How to install Linux on a PS2

Linux, Linux, Linux. Linux everywhere. We have put linux on our Xbox, we have a linux distro running on our Wireless routers,our hardended firewall, and of course our tivos. So what is left, how about your PS2? Here is step-by-step instructions of getting Linux on your Playstation 2!

How to install Linux v1.0 on PlayStation 2

Do NOT use the numpad at any point during the installation process; it can only lead to errors and headaches.

Ok, make sure you have installed all the hardware correctly. At the very least, you need the hard drive and network adapter plugged at the back of your PlayStation 2 and an USB keyboard and a memory card plugged on the front panel.
The memory card is dedicated to Linux and all the game saves that were on it will be deleted.

1 - Put the Linux (for PlayStation 2) DVD disk 1 in and turn your console on. ENSURE that it is the first disk, as the second will not boot. If you have a TV plugged you will see the PlayStation 2 logo appear. (Note: Even if you do not have a Sync on Green monitor, you can install Linux using NTSC or PAL on your TV. This is done by holding down the appropriate controller keys as follows when booting your PS2)

Video mode	Key combination
VGA	Select + L1
NTSC	Select + R1
PAL	Select + R2

2 - This is the boot screen, asking you if you want to install, boot or rescue. Press the return key to boot.

3 - It warns you that the HDD and memory card will be formatted. Press the return key to agree.

4 - Eject the disk and insert disk 2. Do NOT press reset. Do NOT press a key. It now will load the kernel.

5 - Next eject the disk and insert change back to disk 1. It loads the install software based on the RedHat installer.

6 - It asks you what language you want to use during the installation process. Press the return key to choose English (no remorse, it's the only choice).

7 - It asks you what type of keyboard you have. Press the return key to choose US.

8 - Change back to disk 2, wait a few seconds and press the return key.

9 - It welcomes you, press the return key.

10 - It asks you what type of system you would like to install. Press the return key to install WindowMaker. The installation process is easier that way and you will be able to change when everything is installed and you can see what you are doing.

11 - Now the tricky bit. It asks you which tool you would like to use to partition your hard drive. Press the tab key and then return to choose fdisk. It asks you to choose the hard drive to partition; you have only one, press enter.

12 - Wait 10 seconds. You should hear the DVD loading.
Note: Do NOT use the numpad to type the following numbers. It is known to have caused problems during installation already.

13 - You are in fdisk. Press the "d" key, enter, then "1" then enter, "d", enter, "2", enter, "d", enter, "3", enter, "d", enter, "4", enter. That deletes all the previous partitions, if it is your first install you shouldn't have any, but it's just to make sure.
Press "n", enter. That creates a new partition, press "p" for primary, enter, "1", enter, for first partition, press enter for the default first cylinder. Type "+128M", that is with uppercase M, and enter. Press "n", enter, "p", enter, "2", enter, to create the second partition. Press enter for the default first cylinder and enter again for the maximum size.
Press "t", enter, "1", enter, to change the type of the first partition.
Type "82" enter, to set it to Linux Swap.
Press "t", enter, "2", enter, to change the type of the second partition.
Type "83" enter, to set it to Linux.
Type "w" enter to write to the partition table and exit.

14 - Press tab and enter to select the disk you want to install to. Wait a few seconds. Press the "down" arrow key then tab, tab, enter. To set the mount point of the partition. Press "/" (forward slash) and enter. Press tab, tab, enter to confirm.

15 - It is ready to format the hard drive. Press tab, tab, enter to continue.

16 - It is asking for the host name, type the name your want for your machine (for example "ps2linux" if you can't be asked to find anything better) and then tab and enter.

17 - It asks for the network configuration, press tab and enter to set it up to use DHCP. You can change it later if you want.

18 - It loads. It asks for the time zone you are located in. Press tab and enter to choose GMT. You can change it later.

19 - It asks for the root password. Be particularly careful here, it will be all pointless if you make a mistake in the password. The password must be at least 6 characters long. Type the password once, enter, type the password a second time, and enter. Press enter again to confirm.

20 - It loads. It asks you to create a user, you can do it later so press tab 4 times and then enter.

21 - Press tab 3 times and enter to set the security configuration to the default setting.

