After taking Sony to task for yanking “Other OS” support from the PS3 in their latest firmware update, v3.21, George Hotz – aka geohot – has followed up on his promise to develop a custom firmware build that bypasses the new restriction. The new firmware, which is yet to be publicly released, maintains the ability to install third-party OSes on the PS3, but without the gamer losing access to the PlayStation Network.
“This can be installed without having to open up your PS3, just by restoring a custom generated PUP file, but only from 3.15 or previous. It’s possible this CFW will also work on the slim to actually *enable* OtherOS; I’ll know when my infectus gets here.” George Hotz
In fact, Hotz also reckons that it might be possible to use the new custom firmware on a newer PS3 Slim to enable “Other OS” functionality, something that version of the console never had to begin with. The tweaked firmware must be installed on a PS3 running a version previous to 3.21, however; if you ignored the advice and upgraded anyway, you’ll need to find a way to roll your console back before you can try this unofficial install.
Hotz is yet to confirm a release date, but the video demo below does show the hacked firmware in action. Until its launch, you can apparently use a proxy hack to gain access to the PSN while still running the older firmware.