[ps2hacking-devel] Some answers on digest #38 and #39

[Guido A. P. jr. <gu...@pa...>]

Hi folks,

i'd like to answer some questions that emerged in the last weeks, by the 
way it is great to see this list is somewhat active now.

Who is running this show ?
see http://sourceforge.net/projects/ps2hacking/
you can look up the project admins there. they seem to be mostly japanese 
guys, but hey, maybe they could tell themself or you could ask them.
That brings up a rather fundamental question : Is this only for linux-kit 
owners or for the "home brew linux" too ? if this is sony-only, please 
tell, because then the rest of this post is totally offtopic and we should 
start a non-sony project and/or mailing list, though i would really 
appreciate if "sony users" and "home brewers" could work together here as 
far as this is possible. That would surely be more to the advance of the 
homebrewers, but after all we (euro and usa) can not buy a linux kit - 
which i will certainly do if it is ever released here.


Did anyone get the linux running using the runix kernel (alpha2 or 
something) ?
Well technically Linux is the kernel only and yes, the runix.ru kernel 
works to that extend that it shows a kernel booting, but that's about it.
Network support seems to be compiled in, but no device drivers or 
anything. At this time it is nothing more than "yes, you can actually run 
a linux kernel on a ps2" - it doesnt do anything productive. The ps2 
detects the cd (runix provides a .iso only) as a ps1 cd and shows the 
ps1-logo just before the kernel starts. I asked the runix guys for their 
sources and how they got the kernel on the ps1-style iso, but they did not 
react in four weeks. At least the kernel source part violates the GPL as 
far as i know, but what the hell, at least someone is trying to get it 
running ...
Perhaps they have written a PS1 program that outputs linux boot messages 
... ?! ;) No, serious the guys did great things on the ps1, keep it up !

My setup was :
PS2 SCPH-35004, bought in Germany (that's where i live , i think someone 
wanted to know ...?), Neo 2.2 mod-chipped.
I'm pretty sure you need some kind of mod-chip if you want to get linux 
running w/o Sony.
burned the cd as stated in the runix readme (cdrdao).

My efforst so far :
Hooked up a USB Network adapter :
My parents got a "Teledat USB Ethernet Adapter" from the Telekom (german 
telco) (costs about 50.- euro). 
It seems to be a D-Link adapter, the kernel (not on the PS2, but on my 
laptop) uses the USB "Pegasus chipset based network adaptor" driver. I 
will post details about the "card" if someone is interested.
I thought, just give it a shot and connected the ps2 with the "Teledat" to 
my laptop (with a 3Com 3C574) via a crosscable. At first i thought it 
didnt't work, because the link/act leds on the "Teledat" did not light up. 
But then i noticed that the 3Com's leds said "100 MBit link" so I started 
up THPS3 and a dhcpd on the laptop. It actually worked ! I was able 
to play THPS3 on the internet.
Some interesting (though offtopic) detail on THPS3 and network :
THPS3 offers a USB-PPPoE connection, so that seemed to be the logical 
choice for my setup. BUT - the T-Online (german ISP) usernames are 
somewhat long - 4 chars longer than THPS3 accepts ... so they locked out 
all T-Online users that are not able to set up a router (Telekom DSL has a 
market share of about 95% here).

Tried a USB keyboard :
I just grabbed a usb keyboard from a local electronics discounter 
(Conrad El.) for about 15.-euro and it works. I guess any usb keyboard 
will work with the ps2. Mine came in package that only says "USB Keyboard" 
and was manufactured by Forward Electronics (Taiwan).

Built a MIPS kernel from the CVS sources at oss.sgi.com :
I built a 2.4 kernel from SGI's CVS using their cross-toolchain. 
I put it on a CD (BASF/EMTEC CeramGuard) together with a system.cnf 
that i took from a game (GTA3 i think).It seems to boot up, at least the 
ps2 doesn't complain about "please insert ps2 disc" and the screen 
flickers a bit, just like before booting a game, no text output though,
not even the "Playstation 2" banner...sigh, but someone mentioned some 
non-sony kernel sources, i think i will try that. Could someone with a 
linux kit post some hw info on the ps2, as far as your license allows 
that? I would be especially interested in the USB-Port, now that i have a 
working NIC for it. I thought it was some kind of OHCI-type, but my kernel 
(with OHCI, keyboard and usb-nic support) didn't even bring up a link on 
the nic, the keyboard leds kept blinking (which seems to be a sign for an 
un-initialized usb controller on the ps2).

So far, so good, so what ...

Guido

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