I had just posted here a few days ago about the OtherOS case, well unfortunately, Sony’s request for dismissal has been granted, here is a quote of some of the court case.

The flaw in plaintiffs’ analogy is that they are claiming rights not only with respect to the
features of the PS3 product, but also to have ongoing access to an internet service offered by Sony,
the PSN. A somewhat fanciful, but more apt, analogy would be if Toyota sold hybrid vehicles with
an advertisement campaign touting that Toyota owners would have access to a recreational driving
facility, a no-speed limit amusement park for cars. Then, at some time thereafter, Toyota instituted
a rule that its hybrids would not be permitted in the park unless the owners allowed the battery
feature to be disabled. In those circumstances, Toyota hybrid owners who declined to authorize
disabling of the battery feature would still have fully-functional hybrid vehicles, capable of running
on an electric motor or a gasoline engine, as appropriate under the conditions. Similarly, PS3
owners who declined to install Firmware Update 3.21 still have fully-functioning devices, capable
of either being used as game consoles to play games on optical disks, or as computers, with the
Other OS feature.
While plaintiffs would characterize the ability to access the PSN as a “fundamental feature”
of the PS3 itself, it cannot be disputed that the “feature” is dependent on something outside the
actual device—i.e., the continued existence of the PSN. Additionally, plaintiffs acknowledge that
installation of Firmware Update 3.21 was entirely at the discretion of the user; indeed they have
proposed separate subclasses for those who did chose to download it and those who did not. The
choice may have been a difficult one for those who valued both the Other OS feature and access to
the PSN, but it was still a choice.
Under these circumstances, it cannot be said that Sony “unilaterally took away a
fundamental feature of a product after that product [was] sold to a consumer.” Rather, Sony
unilaterally imposed a requirement that PS3 owners who wanted continued access to the PSN
service would have to allow the Other OS feature in their machines to be disabled. As a
consequence, for Sony’s conduct to have been in any manner wrongful, it is not enough for
plaintiffs to show that they have a right to expect continued availability of the Other OS feature
beyond the warranty period, but also a right to continued access to the PSN.
Nothing in plaintiffs’ factual allegations or their arguments is sufficient to support a
conclusion that Sony has any obligation to maintain the PSN in operation indefinitely. Had Sony
elected to shut down the PSN entirely, and for some unknown reason then offered PS3 owners the
option to disable the Other OS feature on their machines, users who elected to do so would plainly
have no claim for loss of the OS Feature.1 Nor would it be sufficient for plaintiffs merely to say
that, having elected not to shut down the PSN entirely, Sony had no right to limit access to the
service to those who agreed to disable the Other OS feature. This is not a discrimination case, and
nothing in plaintiffs’ factual allegations supports the existence of a legally enforceable duty on
Sony’s part to refrain from altering the conditions under which users are permitted access to the
PSN.

It ends by saying:

The dismay and frustration at least some PS3 owners likely experienced when Sony made
the decision to limit access to the PSN service to those who were willing to disable the Other OS
feature on their machines was no doubt genuine and understandable. As a matter of providing
customer satisfaction and building loyalty, it may have been questionable. As a legal matter,
however, plaintiffs have failed to allege facts or to articulate a theory on which Sony may be held
liable. The motion to dismiss is granted, without leave to amend. The motion to strike is denied as
moot. A separate judgment will issue.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated: 12/8/11
RICHARD SEEBORG
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Source

You can read the full PDF, which contains the back story and reasons for dismissal:
Download

To end this story, is it really a surprise that Sony won ?

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It has been quite a while since we spoke of the OtherOS lawsuit, i wrote here of how Sony were planing to dismiss the case, then in July 2011 the court case continued, with that hearing just recently being brought to light by the awesome Groklaw,here is a part of that hearing:

THE COURT:
– the big difference between the last complaint and this one, in terms of an item that is being
presented as a basis for these claims, particularly the express warranty claim, is the statements by Mr. — I think his name is
“Harai” — about the life cycle, if you will, of the PS3. And I suppose my question is: Aren’t you expecting
that statement to carry an awful lot of water here, in terms of providing any kind of warranty that the Other OS function is
going to be maintained in seeming perpetuity, and in no way will be affected going forward; at least, with respect to this ten-year period that you’re identifying? It’s a very general statement about the market cycle of a product. And to transform that into the flagship of your warranty claim seems
to be expecting a lot out of that statement.

