PS3 install comments

[Thomas Nielsen]

PS3 install comments
First a few positive comments, and then a Q

The advanced partitioner seems happy now - THANKS :-)
The cracklib is now searched local during install - THANKS :-)
(need to close the bugs)
Weird observation
When installing, I switched to detailed view, and at about 175 remaining packages, install froze hard, and had to pull
the switch.
Started over, and install finished, but in the boot screen, it says

failed to boot
(or something very similar (very sorry to not have exact msg))
Q: What went wrong, and what can I do to troubleshoot - I tried to remove quiet from the boot line, but no diff.

On top another funny observation - the game OS can now read the linux partition :-)

Please help on how narrow down on my boot pb.

Thomas


Technical Support Engineer
[phone]
[phone]
Novell France

"You are always going to face the choice between a hard right and an easy wrong, choose wisely".

"Ce message et ses pièces jointes n'ont aucune valeur contractuelle ou juridique ; en particulier, aucune transaction
ne peut être basée exclusivement sur des emails. "

[Stefan Assmann]

Post by Thomas Nielsen
PS3 install comments

What version did you install?

Post by Thomas Nielsen
First a few positive comments, and then a Q
The advanced partitioner seems happy now - THANKS :-)
The cracklib is now searched local during install - THANKS :-)
(need to close the bugs)
Weird observation
When installing, I switched to detailed view, and at about 175 remaining packages, install froze hard, and had to pull
the switch.

Really hard to tell what went wrong there :) Most problems I observed
where related to the system running out of memory. That sometimes happens
before swap gets activated.

Post by Thomas Nielsen
Started over, and install finished, but in the boot screen, it says
failed to boot
(or something very similar (very sorry to not have exact msg))
Q: What went wrong, and what can I do to troubleshoot - I tried to remove quiet from the boot line, but no diff.

Please be more precise at what point this occurs. Did the installation
finish? Did you install the otheros.bld from the install media?

Post by Thomas Nielsen
On top another funny observation - the game OS can now read the linux partition :-)

Nice :)

Post by Thomas Nielsen
Please help on how narrow down on my boot pb.
Thomas
Technical Support Engineer
[phone]
[phone]
Novell France
"You are always going to face the choice between a hard right and an easy wrong, choose wisely".
"Ce message et ses pièces jointes n'ont aucune valeur contractuelle ou juridique ; en particulier, aucune transaction
ne peut être basée exclusivement sur des emails. "

Stefan

[Larry Stotler]

Post by Stefan Assmann
Really hard to tell what went wrong there :) Most problems I observed
where related to the system running out of memory. That sometimes happens
before swap gets activated.

If you are doing an install and have a previous linux swap partition,
can't you activate that during the boot? Not sure how the PS3 boots
because I don't own one yet....

Also, I have several systems with only 256MB. Does the PS3 allow all
of the 256MB or does it steal some of it and only allow so much? It
would be really nice if the 256MB of graphics ram was available. The
low ram is probably the biggest drawback for me(since I don't play
games....).

[Stefan Assmann]

Post by Larry Stotler

Post by Stefan Assmann
Really hard to tell what went wrong there :) Most problems I observed
where related to the system running out of memory. That sometimes happens
before swap gets activated.

If you are doing an install and have a previous linux swap partition,
can't you activate that during the boot? Not sure how the PS3 boots
because I don't own one yet....

Not necessary anymore as we have the ps3vram driver now :)

Post by Larry Stotler
Also, I have several systems with only 256MB. Does the PS3 allow all
of the 256MB or does it steal some of it and only allow so much? It
would be really nice if the 256MB of graphics ram was available. The
low ram is probably the biggest drawback for me(since I don't play
games....).

Normally you get around 210MB of RAM, that's what the hypervisor exposes.
Additionally now you get around 240MB of VRAM which will be used as
swap during installation. You shouldn't run out of memory anymore while
installing.

