(CBT) HDLoader game installer

Changelog for v0.815

• Updated font-rendering for the soft keyboard and various menus, to work properly with the variable-width fonts.
• Updated network protocol for faster game-list transmission.
• Changed I/O strategy: 64KB R/W buffer, with 32x512KB ring buffer.
• Added support for DHCP.
• Added support for title-sorting (controlled from the PlayStation 2).
• Added options screen.
• Network settings are now stored in the HDLGameInstaller save, on the HDD unit.
• Added IP address indicator to main menu.
• Added free disk space indicator to the main menu.
• Network Settings can now be changed from the options screen.
• Changed internal game list format to store titles in UTF-8 instead, for memory savings.
• Fixed booting from the HDD unit.
• Added key-repetition functionality to the soft keyboard and menus.

Changelog for the PC client

• Changed I/O strategy to match the PlayStation 2 side: 32x512KB ring buffer.
• Adjusted control sizes and placement on install dialog box. DVD is now the default disc type.
• Adjusted network protocol for quicker transfer of game list.
• Removed old TCP_NODELAY setting for better utilization of the command socket.
• Fixed division by zero glitch during installation and game copying.

Settings are now saved into the HDLGameInstaller save data folder:

Code:

hdd0:__common/Your Saves/HDLGAMEINSTALLER

If you wish to delete the save, you may do so with the HDD Browser or compatible homebrew (e.g. LaunchELF).

Downloads/Links
HDLGameInstaller project page (downloads at bottom): http://ichiba.geocities.jp/ysai187/PS2/HDLGameInstaller.htm

 

HDLGameInstaller v0.816 released!

Changelog for v0.816:

• Improved rendering of button labels between half-width and full-width characters.
• Fixed freeze when network connection is unavailable.
• Updated PFS to correct creation of "Your Saves" folder.
• Fixed save-file generation.
• Settings will be automatically saved once the defaults are loaded, if the user never saved the settings before.
• Improved network performance.

Downloads/Links
HDLGameInstaller project page (downloads at bottom): http://ichiba.geocities.jp/ysai187/PS2/HDLGameInstaller.htm

EDIT: File was updated to fix a logic error behind the "no connection" message.

 

how many games can be installed into Hddosd until browser of ps2 stay slow on loading the games list ?
in the last week i was trying to put very games in some 1tb hdd with hdosd 48bit installed and was very games installed.
When i went open the ps2 browser where is hdd located on ps2 the loading of these games was very slow LOL.

 

The problem is that the APA driver has a pre-defined number of slots, for caching accesses to the descriptors of the partitions. When there are more partitions than these slots, then we get the problem of cache thrashing.
Each game is considered an installation, which Sony calls a partition. A partition may have a main partition, as well as one or more sub-partitions.
So the more partitions that you have in total, the greater this problem will be.

The number of partitions that a game may take up, really depends on the size of the game and how free space is available on your disk. So if your free space is very fragmented, then your game will be split apart more.
(note: don't use the HDD Utility Disc for this, since the HDLoader game format has a problem with it).

But in general, I think it starts happening around 100GB of games. But your mileage may vary, for the explanation I just wrote.
It is pretty obvious that Sony just never intended this to be used with large disks. After all, the only official disk is 40GB in capacity.

For OPL and HDLoader, they avoid this design limitation by getting the LBA of the partitions and directly accessing game's title information with it (without using the open function), while scanning through all partitions. So the cache thrashing problem does not occur, since it will only iterate through the partitions only once.
The HDD Browser likely uses the open() function, which will cause another iteration through the partitions, until the right partition is found. But because there are insufficient buffers to cache everything, the next partition that the APA driver wants to access will end up having being deleted from the cache before - causing the driver to access the HDD more.

To illustrate, since I don't think I ever have done it on this forum:

 

HDLGameInstaller v0.816 Re-released!

Changelog for v0.816:

• Re-released with the corrected PFS and USBHDFSD modules.

If you have downloaded the original release of v0.816, please replace your copy.
The original release was built with a bugged USBHDFSD module, which has issues. While HDLGameInstaller does not write to a USB disk, I made a new package to ensure that my work has quality.

Downloads/Links
HDLGameInstaller project page (downloads at bottom): http://ichiba.geocities.jp/ysai187/PS2/HDLGameInstaller.htm

 

Ok Ok =D , thank you for the explanation now i understand the why the games list shown on hdd browser, but the hdosd is nice
Sony has attempted to make something nice with the ps2 known the limitations of hardware.

 

HDLGameInstaller v0.816 Re-released!

Changelog for v0.816

• Improved rendering of button labels between half-width and full-width characters.
• Fixed freeze when network connection is unavailable.
• Updated PFS to correct creation of "Your Saves" folder.
• Fixed save-file generation.
• Settings will be automatically saved once the defaults are loaded, if the user never saved the settings before.
• Improved network performance.
• NEW! - Re-released with the corrected PFS and USBHDFSD modules.
• NEW(ER)! - Re-released with the corrected PFS module, to allow the configuration file to be saved correctly.

To be honest, I had doubts about whether the recent changes to PFS would really prevent problems with saving the configuration file. But better to be safe than sorry, right?

On a side note, LaunchELF has been updated to support HDD-based paths. So by using a new build of LaunchELF, one can boot this piece of software from the HDD unit.
(We are no longer restricted to only FHDB)

Downloads/Links
HDLGameInstaller project page (Downloads at bottom): http://ichiba.geocities.jp/ysai187/PS2/HDLGameInstaller.htm

 

I'm having an issue where I can connect to the PS2 but when I attempt to install a game I get a "The connection to console has been lost" error (A partition is created but that's it).