22 - It loads. Press return to choose the GS as your graphics card.

23 - It says that Linux starts with the memory card blah blah, press enter.

24 - We need to turn the swap space on, press enter.

25 - It loads. A complete log of your installation will be in /tmp/install.log. Press enter.

26 - It's formatting the disk. Wait at least 25 minutes, it's installing the packages. Make sure both the DVD and the hard drive have stopped before you continue.

27 - Now make sure you have the memory card you'll dedicate to Linux inserted in slot 1 and press enter. This will format it.
Wait 45 seconds.

28 - Do not press anything just now. You have to change de display setting to have an image straight away when you restart after the installation is complete.
Press "Alt+F2"
Press enter.
Type "chroot /mnt/sysimage /bin/bash" and enter.
Type "mount /mnt/mc00" and enter.

If you are in PAL territories:	If you are in NTSC territories:
Type "echo display=pal > /mnt/mc00/p2lboot.opt" and enter. (Do not forget to hold shift when pressing ">").	Type "echo display=ntsc > /mnt/mc00/p2lboot.opt" and enter. (Do not forget to hold shift when pressing ">").

Type "umount /mnt/mc00" and enter.
Type "exit" and enter.
Press "Alt+F1".

29 - Nearly there. Press enter.

30 - Insert disk 1. Reset the console.

31 -You should see the boot screen now Select "boot"
You're done! Enjoy Linux for PlayStation 2.

Adding an HDD to a slim PS2

Yeah, the new slim PS2 is sexy.. But you cant add an HDD to it. That means that you cant use the HD Advance CD to run your backups... That is until Automan found a way to hook a hdd to it. Click read more to read how.

DO NOT ATEMPT THIS unless you are already a PRO at soldering or you will kill your ps2 , this is new and im sure will need perfected a bit .
Notes:
It runs fine with HD Advance from CD.
In his test environment he desoldered the little pull down resistor networks and the resistor at pin #27, but this is not needed perhaps... still needs to be tested further.

Known Bugs:
In his tests HDA wants to format HDD every time when you switch on the PSTwo, but he used long 40 conductor IDE cable not shielded! Maybe short 80 wire conductor shielded cable could fix that problem though.

This hack was originally discovered by Automan and all credit should be directed towards him.

This is the schematic for the IDE cable:

This is the installation diagram.

Copying games onto a Hard Drive for your PS2 with HDLoader CD

Preparing a PlayStation 2 (PS2) for use with HDAdvance(HDLoader prefrebly) is easy.Take a standard ATA/IDE hard drive (up to 120GB), attach it to a PlayStation 2 Network Adaptor, and slide the contraption into PS2's expansion bay. Insert the disc and load the software. That's it.

HDLoader's simple menu provides the expected options for imaging, running, renaming, and deleting your PS2 backups. The process of imaging a disc to the hard drive is often time-consuming due to the relatively slow speed of the PS2's optical drive. It usually takes the average game to load between 7 and 30 minutes to fully download depending on the full content of the game.

Things you Need

• Offical PS2 hardrice or 3rd Party harddrive under 127GB
• HDLoader Disc Link to get HDLoader and Other parts as a package
• Offical PS2 Network adaptor PS2 network adaptor purchase site
• 3/16 Flat head screw driver
• And of course you need a PS2

Gathering materials for install.
Next you need to postion the harddrive so you can slide it into the network adaptor IDE config. slot.
Make sure you get the hardrive tight into the network adaptor.

Make sure you install the harddrive and network adaptor while your your PS2 is lying flat on the bed(if you dont you could pull the IDE slots out of the network adaptor). Then tighten the screws not to tight but tight enough to stay in.

Then the instalation is for the harddrive is complete. All you have to do know is boot up the PS2 and put in the HDLoader disc in and it will follow the instructions. Then you have a harddrive installed on your PS2.

