PS3 Setup for dnet

[IronBits]

Here is how you install YDL on a PS3

Not hard at all to install Yellow Dog Linux - mine is setup as a dedicated cruncher, never will play games or watch Blue Ray movies with it.
Download yellowdog-5.0.1-phoenix-20070511-PS3.iso
Burn to DVD
Take out the PS3, plug in network cable, usb keyboard and controller.
Plug in the HDMI cable to your TV.
Turn it on, go thru the setup, get the latest PS3 update installed, reboot
Insert DVD, go thru a few settings, boot other OS, make it the default
When YDL boots up, type installtext<enter>
Answer a few questions, sit back and wait one hour for it to finish.
re-boot, comes up to the login, type root and password
plug in USB thumb drive with /dnetc client files for Cell
mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt
mkdir /root/dnetc
cp -R /mnt/dnetc/* .
cd /root/dnetc
vi dnetc.ini
./dnetc
sit back and watch your stats climb :)

[IronBits]

Preparing the PS3
To install Linux, you need several pieces of additional hardware:
A display and appropriate cabling
A USB keyboard
A USB mouse (don't need one, not using X)
A USB flash driveTo prepare the PLAYSTATION 3, perform the following steps:
Connect the ethernet cable to the PS3. Be sure the network has a DHCP server on it.
If this is a fresh-from-the-factory PS3, go through the setup steps as it prompts you on your first bootup, including setting the language, time, and a username for the PS3 system.
Go to Settings, then System Settings, and choose Format Utility.
Select Format Hard Disk, and confirm your selection twice.
Select that you want a Custom partitioning scheme.
Select that you want to Allot 10GB to the Other OS. This will automatically reserve the remaining disk space for the PS3's game operating system. When finished, it will restart the system.
When the system restarts, go to Settings then System Update.
Choose Update via Internet.
Follow the screens for the system update to download and install the latest system updates. Some screens only have cancel buttons, with no instructions on how to move forward. In order to move forward on those screens, use the X button on your controller.
Once the PS3 restarts, it's ready to have Linux installed on it.Preparing to install
Now you're ready to prepare the Linux side of things. Here are the steps you need to do on your own computer (not the PS3) to prepare for the installation:
Download and burn the YDL 5 DVD ISO. There is no CD install -- the PS3 only takes DVDs.Now it is time to install.
Performing the installation
Perform the following steps on the PS3 to install Linux onto it:
Insert the YDL 5 DVD into the PS3.
Go to Settings, then System Settings, and then choose Install Other OS.
Confirm the location of the installer, and follow the screens for the installation process. Note that this only installs the bootloader, not the operating system.
When the installer finishes, go to Settings, then System Settings, and select Default System. Then choose Other OS and press the X button.
Plug in your USB keyboard and USB thumb drive.
Now restart the system. You can either do this by holding down the PS button on the controller and then choosing Turn off the system, or by simply holding the power button down for five seconds. Then turn the system back on.
When it boots back up, it will look like it is booting Linux. That's because the bootloader is actually a really stripped down Linux kernel called kboot.
When it gets to the kboot: prompt, type install installtext
After media verification it may give a Traceback error in the blue area of the screen. Just ignore this and proceed through the installation screens.
When it asks about partitioning, don't be concerned about it erasing the PS3 game operating system. The PS3's Other OS mode only allows the guest operating system to see its own portion of the drive. Even low-level utilities cannot see the other parts of the drive. So go ahead and let YDL erase all of the data on your drive, and then let it remove all of the partitions and create a default layout.
When it gets to the package installation, it takes approximately one hour to install the packages. However, it does not install the whole DVD.
When it boots, it will bring up a setup tool. There is nothing you really need to do here. If you don't do anything, it will time out and finish the bootup process.And there you have it! YDL 5 is now on your PS3!

[IronBits]

Those are some impressive numbers :thumbs: Especially at ~140Watts. Makes my power-guzzling quadcore look pale in comparison! 113 Watts on rc5 :)
(133W *24H / 1000=) 3.192 KW/h
I'm sure we could find a solar panel that would run it. :looney:

[IronBits]

To get dnetc to run automatically under YDL
assuming /root/dnetc <--- you put the client there

Create a file called /etc/rc.d/init.d/dnetc that looks like this:

#!/bin/sh
if [ -x /root/dnetc ]; then
case "$1" in
*start)
#make sure we're only running one client
/root/dnetc/dnetc -quiet -shutdown
/root/dnetc/dnetc -quiet &
echo "Started distributed.net client"
;;
*stop)
/root/dnetc/dnetc -quiet -shutdown
echo "Stopped distributed.net client"
sleep 2
;;
*)
echo "Syntax: $0 [start|stop]"
exit 1
;;
esac
fi
exit 0

