Pop OS 21.10 for PS4 with Mesa 21.3.5: PS4 Distro Release

March 16, 2022 Noob404 119

Pop OS 21.10 port for the PS4 with the latest Mesa, Libdrm and applications (Wine, Steam, Dolphin Emulator, PCSX2, etc.)

Pop! OS is a good looking Linux distro based on Ubuntu. And, here we have the Pop OS port for PS4. Go through the article to see what you can expect in the distro on your PS4 and how good is gaming on Wine with Pop! OS.

Update: Pop OS 22.04 has been released.

Features

  • Display Manager – GDM
  • Mesa – 21.3.5
  • Libdrm – 2.4.107
  • Dark Mode enabled (can be disabled)
  • Good looking Desktop for gaming and other productivity tasks

Included gaming applications

I have included the following applications by default with the distro package:-

  • Wine
  • Steam
  • Dolphin Emulator
  • PCSX2
  • RetroArch
  • DXVK
  • VKD3D

Learn about the terminal commands used to install these applications and more on major Linux distros here.

Download

Login details

  • User: noob404
  • Password: ps4
  • Root password: ps4

Screenshots

PopOS on PS4: Showcase Video

Installation: How to install Pop OS on PS4?

The usual steps for installation of Linux distros on PS4 might not work with Pop OS. So, I have come up with a faster method for installation. You can read all about it here. And, if you are confused, don’t worry, here is a detailed video showing the whole process.

Set up swap space (Optional, but recommended)

Setting up a proper swap space reduces the chance of crashes during gaming and other heavy tasks. So, I recommend you follow these steps to set up swap space before gaming on this distro.

  1. Open a terminal and type su. It will ask for a password. Enter ps4. You should now have root access.
  2. Next, type cd / and press Enter.
  3. Then, type touch /swapfile.
  4. Next, decide how much swap space you require. I suggest having 4GB to 8GB. But, this will depend on how much free space your USB drive has. Assuming, you want to have 8GB of swap, type fallocate -l 8GB /swapfile and press Enter.
  5. Then, type chmod 600 /swapfile and press Enter.
  6. Following that, type mkswap /swapfile and press Enter.
  7. Finally, type swapon /swapfile and press Enter.
  8. This swap will stick for the current session, but you will have to redo all these steps after a restart. To make this permanent, type nano /etc/fstab. This will open the file, fstab in a text editor.
  9. Use the arrow keys to scroll to the last empty line and type /swapfile none swap sw 0 0. Then, press Ctrl+X followed by Enter.
  10. Press Y when prompted with “Save modified buffer” and Enter.
  11. Confirm that the file name to write is /etc/fstab. Press Enter.

If this method doesn’t work, try this alternate swap creation method (second one in the section).

Fix issues with Pop OS on PS4

While I expect you to have a pleasant experience with this distro, you might run into a few issues. Here are issues that I have noticed while working on this distro. If you ever face any issues, check the AIO page on the same. If you don’t find any fixes there, comment below and I will try to find a fix for it and update the article.

There is no executable ‘/newroot/sbin/init’

To fix this issue, just type resume-boot and press Enter. The distro will then boot normally.

Fix black screen issues on PopOS for PS4

Black screen before login

If the boot freezes on a black screen, here are a few things you could try:-

  1. Press any key.
  2. If that doesn’t work, press Ctrl+Alt+F2. When the terminal appears, press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get to the login screen.
  3. If that too didn’t work, unplug the monitor. You may remove the cable from the monitor end rather than from the PS4. Reconnect the monitor.
  4. Press Ctrl+Alt+F2. On the terminal screen, press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get to the login screen.

Black screen with an underscore (dash) on top left

Many of you have complained of this too. This indicates an issue with the extraction of the distro. To fix this, follow this tutorial, but make sure that you are using Lubuntu for the installation.

