Proceeding the PSXITArch Linux v2 PS4 Distro, ITMania PS4 Linux Updates, his PS4 SFO Reader / Editor and PKGCheck PS4 Tool this weekend PS4Scene developer Hippie68 shared a guide covering How to Install PSXITArch on PS4, Enable Wi-Fi and Update the Distro in 2021 for those interested in learning! 
Check it out via Hippie68's Github repository below, from the README.md: How to install psxitarch, enable Wi-Fi, and update the distro
Update: I did all the steps below with a clean psxitarch installation to fully update it.
Download here: psxitarch.tar.xz (1.72 GB)
This is a fully updated psxitarch.tar.xz file, to be used in place of the original one.
Checksums:
1. Get the required files
You need 3 files: An initramfs file, a Linux kernel in form of a "bzImage" file and "psxitarch.tar.xz", which contains the psxitarch distro files. This is the official download page (in Italian language): PSXITArch Linux v2 (PSXITATeam Patreon)
Direct download links (as found on the official website):
Direct download link:
If you want/need to use this kernel instead of the default one, make sure to rename "bzImage.bin" to "bzImage".
2. Set up a USB storage device
The device can be a USB stick, an HDD/SDD connected to a USB adapter, an SD card inside a USB SD card adapter, or whatever else that qualifies as "USB storage device". USB 3.0+ is recommended.
Create a single partition on the USB storage device that uses the whole space and format it to FAT32.
Copy the 3 previously downloaded files "initramfs.cpio.gz", "bzImage", and "psxitarch.tar.xz" to the FAT32 partition.
3. Boot Linux from a PS4
Plug the USB storage device into USB slot 0, which is the leftmost one up front, and visit a jailbreak website (e.g. for PS4 firmware 7.02 up to 7.55). Select the payload "Linux (1 GB)", as it is important not to select "Linux (3 GB)" for the first-time setup, and wait for the jailbreak to succeed. When it does, it will boot Linux from USB.
You have to attach a USB keyboard (+ mouse) to enter commands. Use a USB hub if your PS4 doesn't have enough USB slots.
4. Install psxitarch
After the boot process is complete, you will see a command line prompt. Enter the following command:
This script may run for half an hour or longer, depending on your USB device's speed. When the script has finished and you're still on the command line (which can sometimes happen), type
to boot into the now-installed psxitarch.
If you don't have a US keyboard: Once you see the desktop, set your keyboard layout by clicking the Mushroom in the upper left corner, then "Language" - "Keyboard Layout".
5. Connect to the Internet
Click on the Wi-Fi symbol in the upper right corner. Either you're lucky and you own one of the PS4s whose network devices are supported (then connect to your network and proceed to step 6 right away), or you will see the text "No network devices available". Which means you need the alternative kernel mentioned in step 2. With that kernel, you should be able to use some (not all) USB Wi-Fi dongles out-of-the-box. I found a list of Wi-Fi devices that are supposed to have in-built Linux kernel support here: USB-WiFi (buy at your own risk!)
If you don't have any Wi-Fi dongles that are supported, you can use a smartphone's USB tethering mode by connecting the smartphone via USB (the cable you use must support data transfer - not all do).
Example for Android smartphones (the menu names may vary with different Android versions):
6. Update the distro
The distro we have installed right now was released in January 2019. A downside about an Arch Linux installation (which psxitarch is based on) is that the less often you update it, the more difficult it becomes. Psxita has made available update instructions in March 2021 (Ps3ita_Team), however once again it has been a while since then, and those instructions are no longer sufficient. It is still possible to update though, and that is what we will do next.
Click on the Mushroom icon and select "Terminal".
Some currently installed packages would prevent updating, so we will delete them (in the case of jwm-git only temporarily):
Confirm with "y" each. Now and later while using pacman you may see the messages "call to execv failed (No such file or directory)" and "error: command failed to execute correctly". This doesn't matter.
Note: After you have deleted "jwm-git", should you reboot before the whole update process (6.) is complete (which is not advised), you will have no desktop anymore but just a terminal. If it lets you enter text, you can still complete any missing steps below. If not, try to open a new terminal by pressing (CTRL-)ALT-2 (or -3, -4, ...) and log in with user "psxita" and password "changeit".
Next, we need to specify a new key server by entering
and replacing the old "hkp://pool.sks-keyservers.net" entry, which is now deprecated, with a reliable one, e.g. "hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com". You can save the file by pressing CTRL-X and confirming with "y".
