Release: PS2 Linux Live DVD Version 2

[Mega Man]

Hello,

today I released the new version of the PS2 Linux Live DVD. The DVD size is around ~3,4 GByte and include the debian source packages. Without the debian packages it is around 1.3 GByte.

Download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/kern...ux%20DVD%20v2/

I added the instructions from the DVD. Sorry for the long post, but you may want to read the information before burning the DVD.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuK8CO5QzV4"]YouTube - PS2 Linux Live DVD v2[/ame]

This is a Linux Live system for the Sony Playstation 2. You need to start kloader.elf from the DVD to run Linux. If you used kernelloader before, you need to delete the file: mc0:/kloader/config.txt or plug out the memory card.
This is the second version of the Linux Live DVD which where created for the Playstation 2. There is no modchip required. If you want to use it with a modchip, you need to convert this DVD video disc to a normal DVD. Just
extract the files from the DVD and burn it with the same file structure but without AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS. The directory "blackrhino" contains long file names which are only readable on Linux or MacOS. Joilet is not supported for standard DVDs. You need to create a disc using rockridge extensions. The directory "blackrhino" is only used to install more packages or to compile from source code.

This distribution works with PAL, NTSC, DTV and VGA. DTV or SVGA is not auto-detected and need to be configured. First you need to stop the auto boot by pressing a button and holding it down (e.g. UP button). The video mode in kernelloader can be changed with the L2 and R2 buttons on the first PS2 pad (or - and + on the USB keyboard with US layout). PAL, NTSC, VGA and DTV is included in the selection. After mode change you should restore default configuration in the load menu to get the correct kernel command line auto configured.

The Linux distribution is based on the Linux distribution from Deba5er which was based on Blackrhino. Thanks to Deba5er for this work.



The highlights of this distributions are:
1. Web browser: dillo (the colors are changed to be more
readable on TVs)
2. Internet radio: xmms (for audio support you need
additonal modules)
3. Video player: mplayer (which can play youtube videos)
4. NTSC, DTV and VGA support.
5. File system is writeable because of unionfs
6. Changes can be stored on partition (see writedev parameter).
7. C64 emulator
8. Pigin chat client
9. Transmission bittorrent client
10. Power button will shutdown the system (this takes some time, slim PSTwo will shutdown without saving state).

The following hardware is needed:
1. Fat PS2 or a slim PSTwo.
- A network adapter for the fat PS2 is recommended.
- If you use a slim PSTwo v12 or v13, the DVD-R may not be
readable. European, American and Japanese versions will
work. It will fail in other regions (e.g. Australia).
2. The DVD which includes this file.
3. One of the human interface devices:
- USB keyboard supported by Linux 2.4.17.
- USB mouse supported by Linux 2.4.17
- PS2 game pad (slot 1)

You can control the mouse cursor in X-Server with:
1. USB mouse and the 3 mouse buttons
2. PS2 game pad (slot 1):
- anlog sticks. You need to enable the
analog sticks by pressing the ANALOG button.
- direction keys.
- CROSS is left mouse button
- SQUARE is right mouse button
- TRIANGLE is middle mouse button

Keyboard emulation:
If you don't have a USB keyboard, you can use the virtual keyboard. To get the virtual keyboard you need to click with the right mouse button on the background and with the left mouse button on the menu entry "Virtual Keyboard".
You can click with the left mouse buttons on the keys. The keys will be emulated in the active window. This is not working with the C64 emulator (called vice).


The PS2 game pads are also configured as joysticks. You can use it to control games. The C64 emulator supports joysticks.
Don't forget that you are also controlling the mouse with the first PS2 game pad. Playing a game with it, may have strange side effects.

WARNING: Writing on USB memory devices using a slim PSTwo may destroy your data. The error happens on heavy USB bulk transfers. The fat PS2 and the first slim PSTwo (v12) don't have this problem.

WARNING: The PS2 has not enough memory to run the GUI stable. You need to enable a swap disc. Use the command fdisk to create or delete partitions. You can use the command mkswap to format the swap partition. See parameter swapdevice below how to activate it. The command swapon can activate the swap partition when Linux is already started.