MR. QUADRA:
Well, your Honor, let me at least clarify one point. Our allegation is not that it is a market-cycle statement; that, in fact, it refers to the life of
the product, itself. When it was first made, that specific statement in its entirety, which I believe — the defense counsel sort of cut part of the quote — goes on to say that they’re not envisioning putting out a new product, because they purposely make their products to last this period of time.

You can read the full article at the source here.

Or you can download the PDF here at PS3HaX.

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Its been a few months since we interviewed Gitbrew, unquestionably the best and most important group in the PS3 Scene, they have been responsible for so many advances in the PS3 scene one of them being the restoration of OtherOS, much has went on since we last interviewed the guys at Gitbrew, so Pockets69 and myself(GregoryRasputin) decided to throw a few questions together, here are the responses to those questions:

(Q.1)
So it has been a few months since the last interview, what have you been doing since then.

Durandal
A lot. Our console development efforts are even more intense than they were when you last interviewed us, and we are proud to announce that we have been
joined by refugee developers from git-hacks. Not only do we get to benefit from having these talented developers working with us, but this merge also adds
about 11 gigs of source code to our git repositories. Sorry for the downtime, but when it’s back up it’ll all be worth it.

I’ve also branched off from console development for a bit in order to focus on developing solutions for secure, survivable, and covert communications and
infrastructure for hostile environments, as well as intelligence collection and forensic tools that will support and assure the security of these networks
and their users. We are partnering with other Global-level groups to provide these tools as quickly as we can to the various Occupy movements sprouting up
all over the world. With the help of Iadnah and others in the community we are proud to announce our first release: occupyOS. This secure, no-frills-added
OS can be booted from either cdrom or usb and provides a safe environment activists can use to communicate, publish documents, and perform other necessary tasks
using whatever hardware happens to be available at the time. More information is available at: http://wiki.gitbrew.org/wikibrew/OccupyOS

Snowy
Quite a bit as durandal said, I’ve been trying to clear up what happened over the last incident. We again apologize for that and have been working as best as we can in making a proper rsx driver, instead of just documentation. I’ve been trying to help developers out there that are in need of proper documentation as well as the supplys (vnc’s and/or servers to properly test their stuff) As well as hardware to test their applications on. We’ve been quite busy organizing things together and helping as many people as we can along the way. I’m glad to be helping in anyway possible to a developer in need. I had to sell my ps3 so currently most development on my side is on hold until then. Until then, I will just be helping out developers .

(Q.2)
Your work was posponed due to durandal needing an operation, how is he doing

Durandal
I feel better than I have in years. Sorry about the downtime…I’ll do everything I can to make up for it.

Snowy
I’ve known durandal for a few years, and i can say that he’s doing a lot better then ever.

(Q.3)
The scene as you no it, is full of drama, we have a team of wanabe devs known as Team PS360, do you think they will eventually crack the ps3.

Durandal
Positively… We can all sit back and relax now knowing that ps360 will save the ps3 scene, release 3.70+ keys, and hack the gibson. Oh wait…
you were serious? We used to have a saying in the blackhat community: code or stfu. I think that sums it up. To be honest, if most of these groups and individuals spent half as much time researching and coding as they spend bickering over pirate/anti-pirate and who’s this month’s ps3 scene godfather, they could actually “save the ps3 scene” like they claim to want to do.

Snowy
As durandal has said, Code or stfu. I don’t doubt any of them have any coding experience, I don’t doubt that they know partially what they’re talking about. I doubt the fact we haven’t seen anything from them. I wish them luck though, and if any of them needs help then so be it.

(Q.4)
Recently glevand unlocked some more of the RSX`s potential, how close is he to ripping it wide open.

Durandal
It’s already ripped wide open. Through the resources and synergistic development gitbrew offers, glevand was able to write a ps3fb replacement that takes
advantage of all three FIFO pipes to maximize the amount of data throughput from SYSTEM memory to the RSX. Unfortunately our git is down while we take on
the refugee developers from git-hacks. When the new Gitorious-based repository is up, we’ll dump everything into it. Until then, feel free to download both
the kernel module and userland app at: http://gitbrew.org/~glevand/ps3/linux/ps3rsx_kernel.tar.gz and http://gitbrew.org/~glevand/ps3/linux/ps3rsx_user.tar.gz
Both files are needed to run the new ps3rsx graphics driver, and I want to assure everyone that no lv1 calls were hurt during the development of this much-needed
driver.

Snowy
He was having a bit of trouble, but actually looked at the documentation that was released and actually fixed the problems he was having. How’s that for irony?

(Q.5)
what do you think about the new method of getting the per_console_key?

