[PS2] POPS stuff & POPStarter

Thanks for reporting:encouragement:.

Working from uLe/Not working from FMCB :
Sounds like POPStarter fails to load. The problem might be related to it's load address

SCPH-5000x bugs :

Can you tell me what text is displayed before you press the power button (or take a picture/screen capture) please ? I would help me to determine which piece of code causes bugs on 50k units.
Thanks.

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OK, I think I know what piece of code f*cks everything up. But I need more info. Please guys tell me what is displayed on the screen before you press the power button.

 

Ok, I understand why I did not encountered that issue : I always have a CD in the drive (because I use snestation, and it cant save without any CD in the drive).
So I try with no CD : same result as you. And pressing reset button did indeed make POPStation loading.

@krHACKen : some more information about launching from FMCB menu : if the VMC directory are created, POPStarter can launch.

That's just too quick to be read. Seems to be the text from the half superior part of the screen when POPStarter is launched. But Im not sure.

 

Sorry, but that text disappear very quick, I can't stop and copy the info, nor screen capture (I don't have the means). What I could see was just two lines, no more, the first block of text could be read what I see is some addresses and the process of mounting the partition. I noticed a strange char in the partition name I can't remember very well, maybe it's a '%', my partition name is PP.PSX_GAMES and what I see is something like: %_GAMES, I can't recall very well, sorry guys.

 

The best I could get (I made a video) :witless:



(PP.PS1_GAME_1 is the real name of my partition to test POPStarter for now)

 

Yes, that what I was talking about, but pressing the power button two more lines appear, but them disappear very quickly.

 

Thanks anyway.

No worries, %d and %s are expected. It's not a bug/error.


OK, let me first fix CUE2POPS, then I'll some private betas for testers with SCPH-5000x units in order to get rid of the power button issue.


EDIT @ DaSA, thanks very much for the pic. Yep, SP193 was right:encouragement:.
The LAUNCHER text is shown, but EXECUTE.ELF was executed in the background, in idle state, as the N-Command has failed due to the drive being empty. That questionable piece of code is run before init_scr, hence why the LAUNCHER dbg text is still shown and the EXECUTE.ELF text is not.

 

And I suppose that when you rename and run EXECUTE.ELF you get a BSOD till you press the power button...

@DaSA : Would you like to be a beta tester for my SCPH-5000x fix attempts ?

 

Yeah, of course, I would be glad if I could help. :very_drunk:

 

Firstly, CONGRATULATIONS on getting the bug figured out!

If you're wondering what the proper way is to control the drive, I believe that the presence of a disc should be checked for with sceCdGetDiskType(). If there is a disc inserted, the disc type will be something valid and you can issue N-commands to the drive. I did this within the new FMCB, and it seems to work well on my SCPH-77006.

EDIT: invoking sceCdInit() with the blocking init parameter will also cause a freeze, so issue the NOWAIT init command instead and poll the drive later on if you need to access a disc.

PS: Leaving the tray open will probably cause the same freeze as when no disc is inserted, I think.

While there are tray control functions, they are not effective at determining whether the drive door is closed.
I used to think that the English used by the Sony engineer who wrote the documentation was bad, but it wasn't a language problem when it was written that sceCdTrayCheck returns whether the tray was opened or not. D:
(so if the tray was left opened before your program starts, it will just return that the tray was never ejected)

 

BTW I have the same problem when I try to run kernelloader from Megaman without memory card inserted.

 

At least he already knows what the problem is in your case. But in this case, everything is only in theory (still waiting for krHACKen to confirm what the really problem is).

It is definitely possible to initialize the CD/DVD hardware and determining whether a disc is inserted without causing a freeze, as the OSD does that. It is possible to boot a PlayStation 2 console with either the tray left ejected or the drive empty.

 

The code which is responsible of the crap with the SCPH-5000X was neutralised and the tester reported no problem. Solved. The next revision should work on 5000X units without that odd power button issue.


Off-topic, I've compared CDVDMAN of the SCPH-30004R and the SCPH-50004...


This is the SCPH-30004R CDVDMAN



This is the SCPH-50004 CDVDMAN

Teh LULz:topsy_turvy:. Was the SCPH-50004 CDVDMAN badly dumped (or trashed by a modchip) or the Giant Enemy Crab wanted to forbid the ILinkID modification in such a dirty way ?

