New way of booting FMCB for people with SONY HDD

[DCL]

This post explains why I put a option to disable the logo display on MINI-OPL.

MINI-OPL displays the logo correctly and expects it to be decrypted on the ISO because the replacement CDVDMAN from the drive emulator is already in place when ROM0:PS2LOGO is invoked and the export that decrypts the logo are currently NOP-ed on the replacement CDVDMAN, which results on the 16 sectors of the ISO being passed RAW to PS2LOGO. If the console is of the type that requires a valid PS2 LOGO to be present, the console will stall in a black screen.

Most of the users will use hdl partitions.
Do the hdl images have these 16 sectors?

"If the console is of the type that requires a valid PS2 LOGO..."
And the downloaded online games on hdd?

What does "boot = 1 -> boot from argvs | boot = 0 -> boot from internal fixed name" mean?

[l_oliveira]

Most of the users will use hdl partitions.
Do the hdl images have these 16 sectors?

All do, it's the first 16 sectors of any PS2 game.

"If the console is of the type that requires a valid PS2 LOGO..."
And the downloaded game on hdd?

As above, the games have the logo encrypted so it will either display wrong or game will not boot if the console is PAL, JPN or of the newer US ones. That's why you have to disable logo if you don't have a ISO file that has the plain decrypted logo.

What does "boot = 1 -> boot from argvs | boot = 0 -> boot from internal fixed name" mean?

Means exactly that. There's a internal list of names which were used for testing. Like I said it's supposed to take the game name as parameter when it starts, from the launcher program.
For testing it's not practical to pass a argument to the elf so I have that option in it. Like I said, it's almost useless as a loose elf but if you manage to make it runs, it does the exact same thing as the OPL build sources I posted on the same post. It just has no GUI or menus/settings and goes straight into running the game.

[DCL]

Means exactly that. There's a internal list of names which were used for testing. Like I said it's supposed to take the game name as parameter when it starts, from the launcher program.
For testing it's not practical to pass a argument to the elf so I have that option in it. Like I said, it's almost useless as a loose elf but if you manage to make it runs, it does the exact same thing as the OPL build sources I posted on the same post. It just has no GUI or menus/settings and goes straight into running the game.

So if i take an installed hdl game, modify the icon info and inject the mini in a kelf i'll be able to start the game via hosdsys. Right?

[l_oliveira]

So if i take an installed hdl game, modify the icon info and inject the mini in a kelf i'll be able to start the game via hosdsys. Right?

Yes, that was the whole point of making it.

The latest version of KERMIT (Silverbull's real time debugger) in it's ODEM function can install it correctly for you.
Mind you, KERMIT was vital on understanding and progressing with mini as it allows me to dump whatever is on the PS2 RAM should I need to figure out what has gone wrong...

[DCL]

The latest version of KERMIT (Silverbull's real time debugger) in it's ODEM function can install it correctly for you.

How does ODEM install the game? Or how to use it to install "my kelf"?
Is it more comfortable than the handmade modifications?

[yoshi314]

So, how could i get a decrypted one for testing?

use this : https://github.com/mlafeldt/ps2logo

[SP193]

Yes, that was the whole point of making it.

The latest version of KERMIT (Silverbull's real time debugger) in it's ODEM function can install it correctly for you.
Mind you, KERMIT was vital on understanding and progressing with mini as it allows me to dump whatever is on the PS2 RAM should I need to figure out what has gone wrong...

I'm thinking of patching the HDDOSD to allow unsigned homebrew software as well. Would that be good? After all, we are going to have to patch/replace the MBR... so the HDDOSD won't be used out of the box anyway.

Another thing I thought of doing would be to patch rom0:OSDSYS for HDD support... but it doesn't seem easy as a lot of hackery will be involved. If you know anything about the compression/format of the resource files, that will be great. Information regarding patching rom0:OSDSYS would be appreciated too.

The rom0:OSDSYS of the protokernel boot ROM seems to have the browser made modular.. but I don't know how that works for sure, and all newer consoles do not have that design anymore.

[l_oliveira]

SONY really changed their minds several times through the PS2 life.

Honestly, I think we should:

Allow people to use SONY software if they want to but not mess too much with it.

Develop our own launchers so people are not stuck with the LBA28 limitation of SONY software (ala XBOX replacement dashboards). You have to agree that uLE already took that path but honestly the uLE is more like a file manager such as those shell programs we used in the 80s and 90s with DOS. People today want a "dashboard", not a shell-like app.

Making mini was fun and resulted on some advances. I am sure we will keep pushing it forward but hey there's room for improvement almost anywhere on this scene.

[SP193]

SONY really changed their minds several times through the PS2 life.

Honestly, I think we should:

Allow people to use SONY software if they want to but not mess too much with it.

Develop our own launchers so people are not stuck with the LBA28 limitation of SONY software (ala XBOX replacement dashboards). You have to agree that uLE already took that path but honestly the uLE is more like a file manager such as those shell programs we used in the 80s and 90s with DOS. People today want a "dashboard", not a shell-like app.

Making mini was fun and resulted on some advances. I am sure we will keep pushing it forward but hey there's room for improvement almost anywhere on this scene.

One thing I wonder is whether the limit of the HDDOSD itself is capped at 128GB. The Sony APA drivers limit it to 128GB, but what if we replaced them?

EDIT: About replacing OSDSYS, I thought of cloning OSDSYS via reverse engineering, but that would involve a lot of work. :/
If you are talking about making one from ground up, that would be another great alternative, but a lot of work will be involved to give it the professional feel that will make people willing to use it.

uLaunchELF looks "Industrial-grade". Not something that professional companies like Sony would release for their consumers to use in the 21st century.

[kadorna2]

One thing I wonder is whether the limit of the HDDOSD itself is capped at 128GB. The Sony APA drivers limit it to 128GB, but what if we replaced them?

EDIT: About replacing OSDSYS, I thought of cloning OSDSYS via reverse engineering, but that would involve a lot of work. :/
If you are talking about making one from ground up, that would be another great alternative, but a lot of work will be involved to give it the professional feel that will make people willing to use it.

uLaunchELF looks "Industrial-grade". Not something that professional companies like Sony would release for their consumers to use in the 21st century.

OH GOD YES I CAME