Durandal
Glevand and many others have been working feverishly to develop methods of obtaining this key. It’s nice to see it’s paid off. I’m looking forward to a day when
the PS3 is as open a development as the PSP.

Snowy
One step closer, sooner or later ibm is going to finally send a cease and desist. We’ll put that right up next to dasmoovers sign.

(Q.6)
Do you have anyone working on an easy to use tool for the key? we are already used to gitbrew pkgs XD

Durandal
If we weren’t, we’d have to quit gitbrew and join PS360….

Snowy
I’m pretty sure anything related to the rootkey, we might leave out just so that people actually learn how to get their own keys. As a sort of accomplishment type thing, but eventually there will be simple pkg files released to do it.

(Q.7)
What next projects are we going to see from gitbrew regarding the ps3 scene? can we see some sort of “one day one announcement”, like you did a couple of weeks ago?

Durandal
Well RSX is taken care of, NPDRM is getting very close to being irrelevant, and I’ve heard there’s almost usable versions of psl1ght floating around. I guess the next really big thing you’ll see is the release of the gitSkeet flasher. We teamed up with progskeet and rebug to create a special edition of the progskeet2 that will have solderless clips and the kind of support and documentation only gitbrew is capable of providing. It also gives us an opportunity to branch out into the actual hardware exploitation as well. As far as having announcement a day weeks, expect to see more of them in the not so distant future.

Snowy
Ah the one day one announcement might end up as something a bit different (As a lemon twist as richlando has once told me). We might release something soon, but it will be more planned out next time.

(Q.8)
what else is everyone from gitbrew working on, that you are allowed to mention of course?

Durandal
We’ve got active Android and iOS dev groups working on various projects, and iadnah and I are spearheading the Global Occupy development effort. We’re also accepting hardware donations for use by the various Occupy movements. While all this is going on, Snowy and euss are diligently working to document and publicize everything being done. Without the two of them, gitbrew wouldn’t be possible. Due to the nature of gitbrew, I’m sure there’s other dev teams working on other awesome projects, so expect some big announcements over the next several months.

Snowy
Quite a bit still, i’m only helping 3-4 groups atm, but might turn into more or might turn into less. We might take a look at the frankenstein sdk again. Lets just hope i can figure out how durandal originally made it work.

(Q.9)
What is your thought on the recent discoveries on the ps3 scene?

Durandal
Imagine, if you can, being basically bedridden for the last four months and waking up to all this. I think 2011 will go down as the year the PS3 finally got the attention it deserves. I’m amazed at just how much development is going on, both inside gitbrew and in the community at large.

Snowy
Theres a few things i want to be seen done, but i’m not picky.

- A.)
psx backups working

Durandal
This one wasn’t really a surprise, but it’s still really awesome to be able to play some of those classics without digging out a 10 year old CD and hoping it’ll play on your dusty PSX. Thanks for giving me the chance to finally have that Twisted Metal rematch, and with much improved resolution.

Snowy
Once iso backups from a drive is done, I’ll be happy about this. Most of my psone games are far too scratched to even boot now.

- B.)

duplex releases of cracked psn games

Durandal
If they could keep their network up and not illegally store customer data, people might actually pay for the games. Maybe Sony shouldn’t hire Kevin Mitnick to secure their network.

Snowy
I’d actually like to congradulate them on it, someone was smart enough to hit sony again. Next time sony, hire ibm to actually do the rest of the security for your console.

- C.)
mallory and juanadie releases on the npdrm keys.

Durandal
We’re proud to call mall0ry a gitbrew developer. I can’t wait to see what else he comes up with.

Snowy
As durandal said, awesome dude. Glad to have him aboard. Juanadie, you’re also more then welcome to join or idle in the irc. It would help a lot as well as spark more interesting ideas, never know.

- D.)
The new jb2 dongle AKA true blue.

Durandal
I’m always very wary of dongles. Usually they’re just a ploy to make a buck, and these days it doesn’t take long for someone to reverse what the software they’re trying to hide does. Expect to see the same happen here. If we want to deter others from trying to peddle their software in a dongle form, we should make a point of reversing a dongle’s functionality
and implementing it in a package. I’m sure that group paid a lot of money to get all those dongles made, and they’d hate to see that money go to waste.

Snowy
Yet again as durandal said, dongles are dongles, regardless someone is going to take a crack at them and release a free version of it. Cobra hasn’t even been touched by most of the developers, and those who have touched it don’t really care for piracy. I would like to thank dean for taking the first step in making psx backups working though, a small step but none the less towards the proper direction for the scene.