You CAN'T install:

• PSone Games (Black/Any)
• PS2 dual-layer Games (Gold)
• DVD Movies (Any)
• CD Audio (Any)
• PSone Backups (Any)
• PS2 Backups (Any)
• Import PS2 Games (Any)

You CAN install:

• PS2 CD Games (Blue)
• PS2 DVD Games (Silver)

Coping Saved Games to the Hard Drive:

You can copy your saved game files to the hard drive if you have an offical PS2 hard drive only. It wont work with any 3rd party hard drives(such as Maxtor). If you're using a 3rd party hard drive, it will not show on the BROWSER Menu like the official drive does:

Can I still play online?
Running games off the hard drive, you cannot play DNAS-Enabled games online. DNAS stands for Dynamic Network Authentication System and is a security check to protect against modification. You can still play these games online by inserting the game disc. Older games may work fine as they do not have a DNAS check, but I get conflicting information on this, although the general trend seems to be that they will not work. The following online games do not have a DNAS check:(this list is not fully updated as you can tell but it gives you a vague estimate)

• Amplitude
• ATV Offroad Fury 2
• Auto Modellista
• Chessmaster
• ESPN Basketball
• ESPN College Hoops
• ESPN NFL Football
• ESPN NHL Hockey
• Frequency
• Madden NFL 2003
• Midnight Club II
• My Street
• NBA 2k2
• NBA Live 2003
• NFL 2k3
• NFL Gameday 2003
• NFL Blitz Pro
• Risk: The Game of Global Domination
• SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
• Tribes: Aerial Assault
• Twisted Metal Black: Online

If you install one of the games that can be played online off the hard drive, do not let anyone else use you disc because online play discs have specific IDs and if the same ID is online at the same time, all PS2s using it receive a permanent ban on all online PS2 services including games, content and central station. Technically you shouldn't lend games out anyway but I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone who's never lent some form of media.

HDLoader Compatibility Modes:

This is a function that allows you to get some games to work with HD Loader that otherwise would not. It’s a very important function yet was left out of the HD Loader manual for some reason.

Known Problems:

I have had trouble with getting HDLoader to recognize Seagate hard drives and hard drives that exceed 120GB but it is possible. I believe Maxtor has 200GB hard drive that is compatible with the software(not sure if that breaches that 127GB limit). Why does my HD Loader disc say 'CRAZY_TAXI' when I put it in my PC? It's because it uses the Crazy Taxi 'boot file' in order to convince the PS2 to boot it. It's the same practice used by Datel for Action Replay, and other 'unlicensed' software (don't worry this is completely normal).

Fix those ps2 disk read errors

This will fix 99% of ALL disk read errors --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You're going to be surprised when you find out how easy this is. Read the instructions all the way through before you attempt the repair just so you'll be familiar with the entire process. First take off the outer cover of you PS2. If you haven't done this before, you will have to remove all the screw covers from the bottom of the unit, both plastic and rubber, these will be the only screws you will have to remove in order to take off the outer cover.

To remove the outer cover, lift up from the rear of the unit and pull towards the front in order to clear the controller jacks and the eject/close buttons. As you remove the outer cover you will notice a small metallic ribbon cable inside the machine leading to the eject/close and reset buttons on the front of the unit, this cable is usually taped to the top of the disc tray. This cable is not a sensitive as it appears; just remove the tape holding the ribbon cable. Once the outer cover is off you need to remove the cover to the disc tray, this will require a rather small phillips screwdriver (I've seen a few that use a standard slotted screw). Now that the tray cover is off, the first thing to do is to clean the laser eye. All you will need is a Q-Tip dipped in alcohol. Just swab the eye a few times and allow it to dry on its own, making sure that no lint was left behind from the Q-Tip.

After the cover is off of the disk tray and the laser has been cleaned you will need to plug the unit back in, (The unit needs to be hooked up to a TV as well to test it while you have it open. You should have a DVD, a game disk with a silver or gold back and one with a purple back in order to fine tune the system to play all three.) It will be necessary to have the unit powered up to perform the repair. Press the eject button so that the tray slides forward exposing the undercarriage. At the back of the unit you should see a small white, geared wheel about the size of a quarter. This little bastard is the cause of all your problems.

