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The Linux kit contains a USB Keyboard with a built-in USB slot, a USB mouse (not optical), a PS2 Network adapter, an IDE hard drive in a special mounting, a PS2 VGA cable and the Linux DVDs themselves (in a standard PS2-styled DVD case). The only extra thing you need is a memory card. Before I even unpacked the bits I used my Harder Drive 2 to backup my savegames from my only PS2 card (a Datel double capacity card plus bonus memory manager didn’t arrive until today). I then pulled my PS2 out of its current spot and installed the hard drive and network adapter. I don’t think I’ve ever installed anything this easily. The hard drive plugs into the network adapter, then the network adapter plugs into the rear expansion slot. Too easy. I reconnected everything and plugged in the keyboard and mouse. Here I cheated a bit. I had already found a document telling me how to get the install process to install purely using a TV as the monitor. I’m yet to unpack the VGA adapter. The install appeared to go fine, if slowly and with a lot of disc swapping. At the end I had to make a tweak to make sure that I got a PAL signal by default. After this I thought it told me to replace disc one and restart the system. What it actually said was to restart the system then insert disc one. At this point the install collapsed. It would boot Linux, but X wasn’t interested in starting, nor was the network. I basically wasted an hour because I mis-read the last message. Take two. By the time the second install was finishing I knew what I’d done wrong with the first attempt. I got things in the right order and all was good with the world. Up popped a standard Linux prompt. I logged in and started the GUI. I don’t know that I’ll be spending a lot of time with a GUI on the TV screen. It’s seriously under-scanned and the resolution is very low. I’ve used a PC at 800×600 on a TV and it’s bearable, better if you use S-Video. The PS2, when running Linux on a TV, wants to use something like 512×480, which is very readable but a bit tricky to fit anything useful into. While I was installing Linux, I was also reconfiguring my home network so the PC with my modem acted as a bridge to the Internet. Having two Windows PCs to test Internet Connection Sharing meant that I was able to use a system I was familiar with to determine the correct network settings. These were duly entered during the second install and the network connection worked first time. Rather than screwing around with Samba/SMB (which is a pain at the best of times), and finding that a graphical browser was a little limited when it came to screen real-estate, I powered up the classic old Lynx text browser, made my way to distributed.net and downloaded their PS2 client. A quick ungzip and untar later and I had a running copy of the client (it’s precompiled for the PS2). It downloaded some work units first go and has been working on them since then. So, much as A$500 is a bit much to pay for a minor boost to one’s dnet stats, my initial impressions of the PS2 Linux kit are, on balance, positive. It’s still Linux in as much as it’s unnecessarily cryptic at times, but it looks like it’s going to be an ideal base for me to once and for all learn how to set up examples of some of the more fiddly Linux software. Once I’ve got Samba up and running I’m going to try the Mozilla Firebird browser, VNC and possibly the Stella Atari 2600 emulator. |
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