[QUESTION]OPL v0.7 compatible partition formats

[lilpirate]

Hello guys,

I'm using openSUSE 11.2 on my laptop which I use to connect via crossover cable.

I have a seperate partition formatted with FAT32. But now, I'm unable to see the games list. When I tried to explore network using samba-client on my PC, I got error message saying "Unable to mount windows partition" (something similar to this).

I wanted to know - what if I format the FAT32 partition with ext4? Will OPL detect it?

Thanks,
lilpirate

[Bootlegninja]

SMB really doesn't care what file system you use. On FreeNAS (FreeBSD based nas software) it uses GPT format. As long as SMB converts it to NFS over the network, you're good.

[dlanor]

Hello guys,

I'm using openSUSE 11.2 on my laptop which I use to connect via crossover cable.

I have a seperate partition formatted with FAT32. But now, I'm unable to see the games list. When I tried to explore network using samba-client on my PC, I got error message saying "Unable to mount windows partition" (something similar to this).

I wanted to know - what if I format the FAT32 partition with ext4? Will OPL detect it?

Like Bootlegninja implied, when using the network game list it is not OPL that detects the physical HDD format, but the computer or NAS unit at the other end. OPL only 'sees' the SMB fileshare information, and as long as that follows the necessary forms (more below), the fileshares can work well, regardless of the physical partitiion formats.

For my own PS2SMB fileshare I use a normal folder on a normal NTFS-formatted HDD of a PC running WinXP+SP3. And in that folder I have previously used lots of games in the split-file format of USBAdvance/USBUtil, but now I have removed most of them and instead use most of the games as normal ".iso" files stored in the subfolders "CD" and "DVD" of the main PS2SMB fileshare folder.

The above mention of either using the split-file format, or normal ".iso" files in "CD" and "DVD" subfolders, constitutes one part of what I referred to as "necessary forms" in my first paragraph above. The second part of those forms is of course the precise dialect of SMB protocol and access negotiations that your SMB server machine is capable of (whether it is a pure NAS unit or a normal computer).

Some SMB servers require a passworded login, which is something completely unimplemented in the current public releases of OPL (even in v0.7), though the basic routines for that purpose have been added to the current beta versions, and probably will be made available in the configuration menus of a future OPL v0.8 release. But we are not quite there yet. So for the present at least, users of the public releases will need a server that allows anonymous access.

Best regards: dlanor

[lilpirate]

For my own PS2SMB fileshare I use a normal folder on a normal NTFS-formatted HDD of a PC running WinXP+SP3. And in that folder I have previously used lots of games in the split-file format of USBAdvance/USBUtil, but now I have removed most of them and instead use most of the games as normal ".iso" files stored in the subfolders "CD" and "DVD" of the main PS2SMB fileshare folder.

The above mention of either using the split-file format, or normal ".iso" files in "CD" and "DVD" subfolders, constitutes one part of what I referred to as "necessary forms" in my first paragraph above. The second part of those forms is of course the precise dialect of SMB protocol and access negotiations that your SMB server machine is capable of (whether it is a pure NAS unit or a normal computer).

Can you elaborate this procedure? This seems to be interesting. Thanks :-)

[dlanor]

Can you elaborate this procedure? This seems to be interesting. Thanks :-)

If you mean the procedure of installing ISO files there really isn't much more to say about it. Except some details on file and folder names.

Inside the PS2SMB fileshare folder you are supposed to make two additional subfolders.
One named "CD" where you store ISO files for CD-based games.
Another named "DVD" where you store ISO files for DVD-based games.

The file names need to have a prefix matching the name of the main elf on the ISO, which is usually based on the product code of the game. And after that prefix, separated from it by a period character, follows the game list entry string, terminated by the ".iso" filename extension.