Stefan

[Thomas Nielsen]

Hi
Yesterday I was able to occupy the TV for a few moments to try again, and here what i observed.
1st i should note, that It always annoyed me with opensuse 11.1-ppc beta 5.1 that i could not change the resolution. Since I am a big KDE fan, I lower the resolution to save memory, and doing this (720p on the boot splash) sent me to a black terminal.
A while ago I tossed the openSUSE 11 ppc, but I found OpenSUSE 11.1 beta 2. Then took the otheros.bld from that one, powered down and up, and suddenly I noticed the graphic is moving on the splash screen, and i could set the resolution - even when installing beta 5 :-)
So i started on the otheros.bld from 11.1beta2 to install 11.1 beta5.
But then it was VERY SLOW, and never finished. 1st try dies in the partitioner (freeze). Second try sent me to a terminal, where the questions followed on cli, but I gave up when it asked for the installation server (it did not see the DVD anymore??)
Still not there yet.
As to the different brands of DVDs - indeed my beta 2 is burnt on another brand of dvd media.
Since they are at home I cannot be sure about the beta 2 (but i think it is verbatim) but beta 5 is on a imation DVD.

Thomas

Post by Larry Stotler

Post by Stefan Assmann
Really hard to tell what went wrong there :) Most problems I observed
where related to the system running out of memory. That sometimes happens
before swap gets activated.

If you are doing an install and have a previous linux swap partition,
can't you activate that during the boot? Not sure how the PS3 boots
because I don't own one yet....

Not necessary anymore as we have the ps3vram driver now :)

Post by Larry Stotler
Also, I have several systems with only 256MB. Does the PS3 allow all
of the 256MB or does it steal some of it and only allow so much? It
would be really nice if the 256MB of graphics ram was available. The
low ram is probably the biggest drawback for me(since I don't play
games....).

Normally you get around 210MB of RAM, that's what the hypervisor exposes.
Additionally now you get around 240MB of VRAM which will be used as
swap during installation. You shouldn't run out of memory anymore while
installing.

Stefan

[Stefan Assmann]

Hi Thomas,

Post by Thomas Nielsen
Hi
Yesterday I was able to occupy the TV for a few moments to try again, and here what i observed.
1st i should note, that It always annoyed me with opensuse 11.1-ppc beta 5.1 that i could not change the resolution. Since I am a big KDE fan, I lower the resolution to save memory, and doing this (720p on the boot splash) sent me to a black terminal.

You're right about that, thanks for letting me know. It's not a big
issue you can just rerun petitboot-gui and it should be fine.

Post by Thomas Nielsen
A while ago I tossed the openSUSE 11 ppc, but I found OpenSUSE 11.1 beta 2. Then took the otheros.bld from that one, powered down and up, and suddenly I noticed the graphic is moving on the splash screen, and i could set the resolution - even when installing beta 5 :-)
So i started on the otheros.bld from 11.1beta2 to install 11.1 beta5.

We moved to the latest upstream version of petitboot which has a lot of
the code rewritten.

Post by Thomas Nielsen
But then it was VERY SLOW, and never finished. 1st try dies in the partitioner (freeze). Second try sent me to a terminal, where the questions followed on cli, but I gave up when it asked for the installation server (it did not see the DVD anymore??)
Still not there yet.

Sounds like bad media to me.

Post by Thomas Nielsen
As to the different brands of DVDs - indeed my beta 2 is burnt on another brand of dvd media.
Since they are at home I cannot be sure about the beta 2 (but i think it is verbatim) but beta 5 is on a imation DVD.

I've been using Verbatim and these worked fine for me.
Thanks for all your feedback, it's appreciated!

Stefan

[Thomas Nielsen]

Hi Larry
I think we have the same feature - as per Stefan in his reply to me earlier:
(and indeed the 11.1 install runs A LOT faster than any of the other ones)
".....