Notes:
1. The root file system is mounted read/write by unionfs. Changes will be written to the RAM disk. The size of the RAM disk is limited to ~2.2 MByte. The data will be lost after reset or power off.
2. The layered file system unionfs is used to make the file system writeable.
3. The network in Linux is configured to use DHCP. Sometimes it is not working. You need to press CTRL + C to stop it. If you need network, you need to reboot and retry.
4. To get sound working you need to copy old versions of LIBSD.IRX and SDRDRV.IRX to mc0:kloader. The version number of SDRDRV.IRX should be 2.0 or smaller. You need to enable these modules in the kernelloader. For this you need to interrupt the auto boot and save the configuration after you enable the modules.
5. You can use GooTube to download youtube videos: http://kej.tw/flvretriever/
6. The pink screen on DTV is fixed since new kernelloader 2.2.
7. If you use a modchip, you want to rebuild the disc in DVD-ROM format instead of DVD video format.
8. The PS2 has only 32 MByte of memory and some parts are used for the initial RAM disk. It is recommended to activate a swap partition (see kernel parameter "swapdevice").
9. The module poweroff.irx need to be loaded to get the power button working. The linux kernel on the disc is patched to support it.


Important kernel parameters:
The kernel parameters can be changed in the kernelloaders configuration menu. You need to stop the auto boot and save the configuration (memory card is needed).

Video mode PAL (auto detected):

videomode=pal
xmode=PAL

Video mode NTSC (auto detected):

crtmode=ntsc
xmode=NTSC

Video modes HDTV:

crtmode=dtv2
xmode=dtv,480p

crtmode=dtv2
xmode=dtv,720p

crtmode=dtv2
xmode=dtv,1080i

Example VGA mode:

crtmode=vesa0,60
xmode=VESA,1024x768x24

To use VGA you need:
- The PS2 or the PS3 component cable
- Adapter for cinch male to VGA
- 3 x gender changer for cinch
Cinch is sometimes also called RCA connector.

You need to connect it as follows:
- red cinch to red cinch
- green cinch to green cinch
- blue cinch to blue cinch
The monitor need to support sync on green.

Note: xmode is used for the X-Server (the graphical part
where you can use a mouse).

Loading from CDROM (default):

cdrom=/dev/cdrom

Loading from USB (if you copied DISC.BIN to an USB memory stick):

cdrom=/dev/sda1

Loading of DISC.BIN (default):

newroot=/cdrom/DISC.BIN

Note: The string "cdrom" must be also used if you use an USB
memory stick with cdrom=/dev/sda1 or similar.

You can activate a swap partition from a USB memory stick. So the
Linux kernel can use more memory:

swapdevice=/dev/sda2

Note: You need first to create it using the Linux commands "fdisk"
and "mkswap".

Faster startup: 3 seconds:

autostart=3

writedev=/dev/sda2

This will use the second parition on the USB memory stick for writing data. Normally the live DVD will use a RAM disc. After reboot the data stored in the RAM disc is lost. When using the parameter writedev the data will be still available after reboot. The RAM disc is not used but still requires memory.
NOTE: You can also create a swap disc on such a writeable device
(/oldroot/writedev).

writetype=ext2

This sets the file system type for writedev.

mcdevice=/mnt/mc00

Select memory card slot 1 to use with parameter mcfile.

mcfile=/mnt/mc00/kloader/init.sh

Start bash script before init. This can be used to configure the system. / is mounted as unionfs and is writeable. /proc is mounted while the script is running.

If you enter a path to a non existing file or an error is detected, the bash is started where you can check your problem. To continue boot enter exit + RETURN or press CTRL + D.

