Playstation 2 Linux

Yep, I'm sad enough to have gotten the Linux kit for the Playstation 2. And now Linux runs on nearly every major electronic device I've got

The kit comes with a 40GB Maxtor drive, PS2 branded USB ball mouse, PS2 branded USB keyboard and a PS2 network adapter which bolts onto the back.

It actually works quite nicely. Only downsides are that you can't read normal CD/DVDs without a modchip and it's only got 32MB of RAM. It comes with Linux 2.2.1 by default but there is a user run project which has the latest 2.2.x kernel.

- Trevor

I'm sure I'm not the only one who had problems parseing "PS2 branded USB ball mouse/keyboard". But then, people have been making IBM/PS2 jokes since Sony came up with the recycled name so it shouldn't have seemed so foreign...

Other than that, it sounds like fun to have it running linux. Does it come with a full compiler to let you complie any applications you might want? How about utilizing the specialized PS2 graphics hardware? I'm imagining a day when all game development is done for linux because it run on both major consoles. I suspect that's a dream I won't see fullfilled, but it's a nice thought.

Matthew

Well... Isn't it supposed to be PS/2 for the IBM machines?
It's basically black a Sony USB keyboard/mouse with the Playstation 2 logo stamped onto them.

It comes with the GNU compiler targeted for the EE CPU so you can pretty much write what you want. It comes with full documentation on most of the hardware as well. The only documentation that Sony admit not to supplying is for IO processor which handles the peripherals like the CD/DVD drive. Apparently all of the other manuals are what you would get if you bought a proper development kit. It's quite a few hundred pages and it all comes on the DVD as PDF files.

The restriction is that whatever you write is only runnable on another Linux kit. You can't burn it into a CD or anything like that.

- Trevor

According to (Ahem shouldn't say, a friend who works at Sony UK) there are 64 and 128 versions available too.

The official development kit has 128mb. It's actually a pentium running redhat with a playstation 2 bolted on. I guess the consoles they send to magazine reviewers for beta games has 64mb? - trevor