[Cbe-oss-dev] Debian Live for PS3 project dead

[Francois Galea]

Hello,

sean finney wrote :
> FYI, the latest 2.6.26 kernels in debian unstable also work without
> problem on the ps3.  i don't know if these kernels have made/will make it 
> onto the lenny installer any time soon though.  i'll investigate that...

This is definitely good news. I have installed the latest 
2.6.26-1-powerpc64 unstable kernel version 2.6.26-10 and I can confirm 
it is working properly.

> 
>>> From: "Geoff Levand" <geoffrey.levand at am.sony.com>
>>> Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 3:10 PM
>>>> I asked the Debian kernel maintainers to enable the powerpc kernel
>>>> config options needed for the PS3.  I tested the 4.0r5 DVD and the
>>>> testing installer of 2008.11.13, but neither of the kernels in
>>>> these worked with the PS3.  Both crashed very early before the
>>>> display was working.
> 
> yes, 4.0r5 is debian etch, i would not expect the relevant changes/fixes
> for the ps3 to make it that far back into a stable distribution.  instead i'd
> recommend trying with the lenny installer.

I agree with this. There is no chance the 2.6.18 kernel from etch will 
work on ps3.

>> There is not that much difference. In fact, the best procedure would be  
>> to follow the howto up to a certain point (boot the debian system with  
>> standard powerpc kernel), and then install the ps3 kernel and utilities  
>> from a (not existing yet) apt repository, just like what the keshi.org  
>> was before being completely outdated.
> 
> well, for the *utilities*, there's an existing repo:
> 
> deb http://people.debian.org/~seanius/ps3-experimental-packages sid main
> 
> i don't have a kernel in this repo because it's not currently necessary,
> at least for my needs (and kernel compiling is a PITA if only because of
> the time requirements).

Wow, this is *exactly* what I intended to do !
If the official Debian kernel now supports ps3, I don't see any reason 
to continue to maintain third party configured kernels, unless some very 
good reason. For instance I don't know whether all ps3 devices are 
currently supported or not (bluetooth, wifi, sixaxis ...), but maybe a 
custom kernel is still required to be able to access some devices. I 
will check about this later.

> i tried
> to get my dualshock controllers to pair via usb using the sixlinux stuff, 
> but failed--but this may be a dualshock vs. standard sixaxis issue.

I used a version of bluez-utils, patched with the sixlinux patch (also 
available on my server). First pairing required to manually run hidd 
with the --no-check option (as explained on the sixlinux page), then 
consecutive pairings are successful using the standard debian init 
scripts. I had to set HIDD_ENABLED=1 in /etc/default/bluetooth, though.

I use a sixaxis controller, and I don't know whether ds3 works the same 
or not.

> 
>> For now I am currently investigating about how to setup my apache server  
>> to turn it into a reliable apt repository.
> 
> if you want something "simple", you should read the fine manpages for
> dpkg-scanpackages and dpkg-scansources.  if you want a "real" repository,
> where you can support multiple distributions and archs, have signed
> files, etc, then you should use some real package archive management software.
> myself, i'm currently using reprepro for the above archive, since it's the
> nicest combination of features and simplicity for my needs.

I already had some experience using reprepro for some experimental 
stuff. But now that I am aware about your utils repository, I don't 
think I will experiment about repository administration any further.

Thanks again for having packaged all these tools.

François