Tutorial  Updated

How I Made a Kernel Panic Free 6.72 Setup

If you are new to PS4 jailbreaking, it is very confusing as to what works and what doesn't. 6.72 is extremely stable for me right now. I have seen a lot of people claim otherwise and I would recommend they try this before updating to 7.xx if they want to try to improve on things and they don't mind spending some money. I've posted about this a few times in advice threads already, but I thought it warranted a tutorial just so it is documented for new users. (If you've been doing this for a while, you might see this as reinventing the wheel a bit.) The bottom line is I don't get kernel panics anymore on 6.72 after I found a method which works for me and never had it crash after successfully enabling the JB. The worst that can happen is "the jailbreak has failed" error (I've had it happen twice and I use my PS4 a LOT) and I just reset the PS4 after that and try again.

This is what I am using:

- A wifi powerboard: https://www.amazon.com/Kasa-Smart-Power-Strip-TP-Link/dp/B07G95FFN3

- An ESP8266 4MB

- A self host bin file:
*PS-Phive: https://gbatemp.net/threads/release-ps-phive-forps4-6-72-exploit-host-menu.579557/
Darkmodder: https://gbatemp.net/threads/darkmodders-6-72-jailbreak-esp8266.585563/#post-9416173/
Leeful's 6.72 Exploit Menu: https://gbatemp.net/threads/esp8266-bins-for-fw-6-72.578045/#post-9285149

*Recommended

- Google Home/Alexa

- My phone

This is what I'm doing:

1. USB port 1, empty. USB port 2 has a 5 port USB hub with a USB stick that has Linux connected to it with another USB drive which has pkg files and roms on it (I don't run PS4 games from a USB drive, I just install them straight to the PS4) and a wireless dongle which I use for a keyboard sometimes.

2. I have my PS4 connected to a wifi powerboard which I use with Google Home and has a few other things plugged into it which I power on/off with voice activation. This is optional but it saves me from going behind the TV and unplugging my PS4 and plugging it back in again when it was KPing all the time.

3. I don't use the browser at all and my cache/cookies are clear from the get go. Reducing unnecessary use of the PS4's memory reduces KPs. I installed my JB menu to my user guide with an ESP8266 so I don't need to recache the browser after x amount of uses til the browser cache makes things unstable. You can get them on aliexpress for less than $10 shipped (I checked on there today and there were people selling them for $1US without shipping) and you may only need to use it once, but you can reflash new menus when new, improved ones come out. I 3D printed a case for mine. This is why I would recommend self-hosting via the user guide with a newer menu. It is a cheap, easy and effective way to install whichever exploit menu you want to the user guide. There are .bin files on this board and Modded_Warfare has a guide to set it up this way:



I currently use darkmodder's menu for 6.72 because the Linux payload works everytime but you can use PS-Phive just the same. I'm also using Al-Azif's DNS and update blocker so I can use it for online stuff.

To use the JB:

1. Open the user guide and run it as per usual. (I run the exploit first then enable HEN seperately)

2. Always shut the PS4 down properly through the menu.

3. With Google Home, I tell my wifi powerboard to unplug the PS4 and plug it back in after every time I do a full shut down (The powerboard has an app as well to do this from your phone if you don't want to use any voice recognition stuff) from either Orbis or Linux. This is important. For Linux users, to avoid the KP after booting back into Orbis you need to shutdown Linux via the menu, then power off the console completely. It needs to be unplugged. You can then power the PS4 back on and boot into Orbis.

Here's a demonstration:


Since using this method, I have not had a KP once and I use my PS4 almost every day. When I first started, they would happen all the time. Until a better method is created, I am very happy with this setup. If I make changes to my setup that refines it, I will edit this post but right now it works exactly how I want it to.

Shout out to Prb for making the bin files for these exploit menus.
 
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bbqtool

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As an added extra, I recorded myself booting into Linux 5 times in a row, back to back unedited to test for errors/issues I would get just booting into Linux. 5 out of 5 successful attempts. It also shows you my method of booting into Linux the best way I can with minimal problems.