 

That doesn't look like rom0:CDVDMAN. Are you using XCDVDMAN or something?

The SCPH-50000 series had its MECHACON changed to the Dragon series, which had the security of the model number and its IDs tightened. Attempting to change any of those IDs with CDVDMAN will appear to have succeeded... but the IDs will remain unchanged. Even flashing its NVRAM doesn't seem to overwrite everything in its EEPROM: The IDs will remain unchanged.

Those functions were disabled in the newer CDVDMAN modules (NCDVDMAN, and XCDVDMAN as well, I think) that are found in the ROM.

 

Great job, i hope you can fix also the bugs with the gap and CDRWIN.

Regards.

 

Hi :].

First of all - krhacken thanx for your hard work.
Any new info about pops rev 12?

 

Yep. POPStarter r12 and CUE2POPS v2.0 are currently in tests.

I have to make sure that eveything works fine before I release a new package. Can't provide an ETA at the moment.

 

Wow you are making a lot of changes with optimizations, fixing bugs, etc, great.

This cheats are only for this game? what is exactly?

This is a fix for it do not asks on inserting the first game of MGS?

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I tryed to use the pfsshell for install a game to the HDD connected to the pc, and i'm
succesfull with it, worked fine and the speed is very fast, nice!

Many thanks for your recommendation and your help about it.

The only thing i missed is that i noticed that the pfsshell only can transfer one game at once and not
multiple files, i use only one partition for my tests transfering a lot of games with radhostclient.

I searched in the net for see if there's any possible solution for pfsshell and i encountered it, a user who made two scripts here for transfering multiple files and works nice!

I used only the script of pfs.bat, the pfsdir.bat can goe up one directory and copie files from multiple directories.

Surely the pfsshell with this scripts is the winner, i still use radhostclient when i install only 1-3 games but for more the best is pfsshell.

Take your time for fix and test well the unconditional +2 second fix and CDRWIN.

Regards.

 

Yes, only for :
Crash Bandicoot [SCES-00344]
- Enable Test Save System
Crash Bandicoot [SCUS-94900]
- Enable Test Save System
Crash Bandicoot [SCPS-10031]
- Enable Test Save System

"Test Save System" is a hidden menu. When unlocked, it enables in-game cheats of the Crash Bandicoot Prototype :
L1+R1 = Invincibility
L1+R2 = Aku Aku x1
(L1+R2)+(L1+R2)+(L1+R2)+(L1+R2+R1) = Permanent Aku Aku
(L1+L2)+(Clear a level with 0 box missed) = Unlocks all gems (and keys ?)
(L1+L2)+(Clear a bonus round) = All levels unlocked (except Stormy Ascent) with gems and keys / 100% complete at Save Point






The "Test Save System" menu itself creates a save / shows the password for 63% complete (almost all levels but no gem or key), and crashes in a BSOD.
http://youtu.be/sa2re57eA3E

Yes. It still asks for the MGS disc but does this : http://youtu.be/Q0SKoKcnmao?t=48s


Game cheats are patched when the user specifies the command "trainer" in the command line.
Game fixes (like the MGS disc thing) are automatically patched.

For now, only MGS Special Missions and Crash Bandicoot are supported.
Perhaps compatibility fixes for particular games will be added to the game fixer in the future...

You are welcome.
In fact, AKuHAK recommended me to use it just after the POPS-00001 release and I found it super useful.

 

Great cheats for Crash, and the automatic fix for the MGS Special Missions PAL is just
fantastic, good job!
Is very interesting if it would be possible add any game fix in the future.

Many thanks for your detailed explanations, very great as always, keep up the good work.

Regards.

 

Very impressed with the amount of effort put into making this a usable emulator!

What do you think the odds are of it being compatible with Vib Ribbon? It seems to be a great sample for testing the accuracy of an emulator since it can generate music tracks directly from RAM. Depending on the emulator, the game can crash anywhere between loading the main menu, the tutorial, the sample levels, and generating the audio tracks.

I'll be happy to experiment when I can find my A/V cables (recently moved, everything's scattered).