This wheel changes the angle in which the disk is held. You will notice that there is a small metal tab that holds the wheel in place. Take a felt-tip marker and mark the point on the wheel that meets the tab. That way you will always know the original position that the wheel was in. Now that the orig. position has been marked, feel free to spin the wheel for a few full rotations in order to see how it changes the angle. It will only alter the angle a few degrees before it goes back to zero, after it reaches the maximum angle it will go back to flat after each full rotation. Once you've toyed with it to see how it works, put the wheel back to the original position that you have marked. Then advance the wheel about 1/8 of a turn and place the disk tray cover back on top of the disk tray. (You will not need to screw the tray cover back down in order to test the machine; you will only need to hold down the cover with your fingers while trying to load/test a disk)

Now place a DVD in the tray and press the eject/close button in order to close the tray and load the DVD (hold down the cover as explained above). Wait to see if the DVD loads, you may have to use the browser in order to load each disk you test. If the DVD loads, eject it and load a silver backed disk, if that loads try a purple backed disk. If all three loaded successfully, congratulations you're finished. If not, remove the tray cover, eject the disk and advance the wheel another 1/8 turn and repeat the process. It just a matter of finding an angle that will facilitate the operation of all three types of disks. Once you've found the proper angle and the system is operating to its full potential, close it up and let'er rip.

I also do not recommend placing the PS2 on its side once you have fixed it. Although Sony says they recommend it in the owner manual, I have since seen internal Sony documents retracting the statement and attributing many malfunctions to storing and operating the unit on its side. Keep it flat at all times.

Control your Desktop from your Toilet via your PSP

Have you ever been sitting on the pot and wished that you could be checking up on your downloads or maybe even to see if your friend wrote you back. Well wait no more, now you can use your PSP to access your computer completely wirelessly.

You will need:

• Sony PSP (1.0 or 1.5 Firmware)
• USB to Mini USB cable
• Wireless Router
• TightVNC 1.2.9
• portablevnc_1.1_rls.zip

What version of firmware does my PSP have?

To check this go to the Settings tab of your PSP then to System Settings -> System Information you will see a page that looks like this:

Start by connecting your PSP to your PC via your USB to Mini USB cable, after you have connected the cable go to the settings tab in your psp and select "USB Connection"

your psp should now display "USB Connection" in the upper left corner of the screen and "USB Mode" should be displayed in the middle of the screen.

Now your pc should detect your psp and map it as a drive accessible via My Computer.

Now browse to your psp and go to I:\PSP\GAME if this directory doesn't excist then you haven't been doing any homebrew.. so just create the directories. depending on your psp's version install the corresponding version of pvnc, for me I would copy the content of 1_5 to my I:\PSP\GAME folder.

Now on your PSP go to the settings tab then to the Power Saving Settings and Turn off "WLAN Power Save" by doing this you use more battery but you get much better performance out of pvnc.

Next we need to configure our PSP to work on our network. to do this we go to the Settings tab then all the way down to "Network Settings" From here select "Infrastructure Mode" then "-New Connection-" name it whatever you want to. On the next page you need to know your SSID, if your network is broadcasting your SSID you can just press the Scan button, here you will also need to input any encryptions your network may have, Assuming we have no encryption and our network is broadcasting our SSID (most factory defaults are set this way) we will select the Scan option and select our wireless network. On the next page titled "Address Settings" YOU MUST SELECT CUSTOM FOR THIS TO WORK WITH PVNC. In IP Address Settings select MANUAL you will be presented with a page that looks like this:

The easiest way to find this information is to get on a windows computer that is on the same wireless network, it can even be wired to the router, you can get this info in windows by going to the Start menu > Run > cmd, then type "ipconfig /all" you will be presented with information simular to this:

The information that is in the Red Square is what we are interested in, you can copy all the fields over directly except for the IP Address feild, this address needs to be Identical to your Default Gateway except for the last for digits, so if your Default Gateway is 192.168.1.1 you can use anything between 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.255 Note that most routers by factory default set there DHCP to start routering pc's on 192.168.1.100 so its a good Idea to use an address lower then that or significantly higher.

Here is what your psp should look like with all the correct information from the ipconfig.

On the next page it will ask you about a Proxy Server, in most cases you won't need this so just select "Do Not Use" The following page just verifys your settings, just click next and press X to save. Now go over to your pc and install TightVNC, its pretty straight forward so we won't go over it in this tutorial. Next go back to your PSP and go to the "Game" tab, scroll down to "Memory Stick" and click on it. You should see a program called "Portable VNC Viewer" Click on it. If all goes well you will be presented with a screen that looks like this:

Click on your Wireless Access Point and Add a new Host

Add your Host (pc running TightVNC) IP to your psp's database, you can obtain the ip of your host using the ipconfig command that I told you about earlyer.