Passwords:
The adent user has no password (auto login).
The root user has no password (login with command "su" in shell).
The guest user has the password guest.
You can login as root from a command window (e.g. xterm) with the command:

su

X-Server:
The X-Server is the graphical interface included on the Linux live DVD. You can stop the X-Server with the key combination CTRL + ALT + backspace (not the DEL key). You will get to the command line (text mode).
The start script for the X-Server is /usr/local/bin/win3. You need to change this file as root user to set the screen postion and size. Then you can logout by pressing CTRl + D twice. This will restart the X-Server.
The configuration is stored in /etc/XGSConfig.
You can adjust the screen in graphic mode in the file /usr/local/bin/setx_margins. You need to change the following lines:

TV_MARGIN_DX=0
TV_MARGIN_DY=0
TV_MARGIN_DW=0
TV_MARGIN_DH=0

This will set the screen offset and screen size. Higher values for TV_MARGIN_DW and TV_MARGIN_DH decreases the screen size. The configuration becomes active at the next X-Server start.
The PS2 game pad is configured as mouse in the file /etc/XGSConfig.

SSH-Server:
The live DVD will start a SSH server. You can connect to the SSH server from an other Linux system with the command:

ssh guest@ip_address

You need to replace "ip_address" by the ip address of the PS2 live Linux. The password of user guest is "guest". You can't connect with other users. The command /sbin/ifconfig can tell you the ip address in a command window
(e.g. xterm).
To get more free memory you may want to stop the server as root user with the shell command:

/etc/init.d/ssh stop

WARNING: The passwords and the keys of the server are publicly available. So the PS2 can be easily hacked. Don't use it in security dependent network systems.

Kernelloader
The network cable need to be connected before starting kernelloader. The network link must be available at this time. Also the connected network peer need to be powered on. In the configuration menu you can reload the modules. This way you can enable network if you forget to connect the cable at startup.
Sometimes USB memory sticks are not working in Kernelloader. The same sticks may work when Linux is started. Maybe you need just to eject and insert it again when using kernelloader.

Text Mode
You can adjust the screen in text mode with the shell command:

setcrtmode dx <x_offset> dy <y_offset>

You need to replace <x_offset> by the start offset of the left edge. You need to replace <y_offset> by the start offset of the upper edge. This is only working if you use a TV set (not VGA cable).
The graphical X-Server is not and cannot be configured with this command.

Time Zone
The timezone can be configured as root user with the command:

tzconfig

Keyboard Layout
The default keyboard layout is english. The keyboard layout can be changed with loadkeys. The following command switches to the german layout. This need to be done before starting the X-Server.

loadkeys /usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwertz/de-latin1-nodeadkeys.kmap.gz

C64 Emulator
The live system contains the program "vice" which is a C64 emulator. The emulator is running slow. Games like Giana Sisters are playable, but even in this game you can notice performance problems. Only the USB keyboard is working (not the virtual keyboard). The keyboard layout is different. The keys are sometimes at a different position. You may need to press keys multiple times until it works (e.g. the combination SHIFT + 2 to get quotation marks). You need to download C64 software from the internet. The files have normally an extension .d64. Then you need to select the D64 file for the device #8. You need to press the mouse button and hold it, then select the menu entry and leave the button. There are two different menus depending on the left or right mouse button.
Most games can be loaded with the commands:

LOAD "*",8,1
RUN

This is entered at the blue screen. The LOAD command may take some minutes. For a C64 these times were normal. The default configuration is: The first PS2 game pad is the second C64 joystick. Most games are controlled with the second C64 joystick. The left analog stick is working better than the direction keys (at least for the UP button in Giana Sisters).


Tetris
Tetris is a very famous game. The included game gtktetris is very simple and is controlled with the first PS2 game pad:
- direction buttons left, right, down: Move object in this direction
- direction button up: turn object
- CROSS button: object falls down
- SQUARE button: show highscore
- TRIANGLE button: quit

At startup the window is "very" black. You need to press the DOWN button to get the first object.
WARNING: You also control the mouse with the first PS2 game pad!

DOS Box
DOS Box is a PC DOS emulator. The software needs very much memory and can't be started without an enabled swap file or partition. The program takes some time to start.

Transmission
Transmission is a bittorrent client. You need a swap file or partition to use it. The program takes some time to start and is very slow.

Pidgin
Pidgin is a chat client. You need a swap file or partition to use it. The program takes some time to start and is very slow.

[JuanVCS]

Thank you! Nice software selection.

