Method to make installed DISC games boot from from the hard drive in a PSX...

A little bit modified tutorial

I was researching this question and modified some utilities to be more user friendly.

I was trying to get things universal. Now everything is working in HDD OSD and in PS2 BB Navigator.
You can install game using hdl_dumx (gui or cli version). You can found icon.sys, list.ico or del.ico if you want to see unique icon in hdd osd The program will automatically install the game in partition PC.GAME-12345.HDL.gamename. Be careful - you have to check that GAME-12345 is unique per your game. Hdl_dumx automatically generates proper info.sys in the same folder where is placed program. Next: you have to launch uLaunchelf, create partition PP.GAME-12345.HDL.gamename and copy there boot.kelf and folder res. You can replace all png files and info.sys with generated one.
Then you have to launch hdl_server again. And now you have to run dvr.cmd (of course as administrator).

PC.GAME-12345.HDL.gamename - generated by hdl_dumx
PP.GAME-12345.HDL.gamename - created by ule
. |-----------------------res/ (contains all needed data)
. |-----------------------boot.kelf (miniopl in kelf container)

Some interesting things about HDD OSD:
We have to use the same patinfo files for all PP and its PC partitions or we will see corrupted data icons in the menu.

Some interesting things about BB Navigator:
It will show you title, publisher_id and title_id from info.sys. If there is no proper info.sys it will show title from patinfo area (title0 + title1 from icon.sys), unknown publisher and title_id taken from partition name (GAME-12345). We cannot hide jkt_001.png in info.sys (png file always is visible). If we set content_type = 261 it will hide entry from hdd menu.
We can leave single PC partition - and it will be still visible in BB Navigator menu And still remains bootable.

View attachment psxDISC.zip

 

Thanks for taking this forward, Aku.

 

How about elf files. I would just like to add example Nes emulator, Sega emulator, Open PS2 loader under game tab xmb

 

That's kind of obvious, huh ? You can create a bootable partition, ditch the PC.xxxxxx thing and instead of putting the disc loading program as boot file you put something like uLE. Simple enough. The catch is that any PS2 will want the boot file to be Magic Gate signed. But then there's plenty of public tools which aid you on making a elf file bootable at this point. They're just tricky to use.

You can use NEME's embbed method to shove a elf file inside a large KELF file or you can find "emptied" kelfs on the net. Or ...

A clever guy (who is a member of this forum btw) figured a method of emptying the contents table of a SONY file, making it into a "skeleton" file where you can drop a elf inside and not worry about it as long you don't touch/overwrite the single encrypted section at the end of the said file.

 

I just got the PSX DESR-700 from vash32 two week ago and I like it very much. When I saw your thread For the foks with DESR(PSX) units at their homes...
Saw you loading Open PS2 Loader from XMB. I didn't wanna bother you in pvt msg how you did it. Wanted to do some research on it or guide someone made.

 

I've been pursuing the idea of making a one hit ELF installer which install a boot up program for the PSX. For people like me who has a PSX with faulty DVD writer.

So you would launch it every time you wanted to launch a disc from XMB.

 

1) Make a PP. partition using AKuHAK's uLE HDD Edition WIP7;
2) Mount that new partition, create the "res" directory in its root, put your info.sys and jkt_002.png files in that new "res" directory;
3) Download SCEDoormat_NoME_Rel.02.zip, unzip it, and replace the KRYPTO file with this one;
4) Encapsulate your ELF using SCEDoormat_NoME, rename the resulting KELF as EXECUTE.KELF;
5) Use AKuHAK's uLE HDD Edition WIP7 to copy EXECUTE.KELF in the root of your PP. partition;
6) Write your partition info stuff to the PP. partition using AKuHAK's HDLdumX mod.

Make sure the BOOT2 variable of your system.cnf file points to pfs:/EXECUTE.KELF and NOT to PATINFO

The PS2 area of the PSX HDD is 40 GB big. Losing 128 MB per app is sucha monster waste.

