# HOWTO: Update stock emulator in PSClassic



## subcon959 (Feb 17, 2019)

*** WARNING - WRITING INTERNAL STORAGE ALWAYS CARRIES SOME RISK ***
*** ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ARE WILLING TO TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY ***
*** THIS IS NOT A BEGINNERS GUIDE, IT ASSUMES A MEDIUM LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY ***

You will need,

Bleemsync 1.0: https://github.com/pathartl/BleemSync/releases (+compatible USB stick)
FTP client: https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client
Telnet client: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html
A microUSB data cable to power the PSC from your PC USB port.

Follow the instructions on the Bleemsync site to get through the initial install. We only need this to get telnet and FTP server, so once the installation is successful you can stop following the instructions. We are only concerned with running the PSC stock, so won't actually be using Bleemsync or a USB stick after initial install. However, do grab the updated emulator binary from the Bleemsync 1.0 archive. You will find it at "\bleemsync\etc\bleemsync\SUP\binaries" and the file is simply named "pcsx".

Remove the USB stick and start the PSC. Everything should be working exactly as stock. Leave it sitting at the menu.

Provided your microUSB cable supports data, and not just power, you can now access the FTP server running on the PSC through this same USB connection that is powering the console.

Now fire up the FTP client on your PC. Use the following settings to make a connection:

HOST: 169.254.215.100
USERNAME: root
PORT: 21

NOTE - no password is required.

If successful, you should see a directory listing of the internal storage of the PSC. If it doesn't work, then you either didn't get Bleemsync installed properly or you have some other PC issues that are beyond the scope of this guide. You can use this opportunity to make a backup of your PSC files.

The folder we are interested in is "/usr/sony/bin/" so browse to it and look for the file named "pcsx". It should be around 1MB in size (compared to the updated one from Bleemsync 1.0 which is about 1.5MB). Download a copy of the file and keep it somewhere safe as a backup.

Now, we can't simply upload/overwrite this file as the partition is set as read-only by default. Go ahead and try and you will just get an error. We need to make it read/write and we do this with telnet.

Start up your favourite telnet client (putty in this example) and connect to the same host as above, 169.254.215.100, using port 23. The login name is again "root" and no password is needed. You should get a nice welcome screen and command prompt. There are various things you can do here as it is basically a small linux environment, but we are only interested in one command:
	
	



```
mount -o remount rw /
```
Press enter and it will appear as if nothing has happened but as long as there was no error then it worked. Be careful from this point as there is nothing stopping you erasing any system file and bricking the device.

Upload/overwrite the "pcsx" file with the one from Bleemsync 1.0. It should go through without any error this time. Disconnect from FTP. Type "exit" in putty to disconnect the telnet session. Restart the PSC.

*NOTE - You will now have access to the in-game options menu by pressing "SELECT+TRIANGLE". It's important to note that, unlike with previous hacks using a USB stick, now any changes you make will actually be written permanently if you choose either of the SAVE CFG options. *


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## BL4Z3D247 (Mar 3, 2019)

Can't believe I missed this!

Thanks for this, I was going to try and do this myself but now I don't have to.


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## cronus07 (Mar 25, 2019)

I did this and now my system will not boot any games.  I restored the original PCSX and still will not boot any of the internal games.

EDIT: this is fixed, please see my response/solution further down if you run into the same issue of PCSX not booting.


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## fixingmytoys (Mar 25, 2019)

might have a look at this


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## cronus07 (Mar 25, 2019)

fixingmytoys said:


> might have a look at this



I essentially soft-bricked a PSC doing this.  no amount of restoring the original PCSX would allow games to be booted from the stock main menu.  It will flash (like it's trying to load PCSX) and then go back to the main menu.  It seems like replacing the PCSX sets off some type of security flag (encryption?).  There is a "PCSX-kill" file in the same directory, not sure if it has anything to do with it.  I am going to have to keep poking at it to see what this did to the console but for now the stock UI is dead because of this.  Games will still load via autobleem/bleemsync


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## subcon959 (Mar 25, 2019)

cronus07 said:


> I essentially soft-bricked a PSC doing this.  no amount of restoring the original PCSX would allow games to be booted from the stock main menu.  It will flash (like it's trying to load PCSX) and then go back to the main menu.  It seems like replacing the PCSX sets off some type of security flag (encryption?).  There is a "PCSX-kill" file in the same directory, not sure if it has anything to do with it.  I am going to have to keep poking at it to see what this did to the console but for now the stock UI is dead because of this.  Games will still load via autobleem/bleemsync


Not sure how you managed to do that as Ive done this on 7 consoles now without any issues.


