Hi,
Fedora 12 was released this week. Unfortunately, due to an increase in memory usage of anaconda the Fedora installer program some special procedures are needed to install it on the PS3.
I made a new howto note 'PS3 Fedora install HOW-TO' that describes how to install Fedora on your PS3. It make take some time to reach the mirrors though:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/ps3-howto/ps3-fedor...
Please report any additional steps needed or problems faced when installing to your system.
-Geoff
On 21/11/09 00:33, Geoff Levand wrote:
Hi,
Fedora 12 was released this week. Unfortunately, due to an increase in memory usage of anaconda the Fedora installer program some special procedures are needed to install it on the PS3.
I made a new howto note 'PS3 Fedora install HOW-TO' that describes how to install Fedora on your PS3. It make take some time to reach the mirrors though:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/ps3-howto/ps3-fedor...
Please report any additional steps needed or problems faced when installing to your system.
Hi, before I try the installation I wanted to clarify a couple of points
1) if I use the new petitboot AND pass the extra parameters, is there a chance to get the graphical installer? 2) the options video=720p ps3fb=4M are going to be good even after the installation?
On 11/21/2009 08:34 AM, Andrea wrote:
On 21/11/09 00:33, Geoff Levand wrote:
Hi,
Fedora 12 was released this week. Unfortunately, due to an increase in memory usage of anaconda the Fedora installer program some special procedures are needed to install it on the PS3.
I made a new howto note 'PS3 Fedora install HOW-TO' that describes how to install Fedora on your PS3. It make take some time to reach the mirrors though:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/ps3-howto/ps3-fedor...
Please report any additional steps needed or problems faced when installing to your system.
Hi, before I try the installation I wanted to clarify a couple of points
- if I use the new petitboot AND pass the extra parameters, is there a chance to get the graphical
installer?
No, I don't think so, it never worked for me.
It may be possible to get anaconda to run in graphical mode on the retail PS3 if you use a custom kernel and/or a custom initrd. I will try these as time permits. This week is a short one due the the Thanksgiving Holidays in the USA.
- the options video=720p ps3fb=4M are going to be good even after the installation?
You can use them, but I found they are not necessary to boot or use the kernel Fedora currently installs.
-Geoff
Hi,
On 11/23/2009 03:42 PM, Levand, Geoffrey wrote:
On 11/21/2009 08:34 AM, Andrea wrote:
On 21/11/09 00:33, Geoff Levand wrote:
Fedora 12 was released this week. Unfortunately, due to an increase in memory usage of anaconda the Fedora installer program some special procedures are needed to install it on the PS3.
- if I use the new petitboot AND pass the extra parameters, is there a chance to get the graphical
installer?
No, I don't think so, it never worked for me.
It may be possible to get anaconda to run in graphical mode on the retail PS3 if you use a custom kernel and/or a custom initrd. I will try these as time permits.
I did a little work on why anaconda can't run in graphical mode. Here is the actual mem check in the anaconda source:
http://git.fedoraproject.org/git/?p=anaconda.git;a=blob;f=anaconda;h=c8c90e1...
Which I cut and paste here:
---- #define MIN_GUI_RAM 393216
# override display mode if machine cannot nicely run X if not flags.test and not flags.usevnc: if opts.display_mode not in ('t', 'c') and iutil.memInstalled() < isys.MIN_GUI_RAM: stdoutLog.warning(_("You do not have enough RAM to use the graphical " "installer. Starting text mode.")) opts.display_mode = 't' ----
The retail PS3 has less than 256 MiB available to Linux, and anaconda wants 384 MiB to run in graphical mode.
As seen in the code, you can avoid the MIN_GUI_RAM check by running anaconda in VNC mode (pass the 'vnc' option on the kernel command line). I tried this using all the default install selections and anaconda did finish and I had a bootable system, but the anaconda developers said it was unsafe since VNC mode uses as much memory as graphical mode. For this reason I do not recommend using VNC mode to the average user. Different option selections will most likely have different memory needs so install my fail, but anaconda does have swap enabled for later parts of its operation.
Also, I found an easier workaround for the NetworkManager eth0 config bug (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=523872), which is hit early in VNC mode where no TTY available yet. When the net config error dialog is shown, close the error dialog and go back to the network device selection dialog, select the wlan0 interface and run the configuration again. Due to the bug, this will actually configure the Ethernet (eth0) interface.
If anyone trys the VNC install, please report your results.
-Geoff
On 21/11/09 00:33, Geoff Levand wrote:
Hi,
Fedora 12 was released this week. Unfortunately, due to an increase in memory usage of anaconda the Fedora installer program some special procedures are needed to install it on the PS3.
