Kernel Setup

The ps5-linux project ships a patched kernel via ps5-linux-patches. Pre-built packages are available as .deb for Debian/Ubuntu.

1. Install Pre-built Kernel

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

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -i ps5-linux-*.deb

2. Build from Source

Dependencies

GCC works, but Clang/LLVM is recommended.

Arch Linux:

# Clang (recommended)
sudo pacman -S clang llvm lld pahole bison flex bc cpio python openssl

# GCC
sudo pacman -S gcc pahole bison flex bc cpio python openssl

Debian/Ubuntu:

# Clang (recommended)
sudo apt install clang llvm lld dwarves bison flex bc cpio python3 libssl-dev libelf-dev

# GCC
sudo apt install gcc dwarves bison flex bc cpio python3 libssl-dev libelf-dev

Build

git clone https://github.com/ps5-linux/ps5-linux-patches
git clone https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
cd linux
git checkout "tags/v$(grep -m1 '^# Linux/' ../ps5-linux-patches/.config | awk '{print $3}')"
git apply ../ps5-linux-patches/linux.patch
cp ../ps5-linux-patches/.config .config

# With Clang (recommended)
make LLVM=1 LLVM_IAS=1 -j$(nproc)

# With GCC
make -j$(nproc)

sudo make modules_install
sudo make install

Pending in ps5-linux-patches

• amdgpu SMU driver: correct GPU frequency and temperature reporting
• HDMI converter: HDR, RGB range, 120 Hz improvements

Cmdline

Kernel cmdline is in cmdline.txt on the FAT32 partition of your USB drive. Edit it to pass custom parameters:

# Force 1080p if display not detected correctly
amdgpu.force_1080p=1

# Remove this line if you get black screen
video=DP-1:1920x1080@60

Default shipped cmdline (varies slightly per image):

root=LABEL=__DISTRO__ rw rootwait console=ttyTitania0 console=tty0 mitigations=off idle=halt preempt=full

• console=ttyTitania0 - Sony's internal name for the UART serial console, useful if you're debugging headless over UART
• mitigations=off - Spectre/Meltdown mitigations disabled by default for performance; add mitigations=auto if you want them back
• idle=halt - see Performance Tips if you notice microstuttering

VRAM

Default VRAM allocation is 512 MB (dynamic). To change, edit vram.txt on the FAT32 partition - value is a hex byte count, not decimal MB, see GPU: VRAM for the correct format and a size table. See AMD BC250 docs for details.