[slackline]

Having just purchased a PS3 I'm planning on doing what any self-respecting GNU/Linux geek is obliged to do and install my preferred GNU/Linux distribution on it.

Seems to be pretty straight-forward as Sony have provided the OpenPlatform which specifically allows for this.

The main limitation seems to be that you can only reserve a maximum of 10Gb for a partition to install to, but that should be plenty.  Combining the above (admittedly sparse) documentation with the somewhat dated docs here and linked from here I reckon it shouldn't be too hard.  

The main impetus for doing this is so that I can (eventually) use the PS3 as a MythTV client (after I've bought and put together a new server, installed MythTV server and have plenty of HD space etc. etc. etc.)

Just wondering if any one has done anything similar and has any comments or things to look out for?


EDIT : And if anyone has recommendations for a keyboard (and mouse) to use with the PS3 they'd be more than welcome (I'm guessing a bluetooth option is the way to go here, despite there being USB ports).

[Bubba]

Do you still need a sky subscription or similar to use MythTV ?

[slackline]

Do you still need a sky subscription or similar to use MythTV ?

Sky or similar although its likely to breach the Terms & Conditions, but thats one of the last worries I have, its mainly the technical geeky challenge, and MythTV does more than just TV anyway, as it can manage pictures, music and movies that you've ripped 

I'd imagine should I ever get round to implementing the TV side of things and be unfortunate enough to end up being caught out and taken to court I'd have a fairly good case that I'm paying for the provision of data, i.e. TV to my home.  How I choose to then view that data should be up to me, whether its viewing it through their box or another piece of hardware (at a later date), providing of course I'm not breaching the copyright of the programs by recording and distributing them, which no one would ever do with their DVD/HD recorders would they 

[Jim]

I got one of these to use with my HTPC

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Peripherals/Keyboards/Laptop+Style+Wireless+Keyboard+-+RF+?productId=28647

its pretty good and a reasonable price as well

[slackline]

I got one of these to use with my HTPC

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Peripherals/Keyboards/Laptop+Style+Wireless+Keyboard+-+RF+?productId=28647

its pretty good and a reasonable price as well

That looks like just the ticket, particularly like the touchpad built-in as I was thinking where might be flat enough to use an optical mouse in my house.  Plus since its all-in-one I'd still have a free USB slot on the PS3, and it would (hopefully) work with my laptop/under Linux on the PS3  

Cheers Jim  

[Jim]

its pretty good, its very small and lightweight and easy to use.
It was plug and play on my XP system with no problems

[tomtom]

I got one of these to use with my HTPC

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Peripherals/Keyboards/Laptop+Style+Wireless+Keyboard+-+RF+?productId=28647

its pretty good and a reasonable price as well

I've got one of these BT Mice on order - can let you know what its like? Or are you getting the keyboard&touchpad combo?
T

[slackline]

I've got one of these BT Mice on order - can let you know what its like? Or are you getting the keyboard&touchpad combo?
T

I'd certainly be interested to know (particularly if its recognised by the PS3). I probably won't buy anything for a week or two at least (next pay check sort of time), plus I'm terrible at actually committing to buying stuff, usually spend ages doing lots of reading/researching and tend to prefer saving pennies these days (this is the first console I've ever bought, and its mainly for the multimedia capabilities  ).

[tomtom]

I've got one of these BT Mice on order - can let you know what its like? Or are you getting the keyboard&touchpad combo?
T

I'd certainly be interested to know (particularly if its recognised by the PS3). I probably won't buy anything for a week or two at least (next pay check sort of time), plus I'm terrible at actually committing to buying stuff, usually spend ages doing lots of reading/researching and tend to prefer saving pennies these days (this is the first console I've ever bought, and its mainly for the multimedia capabilities   ).

Mouse arrived. Didnt come with batteries  but seems OK.. strange 'rubbery' feel and probably a bit small for me (about 8-9cm long).. but works great. Auto power offs after 5-10 min of non-use, double click on LH button wakes it up. was £11, then £5 for postage    so it gets a 6/10 from me.,...
T

[slackline]

Cheers tomtom, sounds okay, still trying to find out if the keyboard/touchpad will work with the PS3 as that would be ideal, failing that I may be purchasing one of these mice.

[slackline]

Ended up getting a KeySonic 540BT and it works out of the box with the Sony OS on the PS3 (after registering the device)



Very nice to use, good repsonse and it makes browsing t'net very easy.

Have also made progress with installing Linux on the PS3, and have managed to get it to boot the latest kernel*.  I'm documenting my progress and writing a sort of HowTo on installing Gentoo Linux on the PS3 here if any one else wants to brick supercharge their PS3

* Although had a bit of a panic as I couldn't eject the install disc as it appears the eject button on the front that you can supposedly hold down for 10 seconds to force a hard eject of the disc doesn't appear to work (for some bizzarre reason the disc, a CD-R, wasn't showing under the XMB menu, but when I went into a game demo it was, lots of faffing and I eventually managed to eject the disc from software).  Think I might call Sony and get them to replace it as it seems a common problem and thats the usual advice I've seen from searching. Anyone else with this experience?  It wasn't down to Linux shenanigans as the disc wasn't read at all under XMB menu of the Sony OS.