From bates at stat.wisc.edu  Fri Aug  3 18:32:55 2007
From: bates at stat.wisc.edu (Douglas Bates)
Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 11:32:55 -0500
Subject: [Rd] Compiling R for the Sony Playstation 3?
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On 8/3/07, Paul Gilbert <pgilbert at bank-banque-canada.ca> wrote:
> Doug

> Does it still play DVDs?

> (My wife keeps telling me that academics have to do all their serious
> work in the summer.)

The way that you install Linux on a PS3 it becomes a dual-boot
machine.  You have to reboot to the original operating system (called
XBM) to play DVD's at present.

Sony made provision for a second operating system to be installed on
the hard drive.  In the 'out-of-the-box' state there is a selection
under the 'System settings' that allows you to reformat the hard drive
with two partitions.  Unfortunately they only offer two possibilities
- either 10 Gb for XBM, 50 Gb for other or 50 Gb for XBM and 10 Gb for
other.  Reformatting does destroy any saved data but there is
provision for saving and restoring such data from a SD memory card or
a USB device.  Reformatting does not destroy the XBM operating system
(I believe it is stored in flash memory).

After reformatting the hard drive you insert the installation CD,
select "Install other OS"  from the System Settings and sit back and
watch the installation.

Once you install Linux the system boots to a boot loader called kboot.
 If you type boot-game-os at the kboot prompt you end up in XBM and
can play DVD's to your heart's content (I understand that you can also
play video games with it :-)

By the way, you can buy a remote control for the PS3 as a DVD player
but you don't need to have it.  You can use the game controller as a
DVD remote and I actually prefer it to having yet another remote
control with 85 buttons of which I use 2 and can never decide which 2
those are without turning on a light and getting reading glasses out.
The game remote is intended to be operated without looking at it and
all the feedback is on the screen.  It doesn't take long to become
proficient with it.



[Rd] Compiling R for the Sony Playstation 3?
Douglas Bates