Hacking [Release] ARK-4 CFW port for PSP.

[Acid_Snake]

So I installed the exact way it was explained. Everything runs as intended, the issue was when I chose the launcher always setting to replace xmb. Once I disabled it, it went back working. The only thing that didn't work with launcher replacing xmb setting was psp games, got the blue screen after loading one. Probably a path issue, I was running games from the psp go ms0, not ef0 internal. That was the only issue I found. Latest version as well.

Oh yeah I haven't done much testing on PSP Go external memory (since I only have a 128MB one lol so I could only test like one homebrew and one PSX game). I will try to look into it but for now I recommend you always use the internal memory.
Oh and also, if you use external memory make sure you also have the ARK savedata folder in it, otherwise ARK might not find the installed files (though ARK should work without the savedata folder).

I noticed that the latest release breaks when loading the Custom Firmware Extender plugin (Github link). Could you take a look into it?

Sure, I'll look into it. Probably an issue with how the plugins are loaded (it changed a bit to accomodate the PS Vita with per-game plugins).

 

[Acid_Snake]

Is it possible to change the title of the post? I can't seem to be able to. The CFW itself is not longer "experimental", can a mod change this?

 

[Teddie]

Nice! I thought ark was a dead project but i see that is going excellent! Hope you can fix the vita version not able to run some isos (djmax portable 3 for example) and figure out how to implement popsloader on vita, that would be awesome!

 

[kane159]

Hey bro,any plan to update for infinity? Would really like to tried this but it’s kinda pain to uninstall the infinity.
Also is there any guides to help me transfer from lme to ark?


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[Acid_Snake]

I noticed that the latest release breaks when loading the Custom Firmware Extender plugin (Github link). Could you take a look into it?

Can you tell me which was the last version that worked with CFE? It'll make figuring out the issue easier.

Hey bro,any plan to update for infinity? Would really like to tried this but it’s kinda pain to uninstall the infinity.
Also is there any guides to help me transfer from lme to ark?


從我的iPhone使用Tapatalk 發送

The problem with infinity is that I am not the developer behind it and I can't seem to be able to compile it. I will try to contact the original developer for his help.
As for going from LME to ARK, it should be possible to have both installed as there's no file colision (you can triple boot ARK, PRO and ME as long as you have the loaders for each of them).

 

[FPSUsername]

Can you tell me which was the last version that worked with CFE? It'll make figuring out the issue easier.

Release 7 was the last one that was working with the plugin.

By the way, is there support for the DAX format mentioned here?

It seems to compress better than CSO

 

[Acid_Snake]

Release 7 was the last one that was working with the plugin.

So it broken in the very first Release 8? Or could it have broken on a later release like 8.1 or 8.3?
It seems to me based on changelog that Release 8 itself doesn't touch much of the core.

 

[FPSUsername]

It's broken in the very first release 8. I just checked it.

 

[FPSUsername]

By the way, I just tested it myself if there's DAX support, unfortunately, there isn't.

See a comparison between ISO, CSO, and DAX here, where I compressed 7 large-sized games. It doesn't make a world of a difference between CSO/DAX, but it's just for that little extra that might allow you to squeeze another game on while having enough room for savedata.

 

[Acid_Snake]

By the way, I just tested it myself if there's DAX support, unfortunately, there isn't.

See a comparison between ISO, CSO, and DAX here, where I compressed 7 large-sized games. It doesn't make a world of a difference between CSO/DAX, but it's just for that little extra that might allow you to squeeze another game on while having enough room for savedata.

There's support for a much better format created recently: ZSO. It uses lz4 compression which is extremely fast while also very space efficient (much better than CSO and DAX at both things). Give it a try!
Edit: I will take a look at implementing dax support but I also to figure out some other issues that are more important (CFE, PS1 on Vita, etc)

 

[FPSUsername]

There's support for a much better format created recently: ZSO. It uses lz4 compression which is extremely fast while also very space efficient (much better than CSO and DAX at both things). Give it a try!
Edit: I will take a look at implementing dax support but I also to figure out some other issues that are more important (CFE, PS1 on Vita, etc)

Oh wow, that's amazing. Could you link a tool in the first post which could compress ISO to ZSO? I found this compressor within a few seconds of searching.

I tried it on two large games but it's not compressing as much as DAX or CSO.
I used this command:
.\maxcso.exe --threads=4 --format=zso --use-lz4 file.iso -o file.zso

 

[Acid_Snake]

It's broken in the very first release 8. I just checked it.

I just checked Release 8 and it works with CFE, so it didn't break there.

 

[Acid_Snake]

It's broken in the very first release 8. I just checked it.

Ok so I figured it out. It was the experimental popsloader I am developing to get PS1 games working on Vita, which I was first testing on PSP but shouldn't really be there, so I moved it over to Vita-only part of the CFW.
Here's the release with this (and other) fixes: https://github.com/PSP-Archive/ARK-4/releases/tag/r85

 

[FPSUsername]

Seems like Joysens is now acting up (exception)

 

[Acid_Snake]

Seems like Joysens is now acting up (exception)

Was it like that on the previous release?

 

[FPSUsername]

Was it like that on the previous release?

Worked on 8.4 and older. It happens when I open the VSH menu and enter the recovery.
When I get the exception, the only thing that works is pressing X, only to get looped into the same error (or removing the battery)

 

[Acid_Snake]

Worked on 8.4 and older. It happens when I open the VSH menu and enter the recovery.
When I get the exception, the only thing that works is pressing X, only to get looped into the same error (or removing the battery)

Works fine for me. Make sure you only have either joysens.prx or joysense_lite.prx, not both.
I added this line to PLUGINS.TXT file:
all, ms0:/seplugins/joysens.prx, on

Been able to use xmb, an iso, a ps1 game and recovery all fine.

 

[FPSUsername]

That's odd. I disabled all plugins to see if any other plugin is interfering with joysens, but it's not. Still getting the exception.

Edit: it seems that the joysens.ini file was empty, causing the exception.

 

[Acid_Snake]

That's odd. I disabled all plugins to see if any other plugin is interfering with joysens, but it's not. Still getting the exception

The only interference I found was that joysense.prx doesn't let cfe work (it remaps the note button, but it doesn't crash), but joysense_lite doesn't interfere.
It's really odd cause I have a lot of plugins enabled at the same time and can't reproduce the issue, I can launch recovery menu just fine. However, it is actually a bad idea to let plugins and settings take effect on recovery menu, so I may need to add some protection around it so it loads clean.

 

[James01]

it seems older plugins needs to be done. when I enable dayviewer.prx plugin, my psp was straight up crashed as soon as i hit the exit on recovery menu. cxmb.prx plugin doesnt work too no crashing but it doesnt load the plugin.