Black screen after login

Some users have complained of black screen after they login to Pop OS on PS4. To fix this problem, follow the steps below:-

    1. When on login screen, press Ctrl+Alt+F2. This will drop you into terminal.
    2. Provide username, i.e., noob404 and password, i.e., ps4 to login to terminal.
    3. Type sudo systemctl restart gdm and press Enter.
    4. If that doesn’t fix it, press Ctrl+Alt+F2. A restart maybe required before this if it freezes on the black screen.
    5. On the terminal, type sudo nano /etc/gdm3/custom.conf and press Enter.
    6. Using your arrows, scroll down and remove the # before AutomaticLoginEnable and AutomaticLogin.
    7. Replace user1 with noob404 such that it says AutomaticLogin = noob404.
    8. Press Ctrl+X, then Y and finally Enter to save and exit.
    9. Type reboot and press Enter.

After that, reload the Linux Payload on your PS4 and get to Pop OS. This time, Pop OS will boot directly on your PS4 bypassing the login screen.

Conclusion

I hope you are enjoying Pop OS. Help me make the distro better with your suggestions. Leave your comments below and I will get to working on them.

116 Comments

  1. I love this! To me linux on ps4 is the biggest achievement, big thanks to noob404.

    Will the distro be installed on the internal drive, so we can make use of the speed of an ssd?

    Reply

    • Glad you liked it. There are tutorials to install on internal drive, but I haven’t tried it myself. As for using an SSD, you can get a SATA to USB 3.0 adaptor and get SSD speeds on Linux.

      Reply

  3. great job can you help get mk11 running on this i would really appreciate it i been trying for weeks on other distros

    Reply

    • I will try to run it when I get the time. Right now, on another interesting project for the PS4. But, if you are facing image distortion or loading problems on a Windows game, consider trying this fix.

      Reply

  4. ok thank u i appreciate it itmania and nazky got the game running they told me proton ge and swap i tried that but the game gets stuck on the 3rd loading screen not sure why

    Reply

    • Did you use the same version of Proton GE they were using? And, also please understand that, among GE’s releases there are differences between Proton GE-Proton and Proton--GE.

      Reply

      • i tried all proton ge i even tried mf-install.sh and i tried the ones they were using i even tried on 2 different ps4 a slim and a pro game gets to the 3rd screen and freezes up i also made a 64 bit prefix any help would be appreciated nazky has a video of mk11 running on his steam os maybe you can make a tutorial on how its done each step i even bought the game for itmania and nazky

        Reply

        • Alright. I will try to make a video on it soon. In the meantime, check if you are using the same Mesa version as nazky and ITmania.

        • thanks man im not sure what mesa version hes using but this is what comes with his distro
          Can use the DS4 as a trackpad
          Heroic game launcher (epic games)
          Lutris (for every others games)
          DXVK (Directx9,10,11 to Vulkan)
          VK3D (Directx12 to Vulkan)
          Wine – SteamDeck UI shortcut
          ProtonUP QT (update wine and protonge)
          Can be update
          GameScope

        • I think you have to use some arguments before launching the game , I use lutris on ubuntu and cyperpunk never started until I use this command in arguments box,
          put this in the argument box and see if it works.

          PROTON_ENABLE_NVAPI=1 VKD3D_CONFIG=dxr %command% -dx12 –launcher-skip -skipStartScreen

          you have to use cyperpunk.exe as executable .

    • probably the linux os slow response time because of 2.0 usb but when I think about it; the linux is the home world of live distros and any 2.0 liveusb works pretty much on any aged systems without a hitch as its hdd installed os oppose to ps4 internally installed linux which is much slower and that’s strange when you think about w/r speeds.

      Reply

      • On every distro, I have had very bad speeds and they are almost unusable when using USB 2.0 drives. Even 5400rpm HDDs connected with a USB 3.0 adaptor have bad performance. I always recommend an SSD (internal with atleast USB 3.0 adaptor) or external SSD for running PS4 Linux.

        Reply

  12. Thanks for your work!, do you know if there is a way to avoid the need of “resume-boot”? maybe modifying initramfs or something like that?

    Reply

      • Do you know the commands to extract cpio and compress it back? i found it once and used it to change the boot disk label but i cant find again what commands i used.

        Reply

        • I fixed it adding “sleep 5” before the boot_newroot line in the init file of initramfs!

