Andy Nguyen, better known as TheFlow, is taking an indefinite leave from the PlayStation 5 Linux scene, starting today. This is the same person who previously released a public build letting certain PS5 owners boot into Linux and run Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced with ray tracing. He is now stopping all further work on the project.
In a post on X, Nguyen said he had poured months of his life into it, including concrete plans to finish PlayStation 5 Pro support and release it in 2027, only for everything to go "all down the sink."
His reason? Other people in the scene had found and reported the last remaining hypervisor bug to Sony, he explains.
In the console hacking / homebrew scene, unpatched (or privately held) exploits are the reason why development can continue. Once Sony gets a hold of a certain vulnerability and patches via a firmware update, any console that installs the new firmware loses the ability to use that exploit.
The Flow, among others, had intentionally kept this hypervisor-level vulnerability hidden, hoping to use it later this year so that people who bought the eventual PC port of Grand Theft Auto VI legally could still potentially run it under Linux on compatible hardware.
According to Nguyen, another modder who had agreed to keep it quiet took advantage of the information and reported it to Sony through their bug bounty program anyway, closing the exploit off.
Nguyen’s earlier public release supported original “Phat” PS5 consoles on firmware 3.xx–4.xx, which meant consoles unpatched from April 2021 through March 2022, and turned the console into a temporary Linux machine capable of running the PC version of the latest and most graphically impressive version of Grand Theft Auto V on consoles.
It was never a permanent conversion, had 60 Hz limitations, and was always more of a technical proof of concept than a practical daily driver for most people. Further improvements and Pro support were the next steps he had publicly discussed.
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With Nguyen stepping away and the remaining exploit reported, those plans appear finished. The existing public build may still work on compatible hardware for now, but active development, Pro support, and any longer-term hope of running GTA 6 this way are off the table, at least as far as the exploit Nguyen is talking about is concerned.
The best-case scenario, had the plans pushed through, is that owners of vulnerable PS5s could have played the PC build of GTA 6 on day one of the PC launch without needing to buy new hardware.
With that said, most Grand Theft Auto fans aren't affected by this news. This was always for a niche group of technically inclined owners who wanted to run the PC version of GTA 6 on PS5 hardware they already had. The official console releases would still have been the best way to play GTA 6.
