Unofficial hdld_svr 0.8.6 / 0.9.1 - Soft reset and BOOT.ELF loading

[suloku]

Some people where asking for hdld_svr to be able to return to loader elf file or reset the PS2 without needing to shutdown the ps2, so I decided to take a look at the source code and make some modifications.

I "updated" the server from 0.8.5 and 0.9.0, naming them u0.8.6 and 0.9.1(it was already unofficial). u0.8.6 will only work with hdldumx 0.8.5/6 and 0.9.1 with the corresponding hdldumx 0.9.1 (all of them included in binary packages).

What's new?

-ipconfig.dat is now checked also in mc1. That's for fmcb/memor32 people having the memcard with hb at slot 2.
-Added two key combinations:
Cross+Triangle: reboot ps2. Will trigger fmcb/memento if the mc is in, if not it will take to Sony Browser.
Circle+Square: will load BOOT.ELF from these locations with this preference:
mc?:/BOOT/
mc?:/B?DATA-SYSTEM/
note: the ? represents either mc and the system configuration folders.

Why a button combination?
Because we don't want a game installation to be interrupted by accident right? Also the combination doesn't accept pressing one key first, then the other one, they have to be pressed at the same time (it's a little tricky, but adds security).

I haven't tested any other operations than reading the hdd contents, but as I didn't modify anything regarding that it should work just fine.

Anyway I'm not responsible of any damage or data loss you could experience (you know, I have to say it). Use at your own risk.

[TnA]

Originally Posted by suloku

Some people where asking for hdld_svr to be able to return to loader elf file or reset the PS2 without needing to shutdown the ps2, so I decided to take a look at the source code and make some modifications.

I "updated" the server from 0.8.5 and 0.9.0, naming them u0.8.6 and 0.9.1(it was already unofficial). u0.8.6 will only work with hdldumx 0.8.5/6 and 0.9.1 with the corresponding hdldumx 0.9.1 (all of them included in binary packages).

Whop,...(?!) Fast,... And not expected.
THX.

I remind a sentence, which you seem to live.
"Just do it!"

[suloku]

Actually it started with a question on the free vast thread, I was about to try something with hdloader and I ran the server, then I thought it would be great if I could just return to ule or restart fmcb.

I still haven't tried that hdloader thing though.

[yoshi314]

nice, that was exactly what i was missing from the hdl server.

it would be neat if we could implement a stronger compression algorithm for network transfer in the server/client - it might speed up things a bit.

[Bootlegninja]

Thanks!!! I was only kidding E P about this in the uLE thread, but this will be great to have since it saves a step of getting up and hitting reset on the system

[suloku]

Originally Posted by yoshi314

nice, that was exactly what i was missing from the hdl server.

it would be neat if we could implement a stronger compression algorithm for network transfer in the server/client - it might speed up things a bit.

That's completely out of my reach, you may have most chances on succeding on that than me (but I won't even look at the code).

[temp1]

I remember i never used hdld_svr .9.0 because I didn't want to fool with ensuring that pktdrv.irx remained in the correct location on the memory card. Does this update embed the irx and remove this dependency?

[M tha MaN]

It would be awesom if you could add the option to boot the boot.elf wich is in mass:/BOOT/

=) I will try your ones as soon as i want to install another PS2 game on my HDD

[suloku]

Originally Posted by temp1

I remember i never used hdld_svr .9.0 because I didn't want to fool with ensuring that pktdrv.irx remained in the correct location on the memory card. Does this update embed the irx and remove this dependency?

The 0.9.0 I downloaded had pktdrv.irx embedded, and when I first knew about that version it had it embedded also. Maybe you are talking of some other development version, I read something similar on ps2dev forums.

Anyway many people had better performance with 0.8.5 (0.8.6 didn't update the server) than with the udp based 0.9.0

Originally Posted by M tha MaN

It would be awesom if you could add the option to boot the boot.elf wich is in mass:/BOOT/

=) I will try your ones as soon as i want to install another PS2 game on my HDD

I could add it, but that means adding the usb drivers, increasing the file size, and I don't see it necessary because:

-If you don't use fmcb you are most likely using some BOOT.ELF at mc.
-If you are using fmcb you can restart it, then load what you want.

[M tha MaN]

Originally Posted by suloku

-If you are using fmcb you can restart it, then load what you want.

Oh, lol, i forgot that xD

Ok, then I'm sorry ^^

[Scooter]

Nice work suloku..

Works like a charm..

Later,
Scooter

[suloku]

Does it give you the same transfer speed as with the other versions?

I tried 0.8.6 and 0.8.5 seemed to be faster for me, but maybe there where other reasons. I forgot to comment it here when I tried it.

[dlanor]

Originally Posted by suloku

I could add it, but that means adding the usb drivers, increasing the file size, and I don't see it necessary because:

-If you don't use fmcb you are most likely using some BOOT.ELF at mc.

