Detailed Instructions To Install Linux YellowDog On A PS3

So, I’m pretty sure that you have all seen the tutorial made by ToxicFish, on how to install Fedora 5 on your PS3, but for those of you that want something different, you can go with Yellow Dog Linux! That is what I have installed on my PS3 right now, and it is working great! So I’m going to make this tutorial on how I installed it all on my PS3, and if you have any questions, to just come to here!!!

What You Need
Yellow Dog Linux on DVD
Playstation 3 Console (Mine is a 60GB, and I’m sure it will work fine on a 20GB)
USB Jump Drive (needs to be 10MB or more)
Keyboard & Mouse

Get Yellow Dog Linux
First thing you need to do, is to get the Yellow Dog Linux (YDL) DVD! You can get it off of a torrent site, so please seed it! (The file should be around 3.33GB, so check for that) Once you have that, you will need to burn the image to a disc! I used Nero, and that’s what works for me! Any software that will burn images to a disc will work fine!

1. Open Nero, and go under Backup, and select “Burn Image to Disc”

2. Once you click that, Nero Vision will open, and it will ask you to select the file! Select the Yellow Dog Linux File (however you saved it).

3. The screen will then go into the “Final Burn Settings”! You can select the speed of burn, and what drive to use! I burned mine at 8x, and you should keep it below that (just so that the PS3 can read it okay)!

4. Wait for Nero to finish burning, and that’s it! You are just about ready to install Linux!

Getting the bootloader
On the PS3 there is an option to run a “OtherOS” on the system! This OtherOS will be Yellow Dog Linux, but you need something called a bootloader installer, and the bootloader itself! For this part, you will need that USB Jump Drive!
1. Connect your USB Jump Drive to your PC, and make a folder in the Drive called “PS3″ (without the quotations)
2. Open the PS3 folder you just created, and make a folder in there called “otheros” (again, without the quotations)
3. Go to this website and there will be two files to download! Just download both of them, and save them to the Jump Drive, in the “otheros” file you created! (don’t rename any of the files, just leave them as is!):

http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/support/installation/ps3/

4. Once you have gotten both of those files saved on your USB Jump Drive, you can remove it from your PC!

Preparing the PS3
Now we need to prepare your PS3 for the Linux! If you have any data on your PS3 that you want saved, back it up before doing this! During this Process, It will Delete all of the memory on the PS3!!! You can connect the keyboard & mouse now, and Plug your PS3 to a High-Def TV (for Yellow Dog Linux to look good, you will need it connected to a HDTV. But, I will explain how to make this work on a regular TV with AVI Jacks, so don’t you worry! In fact, those of you that don’t have an HDTV can still do all of this, I’ll explain how to have picture at the end)!
Okay, so what this is going to do, is re-format the HDD on the PS3, so that we can make a partition on it!
1. Select: Settings ==> System Settings ==> Format Utility ==> Format Hard Disk ==> Yes ==> Yes
2. Now you will need to select the partition settings for the hard disk to “Custom”
3. You will be presented with option to “Allot 10GB to the Other OS” or “Allot 10GB to the PS3 System.” IF your PS3 has a 20GB drive you select “10GB for the PS3 System”, this leaves roughly 6.5GB for Linux (not enough for a full install, but enough for the default YDL Install).
4. Your PS3 will now format its Internal Drive! (Just let it do its work)!!!
5. Press “X” on the controller to EXIT which will cause your PS3 to reboot.

Alright, your PS3 is all prepared now to install Yellow Dog Linux!

Installing the Bootloader Installer & Bootloader
We are now going to install the two files that we downloaded onto the USB Jump Drive!
1. Insert the USB Jump Drive, into the PS3.
2. From the GameOS menu, select: Settings ==> System Settings ==> Install Other OS
3. Your PS3 will now scan the USB Jump Drive, for the Bootloader Installer & Bootloader.
4. Confirm the discovery of “/ps3/otheros/otheros.self”.
5. Press “X” on the controller to start the installation (The PS3 screen blanks while pulling files from the USB Jump Drive, so don’t worry about it going blank)
6. You will now be prompted with: “Other OS Installer Version x.y.z” ==> Start … and then: Controller check ==> License Agreement ==> Install Completed … and then: “Back”
7. Now you must select “Other OS” in order to install Yellow Dog Linux: Settings ==> System Settings ==> Default System ==> Other OS
8. Power off your PS3.

