New PS2 Tool owner, have some questions...

It's the only dev console I miss...sniff! :crying:

Nice find, and damn right haggle for these things! I got my first one as a back door eBay purchase when the seller thought he was just selling a PS2.

 

Yea it's the best dev system I've gotten so far. I love it so far.

Most of the nice stuff I buy on eBay aren't actually on record lol. Lots of times I either PM them offers with the hope that they end the auction early, or if it doesn't sell, I PM them a lower offer than the starting price.

You'd be surprised how desperate people are to sell things, as it usually works. It's how I got my N64 DD collection. It came with the system, an n64, all the accessories, every game but Japan Pro Golf and Doshin 2.. some of which are sealed, all complete in boxes for $200. I later bought Japan Pro Golf for 200, so the whole bit set me back only $400.


Anywho, I'll try to get this up and running. I'll post some pictures of what shows up on the screens and I'll ask what needs to be done from there . Thanks everyone for the help, it's much appreciated.

 

looking nice indeed
it seems to be in great shape, you lucky... > <
it seems your warranty is void tho.. :dance:

did you get any software, dokuments or extra accessories with it ?

 

Nope. I just want to tinker with it.. not some die hard developer or anything. More concerned about the physical condition than if I can program a game, ya know?

Lol, oh no.. no warranty :110:. If it had a warranty, and it was anything like me calling Sony for questions about my Test PS2, it probably would have ended with the same "you're not supposed to have this hardware, thus we don't have to help you.. goodbye" :katamari:

 

yeah, i suppose sony wouldn't give a good eye if one would call them and ask how to fix a dev unit or whatever
I was mainly just referring to the sticker that you got on the side saying "void void void void"

i kinda feel you there about being concerned about the looks, it kills me inside a bit that mine is a total trainwreck, and not like i have any needed skills to use mine, but it's still nice to have all sorts of gadgets with it.
I guess i got the rest of my life to learn

 

PM sent.

Yea, I like to collect systems the most... more than huge library's of games. I especially like the odd ball systems. They're great to have. So that's why I'm always concerned about their condition. Games on the other hand, while I want them to be nice, I'm not going to pass up something I like just because the cart comes with no box. ya know? :nod:

 

thanks for the PM

and yeah, while i usually take great note on the visual condition of items i buy for using or collecting or whatever really, when it comes to an obscure device such as the TOOL, i had little ot no choice on it as it's not everyday one comes across a seller who's willing to ship it far and whatnot.

im still happy with mine, damaged or not as its' more of an use device as collection object.

the unit i bought was in way better condition than it is now tho, the shipping wasn't easy for it

 

Ok guys, I finally moved to the new place, and took off the back port to hook up my keyboard and monitor.

It's fully functional and goes through the setup sequence.

It said something about DHCP or w/e and I hit enter a couple times. After a little wait, it says:

Red Hat Linux release 5.2 (Apollo)
Kernel 2.0.36 on a i586

devtool login:




So there we go. Btw.. God this thing is LOUD :lol:

 

Just so you guys know.. I'm not being obnoxious here, I did read the other thread recommended to new users. The "tool single" thing though didn't work. Can anyone please clarify on what exactly I should be doing here?

 

You have to type this at the "boot:" prompt that appears briefly just after the POST screen.

 

We really should have completed that guide I compiled from all the posts. It was a bitch to go through and pick things out and lengthy - It's on a hard drive up in the attic. Limey has asked for it and it seems there's more interest in the PS2 Tool suddenly. To save repeating information or linking back to some pretty lengthy and at times cluttered discussions we should really go for it.

I've said it before, but I'll dig it out.

 

Try this:

Originally posted here: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=332604&postcount=25

 

Thanks for the help so far. Just trying to get anything to run atm. I followed the links you sent me, and their instructions. It looks like at the bash, I'm supposed to now type in the /usr/local/sce/bin ect command, yet no variation seems to do anything.

