GUIDE TO GETTING CFW ON PS3 VERSION 3.55​

Guide objectives :

- Install Custom Firmware 3.55

- Connect to PSN (optional step)

- Install and launch Homebrews

- Transfer files between Computer/PS3

- Play games with managers
​

Guide Contents & Index:

GUIDE 1: INSTALLING CFW:

- Pre-requisites

- Procedures

- PC Stuff

- PS3 Stuff


GUIDE 2: CONNECTING TO PSN

- Pre-requisites

- Procedure
​

GUIDE 1: INSTALLING CFW AND BACKUP MANAGER​

- PRE-REQUISITES -​

0) A FAT32 formatted USB drive

Most low-capacity USB drives are already FAT32 formatted. If your's isn't, right click on the drive letter of your usb(eg: E:\) and click on Format. Choose FAT32 and Quick Format it.

1) OFW 3.55(if you don't already have it)

Download (Use the mediafire link.)

MD5 CHECKSUM: ca595ad9f3af8f1491d9c9b6921a8c61


INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

Make a new folder on the root of a usb drive and call it PS3. Make another folder inside it called UPDATE. Put the 3.55 update in here and make sure that it's named, 'PS3UPDAT.PUP'. Now put the usb drive into the PS3 and go to Settings -> System Update and choose Update via Storage Media and press 'X'.

2) CFWM 1.5 Small Version [32MB]

Download

Used for obtaining Custom Firmwares.

3) MultiMAN:

BASE

This is currently the best backup manager.

- PROCEDURE -​

- PC STUFF -​

STEP 0: CREATING A CUSTOM FIRMWARE

Automatic Patching:​

1) Create a new folder on your desktop and call it 'CFWM'. If you downloaded OFW 3.55 earlier, skip step 3 and create a new folder inside this folder called 'Original_3.55_FW'. Copy the PS3UPDAT.PUP to this folder.

2) Extract the .exe from inside the CFWM archive to this folder.

3) Now, open the .exe and choose 'Download 3.55 OFW'.

4) After it has finished, choose any CFW from the 3.55 section and click on Create Custom Firmware 3.55.

NOTE: I recommend Kmeaw's 3.55 CFW.

Manual patching:(by Cyan)​

1) Download CFWM v1.5 Full version (+batch by Cyan) [152MB]. and create a new folder on your desktop and call it 'CFWM'. Now, extract everything from that archive to this folder.

2) Place the downloaded OFW 3.55 in 'Original_3.55_FW' folder (or OFW 3.41 in 'Original_3.41_FW' folder).

3) Double click on the Batch file corresponding to the cfw you want to create (ex. Kmeaw_3.55.bat) and follow the instructions. Verify that both MD5 hashes are matching at the end of the process.

4) The patched cfw is now available in newly created folder named after the cfw you chose.

STEP 1: TRANSFERRING EVERYTHING TO THE USB DRIVE

Okay, now lets start transferring the CFW and the Backup Manager to the USB drive.

1) On the root of your USB drive, create a new folder called 'PS3'. Now inside 'PS3' create another folder called 'UPDATE'.

2) Go to the 'CFWM' folder and now go to the folder of your chosen CFW.

3) Find the PS3UPDAT.PUP file and copy it to the 'UPDATE' folder which we created.

4) Open the multiMAN archive.

5) Extract multiMAN WT.pkg, USB.CFG and options_default.ini to root of your USB drive.

- PS3 STUFF -​

STEP 1: INSTALLING KMEAW CFW

1) In the XMB, go to Settings -> System Update.

2) Now select Update Via Storage Media.

3) A message will pop-up.

4) Press 'X'.

5) It should install successfully. If you get any errors, try installing it using Recovery Mode.

STEP 2: INSTALLING MULTIMAN BACKUP MANAGER

1) In the XMB go to Game -> Install Package Files.

2) Select MultiMAN and install it.

3) If you want to play games with Kmeaw cfw, you need to install this using the 'Install Package Files' option in the Game section of the XMB.

STEP 3: ENABLING NTFS ON MULTIMAN (OPTIONAL)

[title: ENABLING NTFS ON MULTIMAN]

1) Plug your external hdd into your PC and download this.

2) Install usbview and open it.

3) Grab the vendor id and the product id.

4) Now create a new notepad file and put this in 0xVNID:0xPRID:V where VNID is the vendor id and PRID is the product id and V is the number of volumes.

5) Now save it as USB.CFG and copy it over to the root of your USB Drive. If it asks you to replace it, do so.

6) Now download Awesome File Manager and install it on your PS3.

7) Run it and browse to /dev_hdd0/game/BLES80608/USRDIR

8) On the other side you should find a directory that has "USB" in it, the inside directory should have your "USB" file.