Installing Yellow Dog Linux
1. Power on your PS3.
2. Insert the Yellow Dog Linux DVD you created, into the PS3.
3. The bootloader “kboot” is displayed on-screen (at this point if you are connected to an HDTV just wait 10 seconds, and it will automatically install! For you others, bear with me!!!)!
4. Enter Anaconda (the Yellow Dog Linux installer) and move forward with the installation of Linux, as guided on-screen!

Language & Keyboard Selection
Select your preferred Language and Keyboard Configurations.

Partition Drive
Partitioning a drive creates “logical” (as compared to physical) sections on your drive, each serving the purpose of organizing and protecting data.

NOTE: If this is the first time installing Linux on your PS3, you will be warned, “The partition table on this device sda was unreadable…” This is normal. Go ahead and select “Yes” to proceed.

Just select “Automatic Partitioning” just because, it will partition it all for you! If you know about partitioning and you want to do it manually, then select “Disk Druid” (I’m not going into detail on that)!

When you select “Automatic Partitioning” you can chose from one of the three schemes:

Remove all Linux partitions: This will delete and then replace only existing Linux partitions. Please note that if you have already installed Linux on your PS3, this procedure will DESTROY ALL EXISTING LINUX DATA! The GameOS and game data will not be harmed!

Remove all partitions: This will produce the same result as “Remove all Linux partitions” as the GameOS cannot be affected by the Linux installer!

Keep all partitions and use existing free space: If you have never installed Linux on your PS3, this will generate the same result as “Remove all partitions”!

Create a root Password
When you login to Linux, you will have this password to access it! It has to be at least 8 characters long, and has to have both letters and numbers! Make sure it is something that you will remember! So when you login to Linux, your username will be “root”, and your password will be whatever you want!

Dependency Check
The Installer will now check for package dependencies. This will take a few minutes. Click “Next” to continue.

Package Selection
The Yellow Dog Installer defaults to a pre-defined package set which includes full featured set of graphical applications for a wide variety of functions. These applications are listed on this website:

http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/apps/shtml
Now this process will take around an Hour, with an update for each package installed provided on-screen. Once up and running, additional packages may be installed using “yum” or the Package Management utility.

[b]BREAK TIME

BOOTING UP!
Once that is all done, Click Reboot to restart your PS3. This will take a half minute.

When presented with the bootloader menu (the same as was presented priot to installation), at “kboot” (for those without HDTV’s) type in “ydltext” (without quotations), and hit ENTER. For the others with HDTV, just type in “ydl” (without quotations) and hit ENTER.

Two YDL icons will appear in the upper left corner of your screen. These represent the PowerPC processor present on the PPU (primary Processing Units) of the PS3 Cell CPU. Shortly thereafter, 6 smaller penguins will appear, each representing one of the SPUs (Synergistic Processing Units). There are 8 in all, 6 of which are available to Linux on the PS3.

During the first-ever boot following installation, you will be welcomed by “firstboot” in order than you may conduct additional system tests and configuration. Go here for assistance with that:

http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/support/solutions/ydl_5.0/

Logging Into Linux
When you turn on your PS3, and are prompted to type in your Login & Password (after you type in “ydl” or “ydltext” in “kboot”), your Login will be “root” (without quotations) and then you type in your password, and hit ENTER! A command bar will come up, and all you do is type in “startx” (without quotations)! You will then go right into Yellow Dog Linux!

For those of you that don’t have HDTV’s, when you are at the “kboot” type in “ydltext” (without quotations) and hit ENTER! Once at the Login Screen, type in your Login as “root” (without quotations), and then your Password, and hit ENTER! When the command bar comes up type this in: (for all this to work, your PS3 needs to be connected to the internet)

wget http:// http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/ support/ solutions/ ydl_5.0/ Xautoconfig-0.23-2.ydl.2.ppc.rpm

Now hit ENTER

Now you will install this RPM we just downloaded! Type this in next:

rpm -ivh Xautoconfig-0.23-2.ydl.2.ppc.rpm

Hit ENTER

Now you just type in Xautoconfig in the Command bar, and press ENTER! Then type in startx in the command bar and hit ENTER again! It will now load up into Yellow Dog Linux for those without HDTV’s!

That’s it for the Tutorial! Have fun with your Yellow Dog Linux!!! I really hope that this will help people out! If you have any questions or problems, reply to this forum! Thanks!

I think this should be stickied! IT will help a lot of people that want a different Linux setup!!!