The only thing I ever got was when i typed in only /usr/local/sce/bin, it said "is a directory"... well I know that lol.

I have the ps2 cord hooked up, just nothing is showing on this end. Everything is hooked up properly, switches are on DVD and Tool, and I got past the login screen by following your directions. What now?

Btw, here is a pic of me trying.. and what's on screen. The full prompt was up above.. you can't see it. It didn't work. By the end i started getting desperate, and then..uh.. really desperate

 

running a game:

cd /usr/local/sce/bin
.dsedb -r
reset 2 100

exiting game:

reset 0 0

/usr/local/sce/bin is indeed a folder, the "application" or whatever needed to run a game is supposedly in there.
i must admit that i don't know a jack shit about the whole thing.
as i wrote abote tho, first go to the folder ("cd" command) and then use .dsedb to run the game

hopefully you will get it working.

 

The "bash#" prompt indicates the unit is running in single user mode. This is meant to be used for recovery only, not for regular operation. Normal programs (like DSEDB) might not work correctly, as almost all demons (resident programs, comparable to Windows "services") are disabled. I've never tested it, but I bet DSEDB won't even recognize its running on a TOOL, as its server side is disabled... :033:

You shouldn't try running regular software in that mode. Just use it to reset the root password, then reboot the machine in normal (multi user) mode.

To reset the root password, type "passwd root" at the "bash#" prompt. You will be prompted for the new password (twice, to avoid typos). After the password has been changed, enter "reboot" to shutdown and restart Linux. Let it boot to the normal login screen; you should be able to log on as "root" using your new password now.

After logon, do as Mugi wrote to start a game from disk. However, you'll want to type "./dsedb" instead of ".dsedb"; ".dsedb" is a valid file name under Linux (which most likely won't exist), whereas "./dsedb" is used to mean "start dsedb from current directory".

You might also want to look into the little hatch on the bottom of the left side panel, below the optical drive. Be sure to set the switches inside to TOOL/DVD, as DSEDB doesn't work as expected when these are set to something else. If you change them, you need to restart the unit afterwards to recognize the new settings.

/usr/local/sce contains a copy of some applications from Sony's PS2 SDK; it is installed as part of the dsnetm package (which is supplied, in updated versions, with the SDK). This package (besides some other minor stuff, like /usr/local/sony :katamari distinguishes a regular Linux from a TOOL Linux, as it serves as an intermediary between the TOOL's PS2 hardware and the SDK programs running on a development PC.
The most important part of dsnetm is the mrp driver and the corresponding dsnet server. mrp is used to access the PS2 hardware from Linux; when booting the system in regular mode, you should get a message on the console regarding this driver and its I/O address.
On the other hand, the dsnet server exports the mrp interface via standard TCP/IP sockets. Applications wanting to access the PS2 hardware, including DSEDB/DSIDB (running on either a development PC or the TOOL Linux itself), then use this socket interface to send their commands. All communication is carried out via the DECI2 protocol, which is documented in the SDK (partially ).

 

as informative as ever i see :thumbsup:

was a good read, thanks.
Im still quite much at the beginning too since the damaged drive keeps me from toying with my tool.

sorry to derail this a bit but as you said, the usr/local/sony and such are what derives the thing from standard linux, would it be possible to just use, say debian and install that stuff on it ?

 

You're welcome. I've been researching this part of the TOOL quite extensively, so if you (or anyone else :110 has questions on how the PS2-side part of the debugger/DECI2 connection works, feel free to ask ;-).

That would make an interesting research :nod:. Sorry, I don't know. I have no idea which parts of Linux Sony modified for the TOOL, or even whether they use a standard Redhat kernel.

