A quick test and Some little findings about USBAdvance_Cracked!!!

[lostinnil]

I have a spare HDD, however it is spoiled so it left with no choice but to use a USB 2.0 pendrive to carry out this little test.

Testing environment:
37000(unmodded)
64MB USB 2.0 pendrive
MAX Drive(a Japanese Version of AR Max Evo which has memorycard manage function only. As a result it loads very fast, within 5s, from HDD unlike the USA or PAL version of AME)

Process:
1. Format my pendrive using ul_format. It is in FAT format after that anyway.
2. Install MAX Drive to my pendrive using ul_install.
3. Turn on my PS2, ps2menu-k 0.31 launches as BOOT.ELF. USBADVN.ELF launches from MC.
4. Plug my pendrive to my ps2. Max Drive is shown in game list. Select 'start' after highlighting the title, 'MAXDRIVE'.
5. Wait.............................................. ...........
6. It runs, MC0 and MC1 are accessible. Pendrive icon expectedly does not light up.

Some findings:
1. The format of a USBAdvance formatted disc is FAT.
2. It is really plug and play.
3. The 'ul_install' installing is very very slow. It's like 0.2~0.5MB/s. And you know what? I have usb2.0 ports on my laptop and I used a USB 2.0 pendrive. Well that's...
4. After installation on PC side, ul_install generated 2 files on my pendrive.

ul.cfg(1k)
This is understandably the configuration file. Under a hex editor, it shows 'MAXDRIVE' and 'ul.SLPS_200.06'. 'MAXDRIVE' is the name I assigned to the Game I installed. 'ul.SLPS_200.06' can be understood easily.

ul.DA2FBC44.SLPS_200.06.00(58MB)
This is the game itself. I did a comparison of this file and the original ISO of MAX Drive. Unsurprisingly, they are identical. So if we can find out how ul_install rename a game then we can just rename them ourselves and drag them into the PS2 HDD instead of wasting time on that 'useless' ul_install. I think the only not so easily understood part is 'DA2FBC44'. Coders? any? Btw, the ul_format is of even less use than its partner.

5. Images are not at centre of the screen when MAX Drive loads. Certain images lack from the screen. Frame rate drops from time to time.

6. It takes 1min48sec to load MAX Drive from game list screen until the MC selection screen. The same process HDLoader takes 5s with normal frame rate and complete images at the centre of screen.

Final words:
It is indeed no April Fool's joke but it is more like a job after all.

I only express my own opinion in this post.

edit: it does not matter if you format your HDD in FAT16 or FAT32, both work fine. It completely makes ul_format useless...

[Zer0-X]

DA2FBC44 might be the CRC32 checksum of the installed file. Try to rename it to something else and also change the config file and see if it still works.

[Kiyo]

the laoder is also crypt in file. very strange things. i need mrbrown sio cable to instect easier.

[accadeecee]

when using ul_install it was also super slow for me, but instead of installing straight to pendrive i installed to HDD in computer then copied it over to pendrive, it was a thousand times faster... One point to note, if installing more than one game you must install all to the same spot and then copy it over, otherwise the config file isn't updated thus making previous installs useless

[TheCrowX]

can i use usbxtreme on my v7 with my old ide hdd installed games with hdloader or will I have to reformat it again and then reinstall my games ??
Thanx

[lostinnil]

I open the file in hex editor, and generate checksum, I see no DA2FBC44.
I change DA2FBC44 part to something else then it does not load.
What are the possible respects of ul.cfg I can change? It only contains the given name and the standard 'XXXX_XXX.XX' information.

[lostinnil]

can i use usbxtreme on my v7 with my old ide hdd installed games with hdloader or will I have to reformat it again and then reinstall my games ??
Thanx
I think you have to reformat at this stage, because the 2 HDD systems are not compatible.

[accadeecee]

its not compatible with IDE HDD's as far as i know, only USB HDD

[accadeecee]

just tested something with the files created by "ul_install"...... If you mount the ul.xxxxxxxx.xxxxxxx.xx (The Big one, not the .cnf file) on a virtual drive it loads exactly the same as an .iso showing all the files in the folder..

[lostinnil]

just tested something with the files created by "ul_install"...... If you mount the ul.xxxxxxxx.xxxxxxx.xx (The Big one, not the .cnf file) on a virtual drive it loads exactly the same as an .iso showing all the files in the folder..
I have this in my post
ul.DA2FBC44.SLPS_200.06.00(58MB)
This is the game itself. I did a comparison of this file and the original ISO of MAX Drive. Unsurprisingly, they are identical.

They are identical means you can add a '.iso' to the back of any ul.xxxxxxxx.xxxxxxx.xx, you will get the ISO of original disc or image depending on your source.

