Sony GSBox, the Sony GSCube technology prototype

PS2Ident.db has to be placed in the same directory as PS2Ident-T10K-nogui.elf. I think it should work, even when dsefilesv is not explicitly run, as I did it today.
If I remember right, the host device should take the present working directory of the very first debugger that was activated.

 

running PS2Ident-T10K-nogui.elf gets the system stuck.

It reports:
Entry address = 0x00200000
GP value = 0x0026aa70

And it stays there forever, no matter how long I wait...
I had both dsedb and dsidb running at the same time, and dsefilesv too.

 

I almost bidded for this guy when it was on yahoo, my hesitation was shipping it over to australia would be incredibly expensive and dangerous! I'm glad it's in very good hands, I would have never been able to get even this far.

 

There are various possible reasons as to why PS2Ident might have gotten stuck, from missing hardware implementations (e.g. i.Link) to some obscure difference in the boot ROM.

For example, the system 246's IOPBTCONF does not list CDVDMAN and CDVDFSV. If the same thing was done here, then perhaps it's getting stuck on libcdvd initialization (binding with the RPC server on the IOP). Which I think is also possible, given that there's no CD/DVD drive.
Did the boards have a MECHACON? It's likely a CXP102064, given when they were manufactured. The system 246 did have the MECHACON installed on their boards, just for DRM services.

It can be confirmed whether CDVDMAN and CDVDFSV were successfully loaded, by doing mlist in dsidb. If you see "cdvd_driver" and "cdvd_ee_driver" in the modules list, then those two modules were loaded.

If those modules are not loaded, you can try entering these commands into dsidb, after PS2Ident gets stuck:

Code:

mstart rom0:CDVDMAN
mstart rom0:CDVDFSV

If they're entirely missing from the ROM or just do not work with the board, then that is another issue.

 

I tried running PS2Ident again and this time it seems to crash rather than getting stuck.
When I launch it, dsedb prints "*** Resetted" and "*** No Connect"...

 

Any new updates on the restore

 

@jollyroger is currently busy with life. I do not know what he wishes to disclose, so I will leave him to fill the public with the details from PS2Ident.

We have successfully ran PS2Ident on the unit and gathered some information. Like with the arcade boards, it is based on the T10000.
There were issues with some of the standard modules (CDVDMAN, CDVDFSV, SECRMAN; the modules related to CD/DVD and DRM, since there is no MECHACON) being missing. That aside, there was also this bug related to the homebrew poweroff module, which causes the IOP kernel to crash.

The silent crashes that he encountered above, were the result of the ELF crashing even before it could do anything.
Like with the release 1.3.4 EE kernel, it is incompatible with some of the kernel patches. I guess it was the ExecPS2 patch. Sony made these patches after these SDK releases. So it is likely that they just never intended the patches to be used against these old flash image versions.

 

the more that I read about this system it makes me think of the pixar image computer or what it could have been.

 

Well, Sony did like to compare the PS2 graphics to the first Pixar blockbuster movie.

 

Definitely an interesting parallel with the Pixar system.

 

Cool thread - haven't seen one of these in years

 

The thread or the GSBox? ;-)

I will post some more content at some point. I had to take a break during the summer as I was away from the machine...

 

The box.. ( last code I had for one was archived many machines ago.... )

 

Well, if that ever resurfaces...
At any rate, it is very simple to code for, and people with time could easily create some decent demonstrations running on this machine; unfortunately I don't have time myself.