I've never owned a PS2 Linux retail kit before. You know the one I mean? You can purchase a Linux DVD kit from Sony and as long as you can find a working OLD style PS2 (the big fat one with the HDD expansion slot), you can insert an HDD and install Linux. Sounds easy eh! Well, I purchased all the parts apart from an HDD. It was meant to have been bought this week, but the postal orders haven't arrived and the seller and I are just scratching our heads. In the meantime whilst we come up with a workable solution (paying again) I'd like to ask a few major noob, dumb ass questions about the kit. What can you do with it? Yep, it's that basic! I've gone onto the official / community site and it doesn't appear to be terribly jumping. Have I just caught onto the PS2 Linux wave as it gently laps against the shores of oblivion? Is there a huge underground / unofficial scene that will thrieve for years to come? Is it as limited as the PS1 Net Yaroze kit? You'd think I'd ask this prior to purchasing, but I really have wanted one of these for the longest time - and clearly for absolutely no reason other than I thought it looked great!
Looking good is a fine reason! ;-) The official PS2 Linux forums are kinda dead these days, but there's some useful info buried in there, if you're prepared to dig. I think the kit was originally positioned as something akin to the Net Yaroze exercise, in so much as it gave you an officially sanctioned way to access/write code to exploit (some) of the PS2 hardware. Other than the intellectual exercise of getting it up & running, and then tinkering/installing stuff, I have to admit I've never seriously coded on mine. I might yet do, though. The small amount of memory somewhat reduces the kits usability as a general linux box for net browsing etc. BTW, I believe (though haven't verified myself yet) that any HDD will work - doesn't have to be the official HDD (except for the SCPH-1x000 series, where you'll need the drive case/offical cable/pccard), Q: With Net Yaroze, do you need the official website to actually do stuff, or can you work independantly, provided you have the dongle thingy?
With NetYaroze you don't need access to the website. It's got some ancient files on there which some coders may find useful but apart from that the site is dead.
You've got a tool wait correct that 2 tools laying around, with much more potential and power then the normal ps2 so running linux on a retial ps2 falls in to a shade.. if you're not a linux guy to start with its useless other then just looking at it and keeping it for the collection
Thanks for that information. From doing a small about of rummaging online I had found very little information. I wanted to obtain the official Sony HDD again for no really practical reasons, but purely because it was available to me and I liked the idea of having the complete set. The Net Yaroze is still completely unused in my case as the dongle was missing. So, thus far it has just "looked" cool. From things other AG members have said I am aware that you could actually just use any old PSx and specific software to bypass it all and just get going. Sadly, I've not had the time. I'd like to see both up and running. When I finally get Linux onto the HDD, does it boot in a GUI or to BASH? Am I looking at something similar to a user friendly Linux designed to be straight forward or Linux akin to RedHat5.0 on the PS2 Tool? If it's not a GUI, can one be installed?
Its been a while, but when you install, do a full, and it will boot to a shell, type startx and you should get a slow, but workable GUI!
If you just want to test it you can use any harddisk if im correct, as for the gui you can install it on both, i dont see why not eventhough I never bothered with ps2 linux as I have a tool, but you are quite limited on the ps2 as far as the mem/specs go. the cool thing about the tool is if you want you can install whatever on it (another/newer version of linux with nice gui's and everything or even windows) the best thing would be to disconnect the current harddisk and keep the original install for now and add another (any) disk to it to do the addional installs (even dual boot would be possible) as for ps2 the linux is limited to specially designed distro's as it uses the emtionchip instead of x86.
This is correct. Depending on your monitor setup, you may need to tweak your /etc/X11/XGSConfig file, or alternatively, you can apply arguments with startx - ie: startx -- -screen 0 NTSC startx -- -screen 0 PAL startx -- -screen 0 VGA startx -- -screen 0 DTV (I think this is the right syntax, but I don't have my PS2 nearby to check - I'll fix later, if it's wrong. I have a vague memory that you might be able to get away with just something like startx NTSC. BTW, DTV = Digital TV, aka component)
Wow! Thanks for all that! I am just curious. One of those collectors decisions rather than anything else. If I have it, I can test it and tinker around with it, but the main Linux usage will of course be with the Tool. The Tool has a great deal of benefits and a lot more going for it, however I have respect for people who manage to get something out of a limited system. I know they used these kits to teach game programming and it must have some potential. Great to hear that a GUI can be accessed. I'm a pampered PC WinDoze user, of course I need a GUI.... give me a prompt/bash and I go into spasms of fear! "You mean I have to know what to do, rather than the OS?" ;-) Thanks everyone for replying. One last question. Unlike the Net Yaroze, can ANY PS2 run the software that is created on the Linux system, or does it require the end user to have a copy? My guess is Sony would never have created a system that allowed that level of flexibility, but just curious. I.e. you cannot create something using the Linux kit, burn it off on a PC and run it on a chipped PS2 or Test for instance?
You need only the DISC1 and a memory card (or linux installed on the ps2)to show off your work, you can find more informations on the official website. For the Yaroze, it's easy to convert the yaroze-only executables to work on any ps1 from a disc or from an AR/GS/Xplorer cartridge.
Actually, you dont even need a memory card, I recall quite a while back, basically, if you have a modded PS2, you can create an image of linux disk 1, edit it, and stick a new vmlinux on there, and run it from CD. Suppose it dont much work without a modded PS2, but nevertheless another option!