[accadeecee]

you can just mount it on a virtual drive without adding .iso
No luck with renaming it yet though it shows up in USBAdvance but doesn't load, I tried replacing the numbers randomly, and removing them altogether, renaming it completly then editing the config file. Filename Example "ul.621A5364.SLES_500.09.00" for ARMAX EVO NTSC.... Obviously ul. and the SLES file part of the filename need to stay intact, just a matter of working out where the numbers/letters come from

[dlanor]

you can just mount it on a virtual drive without adding .iso
No luck with renaming it yet though it shows up in USBAdvance but doesn't load, I tried replacing the numbers randomly, and removing them altogether, renaming it completly then editing the config file. Filename Example "ul.621A5364.SLES_500.09.00" for ARMAX EVO NTSC.... Obviously ul. and the SLES file part of the filename need to stay intact, just a matter of working out where the numbers/letters come from
That number could be a 32 bit LBA offset to some significant spot in the image, but in an encrypted form. It may also (instead) be a similar offset relative to the base of the partition. In either case, that offset might help speed up the launching by eliminating TOC analysis at launch-time.

One way to test for this would be to make some iso's with identical sizes for all files, but with some differing content within them. When such ISO's are installed they might reveal some pattern for these weird digits in the names.

For example, if they all got identical digits, that would almost have to mean that they relate to an offset within each image.

Another pattern might be that a specific constant would appear for each file, depending only on the order in which they were installed, such that if the order is varied, the constants move between the files so as to follow the new installation order. That would prove the numbers to be dependent on offsets within the whole partition instead.

Other patterns are also possible, but the ones I mentioned above are those that would be most useful to a program of this kind.

Of course, if the encryption is smart enough, then no patterns will be apparent, but we can't know that until we've at least looked for them.

Best regards: dlanor

[Brooks]

CraiZE put some things on maxconsole that could help

My USB Advance Findings (technical, and not 100% guaranteed to be real)

Hello, i was a bit upset about the ul_install.exe being heavily slow.... (That being limited to 0.3MB/s which results in 4 hours to play a DVD Game) So i checked a bit into the .cfg, the config file, and i found some info regarding it. So to the facts: it's 64byte per title, and they are used as described underneath. Please remember, this is not confirmed but my personal findings, i believe these are true, but i might be wrong.

00x01 -> 00x32 : Name you given the Game / Application

00x32 -> 00x47 : Begins with UL / 756C , then is followed by the string provided in system.cnf (Offset = 0x16 in system.cnf)

00x47 : This is the Part's it will use, as it splits files. (01 -> 0?)

Explanation:

As USB Extreme / USB Advance use FAt32, it is impossible to create files over 2 or 4GB (sorry my memory is fading). This is indeed not very good for DVD Games, so they had to split them, and here we get the numbers of parts they use. The files are exactly split after 1GB of data. And so, the number of parts required grows, and 00x47 is the offset where it changes. (it doesnt start at 0, but at 1, so 5 files = 5, not 4)

00x48 : DVD / CD Toggle, here you can simply change the "Source" Disc. "14" is DVD, "12" is CD. (In hex)

00x49 -> 00x64 : This is always

00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

So, as you can see from this:

00x53 : Is always 08, i don't know why, i tried changing it to 00, and the game still did boot. Astonishingly, the 08 came back when i replugged it into my PC. So i guess its some dirty code left, it does write to the config.... Weird , but probably only sloppy code.

Now, how does the application define the filename of the Image files it creates? Simple, it will always start with ul.YYYYYYYY.XXX.ZZ

Where:

YYYYYYYY: Here is a Security Check somehow involved, i check for CRC of files, and their filenames, and it isn't that... I wonder what was used here to get this Data.... Anyone intressted in finding it out, you are free to help!

XXX: Is pulled off from system.cnf, which is a regular .ini File. Where it reads, "BOOT2 ="'s Value. (Removing the ;1 in the end i believe)

ZZ: Being the part number, starting from 00

Even if it doesnt work too well, it's still cool if you can quickly test a game, but the fun gets taken away if you cant put it fast on the HDD

We are able to parse the information of the .cfg, read the next Post for findings of the ISO / Image it builds itself.

EDIT:
-Formatted my post to be more informative and fast to the point
-Added 00x47 , as it is used
-Added How the Image Filename is being defined

[accadeecee]

I think it's actually got to do with what you name the game e.g. armax armaxevo armaxevo2.... exact same image 3 different filenames "ul.621A5364.SLES_500.09.00" and "ul.76D7D6A8.SLES_500.09.00" and "ul.BDE4CB6F.SLES_500.09.00"

*edit* confirmed.. deleted all files and made another image naming the game armax.... resulting filename "ul.621A5364.SLES_500.09.00" Then made a completely different image XPLODER V4 and named it "armax" resulting filename "ul.621A5364.SLES_502.15.00" numbers "621A5364" refer in some way to "armax"

[dlanor]

You are evidently correct, but what a lame design that is. The one and only purpose of that is clearly to prevent other coders from making better installers... This is sick!

Fortunately your findings open the way to making super-fast installations quite easily, even without having the algorithm for generating those (hash?) codes.