9) Highlight it and press O to copy it into MultiMAN USRDIR.

10) Now go back to multiMAN and press Start + /\.

11) The NTFS driver should be activated now.

NOTE: Currently you can only copy from an external NTFS hdd to your internal hdd. Nothing more, nothing less.

-END OF GUIDE 1-​

GUIDE 2: CONNECTING TO PSN​

Spoiler: GUIDE 2: CONNECTING TO PSN. THIS DOES NOT WORK CURRENTLY AS THIS METHOD HAS BEEN BLOCKED BY SONY

THIS DOES NOT WORK AS OF 3/18/2011. FOR MORE INFO, GO HERE.

- PRE-REQUISITES -​

0) A FAT32 formatted USB drive

Most low-capacity USB drives are already FAT32 formatted. If your's isn't, right click on the drive letter of your usb(eg: E:\) and click on Format. Choose FAT32 and Quick Format it.

1) TEAM REBUG'S 3.60 SPOOFER

Visit Team Rebug website to download a list of URLs

Select a link from the provided list in the text file to download the installer.

- PROCEDURE -​

INSTALLING TEAM REBUG'S 3.60 SPOOFER​

1) Extract 3.60_Version_Spoofer.pkg from the archive you downloaded to the root of your USB drive.

2) Plug it in to your PS3

3) In the XMB go to Game -> Install Package Files.

4) Select 3.60 Version Spoofer

5) Once loaded Press the 'X' button to install. It will take about 15-45 seconds.

6) When it prompts for a reboot, do so.

STEP 2: INSTALLING FUCK PSN (OPTIONAL. USE THIS FOR SPOOFING YOUR CONSOLE ID).

1) Download dev_blind.pkg, fuckPsn-v0.6.exe and CA27.cer from here. Copy dev_pkg and openps3ftp.pkg from the OpenPs3Ftp archive to the root of your USB Drive.

2) On your desktop, create a new folder. Let's call it Fuck PSN.

3) Copy CA27.cer and the fuckPsn-v0.6.exe file to this folder.

4) Now download an FTP server. I personally use FileZilla.

5) Install it.

6) Now plug-in your USB Drive into your PS3.

7) In the XMB, go to Install Package Files and install dev_blind and OpenPS3FTP.

8) Go to Game and launch dev_blind to mount the flash as writable

9) Now on your PS3 run OpenPS3Ftp and on your PC run Filezilla or whichever FTP server you use.

10) Go to FileZilla and enter root as the username and openbox as the password.

11) Now using FileZilla go to /dev_blind/data /cert

12) Rename CA27.cer to CA27.cer.bak

13) Now copy over the CA27.cer from the FuckPSN directory that we created earlier to /dev_blind/data/cert

14) Now change your PS3's primary and secondary dns servers to your PS3's IP. If you don't know how to change the DNS servers look here.

15) After you're done changing the DNS servers, reboot your PS3 and launch FuckPSN.exe from the folder we created earlier.

16) You can now connect to PSN.

-END OF GUIDES-​

F.A.Q.(by Cyan)​

Main questions

Q. Can I use burnt Bluray discs to play games?
A. No. Only Internal and External HDD is working with backup managers.

Q. I updated past 3.55, is there any way to get the 3.55 custom firmware from there?
A. No. There's no way to downgrade from 3.56+ firmware yet using a software method. Though, there is a way to downgrade some FAT PS3 involving Infectus modchip.

Q. I'm on 3.50 or bellow. Do I need to install the Official Firmware 3.55 first?
A. Even if installing a cfw3.55 over an old fw should work, it's recommended that you update your PS3 to the same Official Firmware as the cfw you want to install first to avoid bricking your console.

Q. I'm on 3.41 or bellow and don't want to update to 3.55, do I really need to install 3.55 to use a cfw?
A. No, you can install Hermes cfw 3.41 (please update to ofw 3.41v2 first) and follow the guide the same way. Just don't install the Version Spoofer from Team Rebug (It only works on 3.55).

Q. I'm already using a cfw but I want to change for Kmeaw 3.55
A. First re-install the ofw 3.55 over your current one, then follow the guide again.

Q. How big should be my USB drive just to install it, not to play back ups?
A. Around 200mb.

Q. Where can I find all previous Official Firmware and their MD5 hash ?
A. Sony removed previous firmwares from their servers when the first jailbreak method appeared. You can still find remaining links and all the informations here.

CFWM

Q. The program doesn't start.
A. You need .Net framework 4.0.

Q. Where can I find .net4.0 ?
A. Here

Q. I don't want to install .Net4.0. How can I still patch the firmware?
A. You can use bspatch program to patch the firmware manually. Follow the manual patching method in the Guide.

