PS3 optimization.

[nevertell]

Since the summer holidays (or weekends, idk, English isn't my native language), I have a lot of free time on my hands. So, I thought I'd try to make my ps3's linux run as fast as I could get it to run. And, the first thing, that came to mind, was to install an ubuntu ps3 server build (9.04) and then compile pretty much everything from source. I'd start with the two major things- a desktop environment and xorg. And the latter is the one I am most concerned about. I am pretty sure it won't be the usual untar-cd-./configure-make-sudo make install. I am going to do this after I have installed all the cell-sdk or something, so that, when I compile a program with gcc, it will use all the spe's.
So I have some questions to ask, one of which, will this improve the performance ? Well, about the performance, I don't even care, I just want to experiment.
What do I need to know, when compiling xorg from source?
Is there a better distro to do this ?
Which would be the lightest desktop environment to get ?
And can I get the sources of Firefox, OpenOffice, a good decompresser and a media player?

Thanks a bunch !

[Kano]

You gain basically nothing when you compile everything yourself. The packages are precompiled and usually not slower. There might some special apps where you maybe could gain speed, but basically it is useless effort, you just waste energy and time.

[nevertell]

You gain basically nothing when you compile everything yourself. The packages are precompiled and usually not slower. There might some special apps where you maybe could gain speed, but basically it is useless effort, you just waste energy and time.

Well, you see, on the ps3 build all the programms and libraries are optimized for the ppc arch, but not cell's spe's, since they can't compile it using the cell libraries provided by ibm. Like, when I added library, I typed spe-top and, guess what, they were unused, 0% usage during pretty much anything. And, when I add the library and compile everything, it will actually make a difference. And if it won't, at least I'll know better next time.

[RealNC]

In that case, try Gentoo PPC. It's source-based distro (meaning everything will be compiled from source automatically when you try to install it). Use an -march GCC switch in your /etc/make.conf that suits cell CPUs best. There's also this package in Gentoo, might help:

sys-kernel/cell-sources
Homepage: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kern...ell/ps3-linux/
Description: Full sources including the cell/ps3 patchset for the 2.6 kernel tree

Googling for "gentoo ps3" might also help. Also, Arch Linux is sourced based too and might have optimizations for PS3. Google is your friend here too.

[nevertell]

In that case, try Gentoo PPC. It's source-based distro (meaning everything will be compiled from source automatically when you try to install it). Use an -march GCC switch in your /etc/make.conf that suits cell CPUs best. There's also this package in Gentoo, might help:

sys-kernel/cell-sources
Homepage: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kern...ell/ps3-linux/
Description: Full sources including the cell/ps3 patchset for the 2.6 kernel tree

Googling for "gentoo ps3" might also help. Also, Arch Linux is sourced based too and might have optimizations for PS3. Google is your friend here too.

Thanks, but your link seems a bit outdated. Nevertheless, I found what you suggested and I am already learning more about gentoo. Although gentoo was my first linux experience, it was neither long, nor pleasant, but it was mostly because it was on a p3 with 500mhz.