"Newbie" questions
 

Hi folks !
I've been looking around to satisfy my curiosity on the ps3, and I didn't quite find answers to my questions. They may sound stupid. Flame me as much as I deserve. Im actually just looking for all the state of the art knowledge available :)

First, on the booting process. I've learned a bit about the ps1 thing (which is very well known) and also the ps2, so im not a newbie generally speaking, only on the precise ps3 topic.

I've heard that it is easy to install a linux system on the ps3, but that the hardware access is then quite limited. Any details on this ? What restricts the access to the hardware? the lack of drivers (present in the gameOS), or some more severe hardware supervisor maybe?


About the discs themself. I've heard they are encrypted. Quick questions: which algorithm? Which keys? is it possible to dump them? how does the ps3 detect the inserted disc is an original one?


And last but not least... would being able to make bootable ps1 or ps2 disc* be an interesting feature? If yes, why/how, ....
(*I mean a disc that would boot normally on an unmodified ps1 or ps2, without any trick, with arbitrary homebrew code on it).


Any answer or pointers to further reading would be appreciated ! Any pm, too... ;)

For most of your Linux questions, go to psubuntu.com, even though they never answer my questions >:[

Sony limits the RSX graphics card so you can't do anything great like play 3D video games. They've also limited the system to using only 2 of the 8 cores (I think) so it can be slow... Also with the recent update in FW it took away the wireless and the RSX patch which I guess enhanced the use of the RSX can no longer be used. You can get the Wi-Fi back though through an annoying kernel update.

Sony limits many things because they don't want people finding exploits through Linux, which is understandable, but kinda sucks for us :P