A new installer can simply perform a dummy installation by mounting a super-small ISO in daemon-tools, and calling ul_install as a subprogram to install that with the same name as the real ISO, thus generating the proper image name. Then the new installer can proceed simply to copy the real ISO to that file (overwriting the dummy), starting a new segment file at each 1GB boundary. And of course, updating ul.cfg to match the real installation.

Best regards: dlanor

[dufr156]

how do you run cracked version. off md via expl0it?

[Mr. Worm~~]

Just to add more to this, could it be that the cracked version would be an old version. Has anybody compared it with the retail version specially in performance, maybe the april fool is there...just my 2 cents

[thereal_zap]

i have a present for all of you :)

this app is nothing more than a patched version of the installer, only it returns the filename only and quits.

example:

[C:\]crc_return K L "Evil Dead" CD
Checking disc..
L:\ul.9E8C65AE.SLUS_204.03

[2nd thoughts]
maybe it's better to just post the patch bytes instead of the patched software ;)


file offset(hex)|original bytes|patch bytes

00001437: 8D4C24388D E925010000


in case you didn't know, apply this patch to ul_install.exe

enjoy! :)

i'd like to share with you my findings wrt the cfg file:

00000000 45 76 69 6C 20 44 65 61 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 Evil Dead.......
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000020 75 6C 2E 53 4C 55 53 5F 32 30 34 2E 30 33 00 01 ul.SLUS_204.03..
00000030 12 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

0x00 Name Entered (plain text)
0x20 ul.[SLUS_NAME]
0x2F file part OR total file parts (not sure since i haven't installed a dvd)
0x30 media type (0x12 == CD , 0x14 == DVD)
0x34 0x800 (unknown, perhaps sector size?)

my usage findings:

as many have stated, this thing is horrible! first the installer takes forever! (took about 1:45:00 to install a CD game) but even if you can get beyond that, it doesn't seem to fix any compatibility issues. i tried with 2 known games that wouldn't load with hdl: Evil Dead A Fistful Of Boomstick and ATV Quad Power Racing 2. neither of these loaded. they were both listed in the menu, and the evil dead game did boot to a pal/ntsc intro that i had applied but no further. so i know the hook up is correct. it even took more than a few seconds (didn't time it) for the intro to pop up.

my conclusion would be that if you MUST have a hdd and you own a ps2 slim then this is the only way to go (unless you really want to get your hands dirty and do the ide hack). otherwise this thing (to me) seems pretty damn useless.

ok, i tried it with a couple more games, one being soul calibur II (known to not work unless pdx trainer is applied) and once again this app didn't dissapoint. yeah, it didn't load anything. so then i thought i'd give it an easy one just so i could finally see how bad the load times were. i installed the original Jak & Daxter. and what do you know? it booted... finally! oh, but wait, it stops after the naughty dog intro. i let it sit for 20 minutes just to give it the benefit of the doubt before i turned it off. i can not believe how incredibly bad this method is. so far i've proven (at least to myself) that not only is it NOT any more compatible than hdl, but it can't even play simple old school games like jak & daxter.

my final thoughts wrt usBADvance is this: it would be a very nice app had it been originally released as a free homebrew alpha or beta version app. i mean, the concept is pretty cool, but the performance just isn't there. it's an absolute shame that it was even considered to be released as a commercial product because it's not worth the 5cent disc it's stamped on. a commercial product should deliver (i.e. hdloader, i bought hdl and it is worth every penny) and this doesn't. i feel sorry for ppl who actually put out money for this.

[accadeecee]

Nice work thereal_zap
Seen as though this program may be very limited in its usage for actual gameplay, Can it be modified for other uses in conjunction with HDLoader. EG Launching a modified USBAdvance to access the Internal HDD on older model PS2's??? Although it seems pointless there may be some unknown advantages (Game Compatability etc.)??

[lostinnil]

Plug and play is good feature actually. Can we modified it to be a quick way of launching ELF? Though similar products exist.

[thereal_zap]

Plug and play is good feature actually. Can we modified it to be a quick way of launching ELF? Though similar products exist.

might not be a bad idea.

unclutter your memory card and keep just the usb app there. you should be able to (one would think) simply write your own system.cnf files for your individual elf files, then make ISO's from those files. then install. that may work :)

[[SAF] josh]

well, the usbextreme support ide hdd in enclosures.. so i have one.. testing it out with usb advance, keep u guys posted..

[Zer0-X]

Waking up an old thread...

To calculate the checksum present in USBAdvance/Extreme imagefiles you need the name you enter while installing (the one between "").


unsigned int crctab[0x400];

unsigned int crc32(char *string)
{
int crc, table, count, byte;

for (table=0; table<256; table++)
{
crc = table << 24;

for (count=8; count>0; count--)
{
if (crc < 0) crc = crc << 1;
else crc = (crc << 1) ^ 0x04C11DB7;
}
crctab[255-table] = crc;
}

do {
byte = string[count++];
crc = crctab[byte ^ ((crc >> 24) & 0xFF)] ^ ((crc << 8) & 0xFFFFFF00);
} while (string[count-1] != 0);

return crc;
}