          Thanks for the drivers, I made a popos distro, I had to disable wayland in gdm and enable automatic login, otherwise it gave me a black screen after login.

          It would be awesome if you did a section on compiling the kernel from source code.

        • Great. I will add this in my edited version of initramfs soon. Thank you. And yes, Wayland, still in development stage seems to freeze on the PS4. X11 is the option for the time being.
          Well, before I do an article on compiling kernel from source, I decided to do a little more digging up and maybe add more value to it. But, lack of time prevents that. Maybe in the near future, I will come up with an article for that.

    • OK, i have found the problem, i post it here for people interested in booting directly to POP OS desktop :

      My config : PS4 pro (belize) initramfs by ps3ita, bzimage 5.15.15 by codedwrench and the following bootargs.txt :
      drm.edid_firmware=edid/1920×1080.bin
      Those files have to be placed in /user/system/boot/ in the ps4 filesystem. (on as to choose a different bzimage if in Baikal)

      It is necessary to download the 1920×1080.bin file : https://uptobox.com/lpiqohkt092r and place it in /lib/firmware/edid/ in the distro filesystem (if i remember, the directory edid has to be created).

      the POPOS internal image has to be placed in the /user/home/ directory of ps4 filesystem
      For those who don’t want a 500Gb image on internal HDD, tastebin made a 49GB image (thanks to him), you can find it ther : https://mega.nz/file/YrQQERjL#qFFgPjlb4MKPp5li7kl0M0dMYxPry27tj0CtW7qllb8

      At this point you should be able to boot linux but be stopped at rescueshell asking to type “resume-boot” in order to continue. That was my principle problem.
      it comes from the /newroot/sbin/init symlink that points the wrong source (/lib/systemd/systemd instead of ../lib/systemd/systemd ), in order to correct that :

      cd /newroot/sbin/
      rm init
      ln -s ../lib/systemd/systemd init (note the “..” that where initially missing

      Hope this could help !
      And sorry for my poor english

      Reply

  14. Hey .. i installed fedora from linux and i got successful thanks to all of you but um facing. Aproblem i upgraded everything from term after that i downloaded those essentials like proton something 2-3 files you mentioned but when i put vulkaninfo | less terminal shows nothing and uplay isnt opening due to some vulkan error am i missing something? Wine etc all upgraded

    Reply

    • This is because during the update, PS4 Linux drivers were probably overwritten. Reinstall the distro and this time, run the command given in the article on Fedora to update. Also, please comment under the article on Fedora, for problems related to Fedora. It helps me track the comments better.

      Reply

  17. i installed virtualbox and created the gpart with the popso files but when i tried to boot it on my ps4 it started to boot up but then it got stuck on the black screen with the – symbol just flashing and i couldnt do anything or type anything all it let me do was boot the ps4 back into its os by pressing ctrl alt delete im not sure what bzimage u are using but even if i use nazky steam os i think mk11 will run once i add your tricks to the game because his os has all the drivers and wine and dvxk he also booted the game on his os im just missing a few steps i think from u

    Reply

  18. Hi, after some issues I finally have it run on PS4 Fat, thanks for your work
    Could you please try install League of Legends?

    Reply

      • Thanks for reply

        I already try it using Lutris but it gets stuck on Creating Wine prefix, The pop op window of Wine configuring the prefix never appear.

        On a PC I dont have that problem, so idk what is happening

        I´m newbie with Linux

        In advance thanks for your help

        Reply

        • Thanks for your help
          I try to see what is the problem but can’t figure it out, I installed some things but I still have the error from the libldap-2.4-2 dependencie

          I try to continue with the installation ignoring that error, but I get and error about libgcc_s.so.1

          I dont want to mess the OS installing or overwriting something, so I hope you can make it work

        • You can manually try to install the dependencies that the error mentions. Just make sure while installing them that Mesa, Libdrm or Xorg (amdpgu) aren’t overwritten. Or, you can wait for me to try it later.

