ksvg ksysguardd ksystemlog kubuntu-artwork-usplash kubuntu-default-settings kubuntu-desktop kubuntu-docs kubuntu-konqueror-shortcuts kwalletmanager kwin

If you ever want to get back to the PS3 XMB from the kboot prompt or from inside of Ubuntu, open a teminal and type

$ sudo boot-game-os

If you’re new to Ubuntu you might want to consult the Ubuntu Starter guide website. You might want to get some restricted formats to play (MP3s, DVDs, etc.) You may also want to add some additional repositories. You can always get help to from ubuntuforums.

Credits / References
All of the information was originally composed by Louis Candell and was adapted by Ciego for installing Ubuntu without having installed Fedora prior to the Ubuntu installation. For more information on the process and a full list of credits, references and updates - read the original post at ubuntuforums.org.

Edit this entry.

About

psubuntu.com is a website tracking the process of how to install, use and maintain the Ubuntu Linux operating system on a Playstation 3. We will provide links, how-to’s, suggestions and tips.

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