Al actualizar Debian en el PlayStation 3 me dio un error de que no podía reservar memoria (algo como Couldn’t allocate memory), y revisando con el Monitor del Sistema me percaté que la memoria swap no estaba habilitada:

No hay memoria swap asignada

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Sandungas (from the extincted Dark-Alex’s forum) asked me if it was possible to install  Debian from a pendrive because he was afraid of harming the PS3′s reader by using a homemade cd, and I replied it couldn’t be done. Later by looking at petitboot’s files I realized there was an icon for pendrives, so it made me think about it…

After I googled a while and did some tests with kboot, here you are the steps for installing from a pendrive:

Setting the  pendrive

First of all you have to pull out the content of the image .iso from the Debian for PS3 live-cd. In order to do so you can use isomaster on Linux, or any other program that lets you extract the files from a image iso.

Extract the following folders into your pendrive’s root directory:

• /casper
• /etc
• /install
• /isolinux

NOTE: Installing Debian testing (Squeeze)

The live-cd has references to scripts that are no longer valid with the last Debian 5.0 update because those images dates from 2007. The thing is the live-cd is a little old and it doesn’t have the right references to stable (lenny) and testing (squeeze) for deboobstrap’s scripts.

Here’s the squeeze file I uploaded. Copy this file to the pendrive’s root directory because you will use it later.

Command mode in Kboot

By default kboot reads the /etc/kboot.conf config files from all the devices it has recognized at boot, like the PS3′s hard drive or an installing CD. But The problem is it doesn’t recognize pendrives, so you will have to do the following trick.

After booting the PS3 and some hardware detection messages you will see for a few seconds the message “kboot:“. Here you can use any entry from the kboot.conf file it has recognized or you can use a text terminal for administration proposes by typing “sh“.

kboot: sh

From that moment on you will have access to a Linux’s terminal. The first thing you have to do is to plug the pendrive to the PS3. That will show some messages related to the detection of the pendrive and which reference to use for the pendrive (in my case was /dev/sdc). You have to mount that device on a directory in order to work more comfortably:

mkdir /mnt/pendrive
mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/pendrive

Get into the install folder:

cd /mnt/pendrive/install

Now proceed to boot Debian’s install kernel image:

kexec -l monolithic-linux --initrd=monolithic-initrd.gz --append="root=/dev/ram --"
kexec -l monolithic-linux --initrd=monolithic-initrd.gz --append="root=/dev/ram --" -e

The -l option is used to substitute the current kernel image by loading the new one, –initrd to load the initrd image that will help the kernel to load at the beginning, and –append will tell which device it should use to load the images from. As you might noticed, there are two lines but the second one has -e at the end. The first line loads the kernel image and the second one executes that image by using the -e option.

At this point the installation process have to begin :)

Getting ready for Debian Testing

When the installer starts (when it asks the language to use) you can open a text terminal by pressing::

Ctrl+Alt+2

Here you will use the pendrive-mounting trick one more time. It has be done again because another system was started (the Debian’s installer):

mkdir /mnt/pendrive
mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/pendrive
cd /mnt/pendrive

Copy the squeeze’s packages reference file:

cp squeeze.txt /usr/lib/debootstrap/scripts

Now you can continue with Debian’s installing process. To do so, go back to the installation terminal by pressing:

Ctrl+Alt+1

Finally, when it asked you what version to use you have to select “testing” (squeeze).

References

• https://hpcas.enstb.org/projects/ps3/debian-on-a-ps3-with-a-usb-key-only
• http://www.keshi.org/moin/PS3/Debian/Live
• http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/426

It’s a well-know fact that the Playstation 3 is a platform where you can install an operating system other than the one provided by Sony, i.e., you can install Linux. Due to Debian is the distro with more supported architectures, the PS3 can’t be the exception.

This post is for those PS3 owners who wants to “play” with Debian on this architecture, without further ado, here you are the steps for installing it…

What you’ll need:

1. A blank CD
2. A pendrive
3. A Playstation 3 (FAT)
4. Internet access.

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