To be continued……….

Pockets69 & GregoryRasputin
Thanks for taking the time to answer the few questions, you guys are awesome <3

durandal & Snowy
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Without communities like ps3hax, none of this would’ve been possible.

With the interview over, i would like to personally request something from each of you and that is to send the guys at Gitbrew a little donation, it can be as little as $1, if one hundred people donate only $1 each, that’s $100, which helps a huge way to covering server expenses and it shows that you appreciate the work they do, this donation request does not come from Gitbrew, nor have they asked me to post this, it is a request from me(GregoryRasputin), as i think they deserve all the support they can get.

To donate, please follow this link.
To donate to graf_chokolo egorenar@gmail.com

For help from or to work with OtherOS visit them on IRC here:
gitbrew.org
ssl
6697
Join #otheros

Follow Gitbrew On Twitter

WikiBrew.

And lastly Thank You durandal and Snowy for taking the time to answer these questions and thank you to Gitbrew for doing what you do in the scene.

Recently Gitbrew told us about their partial RSX driver in the works. Today they have tweeted about the release of FreeBSD LiveCD supporting resolutions upto 1920×1080 with the obvious partial RSX driver (PS3 “graphics card”).

This is for those interested in Linux on their PS3, nothing related to CFW or PC games running on PS3.

Their site might be hammered at the moment with high download amounts, but you can download the ISO for the CD right HERE. To learn how to get OtherOS++ on your PS3 read THIS.

The awesome glevand has managed to get wlan working on slim PS3′s using using the OtherOs++ function, here is a quote from the source:

Wlan now working on slim ps3s. http://git.gitbrew.org/repos/?p=ps3/ps3linux/ps3-jupiter.git;a=summary Linux based for now. Freebsd and petitboot with wireless to come next.

Source Twitter

You remember when Gitbrew asked for donations and said they would release the RSX drivers for the PS3, they later released a few documents with information regarding the RSX, which led to a certain someone starting a conspiracy theory, claiming that “Gitbrew were scamming people” yaddy yaddy ya, which led some of Gitbrews followers to question Gitbrews integrity, people were blinded to the real story, durandal and glevand were working hard on releasing the RSX driver, but durandal was quite ill, problems with gall stones/kidney, which resulted in him being rushed to hospital, but this didn’t stop the uncalled for hate and abuse, anyhow, i will stop with the ranting and give you this awesome news, brought to you exclusively at PS3HaX by our very own daxgr, here is a quote from the offical thread:

Well I am pleased to announce that RSX Driver for FreeBSD is released. The RSX driver is the product of hard work by durandal and glevand, who gave up many hours to accomplish this. So here you go, the link for the RSX driver: http://git.gitbrew.org/~glevand/ps3/linux/ps3rsx.tar.gz

On a side note, may I add that contrary to public belief for 5 YEARS, the RSX doesnt not rely on DMA to process graphics, but rather uses PPU instructions to push objects to RSX VRAM. So… yeah another breakthrough by the team who scammed everyone…. Gitbrew.

PS: To all those who started complaining about this noble effort to enable RSX on OtherOS(/++) , such as “gitbrew is a scam” or “they are just SDK samples”, check out the date of the file.

Gitbrew was always about developing things for developers AND users alike.
Sadly, users don’t always appreciate the effort, a simple omission to include the release URL, that was due to durandals medical condition and glevans personal issues, seems to be enough…

Well keep that in mind, Gitbrew gave their word to release a RSX driver and succeeded; anyone who had cared to browse glevands directory WITHIN 24 HOURS of the donations would have seen it.

Regards,
daxgr@Gitbrew

I will say on behalf of PS3HaX, on behalf of the decent PS3 Scene members and even on behalf of the haters, THANK YOU GITBREW

> Release thread at the read more link, or click here.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates, right here at PS3Hax!

Noob FAQ:

• This will NOT lead to any new CFW or CFW 3.7x
• This is like the “driver” to the PS3 graphics card
• Its mainly for DEVS and not the average joe.
• This is a LINUX RSX DRIVER.
• If you don’t understand any of the terminology in this post…its probably not for you (unless you are willing to learn).

Update 2:
So there is some discussion/confusion about what the actual release is. Various devs around the scene are currently saying the following: The release is for Linux (as clarified already), and not for FreeBSD. Also this isn’t a TRUE driver in essence rather it is a Linux kernal module; the mappings to the RSX.