Some things to remember:

- The PS4, Linux and the jailbreak all share the same memory. That means if you aren't shutting Linux down through shutdown in Fedora, eventually the JB will start failing and it will even KP if you get the jailbreak to work when you try to run the Linux payload. You can remedy this when the PS4 has to rebuild the database and just following the method that works for you. (Hopefully this one) The process is more important than the hardware. I don't have any issues when I follow the process I have written up here.

- The combination of the PS4's video card, your TV and the drivers that come with Linux aren't a perfect combination. Not by a long shot. An example of this is if you have your PS4 Pro set at a resolution higher than 1080p when you boot into Linux, it doesn't like that. Another thing which breaks Fedora is if you turn the television off with Linux open. You lose the display completely and you need to unplug/plug in the PS4 and reboot to return to Orbis. Do this enough times and you'll have issues.

- A PS4 Linux setup is limited by the console hardware. It sounds obvious, but just remember that the PS4 is not a PC. There are certain functions of Linux that will not work with the PS4. Testing and refining your setup, even running the jailbreak itself will change when there are new options available. Between now and then, when you refine things make an .img file of your USB storage. (https://gbatemp.net/threads/guide-using-a-backup-restore-point-of-your-usb-linux-install.581673/) If you make something work better, make a new .img file as a restore point. Reinstalling and reconfiguring Linux is an absolute pain and it is why I don't encourage users to use it from the PS4's internal HDD. If you do break things, just reflash the drive and there is no real loss.

- This is how I have set up my PS4 to work how I want it to. Any tutorial I post are just ideas which can lead you closer to having your setup suit you as best as possible. I wrote these up for people who, like me, had a lot of questions and needed to find the answers myself as the things I write about aren't documented. (At least in English) It was fun but would be pretty difficult for people who might be intimidated by it all. I feel like my setup right now is pretty extreme compared to when I first started. (Which was just a PS4 on 6.72 plugged into my TV with a jailbreak menu cached in the browser) I also think any huge changes will be fairly superficial. I've spent a lot of time thinking and configuring things in Linux and in Orbis and money on other hardware for it to work. Maybe a CFW and a firmware downgrader will be released tomorrow? Who knows. This will do me well before then.

- Linux is free to use, but costly of time. Setting it up is so tedious. Now that mine works, hey no problem. It's great. I enjoy playing with stuff like this to a point. I believe the tediousness and most people using PCs are why Linux is so underutilised on PS4. I think I have spent more time getting my setup to where it is than playing PS4 games! At the end of the day, it really is an OK computer running Linux. Still, for what it is I think it serves a purpose for me and I would encourage other users to dig deeper with it.

Again, shoutout to ITmania for all the time invested in PS4 Linux.
 
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spotanjo3

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Great for ESP8266 users and useless guide for us who don't have an ESP8266. Therefore, I am staying with 5.05 for now with backports anyway. :)
 
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Firstly, I want to take the time to say thank you very much for writing such an in-depth guide. You've already helped me greatly as I was having some real issues loading the Jailbreak using the ESP8266 board. Like I've said in this post HERE, I was loading the Jailbreak directly without success. After following your instructions where you load the Exploit then the Jailbreak has worked an absolute treat so I want to thank you again for the added help. It seems like you've really got your setup working perfectly.

With such a great setup, I'd like to do a few things similar to yourself to get everything running seamlessly. One of your steps that I've tried incorporting tonight is how you have a 5 port USB hub. It's something I never considered but figured I'd do myself since I've got a 4 port USB hub sitting around that gathering dust. Sadly though, once I got it hooked up and connected my External HDD, I'm getting an error message stating that my Extended Storage device needs to be connected to the PS4 directly. I'm guessing this is the case or do you know of a work around?

No doubt I'll have a few more questions coming your way as I continue to tweak my setup. Hopefully you have the time to answer a few of my questions as I slowly improve things.

