2013 Linux OPL Compile Guide (Mint 14/Ubuntu 12.10 )

The Ps2 Scene is still alive and producing many great things! Just some proof of that is our recent news of Mastercode Finder 2.10 for PS2 Cheats and now a new guide by PSX-Scene contributor Bat Rastard. Who has written a very nice tutorial that will guide you through the process of compiling the homebrew created PS2 Toolchain and OpenPS2Loader (OPL) from a clean VM or installation of Linux Mint 14 or other Ubuntu based variants.

Due to some forum glitch, this guide was temporary removed shortly after being posted in our forums. So if anyone seen this in the forum and wonder what the heck happen to this great tutorial. Fear no more the 2013 OPL Compile Guide by Bat Rastard is back and will not disappear again. We apologize for any inconvenience this may of caused and we are looking into the issue. For all the details checkout this detailed guide below by Bat Rastard.

The following will guide you through compiling the homebrew PS2 toolchain and OpenPS2Loader from a clean VM or install of Linux Mint 14 and other Ubuntu-based variants.

Linux Mint 14 ISOs can be snagged here:

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

As you can see from the above link, Linux Mint ISOs are separated by desktop environment -- Cinnamon, KDE, XFCE, and MATE (pronounced mah-tay) -- and architecture (x32 and x64). Since 64-bit support in the toolchain is bugged/broken at the time of this writing, 32-bit is the only way to go. This guide will focus on the 32-bit Cinnamon spin for the sake of consistency/familiarity. Cinnamon is a fork of the Gnome3 desktop, and thus you might already be familiar with "gedit" as your text editor (as opposed to "kate" for KDE, and "pluma" for MATE/XFCE). Also, the default file manager Nautilus was forked by the Mint developers and it's now called Nemo ...

With those caveats out of the way, let's get started ...

Highlight the following code with your mouse and chose "Copy" so its in your clipboard ...

Code:

export PS2DEV=/usr/local/ps2dev
export GSKIT=$PS2DEV/gsKit
export PS2SDK=$PS2DEV/ps2sdk
export PATH=$PATH:$PS2DEV/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$PS2DEV/ee/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$PS2DEV/iop/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$PS2DEV/dvp/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$PS2SDK/bin

Open up a Terminal, and type ...

Code:

$ sudo gedit ~/.profile

... followed by your user password.

After the text-editor opens your ./profile, use your arrow keys to move the blinking cursor to the bottom. Once you're on the last line, you may also have to press "END" to make sure the cursor is at the very end of any existing text. If that's the cast, press "ENTER/RETURN" once at this point to make the blank line manually, followed by a right click and "PASTE". Then click "SAVE" at the top and close the editor ...

Now, you have to source your ./profile ...

Code:

$ source ~/.profile

You can also source your ./profile by pressing ALT+CTRL+BACKSPACE and then logging back in ...

Next, download the "ps2sdk-scripts.tar.gz" file (see attachment below) file. Move it out of your "Downloads" folder and into your HOME folder, then extract it. Once that's taken care of, take a moment. By all means, if you're hungry or nature's calling, take care of it. Because we're about to open Terminal to execute the build script ...

Code:

$ sudo ./install-ps2sdk.sh

... and babysit the resulting wall of text for quite some time. Although the compiling process only takes roughly 12-15 mins or so, at certain points the process can (and will) be interrupted by confirmation prompts to download required packages and tools. So, as long you sit there "Y" and "ENTER" at every confirmation prompt, you won't artificially extend the process any further than it needs.

Another reason to babysit it is at around the 8 to 12 minute mark or so (depending on your computer), the script gets to the part of building PS2-Packer, and this is the part that tends to break or fail the most, giving you an error and terminating the script. The vast majority as to why this happens (in my experience at least) is because the script automatically adds the first step (i.e. editing/sourcing ./profile) as well as makes necessary symlinks (or attempts to fix any broken ones). Alas, this doesn't always prove successful. Hence why we did the first step manually and made sure the ./profile was sourced and verified. The babysitting also helps ensure all the "sudos" within the script itself make the most out of their shelf-life before demanding the password again. Since I've done this across Mint 11, 12, 13, and now 14, the steps we've taken so far is sort of an insurance policy: 20% of the time, PS2Packer will puke at this point; 80% of the time PS2Packer builds nicely for me, I'm greeted with the "Success" confirmation message.

