f you didn’t know already, OtherOS is back on the PS3. A developer using the name Geoffrey Levand, has released a dual booting Custom Firmware, what this will let us do, is boot between GameOS and OtherOS, below is a quote from the source:

Features:
Into HV integrated OtherOS bootloader loader (compatible with OtherOS bootloader on 3.15)
OtherOS bootloader is booted directly from HV, no GameOS is involved.
Process of booting OtherOS bootloader loader is very similar to 3.15 method
Booting Linux from HDD/USB/BD/Network
Linux with GameOS rights
Full access to all HV SS services (Dispatcher Manager) from GameOS or Linux
Full access to all System Manager services
Ability to create/modify/remove repository nodes in LPAR 1 (e.g. with ps3dm-utils or ps3hvc-utils).
This ability gives you much power over the whole system because many layers of PS3 use repository nodes to exchange information.
Enabled QA mode in Update Manager
Downgrading without USB dongle or Service Mode
Ability to deactivate/activate HDD/VFLASH encryption (e.g. with ps3stor-utils)
Support for ps3-utils. You can flash new OtherOS bootloader from Linux e.g.
Notes:
Tested 3.41 and 3.55 on PS3 Slim with Gentoo and Debian Squeeze but should work on PS3 Fat without problems
Bug reports are welcome, send it please to geoffrey.levand@mail.ru
Work in progress:
Creating OtherOS partitions directly on HDD (not VFLASH)
Permanently disabling HDD/VFLASH encryption
Mapping of HTAB with R/W permission
SYSCON access from LPAR 2
FreeBSD support

Installing OtherOS bootloader
Tested ONLY on PS3 models with VFLASH
During deleting of VFLASH regions GameOS will ask you to reinstall firmware, don’t do it, just press PS3 button and continue
I use petitboot as OtherOS bootloader. You could use a different one.
The following order of steps is important
Delete VFLASH region 6
Delete VFLASH region 5
Create VFLASH region 5
Create VFLASH region 6
Install OtherOS bootloader on VFLASH with “Install OtherOS”
Booting OtherOS bootloader
Run “Boot OtherOS”
Reboot GameOS with “Reboot”
Creating a VFLASH partition for Linux
Notes:
Works ONLY on PS3 models with VFLASH
Warning: All your HDD data will be lost, so make a backup
I’m currently working on a solution for PS3 models with NAND flash
Resize VFLASH (creates a 40GB free space on VFLASH, if you need more then feel free to recompile it)
Reboot GameOS
Create VFLASH region 7
Installing Linux with petitboot
Installing Gentoo GNU/Linux from a Unix/Linux System
Partitioning with fdisk
Notes:
I used petitboot to install Debian and Gentoo on VFLASH
I used fdisk to partition ps3vflashh
Make sure you create a swap partition
Creating a ready to use Linux distribution images is a work in progress
Booting Linux with petitboot
Notes:
USB driver in petitboot has problems on PS3 Slim. The problem lies in Linux USB driver.
Currently i’m trying to fix this problem in Linux kernel
I temporarily use my boot_linux.sh script to boot a Linux installed on VFLASH from petitboot

DOWNLOAD:

Firmwares:

PS3 Dual Boot GameOS/Linux CFW 3.30 (md5 9142d8c1707a3257b21c29d6f266c6c6) – Added 05/10/11

PS3 Dual Boot GameOS/Linux CFW 3.41 (md5 9b439b04c4c0b841ae50c3af18bb584d)

PS3 Dual Boot GameOS/Linux CFW 3.50 (md5 74b4291615ceb394e0d64078d775a93d)

PS3 Dual Boot GameOS/Linux CFW 3.55 (md5 fac423010dc8e20030f28145a42627fb)

Firmware Mirrors: (If the above links are overloaded)

PS3 Dual Boot GameOS/Linux CFW 3.30 (md5 9142d8c1707a3257b21c29d6f266c6c6)

PS3 Dual Boot GameOS/Linux CFW 3.41 (md5 9b439b04c4c0b841ae50c3af18bb584d)

PS3 Dual Boot GameOS/Linux CFW 3.50 (md5 74b4291615ceb394e0d64078d775a93d)

PS3 Dual Boot GameOS/Linux CFW 3.55 (md5 fac423010dc8e20030f28145a42627fb)

Tools:

create_vflash5.pkg (md5 d76700a04cd58b29970d752b73dc6a0d)

create_vflash6.pkg (md5 4ccea493c87299c3fe75ec3b093091f8)

create_vflash7.pkg (md5 78e432917ed972c415b3a0a703f4acaf)

delete_vflash5.pkg (md5 83f32c6fdf9d532c2a8203bce3852e86)

delete_vflash6.pkg (md5 573b587f04d21d40837688c39c8587bd)

delete_vflash7.pkg (md5 8366318a4fafbd769bc9df0b6e528ea1)

resize_vflash.pkg (md5 9a5cb0bcd819788749d2926111df6870)

install_otheros.pkg (md5 9e5e79fa0450e34071223c40c34a8e8a)

boot_gameos.pkg (md5 7377d1c89f4f67957cafe18a2e58d006)

boot_otheros.pkg (md5 bf425926d3d55ab59828d5b6c2a2c333)

reboot.pkg (md5 450fba966321445ec50360b21b9fa99b)

dtbImage.ps3.bin (md5 8df950e8033ca5f58149ab009b998ce4) – Updated 05/09/11

initimg.sh (md5 1897ce58cd06690f4ae2c9c23c558bce) – Added 05/07/11

All tools beep twice if they succeed !!!

SOURCE GITBREW.ORG

EDIT:

Quote from PS3MFW

We are proud of the scene, and we want to congratulate all the devs who made this possible, Graf Chokolo of course (don’t forget to donate to him if you didn’t already, he needs it to fight his legal battle with $ony) and the newcomer “Geoffrey Levand” (probably a fake name) who worked closely with Graf and continued his work after Graf was forced to stop (because Sony thinks it owns you and your console) as well as a thank you to our friends at gitbrew.org for helping and providing a safe haven for these talented developers to work.