Also, do you know of anyone selling any 3D printed a cases for the ESP8266 board? A case to tidy things up a bit instead of leaving the board completely exposed would be awesome. When I bought the board, I tried looking for a decent case, but I came up short as I really struggled to find anything decent.

Anyway man, thanks again! You've been a great help!
 
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bbqtool

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Firstly, I want to take the time to say thank you very much for writing such an in-depth guide. You've already helped me greatly as I was having some real issues loading the Jailbreak using the ESP8266 board. Like I've said in this post HERE, I was loading the Jailbreak directly without success. After following your instructions where you load the Exploit then the Jailbreak has worked an absolute treat so I want to thank you again for the added help. It seems like you've really got your setup working perfectly.

With such a great setup, I'd like to do a few things similar to yourself to get everything running seamlessly. One of your steps that I've tried incorporting tonight is how you have a 5 port USB hub. It's something I never considered but figured I'd do myself since I've got a 4 port USB hub sitting around that gathering dust. Sadly though, once I got it hooked up and connected my External HDD, I'm getting an error message stating that my Extended Storage device needs to be connected to the PS4 directly. I'm guessing this is the case or do you know of a work around?

No doubt I'll have a few more questions coming your way as I continue to tweak my setup. Hopefully you have the time to answer a few of my questions as I slowly improve things.

Also, do you know of anyone selling any 3D printed a cases for the ESP8266 board? A case to tidy things up a bit instead of leaving the board completely exposed would be awesome. When I bought the board, I tried looking for a decent case, but I came up short as I really struggled to find anything decent.

Anyway man, thanks again! You've been a great help!

When do you see the error?

If you are using something like APP2USB, it might be a requirement of that payload. I'm not 100% sure. I install my games to the PS4 internally to run them just because it's easier to share .pkg files locally and back them up. If that's the case, use USB 1 (left side) for a direct USB connection from your HDD to your PS4 and USB 2 (right side) for your hub. This means you have the freedom to use Linux if you want and can attach other USB devices to your PS4.

I only use my USB hub for my Linux drive in USB 2 (right side) because Linux calls for it specifically. I set up my hub like this:

- Slot 1: ROM files for Retroarch, (both Linux and Orbis link to the same files) .pkg files and media I might use in Linux.
- Slot 2: My bootable Linux drive.

Slot 3, 4 and 5 are left free for a wireless keyboard (if needed) and my arcade stick for my Pro on 6.72 and that all works.

On my current firmware fat PS4, I also use a USB hub with 2 USB hard drives connected to it to play videos on and a wireless keyboard receiver, which also works. I've heard the PS4 can be picky about USB hubs, but with both of mine I've never had an issue. Maybe I'm lucky? If you don't have success, try another hub.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/164688546100?hash=item265833c934:g:Va4AAOSwuhFaHT5s

This is the case I'm using. (If the URL doesn't work anymore in the future, search ebay for "Case for LOLIN / WEMOS D1 mini ESP8266 Wifi 16MB (Multiple colours)") There are others on ebay too.

I used this one because it's in the same city as me, purely convenience and only because I didn't want the board exposed just as you did. Even though it's true you only need to use it once to cache the menu in your user guide, I want to keep it around just in case a new menu gets released. All I need to do is flash another .bin file to it.
 
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bupeapoop

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Hey mate,

Sorry for the slow response. Work has been pretty chaotic this week so this is the first real chance I've had to reply.

Initially, I tried using APP2USB but I never found it to be all that stable. In the end, I chose to buy another 2TB External HDD that I now use solely as a PS4 Extended Storage drive.

As for the issue, I'm honestly not all that bothered as I think I've got a pretty good workaround using a 5 port USB Hub that I had laying around the house. I've got yourself to thank for that one so thanks again for the suggestion! What I've got now is my External HDD connected directly to one of the 2 USB Ports on the PS4. The remaining PS4 USB Port is now occupied by the 5 Port USB Hub where I have both Micro USB Cables for both PS4 Controllers and an additional External HDD that I use for transferring FPKGs across to the PS4.