I made the DESR KRYPTO file a while ago, and due to the lack of user feedback, I cannot guarantee that it works.
If it does not, look for the "Dirty KELF Maker v2" in AKuHAK's HDLdumX mod topic. IIRC, it's based on a dnasload KELF header, so it's PSX compatible (but things like ESR or a DVD Player may not work, since the APP type of that header isn't 0x07).

A flash (xfrom) based bootloader, right ? That's what I have in my DESR-7000. Priceless. Every PSX owners would NEED such a thing, cuz system-maintaining the PSX is just like hell.

 

krHACKen
Thank you for the guide I will follow it and try it.

 

Nope, something simple, just a launchable PFS partition. And a ELF which does all what you said automatically on a single click. The file it installs boot whatever disc is inserted (maybe ESR too if we can get ffgriever collaboration on the project ...)

It could include also SP193's real time dvd player patching code so it would make DVD playback possible (while using the original PSX DVD player for sake of originality and experience. If you own the PSX remote controller that would be neat to be able to use the DVD player properly of course.

Edit: Your idea of replacing what is on XFROM: is nice if the person is ready to give up from using the XMB (like if the HDD gone bad and the only choice is using a 40GB SONY HDD).

 

Thanks l_oliveria for the help and Thank you for guide krHACKen.
I was able to follow 1-5 steps but I got stuck on step 6. The site is down for some reason for HDLdumx mod. I download the psxDISC.zip he provide above. Im still confuse with step 6. I try different method but end up with no results.

 

Step 6 means boot the uLE elf, navigate to the HDD partition on the hdd: mount point and drop the files ("your partition stuff") in it.

wrong ...

He meant add "resource" data to the partition (3D icon, OSD attributes and system.cnf data).

Quoting Aku:

"Hdl_dumx automatically generates proper info.sys in the same folder where is placed program. Next: you have to launch uLaunchelf, create partition PP.GAME-12345.HDL.gamename and copy there boot.kelf and folder res. You can replace all png files and info.sys with generated one."

Without doing that the PSX will deal with the partition as "corrupted data".

 

Ok I seem to got it to work l_oliveria thank you for the assist and help. DESR KRYPTO file seem to work krHACKen. I tested it and it works follow your guide thank you. It was either my pc or system.cnf file from psxdisc.zip didn't work. I move to laptop and redid the steps but download system.cnf other source Google I edit the system.cnf and was able to get it to work.

 

Hello. Is there any way to make a bootable XMB version of uLaunch or any other app? I need it to make a quick replacement of xml files during translating process, rebooting the PSX every time I need to see the changes is annoying thing. Thank you all for your work)

 

You need to make a bootable partition just like we did here, but instead of putting an HDL game and the game loader, put uLE.

 

Ive made it. Thx vitas155 for your help.

 

now..I install game on PSX by HDLdumX mod , it's can show logo in XMB but i can't start game , it's show " Failed to read from the disk " . why can't start game...I don't know reason , can you tell me too... l_oliveira , krHACKen and AKuHAK .
thank you for reply me



and now I can start game in XMB but it's black screen 3-4 second after that it's come back to XMB , I don't know why can't start game . can you tell me ?

 

You need to describe exactly what you did.

 

EDIT.......
DOH! Nevermind just spotted its the jkt_cp.png image file. lol


Hello I have been using this method to get cover art working in PSBBN.
I have one small but annoying issue, every game I install with cover art under it in the games list there is some text saying "2003 KOEI Co..LTD.All rights reserved" Is there anyway to edit or remove this as I am not sure how to.
Thanks.

 

EDIT YOUR RESOURCE FILES. You are using resource files 'borrowed' from Nobuon (Nobunaga Online) so no wonder it would say "KOEI".

That's all I have to say. (those resource files are PNG and text files so you should have no problem modifying them...)