[Cbe-oss-dev] Bug#514055: debian still not working on PS3

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

On Sun, 22 Mar 2009, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 10:45:25AM -0700, Geoff Levand wrote:
> > On 03/21/2009 10:38 AM, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> > > Hrm. Does the PS3 boot with yaboot? If so, you should have been able to
> > > select yaboot, and have it be installed to the system. That should also
> > > have created your yaboot.conf.
> > 
> > PS3 uses petitboot (http://ozlabs.org/~jk/projects/petitboot/).
> > It is a kexec based bootloader which can read kboot.conf and
> > yaboot.conf files.
> > 
> > Due to the way the PS3 boots, the user must install a bootloader
> > to flash memory before they can load a distro's installer.
> > 
> > I'll try the yaboot install and see what happens.  Is it possible
> > to arrange for the installer to just create the yaboot.conf
> > without installing yaboot?
> 
> No, that won't work. I simply wasn't aware of the particular way in
> which the PS3 is booted.
> 
> I see that petitboot is free software. In that case, we should be able
> to at least put it on the CD images.

Yes, it's free software. It's a Linux kernel with a small userland that kexecs
the chosen kernel image.

Note that you can do without a bootloader, and put your kernel directly in the
FLASH ROM, if it has the correct builtin command line to mount your root
file system. But a bootloader is more convenient.

> Is it possible to install or update the flash booter from Linux, or can
> one only do that from the PS3 builtin operating system?

You can install/update the bootloader from Linux, using
`ps3-flash-util -w <bootloader>'.

However, the initial install must be done under PS3 GameOS, as you need the
bootloader to boot Linux. GameOS looks for the file ps3/otheros/otheros.bld
on any of the storage devices. So if you would put it on the PowerPC install
CD, the users would have everything in one place.

With kind regards,

Geert Uytterhoeven
Software Architect

Sony Techsoft Centre Europe
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