Fanjita Wrote:Over and over again, wee get questions from people asking things like:

• When will there be a 2.81 downgrader?
  
• Should I sell my 3.03 PSP and buy a 1.5?
  
• Should I upgrade my 2.81 to 3.03?
  

This article is an attempt to provide some balanced answers to those questions.

Here are the facts:

• It looks like the Team C+D kernel mode exploit will work all the way up to v3.03 - the relevant code seems to be unchanged.
  
• It's very likely that Sony will patch that exploit in the next firmware.
  
• As soon as a user-mode exploit is found for 2.81-3.03, it should be possible to get homebrew running on those firmwares.
  
• It looks like the current 2.80 downgrader will probably work on v3.03, once wee can run homebrew on that firmware.
  
• Dark_AleX's OE firmwares are the best platform for homebrew users, and it seems likely that it will be possible to keep updating OE for the latest firmwares shortly after they are released.
  
• It has historically always been easier to downgrade lower firmwares.
  

So what does all that mean for 2.81-3.03 owners?

• Well, right now things are more hopeful for you than they have been for bleeding edge firmwares for a long time.  Wee're only 1 step away from being able to downgrade your PSP and move it onto an OE firmware.  It's almost certain that a downgrader will eventually come - but no-one can accurately predict when that might be, so please don't ask!
  
• Upgrading to the next firmware release would be homebrew suicide.  Don't expect any sympathy if you choose to upgrade as soon as the next firmware is released - if you wait a short time, you can probably have it as an OE version instead.
  
• Upgrading your firmware even from 2.81 to 3.00 is probably not a great move - you may delay your ability to downgrade when a downgrader finally comes.
  

One final note - if you have more money than patience, then your best bet for getting homebrew on your non-homebrewable PSP is to simply sell it, and buy a downgradeable PSP.  The difference in price is not very large these days, and so it's not really a hard thing to do if you really can't wait.

Wednesday, 24 January 2007

Quote:Pentium 4 overclocked to 8GHz: let's see your fancy Core 2 try that

Back in the olden days, before Abraham Lincoln put an end to the megahertz myth -- or was it Theodore Roosevelt, wee always get so confused -- the Pentium 4 ruled the land, with its deep instruction pipeline and PR-friendly xtreem clock speeds. Luckily, Intel wised up and started beefing up the quantity and efficiency of cores instead of just the megahertz, but the megahertz myth still lives on in our hearts, and OC Team Italy keeps that hope alive with its latest achievement: an 8000MHz (8GHz in layman's terms) overclocked Pentium 4. The lucky chip to reach such ridiculous frequencies is a "Cedar Mill" Intel Pentium 4 631, with a standard clock speed of 3GHz. It wasn't just a case of flipping a few pins here and there, the OC folks used a modified ASUS P5B motherboard, with an added copper pipe and a few voltage modifications, along with a little bit of your garden-variety liquid nitrogen to keep it all cool. Golf claps all around, OC, now can you do something to rev up a processor that's actually going to be useful for something? Wait. What's gotten into us? Keep up the good work!

• General:
  • fixed a bug when filer backuped flash image, the last cluster was lost.
    
  • Filer will skip to backup flash image when there is not enough space in MS Duo.
    
  • battery icon blinks when PSP is connected with AC adapter.
    
• Filer:
  • When pasting files from RAMDISK, filer will check free space of device, and will skip pasting if there is not enough space.
    

• PSAR Section 1
  
• PSAR Section 2
  
• TOC (Table of Contents
  
• ISO Indexes
  

00020800h: 41 00 A0 00 00 00 00 01 20 00 01 00 A1 00 00 00 ; A. ..... ...¡...
00020810h: 00 15 00 00 01 00 A2 00 00 00 00 69 59 74 41 00 ; ......¢....iYtA.
00020820h: 01 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 01 00 02 02 42 48 00 02 ; ............BH..
00020830h: 44 48 01 00 03 02 51 18 00 02 53 18 01 00 04 04 ; DH....Q...S.....
00020840h: 06 67 00 04 08 67 01 00 05 05 19 03 00 05 21 03 ; .g...g........!.
00020850h: 01 00 06 08 31 41 00 08 33 41 01 00 07 11 50 10 ; ....1A..3A....P.
00020860h: 00 11 52 10 01 00 08 15 01 54 00 15 03 54 01 00 ; ..R......T...T..
00020870h: 09 18 19 42 00 18 21 42 01 00 10 21 33 41 00 21 ; ...B..!B...!3A.!
00020880h: 35 41 01 00 11 21 43 10 00 21 45 10 01 00 12 24 ; 5A...!C..!E....$
00020890h: 07 34 00 24 09 34 01 00 13 25 04 25 00 25 06 25 ; .4.$.4...%.%.%.%
000208a0h: 01 00 14 26 18 25 00 26 20 25 01 00 15 29 42 38 ; ...&.%.& %...)B8
000208b0h: 00 29 44 38 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ; .)D8............

Sorting it out into 10 byte chunks:

41  00  A0  00 00 00  00  01 20 00   <-- describes the first track
01  00  A1  00 00 00  00  15 00 00   <-- describes the last track
01  00  A2  00 00 00  00  69 59 74   <-- describes the lead-out

41  00  01  00 00 00  00  00 02 00
01  00  02  02 42 48  00  02 44 48
   [...]
01  00  15  29 42 38  00  29 44 38

Note, TOC uses "binary decimal" for various things - that is 0x60 = 60 in "binary decimal".
Okay, here's the breakdown:

41  00  A0  00 00 00  00  01 20 00

Track "A1" - 01(type of last track?)  00  A1  00 00 00  00  Last track number 00 00

01  00  A1  00 00 00  00  15 00 00

Track "A2" - 01  00  A2  00 00 00  00  Length of disc in the same format as normal track entries, MM:SS:FF

01  00  A2  00 00 00  00  69 59 74

ISO Indexes
Each index is 32 bytes long:

Quote:Before you use this application, please take note that it only works through recovery. If you try to run it through the XMB, you will witness your PSP freeze. So beware.

Also, Team tOc added that Flash1 Formatter will only work if "lflash_fatfmt.prx" is located in flash0:/kd. In the event that it is not, the program looks in ms0:/lflash_fatfmt.prx.

There are still a few important details to take note of, so be sure to READ through the README before you do anything. (You do that anyway for EVERY piece of software before you use it, don't you?)

Furthermore, installation and usage is quite easy. After placing the folder in the root of your memory stick, all you have to do is follow the simple steps below. By the way, Team tOc is composed of well known developers EvilSeph, Moca, TUW, Ahadiel and kando.

1. Turn off your PSP
   
2. Turn on your PSP while holding down R to boot into Recovery Mode.
   
3. Scroll to "Run program at /PSP/GAME/RECOVERY/EBOOT.PBP" and press Cross.
   
4. Press tOc (Triangle + Circle + Cross) to unlock the program [this is to force people to read this readme.txt]
   
5. Read the on-screen instructions (can be found in the readme file).