Post by Thomas Nielsen
<<<agree I think It is memory - I see Yellowdog found a way to use the video memory in PS3 not as ram memory, but as
swap
"and the introduction of ps3vram functionality which enables use of PS3 video RAM for temporary storage or swap"
http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=05193
When I started over, I did not enable the detailed view to see the progress on installed packages, and it
finished>>>>>>

Yeah, we have that too! :D

...."

Post by Thomas Nielsen
Really hard to tell what went wrong there :) Most problems I observed
where related to the system running out of memory. That sometimes happens
before swap gets activated.

If you are doing an install and have a previous linux swap partition,
can't you activate that during the boot? Not sure how the PS3 boots
because I don't own one yet....

Also, I have several systems with only 256MB. Does the PS3 allow all
of the 256MB or does it steal some of it and only allow so much? It
would be really nice if the 256MB of graphics ram was available. The
low ram is probably the biggest drawback for me(since I don't play
games....).

[Thomas Nielsen]

How can I be so stupid to omit the version :-/
tsk tsk
openSUSE 11.1 beta5.1

Thomas

Post by Thomas Nielsen
PS3 install comments

What version did you install?

Post by Thomas Nielsen
First a few positive comments, and then a Q
The advanced partitioner seems happy now - THANKS :-)
The cracklib is now searched local during install - THANKS :-)
(need to close the bugs)
Weird observation
When installing, I switched to detailed view, and at about 175 remaining packages, install froze hard, and had to

pull

Post by Thomas Nielsen
the switch.

Really hard to tell what went wrong there :) Most problems I observed
where related to the system running out of memory. That sometimes happens
before swap gets activated.

Post by Thomas Nielsen
Started over, and install finished, but in the boot screen, it says
failed to boot
(or something very similar (very sorry to not have exact msg))
Q: What went wrong, and what can I do to troubleshoot - I tried to remove quiet from the boot line, but no diff.

Please be more precise at what point this occurs. Did the installation
finish? Did you install the otheros.bld from the install media?

Post by Thomas Nielsen
On top another funny observation - the game OS can now read the linux partition :-)

Nice :)

Post by Thomas Nielsen
Please help on how narrow down on my boot pb.
Thomas
Technical Support Engineer
[phone]
[phone]
Novell France
"You are always going to face the choice between a hard right and an easy wrong, choose wisely".
"Ce message et ses pièces jointes n'ont aucune valeur contractuelle ou juridique ; en particulier, aucune

transaction

Post by Thomas Nielsen
ne peut être basée exclusivement sur des emails. "

Stefan

[Thomas Nielsen]

Hmm I should maybe read to the end:
More answers under each of your comments

Post by Thomas Nielsen
PS3 install comments

What version did you install?
<<<<OpenSUSE 11.1 Beta 5.1>>>>

Post by Thomas Nielsen
First a few positive comments, and then a Q
The advanced partitioner seems happy now - THANKS :-)
The cracklib is now searched local during install - THANKS :-)
(need to close the bugs)
Weird observation
When installing, I switched to detailed view, and at about 175 remaining packages, install froze hard, and had to

pull

Post by Thomas Nielsen
the switch.

Really hard to tell what went wrong there :) Most problems I observed
where related to the system running out of memory. That sometimes happens
before swap gets activated.

<<<agree I think It is memory - I see Yellowdog found a way to use the video memory in PS3 not as ram memory, but as
swap
"and the introduction of ps3vram functionality which enables use of PS3 video RAM for temporary storage or swap"
http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=05193
When I started over, I did not enable the detailed view to see the progress on installed packages, and it
finished>>>>>>

Post by Thomas Nielsen
Started over, and install finished, but in the boot screen, it says
failed to boot
(or something very similar (very sorry to not have exact msg))
Q: What went wrong, and what can I do to troubleshoot - I tried to remove quiet from the boot line, but no diff.

Please be more precise at what point this occurs. Did the installation
finish? Did you install the otheros.bld from the install media?