Name your connection, Any name will do.

Click X then Select an Icon for your new connection

Now select the connection you've just created and connect, you should see an image of your desktop on your PSP, you can use a virtual keyboard by pressing the Triangle key and the X and O buttons are your right/left mouse clicks. Have fun and Enjoy!

How to burn and play PS2, and PSX games on your PS2 without a modchip

In this guide, you will learn the very easy method of making copies of your PS2 and normal Playstaion games so that they are playable on the PS2. This guide will provide you with all the information you need to burn PS2 games. {mos_sb_discuss:18}
You will need the following things to burn PS2 games:

• a computer with a cd burner
• a blank cd-r (don't use the re-recordable type a.k.a. cd-rw)
• CDRWIN – The version in this guide is 3.8D
• FireBurner –
• PS2 patcher –
• GameShark 2 for PS2 - the GameShark 2 is available at most stores that sell video games, a few examples would be Best Buy, Circuit City, or Target. You want version 1.0 of the GameShark 2. I have heard that all other versions work, but I have only tested version 1.0. GameShark2 costs about 29.95. Believe me, its worth it!!!
• and a PS2 to play the games.

Burning the PS2

The process of burning ps2 games is easy. It is really only a 3 step process.(read the game, patch the game, and burn the game.)

1) insert game into cd drive.

2) Open up CDRWIN and click on the extract disk/tracks/sectors button.

3) Your settings should be as follows:

• For “extract mode” select disk image/ cue sheet
• For “read options” select “raw”
• For “error recovery” select “abort”
• For “jitter correction” select “auto”
• For “subcode analysis” select “auto”
• Data Speed and Audio Speed should be the same
• For “read retry count” type 0
• For “subcode threshold” type 300
• Make sure you selected the drive that your PS2 game is in

Make sure you typed in the file name (just type the name of the game) and Check the directory that you're putting your file in.

Then just press “start”

If you get an error in the middle of reading the disk that says something like “can't read sections xxxx-xxxxx of disk”, it is becase the disk is scratched and CDRWIN can't read it. Try to clean the disk, if that doesn't work you just have to use a different game (a different copy of the same game)

4) Once CDRWIN is done, click ok and then exit CDRWIN. Open up the PS2 patcher, select the game file you just created and patch it (make sure you select the “RAW” option.

5) Close the PS2 patcher, next open up Fireburner. Click on the visual cue burner button. When you created your .bin file (the game file) in CDRWIN, a .cue file should have automaticly been created. In that case, drag and drop the .cue file into the Fireburner window. If the .cue file was not created, just drag and drop the .bin file into the Fireburner window. After you have done that, right click (click with the right side button on your mouse) on your file in the Fireburner window, and select “Burn/Test burn”.

6) In the options window that appears, select your cdwriter, select your write speed(doesn't really matter), and make sure you select “Track at once (TOA) for the recording method. As for the options on the right side of the options window, make sure only the following are checked: “eject cd” and “close session”.

When you have selected the options, click ok and your PS2 game will burn. That's all you have to do to burn a game.

Burning a Playstion (PSone) game

1) If you want, you can spend 5 minutes using the same method as above to burn your playstation game, but its not necessary. For a playstation game (not PS2) all you need to do is use a program that lets you make an “exact copy” or a “backup disk (CDRWIN)” You don't need any selected options, you just need to start the game on the PS2 the same way you would a PS2 game.

Starting the game on your PS2

1) Now for the fun part (and challenging part the first couple of times) This may sound a little complicated at first, but after you do it 3 or 4 times, it's super easy. First things first, you must remove the front of your game drive on your PS2(not a big deal, it can snap on and off).

2) Now insert your gameshark 2 cd(make sure the gameshark memory card is in one of the 2 slots, doesn't matter which one.)

3) In the gameshark options, choose “start game”, then “without”. Your screen should read “Please insert game disk then press X to continue.”

