Dark AleX and M33 release 5.00 CFW

DAX and the M33 team have released 5.00M33 CFW. Click through to go to Dark AleX's forum and get all the details. Two days to release this cfw, DAX must be slipping (just kidding). Thanks for all the hard (and quick) work guys.

Despertar del Cementerio V6 released

Dark AleX has released a new DC for our unbricking pleasure.

Some of the new features are:

• New GUI
• Installs CFW 4.01 M33-2
• Boots 4.01 from the memory stick without installing (for testing purposes)

DC will allow you to install other CFW in conjunction with a pandora battery. You can unbrick any PSP with the exception of TA-88s.

Thanks DAX. Well done.

DAX releases 3.90 M33-3 and Despertar del Cementerio v5

Dark AleX and M33 have updated the 3.90 custom firmware to be more compatible with the NO-UMD driver. Also, version 5 of Despertar del Cementerio has been released. It now installs 3.90 M33 and is compatible with TimeMachine. Thanks DAX and M33 for all your hard work.

Dark AleX releases TimeMachine v0.1 (UPDATE)

Dark AleX has released the much anticipated TimeMachine v0.1. This allows PSP slims to run 1.5 homebrew and also lets slim and phat users load older versions of DAX's cfw's directly off the memory stick. This sounds like it will be very useful for quick and easy version changes to your cfw, as long as you have a Pandora battery. Here is the readme that comes with TimeMachine:

TimeMachine 0.1
---------------

The Timemachine is a program to load previous firmwares and custom firmwares from memory stick using pandora. Like devhook, but working throgh pandora and custom ipl's, it would work even if the flash and nand ipl of the machine is destroyed.

The timemachine is useful to run software that is not supported anymore, and also as a way of booting psp's even if the internal firmware is destroyed. It can also be useful for developers to test their homebrew in different firmwares.

Currently the timemachine can install the following firmwares:

- Original 1.50 (can only be loaded on the phat)

- 1.50 with some 3.40 hw modules. Can be loaded on both, phat and slim.

- 3.40 OE (can only be loaded on phat)

- 3.60 M33 (can only be loaded on slim)

Rest of cfw will be added in the future.

Requirements of time machine:

- The timemachine itself doesn't require any firmware, only a pandora battery.

Timemachine nand boot in slim, requires, however, 3.90 M33-2 or greater.

- The timemachine installer requires 2.71 SE or higher.

Instructions: Copy the TIMEMACHINE folder to /PSP/GAME and run.

All firmwares can be installed on whatever PSP (slim or phat), but they can only be used in the psp indicated in the option.

Explanations of options:

- Option 1: Install iplloader. This will install the timemachine iplloader in the memory stick.

The iplloader is so small, that doesn't require any mspformat to have been done before.

This step is necessary to run anything else.

The iplloader of the timemachine is a multiipl loader that can load multiple ipl's accorrding to key configurations found in the file /TM/config.txt (this file will be created by the timemachine installer).

The default configuration is to load the ipl's with the following keys:

- 1.50: cross

- 1.50+3.40hw: circle.

- 3.40 OE: triangle.

- 3.60 M33: square

- Pandora/DC1-4 ipl (converted to TM format): digital up

- Anything else: will boot the firmware installed on flash.

(Note: as said before, in the slim, only nand firmwares with 3.90 M33-2 or higher can boot. Neither prvious CFW nor whatever original firmware can boot from nand when booted from a Pandora battery due to a Sony protection that has to be bypassed by the own nand ipl code).

You can modify this configuration following the instructions of the file config_readme.txt that will be written on the /TM folder after installing the iplloadder.

- Option 2: Convert pandora IPL into TimeMachine format.

Because the ipl used in pandora and DC1-DC4 (they are all same) is not compatible with the timemachine ipl format and user may want to load pandora/DC1-DC4 with the TM iplloader, this option is for that.

Requirements: the ipl of pandora/DC1-DC4 in the root of the memory stick, named "msipl.bin".

This file is written by Pandora and DC1-DC4 installers.

After convertion, the converted ipl will be in /TM/pandora.bin.

- Option 3: Install 1.50.

It will install 1.50 which can only be run on the psp phat (for a 1.50 that can be installed on the slim go to the next section).