Some things I remember from digging into my TOOLs:

• The mrp driver requires a specific kernel version. I think the dsnetm-1.23.1-1.i386.rpm from the v3.0 SDK contains variants for 2.0.36 and 2.2.14-5.0 only.
• /usr/local/sony contains some scripts for initializing a TOOL Linux, but I haven't checked in detail what they are doing. The only one I regularly use is devtool-opening ;-) (which is responsible for displaying the network information screen)
• The web server seems to be a standard Apache, but again I don't know what the associated scripts are doing.
• There are files in other directories related to the TOOL operation as well. For example, I recently discovered /sbin/toolled, which is used to set the status of the TOOL LED on the unit's front.
• There are some other packages installed which don't seem to be standard Linux ones. For example, the TOOL I'm currently using lists these: ps2tooldiag-2.0-20, ps2tooldsetup-2.0-20, PStoolInit-1.0-6, PStoolSetup-1.2-1, dsnet-1.2.0-1

 

i was mainly wondering that since i don't have a copy of the redhat that goes to the tool and if i ever to ever reinstall that thing, i could just put debian or something with some lightweight gui and maybe attempt to learn to use it a tiny bit. I did like DOS back in the day and all, but using a CLI linux is a bit of a mess to me

currently i just took out the second HDD completely to have even a somewhat of a backup if the primary one dies on me, until i get images made out of both of them.

it's not really a rush issue since the whole thing is in billion pieces but when i used it the last time i was already terrified to death of the idea that it just dies on me and im left with a bunch of expensive useless hardware on my hands

would be nice to know the alternatives on it before trying to put my hands on getting the actual redhat distro and whatever else needed to reinstall the OS of it.

on that matter, if i were to attempt setting it up running debian, would i need to use the TOOL HDD's supplied or will any HDD do ?

i.e. are they like the retail ps2 HDD that have custom firmware and sony signature or will it just accept any disk i throw at it ?

 

You can use any IDE HDD as long as it is ~6GB or larger. Even though the TOOLs use 40GB drives, only the first 6GB or so are partitioned; the remaining space is not used at all.

To create an image, I'd recommend using an USB enclosure and dd. No need for any fancy backup software, a simple sector-by-sector is perfectly fine. In case you don't have a Linux installation to use, the Windows (CygWin) variant of dd works fine as well :nod:.

Speaking of images: I really recommend to get them off the drives as soon as possible (and keep them at a safe place :110. The drives are relatively old, so they can fail any moment; and being send by courier/post doesn't increase their lifespan as well. But even if the drives fail, you could still install an image from another TOOL (if it uses the same PCI card), and I'd prefer doing so to any other solution.

I think going the Debian route would be much more complex. I've never heard of anybody around here reinstalling the TOOL OS from scratch, let alone using another Linux distribution. Sony changes some startup scripts (for example, to set the front LED to certain states during system boot) and installs own applications, and I think you'd need quite some Linux experience to reconstruct this setup on another distribution. In addition, as the mrp driver is only available for certain kernels, you wouldn't be able to use the newest Linux version anyway; you'd need to stick to one of the outdated kernels the driver is available for, or dsnet won't work (thus loosing all TOOL functionality). Either that, or we'd need to reverse the mrp driver and recompile it for newer kernels... :110:

 

okay, so it would basically be very much out of my reach
i think i'll ditch that idea.

as for what comes to the backups, i will do them and i will propably do them before attempting to use the tool any further at all, as stated tho, i don't have currently ANY means to back them up so i'll be waiting untill i get an enclosure for that. i suppose the backup could be performed using a live CD of some distro in the worst case.
I do have a laptop with ubuntu tho, so that will have to do if all else fails

in any case, since the tool can use any HDD. i suppose it doesn't do any harm to take out both of the native tool drives and plug in an old 20Gb and ram debian (or something) on it to see what happens

i'll make sure to take pics if i actually get around to do that ^.^

on the PCI card side, mine has the PCI815VE so im sure i would find another owner of a tool with same card around here if the worst were someday to happen
Tho im pretty sure that if something fails on my tool, it WILL be the card itself before anything else. I had to do some ghetto DIY fix to the CPU socket to revive the card and even tho it runs smooth now, i don't really trust it to last on me