OpenSUSE 11.0 on the PlayStation 3

I recently decided to do something crazy and install OpenSUSE 11.0 on my PlayStation 3.. Believe me, its Wow!! Before SUSE, i tried Yellow Dog Linux 6.0 and it sucked!! YDL had poor performance on my machine..


Motivation:

Sony made provisions in the PS3 for installing and booting other operating systems. Aside from fact that it seemed like a cool thing to do I also thought that after doing the Linux install I might be able to play all the video formats like mpeg, xvid etc.

Method:

I downloaded OpenSUSE 11.0 PPC DVD and burned it to a re-writable DVD.

Setup:

Obviously I used a PlayStation 3. It was connected to a 32" Samsung Series 5 LCD HDTV using the HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) cable and the resolution of that output was set on the PS3 to 1080p (this is not relevant to the install since you have to pick the resolution)

I also decided to splurge and get a Wireless USB keyboard and mouse (Rs.1500/-). I don’t happen to own any USB keyboards so I needed to get one anyhow and I figured life would be much easier if I could do everything from the couch. I was right. The wireless USB keyboard and mouse just plugged into the PS3 and worked. Simple as that. And as a bonus they work both in the Linux OS as well as the default PS3 OS.

Drawbacks:

You must reformat your PS3 hard drive before doing the install. This means you could loose a lot of data including saved game data as well as installed and downloaded games. However there is a simple backup mechanism in the PS3 which allows you to save this data to a USB key. As a worse case scenario you can re-download your games.

On the PS3, select: Settings -> System Settings -> Backup before you start.

The other drawback is that the install can take a long time which means you can’t play your PS3 while your waiting which is what I normally do when installing systems.

Steps:

I have incorporated most everything from these instructions on the “official” page located here:

http://en.opensuse.org/Playstation.

However this page is a bit less “official” and has a bit more detail.

Post Install Video Resolution:

After the install, the default resolution is insanely small. You have to manually edit the /etc/kboot.conf file so it looks like this

default=openSuSE
timeout=20
openSuSE="/dev/ps3da5:/vmlinux initrd=/dev/ps3da5:/initrd quiet panic=42 sysrq=1 video=ps3fb:mode:5"

The mode is based on this table from the PS3 Linux Starter Kit docs.

============================================
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: + 128
dither ON mode : + 2048

So for example, 1080p = 5, + Full screen = 128, total 133.

Multimedia Support:

With proper installation of OpenSUSE 11.0 you should be able to play Mp3 formats without any error but most of the video formats wont be playable. Don't get down, just click Packman for PPC and you will find audio and video players like Mplayer, vlc Player, xine, XMMS, Rhythmbox, Amarok etc which can play most of the formats known to Mankind.. ;)

Supported media formats ( Courtesy: Wiki )

============================================
Physical media
============================================

* CD
* DVD

============================================
Container formats
============================================

* 3GP
* AVI
* ASF
* FLV
* Matroska
* MOV (QuickTime)
* MP4
* NUT
* Ogg
* OGM
* RealMedia

============================================
Video formats
============================================

* Cinepak
* DV
* H.263
* H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
* HuffYUV
* Indeo
* MJPEG
* MPEG-1
* MPEG-2
* MPEG-4 Part 2
* RealVideo
* Sorenson
* Theora
* WMV

============================================
Audio formats
============================================

* AAC
* AC3
* ALAC
* AMR
* FLAC
* Intel Music Coder
* Monkey's Audio
* MP3
* RealAudio
* Shorten
* Speex,
* Vorbis
* WMA

============================================
Subtitle formats
============================================

* AQTitle
* ASS/SSA
* CC
* JACOsub
* MicroDVD
* MPsub,
* OGM
* PJS
* RT
* Sami
* SRT
* SubViewer
* VOBsub
* VPlayer

============================================