A newly launched project lets you boot Ubuntu on a PlayStation 5 to play Steam games, though only if your console is on old enough firmware.
The hack is the work of security engineer Andy Nguyen, who this week announced a public release of his ps5-linux-boot project so more people can turn their “…PS5 Phat console on 3.xx and 4.xx [Firmware] into a fully functional Linux PC gaming device”.
Obviously, this is all unofficial.
The project exploits a patched hypervisor vulnerability to give Linux direct access to the PS5’s hardware – which with its eight Zen 2 CPU cores (16 threads) @ up to 3.5GHz, an RDNA 2 GPU @ up to 2.23GHz and 4K60 HDMI output, is quite a machine.
Andy also shared a video running GTA V Enhanced with Ray Tracing, achieving a buttery smooth 60fps at 1440p with dynamic vram enabled.
Interestingly, you’ll notice Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon) is used in the demo, which means Andy’s PS5 is running a newer Ubuntu release than most of my actual computers.
The PS5 Linux Image builder creates “bootable Linux USB images for PlayStation 5 using Docker containers” and “supports Ubuntu 26.04, Ubuntu 24.04, Arch, and Alpine, individually or as a multi-distro image with kexec switching”.
Linux on your PS5 via an exploit
The ps5-linux boot loader project is not a one-click process delivering a flawless, trouble-free experience on any PlayStation 5 you come across. It’s still a hack; there’s grind involved.
Flashback to the official Linux PS2 release.
The exploit relies on a firmware vulnerability that’s been patched, so if you want to try this you need a PS5 Phat on firmware 3.xx or 4.xx (specifically 3.00, 3.10, 3.20, 3.21, 4.00, 4.02, 4.03, 4.50, or 4.51, per the GitHub).
Output is currently capped at 60Hz (a WIP), and the built-in Bluetooth won’t work so you need a dongle to actually use your DualSense controller.
Set up requires you to build a Linux image, have a USB drive (64GB or larger), a USB ethernet or Wi-Fi adapter and connect a keyboard and mouse.
As a soft-mod, this won’t replace the internal FreeBSD-based ProsperoOS. You’ll have to re-run the exploit each the console reboots. That feels a small price to pay for sticking it to the suits.
Once booted, Ubuntu functions like a regular ol’ x86-64 Linux machine.
All USB ports work, and there’s a tool to adjust CPU and GPU clocks for the adventurous (just, y’know, don’t forget to adjust the fans or things will overheat faster than a Sony exec hearing about this).
The main appeal in doing this (besides ‘because’ you can) is installing the Linux version of Steam to play Windows games. While you could also clear the hurdles to run LibreOffice and do some work instead, it’s wouldn’t be a cool.
If you fancy braving it, learn more @ github.com/ps5-linux.
via Liliputing
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