FreeBSD now supports the Playstation 3 (opens in new tab)

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91 pointsrequinot5915y ago17 comments

17 comments

10 comments · 3 top-level

potatolicious15y ago· 3 in thread

More and more it seems that removing Linux support from PS3 was one of the worst moves of 2010.

Apparently, this FreeBSD port requires the PS3 have a tool called "petitboot" installed; the "petitboot" installation process seems to use the PS3's traditional "OtherOS" support (what you refer to as "Linux support"). So a PS3 whose firmware prohibits it from booting Linux won't be able to run FreeBSD either.

Now that all the signing keys are leaked, I'll be interested to see how long it takes for universal installers to appear that work even on PS3s that don't support "OtherOS".

burgerbrain15y ago

Or alternatively, one of the best moves.

All a matter of perspective ;)

ellisd15y ago

I totally agree with you on this being a matter of prospective... I was on the verge of dumping PS3 for media playback from my file server since dealing with transcoding + the PS3 is IMHO a huge pain in the ass.

With the root key cracked and homebrew soon exploding I'm scheming a quality XBMC port to GameOS... sooner than never ;-)

2 more replies

veb15y ago· 2 in thread

I thought the whole thing was hilarious. The pirates couldn't crack the console, so they told everyone not to buy the PS3 because they wouldn't be able to play pirated games and stuff. But then Sony did something stupid and removed the ability to use Unix on the PS3 so those guys (homebrewers) were like 'RAWRRR' and cracked it.

Lesson learned: Never mess with the guys who know what they're doing!

iheartmemcache15y ago

You're making a pretty egregious (and insulting) mistake by conflating pirates (i.e., those just want to steal games) with homebrewers (really intelligent electrical engineers, mathematicians with PhDs, tec).

That's not to say that those who crack things (essentially "pirates) like SecureROM and SafeDisk aren't intelligent, but the fail0verflow is on a whole 'nother level.

SimonPStevens15y ago

I read what veb said as there were two different groups.

"Pirates" who were unable to crack it. "Homebrewers" who didn't want to (because it previously run Linux so they could do homebrew without cracking it).

Sony remove the Linux ability, so the second group ("Homebrewers"), now had motivation to crack it, and succeeded.

If anything I think veb's comment was complementary of homebrewers. He is saying they succeeded where the pirates failed.

retube15y ago· 2 in thread

How does a PS3 compare spec-wise with a regular PC? Alternative server solution?

pmjordan15y ago

It's tight on RAM (only 256MB main memory + 256MB VRAM, a large portion of which can be used as fast swap space, at least on Linux), the SPUs will sit mostly idle unless your software is specifically written to utilise them. Especially older models consume a lot of power, even when idle. A cheap Atom-based Nettop or NAS is probably better for home server type stuff.

wladimir15y ago

That'd be my question as well. In older times, the performance/price ratio of PS3s was very good. A lot of universities at least considered building a cluster of them. But the PS3 is getting pretty old.

The cells SPUs are comparable to modern ATI/NV GPU computing, and new graphics cards are released every year. Wouldn't it be more cost-effective to buy a GPU card?

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