YELLOW DOG LINUX v6.2 - ps3vram is up to 50% faster

speedxl · Post by **speedxl** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:02 am

This has some time but i had not seen the news here.
I hope to try it when it gets released to the public mirrors..

YELLOW DOG LINUX v6.2 OFFERS XFCE, USB INSTALL, EPEL, MORE THAN 600 UPDATES

LOVELAND, COLORADO, 29 June 2009 - Fixstars today announced the immediate
availability of Yellow Dog Linux version 6.2, delivering several updates and
improvements making it simpler to install, faster, and easier to use.

This release offers an updated kernel v2.6.29 for 64-bit systems, OpenOffice
3.0, Firefox 3.0.6 and IBM Cell SDK v3.1.0.1, as well as the next generation
of ps3vram for fast, temporary file storage or swap using PS3 video RAM. With
this release, ps3vram is up to 50% faster than in YDL 6.1 and is
automatically enabled as swap.

YDL 6.2 now offers libfreevec, a (LGPL) library with replacement routines for
GLIBC, such as memcpy(), strlen(), etc. These routines, which have been
rewritten and optimized to use the AltiVec vector engine found in the G4/G4+
PowerPC CPUs, can provide for up to 25% increase in application performance.

With YDL v6.2, Fixstars has added a fourth alternative for the desktop
environment: Xfce 4. A fast and lightweight desktop environment, Xfce runs
applications quickly while reserving system resources, making it ideal for
memory limited systems such as the PS3. Although E17 still runs as the
default, users can select to install and enable Xfce at any time.

For wireless users, the graphical interface Wicd for Apple PowerBooks and PS3s
now offers more reliable WEP and WPA security protocols.

"In Yellow Dog Linux v6.2, we focused on refining the existing features from
previous releases," states Owen Stampflee, Fixstars Linux Product
Manager. "We have fine tuned everything from Shockwave Flash support to
wireless operation. This release is another example of how Fixstars continues
to produce the sashimi of the Linux world; anything else is just a fried fish
sandwich."

YDL v6.2 supports:
- Apple PowerPC G4/G5 products
- Sony PLAYSTATION3
- YDL PowerStation

YDL v6.2 offers the following updates and improvements over v6.1:
- Ability to install and boot using USB thumb drive
- Kernel v2.6.29 for ppc64, v2.6.27 for ppc32
- IBM Cell SDK v3.1.0.1
- Xfce 4 Desktop Environment
- OpenOffice 3.0
- Mozilla Firefox v3.0.6
- Improved Wicd
- Improved PS3VRAM support
- Libfreevec
- Gnash v0.8.4
- Over 600 updated packages in all!
- Over 2500 new packages in EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux),
available via yum.

YDL v6.2 is available today via YDL.net Enhanced accounts which may be
purchased at the Fixstars Store.

us.fixstars.com/store/

The physical DVD sets and bootable USB drives will ship from Fixstars in 2
weeks. The public mirrors will offer v6.2 downloads in one month. For a
calendar of release dates, visit us.fixstars.com/products/ydl/delivery.shtml

jimparis · Post by **jimparis** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:37 am

The ps3vram speedup is from the mtd->block conversion.
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/g ... 7ee21c3b84

Arwin · Post by **Arwin** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 9:13 pm

Anyone else using this now? I just installed it.

J.F. · Post by **J.F.** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 1:03 am

I'm running Xubuntu 9.04 on my PS3, and I really don't care about the speed of the vram disc as much as I do the speed of the system overall. :)

I'm mainly waiting for the Cell MESA driver to improve to where it can run things like Neverball decently.

Arwin · Post by **Arwin** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 8:15 am

Well, I'm testing it out, but I'm also running Ubuntu 9.04 on my PC, and I definitely see some advantages of that distribution so I don't consider it out of the question that I'll change my mind and go with that at some point. Ubuntu really seems a very solid distribution, very mature, efficient and easy to use. But I wanted to see for myself how well YDL 6.2 was shaping up.

I'm writing this post in it, and in general it runs pretty well, so I'm not complaining so far. However, I had hoped it would have been easier than it seems to be now to do something with the Cell processor. I used to have a vmware image for PC (I'm definitely getting it again) that had everything ready to go with the Cell emulator, Eclipse, test projects and everything. I managed to start projects fine, and could modify some code and experiment straight from the off.

I haven't gotten that for yet on YDL though. Wish it was easier.

J.F. · Post by **J.F.** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:14 am

Yellow Dog is based on RPMs... do they use YUM? If so, you should be able to use YUMEX or even Smart PM to handle installing packages. Just install gcc, the Cell SDK, and an IDE like CodeBlocks, Geany, Eclipse, or Anjuta. It's that easy in Ubuntu - just start up Synaptic, select the dev packages, install, and get to programming. :)

Arwin · Post by **Arwin** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:29 am

Yeah, they use YUM.

In the end (after a LOT of messing around) I managed to find that old VMWare again (it's still on the web somewhere) and used that.

Now I have a Fedora 7 VMWare all ready to go with the 3.0 SDK and the Cell IDE installed, and can Run projects into a local Cell Simulator or on YDL on my PS3 using a remote session. That's exactly how I want to have it.

In all the other things I've tried to set up, I got stuck at the point of installing the Cell IDE (which I really wanted to have) because there was some timeout on getting some files from IBM repositories. That was really annoying. I don't know if it had to do with Fedora 10 / Ubuntu 9.04 or that the files just weren't available, but it stalled me every time. If anyone has any tips I'd love to finish the install on Ubuntu using the 3.1 SDK (it's 3.0 in the Fedora 7 VMWare), but having the 3.1 SDK on YDL and 3.0 locally seems to pose no problems so far.

Great at least that I can now really go at it. Now it's just a matter of learning how the thing really works. ;)