This short guide covers how to compile and run an experimantal kernel on linux for Playstation 3 as well as how to enable WLAN on it.

Prerequisites:

• Linux Distribution installed with the latest Cell-Linux ADD-ON CD
• git – which you can download and install using yum(e.g. for FC6: yum –enablerepo=extras install git)
• root access

How to: Compiling and Running an Experimental Kernel

Part I – Compiling and Installing the Device Tree Compiler
git clone git://www.jdl.com/software/dtc.git dtc cd dtc make cp dtc /usr/bin/

Part II – Compiling and Running an Experimental Kernel

Make sure you have finished Part I.

cd /usr/src git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/geoff/ps3-linux.git ps3-linux ln -s /usr/src/ps3-linux /usr/src/linux cd /usr/src/linux make clean make mrproper make ps3_defconfig

Optional:

You can edit the config file to your liking now:
make menuconfig

I usually disable Kernel Debugging (Kernel Hacking -> Kernel Debugging) and enable HugeTLB Support(File Systems -> Pseudo Filesystems -> HugeTLB File System Support). Also, at least on of the CellSDK examples requires TUN/TAP Support(Device Drivers -> Network Device Support -> Universal TUN/TAP Device Driver Support.)

Take a look at Mike Acton’s HowTo: Huge TLB pages on PS3 Linux if you need more information.

Part II – Continued
make make modules_install

Now look at the last line of your console(within red squares on this screenshot):

There you can see the kernel version. This one was 2.6.22-rc7-g9b6d7171. Write yours down and replace it with mine.

Part II – Continued
mkinitrd initrd.img 2.6.22-rc7-g9b6d7171 cp initrd.img /boot/initrd-2.6.22-rc7-g9b6d7171.img cp vmlinux /boot/vmlinux-2.6.22-rc7-g9b6d7171 cp .config /boot/config-2.6.22-rc7-g9b6d7171 cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.22-rc7-g9b6d7171

Open up your kboot config file (mine is under /etc/kboot.conf) with a text-editor:

Place the following line at the end of the file:
linux227='/boot/2.6.22-rc7-g9b6d7171 initrd=/initrd-2.6.22-rc7-g9b6d7171.img video=ps3fb:mode:XXXX'

Replace XXXX with whatever your ps3 video mode is. (Type ps3videomode in a console if you’re not sure).

If you like, you can replace the default line to point to the new kernel, or you can press the tab-key when the kboot: prompt appears when you boot up.
default=linux227

Save the file and reboot. If anything goes wrong, press tab during the kboot: prompt and select one of the working kernels.

Part III – Enabling WLAN

As root, open up /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 in your texteditor.

Scroll down to the end of the file.

For WEP Encryption, Type:

KEY="s:YourAccessPointPassword" ESSID="YourAccessPointName"

For WAP Encryption, Type:

IWPRIV="set_alg 2" KEY="s:YourAccessPointPassword" ESSID="YourAccessPointName"

For WAP2 Encryption, Type:

IWPRIV="set_alg 3" KEY="s:YourAccessPointPassword" ESSID="YourAccessPointName"

As always replace everything that starts with Your…. Save the file and reboot.

Fin.