unsuccessful uLE install from media

[tr4il]

I try loading uLE from the burned image i got from psx-scene and nothing happens. if i press triangle while loading i get errors on installing app. i have an infinity matrix and a 80gb hdd inside and cannot get anything to work as far as HD Loader and uLE..i am totally lost now.

[tester3000]

unRar and burn this image onto a cd. Put it in you ps2, it will boot uLE. Then from ule make a folder called BOOT on mc0. Then copy boot.elf from cd to mc0:/BOOT/. Thats it. When you restart hold R1 to boot uLE. If you have any problems be sure to ask here.

[tr4il]

For some reason the images that i am burning are not properly loading uLE. After Matrix logo and Sony load, i get a black screen for about 4-5 seconds b4 it displays the main navigation menu (disc + mem cards). It just shows it as a 'unloadable' PS2 disc. Is this a soldering issue or maybe the bad laser? Thanks.

ALSO: If it's a laser issue, does this mean I would have to install uLE directly through IDE and would i need HD Loader installed prior to that?

[dlanor]

For some reason the images that i am burning are not properly loading uLE. After Matrix logo and Sony load, i get a black screen for about 4-5 seconds b4 it displays the main navigation menu (disc + mem cards). It just shows it as a 'unloadable' PS2 disc. Is this a soldering issue or maybe the bad laser? Thanks.

That is impossible for us to say, as a soldering issue can cause the laser to fail, just as if it had died on its own. Only analysis of the hardware can tell the difference for sure, and only you have access to that hardware...

ALSO: If it's a laser issue, does this mean I would have to install uLE directly through IDE and would i need HD Loader installed prior to that?

If your laser is really dead, and you have no working Dev1 boot setup on your memory card, and no working Dev2 boot setup on your HDD, then it will be next to impossible for you to make such setups without help from someone with a fully working PS2, as you are no longer able to boot any discs, which is the ONLY method the PS2 itself has for loading any software.

However, you shouldn't just assume that the laser is dead if that home-burned ISO is the only disc you've tried. Or do you get the same kind of failed boot for original game discs as well ?

Best regards: dlanor

[tr4il]

I should have clarified that regular discs ive used previously have worked fine. eg. Matrix firmware upgrade worked/installed flawlessly. The steps i followed are: i successfully installed Matrix Infinity Manager, then copyed to mem card, while trying to boot the image of uLE disc is when i run into the read/boot issue. Thanks again.

[dlanor]

I should have clarified that regular discs ive used previously have worked fine.

Since you worry about the laser having died recently it is irrelevant what did or did not work *previously*, as that proves nothing about the current state of the laser. What you need to do now is to test an original game disc, by which I mean a pressed original disc, not any burned DVD-R or CD-R.

If such a disc still boots properly, then you can completely rule out the 'laser death' theory, and most likely the 'solder issue' idea as well.

But if a pressed original game disc does fail, then you most definitely have some hardware error, though it's hard to determine if that is an issue with the laser itself or with the mod-chip installation.

eg. Matrix firmware upgrade worked/installed flawlessly.

This should mean that the Mod-chip installation did not interfere with the reading of that disc, so hopefully your hardware is OK.

The steps i followed are: i successfully installed Matrix Infinity Manager, then copyed to mem card,

First let me say that IMO the Matrix 'Manager' is garbage, and its application installation methods nonsense... Not that it should do any harm, but there simply is no reason to use such awkward methods to run programs on the PS2. Why make it harder than it has to be ?

I used to have an MI chip earlier, and after a brief test I simply discarded that 'Manager', replacing it with a renamed copy of LaunchELF instead. (That was before the development of uLE.)

while trying to boot the image of uLE disc is when i run into the read/boot issue. Thanks again.

Are we talking about a perfectly normal boot disc here ?
Not some silly MI Manager installation procedure, I hope...

Was it the ISO posted above by tester3000 that you tried ?
(I'll test that one myself too to check if it's OK.)

Best regards: dlanor

[dlanor]

I've now checked out the ISO attached above (in the post by tester3000), and have found that the dummy file used in it lands the SYSTEM.CNF file at an incorrect LBA of 15383 instead of the correct value which is 12231. I'm not sure if this affected your results though. But dependency on absolute LBA values varies between PS2 models from what I've heard, so it may have been responsible for your failed results.

To replace that disc I've now prepared a boot ISO of my own for uLE v4.12, which you may want to try instead. This obviously does have the SYSTEM.CNF at the correct LBA of 12231, so at least that will not be an issue. I've tried this disc myself, using it to install a working Dev1 setup to an empty MC, so I know it can be done. Assuming of course that there is no hardware problem in your PS2, as discussed earlier.

When (and if) you get uLE to boot from this disc, the first thing you should do is to enter its FileBrowser and use it to copy the folder cdfs:/BOOT/ to mc0: where it can later be used for Dev1 booting. That folder contains three files, these being uLE itself (named BOOT.ELF), plus icon.sys and icon.icn, as required to make the PS2 browser regard this folder as a valid gamesave.

The second thing to do is to use the "New Dir" command to create another folder named "SYS-CONF", and then you can browse inside it to use the "New Icon" command to make a valid icon file set for it too. That SYS-CONF folder will be needed many times in the future, not only by uLE but also by other homebrews who rely on its presence.

That completes the mandatory part of the installation, so that's probably a good point for you to start tweaking the configs to adapt them to your own taste. The resulting settings will be saved when you exit from the main configuration screen with the 'OK' command, and as currently setup the CNF file will be saved as "mc0:/SYS-CONF/LAUNCHELF.CNF". If you prefer to have it in the BOOT folder instead, simply move it there and reboot, and uLE will use the BOOT folder for future CNF changes too.

Best regards: dlanor

[tr4il]

OK heres a start. The image you provided actually did the same thing. It acted as if it would load but ultimately wouldn't. I took the hdd out and plugged it into my PC. I used winhiip to install the DEV2 installer iso onto the hdd. I rebooted my ps2 with hdl and installed BOOT.ELF to the hdd. Now when i load and hold L1 at matrix logo, i get into launchELF v 4.11. What would be the best way for me to update the uLE to v4.12. I have ISO's of it already.

[Bootlegninja]

since you already have ule installed on dev2 on your matrix system, you can simply replace the boot.elf in hdd0:/__boot/ just like you would on the memory card. Please keep in mind that the dev2 boot.elf must be lower case for it to work. basicly you really don't need to burn any cd's or install images to do this once the dev2 installer has been run like your setup has.

on a side note, if you pulled that uLE dev2 installer from the matrix tutorial at console-exploits, sorry I've been meaning to update that.

[tr4il]

That is where i actually got the dev2 install from lol. So, i can use an app like poweriso to extract ONLY the boot.elf file from version 4.12 iso and then need to use a program like Matrix Manager to put the new elf onto the mem card, open browser and overwrite the boot.elf on the actual hdd? Im not completely sure how to get the boot.elf onto the hdd any other way..thanks