Live data from Hacker News

Fai0verflow: Linux on the PS4 [video]

youtube.com

61–70 of 90 posts

Re: Fai0verflow: Linux on the PS4 [video]

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something to keep in mind is that it's becoming a trend that companies sell the systems at a loss (Notably, I think the only company that doesn't is Nintendo). Especially for the beginning of it's life, this is only practical if it's a closed system - Because if it wasn't, then they're essentially just offering the hardware at a huge discount to people who have no intention of buying any games, and the games is where…

but I remember that being part of the reason why the 'Other OS' feature was removed from the PS3 - Places/People were buying them up and running Linux on them because they were such a good deal for the hardware. Wait, really? The PS3 was outclassed by generic PC hardware pretty quickly, and wasn't much faster than a netbook unless you were writing some seriously multithreaded or PS3 GPU-specific code. I never heard o…

> The PS3 was outclassed by generic PC hardware pretty quickly

I agree here. Running Yellow Dog Linux [0] on my PS3 was a fun weekend project, but it never came close to replacing my dedicated computer. I didn't even notice the update that removed it, which in hindsight could have been pretty bad had I used it more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Dog_Linux

Re: Fai0verflow: Linux on the PS4 [video]

#63
post #62

3D acceleration - WIP :) So will PS4 users who complain that they can't play Witcher 1 & 2, be able to play them on Linux there?-)

Witcher 1 is not available for Linux. And good luck running witcher 2 on the super low end APU from AMD with mediocre Amd drivers.

Re: Fai0verflow: Linux on the PS4 [video]

#64
post #63
post #62

3D acceleration - WIP :) So will PS4 users who complain that they can't play Witcher 1 & 2, be able to play them on Linux there?-)

Witcher 1 is not available for Linux. And good luck running witcher 2 on the super low end APU from AMD with mediocre Amd drivers.

> Witcher 1 is not available for Linux.

It is playable in Wine, so running Linux on PS4 can enable tons of games both native and Wine compatible (the demo even shows an emulated game which isn't native for Linux either). No idea how good 3D acceleration there will be of course.

Re: Fai0verflow: Linux on the PS4 [video]

#65
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but I remember that being part of the reason why the 'Other OS' feature was removed from the PS3 - Places/People were buying them up and running Linux on them because they were such a good deal for the hardware. Wait, really? The PS3 was outclassed by generic PC hardware pretty quickly, and wasn't much faster than a netbook unless you were writing some seriously multithreaded or PS3 GPU-specific code. I never heard o…

> The PS3 was outclassed by generic PC hardware pretty quickly I agree here. Running Yellow Dog Linux [0] on my PS3 was a fun weekend project, but it never came close to replacing my dedicated computer. I didn't even notice the update that removed it, which in hindsight could have been pretty bad had I used it more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Dog_Linux

People were not running Linux on PS3 for desktop/server usage. They were running it there for scientific computations. This was before GPGPU (cuda/opencl) became better price/performance choice.

Re: Fai0verflow: Linux on the PS4 [video]

#66
post #53
post #47

Wait wait wait, HDD support through USB? Are you serious? Any hardware manufacturers care to explain why this might be the case?

The HDD is the only user-serviceable part in the PS4, perhaps USB was chosen over PCIe SATA to make theoretical DMA attacks on the system more difficult?

SATA doesn't give you direct access to the DMA engine, the host decides where the data from the drive goes. If anything USB is probably more exploitable.

Re: Fai0verflow: Linux on the PS4 [video]

#67
post #45
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering that tweet it's totally possible: https://twitter.com/fail0verflow Xorg changes not really required because AMD GPUs work just fine on top of modesetting driver.

And what about MESA?

Mesa doesn't work directly with hardware, it's depend on DRM and kernel driver interfaces. If they manage to get kernel driver to work then Mesa will just work. It's very unlikely that any userspace changes needed.

Re: Fai0verflow: Linux on the PS4 [video]

#68
post #63
post #62

3D acceleration - WIP :) So will PS4 users who complain that they can't play Witcher 1 & 2, be able to play them on Linux there?-)

Witcher 1 is not available for Linux. And good luck running witcher 2 on the super low end APU from AMD with mediocre Amd drivers.

According to publicly available information PS4 APU is comparable to 7790 and this is how it's can perform on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf0qdt9HZCQ

Also since this test Gallium Nine only become better for running things in Wine.

Re: Fai0verflow: Linux on the PS4 [video]

#69
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The PS3 was outclassed by generic PC hardware pretty quickly I agree here. Running Yellow Dog Linux [0] on my PS3 was a fun weekend project, but it never came close to replacing my dedicated computer. I didn't even notice the update that removed it, which in hindsight could have been pretty bad had I used it more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Dog_Linux

People were not running Linux on PS3 for desktop/server usage. They were running it there for scientific computations. This was before GPGPU (cuda/opencl) became better price/performance choice.

Interesting. I found more about this on Wikipedia [0]. As a tech hobbyist with a PS3 in my teens, I was genuinely interested in a desktop replacement. I shared this interest with others in my cohort at the time.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3_cluster

Post reply on HN