Installing the latest Fedora Core 7 on PS3

Even though it appears to be the “official” linux for Playstation 3, Yellow Dog Linux on PS3 was a bit of a dissapointment.. everything is way out of date, and it turns out IBM is only supporting Fedora Core 6 at the moment for the Cell SDK. So if you want to be on the bleeding edge you’ve got to have Fedora Core installed.

But why settle for Fedora Core 6 when Fedora Core 7 for PS3 is right around the corner? dwmw2 on #cell (irc.oftc.net) convinced me to try out the development branch of FC7. Here’s how you get it installed:

Update your PS3 (at least 1.60 or 1.70)

Download the latest otheros.bld that’s built on petitboot and put it on a memory card in /ps3/otheros. Go to System Settings -> Install Other OS and install it.

Download the latest Fedora Core boot.iso and burn it to a DVD.

Reboot your PS3 in Other OS and select Linux64.

HD users: If you want to do the install in 1080i or 720p, wiggle the mouse on the Linux64/Linux32 selection screen and leave the mouse on Linux32. This will stop it from booting in 480i automatically. Then hit Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get to a TTY. From here, cd to /var/tmp/mnt-scd0*/ppc/ppc64 and run: ‘/sbin/kexec -f –initrd=ramdisk.image.gz –command-line=”video=1080i” vmlinuz’ (or video=720p) At the moment you can’t just select “720p” or “1080i” from the graphical boot menu, as it does not pass video information on to the installer. 🙁

When prompted for where to pull the install material from you can select HTTP, or you could just download it yourself and put it on a DVD which is much faster. Either way, the install material is here. If that’s too slow you can try one of the mirrors, but beware — the mirrors can be 1-2 days behind, which could cause you grief when you’re pulling the latest from the development branch.

Observations after a day with FC7…

* I wouldn’t recommend installing FC7 over HTTP! It took me 8 hours. The PS3 doesn’t have enough RAM to manage the install very well.

* No sound in FC7

* No wireless in FC7