Unofficial FMCB v1.8C installer

[SP193]

Note :

@All: Once again, let me reiterate that I only wrote the installer. FMCB v1.8C was written by and compiled Jimmikaelkael, and Neme was involved in the FMCB project at the earlier stages. Credit for the FMCB binary should go to them, and credit for only the installer should go to me.

Yes, this installer installs FMCB v1.8C, which is the latest version from Jimmikaelkael

FMCBInstaller_093A Is Out so use this instead of the Old One many thanks to SP193


Changes in FMCBInstaller_093A.

1-Changed buffer alignment to 64-byte alignment for all buffers that will have data flushed back into from the Data Cache. Other buffers now use 16-byte alignment.
2-Fixed the age-old buffer "alignment issue" (The phantom that was responsible for mysteriously corrupting the stack has been vanquished!). !!CRITICAL!!
Turns out, data buffers specified with SifCallRpc() will have data read from and written to in groups of 16... and some of the calls to SifCallRpc() within the EE-side clients like MCTOOLS pass the address of a 32-bit variable to it. The result? The SIF overwrites data beyond the end of that 32-bit variable when it does it's usual 16-byte block writes!
I know that SifSetDma() won't fix alignment and padding issues on it's own, so I actually expected the SIF library to fix those issues lol.
3-Fixed the issue with the "done!" messages disappearing. =3
Somehow, I can now see why the messages were disappearing, after getting some sleep! XD
It's because of the fact that the status messages are displayed 2 lines after the "Copying <file>..." message is first displayed. The system will bring the cursor back 2 lines, write the status and then bring the cursor back forward 2 lines. The problem is that this behaviour should not exist for the last file copied (The cursor position should only be brought back ONE line!). D:

This is an unofficial Free Memory Card Boot (FMCB) v1.8C installer.
No part of it was directly re-used from FMCB v1.7 itself, but parts of it were based or referenced from the code of FMCB v1.7.

Note that this is a beta test, so anything can go wrong. Don't use this program unless you are sure that you don't mind risking losing your memory card data.

The files in the fmcb-install folder are from Jimmikaelkael's PS3MCA project. Of course, I didn't include the questionable files which Sony claimed as a breach of their copyright.

So what's new in this FMCB release? Frankly, I don't really know as I didn't find a changelog for FMCB v1.8C. But I heard that it had some bugs fixed....
Most importantly, CROSS-REGIONAL installs work now. You have to perform a Multi-install to make a cross-regional install.

I've spent slightly over a hundred hours working on this, and I hope that it works well.... but of course, anything could go wrong - so I have provided a memory card dumping and restoration facility within the installer.

A dump of a memory card in slot 1 will get saved as mc0.bin, and a dump of a card in slot 2 will get saved as mc1.bin.
The file will be saved to the directory where the main executable of this installer resides in.

Caution! You can only make one dump of a card from each port. Making additional dumps will overwrite the previous dump.

If you are going to perform a multi-install: !!! YOU SHOULD MAKE A DUMP FIRST, IN CASE YOU REALLY DAMAGE YOUR CARD'S FILESYSTEM !!!

During development, I have sent one card to it's grave and damaged the filesystems of all the others I have. Thank goodness for the dumps that I made at the beginning of this project!
(I seriously don't know what's wrong with that damaged card... it was hardly used and now it won't be detected at all).

All consoles should be supported, and no additional files should be required.
I've tested the installer on my SCPH-10000 console, and it works fine too.

!!! WARNING !!! If you make a multi-install, DO NOT DELETE ANY OF THE B*EXEC-SYSTEM FOLDERS OR ANY OF THE OSD*.elf FILES INSIDE THEM!
Doing so might result in _SEVERE_ data loss.
Do not delete uninstall.dat from the SYS-CONF folder either, or you will probably be stuck with the multi-install files forever.

If you see 3 FMCB folders in the browser, and 2 of them have "?" as their reported sizes, it's normal. See here for more information: http://psx-scene.com/forums/f153/uno...72/#post917876 (Unofficial FMCB v1.8C installer)

Lastly, please do give feedback. Other than the bugs listed below, I do hope that this release has met the requirements of the public.

Additional information, notes and warnings can be found in the README file.
Information on the source code release can be found in the README file too.
Credits can be found in the README file too.

Downloads/Links
Project homepage: - Unofficial Free Memory Card Boot (FMCB) v1.8C installer -
Unofficial FMCB v1.8C installer v0.90 beta: FMCBInstaller_090.7z

I forgot to mention this in the README file: The generation of cross-linked files (Only during multi-installs) might take quite a long time. So don't switch off your console or unplug your memory card unless you have waited for a very very very long time.

My almost full imitation card took about 3 minutes to get that step done lol.
And I thought that my test had failed because it took abnormally long.

