Retailer Amazon has offered a partial refund to a European PS3 owner following his complaint about the removal of the console’s OtherOS feature. Firmware 3.21 removed the ability to install other Operating Systems (such as Yellow Dog Linux) on the PlayStation 3, and such violated the European Law Directive 1999/44/EC. The partial refund was made to the customer without them having to return the console.
If you haven’t updated to official firmware v3.21 yet because no OtherOS support, here is some good news for you. iPhone and PS3 hacker George Hotz (aka GeoHot) has released a video showing his custom firmware in action with the OtherOS functionality still enabled. The custom firmware hasn’t been released yet but using it on your PS3 does not require any hardware or software hacks.
If you would like to keep Linux and the OtherOS option open on your PS3 and have not yet updated to the latest firmware update, you can continue to use the PSN services through a cleaver hack. The hack doesn’t require any hardware modifications to your console and does not void your warranty – it simply tricks the console into thinking there is no update available.
According to a rumor on the Yellow Dog Linux Forums, Linux Product Manager Owen Stampflee has posted that the OtherOS feature will be removed in the next firmware update. The topic on the forum has since been removed, which leads us to question it’s credibility. The OtherOS feature is expected to be removed in order to block the recently discovered exploit.
As you may already know, OtherOS support on the PlayStation 3 is being dropped by Sony when the PS3 Slim launches on September 1st. The OtherOS option allows PS3 owners to install various version of Linux on their consoles and use it like a PC. All older PS3 models will continue to support OtherOS for the foreseeable future. According to Sony, the main reason for dropping OtherOS is cost.
The PlayStation 3 is able to run another operating system in addition to the XMB. To install the bootloader for another OS, you must obtain the “otheros” installer and install it via the Settings menu: [Settings] > [System Settings] > [Install OtherOS]. OtherOS installations are not supported on the PlayStation 3 Slim model (PS3-2000).
Warning: Only attempt this if you know what you are doing. Only a limited number of operating systems will work on the PS3: Fedora Core Linux (5, 6 and 7) and Yellow Dog Linux 5 are just two examples.
If you use Linux on your PlayStation 3 console, you will know that Yellow Dog Linux is one of a few Operating Systems that support the console. YDL has been updated to v6.1 providing new software packages and security updates to the Operating System. One of the most siginificant addition to the update is the use of the PS3 Video RAM. YDL now uses the 256MB of VRAM as main memory for temporary file storage and swap space. The update also updates the kernel, the Cell SDK, and Wireless configurations, among other changes.
The new version is currently available to YDL Enhanced Members only, but you can expect general public release in a few weeks time.
Changelog:
Terra Soft have released the latest version of Yellow Dog Linux for the PlayStation 3 and Power PC (PPC) systems. Built upon the CentOS foundation, a popular derivative of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Yellow Dog Linux 6.0 offers enterprise quality for the home user and comes with select components from Fedora Core 7. YDL 6.0 comes with E17 and Gnome installed by default (KDE included), includes the Linux Kernel v2.6.23 and is the only Linux distribution that includes the default Cell SDK v3.0 as standard.
The YDL installer enables anyone to install Linux. Post-install, the default application set includes the Firefox web browser, Thunderbird email client, Pidgin IM/IRC client, Ekiga Voice over IP phone application, OpenOffice, gThumb and GIMP, RythmBox Music Player, games, multimedia applications, and a suite of personal accessories. Development and server tools are available from the custom installation menus.
"We remain proud to provide the finest Linux OS for Power experience, and it just keeps getting better. Many thanks to Red Hat, the open source community and CentOS team, IBM and Sony for making YDL v6.0 possible. Enjoy!" says Kai Staats, Terra Soft CEO.
Yellow Dog Linux v6.0 is immediately available via YDL.net Enhanced accounts which may be purchased at the Terra Soft Store. The physical DVD sets will ship from Terra Soft in 2 weeks. The public mirrors will offer v6.0 downloads in one month
On some versions of Yellow Dog Linux (for PS3), the “boot-game-os” command line gives you an error similar to “/sbin/other-os-flash-util: No such file or directory”, which prevents you from getting back to the PS3 XMB. Below is a simple, step-by-step guide on how to fix the error.
Yellow Dog Linux is one of several Linux distributions compatible with the PlayStation, however, YDL 5.0 also happens to be one of the best. Other distributions include Fedora Core and Ubuntu, but YDL offers greater compatibility than the rest. Installing YDL is simple as well, follow the instructions below:
Requirements
Before installing YDL, there a few things that you will need:
Pre-Installation
Before you can begin to install YDL, your PS3 system needs to be setup. There are three steps that need to be preformed before you can begin installation: Partitioning the hard disk, Installing the OtherOS loader and changing the default boot setting. Each stage is broken down.
Partitioning
Install Other OS
Set the Default Boot to Other OS
Before changing the default boot setting, it is important that you are using a HDTV supporting 720i resolution, since YDL uses 720i. Please also make sure that the YDL DVD is inserted into the PS3 since it will be needed when you reboot the PS3.
Installing Linux
If the Other OS files were installed correctly, you should see a bunch of text appear on the screen. This means that everything is working. YDL should start installing soon after and the process is relatively simple. YDL uses a graphical interface to install Linux onto your PS3, so all you need to do is follow the instructions. The installation process takes over an hour. Once YDL has been installed, the disc should automatically eject and all you need to do then is to reboot into Linux.
Screenshots