I made a new howto note 'PS3 Fedora install HOW-TO' that describes how to install Fedora on your PS3. It make take some time to reach the mirrors though:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/ps3-howto/ps3-fedor...
Please report any additional steps needed or problems faced when installing to your system.
I've just installed and everything went as you described.
Only problem is with partitioning the hard disk. I used to have 2 logical volumes for / and /home, and the installation has overwritten everything with a single volume for /
It is not too bad since I did have nothing to save, but in the future when I reinstall I'd like to save /home.
During the installation at some point (around the disk partitioning) I had a choice similar to
- use all disk - replace linux system - use free space
I chose the 2nd. Was it a bad choice?
Is there a chance to recreate the partitions and reinstall?
thanks
On 12/02/2009 09:22 AM, Andrea wrote:
On 21/11/09 00:33, Geoff Levand wrote:
Hi,
Fedora 12 was released this week. Unfortunately, due to an increase in memory usage of anaconda the Fedora installer program some special procedures are needed to install it on the PS3.
I made a new howto note 'PS3 Fedora install HOW-TO' that describes how to install Fedora on your PS3. It make take some time to reach the mirrors though:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/ps3-howto/ps3-fedor...
Please report any additional steps needed or problems faced when installing to your system.
I've just installed and everything went as you described.
Only problem is with partitioning the hard disk. I used to have 2 logical volumes for / and /home, and the installation has overwritten everything with a single volume for /
It is not too bad since I did have nothing to save, but in the future when I reinstall I'd like to save /home.
During the installation at some point (around the disk partitioning) I had a choice similar to
- use all disk
- replace linux system
- use free space
I chose the 2nd. Was it a bad choice?
Is there a chance to recreate the partitions and reinstall?
These things you mention are all anaconda specific, and you may be able to get better answers on one of the general Fedora mailing lists.
As for anaconda's text install, it doesn't allow for custom partition layout. It uses a fixed layout. I believe 'replace linux system' will put that layout in an existing install, but not touch other installed systems.
You could try VNC install which allows custom partition layouts, or you could create new partitions and copy the installed files to them.
-Geoff
On 02/12/09 18:35, Geoff Levand wrote:
These things you mention are all anaconda specific, and you may be able to get better answers on one of the general Fedora mailing lists.
I've written there.
As for anaconda's text install, it doesn't allow for custom partition layout. It uses a fixed layout. I believe 'replace linux system' will put that layout in an existing install, but not touch other installed systems.
I've rerun the installation and tried all possible options (I think), but none of them took me to a screen like
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f12/en-US/html/s1-guimode-textin...
You could try VNC install which allows custom partition layouts, or you could create new partitions and copy the installed files to them.
I thought I read VNC is not recommended. I might try, thanks.
Andrea
PS: just a couple of remarks on your notes about the network on the Post-Install
1) wlan0 has ONBOOT=yes, which might confuse things. I removed it.
2) the netowrk service does not start by default, so ONBOOT=yes on eth0 is not enough after a reboot. I had to install system-config-services to enable the network service (but there must be a text only methond)
On 12/02/2009 11:24 AM, Andrea wrote:
On 02/12/09 18:35, Geoff Levand wrote:
As for anaconda's text install, it doesn't allow for custom partition layout. It uses a fixed layout. I believe 'replace linux system' will put that layout in an existing install, but not touch other installed systems.
I've rerun the installation and tried all possible options (I think), but none of them took me to a screen like
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f12/en-US/html/s1-guimode-textin...
As I said, the text mode PS3 runs does not support custom partition layout, so you won't see this screen.
PS: just a couple of remarks on your notes about the network on the Post-Install
wlan0 has ONBOOT=yes, which might confuse things. I removed it.
the netowrk service does not start by default, so ONBOOT=yes on eth0 is not enough after a reboot.
I had to install system-config-services to enable the network service (but there must be a text only methond)
The gnome NetworkManager client should start the network when X starts.
Services can be configured from the command line with chkconfig.
-Geoff
On 11/20/2009 04:33 PM, Levand, Geoffrey wrote:
Fedora 12 was released this week. Unfortunately, due to an increase in memory usage of anaconda the Fedora installer program some special procedures are needed to install it on the PS3.
I made a new howto note 'PS3 Fedora install HOW-TO' that describes how to install Fedora on your PS3:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/ps3-howto/ps3-fedor...
Please report any additional steps needed or problems faced when installing to your system.
A number of users have reported that VNC install has worked for them without trouble, and no users have reported any install failure with VNC, so I now recommend that users try VNC install first, as it allows for customization of the install and will by default install a full GNOME system.
When booting the installer, add these kernel options:
vnc video=720p ps3fb=4M
I updated the 'PS3 Fedora install HOW-TO' with this info:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/geoff/cell/ps3-howto/ps3-fedor...
-Geoff