If you see the "Success" confirmation message, I recommend sourcing your ./profile again before proceeding.

With the PS2DEV toolchain ready, let's move on to OpenPS2Loader ...

Open Terminal again (in case you closed it) and type the following ...

Code:

$ cd ps2sdk-scripts 
$ sudo ./install-opl.sh

After typing your password again, the script will clone the mainline "ifcaro" repository of OPL, and automatically start compiling. Takes about 5 minutes. If everything goes smoothly here, OPNPS2LD.ELF will be waiting for you inside your "home/user/open-ps2-loader" folder. But before you venture off to have some fun, it's best to verify that you can manually re-compile OPL from the terminal and/or the update script. So open terminal and type the following:

Code:

$ cd open-ps2-loader
$ make rebuild

OPL should re-compile without problems. If you get an error or any sort, try logging out, logging back in, and repeat the step above. If OPL recompiles without issue, then you should be able to re-compile OPL from the included script in your "ps2sdk-scripts" folder ...

While we're at it, let's double check something. Type the following in Terminal ...

Code:

$ cd $home
$ ls -l

Notice how your "open-ps2-loader" folder is owned by "root"? Let's take care of that ...

Code:

$ sudo chown -R <username>:<username> open-ps2-loader

... then repeat the "ls -l" command to verify it.

Congrats! You can now build the "release" version of OPL at anytime!

But what about Beta builds? No problem!

Open terminal again, and then clone the "doctorxyz" repo ...

Code:

$ mkdir opl_beta 
$ cd opl_beta
$ hg clone https://bitbucket.org/doctorxyz/open-ps2-loader

This will make another "open-ps2-loader" sub-folder within "opl_beta", which will contain doctorxyz's most recent commits. From there, you can click "Home" on the desktop to bring up Nemo/Nautilus file manager, then double-click "opl_beta" folder, double-click the "open-ps2-loader" folder, double-click the "MAKEFILE", and chose "Run in Terminal" from the confirmation box ...

You can also clone doctorxyz's OPL+GSM integrated builds in the same fashion ...

Code:

$ mkdir opl_gsm
$ cd opl_gsm
$ hg clone https://bitbucket.org/doctorxyz/opl_gsm

... and build it the same way (i.e. choose "Run In Terminal" after double-clicking the MAKEFILE)

That's should cover all the bases ...

In the next post, I'll walk you through manually compiling PS2Packer just in case the attached script bombs out on you.

Attachment Download: ps2sdk-scripts.tar.gz

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doctorxyz, Tranced, SILENT_Pavel and 1 others like this.

8 Comments

riki - 03-02-2013, 05:37 AM
- Reply
thanks for the update

Charaf - 03-02-2013, 05:51 AM
- Reply
Great Work thank you ...

steve51184 - 03-02-2013, 06:39 AM
- Reply
any pre made binaries?

tommyv - 03-02-2013, 09:59 AM
- Reply
one thing that I never understood with OPL was why the need for every single person to compile on their own, the people that work with OPL are always compiling and testing, wouldn't we easier to release an update ready to use so people can try it instead, why sould everyone go trough this process.

Bat Rastard - 03-03-2013, 10:55 AM
- Reply
Tommyv, the way I always saw it was compiling was a choice. Everybody doesn't have to. But if they were to look at the commits and see a game that suddenly becomes fixed and playable, adds a feature, or fixes an issue, compiling is a option for them if they couldn't wait for an official release. But with risks and trade-offs. Another reason was practical: unauthorized pre-compiled binaries exist, and the first time I downloaded and used one was the last time ...

STLcardsWS - 03-03-2013, 11:20 PM
- Reply
@Bat Rastard , my apologies. for some reason i read your screen name as something completely different.well same letters just mixed up a bit to be something totally different. Again my apologies.

Bat Rastard - 03-04-2013, 01:37 AM
- Reply
No apology necessary -- the handle "BatRastard" came about when my at-the-time infant daughter botched a "message" that her mother meant for me: "Oh, and Mom said you are a bat rastard!" So it's always hilarious when that happens. Said daughter recently turned 13 and I said to her, "You know how your mother has that glare that could stop sundials?!? She needs to give you one of 'em. You're growing up too damn fast!"