What parameters, exactly, should I use when packing patched HDL.elf?

This is turning into a nightmare. Here I have a nicely patched HDL file that I simply want to load using the MC exploit, using the little boot.elf that came with HDA MC package.

If I copy the unpacked, patched HDLOADER.EXE to my memory card, it boots fine using a PS1 game as a trigger, and runs games fine. However, that occupies 3MB of memory card space.

The problem starts whenever I try to compress HDLOADER.ELF using either PS2 Packer 0.3b2 or PS2 Packer 0.4. I have used ZLIB compression in both cases, as I understood that's the best choice.

When I compress HDLOADER.ELF using the 0.3b2 packer, the resulting executable becomes impossible to run. Not only it will not work with MC exploit and boot.elf, but it will also freeze if I try to run it using the PS2Menu for example.

When I compress it suing the 0.4 packer, the executable runs fine when launched from PS2Menu, but freezes on black screen whenever I try to run it with MC exploit's boot.elf.

Remember, these compressed files work *perfectly* from MC exploit when uncompressed.

I would really appreciate if anyone can tell me what am I doing wrong, or if there is any alternative to using boot.elf that would boot straight into HDLoader without asking me anything.

Here are the command lines for PS2 packers that I'm using.

ps2-packer-0.3.exe -p zlib-packer INFILE.ELF OUTFILE.ELF
ps2-packer-0.4.exe -p zlib INFILE.ELF OUTFILE.ELF

Am I supposed to use some of the memory relocation options like -b 0x1a0000 ?

I was having the exact same problem myself, and finally stumbled across something that works:

Use PS2-Packer v.0.4's -b option, with 0x1b00000 as the loading base.