Re: [Sheflug] Stupid question maybe?

[Seb James <seb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 2007-04-22 at 23:51 +0100, Douglas G Mckendrick wrote:
> I've bought a playstation 3.  And have been reading about linux on the
> ps3.  If I installed yellowdog or even ubuntu now on my ps3, can I
> download and install other programs that never came with the the os?
> eg, Can I install say libdvdcss without worrying about the ps3
> architecture?
> Maybe an easier question..........does programs for linux work on all
> architectures? x86, mac etc?

Not in general. If you obtain libdvdcss in an rpm for, say Fedora on an
i386 machine (a 32 bit x86), you can only install it on that
architecture. The binary programs which are packaged in that rpm have
been compiled specifically for the i386 architecture. The binary
programs contain series of instructions - just numbers - which have a
special meaning to i386 processors. To other processors, that series of
i386 instructions will just be a random stream of 0s and 1s. They could
be interpreted as instructions by the non-i386 processor, but they would
be a random set of instructions and the program would be unlikely to
have the desired effect.

While you _may_ get away with installing that rpm on a different, but
similar distribution (like Centos, perhaps) it will definitely have to
be running on an i386 processor.

You will need rpm/deb/other packages specifically compiled for the ps3.

In some special cases you _can_ have cross platform packages, but that's
quite uncommon.

It _may_ be possible to build packages which contain binaries for
multiple architectures, which auto detect your processor architecture
and install the matching binaries. Anyone know if this is true? It would
certainly be possible in theory, I just don't know if that is done.

A package for a java application _should_ be cross platform, as should
packages for mono/dotgnu applications. This is because these programs
are interpreted by a runtime. The runtime is specific to the host
architecture, but the actual application code is common. Again, I'm not
sure if this is really the case in practice.

hope that helps,

Seb James




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