We also need to change pacman's repo. Open the file /etc/pacman.conf by entering
and change the very last line,
to
Save and close the file like before, by pressing CTRL-X and confirming with "y".
Furthermore, the planned distro update would fail if we don't update the current keyring first. Enter
and confirm each question that looks like ":: Import PGP key [...]?" with "y".
We could now start the distro update, but there is one noteworthy problem left: our current pacman is so old that it won't understand a new keyword ("Path") used by hooks at the end of the update process. Fortunately, there is a statically compiled up-to-date pacman available in Arch Linux's user repository (AUR): Arch Linux's User Repository (AUR)
As a binary file is provided there as well, let's download that:
And make it executable:
Finally, it's time to update the distro:
Note: You could use the currently installed pacman instead, but I can't guarantee this won't lead to further problems down the road. Not recommended.
No matter which pacman we use, it will now download 900+ MB of updates and install them. Before and during the update process, answer all questions (should any appear) with "y" and always choose "1" if you are asked to input a number.
During the update, pacman will be updated too. So from now on there will be no need to use pacman-static anymore.
To finalize the update, we will need to get jwm (our desktop) back, which we had deleted earlier:
And that's it. Your psxitarch is now fully up-to-date!
Optional: Having downloaded all those packages now occupies quite some disk space. Which may be undesired if the USB storage device we use is of small capacity. If you want to free the space, type
That concludes this How-To. I want to make sure it stays up-to-date. If you find any mistakes or want to add information, please create an issue at https://github.com/hippie68/psxitarch-how-to/issues.
Thanks for reading!
Bonus: Fix the audio lag
psxitarch by default has horrendous audio lag. It seems the default audio latency is set to 100 ms. Not good for gaming. To fix this, enter
and change the lines
to
It is important to remove the semicolons - otherwise the changes would have no effect. Save by pressing CTRL-X and confirm with "y".
To apply the changes to the currently running psxitarch session, enter
to "kill" the pulseaudio daemon, which should then restart automatically.
You might want to experiment a little with the values, but if you set them too low, you will start to hear audio crackle. The total latency is calculated by (default-fragments * default-fragment-size-msec) in ms.
If you use RetroArch, open it, go to "Audio - Output - Audio Latency (ms)" and change the default setting from 64 to 0. Which indirectly means it will use whatever you have set in daemon.conf, as that value is now higher once again. Make sure the selected audio driver is still "pulse", as it is by default.
Check it out via Hippie68's Github repository below, from the README.md: How to install psxitarch, enable Wi-Fi, and update the distro
Update: I did all the steps below with a clean psxitarch installation to fully update it.
Download here: psxitarch.tar.xz (1.72 GB)
This is a fully updated psxitarch.tar.xz file, to be used in place of the original one.
Checksums:
- MD5: 27c10f723e9a7aac7143157988cd700a
- SHA1: 2d12eea0e60043f25e64829cd312358d53270754
- SHA256: 2a48efae95b18eef1350bdda838ab6000d857055b2981ea893ef06b3d22394b4
1. Get the required files
You need 3 files: An initramfs file, a Linux kernel in form of a "bzImage" file and "psxitarch.tar.xz", which contains the psxitarch distro files. This is the official download page (in Italian language): PSXITArch Linux v2 (PSXITATeam Patreon)
Direct download links (as found on the official website):
- initramfs.cpio.gz (3.9 MB)
- bzImage (5.9 MB)
- psxitarch.tar.xz (2.6 GB)
Direct download link:
- bzImage.bin (5.82 MB)
If you want/need to use this kernel instead of the default one, make sure to rename "bzImage.bin" to "bzImage".2. Set up a USB storage device
The device can be a USB stick, an HDD/SDD connected to a USB adapter, an SD card inside a USB SD card adapter, or whatever else that qualifies as "USB storage device". USB 3.0+ is recommended.
Create a single partition on the USB storage device that uses the whole space and format it to FAT32.
Copy the 3 previously downloaded files "initramfs.cpio.gz", "bzImage", and "psxitarch.tar.xz" to the FAT32 partition.
3. Boot Linux from a PS4
Plug the USB storage device into USB slot 0, which is the leftmost one up front, and visit a jailbreak website (e.g. for PS4 firmware 7.02 up to 7.55). Select the payload "Linux (1 GB)", as it is important not to select "Linux (3 GB)" for the first-time setup, and wait for the jailbreak to succeed. When it does, it will boot Linux from USB.
You have to attach a USB keyboard (+ mouse) to enter commands. Use a USB hub if your PS4 doesn't have enough USB slots.
