I installed Yellow Dog 5.0 on my Playstation 3 (and I am typing this message from it right now), but instead of it booting directly to the GUI, it goes to a text that says to enter run level. If I type 5 and hit enter it boots the GUI, but it's supposed to automatically boot to the GUI. Other than that it works fine to my knowledge.

What do I do? (keep in mind I am a complete Linux New-bie)

How is the performance of running Linux on a PS3? I am considering getting one for a distributed computing project. I read that folding@home is using this and they are cranking out amazing results and speed, faster than PC's and Mac's.

Regarding the GUI, I am not familiar with Yellowdog, but is there a /etc/inittab?

The performance is overall fairly fast, however, Yellow Dog can only use 1 "cell" of the Playstation 3's 8 cell processor, so the performance is much greater using the PS3 OS. Especially for the Folding@home project and games.

Some other noted things:
I have an SDTV, so installation SUCKED! (having to use text install).
Because of me having an SDTV, the resolution is not correct for my TV. Most of the applications are to big for my screen and not operable. You can't change the resolution either, so if you don't have an HDTV, don't even bother installing it.

There is no audio, and both of the music players don't recognize MP3 format files.

I don't know if there are any updates, but the linux updater never says there are any.

Plus, the GUI thing I listed in my original post.



[B]If anyone out there knows how to fix any of these problems, please post and tell me how to fix them - I am a complete Linux NOOB![/B]

Ah, I guess the PS3 is definitely not ready for prime time as a desktop or media station with Linux. I would be interested to try running scientific and mathematical applications on a PS3.

Regarding your GUI nuisance, did you check to see if you have a /etc/inittab file? In that file, you can change the default runlevel to 5, which would start up the GUI automatically. Again, I'm not familiar with Yellowdog.

i have ps3 ydl on a hdtv, and it's pretty neat. have you tried looking on terrasoft's website for a configuration? they used to have a yellowdog forum, but it seems to be down at the moment.

I think that the YDL is a respectable system, especially because it is custom designed for a gaming console, but I'm just not going to use it much until I get a HDTV. You can tell by using it that it is not set up for SDTV, and Terrasoft doesn't have any SD support or resolution fixes. I'm looking for a cheap HDTV right now (about a 23"-27"), but they're all to expensive unless you buy the cheap off-brands, not that they're bad, but I'm not comfortable buying a TV that I've never heard of...

I got myself PS3 today and I'm interested in running some linux-distro in it. I have just two questions before trying out YDL... do I really need to hook up some USB keyboard? Can I use SIXAXIS in it as a mouse/keyboard hybrid like in ps3 webbrowser and xmb? I plan it mainly for emulator use and playback of divx's so having 4 shortcuts on desktop and using them really shouldn't need a keyboard. or mouse.

Yes, you do need both a supported USB keyboard and mouse (most keyboards and mice are supported, but some have reported not to work). Without both of these the installation will not run and the SIXAXIS controler is not recognized at all in Yellow Dog Linux. Good luck, and I hope you have a HDTV...

Is it so that kernel is able to schedule tasks for only for PPU and not the SPU's or is it using PPU and one SPU? I understood that it should be possible to use multiple SPU's when program uses them explicitly, but is the scheduler able to balance and divide load for SPU's?

I'm going to be honest, I'm not sure what all that means... But I do know that it can only use 1 "cell" of the processor, unless an update has been made.

There is only one "cell" -processor in PS3 Cell has one PoewerPC core processor (PPU) and eight synergistic processing units (SPU's). Idea of the cell is that PPU only distributes work load to SPU's which do the heavy lifting. That's the case with games. Cell processor is so called asymmetric multiprocessor. I believe PPU is in essence the same as any PowerPC in Mac or in XBox360

What I would like to know is that if Linux kernel is taking advantage of SPU's. I believe that it should be technically possible, but is it implemented?

Thanks for the info. In that case (after a vocab lessson), yellow dog linux can only access 1 SPU in the processor (I thought it had 8 "cells"). Yes, it is very technically possible to run all 8, but It's not my problem to fix, Terrasoft's support is terrible at responding to questions, and I can only imagine them actually updating or fixing something.

I believe linux kernel version 2.6.20 should have a lot of improvements for PS3. That should include preemptive scheduling for SPU's and better load balancing. Source: http://www.bsc.es/projects/deepcomputing/linuxoncell/

Even though that site is about IBM Blade, it should be applicable to PS3 also. I think that 2.6.20.7 is latest. If you don't have that kernel already and you decide to update to it, please let me know if it is faster.

BTW. about mp3 playback. You probably need to get unofficial player or plugin to xmms for MP3's. I don't think MP3 codec copyrights let Terrasoft to release it in normal release. Well at least that was the case last time checked and it really sucks. Same goes for many video codecs. You need to get them from some place which do not bow to facist MPAA and millenium copyright act.

So how would I go about upgrading the kernal on my PS3?

I am a complete linux noob, so if you could tell me step by step that would be great (if you know how).

Thanks.