Installing PlayStation 2 IOP modules with Gentoo

The input/output processor (IOP) is a MIPS R3000A, or in later PlayStation 2 models a PowerPC 405GP emulating a MIPS R3000A. This processor provides a number of kernel services, for example, handling of USB interrupts. These are implemented as IOP modules that the PlayStation 2 Linux kernel loads as firmware.

Make sure that you have

• a working R5900 cross-compiler, or begin by installing an R5900 cross-compiler with Gentoo;
• the frno7 overlay, or begin by installing the frno7 Gentoo overlay.

IOP modules are built with an R5900 cross-compiler,

USE="modules -tools" mipsr5900el-unknown-linux-gnu-emerge -v sys-firmware/iopmod

and they will then be installed in the directory /usr/mipsr5900el-unknown-linux-gnu/lib/firmware/ps2.

These IRX files are to be installed as firmware in the lib/firmware/ps2 directory when building a PlayStation 2 Linux INITRAMFS root filesystem.