SkyNet75
commented
3 years ago 
Closed SkyNet75 closed 1 year ago
SkyNet75
commented
3 years ago
BatRastard
commented
3 years ago My belief is if any of this were possible or practical on the PS2, it would've happened already. But the PS2's hardware is much more limited than the Xbox, thus there's only so much a single PS2 app can do -- especially with a 3 Mhz IOP. For example, the best performance SP193 could squeeze out of his SMAP driver was between 4MB and 6MB a second, and that was with using a specific version of the HDLDumb client on PC that used UDP, so the extra speed came at the cost of error correction of the TCP/IP stack with the overhead there slowing speeds down to about 2.2 MBs a second. However, his HDLGameInstaller app does support ripping and installing games from the CDVD drive as I remember doing it once or twice, but never a Dual Layer game so take that with a grain of salt. It was about as fast as HDLoader, so the average PS2 game took a good half hour or so to rip.
Alas, when it comes to installing games to my PS2 HDD, I'm still loyal to WinHIIP ...
ULaunch does have an FTP server (PS2NET), but you can't use it to install games to the HDD ...
AKuHAK
commented
3 years ago
- Can OPL as the successor of HDLoader implement copying games through DVD-Drive?
Other software is not supported and bug reports provided if you install games through, for example, Winhiip (which can ruin your HDD structure easily, for example) are not allowed.
@ps2homebrew maybe someone can add these 2 programs into the wiki?
Can DVD and CD folder be created in +OPL folder and transfer ISOs of your games there?
What you are asking - to add additional filesystem support. In fact, that means that you are asking for adding PFS support. This isn't easy work, and games will work slower and probably you will also face new problems with the PFS driver (when extending partition for example). Already existing HDD filesystem support (which can be called APA) is much better from the performance side and more tested. It is true that you need additional tools for managing this filesystem, not just drag-n-drop. Also, I can't imagine how long games will be transferred and how many times FTP connection will be dropped. hdl_dump protocol is much more stable and at least 10 times faster.
I personally had problems transferring games through Ethernet and through USB-SATA adapter in HDL-dumb...
Feel free to open an issue in hdl dump issue tracker.
it automatically gets IP-address through HDCP and starts FTP-server and shows IP-Address in the lower-left corner, also it shows the temperature of CPU and Motherboard. It makes life so much easier
Why we have to deal with all this complicated SMB-IP-address share
And again, you are asking about yet another filesystem support. SMBFS is implemented now, you are asking about the FTPFS filesystem. About 3rd party program which will setup the PC side for you. If you wish someone can program a similar program for Windows which will setup Samba share for you and will show all information in the any-corner you need. Maybe such a program already exists I don't know cause I never need help for such an easy operation. It is true, that Samba implementation in opl is obsolete, but I don't think that we should switch to another obsolete filesystem such as FTP.
BatRastard
commented
3 years ago Other software is not supported and bug reports provided if you install games through, for example, Winhiip (which can ruin your HDD structure easily, for example) are not allowed.
Strangely enough, in the 6 years I've been using Winhiip, I've never had a single instance where it corrupted my HDD structure. Quite the opposite: it has repaired every single corrupted file structure I've ever thrown at it. The most common culprit for every corrupt HDD structure I've had was Windows 7 through Windows 10. As soon as Windows detects a HDD with the PS2 HDD structure, it doesn't know what to do with it, and prompts the user to chose between an MBR partition type or GPT partition type. Any choice here automatically eats the MBR of the PS2HDD -- 100% certainty. 100% unavoidable. This is long before you can launch either WinHiip or hdldump. And even if you were to launch Winhiip nor hdldump at this point, it will not detect the drive as a PS2HDD since the MBR is toast. This is entirely Windows's fault, and this corruption can also happen if you don't use the same SATA or USB port consistently for the PS2 drive, on a re-install of Windows, or even after installing a Windows Service Pack (or "Cumulative Feature Update" in Windows 10's parlance).
The solution?
(1) If the drive is hooked to a SATA port, leave it hooked up. If the drive is hooked up using a SATA-to-USB caddy, unplug it from the USB port. Remember this port! Do NOT use another USB port for this drive ever again.
(2) Shutdown Windows completely, wait 10 to 30 seconds, and power back on.
(3) Once back into the Windows desktop, start Winhiip with Admin Privileges and click "Select Drive". At this point, watch yourself: Winhiip will NOT show this drive as a (PS2) drive in the pull down menu because the MBR is toast. It will show up as a (PC) drive instead, so make sure you choose the correct drive. You can easily ruin another drive at this point - especially your Windows boot drive!
