A. Sundararajan's Weblog

Installed Ubuntu 8.10 on my PS3

Ubuntu on PS3

I wanted to install Ubuntu on my PlayStation 3.

My Setup

• PS3 is NTSC 60 GB hard disk version - updated with firmware version 2.42.
• PS3 is connected to 32 inch 720p Sony LCD TV via HDMI.
• PS3 is connected to wireless network.

Stuff needed in addition to the above

1. USB keyboard.
2. USB mouse.
3. CD burned with Ubuntu powerpc iso (ubuntu-8.10-alternate-powerpc+ps3.iso).

Preparing PS3

1. Backup your PS3 hard disk using [Settings] -> [System Settings] -> [Backup Utility] menu. I didn't bother to backup the hard disk.
2. Go to [Settings] -> [System Settings] > [Format Utility] menu.
3. Select [Format Hard Disk] and click [Yes].
4. Choose [Custom] and [Allot 10GB to the Other OS].
5. Select [Quick Format] and confirm with [Yes].

Installing Ubuntu

1. Connect USB keyboard and mouse to PS3.
2. Insert the disk with Ubuntu iso image into PS3.
3. Go to [Settings] -> [System Settings] > [Install Other OS]. PS3 will detect the install CD and copy files and instruct you to ..
4. Select [Settings] -> [System Settings] -> [Default System] -> [Other OS]. This will boot PS3 with other OS. From then onwards, follow the Ubuntu installation instructions.

Small hiccup

The installation was smooth except for one small issue - the installation seemed to hang in "Select and install software" step. After 6% the progress bar did not increase at all! Fortunately, this seems to be a known issue with text mode installer. Please refer to Ubuntu 8.10 release notes and bug 290234. I pressed Alt-F4 and Alt-F1 to toggle between logging console and main screen to check the progress. Eventually, the installation completed! While installing I configured network as well -- i.e., giving WEP password etc. -- not sure if this is mandatory, but in my case I have wireless connectivity and so I supplied the configuration values for the same.

Switching between Operating Systems

• From Ubuntu to Game OS, use the command

  
      sudo boot-game-os
  
  

• From Game OS to Ubuntu, use the menu

  
     [Settings] -> [System Settings] -> [Default System] -> [Other OS]
  
  

Few Screenshots

• Install Screen
• Login Screen
• GNU chess
• Network update

( Dec 23 2008, 03:53:01 PM IST ) Permalink Comments [4] | | | | |

Debugging option for javac and javafxc

I work on JavaFX compiler these days. The command line (debugging) option that I often use is -doe ("dump on error"). This option prints stack trace of the compiler when error message is printed. NOTE: This is an internal option and can be removed any time without notice! But, it is useful for debugging. This option works for javac as well as javafxc. When I misspelled "class" as "clas" and run compiler with -doe option, I got the stack trace below:

$ javac -doe t.java
t.java:1: class, interface, or enum expected
clas t {}
^
java.lang.RuntimeException
	at com.sun.tools.javac.util.Log.writeDiagnostic(Log.java:565)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.util.Log.report(Log.java:523)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.util.Log.error(Log.java:404)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.parser.Parser.reportSyntaxError(Parser.java:282)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.parser.Parser.syntaxError(Parser.java:267)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.parser.Parser.classOrInterfaceOrEnumDeclaration(Parser.java:2206)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.parser.Parser.typeDeclaration(Parser.java:2180)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.parser.Parser.compilationUnit(Parser.java:2126)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.main.JavaCompiler.parse(JavaCompiler.java:509)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.main.JavaCompiler.parse(JavaCompiler.java:550)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.main.JavaCompiler.parseFiles(JavaCompiler.java:801)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.main.JavaCompiler.compile(JavaCompiler.java:727)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.main.Main.compile(Main.java:353)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.main.Main.compile(Main.java:279)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.main.Main.compile(Main.java:270)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.Main.compile(Main.java:69)
	at com.sun.tools.javac.Main.main(Main.java:54)
1 error

( Dec 17 2008, 06:44:46 PM IST ) Permalink Comments [1] | | | | |

Yet another reason for using VirtualBox

I bought a laptop from ELCOT for my sons. It came with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP2. Kids wanted to see how it is like playing games in the "old" days. Nothing better than seeing and really playing! And so VirtualBox

Also, having access to more than one OS without having to partition does not hurt -- even for a kid's laptop! We can run OLPC, OpenSolaris, Puppy Linux, or anything else!

( Dec 10 2008, 08:29:22 PM IST ) Permalink Comments [1] | | | | |

Playing with Alice and PhET

These days, my son is playing with these (apart from usual game sites):

Alice

Alice is a 3D programming environment. He likes it as much as he likes Scratch.

PhET

Interactive simulation tool for physical phenomena from University of Colorado. He kept trying to soft land "on the moon" I guess Chandrayaan I has impressed him a lot!

What is the common between Alice and PhET apart from being great education tools? It is Java! With the advent of JavaFX, we can expect that such fantastic rich GUI applications will be written in JavaFX.

( Dec 04 2008, 11:17:13 PM IST ) Permalink | | | | |