Arch Linux

Arch is the lowest-overhead distro option. Sway as the window manager keeps idle RAM usage around 750 MiB, leaving the most headroom for games and applications.

                  -`                     ps5@archlinux
                 .o+`                    OS: Arch Linux x86_64
                `ooo/                    Host: PlayStation 5 (CFI-1016B 01Y)
               `+oooo:                   Kernel: Linux 7.1.0
              `+oooooo:                  Packages: 719 (pacman)
              -+oooooo+:                 Shell: fish 4.7.1
            `/:-:++oooo+:                CPU: 100-000000189 (16) @ 3.49 GHz
           `/++++/+++++++:               GPU: AMD Device 13FB
          `/++++++++++++++:              Memory: 750.04 MiB / 15.00 GiB (5%)
         `/+++ooooooooooooo/`            Disk (/): 29.04 GiB / 468.33 GiB (6%)
        ./ooosssso++osssssso+`           Local IP (wlp64s0f7): 192.168.1.81/24
       .oossssso-````/ossssss+`
      -osssssso.      :ssssssso.
     :osssssss/        osssso+++.
    /ossssssss/        +ssssooo/-
  `/ossssso+/:-        -:/+osssso+-
 `+sso+:-`                 `.-/+oso:
`++:.                           `-/+/
.`                                 `/

Kernel Setup

The ps5-linux project ships a patched kernel via ps5-linux-patches. Pre-built packages are available as .pkg.tar.zst for Arch Linux based distributions.

1. Install Pre-built Kernel

Download from ps5-linux-patches releases and install normally:

# Arch based distributions
sudo pacman -U ps5-linux-*.pkg.tar.zst

2. Compiling the Kernel

First, clone the repositories, apply the PS5 Linux patches, and run the compilation.

Check for the Latest Kernel Version

Do not blindly copy the checkout version below. Always check the official ps5-linux-patches Releases page to see what the current supported kernel version is (for example, v7.0.10), and replace v7.0.10 with the newest tag.

Clone the patch repository and the stable Linux kernel

git clone https://github.com/ps5-linux/ps5-linux-patches
git clone https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git

Navigate to the kernel directory

cd linux

Run the following command

git checkout "tags/v$(grep -m1 "^# Linux/" ../ps5-linux-patches/.config | awk '{print $3}')"

Apply patches and copy configuration

git apply ../ps5-linux-patches/linux.patch
cp ../ps5-linux-patches/.config .config

Prepare and build the kernel using all available CPU cores

make olddefconfig
make -j$(nproc)

Generating the Initrd & Storage Setup

After compilation, you need to generate your initial ramdisk (initrd) image.

Keep Track of Your Version

When generating the initrd and copying files, the $(make kernelrelease) command dynamically fetches your kernel version (e.g., 7.0.10). Ensure your compilation steps above finished successfully so this variable resolves correctly.

sudo mkinitcpio -k "$(make kernelrelease)" -g /boot/initrd.img-$(make kernelrelease) || true

Backup your old boot images just in case

sudo mv /boot/efi/bzImage /boot/efi/bzImage.old
sudo mv /boot/efi/initrd.img /boot/efi/initrd.img.old

Copy the newly compiled kernel and generated initrd

sudo cp ~/linux/arch/x86/boot/bzImage /boot/efi/bzImage
sudo cp /boot/initrd.img-$(make kernelrelease) /boot/efi/initrd.img

Flush file system buffers to ensure data is safely written

sync