I have added a new ps3-sources-2.6.24 ebuild to the cell overlay. It's based on vanilla-sources with a diff of the latest Sony distribution kit, as well as the squashfs patch. There is also a 2.6.24 default config in the files dir of the overlay.

And for those who do not like to compile their own kernels or are incapable of doing so, I added a ps3-kernel-bin into the cell overlay as well. This ebuild will install a precompiled binary kernel, initrd (ramdisk), System.map, and modules. It's based on the new aforementioned sources.

While providing a binary kernel for anything Gentoo is admittedly contrary to the real or perceived Gentoo philosophy, it is probably the right thing to do for the ps3 user-base. Many of the ps3 users are either new to Linux or new to Gentoo. Kernel compilation has been difficult for some of them. Furthermore, compilation of the kernel takes time. With the PPU speed and small RAM footprint, I'm starting to develop an adhoc belief that the PS3 with Gentoo could be a bit like embedded Linux. Binaries, in this case, are OK. The console is perfect for running Linux, especially with a snappy window manager, and SPU compilations.

So your feedback on the new approach is welcome. I'm interested if this works well for users. Let's consider this a probationary period.

Happy Hunting.

To our PS3 users, I will now rev bump the ebuilds when a new patch is applied to our sources.

Peace

If you are unlucky enough to have run into this problem and your Gentoo install does not work, I have authored a short document on how to recover your install. Please visit http://overlays.gentoo.org/proj/cell/wiki/Rescue for this information.

One of the downsides of this issue is that it rendered the media and stages I created just a few days ago completely useless. They are no longer on the mirrors. I'm rebuilding all the media as this is being written. The stages and livecd should be available tomorrow at the latest (the minimal cd referenced in the rescue document was mirrored today).

I'll post when the new media begins to hit the mirrors. As always, if you have questions, come hang out with us on #gentoo-ppc64 on irc.freenode.net. If you have questions about recovering your install, please ask there. If you have suggestions and improvements for the rescue document, please send them to me. Don't you dare write a bugzilla entry!

Although it was tested, I wrote it hastily and my tester is quite the experienced Linux user so we admittedly do not make the best testing subjects.

Happy Holidays.

Brent

As a note, XFCE4 and some other packages like subversion, have been removed from the GRP builds because they are shipping as part of the stage4.

Instructions on how to install GRP for the PS3 can be found at http://overlays.gentoo.org/proj/cell/wiki/InstallGentooOnPS3

Happy Hunting

Stages

I have built both 64-bit and 32-bit userland-based stages. Both run a 64-bit kernel. The new stages are more mature than previous ones based on user feedback. My intent was to make the stage more immediately usable for users, especially new and new-to-Linux users.

The new stages contain XFCE4, XFCE4-extras, Mozilla Firefox (Web browser), Mozilla Thunderbird (Mail), xchat (IRC client), pidgin (Instant Messenger) and Audacious (music). It also includes many of the basic applications for the development environment, like subversion, cross-dev, and so forth.

Once the new stage is extracted, configured, and reboot, your PS3 will load up into GDM and you can login and begin using your PS3 immediately.

Be certain you are following the instructions located at http://overlays.gentoo.org/proj/cell/wiki/InstallGentooOnPS3 .

Install Media

I have remade the popular PS3 LiveCd with few a few changes, which is a usable Gentoo graphical environment on CD/DVD media. When I released the new stages in November, I did not rebuild the LiveCD because of portage tree instability. This latest LiveCD is based on 2.6.23 and contains updated XFCE and other desktop applications. It is also noticeably larger and requires that you burn it as a DVD or run it off USB. Directions for the latter can be found at http://overlays.gentoo.org/proj/cell/wiki/BootLiveCDfromUSB .

The minimal installcd has also been updated. Because the prior minimal installcd was based on 2.6.23, this new version only has updated packages but is otherwise largely the same.

GRP

Building GRP still remains a problem. I'll continue to work on it. I'm currently trying to work out a problem building Gnome where it fails with various XML problems. It seems that building GRP is a continuous problem and I am contemplating dropping support for GRP.

What's Next

I would like think this is the last set of stages I would need to build without some improvement in other things. For example, I think I will begin to invest my time into created both cell and cell/ps3 profiles in the portage tree to ease the release engineering aspect of these builds. I also want to build a set of stages based on gcc-4.3 so we can begin to bring in a number of cell-based optimizations.

Thanks and best of luck. Please provide feedback as appropriate. Join us on IRC at #gentoo-ppc64.

Happy Holidays, Peace on Earth and all that stuff,

Brent aka Ranger

I've just put out new stages for the PS3 onto the Gentoo mirrors under the experimental directories. For example, http://gentoo.osuosl.org/experimental/ppc64/stages. There is also a new minimal install-cd. This marks the first release of new stages since June for me. There are a bunch of new changes, some of which I will call out:

• The new stages are built on 2.6.23 mainline with several PS3 specific patches. The ebuild for these sources is in the Cell overlay.
• New ps3pfutils is in both the overlay and stages.
• An otheros.bld provided by Sony is provided on the minimal install-cd. You must use this version of otheros for the new media and stages or you will not be able to boot either.
  2.6.23 has different devices names several devices including disk. The device names for sda are now ps3da. If you are upgrading, be sure to fix fstab and kboot.conf at a minimum.
• I was only able to build 32bit userland GRP. I'm running into a compilation problem for Gnome on 64bit. I will continue to work on it.
• No LiveCD has been built with the new kernel. I'll generate and test this over the course of the next week or so.
• Updated instructions for the install are located at: http://overlays.gentoo.org/proj/cell/wiki/InstallGentooOnPS3

As always, you can find many of us hanging out on IRC on the #gentoo-ppc64 channel.

Happy Hunting!

Brent