[deba5er]

@Mega Man

I'm grinning from ear to ear right now. Pretty amazing stuff.
I'm writing this with the dillo browser from the livedvd version 2. Still have to get the swap
setup to resolve some typing lag but it is amazing how quick and easy it was
to get this running. So much easier than my installation scripts.

I especially like the init.sh on the memory card since I set mine up to use static
network instead of dhcp and needed to reconfigure for it. Very nice to include
it as a kernel parameter. Huge download, but for ease of installation to get
someone running an internet browser (among other things) on the PS2 in a hurry
this is the only way to go. It should definitely generate some buzz. Great job!

[TnA]

@MegaMan: What do you think about a News-Post on the front-page?

@deba5er: I guess, this PS2Linux-LiveDVD and your scripts to install it, would make it perfect, so a choice on the DVD to start the distro simply, or to install it to a device.

Another thing which would be cool,... If it could have "deviants", so Live-USB-Package or similar also including the choice I've meantioned.

[Mega Man]

@deba5er:
The init.sh was planned for slim PSTwo users which can't use USB because of stability reasons.
Also the init.sh could be used to add an installer which copies the files from the mounted DISC.BIN to an USB memory stick. I don't know if you want to do that. The init.sh can be downloaded with a started Live DVD and copied to /mnt/mc00.

@TnA:
I think only a moderator or an administrator can post on the front page, so this is not my decision.

You can already create a Live USB stick by using kernel parameter: "cdrom=/dev/sda1".
There will be no easy description for this. A blank Windows supports burning of ISO images, but not creating of an ext2 formated USB stick. I can assume that nearby everybody is able to burn a DVD, but I can't assume that everybody is able to change the partitions on an USB stick and understand what is done. In the past every Linux Distributions failed at this point. If we try to reinvent the wheel, it will automatically fail. This is why I tried to avoid to write installers. We can't use existing installers, because the installers expects packages. Some stuff was created without using the package build process.

It is easier to describe installation procedures when you know that the user can use the Live DVD.
I included the 21Mbyte blackrhino base image on the DVD which can be used to install a simple base (/oldroot/cdrom/SRC/BASE-1.0.TGZ). Most remaining packages can be installed from the DVD.

[mazxim]

Thank you (Mega) man..! I'm glad you are focus on this live-dvd approach..
It is a very usefull and appreciated piece of work.
Could you also provide the stripped down, 1.3GB dvd image? It would be very nice to burn this release into a mini-dvd.

(Many thanks to Deba3er too!)

[Mega Man]

It took me over 10 hours to upload the ISO, but I can download it in less than a hour. I don't want the source packages of BlackRhino to get lost again. I will not upload a second version, but you also can strip it. Just remove the folders "blackrhino" and "SRC" in the root of the DVD. Then you can create the ISO with the command:

mkisofs -r -g -dvd-video -V PS2_Linux_Live_DVD_v2 -o ps2linux_live_v2_stripped.iso [DVD root folder]

You need to replace [DVD root folder] by the folder where KLOADER.ELF is. I believe there is also a cygwin or mingw version of mkisofs to use with Windows. Long file names are not needed by the stripped version of the DVD.

[mazxim]

Uh, I have tried to run it from usb using a swap partition (128MB) but dosbox doesn't run properly, it freeze before return the prompt. It seems like the pendrive (in my case a CF + a CF2IDE and a USB2IDE adapter, but I already tried other usb pendrive, no success) get in stuck writing something endlessly..
I see the problem also using just the dvd. Is this expected on the PS2 slim (SCPH 77004)? Is there some workaround?
I beg your pardon, but last time I get into this 'thing' was 1 year ago..

[Mega Man]

USB is not running stable on the SCPH-77004. DOSbox needs a swap disk, but you can't use a USB stick for this. This works for other stuff, but not with DOSbox. Only a swap file on a memory card may help, but I doubt that this will work. There are some issues with the memory card. Large files can't be overwritten with smaller ones. The larger files need first to be deleted. 32 MByte swap file is enough to start DOSbox, maybe lesser. You can buy memory cards with 64 MByte, but I think only 8 MByte files are possible.
In the past I was thinking about using VRAM (2MByte) as swap space, but there is no driver for this.

[dlsmd]

hay mega man have you tried this from opl???