PSN

Q. Can Sony ban my PSN account?
A. Yes, as Sony can't ban your Console ID, they can ban your account. But you can always create a new account, while unbanning the PS3 itself will be harder.

Q. Can I play online with all games?
A. You can't play online anymore. You need the 3.62+ official firmware to connect to PSN.

Q. FuckPSN is not working, what can I do?
A. You need .net Framework 3.5, and if you are using a firewall you need to open these ports : 53 UDP, 80 TCP and 443 TCP. You may need to close Skype.

Multiman :

Q. When I press start+triangle to enable NTFS it freezes
A. Your NTFS partition needs to be primary and active.

 

[Magsor]

There no real good reason of using dongles (unless its a cobra or trublue) because you can always revert back to official firmware whenever you desire. Also you can rip your games to the internal hard drive which is faster.
But whathever works is good i guess...
Personally i recommend anyone to go straight to CFW 3.55 its always possible to downgrade (only with software) if you change your mind(why would you?lol).

 

[pwsincd]

just read through 20 pages or so of this thread , my son just inherited an older fat ps3 making me a ps3 noob , but is reluctant for me to play with it as i did the wii , now am i right in saying that i cannot have a ps3 that will play backups and have PSN axxess with the current softmod setup and the firmware required to play online , and i can have one or the other , dependant on the firmware im currently running ? so to sum it up i can run backups on 3.55 or lower but only go online with the latest sony release.

 

[JFTS]

There no real good reason of using dongles (unless its a cobra or trublue) because you can always revert back to official firmware whenever you desire. Also you can rip your games to the internal hard drive which is faster.
But whathever works is good i guess...
Personally i recommend anyone to go straight to CFW 3.55 its always possible to downgrade (only with software) if you change your mind(why would you?lol).

I would rip the games on my internal HDD, but I have the old fat 40GB model and that space isn't enough even for a single big game (like Final Fantasy XIII). So, can I rip them to an external HDD and load them from there? I've heard that some games can only be ripped in the internal hard disk.

 

[jing90]

There no real good reason of using dongles (unless its a cobra or trublue) because you can always revert back to official firmware whenever you desire. Also you can rip your games to the internal hard drive which is faster.
But whathever works is good i guess...
Personally i recommend anyone to go straight to CFW 3.55 its always possible to downgrade (only with software) if you change your mind(why would you?lol).

I would rip the games on my internal HDD, but I have the old fat 40GB model and that space isn't enough even for a single big game (like Final Fantasy XIII). So, can I rip them to an external HDD and load them from there? I've heard that some games can only be ripped in the internal hard disk.

Most games can be played either from internal or external. Here's a list
You can change the internal hdd if you want with a bigger one or copy the game you need to play in internal then move it back to an external hard disk

just read through 20 pages or so of this thread , my son just inherited an older fat ps3 making me a ps3 noob , but is reluctant for me to play with it as i did the wii , now am i right in saying that i cannot have a ps3 that will play backups and have PSN axxess with the current softmod setup and the firmware required to play online , and i can have one or the other , dependant on the firmware im currently running ? so to sum it up i can run backups on 3.55 or lower but only go online with the latest sony release.

if you want to play backup you need to be on a 3.55 cfw and you won't be able to connect to psn
if you want to use psn you have to be on the latest ofw but you can't use backups

if you are on a 3.55 you can go to the latest ofw without problems
from the latest ofw you need a downgrader to go back to 3.55

 

[pwsincd]

Ok thanks , having not really followed the ps3 scene at all , how often has it been between ofw releases and cfw to allow online play generally , and more to the point how long have the cfw's generally lasted until another ofw comes along and sets it back . and i guess is there likely to be further cfws to allow backup & psn play.

 

[Snailface]

UPDATE: Firmware 4.10 is out.

Don't update yet if you are waiting on Kakarotoks's 4.00 Hen or are wanting to do any of the various downgrades.

Here's Kak's twitter to say abreast on any developements on his plans. http://twitter.com/kakarotoks
I don't anticipate this will new firmware will pose too much trouble for a quick port-over but you never know what new AP the $ might sneak in.

 

[easycrashing]

I get this using the small version:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not find file Desktop\CFWM\CFW_Maker_1.5_small_version\Kmeaw_Fw\PS3UPDAT-NEW.PUP

What's that about? Says I'm missing a file, all the instructions said I needed was the OFW in the Original_3.55_FW to do this.

The 'full' version worked fine.

 

[Cyan]

yes, you should only need one file (the original firmware).
I think the one with "-NEW" is the created custom firmware, so maybe something went wrong and the patched firmware wasn't created, or was created in the wrong folder so the script didn't find the file.

I didn't make the patcher myself so I can't fix them, or see what's wrong.
At least you could use the full version, or the batches I made.