  19. i also see on other forums like ps4hax people are having alot of issues getting your pop os to run so its not just me man

    Reply

    • I had problems at first trying to install it on my Fat PS4, but then I use a VM with Lubuntu like he says and it works, for FAT I use Kernel 5.15.15, in his video you can see that he use 5.3.18 and about black screen I unplug the HDMI cable plug it again and then press Ctrl+Alt+F2. When the terminal appears, press Ctrl+Alt+F1

      Reply

      • How did u get this distro to load up on your pro ps4 I created the pops files on lubutu but when I load it on my ps4 pro I get a black screen and then the type shell but no matter I type nothing happens

        Reply

        • I dont have Pro PS4, I have Fat PS4 and just make the steps of the PC installation, check MODDED WARFARE on youtube for some config that you have to do on the PS4 maybe that’s your problem

      • can u tell what files you used to create the distro and what name you put in gparted when you create the 50mb partition where it says label
        i followed all the steps in the video but when i run the linux payload all i get is the blinking – and then i can type but nothing happens

        Reply

        • I didn’t create a distro, I just download the one above and followed the installation steps, the files that I put on the FAT32 partition are the bzImage and the initramfs.cpio.gz

          You don’t need to put a lable on the FAT32 partition, only on the EXT4 and that lable depends on the initramfs.cpio.gz that you are using

        • I tried all that I made the 2 partitions and I put the 2 files on the 50mb partition and the pops os on the 1tb partition by terminal but when i run the linux payload linux gets stuck on the terminal and nothing else happens

  21. What bzimage are u using and what
    Initrams.cpio are using i tried multiple ones and it doesn’t want to load this os for some reason nazky os I didn’t have any issues with or fedora not sure what I’m doing wrong

    Reply

    • Man, please read… I told you before what bzImage I’m using, the 5.15.15 for Belize, Idk what board version do you have, that’s something that you need to check, and the initramfs.cpio.gz I use the one from psxita

      Reply

    • Hi, I understand your pain. I have added a few more links for download other than Mega. Thanks to the Discord users who uploaded these to other hosts. You may try them.

      Reply

  31. I successfully installed the PopOS on my ps4 slim 6.72, but when i tried to boot for the second time the linux payload says “bzimage missing”, the external hdd is connected to the ps4, what’s happening? i also connected the hdd in windows and noticed that it doesn’t appear any drive when i connect

    Reply

    • Ok, so i saw your video here https://youtu.be/cUHbnISVvVg?t=414 and you formatted the 50mb partition, so i did the same here, and moved the bzimage and initramfs to the disk, the ps4 now boots in to the “linux cmd” but the command resume-boot does nothing, now i don’t know what to do, how can i recover from this? or the only solution is to install again? and what i did wrong when first installing? maybe i will try to install popos 21.10 using Rufus, but i really wanted to use the 22.04 🙁

      Reply

      • So i discovered that typing the commands “fdisk -l” to see the drives (it can be for example: /dev/sdc1) and then typing “mount /dev/sdc1 /newroot” pressing enter and then “exec switch_root /newroot /newroot/sbin/init” makes the linux boot, at this point i was trying to boot in the popos 21.10 (installed with rufus), but after that i also find out that exists a simpler command, so i just need to use first “exec start-ubuntu.sh” (using the initramfs for ubuntu) and then “resume-boot” (note: it takes a very long time to boot using an external hdd), one more thing i discovered was that after the first installation i need to connect the hdd in windows and format the 50mb partition to fat32 and copy the bzimage and initramfs files, if i don’t do that the ps4 gives and error “failed to load file: bzimage”, because for some reason after installing linux the 50mb partition doesn’t stay in fat32 format.

        Reply

        • One question: does anyone know how to boot directly in to linux without having to type those 2 commands? the ctrl+alt+f1 or ctrl+alt+f2 helps when i’m in ubuntu to make the image appear again (when i switch the tv hdmi inputs the ps4 loses signal), but when i’m in the rescueshell those commands don’t work, thanks.