Thus my ISO file for the US version of FFX is named: "SLUS_203.12.+Sq FFX (US).iso"
And my ISO file for the UK version of the same game is: "SCES_504.90.+Sq FFX (UK).iso"

Note that everything between the second period character and the ".iso" extension will be shown in the game list, so for those two examples the game list would be

+Sq FFX (UK)
+Sq FFX (US)

You can use much longer entries than I used here, but if you exceed 32 characters for that part of the filename, then the game will not be included in the list.

As for the "+Sq" part, that is just a trick I use to get all the Square-produced RPGs sorted for display near the top of the list of the other games. (I use a similar "+NI" prefix to sort the Nippon Ichi RPGs to the top as well)

No special installation procedure of any kind is necessary, as long as the ISO files are properly named and stored in the correct subfolder they will be included in the game list.

Of course you will also have to ensure that each ISO file has the correct fileshare permissions, which for anonymous access must include the user group that WinXP calls "Everyone".

Best regards: dlanor

[lilpirate]

I haven't found this method anywhere around. How come there's no sticky thread for this one? And, where did you find it?

You were helpful :-)
Thanks a lot.

[aginor37]

Pretty much everything he mentioned (except the part about sorting the games by company, which I will be shamelessly stealing ) is in the last 5-10 pages of the Open PS2 Loader Project - v0.7 sticky... which is pretty much required reading if you want to have any idea of what to do with the post 0.7 revisions that have the new GUI and ISO reading features.

Keep in mind that anything you have to compile yourself at this point is pre-release, so there isn't much in the way of documentation for it, simply because it is still evolving and changing between revisions. I am sure when 0.8 goes public there will be instructions on setting it up.

[dlanor]

I haven't found this method anywhere around. How come there's no sticky thread for this one? And, where did you find it?

It's been mentioned a number of times in connection with the development of the new betas that contain this feature.

You were helpful :-)

I now realize that I was perhaps a little TOO helpful with info concerning my own fileshare that I was talking about, since the same might not be applicable to your own fileshare.

You see, these features do not exist at all in the public v0.7 release, but only in some beta revisions made long after that release. The public v0.7 is the same as r245, while the current beta revision is r382. And yes, this does mean that there has been 137 source code revisions made since the release of v0.7...

And as has been said many times before. The only valid way of acquiring beta revision executable binaries is to compile them yourself from beta sources. Asking for beta binaries here is not allowed.

Personally I think the accumulated improvements at present should motivate a new public release soon, so hopefully it should not be much longer now before non-programming users can also enjoy these improvements. But until then you'll either have to be patient, or learn how to compile...

Best regards: dlanor

[nicevibe]

It's been mentioned a number of times in connection with the development of the new betas that contain this feature.

I now realize that I was perhaps a little TOO helpful with info concerning my own fileshare that I was talking about, since the same might not be applicable to your own fileshare.

You see, these features do not exist at all in the public v0.7 release, but only in some beta revisions made long after that release. The public v0.7 is the same as r245, while the current beta revision is r382. And yes, this does mean that there has been 137 source code revisions made since the release of v0.7...

And as has been said many times before. The only valid way of acquiring beta revision executable binaries is to compile them yourself from beta sources. Asking for beta binaries here is not allowed.

Personally I think the accumulated improvements at present should motivate a new public release soon, so hopefully it should not be much longer now before non-programming users can also enjoy these improvements. But until then you'll either have to be patient, or learn how to compile...

Best regards: dlanor

137 revisions and it's still not worthy of a compiled beta? That's a little depressing. I would love to have the build you're talking about, It seems much more simplistic. What are the design flaws that are keeping it from becoming public?

[sk8rping]

137 revisions and it's still not worthy of a compiled beta? That's a little depressing. I would love to have the build you're talking about, It seems much more simplistic. What are the design flaws that are keeping it from becoming public?

Well, considering there have been 137 revisions (138 now), that means there were many bugs found which required that many revisions. It just wouldn't have been in the best interest of the project to release something that wasn't stable to the public. Once the devs feel that the program is at a more stable state, they will release a public version. Until then, as dlanor said, you'll either have to be patient, or learn how to compile.