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## cronus07 (Mar 26, 2019)

subcon959 said:


> Not sure how you managed to do that as Ive done this on 7 consoles now without any issues.



I'm open to suggestions! 
I connected through Putty and Filezilla fine.  did a backup of the PCSX file and everything looked good.  The only slight difference is I grabbed the PCSX file from an fresh copy of Bleemsync 1.0 (I then tried bleemsync 1.0.1 with same effect) and overwrote the PCSX. disconnected from ftp and exited putty. powered down PSC, unplugged and rebooted.  Games wouldn't load.  ok fine, tried to restore the copy I have of PCSX and same deal.  No matter what I do, it simply won't boot games from the stock carousal anymore.  it'll flash for a second and go back to carousal.  Ideas?


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## subcon959 (Mar 26, 2019)

cronus07 said:


> I'm open to suggestions!
> I connected through Putty and Filezilla fine.  did a backup of the PCSX file and everything looked good.  The only slight difference is I grabbed the PCSX file from an fresh copy of Bleemsync 1.0 (I then tried bleemsync 1.0.1 with same effect) and overwrote the PCSX. disconnected from ftp and exited putty. powered down PSC, unplugged and rebooted.  Games wouldn't load.  ok fine, tried to restore the copy I have of PCSX and same deal.  No matter what I do, it simply won't boot games from the stock carousal anymore.  it'll flash for a second and go back to carousal.  Ideas?


I really have no idea how you managed it, but there is probably a simple explanation of why it's behaving that way.

For reference, this is what my folder looks like (maybe look at the "Attrib" column to see if your file permissions are screwed up)


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## fixingmytoys (Mar 26, 2019)

hi, just  quick question or two , i am all ready using Bleemsync , so i still able to do this ?? and it is fine to grab updated emulator binary from the Bleemsync 1.0.1  archive. mind you i can just tell it in bleamsync to use it


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## subcon959 (Mar 26, 2019)

It doesn't really make sense to do this if you're using BS or whatever as the USB method is going to over-mount this file anyway.


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## BL4Z3D247 (Mar 26, 2019)

subcon959 said:


> It doesn't really make sense to do this if you're using BS or whatever as the USB method is going to over-mount this file anyway.


Not to mention they'd be already using the updated stock emulator.

People, this is if you just want to update the stock emulator and load games without using hacks(BleemSync, AutoBleem, ect.) or a USB drive for playing games. This is if you want to keep it stock but build the game lineup to your linking and use the latest PCSX build.


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## cronus07 (Mar 26, 2019)

subcon959 said:


> I really have no idea how you managed it, but there is probably a simple explanation of why it's behaving that way.
> 
> For reference, this is what my folder looks like (maybe look at the "Attrib" column to see if your file permissions are screwed up)



thanks, I'll take a look as soon as I have access to my PSC again later today and give an update.

FWIW: this was part of the error log so chances are it has to do with permissions:

Can't open preference file [/data/AppData/sony/ui/user.pre] for loading 
saveMemcardBackup() 
memcard is broken 
saveMemcardBackup() 
memcard is broken execv() : Permission denied execv( [/usr/sony/bin/pcsx] [-lang] [3] [-region] [1] [-enter] 
Could not invoke pcsx : exit status = 1​


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## cronus07 (Mar 27, 2019)

ok, follow-up.  It was the permissions which I_ thought_ I had updated the first time in filezilla but filezilla was not updating the permissions:

Command:    SITE CHMOD 755 pcsx
Response:    500 Unknown command​I ended up editing the permissions in Putty with the following:


*[email protected]:~# cd /usr/sony/bin/
[email protected]:/usr/sony/bin# ls -alh*
total 4.2M
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1.0K Sep  1 15:00 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 1.0K Sep  9  2018 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  16K Sep  9  2018 auto_dimmer
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.3K Sep  9  2018 checkcurrentlog.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  452 Sep  9  2018 killp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.6M Sep  1 15:00 pcsx
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1.0K Sep  1 15:03 plugins
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  454 Sep  9  2018 recovery.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  156 Sep  9  2018 recovery2.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   67 Sep  9  2018 showCopyright.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.7M Sep  9  2018 showLogo
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3.2K Sep  9  2018 showVersion.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3.9K Sep  9  2018 sonyapp
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3.1K Sep  9  2018 sonyapp-copy
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2.4K Sep  9  2018 sonyapp-copylink
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 927K Sep  9  2018 ui_menu​*[email protected]:/usr/sony/bin# chmod 755 pcsx*​
This fixed the problem for me.  I'll add this info just in case anyone else runs into the same problem.  Just for full clarity I did this using a windows 10 PC.

thanks for the help, PCSX is playing well now.


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## thekarter104 (Mar 27, 2019)

Is it possible to run an updated emulator on the USB with Autobleem nowadays?
So you don,t have to touch the internal storage so there is no brick risk that way.


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## ManitoCC (Apr 16, 2019)

cronus07 said:


> ok, follow-up.  It was the permissions which I_ thought_ I had updated the first time in filezilla but filezilla was not updating the permissions:
> 
> Command:    SITE CHMOD 755 pcsx
> Response:    500 Unknown command​I ended up editing the permissions in Putty with the following:
> ...


Thanks, had the same issue, and this worked for me.


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## fallingrat (Jun 15, 2019)

I'm having the same issues that @cronus07 explained above. However, my permissions seem to be alright: -rwxr-xr-x for pcsx. I changed the permissions via telnet on Mac OS.

I tried to go back to the stock emulator but games aren't running. Any ideas? Thank you

Edit: Error.log looks like this:

saveMemcardBackup() memcard is broken
pcsx terminate error.
pcsx terminate error.
pcsx terminate error.
pcsx terminate error.
saveMemcardBackup() memcard is broken
saveMemcardBackup() memcard is broken

Edit: 
Nevermind. It was because I was using a Mac. I did the same with windows and worked perfectly. I think the Mac was messing the file somehow


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## focusonme (Jun 18, 2019)

Which Version did Sony use? So Sony did no optimizations to PCSX? They just use the software without any special PS Classic optimisations that we will miss after the update?


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## ksm59 (Jul 13, 2019)

Hi everyone, i change my "pcsx" files like @subcon959 said (thanks for you tuto). But, select+triangle dosen't work when i play a game. How can i solve that? Thanks for your help.


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## tito83 (Jul 17, 2019)

ksm59 said:


> Hi everyone, i change my "pcsx" files like @subcon959 said (thanks for you tuto). But, select+triangle dosen't work when i play a game. How can i solve that? Thanks for your help.


Maybe you skip the "mount -o remount rw /" section of the tutorial. Btw it's only 1 file.


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## sideskroll (Jul 19, 2019)

subcon959 said:


> *** WARNING - WRITING INTERNAL STORAGE ALWAYS CARRIES SOME RISK ***
> *** ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ARE WILLING TO TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY ***
> *** THIS IS NOT A BEGINNERS GUIDE, IT ASSUMES A MEDIUM LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY ***
> 
> ...


Nice work my friend. We all appreciate your findings. Let me ask you a couple of questions, do we need to restore the permissions to the partition after replacing the file? If so, how? Also, do you know the differences between the revisions? (The " original" and the one from bleemsync) how about the one from autobleem? (I THINK since the last beta theyre using another "optimized" version?) Or is it the same as bleemsync?
Finally, is it worth it? I mean, can you notice an improvement?
Thanks again and I hope you get to read and reply to this post.