4) Now this part can be trickey for beginners, so I will provide pictures

-the main purpose of this starting method is to open up the PS2 and swap the gameshark disk with your burned game without the PS2 knowing you did it. DO NOT press the eject button on the PS2!!!

-with the PS2 cd tray cover removed, you will be able to look in and see a while tab inside the PS2. With a credit card (or something like it) gently slide the white tab all the way over to the right, if you did it correctly, this should allow you to manually pull open the PS2 cd tray.

5) Next, take the gameshark disk out of the PS2 and put in your burned game.

6) Gently push the PS2 cd tray fully back into the PS2 (Don't press the eject button).

7) Now you need to slide that white tab all the way back to the left (its origional position). To do this you get a strong papper clip(needs to be a strong one) stick it into the PS2 on the right side of the white tab and push the tab back to the left.

8) If you pushed the tab all the way back to the left and did every thing else right, you are ready to play your game. Just press X on your PS2 controler and watch as your burned game loads. ( It may load slower than an original game, depending on the cd-r you are using, I use Verbatim cd-r's and have no problems.)

Using a laptop as a Wireless hub for your PlayStation 2

This allows you to play your ps2 anywhere in the house without running long network cables along the floor. I did this as an experiment as I was tired of dragging a cable into the lounge, and I prefer to keep the PS2 in my bedroom, which is on the opposite side of the house to the network and desktop PC. Moving the modem was not an option, and I already had a wireless network set up with my Laptop.

You will need:

1. A PS2 with a Network Adapter and the network access disk (for testing the connection)
2. A laptop with both wireless and Ethernet connections (Built in, or PCMCIA work), running Windows XP or Server 2003
3. an internet connection on a wireless network that your laptop can use. either using a wireless access point on a broadband router or a public subscription should work, as long as they do not block playstation game traffic.
4. a standard CAT5 crossover cable (or you can use a network hub). How to tell? Examine the ends of the cable. if the colors of the wires are in exactly the same order for both ends, you do not have a crossover cable

Steps:

1. make sure your laptop can access the internet at the location you want to use your PS2.

2. Connect your PS2 and PC using the network cable, turn on the PS2 and insert the Network Access disk.

3. go to your Network Properties page. (press the Start menu, right click My Network Places, and select Properties)

It should look something like this... (1394 is just the FireWire port. you can ignore it)

What you need to do is bridge the Wireless connection and the Local Area connection. Select both connections and right click one of them. select "Bridge connections" from the drop down box.
You should now have something like this:

To check if your new combined network is working correctly, try accessing the internet on your laptop. If it works, all should be fine, and you can set up your PS2 to connect using your Network Access disc. if you have already set it up previously (by moving your PS2 or dragging long cables), you should have no problem just connecting and playing your games online.

If it did not work, make sure your PC's network settings are still correct for you to access the internet on the bridge. (You will have to use the Network Bridge to set TCP/IP settings etc. as the two network cards have effectively been combined as one, and use the same IP address and settings.

If you still cannot access the internet on your laptop while the connection is bridged, read this...

Troubleshooting wireless connectivity on a network bridge:

(This is a short version of a Microsoft article... view it here)

This problem is common after bridging a wireless connection with a wired one... the problem is that the wireless seems to refuse to connect to the network, meaning you cannot use the internet, or even get an IP Address from your router (or modem). If you see something like this:

What you need to do is enable compatibility mode for your Wireless card.

1. open Command Prompt (type "cmd" in the Run dialog)
2. type netsh bridge show adapter
you should see a list of network adapters in your network bridge, the wireless and the one connected to your PS2.
3. Make a note of the number next to the wireless connection under ID.
4. type the following:
netsh bridge set adapter # e
Replacing # with the number of the wireless card.

To check that it worked, run "netsh bridge show adapter" again and see the result.
To make it more clear, here's a picture of my command prompt after doing this:

Notice that ForceCompatibilityMode for the wireless is now enabled. I can now use the internet on my bridged wireless connection.

You should now have the correct IP Address for your bridge, and be able to use the wireless network...

Now, just make sure the PS2 can connect by using the Network Access disc to check the connection. It is much easier to set this up if your PS2 has already been set up on a wired connection.

Any time you want to play your PS2 online in your bedroom now, all you have to do is bring the laptop to it, and plug it in. Enjoy!