Requirements: the eboot.pbp of 1.50 in the root as 150.PBP

- Option 4: Install 1.50 with 3.40 HW modules. (PSP PHAT or SLIM).

This will install a mix of 1.50 software modules with some 3.40 hardware modules, so it can work on the psp slim. It will usually run most 1.5 homebrew.

Requirements: 1.50 and 3.40 Sony eboot.pbp in the root renamed as 150.PBP and 340.PBP, and the 360.PSAR on the root too (to know what the 360.PSAR is, read below, in the 3.60 M33 installation section).

From 1.50 it will be extracted most modules, usually the software related ones.

From 3.40, it will be extracted a few modules, usually hardware modules.

From 3.60, it will only be extracted the wlan bios of the slim chip.

Known problems or considerations of the 1.50+3.40hw:

- The media doesn't work fine in the XMB (music, videos, etc).

Yeah, this is known, anyways the main purpose of this firmware is to run homebrew, as for XMB usage is better to use a more modern one.

- The "videocodec bug", aka crappy pmf play, only happening in the slim.

For some hw incompatibilty that coudln't been resolved yet, pmf videos, including the gameboot, will play crappily in the slim.

This will happen also in 1.5 games you try to run, videos will play crappily.

Because PMPAVC videos also use the videocodec API, they will play crappily too.

Normal pmp (xvid) (used on pimpstreamer too) will play fine however as they are decoded by cpu.

- The exit with home with "odd colors" bug.

When exiting with home from a homebrew or game, you may see random colors at the end of the framebuffer.

Nothing important, it even gives it an accidental stylistic look

- The PC os may detect the PSP slim as a new device.

This is normal, psp slim has a different product id (pid), but 1.5 usb driver uses only the old phat pid. Nothing important, the usb will work fine in the slim.

- Wlan. The wlan seems to be working, it has been tested using the network update download, and pimpstreamer 201 for 1.50.

However two things are recommended:

* Turn off the wlan power save.

* Use manual IP and DNS configuration (otherwise you may have DNS problems).

If you don't know the manual configuration for your router, just do an automatic connection in a higher firmware, and write somewhere the data that appear in the test page at the end, and use that info to fill the manual configuration in 1.50+3.40 hw.

* As in normal 1.50, there is no WPA support.

- Homebrew that uses some patching code over some of the module that are from 3.40, will not work and will probably crash. This is obvious, they were coded to patch 1.50 modules

- Option 5: Install 3.40 OE.

It will install original 3.40 OE which can only be booted on the phat.

Requirements: 1.50 and 3.40 Sony eboot.pbp on the root as 150.PBP and 340.PBP

- Option 6: Install 3.60 M33.

It will install original 3.60 M33, that can only be run on slim.

Requirements: 360.PSAR on the root.

Because there is no 3.60 eboot on the net as the slim was shipped directly with 3.60, the 360.PSAR is a file that has to be created on a psp running 3.60 M33.

To dump 3.60: run the program 360DUMPER that is in this release in a psp running 3.60 M33.

The result 360.PSAR is a file that uses the decrypted psar format (what a sce psar would look without encryption), that was already used in 3.51/3.52 M33, and it will have following size and md5 (checked anyways by the tm installer):

Size: 18189502 bytes.

MD5: EAA13343C70D9B0337C75B295 474C69A

-------------

Differences between running a firmware in the TimeMachine and a firmware in the flash.

Usually the time machine will run the firmware or cfw unmodified, including its original not critical bugs.

There are some exceptions:

- In 3.40 OE a critical bug regarding the configuration file descriptor not closed is fixed by the timemachine core patching the OE core in ram

- The TA-086 brightness is fixed for everything that has a 1.50 kernel

- The 4th level of brightness (i cannot live without it) is enabled for whatever thing, either if it is done nativelly (3.40 OE, 3.60 M33) or by the timemachine code (1.50, 1.50+3.40hw).

- The signcheck is patched and the firmware is written unsignchecked, so it can be shared between different psp's.

- 8 GB and greater memory sticks are enabled everywhere.

- 1.50 an 1.50+3.40hw can run not kxploited pbp's too.