  32. ok, Managed to install this distro on Slim PS4 22xx,
    Using Belize bzimage15.5
    and initramfs from hippe
    Usual black screen for me, but I get around that by:
    1. Turn off TV/Monitor
    2. Press ctrl-alt-f2, ( gets cli prompt )
    3. Press ctrl-alt-f1 ( gets GUI Login )

    Hope that infor helps others, plus i ghet a message ssaying 22.10 is out of date, so next will try the latest POP OS

    Reply

  33. Hey Noob404, just had to let you know that I’ve recently bumped into your work and it’s just awesome. Btw, I had a query which I’m hoping you can address when you get the time. I tried downloading POP OS 21.10 version provided using the basic method (not the alternative method) and after numerous trial and errors, I was finally able to successfully boot in. But now the problem is, I can’t install GParted from the terminal as it leaves me with too many unable to fetch errors and something like that but, I’m pretty sure the reason behind it is that Pop OS needs to be updated. The reason your alternate method might be working is because we already take care of all our updates in Pop OS when using that method which requires the Linux OS. So, if you can respond to this, even a reply, I’ll really appreciate it. Maybe do a video on how to resolve that issue?

    Reply

  35. I love this distro but when I update it gets corrupted and I can’t install a program, I used to install it. it’s breaking down now is it related to the repositories? Is there any way I can use it without system update? (22 version is the same).

    Reply

  36. Hi, will this version be more stable on pro, especially with games using vulkan under steam ?
    I installed it but i can’t install anything due to repo problems, if i type :
    sudo apt-get update
    The error message is :
    Atteint :1 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu impish InRelease
    Ign :2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish InRelease
    Ign :3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-security InRelease
    Atteint :4 http://apt.pop-os.org/proprietary impish InRelease
    Ign :5 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-updates InRelease
    Ign :6 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-backports InRelease
    Atteint :7 http://apt.pop-os.org/release impish InRelease
    Err :8 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish Release
    404 Not Found [IP : 91.189.91.39 80]
    Err :9 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-security Release
    404 Not Found [IP : 91.189.91.39 80]
    Err :10 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-updates Release
    404 Not Found [IP : 91.189.91.39 80]
    Err :11 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-backports Release
    404 Not Found [IP : 91.189.91.39 80]
    Lecture des listes de paquets... Fait
    E: Le dépôt http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish Release ne contient plus de fichier Release.
    N: Les mises à jour depuis un tel dépôt ne peuvent s'effectuer de manière sécurisée, et sont donc désactivées par défaut.
    N: Voir les pages de manuel d'apt-secure(8) pour la création des dépôts et les détails de configuration d'un utilisateur.
    E: Le dépôt http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-security Release ne contient plus de fichier Release.
    N: Les mises à jour depuis un tel dépôt ne peuvent s'effectuer de manière sécurisée, et sont donc désactivées par défaut.
    N: Voir les pages de manuel d'apt-secure(8) pour la création des dépôts et les détails de configuration d'un utilisateur.
    E: Le dépôt http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-updates Release ne contient plus de fichier Release.
    N: Les mises à jour depuis un tel dépôt ne peuvent s'effectuer de manière sécurisée, et sont donc désactivées par défaut.
    N: Voir les pages de manuel d'apt-secure(8) pour la création des dépôts et les détails de configuration d'un utilisateur.
    E: Le dépôt http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-backports Release ne contient plus de fichier Release.
    N: Les mises à jour depuis un tel dépôt ne peuvent s'effectuer de manière sécurisée, et sont donc désactivées par défaut.
    N: Voir les pages de manuel d'apt-secure(8) pour la création des dépôts et les détails de configuration d'un utilisateur.

    What can i do to solve this please ?

    Reply

  38. If you are stuck on resume-boot try pressing control+alt (or option on mac keyboard) + F7 this switched from the installation screen to the linux distro home screen. Might also try pressing other function keys.

    Reply

3 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. Release: PopOS 21.10 for PS4 (with CyberPunk 2077 gameplay), Fedora 35 for PS4, + how to make your own PS4 Linux Distro - Wololo.net
  2. Release: PopOS 21.10 for PS4 (with CyberPunk 2077 gameplay), Fedora 35 for PS4, + how to make your own PS4 Linux Distro - Wololo.net - 99NEWS
  3. PopOS 21.10 uruchomiony na PlayStation 4 - Recenzje gier, publicystyka - Xbox, PS4, Nintendo, PC

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