 

[JFTS]

There no real good reason of using dongles (unless its a cobra or trublue) because you can always revert back to official firmware whenever you desire. Also you can rip your games to the internal hard drive which is faster.
But whathever works is good i guess...
Personally i recommend anyone to go straight to CFW 3.55 its always possible to downgrade (only with software) if you change your mind(why would you?lol).

I would rip the games on my internal HDD, but I have the old fat 40GB model and that space isn't enough even for a single big game (like Final Fantasy XIII). So, can I rip them to an external HDD and load them from there? I've heard that some games can only be ripped in the internal hard disk.

Most games can be played either from internal or external. Here's a list
You can change the internal hdd if you want with a bigger one or copy the game you need to play in internal then move it back to an external hard disk

Isn't there any way to load every game from an external HDD? Final Fantasy XIII-2 says it needs some kind of fix. Are there any patches that could do the trick? I'm on 3.41 official firmware and I can still use a dongle. The list says it applys for games running on 3.55 CFW only; does the dongle method have better compatibility?

 

[jing90]

I think the list should apply also for dongle users (I'm not 100% sure)
new games like Final Fantasy XIII-2 need someone to fix the eboot but most of them aren't going to be fixed
anyway there aren't a lot of game that can't be played from external so you shouldn't have any problem

 

[Cyan]

Usually the eboot fixes are compatible with both 3.41 and 3.55.
Just don't replace the param.sfo if you have one included with the fix, and let the game manager fix the .sfo for you (when you launch the game the first time, it will ask you if you want to edit the sfo, answer yes. It will replace the min-required version with "3.41").


If the fix still doesn't work for 3.41, there are two possibilities:
- The eboot and other files are signed with a 3.55 key : You can use the eboot_fix.exe program yourself to un-sign them.
- The game use a function which didn't exist on a 3.41 firmware. You can't do anything about that (but I don't remember any games requiring newer functions).



About games not working externally, there's nothing you can do except placing them on the internal HDD.

 

[JFTS]

Usually the eboot fixes are compatible with both 3.41 and 3.55.
Just don't replace the param.sfo if you have one included with the fix, and let the game manager fix the .sfo for you (when you launch the game the first time, it will ask you if you want to edit the sfo, answer yes. It will replace the min-required version with "3.41").


If the fix still doesn't work for 3.41, there are two possibilities:
- The eboot and other files are signed with a 3.55 key : You can use the eboot_fix.exe program yourself to un-sign them.
- The game use a function which didn't exist on a 3.41 firmware. You can't do anything about that (but I don't remember any games requiring newer functions).



About games not working externally, there's nothing you can do except placing them on the internal HDD.

Thanks for all the useful information! I might go with an upgraded internal HDD instead of and external. I'm interested in this particular model, so I would like to know this. Does ripping games on internal HDD have better compatibility than ripping on external? In most games I saw on the list, there was support for both. However, when certain patches/fixes are needed, do they apply for internal as well?

 

[Cyan]

There's no playability or reading speed differences between internal or external.
The speed is restricted by the game and not the used media.

The game patches or fixes are working for both internal and external (unless specified otherwise).

 

[JFTS]

There's no playability or reading speed differences between internal or external.
The speed is restricted by the game and not the used media.

The game patches or fixes are working for both internal and external (unless specified otherwise).

Okay! Just one last question. Does the USB dongle method let you play every PS3 game (without worrying about patches etc.) ripped into the internal HDD or the compatibility list applys to every method/firmware/mod?

 

[Cyan]

The compatibility list applies to every methods of jailbreaking/custom firmware.

Only the "True-Blue" dongle (last column on the compatibility list) is using a different cfw.
The True Blue dongle+TrueBlue_cfw is compatible with newer (3.60) games, while all other cfw/dongle are only working with games up to 3.55

 

[thorn_]

the 3.55 upgrade is down can someone please get another one

 

[Cyan]

Thanks for the report.
I edited the link.

You can find it here :
http://www.eurasia.nu/wiki/index.php/Ps3OsRels

Take the first 3.55 (not the 3.55 inc).
It's a mediafire link.

 

[EnigmaXtreme]

I take it theres no way to Mod a Slim PS3 to play PS2 games

 

[Cyan]

There's a way to use the official PS2 software emulator, but don't expect a lot as it's nothing like the Hardware emulator (old PS2 mode in PS3).
You need a Cobra dongle+Cobra cFW to enable this software emulator mode.

 

[Magsor]

I take it theres no way to Mod a Slim PS3 to play PS2 games

I have seen reports on other forum of people playing ps2 titles on slim. It requires a cobra dongle and a special Openps2loader iso and you can't save. Also, you can only load isos from smb or Usb. I don't have a tru blu so i did not test it myself but I believe its true. check ps2 on ps3 slim cobra on youtube.