Linux on PS2 without the kit

[Tainted_Girl]

Does anyone know how to get Linux on the PS2 without having to buy the discontinued and overpriced Linux kit?

[Tainted_Girl]

Wow. So, basically no one here knows how to do it? We can hack an Xbox but no one knows how to put linux on a PS2 without purchasing the kit. Amazing.

Here's what the Linux kit contains:

Linux-based operating system, a USB keyboard and mouse, a VGA adapter, a PS2 network adaptor (Ethernet only), and a 40 GB hard disk drive.

Basically everything that most people already have. So, what is preventing one from doing it?

[Dicatto]

I too want to run a linux distro on the ps2. As I understand it you need some sort of boot loader disk to run any linux, without buying the $200 kit.

[Dicatto]

I don't mean to revive an old topic, but does anyone know how to get a linux dvd or cd to run on the ps2?

[bigtomrodney]

I tried this in the past but I only went so far with it. (Apologies to Tainted_Girl, I just spotted this now).

I bought the network adapter as a seperate matter and saw the IDE adapter. I installed a 20GB drive I had but was quite lost as to what was next, the PS2 certainly showed no interest in it. I wasn't able to get my hands on the edition of Red Hat that it ran nor could I find a suitable alternative.

Dicatto - the important thing to remember is that the PS2 is a different architecture so it won't be able to boot the usual intel build Linux discs you have. Have you managed to get any of the specialised Linux distributions? From what I understand this is far more straightforward with the PS3.

[Dicatto]

No I haven't found any specialized disks. I have a whole CD organizer full of linux distros. Slax, whoppix, knoppix, pc linux os, etc. And what you said about the different architecture between ps2 and pc makes sense. And I know SONY charges $200 for the kit, but I thought linux has to be free, so are they charging for the hard drive and other peripherals and not the CD, or both?

Thanks for all your help.

[Dicatto]

Is there a linux distro that I can download that is made for the ps2 architecture?

[bigtomrodney]

I haven't come across any. Certainly what you said about Linux being free is true. It's a matter of someone compiling Linux for that architecture but I wouldn't know where to start on a PS2. If you came across a copy that Sony shipped I'd try that. The thing is that the PS2 has only 32MB of RAM. I think it was a Red Hat 7 variant that ran on the PS2 and it was supposedly very slow.

[Dicatto]

Well I am not trying to run it on the ps2 to use it like a computer, I want to run linux on it to network 3 ps2 and distribute the graphics processors to a desktop pc

[bigtomrodney]

Ah right. In that case I might have some bad news. I think that they locked out the GPU on the PS2 the same way they did on the PS3. You could probably use the main CPU or the Emotion Engine but the GPU is right out