[Cbe-oss-dev] Fwd: PS3 kernel does not load

[Declan Malone]

Hi again,

First off, I'm not actually in a position to anything with the machine
right now until I can figure out why it's stuck in a loop. I
may need to buy a new hard disk for it, but that's not a priority for
me right now.


Second, I actually did have my system downgraded to the official 3.15
firmware. Once I had the system at 3.15, I did follow
the official instructions (Sony's "open" platform one you linked to),
but since it didn't include a link to an otheros.bld file,
I tried a variety of files I could find, including:

* petitboot home page on ozlabs
* your files on kernel.org (under people/geoff)
* one included in an old live Debian squeeze install CD image

All three gave the same kinds of error messages with the embedded ps3 utilities.

FWIW, I did try out the official 4.2.3 stable kernel sources on it,
but it didn't boot. I didn't get to try your ps3-linux git sources,
though.


Finally, I was under the impression that you had written the
instructions on gitbrew that began:

   == Install OtherOS on HDD (for all PS3 models)

   All tools are here: http://gitbrew.org/~glevand/ps3/

   NOTICE: All my tools should beep. If you don't get beep during one
of the steps below
           then stop doing anything and contact me. I will help.
           OtherOS++ support: irc.gitbrew.org (ssl) #otheros

   ALL PS3 MODELS ARE SUPPORTED !!!

    1. Install my latest CFW [...]


These were the instructions that I had used a long time ago to install
the custom 3.55 kernel and, from there, Linux.

A similar page on gitbrew.org also had instructions for going back to
3.15, which I followed apart from the step of booting
into recovery mode, which wasn't mentioned, and the restore_vflash
script, which failed.

I'm confused that those instructions seem to be written by you and
point to a site with your name. Is this other glevand not you?

Thanks for all your help so far.
Regards,
Dec


On 19 October 2015 at 19:10, Geoff Levand <geoff at infradead.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Mon, 2015-10-19 at 15:26 +0100, Declan Malone wrote:
>> I managed to get this to almost work.
>>
>> It seems that in order to downgrade with the custom 3.55 "special" firmware (and qa flag extra package), one needs to go into recovery mode. It won't install from xmb.
>
> As I mentioned in my previous mail I only support otheros
> on firmware 3.20 and earlier.  I know nothing about
> orheros++.  You need to ask them for support.
>
>> I downgraded to OFW 3.15, but in all the bootloaders (otheros.bld) I tried, there were problems accessing the GameOS with the ps3utils programs. For example:
>> # ps3-boot-game-os
>> os_area_header_verify:277: magic_num failed
>
> You need to use the GameOS to initialize the otheros
> area. See 'Step 3: Install the boot loader on the PS3™
> system' here:
>
>   https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/ps3-openplatform/manual.html
>
> The other way is to restore it from a backup using the
> ps3-flash-util.
>
>> I had problems running the restore_vflash.sh command
>> when I was in 3.55. Is that a necessary step? Your instructions never mentioned that, or the fact that you need to go to recovery
>> mode to downgrade.
>
> I think you are mistaken, those are not my instructions,
> but someone else's.  As I said, I only support otheros
> on firmware 3.20 and earlier.
>
> Good luck.  If you can get an old firmware version
> working, then I can give you more help.
>
> -Geoff
>