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Originally Posted by thesentence
Though this is my first post I would like to say that I am not a noob and that I have been around for a while. I have Free Mcboot installed on my PS2 and am currently launching homebrew from the PS2 menu. I have a few questions just about general things regarding homebrew.
1.) How do you make an .elf file? I mean like is it possible to convert a game into an elf? I heard that the slus files are actually elfs. Is this true? How do you make a file into an elf?
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An elf file is an executable program, just like the exe files of dos/windows. So elf files are normally created by a programmer writing a program in some programming language. For homebrew software that language is nearly always C or C++, with occasional critical stuff being written in hand-optimized assembler code.
On commercial game discs the file with the same name as the game ID (eg: SLES_543.54 for the UK version of Final Fantasy 12) is indeed an elf file, and in most cases it is the main game program. But trying to use such a file 'standalone' would not work, as it will need the data files on the game disc to work properly.
Making non-program files into an elf is simply not an option. That would be like trying to make a jpg file into an exe. (You could rename them that way, but it would serve no purpose.)
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2.) I have ESR so I can boot burned games very easily without swapping discs. I was wondering is it possible to boot an iso (or bin/cue, really anything) that is not an actual game.
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Sure, but for this to work you must prepare the ISO in the same way you would any other bootable PS2 DVD disc.This means that you compose the ISO as UDF+ISO9660, and include a SYSTEM.CNF file which specifies the elf to be launched in its BOOT2 directive. (Check the SYSTEM.CNF of some game discs if you're unsure of this.)
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I can't patch it to use with ESR because it says "no UDF descriptor!" or something of the like. I have a 256 usb drive.
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Then you probably made a pure ISO9660 disc image, which does not work.
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3.) I know you can shut down your console by pressing a button in the Free McBoot installer, is there an elf or another way I can do this? I just thought it would be cool.
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I don't think any programmer would bother to make a separate program just to power-off the console.
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There is a file named "PowerOffPS2" in the MISC folder of ulaunch elf,
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Not quite. That subprogram is named "PS2PowerOff", and the main program is named "uLaunchELF" not "ulaunch" + "elf", and the standard abbreviation for it is uLE.
That is because PS2PowerOff is not a real file, but an internal subprogram of uLE.
The same goes for all contents of the pseudo-folder "MISC/". Each of its entries leads to an internal subprogram of uLE, so none of them can be copied as files. But they can be launched, either directly in FileBrowser, or by linking them to launch buttons.
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and does not work when selected.
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It works fine here (most of the time) both on my v7 PS2 and on my v15 PStwo.
It turns off the console to standby mode. (When it works.)
Best regards: dlanor
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