Playstation 2 Linux Install
What is PS2Linux ?
PS2Linux is, of course, Linux for PS2. If you have ever used it on PC, you will know that it is a very powerful and versatile operating system. You will also know that it is Open Source, which means it can not be charged for, but Sony get around this by requiring PS2Linux to be booted from a special Run-Time Environment (RTE) that is on the first disc. The RTE clears the normal PS2 BIOS, and replaces it with it's own information, so you NEED the RTE to boot PS2Linux. There is no way around this at the current time.
To use PS2Linux, you only need a PS2. That's all. You can boot linux from memory card, get to a logon screen... but of course you can't type anything without a USB Keyboard. To get the most out of it, you need a Network Adaptor, hdd, USB Keyboard and Mouse, and the RTE. It is also a major advantage if you have a VGA adaptor for your PS2, but it is not necessary at all. Although PS2Linux comes on 2 discs, you only need the first one (which is the RTE) to boot the system. Do not ask me where to get it from though. It is copyright material and should be purchased legally. I'm sure you can work out how to obtain it if you really want it.
How to set up PS2Linux
Actually, that is not quite an accurate heading. I have not got PS2Linux, so can't help you set it up. From what I hear though, if you have the full PS2Linux kit, it is fairly straight-forward to install, and should come with documentation anyway. This is actually a guide for how to set up BlackRhino Linux, which is a freely downloadable version of Linux for PS2 that you can get from http://www.xrhino.com/
For the following instructions, you will need the official Network Adaptor, a hdd, a cross-over network cable or a straight through cable and a switch/hub, a PC with a network card, a USB keyboard, and a memory card with plenty of free space on it. You will also need various software that I have listed in the steps below. The steps don't need to be followed in order especially, as long as you end up with all of the software.
Note that I used a 16Mb expansion memory card that was empty when I started these steps. It made it slightly less tedious than it will be if you only have an 8Mb card. Ideally I would recommend a 32Mb card, but you can get away with an 8Mb one with no problems.
Also, if you don't know how to use Linux and DOS, then go learn, then come back and try.
- Get the BlackRhino base image from http://www.xrhino.com/.
- Get inLink and Pukklink from http://ps2dev.livemedia.com.au/ in the loaders section. I used inLink 1.3.2 then upgraded to 1.3.3, and Pukklink 1.0b.
- Get nPort from http://wire.napalm-x.com/ and nPort Index Generator from http://www.ps2savetools.com.
- Get one of the Kernels from http://achurch.org/ps2/. Even if you can't read Japanese, you can still work out where they are. I would recommend getting ps2linux-boot-ntsc.tar.gz unless you have a VGA adaptor for your PS2.
- Link your PS2 to your PC through cat5 cable, either using a crossover cable or 2 straight cables going through a hub or switch.
- Follow the instructions available to make a Pukklink disc. Make sure you check the IP Address settings, as if they are slightly wrong nothing will work.
- Install and run inLink on your PC.
- Unzip nPort into whatever directory you like, and the nPort Index Generator to the saves folder underneath nPort.
- Extract the kernel you downloaded from achurch.org into a folder called BWLINUX in the saves folder where you unzipped nPort.
- Using a file splitting program, split the BlackRhino base image into files small enough to fit on the memcard. Work out what size to make each part by taking away the size of the BWLINUX folder from the size of your memcard (usually 8Mb). I can't remember the size of it. Also make sure you use a file splitter that does NOT add anything extra to the file parts. I used WinHex. Note: Memcards have a limited filename length! Keep the filenames as short as you can! You can also replace .tar.gz with .tgz if you like.
- Put 1 of the part files from BlackRhino Base Image into the BWLINUX folder.
- Open a command prompt (click Start -> Run and type in cmd)
- Change to the nPort saves directory.
- Type: npo-x a BWLINUX < enter >
- Type: nport-index < enter >
- Boot Pukklink on your PS2.
- On your PC, inLink should now say that you are connected.
- Click Run and select the nPort.elf file from where-ever you unzipped it.
- On your PS2 you will now see nPort running. On the left, it will show your memory card. On the right, it will show the saves on your PC. On your PC side, you should only see PS2 Linux.
- Copy all of your saves from your memcard to your PC. This is so that you can free up as much space as possible for transferring Linux.
- Delete all saves from your PS2 memcard.
- Transfer the PS2Linux save from your PC to your PS2.
- Reboot your PS2 with the RTE disc. When it comes up, select Boot, and choose INITRD.
- Your PS2 will now boot into Linux! Well done! The username is root (of course), and there is no password so just press enter.
- As part of the ramdisk, they include ps2fdisk, so run that (just type ps2fdisk ). It will say that a Playstation Partition table is not found or something. Press o to set one up. Then press n to go through the process of creating a new ps2Linux partition, then press n again and create a linux swap partition. It doesn't really matter what size you make them, but the BlackRhino site suggests you make the Linux partition 4Gb, and I would suggest making the swap partition around 128Mb. It does not matter what you label the partitions, but it is a good idea to make it something descriptive, eg BlackRhino Linux and BlackRhino Swap. Also, to make the swap partition, I think you create a regular partition and change it to Swap by pressing t , entering the partition number (probably 2), and changing it to type 82. Once you have done all this, press p to show the partition table. Note what it calls the new Linux partitions you created. Usually they would be hda1 and hda2.
- Format the new partition with mke2fs. To do this, you need the reference for the partitions, eg hda1. Type mke2fs /dev/hda1 or whatever the main partition was called. It will go through some formatting information (reasonably quick), then you can mount it under whatever folder you choose using a command like mount /dev/hda1 [target folder] . I used /mnt/hd
- Mount your memory card (just type mount /mnt/mc00 ). Make sure you use zeroes and not the letter o!) and copy your part file to the root directory of your hdd (eg /mnt/hd).
- Now you repeat from step 12, putting the second part file on the memcard and so on, obviously skipping steps 25 and 26, until you have all of the part files on the memcard.
- Congratulations, you're now past the tedious stuff! Now you have to put the BlackRhino base image back together. All you need to do for that is cat the files together. eg, cat BlackRhino-Part1.tar.gz >> BlackRhino-BaseImage.tar.gz , then cat BlackRhino-Part2.tar.gz >> BlackRhino-BaseImage.tar.gz , etc.
- ungzip the new BlackRhino base image into the root directory of the linux partition. It is easiest done by changing to the directory where your hdd is (eg, cd /mnt/hd ) and then typing tar xvzf BlackRhino-BaseImage.tar.gz (or whatever you called the file). Nearly there!
- Reboot with the RTE, select to boot from /dev/hda1 (I think it's the first boot option), and you are in BlackRhino Linux, booting from your hdd! You can then follow the instructions on the BlackRhino website for completing the setup. By the way, included in the baseimage is the nice little text editor called nano. I recommend it for editing any text files through console, even once you get your full distribution installed.
Well done! I know that there are probably some inaccuracies in this, because I can't remember all of the details, so if there is something not quite right, let me know and I'll sort it out. I will also try to get permission to host all of the files needed (except BlackRhino) on this site so that you don't have to go hunting around for them.