In a nutshell, this basically gives you a more enjoyable experience on Linux on the PS3 (graphics wise). We will now be able to use the RSX gpu for graphics insetad of having to emulate from the CPU. This does not mean you can play World of Warcraft or install Windows 7 on your PS3.

UPDATE 2:

RC5 has been released, to quote:

Published Release Candidate 5 with the following changes:

• Fixed restart and shutdown problems.
• Fixed repositories list needed for distribution.
• Online updates available from the official distribution repositories.
• Fixed hostname problem.
• Added GFTP as FTP manager.
• Added a keyboard configurator.
• Fixed some problems with wireless connections on fat models.
• Network-Manager-Gnome is now the default network manager.
• Gnome-Bluetooth is now the default bluetooth manager.

The download link is available at the project wiki.

Online Update

You can upgrade the Red Ribbon installation from the online official repository, you don’t need to reinstall the distribution from CD.

This update is only designed for the RC 4 or lower with all previous updates.

You need to connect the PS3 to the internet, open a lxterminal and download the file:

wget http://redribbon.sourceforge.net/downloads/online-update-2011-09-01.sh

Then, you can execute it:

sudo sh online-update-2011-09-01.sh

And wait until finished.

If while executing it asks:

You are running a kernel (version 2.6.38-powerpc64) and attempting to remove the same version. This is a potentially disastrous action. Not only will /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-powerpc64 be removed, making it impossible to boot it, (you will have to take action to change your boot loader to boot a new kernel), it will also remove all modules under the directory /lib/modules/2.6.38-powerpc64. Just having a copy of the kernel image is not enough, you will have to replace the modules too.

I repeat, this is very dangerous. If at all in doubt, answer Yes. If you know exactly what you are doing, and are prepared to hose your system, then answer No.

Do you want to abort removal now?

You must answer NO.

[VIA r04drunner blog] – thanks to tenshou for news tip

Some users like r04drunner from Elotrolado think the standard Linux distro’s for the PS3 have some limitations…so what does he does? Builds his own. The Debian Based Linux is called Red Ribbon, its actively being updated and below are the features it offers (and growing).

This build can be ran via LiveCD or through media/HDD storage (recommended). Full tutorial and features can be found at read more link below.

Features: (more…)

r04drunner has updated his Red Ribbon Linux distro to version RC5 has been released, to quote:

Published Release Candidate 5 with the following changes:

• Fixed restart and shutdown problems.
• Fixed repositories list needed for distribution.
• Online updates available from the official distribution repositories.
• Fixed hostname problem.
• Added GFTP as FTP manager.
• Added a keyboard configurator.
• Fixed some problems with wireless connections on fat models.
• Network-Manager-Gnome is now the default network manager.
• Gnome-Bluetooth is now the default bluetooth manager.

The download link is available at the project wiki.

Online Update

You can upgrade the Red Ribbon installation from the online official repository, you don’t need to reinstall the distribution from CD.

This update is only designed for the RC 4 or lower with all previous updates.

You need to connect the PS3 to the internet, open a lxterminal and download the file:

wget http://redribbon.sourceforge.net/downloads/online-update-2011-09-01.sh

Then, you can execute it:

sudo sh online-update-2011-09-01.sh

And wait until finished.

If while executing it asks:

You are running a kernel (version 2.6.38-powerpc64) and attempting to remove the same version. This is a potentially disastrous action. Not only will /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-powerpc64 be removed, making it impossible to boot it, (you will have to take action to change your boot loader to boot a new kernel), it will also remove all modules under the directory /lib/modules/2.6.38-powerpc64. Just having a copy of the kernel image is not enough, you will have to replace the modules too.

I repeat, this is very dangerous. If at all in doubt, answer Yes. If you know exactly what you are doing, and are prepared to hose your system, then answer No.

Do you want to abort removal now?

You must answer NO.

[VIA r04drunner blog] – thanks to tenshou for news tip

dudu.clx from a french ps3-scene site has released a script for making it easier to install Linux on the Playstation 3. He also created 2 videos and planned to tweak the script a little more.

Google Translation:

For setting up your Harddrive you can use Rebug OtherOS Prep Tool or one of many tutorials around the net.

Source and French Tutorial

Up until now there has been a lack of code samples and no proper documentation that is open source for the PS3′s RSX “Reality Synthesizer”.  Homebrew has been forced to make due with use of the CELL Broadband Engine and it’s many SPU’s which has limited what can be done, keeping homebrew stuck to simple games and emulators of older consoles.