With the above said, I also have this same scenario with the latest HDL_Dumb.
The only setup that works for me is the HDL_dumb_server paired with hdl_dump_helper_gui_2.3 client.

I'd appreciate some help. I have a feeling it's a Windows firewall issue but even after allowing the client through, the error persist...

 

Now, there is a feature to check if flow control was negotiated for. If it is "disabled", then that is the problem.
If it is disabled, are you using a Realtek? There is this known problem with Realtek adaptors, whereby the flow control setting is seemingly bugged (it cannot be enabled in Windows). I have contacted Realtek about it, but so far nothing much has happened.

It used to not be a problem, until we became able to send frames in excess of 8MB/s. Then the SMAP started to exhibit its bugs (it's seemingly bugged too) and design limitations...

As for HDLDump, ensure that you have selected a matching server and client. If it is a v0.8.6-compatible server, you need to use a matching client. The HDL Dumb helper has an option for selecting what server it is, which you are using.

 

Thank you for the information.
I'm using an Intel Ethernet controller on my desktop. However, I just tried to perform an HDLGameInstaller transfer using my laptop, with a Qualcomm controller, and it installed successfully....

With the above said, I transferred three games and all work on OPL except Klonoa 2 (USA), which hangs after starting....This behavior is strange because I know this game works on the latest OPL beta build, per tests with another console that had the game installed on it via a different method years back. Also, I tried reinstalling Klonoa 2 but nothing changed.

Not sure if the above issues are bugs with HDLGameInstaller or not...
As a side note, I'm using a crossover cable to perform the transfers.

 

Yeah, which is why I have been saying it might be due to flow control not working. Did you check whether it got negotiated for?
Its status is displayed on the network status screen.

Whether it works or not, is beyond my control. It is a fact that modern computers are powerful enough to communicate properly without it.
My RTL8102E is unable to have flow control enabled on it, but it's been working fine for fast network transfers with other computers. However, it gives lots of problems when communicating with the PlayStation 2 (which is too slow for 100Mbit).
While HDLGameInstaller allows that setting to be fixed on, whether the PC's NIC does anything about it, really depends on what it can do. That too, doesn't work with my RTL8102E.

That game needs some settings, if I remember right. You can try accurate reads, or even setting the transfer mode to MWDMA mode 0.
The full OPL build does not follow the compatibility settings set within HDLGameInstaller.

 

Thanks, I'll look into how my Intel adapter is handling flow control.

It needs mode 1 (accurate reads) normally. However, the game doesn't launch for me (regardless of OPL settings) when I install it with HDLGameInstalller.
I'm not applying any custom settings with HDLGameInstaller nor launching games from HDDOSD.

 

HDLGameInstaller v0.817 released

Changelog:

• Improved startup time by reducing the number of checks on the connection state.
• Increased FILEIO buffer size back to 512KB, for reduced overhead.
• Compiled with PS2SDK update: new NETMAN module for better reliability and efficient use of SIF0.
• Compiled with FreeType v2.9.1.

Downloads/Links
Project page for HDLGameInstaller (downloads at bottom): http://ichiba.geocities.jp/ysai187/PS2/HDLGameInstaller.htm

I have this feeling that it's incredibly fragile at boot, but I couldn't find any problem. And I refuse to spend more time on this.

As for the changes to NETMAN:

 

for me, v0.817 gets stuck in connecting to network.

 

Please try again. I encountered it before, but there is no way to debug it because it doesn't occur on the DTL-T10000. Worse still, it went away after I went back to the CEX PS2...

 

i tried deleting the HDLG save in _common and it worked!

 

I installed successfuly 1 game out 2.


second game got stuck at 99%


Flow control manually set to On

 

I know that you're affected by the Realtek driver bug. Even though I provided an option to enable it, the other end must also support flow control. At least, it must support receiving pause frames.
Since you cannot actually enable flow control, there is currently no solution for you. Sorry, but this is the problem with getting a computer from the 2010s to communicate with a device that is as good as PC from 1989 (e.g. 80486 DX33).

Today, it is possible to get 2 PCs to communicate with each other at 100Mbit FDX, without flow control actually working. But back in 1999, things were different.

 

Okay, so here is something we can try: https://www.sendspace.com/file/7oxjym
Replace HDLGameInstaller.elf with this version. The other files and folders (lang folder etc) are still necessary.

• Game list is no longer refreshed when the game is being closed, but when the connection is closed.
• Data socket is deleted, once the data connection is broken.

I am guessing it has got to do with how few games I usually have on my HDD. Perhaps you guys have 200 games or something, causing the software to take more than 30s to send a response after the game is closed. Since it is impossible for the HDD to scan through all partitions within 30s, all attempts (30s x 3 = 150s) will fail.

If not refreshing the game list after a game is closed is the answer, then here is my guess as to why it wasn't an issue before: HDLGameInstaller now uses a dedicated socket for file transfers. However, the data connection can be closed before the other end actually completely receives all data and stores it, allowing the close game command to be sent over the command socket, even earlier than before.

Note: this will not fix the flow control problem. This is an attempt to solve the problem that HDLGameInstaller has upon completing a game installation, whereby it just fails for some people.

 

In my first attemp i could install 1 game, se another got an error at 55%.
On second attemp it couldnt install the 1st one

Flow control was on. I want to retry with it turned off.