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Softpedia has taken the liberty of writing an excellent tutorial on how to install Ubuntu Gutsy (7.10) as a secondary operating system on your Playstation 3.
 

For those of you who think for a second (and who are scared) that this will replace their PS3 operating system, well you guys are wrong, because this will NOT erase your PlayStation 3 native operating system (called XMB) and it will run as an alternative OS on your PS3 console.
 

Things needed
 

1) An USB flash drive or a Memory Card (PS3 can read only SD/miniSD Memory Card, Memory Stick PRO (Duo) and CompactFlash). Or, as an alternative, you can use a portable hard disk with FAT32 filesystem on it.
 

2) An USB keyboard and mouse attached to your PS3.
 

3) Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) PS3 ISO image, which you can always download from Softpedia. You will need to burn this ISO image on a blank CD with your favorite CD/DVD burning tool.
 

Prepare your PlayStation 3 for Ubuntu
 

You will need to partition the PS3 hard drive, otherwise you will not be able to install Ubuntu. Power on your PS3, Log in and go to “Settings -> System Settings“, scroll down until you find the “Format Utility“, press X on it and go to “Format Hard Disk” (last option). You’ll be asked if you want to format your hard disk, so press “Yes” and then you must choose a partition setting for the hard drive. Select the “Custom” option, then select “Allot 10GB to the Other OS” entry and do a “Quick Format“.
 

When it’s done, reboot your PS3.
 

The KBoot installation
 

As I don’t have an USB flash drive, I’ve used an external hard drive for this operation, and it worked like a charm. Create a folder, on your USB stick (drive), called PS3, and inside this folder create another one called OTHEROS. Put the otheros.bld (otheros.bld for PlayStation 3) file in the OTHEROS folder. Now, go to “Settings -> System Settings -> Install Other Os” and hit X to detect and install KBoot.
 

Boot and install the Ubuntu PS3 Live CD
 

Are you wondering how to access what you’ve just installed above?
 

Go to “Settings -> System Settings -> Default System” (press X) and select “Other OS“. You’ll be asked if you want to quit your PS3 system and start the other OS (of course you do), so choose “Yes” and wait for the PS3 to reboot. You should attach the USB keyboard and mouse to the PS3. In a few seconds, you will see “Ubuntu PS3 KBoot Loader” text on the top of your screen. Insert the Ubuntu PS3 Live CD in your PS3, type install and wait for the Live CD to load.
 

In a few seconds, you will see that sexy wallpaper of Ubuntu Gutsy and the installation wizard will appear. Follow the installation steps from here if you don’t know what to do.
 

Go back to the PS3 OS
 

To get back to your PS3 OS, restart Ubuntu and, at the KBoot prompt, type: boot-game-os and hit enter. Wait for the PS3 to reboot and you’ll see the XMB (PlayStation 3 operating system).
 

Thank you again to Softpedia for such a sweet and basic tutorial