Post by Thomas Nielsen

From the playstation OS, I "installed other OS, and it was making a progress bar on installation, and I can only

assume it is when it is copying the otheros.bld from the media (the Opensuse 11.1B5.1 in this case) however the screen
texts are not very clear.
oh if it finished - I am almost certain - I it reached the congratulations screen, but was frozen there, and i
powercycled it :-) (froze as in mouse pointer does not move anymore ctrl+alt+F1 is ignored.

Think I will try again tonight.

Post by Thomas Nielsen
On top another funny observation - the game OS can now read the linux partition :-)

Nice :)

Post by Thomas Nielsen
Please help on how narrow down on my boot pb.
Thomas
Technical Support Engineer
[phone]
[phone]
Novell France
"You are always going to face the choice between a hard right and an easy wrong, choose wisely".
"Ce message et ses pièces jointes n'ont aucune valeur contractuelle ou juridique ; en particulier, aucune

transaction

Post by Thomas Nielsen
ne peut être basée exclusivement sur des emails. "

Stefan

[Stefan Assmann]

Post by Thomas Nielsen
More answers under each of your comments

Post by Thomas Nielsen
PS3 install comments

What version did you install?
<<<<OpenSUSE 11.1 Beta 5.1>>>>

Post by Thomas Nielsen
First a few positive comments, and then a Q
The advanced partitioner seems happy now - THANKS :-)
The cracklib is now searched local during install - THANKS :-)
(need to close the bugs)
Weird observation
When installing, I switched to detailed view, and at about 175 remaining packages, install froze hard, and had to

pull

Post by Thomas Nielsen
the switch.

Really hard to tell what went wrong there :) Most problems I observed
where related to the system running out of memory. That sometimes happens
before swap gets activated.
<<<agree I think It is memory - I see Yellowdog found a way to use the video memory in PS3 not as ram memory, but as
swap
"and the introduction of ps3vram functionality which enables use of PS3 video RAM for temporary storage or swap"
http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=05193
When I started over, I did not enable the detailed view to see the progress on installed packages, and it
finished>>>>>>

Yeah, we have that too! :D

Post by Thomas Nielsen

Post by Thomas Nielsen
Started over, and install finished, but in the boot screen, it says
failed to boot
(or something very similar (very sorry to not have exact msg))
Q: What went wrong, and what can I do to troubleshoot - I tried to remove quiet from the boot line, but no diff.

Please be more precise at what point this occurs. Did the installation
finish? Did you install the otheros.bld from the install media?

Post by Thomas Nielsen

From the playstation OS, I "installed other OS, and it was making a progress bar on installation, and I can only

assume it is when it is copying the otheros.bld from the media (the Opensuse 11.1B5.1 in this case) however the screen
texts are not very clear.
oh if it finished - I am almost certain - I it reached the congratulations screen, but was frozen there, and i
powercycled it :-) (froze as in mouse pointer does not move anymore ctrl+alt+F1 is ignored.
Think I will try again tonight.

So it didn't even install the otheros.bld from the media correctly, if I get you right.
That is strange, could be bad DVD media. PS3 is picky about certain brands of DVD-R.
Meanwhile as a workaround I'd suggest you install the otheros.bld from openSUSE 11.0
(from SonyOS) then switch to openSUSE 11.1 media and just boot it and install.

Post by Thomas Nielsen

Post by Thomas Nielsen
On top another funny observation - the game OS can now read the linux partition :-)

Nice :)

Post by Thomas Nielsen
Please help on how narrow down on my boot pb.
Thomas
Technical Support Engineer
[phone]
[phone]
Novell France
"You are always going to face the choice between a hard right and an easy wrong, choose wisely".
"Ce message et ses pièces jointes n'ont aucune valeur contractuelle ou juridique ; en particulier, aucune

transaction

Post by Thomas Nielsen
ne peut être basée exclusivement sur des emails. "

Stefan

Stefan