Well that is going to change.  Thanks to the great group of developers that are  Gitbrew and thanks to the people who donated to help this become a reality.  With the release of the documentation, we will see  great improvements to homebrew and emulators.  The games should improve greatly too.  So keep you eyes on what will be happening in the future.

To stay on top of what is happening with Gitbrew and their work, you can find them on irc.gitbrew.org:6697 ssl #otheros or  if you to would like to donate to them to show your thanks, you can find the links to do so on their home page gitbrew.org

Quote from gitbrew twtter:

Rsx documentation Thank you everyone who donated!

Download oedipusRSX.zip

Source

It is almost a year since the PS3 was hacked, it has been a time full of excitement and a time full of drama, it has been a time filled with court cases and lawsuits.

It all started of in August 2010, when a little device was released, this device enabled game back ups and home brew on the PS3, Sony where hot on the heels of any one selling such devices, the original device, retailed at $100+, but clones soon emerged which were cheaper, around the same time open source versions began to appear, PSGroove from Mathieulh and his team, PSFreedom from KaKaRoTo, all these methods needed some sort of hardware and was only compatible with firmware 3.41 and below.

At the end of December 2010 a group known as fail0verflow, exposed the PS3′s lack of security, this brought on a chain of events, including the PS3 Keys being released and eventually a CFW for 3.55 consoles, this then lead to GeoHot who had released a CFW, being sued by Sony, so things died down for a little while.

An extremely talented developer/hacker known as graf_chokolo worked loyally on bringing back the OtherOS function that Sony stole from its customers, graf was only interested in the OtherOS function, he was only interested in bringing back, what we as PS3 owners payed for, he didn’t care about backups or the GameOS side of the console, his work was completely honest, but this wouldn’t stop Sony pestering him and unfortunately he was also sued, whilst he was fighting Sony he continued to work on the OtherOS function, but he was continually harassed by Sony, he was even raided on one occasion, so his work was put on hold.

That’s where a new group of talented people came in, when we first heard of them, it was a member under the nick of glevand, who took on graf_chokolo’s work and brought OtherOS++ to the PS3, so it is my pleasure to post this interview i had with these awesome group of people:

(Q.1)
When and why did you get involved in the PS3 Scene ?

Durandal – Me personally? I dabbled in a few things here and there that’d make a long and boring story, but it was when Sony began their aggressive litigation at the beginning of the year that Snowy and Das convinced me to help them with this new endeavour. We wanted to create a community safe enough that we could welcome any dev team, even when nobody else is willing to assist them. One of the unintended consequences of this is that we have a lot of very talented devs doing a lot of awesome stuff, so a lot of cross pollenation goes on between projects.

Snowy – I’ve been in other scenes just partly / mostly testing out things and debugging stuff for developers. I heard about the ps3 stuff from fail0verflow and tried seeing what i could do to help out further. After graf_chokolo got raided for the first time i tried to help him a few days later. We were both shocked that no one offered him a shell to their ps3 and from there it just started to development into more stuff.

(Q.2)
So you are the creators of Gitbrew.org, what was your reason for creating such a site ?

Durandal – After Mr. Hotz had his pleasant visit with Sony’s attorneys, a lot of sites pulled their resources out from under a lot of very good communities. We decided someone should take a stand, and set up a community with an infrastructure that allows safe communication and free flow of ideas. All of our servers are in secure datacenters, and I know the owners of most of them. Since I used to do forensic work, I set them up in such a way that if a server is compromised or seized, very little usable information can be pulled from it. Really about all anyone could do is come after me personally.

Snowy – After most websites were getting either taken down or data was being removed due to dmca, we had to find a secure place that we could give to other developers that couldn’t be touched. It worked out pretty well and we’re still going with it.

(Q.3)
How big is your team and who are they(No names have to mentioned of course) ?

Durandal - As far as the core team that keeps everything running, there’s only a handful of us. There are numerous groups with really awesome devs working on a lot of cool stuff, but we’re not allowed to give out any information on the number of people involved.

Snowy – Everyone helps everyone so far, because of that a lot of stuff gets done behind the scene. It just takes awhile for some stuff to be released.

(Q.4)
You guys keep working hard, and give us brilliant work, so how did you feel when GeoHot gave in to Sony ?

Durandal – Thanks… it’s nice to see we’re being noticed. As far as Mr. Hotz is concerned, he’s just an attention loving sellout. Maybe one day he’ll do seminars with Kevin Mitnick and HB Gary. To be honest, I don’t really think about guys like him. I’d rather stay focused on actually innovating.

Snowy – I don’t agree with it, but it’s his life so you can’t really stay mad at him because of his decisions.