[RandQalan]

Thanks a lot already installed and went smoothly for me
I will let you know if I have any problems

You sure busting out PS2 mod alot recently nice work

[yoshi314]

This is an unofficial Free Memory Card Boot (FMCB) v1.8C installer.
No part of it was directly re-used from FMCB v1.7 itself, but parts of it were based or referenced from the code of FMCB v1.7.

Note that this is a beta test, so anything can go wrong. Don't use this program unless you are sure that you don't mind risking losing your memory card data.

The files in the fmcb-install folder are from Jimmikaelkael's PS3MCA project. Of course, I didn't include the questionable files which Sony claimed as a breach of their copyright.

so, if i understand correctly, you reimplemented the xsecrman, like jimmi did in the original installer?

also, can mc annihilator restore the memory card to working condition, or do we have to do some other procedure in case of failure that bricks the memcard?

[SP193]

so, if i understand correctly, you reimplemented the xsecrman, like jimmi did in the original installer?

Yes, and no.

Yes, because I have written a XSECRMAN module while Jimmi's original work was not a module (So in other words, it wasn't exactly a copy-and-paste job, but involved some re-implementation as well).

Not to mention that Jimmi's code ran on the EE, while my code is contained in an IOP module and integrates itself with rom0:SECRMAN.

And no, because I didn't implement most of it myself. It was mostly based on Jimmi's work on FMCB v1.7.

All I did was to rip the missing functions out of mcid.c of FMCB v1.7, adapt the code to work with rom0:SECRMAN, rom0:SIO2MAN and rom0:MCMAN, fixed some bugs and compiled all that into a module.

also, can mc annihilator restore the memory card to working condition, or do we have to do some other procedure in case of failure that bricks the memcard?

Formatting with any utility that completes formatting that card properly will fix the corrupted card.

If restoring a card image onto a memory card doesn't work right, the memory card might have to be formatted first before the image is restored onto it.
This is because the MCTOOLS module within this installer reads the card's geometry from the card's filesystem itself. So if the first page of the card has been damaged, the restoration and dumping procedure will surely fail (Not to mention that installing FMCB with the installer is out of the question too).

But in my destoyed card's case, no. It seemed to have really broken down for good.

@RandQalan: Thanks.
@All: I hope that I didn't scare all of you with the warnings, but performing a normal installation is 100% risk-free. The only "risk" you will ever have is that the installation fails and you might end up with a card devoid of FMCB (Until you re-install FMCB again).

The only procedure that might expose your card to corruption is the multi-install. I've only done 2 installs on 2 different cards with it, but so far it has worked right.

[yoshi314]

i installed it over existing fmcb install on original 8mb. works.

will test 64mb datel tomorrow.

[RandQalan]

Just wonder why 3 FMCB folders and 2 are ? on MC with full install

[SP193]

Just wonder why 3 FMCB folders and 2 are ? on MC with full install

Do you mean that you see 3 "FMCB" folders in the browser, and 2 of them have "?" as their reported sizes?

One of them is the system executable folder for your console and the other 2 are "clones" (To be precise, they are logical entries that point to the same folder... so no extra space is taken up on your MC other than in the FAT).

Those cross-linked folders will enable your FMCB v1.8C installation to boot on other consoles of other region codes.

For my Singapore consoles' case, BAEXEC-SYSTEM is the original folder with "470KB" as it's size, and BIEXEC-SYSTEM and BEEXEC-SYSTEM are the clones with "?" as their sizes.

I don't know why the browsers of the newer consoles show "?" as the sizes for the cross-linked folders, but they all appear to have the same sizes on my SCPH-10000 console.
It's probably because the console had detected the unusual filesystem layout and decided that the sizes of those 2 cross-linked folders cannot be calculated as they don't contain files on their own.

All I know that it's normal and everything seems to be correct so far (Filesystem integrity-wise). In other words, it appears to be a cosmetic defect that only occurs in the browser (uLaunchELF will display everything correctly).

Just pay attention to game save failures, and savedata, file and folder corruption. If you don't see anything like those happening, the multi-install system is probably working properly.

[RandQalan]

Well then I have saved multiple games and deleted and tried to mess it up

And I have no problems yet and noticed seem to boot faster then 1.8b

and most apps seams to boot faster to on my SCPH-39001

I say great work but I will still see if I can mess it up for you

[yoshi314]

i also feel that boot is slightly bit faster, probably by a ~0.5 to ~1 second

those who used fat ps2 dvdplayer kelf will probably notice it even more.

[psxscenefan1]

I take it you used some of the intermediate files that were posted in the 1.8c release thread that were stated that they could be used to produce an installer. Also if you weren't aware, the github to ps3mca-tool was archived just before it was taken down by somebody in china, but I wouldn't bother looking for it unless you absolutely needed it.