- Flash USB doesn't work. This is normal, the flash usb uses the lflash block device, and in the timemachine that device is unnecesary and its implementation is a dummy one. Just use the normal memory stick usb, as the firmware is there

Other considerations:

- Usually the firmware running the timemachine should have more free kernel memory than the normal one, because the lfatfs module is replaced by the timemachine core which should be using less memory.

- IF you see somewhere (probably in the browser) an error 0x80010018, this is because of too many files opened in the memory stick (as normal memory stick driver is shared with the pseudo flash one).

The timemachine core tries, however, to minimize at maximum that this error happens.

- The Time Machine works faster if you install all firmwares you are gonna use after having formatted the memory stick, and then put everything else.

- When booting with a pandora battery in the nand firmware, remember that unless you change the battery, you will need the same memory stick to recover from sleep mode!

- Be sure to distinguish between TM bugs and OE/M33 bugs. For example, in 3.60 M33, if your iso running in March33 no-umd mode hangs at exit, that was a bug of 3.60 M33, not of the timemachine!

Little FAQ:

- What is loaded from nand and what from memory stick?

Only idstorage is read from nand, everything else, ipl and flash files are loaded from memory stick.

Not even a single instruction of Sony regarding the reading of flash files and partitions is executed.

In the future, the load of idstorage from memory stick is planned as an option.

- Why don't you make a 1.50 addon for 3.90 M33 for the slim if it can run now on the slim?

Currently, it is only possible to run this 1.50+3.40hw in a TOTALLY fresh booted machine by the user.

Not even a psp cold-reseted by software can run 1.50+3.40hw after having been in 3.xx, due to some problems related with slim hardware.

There are other implementation problems, but that one is the more critical.

UPDATE: This doesn't happen too often so I thought I'd add this bit of news: Dark AleX on Engadget. Sounds like the guys at Engadget know how cool this is.

Here is DAX's 1.50 slim PSP

Dark Alex has one awesome FF7 PSP slim. See it here.

P.S. Oh yeah, he has the 1.50 kernel running on it. DAX's 1.50 Time Machine will allow you to run 1.50 homebrew on PSP slims. DAX == GOD.

CFW 3.80 M33 released and updated

Dark AleX has released CFW 3.80 M33 and a quick update followed. You can download the original and the update from DAX's site. DCEmu posted details about the original release and update. Sounds like the network update feature is working properly. I haven't had a chance to install it yet but I'll let you know if there are any problems. Thanks for the hard work DAX and M33.

Mathieulh responds to rumors, news, and 3.80 update

Math (friend and member of Dark AleX's team) posted his comments (below) to the homebrew community on Brakken's blog about news, rumors, and the problems with the homebrew scene. One of the primary reason's that DAX is including the network update feature in 3.80 M33 is so that future cfw releases will only be available from his site. This will prevent news sites and others from making money off his hard work. I agree with this reasoning completely. DAX and his team provide a great service to the homebrew community and their efforts should not be taken advantage of.

This was copy/pasted from the comments from Brakken's blog:


"EVERYONE PLEASE BEHAVE.

This is not only about zeus or Maxconsole or even Datel. We wish to only release on dark-alex.org or through network (not even on exophase, lan or anywhere else.) for the time being for our own reasons.

Mostly because we are tired of people making money on our backs, wether it is maxconsole, qj or anyone else. That doesn't only include news sites but also shops that ILLEGALLY make money by flashing m33 firmwares on psps or even selling pandora batteries/memory sticks sets, some will ask over 50 euros per installs !
Some even have the guts to claim sending a percentage of the money to m33 or c+d when this is not true!

We took that decision not only against maxconsole but every other sites that do make money over our work. Of course most/all of news sites do exist for the purpose of making money and yet, those are needed.

We can always dream of decent sites that make news with no earning whatsoever but considering the tiresome job that it is and how time consumming it is for people to actually look for news and report it on a 24/7 basis, I doubt that we will see such a thing happening any time soon.

Nevertheless we hope to be able to move things and that such a change may happen if we keep having a fair release system between each and every psp related sites (by only releasing on our website or through network, then we do not care of what sites do of the binaries once they got those.)

Another thing we are pretty much fed up of is the "news race" that tend to happen between all sites that try to be the first to news stuffs all the time, and everyone of them try to get news from us almost every minutes despite the facts that we do have lives of our own for the sole purpose of getting ranked up on Alexa.