4. Install psxitarch
After the boot process is complete, you will see a command line prompt. Enter the following command:
Code:
exec install-psxitarch.sh
Code:
resume-bootIf you don't have a US keyboard: Once you see the desktop, set your keyboard layout by clicking the Mushroom in the upper left corner, then "Language" - "Keyboard Layout".
5. Connect to the Internet
Click on the Wi-Fi symbol in the upper right corner. Either you're lucky and you own one of the PS4s whose network devices are supported (then connect to your network and proceed to step 6 right away), or you will see the text "No network devices available". Which means you need the alternative kernel mentioned in step 2. With that kernel, you should be able to use some (not all) USB Wi-Fi dongles out-of-the-box. I found a list of Wi-Fi devices that are supposed to have in-built Linux kernel support here: USB-WiFi (buy at your own risk!)
If you don't have any Wi-Fi dongles that are supported, you can use a smartphone's USB tethering mode by connecting the smartphone via USB (the cable you use must support data transfer - not all do).
Example for Android smartphones (the menu names may vary with different Android versions):
- "Settings" - "Wireless & networks" - "More" - "Tethering & portable hotspot" - "USB tethering" - ENABLE
6. Update the distro
The distro we have installed right now was released in January 2019. A downside about an Arch Linux installation (which psxitarch is based on) is that the less often you update it, the more difficult it becomes. Psxita has made available update instructions in March 2021 (Ps3ita_Team), however once again it has been a while since then, and those instructions are no longer sufficient. It is still possible to update though, and that is what we will do next.
Click on the Mushroom icon and select "Terminal".
Some currently installed packages would prevent updating, so we will delete them (in the case of jwm-git only temporarily):
Code:
sudo pacman -R jwm-git
sudo pacman -Rc openobex openexrNote: After you have deleted "jwm-git", should you reboot before the whole update process (6.) is complete (which is not advised), you will have no desktop anymore but just a terminal. If it lets you enter text, you can still complete any missing steps below. If not, try to open a new terminal by pressing (CTRL-)ALT-2 (or -3, -4, ...) and log in with user "psxita" and password "changeit".
Next, we need to specify a new key server by entering
Code:
sudo nano /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/gpg.confWe also need to change pacman's repo. Open the file /etc/pacman.conf by entering
Code:
sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf
Code:
Server = https://psxita.it/repo
Code:
Server = https://psxita.it/repo-testingFurthermore, the planned distro update would fail if we don't update the current keyring first. Enter
Code:
sudo pacman -Sy archlinux-keyringWe could now start the distro update, but there is one noteworthy problem left: our current pacman is so old that it won't understand a new keyword ("Path") used by hooks at the end of the update process. Fortunately, there is a statically compiled up-to-date pacman available in Arch Linux's user repository (AUR): Arch Linux's User Repository (AUR)
As a binary file is provided there as well, let's download that:
Code:
curl https://pkgbuild.com/~eschwartz/repo/x86_64-extracted/pacman-static -o pacman-static
Code:
chmod +x pacman-static
Code:
sudo ./pacman-static -SyuNo matter which pacman we use, it will now download 900+ MB of updates and install them. Before and during the update process, answer all questions (should any appear) with "y" and always choose "1" if you are asked to input a number.
During the update, pacman will be updated too. So from now on there will be no need to use pacman-static anymore.
To finalize the update, we will need to get jwm (our desktop) back, which we had deleted earlier:
Code:
sudo pacman -S jwmOptional: Having downloaded all those packages now occupies quite some disk space. Which may be undesired if the USB storage device we use is of small capacity. If you want to free the space, type
Code:
sudo pacman -SccThanks for reading!
Bonus: Fix the audio lag
psxitarch by default has horrendous audio lag. It seems the default audio latency is set to 100 ms. Not good for gaming. To fix this, enter
Code:
sudo nano /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
Code:
; default-fragments=4
; default-fragment-size-msec=25
Code:
default-fragments=4
default-fragment-size-msec=10To apply the changes to the currently running psxitarch session, enter
Code:
pulseaudio -kYou might want to experiment a little with the values, but if you set them too low, you will start to hear audio crackle. The total latency is calculated by (default-fragments * default-fragment-size-msec) in ms.
If you use RetroArch, open it, go to "Audio - Output - Audio Latency (ms)" and change the default setting from 64 to 0. Which indirectly means it will use whatever you have set in daemon.conf, as that value is now higher once again. Make sure the selected audio driver is still "pulse", as it is by default.