Then run these commands
chmod 755 dnetc
ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/dnetc /etc/rc.d/rc0.d/K10dnetc
ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/dnetc /etc/rc.d/rc1.d/K10dnetc
ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/dnetc /etc/rc.d/rc6.d/K10dnetc
ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/dnetc /etc/rc.d/rc2.d/S90dnetc
ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/dnetc /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S90dnetc
ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/dnetc /etc/rc.d/rc4.d/S90dnetc
ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/dnetc /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S90dnetc

Init levels 0,1,6 the client gets killed
Init levels 2,3,4,5 the client gets started
the default init run level is 3.
Now you don't need a monitor, keyboard or mouse, just power and nic cable :D

[the-mk]

1. do you have to use HDMI as video-output-connection for setting up and running linux? I'm asking, because I use the standard AV-cable, and neither my TV (27" LCD) nor my 19" LCD support HDMI. After booting into linux I don't have a picture on my TV :(

2. I've asked this in the other thread (http://www.free-dc.org/forum/showthread.php?p=116159#post116159) too: I did a ./dnetc -bench OGR-P2, and core #2 (Cell v1 SPE) was the fastest, but with auto-detect core, OGR-P2 runs with core #1, which is much slower in the -bench! OK, while running with core #2, and doing "ps ax", it seems non of the cpu-cores are doing anything. dnetc has no cpu-time and is status "S+" or "SN+" (I assume that means sleeping, or am I wrong?). Same thing with "top", only one process is running, and that is "top" :D Am I paranoid??

3. doing "cat /proc/cpuinfo" it states, that it has 2 cpus while dnetc client says that it finds 7 cpu-cores (I've heard something about 8 cpu-cores where one is reserved for PS3 it self...) :confused:

4. I think this list might continue when my PS3 has finished some OGR stubs :D

please share your experiences!

Thanks!

EDIT: some things might be covered with http://n0cgi.distributed.net/cgi/dnet-finger.cgi?user=decio

[IronBits]

There are other video modes you can tell YDL to boot up to.
Has to be typed in at the kboot: prompt.
May be a way to configure it, but I wouldn't know where to look.
Keep doing some google searches for video modes with YDL and PS3.
When you find the best answer, post back here for others ;)

[the-mk]

Did some research and found that link http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/support/solutions/ydl_5.x/

Here I found out that is recommended to use HDMI since the resolution on the standard video (AV) output is too poor (and I have no HDMI capable display). But now I'm able to boot into text mode and do modifications there or via SSH.

I've tried to boot into graphical mode, but the PS3 hang during boot. Now I switched back to text-output...

[IronBits]

I do everything via SSH ;) They make for some pretty neat headless crunchers. :)

[IronBits]

Finally got one PS3 setup with Boinc to run PS3Grid ~3,400 ppd.
I don't know if this is accrute, as I find out more, I'll re-edit this message.

Measured floating point speed - 302.81 million ops/sec
Measured integer speed - 893.38 million ops/sec

[meep]

I am not sure "out of the box" is working correctly, as my first full 24 hours of stats are very low.

Everything is running as per the guides above...

Any ideas of what I can check to ensure the client is working correctly?

Edit:

Think I may have found it, config for number of simultaneous crunchers was set to 1, typo where it should have been -1....

[the-mk]

question: if I install linux on a PS3 when it is connected via HDMI to a high-resolution-TV, then I'm able to install a graphical userinterface (KDE, Gnome, whatever), after that I would be able to install VNC. Then I disconnect the PS3 from HDMI-TV (-> make it headless) and reboot it. Would I still have a graphical UI via VNC? Or does it stop booting into graphical UI since there is nothing connected via HDMI?

I'm just asking because my PS3 runs 24/7 but currently has no additional benefit except running OGR. I would like to use it as a small fileserver (with a 320 GB SATA-HDD) and a Bittorrent-Downloader (Azureus).
--> would it be worth to take it offline, replace the small 40 GB HDD with a 320 GB HDD, search a friend with a HDMI-TV (I don't own one) and reinstall linux? Or is my main criteria not possible (graph. UI) impossible with no HDMI-TV connected?

[the-mk]

today I bought a 320 GB HDD and a HDMI->DVI cable to plug the PS3 into my 24" monitor and do some tests...

according to http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/support/solutions/ydl_5.x/video-connect.shtml connecting via HDMI->DVI should work

I'll do some testing tomorrow... :D