Creating a new partition for Ubuntu

Formatting your drive

To format your drive, head over to Settings, then System Settings and finally Format Utility. When asked if you are sure you want to format, hit yes. For partition select Custom and then "Allot 10GB to the Other OS." Finally, select Quick Format and wait 30 seconds for it to format. When completed, your PS3 will restart.

Installing kboot

At this point you will be greeted by the XMB and a fresh install. It is now time to install the new OS. Grab your CD you burnt in the Requirements section and insert it in the PS3. Head over to System and hit Install Other OS. You will be asked to select what OS so select the Ubuntu and hit Start. This will install the kboot Linux installer which will allow you to have both XMB and Ubuntu running as a dual boot on your PS3.

Installing the full OS

Head over to Settings again and back to System Settings and finally to Default System. Hit X here and select Other OS to make it the default. When asked to quit the XMB and load the other OS hit Yes. You will then be greeted with a new Linux command screen. At this point please hook up the mouse and keyboard to the USB ports as you will need them. Type in install into the command line and wait for Ubuntu to load.

Note: Please note that if you are not getting full resolution here you will need to make a very quick command before typing "install".

For example, my HDTV is 1080p capable through HDMI but I was only receiving 480p output resolution making it very hard for me to even install the OS. You will need to type the following command into the command line of kboot to make sure output resolution is correct.

install video=ps3fb:mode:X

The X however, is a variable and you must select numbers based on the following chart.

0:auto mode
YUV 60Hz 1:480i 2:480p 3:720p 4:1080i 5:1080p
YUV 50Hz 6:576i 7:576p 8:720p 9:1080i 10:1080p
RGB 60Hz 33:480i 34:480p 35:720p 36:1080i 37:1080p
RGB 50Hz 38:576i 39:576p 40:720p 41:1080i 42:1080p
VESA 11:WXGA 12:SXGA 13:WUXGA

For my example, I chose 5 first, then tried 37 and finally tried 13 and it appeared to me that 5 looked the best so I stuck with it. You may be different so mess around with it until you have found the best resolution for your setup.

Therefore, my command line post looked like this: install video=ps3fb:mode:5. Another option is to type ps3videomode -v 5 if the first command does not work.


On the next page we will go over the actual physical installation of the new OS and its various options.