April 20th 2008 - PlayStation 2 Linux Up and Running

System.out.println("hi") ;

After the successful installation of PlayStation2 Linux another nice set of photos comes when the PS2 boots up Linux

Boot the PlayStation without disc, just with the MemoryCard inserted

And then it appears our very good friend Tux


This MemoryCard save file has the kernel itself and the initrd ready to be loaded from the RTE disc

Details screen

File copy/delete menu

Then I inserted the RTE (DISC1) into the PlayStation disc tray, and then the usual load screen came up

(be sure to press and hold Select+R1 to boot the RTE disc into NTSC mode, otherwise it will boot in VGA mode)

Then highlight the "Boot" icon


After it appears the kernel, initrd and root device settings
(stored on MemoryCard)

MemoryCard

Single

Emergency

Linux DISC

I selected MemoryCard to load the kernel and initrd with the default options using as root device /dev/hda1

After selection the kernel and initrd are loaded into memory

The busy box stuff when loading modules and detecting hardware

(ugly screenshot. I know, but it's the only one I have)

Here we can see the so expected message "Welcome to PS2 Linux"

(Another bad screenshot, but that screens came so fast I could only take that picture of them)

Checking root device (/dev/hda1) ounting filesystems and bringing up network interfaces

PlayStation 2 Linux login prompt

(Bad screenshot because of the window light)

Login as root and doing the classic uname -a to see the kernel version, hostname and machine architecture

It can be seen that PlayStation 2 has a mips processor

After doing startx without parameters I realized it goes into VGA mode with no params.
So I had to reboot the bad way (power unplug) and reboot to start the X server into NTSC mode

(to view it on my TV since any of my VGA monitors support SyncOnGreen)

X starts with the WindowMaker window manager ( I want to change this since I preffer gnome)

After fooling around with the WindowMaker and with the system, I shut down the PS2

And the PS2 behave more like a PC than a game console


Well this firs boot was nice since I waited so long to see it and handle a game console like the PS2 with a GNU/Linux operating system.

This is not the end, but the beginning of a long jounrey of installing and configuring GNU Linux in several consoles (DreamCast, GameCube, X-Box and even a PlayStation 3 if my budget allows me to)

Thanks for reading and wait for the next post.

April 20th 2008 - PlayStation 2 Linux FINALLY installed

System.out.println("hi");

So this weekend I came up with the idea...
The dell usb keyboard is a usb 1.0 device and the ps2 linux driver is for usb 1.0 devices, so there is most likely the problem is not there.

So I decided to take a look to my server

I have several hard disks on it (yes the 4th hard disk is a 400MB HDD)


I'm currently using a 30GB Quantum HDD. So I deceided to change the HDD for a 20GB Seagate

Big was my surprise when the ps2 linux loaded faster with seagate hdd, and DOUBLE CHARS GONE AWAY !!!

but the seagate hdd had some data on it (nothing important, only MY WHOLE SERVER INSTALATION lol)

first back up the Seagate HDD

it was around 3 or 4 AM and one pf my 3 cats was sleeping at the chair


I backed up the seagate hdd into the quantum hdd with
# dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdc bs=64M

And it took a couple hours to finish ( I sleep during that time )

After the backup and the suprise I tried all the steps for installation
(I show the images 'cause some minor settings changed in this installation)

installation type screen

disk druid partition layout for /dev/hda (seagate)

Partition format screen

(please do not check for bad blocks 'cause it took HOURS to finish)

I mean it. It even warned about taking several hours to complete bad block check
lol


After the extensive bad block check (and several hours of dreams) I resumed the installation

Hostname: PlayStation2

Network configuration: Use BOOTP/DHCP

Time Zone Selection: ETC/GMT-6

root password FINALLY typed EQUAL passwords xD

Add user

User list

Autentication configuration

[*] Use Shadow passwords
[*] Enable MD5 passwords
[ ] Enable NIS // By the time i don't have NIS server

Reading package information

Package group selection

[*] Everything //xD

X probe ressults

Nice, I have the PlayStation 2 GS video card for X server

Memory card (PS2) for PS2 Linux start up

swap space activation screen

Installation log location

Formatting filesystem

alt+F5 and we have the format log

Package installation progress screen


During the package installation time I took a couple nice pics of the ps2
(I had homework, but this was mmm a little bit more attractive ...xD)

Nice pic blue plus green lights

Perspective ps2 console logo and linux box

And after almost an hour the 660 package installation finished

lol I catched this picture in some anaconda screen change

(btw anaconda is the installer program)

Performing Ppost install configuration

The installation took about 1.6 GB of the 10GB partition, so I have plenty space to work with
xD

Insert PS2 MemoryCard to create start up configurations on it

Creating initrd and kernel image in memory card
(and applying PS2 memory card format to make them appear as a game save in PS2 Browser)

alt+F4 = kernel messages screen


And after one month of having ordered the kit and about 18 days of having it on my hands the installation was COMPLETED

Installation complete screen

Installation completed at 20 / April / 2008 3:31:39 PM GMT-6


Well that's all in this post (after 36 screenshots)
The next post will have the first run screenshots

Thanks again to everyone for they support. Specially to Tonejita, 'cause nothing of this could ever be done without her kind support and her endless trust in my dreams...