To be honest I like the maxconsole comunauty which seems more mature than the ones of most other sites, this is what kept and keeps me staying here, the fact that we stop releasing from that place does not mean we wont keep posting in there. I think that most sites got carried away and forgot that comunauties are before all created by the users, for the users.


P.S. I do not think that deleting the threads is a solution, and I do not believe that moderators were closing those on purpose. A forums need to be moderated. As long as we discuss of things peacefully there is no reason for a thread to be deleted, if not then indeed there is. If people start flamming, bitching or cursing all over the forums, then indeed those threads need to be deleted or closed. I personally know most of the moderators responsible for the psp section on the maxconsole forums, and I pretty much doubt that any of them would have deleted threads just to prevent anyone from express themselves or share their opinion (wether good or bad) about this forum.

Also a personal message to Brakken: We (the M33 team or even the Prometheus group) never worked for divineo even once, and even if we did, how would this be ANY of your business ? I have yet to see your so called "proofs" about us working for divineo (which do not exist since we never done such a thing) Keep in mind that we were not forced to make free releases available to everyone, we just CHOSE to do so. I can tell you for sure that we would have not if we worked for such company as divineo to begin with. Now please stop making pointless assumptions without proper evidences. Thank you for your understanding.

Have a nice reading."

'Nough said.

DAX/M33 CFW 3.80 delayed

Math told us yesterday that 3.80 would arrive today but sounds like Dark AleX has some final adjustments to make. No big deal. Everyone would rather it be up to DAX and M33's high standards than release a firmware with problems. Thanks again for the hard work and take all the time you need. Dark-AleX.org has been down most of the day but maybe it is preparation for the new release or the cause of the delay.

In DAX we trust.

CFW 3.80 M33 release tomorrow

PSP-Gen and QJ have posted that Dark AleX and the M33 team will release their CFW 3.80 tomorrow. A new and exciting feature they are adding is network update. Can't wait to see it. Thanks for all the hard work Dark AleX/M33.

Head to Head Multidisk Popstation GUI's

I was hoping to do a 3 way comparison of the new gui's created for DAX's multidisk popsloader (after the holidays) but Kingsquitter isn't showing signs of updating PSX2PSP anytime soon. I don't feel like waiting so I am going to just compare 2 gui's: Red Squirrel's RS-GUI PopStationMD v2.0 and Impaler's PSX Eboot Creator. Look for the comparison post soon after the new year.

Happy Holiday's and a Happy New Year to all.

Official Firmware 3.8 released today

Sony released the official fw for the PSP today. The biggest change/addition to the firmware is now you can access internet radio, Playstation's blog has details, here is a list of what's new. The internet radio player has already been hacked to allow you to use something other than Shoutcast or Icecast. Here is what jas0nuk and Dark AleX have to say about 3.8. Also, it looks like we may get the PSP Media Manager for free, the Japanese Playstation Store did. Of course I will be waiting for a new cfw.

New CFW 3.71 M33-4 is here with Multidisk Popsloader

I mentioned yesterday that Dark AleX and the Devs at Maxconsole were coming out with a Popsloader to allow multidisk PSX games to be created in a single eboot. It is here. DAX and his team have implemented the new Popsloader in an updated CFW to support multidisk games and included in the download is Popstation-md; to create the multidisk eboots. Well done guys. Here is the forum post and downloads (look for the bugfix for 3.71 M33-4 that has already been released). Thank you DAX and M33 team.

New Popsloader for PSX games having multiple disks

The Devs over at Maxconsole are coming out with a new Popsloader which I can't wait for. This new Popsloader will allow you to play Playstation 1 games having more than one disk on your PSP but all the disks will be contained inside one eboot. Currently you have to have a separate eboot for each game disk. I am excited about this because I created eboots for my FF7, FF8, FF9, Chrono Cross, and Legend of Dragoon disks but I can only fit two of the eboots on my ms at a time. Each eboot is about 500 mb and my largest ms is 2 gig (gotta save room for other games, podcasts, videos, etc.). Can't wait for the 8 gig to come down in price. I am speculating that this should reduce the size of the eboots as a whole. Even if the size of the eboot isn't reduced, this will make playing your old PSX games more convenient. Well done guys, can't wait to see it.