Edit: also, would you happen to know the location of the bios files? I'd like to try and replace them with my own (to test different versions etc)


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## subcon959 (Jul 28, 2019)

sideskroll said:


> Nice work my friend. We all appreciate your findings. Let me ask you a couple of questions, do we need to restore the permissions to the partition after replacing the file? If so, how? Also, do you know the differences between the revisions? (The " original" and the one from bleemsync) how about the one from autobleem? (I THINK since the last beta theyre using another "optimized" version?) Or is it the same as bleemsync?
> Finally, is it worth it? I mean, can you notice an improvement?
> Thanks again and I hope you get to read and reply to this post.


Sorry, only just saw this. You don't have to worry about restoring permissions as it will be reset once the device reboots. I'm not sure if there is any performance difference between the 2 versions of the emulator, this is mainly just to get access to the in-game options menu.


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## hojnikb (Nov 29, 2019)

Guys, is it possible to use this updated emulator to run user added games in internal memory (/gaadata).

My plan is to use stock interface and custom games added to internal memory, so i can use both controllers and no usb drive


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## hojnikb (Nov 30, 2019)

Ok so i've replaced the pcsx binary as instructed in the OP, but i can't seem to be able to edit /gaadata partition, as it appears to be locked, even though i've mounted the partitions as rw.
Any ideas?


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## gothicall (Jan 1, 2020)

Can´t change attributes on pcsx, mount remount doesn't work. Weird.

[email protected]:/usr/sony/bin# mount -o remount rw /
[email protected]:/usr/sony/bin# ls -alh
total 3.7M
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root  1.0K Sep  9  2018 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root  1.0K Sep  9  2018 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   16K Sep  9  2018 auto_dimmer
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  1.3K Sep  9  2018 checkcurrentlog.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   452 Sep  9  2018 killp
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1011K Sep  9  2018 pcsx
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  1.0K Sep  9  2018 plugins
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   454 Sep  9  2018 recovery.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   156 Sep  9  2018 recovery2.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  1.6K Sep  1 14:56 showCopyright.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  1.7M Sep  9  2018 showLogo
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  3.2K Sep  9  2018 showVersion.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  3.9K Sep  9  2018 sonyapp
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  3.1K Sep  9  2018 sonyapp-copy
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  2.4K Sep  9  2018 sonyapp-copylink
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  927K Sep  9  2018 ui_menu

Filezilla:

Estado:    Renombrando '/usr/sony/bin/pcsx' a '/usr/sony/bin/pcsx.old'
Comando:    CWD /usr/sony/bin
Respuesta:    250 Operation successful
Comando:    RNFR pcsx
Respuesta:    350 Operation successful
Comando:    RNTO pcsx.old
Respuesta:    550 Error


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## gothicall (Jan 1, 2020)

hojnikb said:


> Ok so i've replaced the pcsx binary as instructed in the OP, but i can't seem to be able to edit /gaadata partition, as it appears to be locked, even though i've mounted the partitions as rw.
> Any ideas?


Same problem but changing that stock emulator for the bleemcast one.


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## gothicall (Apr 2, 2020)

Anyone knows if there's an updated version of the emulator? As far as I can see there's only to build: May 3 2019 11:28:20


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## DoctorEvil8 (Apr 20, 2020)

@subcon959 Thank you for this guide.  I am planning on updating the PSX in my PSC sometime this week.

Does getting access to the menus allow graphic improvements through the menus?

I recall some games (i.e. Die Hard Trilogy; Die Hard 2 game with explosions having brutal stutters) having bad slowdown with the built-in emulator.  Yet, if I used the emulator from retroarch, the problem was gone.  Would this emulator swap likely perform better than the built-in one?  Or is it strictly for the menu access?


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## subcon959 (Apr 20, 2020)

@DoctorEvil8 The only purpose was to enable the menu to allow access to a few extra options. This guide was written when the PSC scene was in its early stages and it isn't particularly relevant these days with stuff like Project Eris and Autobleem around.


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