(Q.5)
Some sites received DMCA take down notices, do you receive many and if so does legal action not bother you ?

Surprisingly we haven’t received one yet. Personally, I’m a tad disappointed. Guess we’ll have to wait our turn. As far as it bothering us, the way you deal with that kind of annoyance is to out annoy them.

(Q.6)
You used the work started by graf_chokolo, do you still have contact with him, if so do you know how his court case is working out.

Durandal – He cheers us on from time to time. I don’t think we can say any more than that until after his case is decided. I did have one very inspiring conversation with him when this all began. I promised him that as long as he was willing to keep up the fight in the court room, gitbrew would keep doing what we do best. And when Sony finally grows tired of pestering the guy, there’s definitely a place for him in our dev team.

Snowy – Yup, starting out was weird for setting stuff up, but after that I made sure I could help him in any way possible for development purposes. Graf, I have to say without you the scene wouldn’t be the way it is now. A lot of devs respect you because of it. Thank you for everything you’ve done man. Stand your ground and you will win, we’re behind you 100%

(Q.7)
What are your opinions on the PS3 Scene, the devs, the end users, Sony etc.

PS3 Scene: I can only speak about what I’ve seen. It’s, well…different from the communities I came from before. There’s some really awesome groups out there, but I think a lot of it’s too focused on sensationalizing things like the keys Mr. Hotz leaked.

The devs: All I can say is the PS3 community is lucky to have the level of talent a lot of these guys provide. Graf, KaKaRoTo, Mathieulh, tuxuser, etc are all guys I’d be honored to work with on any project for any platform. Maybe one day Sony’ll get bored of annoying them so we can get them all together under our roof.

The end users: Haven’t really had a reason to think on them much. Though more and more are using our solutions as an alternative to the official PS3 firmware.

Sony, etc.: There’s no reason to speak ill of them. They do more to alienate their own community than I could ever do with any words I could write. They’re not alone, either. Too many companies place a monopoly on innovation when it comes to their platforms. It’s funny that Microsoft’s Xbox is probably the least restricted platform currently. I guess they learned their lesson by trying to fight Linux developers.

(Q.8)
When the likes of Sony Fanboys see people that do your work, they immediately lumber you with being a “Pirate”, what would you say to them to convince them that piracy and homebrew/linux are not the same.

To be honest, I wouldn’t waste my time trying to justify myself to the lot. Sony does a better job of giving us positive PR in front of the fanboys than we ever could.

(Q.9)
What projects do you have planned for the future.

On the PS3 we’ve got a few projects going on. Expect to see a suite of tools for blu-ray drives in the not so distant future. Also, there’s a good chance you’ll be seeing a linux video driver that makes better use of the RSX. I’ll also be furthering my work on distributed cluster computing on the PS3 and other platforms.

In our other communities, expect to see more utilities for the kindle, and a lot more in the way of android development. Also, I’ve brought in a couple of my old friends to develop security-oriented tools for various platforms. Long story short…there’s very little we don’t have planned for the future.

(Q.10)
Several consoles are being released in the near future, the PS Vita and WiiU, do you plan on working on them ?

If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be gitbrew…

——— ——— ———
——— ——— ———

There may be a few more additions to the interview, but from what is posted so far, you can see the passion, you can see the dedication these guys have, everyone of you that have OtherOS++ on your PS3, should be very thank full to these guys and the work they continue to bring for our benefit, you can be guaranteed that they wont sell out either.

With the interview over, i would like to personally request something from each of you and that is to send the guys at Gitbrew a little donation, it can be as little as $1, if one hundred people donate only $1 each, that’s $100, which helps a huge way to covering server expenses and it shows that you appreciate the work they do.

To donate, please follow this link.

For support with OtherOS visit them on IRC here:
irc.gitbrew.org
ssl
6697
Join #otheros

Follow Gitbrew On Twitter

To get tutorials and help with OtherOS++, visit the Gitbrew website here.

For those following the developments of Red Ribbon Linux, an online repo is now available so you no longer have to install a new distro for each update.

r04drunner has posted on his blog the following instructions:

Now you can upgrade the Red Ribbon installation from the online official repository. You don’t need to reinstall the distribution again with every new CD published.

This update is only for the RC 4 or lower, It will be included on the next release of the LiveCD. The changes are detailed at the project wiki, on Change Log section.

You need connect the PS3 to internet, open a lxterminal and download the file:

wget http://redribbon.sourceforge.net/downloads/online-update-2011-07-05.sh

Then, you can execute it:

sudo sh online-update-2011-07-05.sh

And wait until finished.