For anyone interested, this is the 4 Port USB Hub with Individual LED Power Switches that I've been using:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-4-Port-Individual-Switches-HB-UM43/dp/B00JX1ZS5O/

Out of sheer curiosity, can you give me some examples as to why I may want to consider running Linux? You seem pretty big on Linux whereas it's never something that I'd considered. My PS4 was always solely intended for playing a variety of top rated games. The more I explore the PS4 Jailbreak world though, the more I'm finding out about the endless possibilities such as Linux.

Thanks for sharing the link to your ESP8266 Case. With you being based on the other side of the world though, estimated postage costs are even more expensive than the case itself. Instead, I've managed to track down the only case available to me over on eBay UK in the link below. It doesn't look anywhere near as good as yours does but it'll do the job.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154137738716?hash=item23e3533ddc:g:KmIAAOSwS2xfhDuY

Yeah I like your thinking when it comes to buying and keeping a case around. You never know when a new and improved Menu will ever be released and available. Whenever that time comes though, we'll both be at the ready. That's pretty much the same reason I went and purchased the ESP8266 board also. In years down the line, there's a high probability that the online hosts will no longer be around and available to use. If I solely relied on those online hosts, I'd be in real trouble if I ever wanted to play my Jailbroken PS4. Having a local ESP8266 Host Menu resolves all those issues and gives me that added peace of mind that no matter what, I'll always be able to run a local Exploit.
 

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I pretty much use PS4 Linux as a media PC connected to my TV and an emulation box for whatever the Orbis version of retroarch can't handle. If you have a decent PC or the consoles you want to emulate at hand and that's what you use, there's very little reason to use it in my opinion. It took me a very long time to set up it the way I wanted to, which is to make it as user friendly and complete as possible, so if my girlfriend wanted to use it she could with whatever ROMs or any other general uses I would want on it.

The reason I started setting it up in the first place for PS4 is because out of habit, whenever I hack a console/handheld I just want to maximise whatever I can do with it and Linux was just one of those things for completionist reasons. I feel like I've done that now and when I find something else cool (which isn't really much, the custom distros made for it comes with almost everything you want stock) I just add it to what I have. It was pretty much just a hobby computer project during lockdown so investing time into it was a lot of fun as a learning tool. I started not knowing what I was doing at all and now I am at a level where I know how little I know. That said, it's really cool for what it is, you just have to commit to it. I know I'm making it sound pretty unattractive, but it serves its purpose for me really well as an all-in-one package with something already plugged into my TV with parts I already have and was certainly worth it for me.

I post a lot about it because there's very little documentation and false understanding about it and I use it in case I forget stuff myself. PS4 Linux is certainly a niche and is not functional for everybody. I'm not interested in making tutorial videos (thus using a camera phone instead of a TV tuner with audio edited properly etc) or anything but I think having some available documentation is better than nothing and it probably saves some headaches. I also like giving back to the scene in whatever ways I can.



This is a really out of date video, some information is incorrect (so I'm probably not helping with misinformation!) and I have added/fixed/use different methods for a few more things (Reicast for certain Dreamcast games which can't run in retroarch, Breath of the Wild in cemu being playable but far from good, bluetooth works 100% of the time, PPSSPP works as it should, a different version of MAME purely for music games) and there has been some updates for certain software but 95% of this video is how I have it working now.

Good to hear you are having success with PS4 hacking.
 
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warriosbest

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from 4.55 -> 5.05 i have 100/100 success times without any shutdown, but most of people have it, so i think factory reset before start jailbreak is the key, and i'm already post on reddit ps4homebrew very long time ago

but yeah, to maintain it, you must not have power outage or sth

esp,phone host,pc host, etc.. all used


and on 6.72 i got so many shutdown (w and w/o external hdd) once power outage while ps4 still sleeping, so to prevent 100% shutdown, buy a UPS
 

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