In fact many that do use FMCB are still likely to have BOOT.ELF on the MC, because it really makes more sense. FMCB itself is dependent on being installed to an MC to work at all, so it just makes better sense to store the main boot elf on the same MC as well. Otherwise we'd be dependent on having the USB device inserted in order to boot that main elf (in my case always uLE).

-If you are using fmcb you can restart it, then load what you want.

That is a good point, but in line with that reasoning it would be a sensible improvement to launch rom0:OSDSYS for cases where BOOT.ELF can't be found in the normal MC locations.

As presently coded the routine that checks the existence of files will always use the last path tested as argument to the RunLoaderElf function, even if the last test performed indicated that the elf was not found there, which will lead to BSOD. This can be fixed by simply inserting 'strcpy(path, "rom0:OSDSYS");' just before the label 'finish:', to enforce an OSDSYS restart for cases where no elf was found.

Btw:
If you are going to release another modified version, you might want to clean up the weird file duplication for the elf loader, in "hdl_dump\svr\ee\loader\", where the files "loader.c" and "load.c" are fully identical (checked by WinHex).

I realize that you copied and renamed "loader.c" to "load.c" to be able to refer to it without conflict in the makefile for "hdl_dump\svr\ee\" since that contains another "loader.c" (the one with RunLoaderElf in it). But then you really should change the references consistently.

So in the other makefile in "hdl_dump\svr\ee\loader\", you should refer to "load.o" and "load.elf" instead of "loader.o" and "loader.elf". And for the main makefile in "hdl_dump\svr\ee\" you should also change the "loader.elf" reference (in its bin2s call) to "load.elf" instead. And after these changes you can simply delete the original "loader.c" file from "hdl_dump\svr\ee\loader\".

Edit:
Alternatively you could come up with a new name for the "loader.c" file in "hdl_dump\svr\ee\", since that is the file specific to hdld_svr, in which case you can restore the "loader\" subfolder to its original state, removing the "load.c" file you added. This too requires some changes to the main makefile, so as to change the "loader" file references to use the new name, while also changing the "load" file references to "loader". Either way should work fine.

Though I'm mainly interested in v0.8.6, I checked that the same duplication also applies to your v0.9.1 release.

Best regards: dlanor

[JoeUser38]

Originally Posted by suloku

Actually it started with a question on the free vast thread, I was about to try something with hdloader and I ran the server, then I thought it would be great if I could just return to ule or restart fmcb.

I still haven't tried that hdloader thing though.

Wow, did my quest for rebooting the PS2 in HD Loader start you down this path? What a happy accident! Thank you!

[suloku]

Dlanor@:

I didn't want to modify the loader, it was cpied straight from the configurator (I modified it to remove HDD support).

I thought that as long as the makefile did the job, keeping the source with all the names it had was the best option, that's why I opted for changing the name for the compiled object file that was to be finally bundled into the final elf file.

Originally Posted by JoeUser38

Wow, did my quest for rebooting the PS2 in HD Loader start you down this path? What a happy accident! Thank you!

Yes, it was. BTW now I remember that I haven't testet what I wanted yet.

[gildor]

Originally Posted by suloku

I could add it, but that means adding the usb drivers

not necessarily if you use the usb drivers from fmcboot that are always in the sys-conf folder then it wouldn't really add much (if any) to the file size, just a thought mind you, anyway good job, hope to test it soon.

Gildor

[JoeUser38]

Originally Posted by suloku

Some people where asking for hdld_svr to be able to return to loader elf file or reset the PS2 without needing to shutdown the ps2, so I decided to take a look at the source code and make some modifications.

I "updated" the server from 0.8.5 and 0.9.0, naming them u0.8.6 and 0.9.1(it was already unofficial). u0.8.6 will only work with hdldumx 0.8.5/6 and 0.9.1 with the corresponding hdldumx 0.9.1 (all of them included in binary packages).

What's new?

-ipconfig.dat is now checked also in mc1. That's for fmcb/memor32 people having the memcard with hb at slot 2.
-Added two key combinations:
Cross+Triangle: reboot ps2. Will trigger fmcb/memento if the mc is in, if not it will take to Sony Browser.
Circle+Square: will load BOOT.ELF from these locations with this preference:
mc?:/BOOT/
mc?:/B?DATA-SYSTEM/
note: the ? represents either mc and the system configuration folders.

Why a button combination?
Because we don't want a game installation to be interrupted by accident right? Also the combination doesn't accept pressing one key first, then the other one, they have to be pressed at the same time (it's a little tricky, but adds security).

I haven't tested any other operations than reading the hdd contents, but as I didn't modify anything regarding that it should work just fine.

Anyway I'm not responsible of any damage or data loss you could experience (you know, I have to say it). Use at your own risk.

Hey, think you could add a "REBOOT" or "RESTART" command for hdl_dump so we could do this from the PC? Would need to pick a command name and stick with it for compatibility from here on out, of course. And if you included a command to load BOOT.ELF through hdl_dump, I'm not sure what you would name the command...