If while executing it asks:

You are running a kernel (version 2.6.38-powerpc64) and attempting to remove the same version. This is a potentially disastrous action. Not only will /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-powerpc64 be removed, making it impossible to boot it, (you will have to take action to change your boot loader to boot a new kernel), it will also remove all modules under the directory /lib/modules/2.6.38-powerpc64. Just having a copy of the kernel image is not enough, you will have to replace the modules too.

I repeat, this is very dangerous. If at all in doubt, answer Yes. If you know exactly what you are doing, and are prepared to hose your system, then answer No.

Do you want to abort removal now?

You must answer NO.

Thanks to tenshou for news tip!

Stay tuned to more PS3 scene updates from PS3Hax, your fastest PS3 news source.

Rebug CFW users are treated with an update to Rebug bringing you new features (no its not for 3.6x yet) including built in QA-Flag combo and trophy errors people have been experiencing:

To quote:

Both of the REBUG OtherOS++ PUP’s will give you 22GB of OtherOS HDD space and have all the features of REBUG plus all the features of gitbrew’s OtherOS++ CFW and of course the ability to set your own QA Token from GameOS using the qa_flag.pkg from over at gitbrew.org.

Changelog:

UPDATED – Rebug Selector 1.5

UPDATED – 3.66 Version Spoofer files

UPDATED – Package Manager file path tweaks

ADDED – LV1: Peek and Poke support (gitbrew.org)

ADDED – LV2: Peek and Poke support for LV1 (3.55.2 ONLY) (gitbrew.org)

ADDED – LV2: LV1 CALL System call (3.55.2 ONLY) (gitbrew.org)

FIXED – Black Screen issue on certain PS3 titles
(Uncharted 2 and some other games would not load from Disc or HDD)

FIXED – MINIS Black Screen issue

FIXED – QA Token compatibility

FEATURE – NO Button Combo QA Menu when in DEBUG XMB
(★Debug Settings – Menu 1. Requires QA Token for some features)

FEATURE – Fake Save Data Owner
(Use Game Saves from ANY Owner)

FEATURE – Lock/Unlock Trophies

FEATURE – Cinavia protection disabled

FEATURE – Debug for HDD Exchange Utility
(Clone your HDD straight to USB HDD, NO QA Token needed)

Grab the downloads over at their site below:
[Download Rebug Rebug: 3.41.3 and 3.552 OtherOS++]

Many people (the more advanced hackers), already know this but there still is some blurriness on what Linux OS works on 3.55 and what does not.  For those of you who are living under a rock the last few weeks, OtherOS was restored on post 3.15 consoles. OS is basically a program in which will let you turn you PS3 into a computer. It allows you to run some programs that you wouldn’t be able to without OS. Some popular ones are Linux and Ubuntu. Various information, tutorials on installing Linux can be found here.

And as of right now, it seems like the PS3 firmware 3.55 will run most OS out there. As you can see in the chart below, there are still some OS that have NOT been tested for the 3.55 firmware.

Chart from Gitbrew:

If you want Gitbrew to try an OS that is not listed, let them know. Also, if an OS is not listed and you are certain it works, message them and they will add it to the list.

Bitcoin Mining is now possible on the PS3 Console via Linux.

Readme

Auto Installer

http://7track.org/~stackable/cellminer-run-ONCE-to-install.sh
Git repository

https://github.com/verement/cellminer

Source Gitbrew

To understand what Bitcoin/Bitcoin Mining is, watch this video:

Or check this link.

It has been quite a while since we have heard of the awesome PS3 Developer, graf_chokolo, yesterday he posted this on his blog:

Hi guys, no money left anymore. Going to jail soon probably because i cannot pay court costs.
But i’m ready to stand up for everything i said and go to jail for that too. It’s not important to win, more important is to show them that we are ready to fight, that they cannot scare me off easily. Yeah, i’m ready to go to jail for my believes and my principles.
Most of people probably think that all computer and kernel hackers are weak kids, hiding in a cellar, eating pizza whole day, writing software and looking for attention Maybe, but that’s NOT me. And i will get out eventually and continue my work. My work means very much to me.

Source

The guys at Gitbrew have updated their Linux Install Guides for the PS3.

All Guides and Tools are available on Gitbrew’s Wiki

via Twitter

Geoffrey Levand has once again updated his OtherOS++, it is now compatible with all PS3 Models.

ChangeLog

Downloads, Tutorial and Source: Gitbrew’s OtherOS++ Wiki