Linux on the PlayStation Vita

My Vita (PCH-1103) with fastfetch (custom config, colours need some work)

A port of Linux 6.12 to the PlayStation Vita (ARM Cortex-A9 quad-core SoC), building on xerpi's original Vita Linux port. Boots to a Buildroot shell with SMP, framebuffer, touchscreen, storage, and more.

xerpi's port last worked on Linux 5.x. Newer kernels would hang or corrupt data during decompression due to stale PL310 L2 cache data (the decompressor's CP15 cache ops don't propagate to the PL310, which requires MMIO). xerpi identified the root cause in the HENkaku Discord. This port applies the fix and rebases onto Linux 6.12, along with new drivers for SDHCI storage, the SCE partition table, and syscon-based reboot.

Status

Linux boots to a shell. This is an active development/research project.

Working:

• 4x Cortex-A9 CPUs (SMP), 480 MB RAM
• 960x544 OLED framebuffer
• UART serial console
• Touchscreen and button input (via syscon)
• GPIO LEDs, RTC
• eMMC storage (SDHCI) — all VitaOS partitions mountable
• WiFi (Marvell SD8787 via mwifiex) — custom syscon power sequencing
• Clean reboot back to VitaOS

Not yet working:

• USB (UDC base address unknown — needs RE)
• SD2Vita (needs VitaOS plugin setup first)
• Sony proprietary memory card (from Linux)

See PROGRESS.md for detailed findings and next steps.

Getting started

Requires a PS Vita (1000/2000/PSTV) on firmware 3.60 or 3.65 with HENkaku enso and a UART serial connection.

git clone --recursive https://github.com/incognitojam/vita-linux-port.git

See BUILDING.md for prerequisites (macOS or Linux) and build/deploy instructions. The short version: make deploy builds the kernel, uploads it to the Vita over FTP, and boots Linux.

Documentation

• BUILDING.md — Build prerequisites and instructions
• PROGRESS.md — Detailed status, technical findings, next steps
• HARDWARE.md — Peripheral addresses, register maps, pinouts

Repository layout

Path	Description
linux_vita/	Kernel source (git submodule)
vita-baremetal-linux-loader/	Baremetal loader (git submodule)
Makefile	Build/deploy/boot orchestration
serial_log.py	Serial console with logging
boot_watch.sh	Boot progress monitor with stage tracking
vita_cmd.sh	Run commands on Vita over serial

Acknowledgments

This project builds on the work of many people in the Vita homebrew and reverse engineering community:

• xerpi — Original Linux port for the Vita, baremetal loader, libbaremetal, and extensive hardware research. Build instructions · Kernel repo · Baremetal loader
• Team Molecule (Davee, Proxima, xyz, YifanLu) — HENkaku, enso, and Vita security research that makes all of this possible
• TheFloW — Major contributions to Vita homebrew and exploits
• motoharu-gosuto — Reversed SceSdif/SceSdstor (source of SDIF GIC interrupt numbers used in our SDHCI driver)
• The HENkaku community and wiki contributors

See also the HENkaku wiki Linux driver status page.

A note on AI

I use AI extensively in this project — for reverse engineering, hardware analysis, writing and reviewing code, and understanding unfamiliar parts of the kernel. I try to learn and understand as I go, using AI as a tool to help me develop this rather than having it work autonomously. I do not plan to upstream AI-generated code directly.