ESR with Swap Magic

[dumdidum]

I have a question.

I own a Swap Magic CD, which allows booting ELF's from USB. Can I boot my PS2 with Swap Magic, run ESR from USB, and then just manually open the tray and switch the disc to backup?

Or am I required to do the magic switch -thing, it's a slim PS2. If this works, I'd save the hassle of installing Free Mcboot, as the PS2 doesn't have a memory card.

[amp2006]

I have a question.

I own a Swap Magic CD, which allows booting ELF's from USB. Can I boot my PS2 with Swap Magic, run ESR from USB, and then just manually open the tray and switch the disc to backup?

Or am I required to do the magic switch -thing, it's a slim PS2. If this works, I'd save the hassle of installing Free Mcboot, as the PS2 doesn't have a memory card.

well just get a Memory Card and a lot of Problem will be solved

[dumdidum]

That's not possible right now, maybe in a couple of weeks. I just want to know if this option works until then.

[dlanor]

I have a question.

I own a Swap Magic CD, which allows booting ELF's from USB. Can I boot my PS2 with Swap Magic, run ESR from USB, and then just manually open the tray and switch the disc to backup?

Yes, you can do this, but be very careful how you do it. If a homebrew started directly by SwapMagic attempts to write to the USB drive (like when saving changed settings), that write operation is likely to corrupt the drive contents, as the SwapMagic drivers for the USB port are not fully compatible with homebrew drivers. (It happened to me in a test just a moment ago...)

That sort of thing will probably work better if you let the "SWAPMAGIC.ELF" file you install launch yet another homebrew (like having one instance of uLE launch another in another USB folder), so as to normalize the launch conditions. This seems to fix the problem for me.

Starting ESR from uLE when booted this way does allow it to work, launching such games as FF12 from another region (for example), but I have not tested extensively how far this compatibility applies.

Note also that when using uLE this way you may need to reconfigure some things to cope with the absence of MC. For example, in order to use the "MISC/PS2Disc" command of uLE for launching games properly you will need to configure the "Disc Control:" setting to ON and also define the "ESR elf:" setting inside the "Startup Settings..." submenu, so as to override the default path (for MC).

Or am I required to do the magic switch -thing, it's a slim PS2. If this works, I'd save the hassle of installing Free Mcboot, as the PS2 doesn't have a memory card.

There is never any need to use that disc swapping method, and I never do it myself, under any circumstances. The only acceptable need I am aware of is for those who must do it in order to install FMCB. But for all other cases it should always be avoided.

But whatever you do, you will eventually need a proper MC, because that is the storage medium required by all games for gamesaves, and by nearly all homebrews for configuration files.

Best regards: dlanor

[dumdidum]

Thanks dlanor, your answers are always the best because of the extensive explaining.

I'm gonna order a memory card from ***********, it seems to be the easiest way around.

[flo]

Can this be done ?
Boot Swap Magic 3.8 Coder , launch ULE then the ESR.ELF placed on USB Stick or MC , ESR starts ->eject tray > ( is SM still spinning? ) -> eject SM disc and insert backup - > play

Also is there a way to boot ESR automatically from the MC with Swap Magic by pressing L1,R1..something ?

[urbigbro]

Can this be done ?
Boot Swap Magic 3.8 Coder , launch ULE then the ESR.ELF placed on USB Stick or MC , ESR starts ->eject tray > ( is SM still spinning? ) -> eject SM disc and insert backup - > play

Also is there a way to boot ESR automatically from the MC with Swap Magic by pressing L1,R1..something ?

That's over complicating it if you just want to use ESR, boot uLE from the first uLE like dlanor said, than take out the SM disc. Put in ESR patched disc and start ESR.

If you want it more automated you can store two different copies of uLE in two different folders, and have one auto run the other without any delay. The second copy could be set to auto run the ESR.ELF after ten seconds, giving you time to put in the ESR patched disc.

You need to use two copies of uLE because uLE will read the .CNF from the folder it is run from first, so if you had it auto boot itself with no delay from that same folder, it would get stuck in a loop. When you boot the second copy from another folder with a different CNF to boot ESR after 10 seconds this will not happen.

This is the most automated way I can think of using SM to run ESR. This is probably the most useful for people with v18 consoles with v2.30 BIOS, who can't use FMCB.

[flo]

I don't see why you need 2 instances of ULE .. The Swap Magic 3.8 Coder contains ULE . You can configure this one to boot ESR with X , SMS with square, and so on... The ELF's would be placed either on the MC or USB dev ice .

[dlanor]

I don't see why you need 2 instances of ULE .. The Swap Magic 3.8 Coder contains ULE . You can configure this one to boot ESR with X , SMS with square, and so on... The ELF's would be placed either on the MC or USB dev ice .

Yes, you can do this, but you will have a partly abnormal system setup, with remnants from the SwapMagic program on disc still affecting some things. Letting another instance of uLE be launched will cause another IOP reset and total reloading of all driver modules, with the START of that reloading being done in a more normal environment than was done for the first instance of uLE (due to abnormal modules of SwapMagic).

Like I said in my earlier post, a test made without the 'extra' uLE instance led to total corruption of the SWAPMAGIC folder on the USB drive. If you don't mind that risk, then go ahead and do it your way instead.

If the USB drive is one that you don't use for any other purpose then it really doesn't matter how you risk its contents, since it can easily be restored using your PC. But personally I am more worried about similar corruption possibly thrashing MC contents, thus destroying unique gamesaves etc.

Best regards: dlanor