(4) Once you selected the correct drive, Winhiip will pop up stating the drive does not appear to be a PS2 formatted drive and may ask you if you want to scan/repair the drive. Choose "Yes". Once the drive scanning is finished, you'll notice that all your games are intact. Rows and rows of green sectors and white sectors ... except the very first sector. That sector is the MBR and it should be green. Choose "Repair Drive Structure" at this point, and Winiiip will now repair the drive sector by sector. Once it's finished, verify that the very first sector has turned to green and is no longer white. Exit "scan/repair" and WinHiip will now rescan the drive and list your games, and the pull down menu will now correctly identify the drive as a (PS2) drive.
(5) Continue to use Winhiip or hdldump if you so choose.
Keep in mind continuing to use WinHiip may get you "cancelled" from other OPL devs ................ except me ............. because I'm inactive ........ and retired .... and Winhiip is my fwend ... it's so bwayve and stwong ... and if I'm this bored shitless to ramble on this much before my 2nd cup of coffee, hit me up on PSX-Place; I'll help anyone beat Winhiip into submission ... but not until after that 2nd cup of coffee! 👍
J013k
commented
3 years ago As for WinHIIP (at least version 1.7.6) No. 1 problem starts when you install more than 256 games (which is a lot): https://www.psx-place.com/threads/winhiip-1-7-6-partition-collision-crashing-program.19354/.
There were some reports that some games might had problems (will no boot) when they were installed with WinHIIP, giving a false ID, e.g. SCES_666.66: https://www.ps2-home.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6165#p6165.
SkyNet75
commented
3 years ago Hey, i like this HDL Game Installer, and ps2 part runs good, shows IP-address. But PC part in Windows 10 even as administrator asks for MSVCR100.DLL. Says it was not found. Reinstalling program could fix problem. How to add to Windows 10 this dll file?
Thank you iolek for help.
Update. Link which you gave for launchelf formated well 2TB HDD, so I will switch in FReeMCboot to this ulaunch version which you linked me to. Also I figured out why HDL GUI version did not work for me. I have two USB to SATA Adapters, and looks like simple one is not compatible, but the one which is "USB 3.0 To IDE/SATA" is working flawlessly. I connected my 2TB HDD to PC through it and speed was amazing, because it is USB3.0 and because I connected it to USB3.0 port--it was giving me 83-90MB a sec copying. Copies games in seconds. I do not know if I can figure out copying through network, but direct connection to pc is amazing thing.
So playing from 2TB HDD on PS2 works perfectly and OPL works with this size HDD very quickly, like with any regular size. Just wonder where is the limit? Can we find a way to format 3TB HDD or even 4 for ps2 ?????
AKuHAK
commented
3 years ago But PC part in Windows 10 even as administrator asks for MSVCR100.DLL.
BatRastard
commented
3 years ago I connected my 2TB HDD to PC through it and speed was amazing, because it is USB3.0 and because I connected it to USB3.0 > port--it was giving me 83-90MB a sec copying. Copies games in seconds. I do not know if I can figure out copying through network, but direct connection to pc is amazing thing.
Even with basic IDE or through the IDE-to-SATA mod for the NA, you'd see transfer rates of 30 to 60MBs a second with HDL or WinHiip and that sure beats 4MB to 6MB over the network, and before SP193's SMAP driver, the max was 2.2MB a second. Not practical at all for batch installs. My game collection took 90 minutes on PC though WinHIIP as opposed to over 30 hours over network. That's way too much time, electricity, hammering, and stress on hardware this old ...
As for WinHIIP (at least version 1.7.6) No. 1 problem starts when you install more than 256 games (which is a lot): https://www.psx-place.com/threads/winhiip-1-7-6-partition-collision-crashing-program.19354/.
Wow! I was unaware of that ... but 256 games is A LOT! Holy Moly!
There were some reports that some games might had problems (will no boot) when they were installed with WinHIIP, giving a false ID, e.g. SCES_666.66: https://www.ps2-home.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6165#p6165.
Yeah, it's been like that ... Winhiip will invert the IDs to "MK Shaolin Monks" and "The Suffering: Ties That Bind", which then fucks up OPL manager when fetching the cover art. Instead of cribbing the ID from the ELF during the rip process, the WinHIIP dev imported and hard coded a friggin' database instead as a reference point and it seems to suggest that the dev was hard into undubs, retranslations, if not full blown piracy.
Easy fix though: you just gotta switch the IDs around and save the changes ... which is functionality we should've added to OPL a long time ago so users could fix those issues without having to remove their drives and slink back to Winhiip. It's been a nightmare for those of us with undubs and retranslations since the vast majority of them use SCES_666.66 so that the original game and the undub/retrans can be installed at the same time, but with every Tom, Dick, and Harry using that ID for their pet projects, we end up having to either rename the ID during the rip process (prior to install on the HDD) or only having one freakin' undub/retrans installed at a time.
AKuHAK
commented
3 years ago Easy fix though: you just gotta switch the IDs
Easy fix: do not use Winhiip at all. As I already say if you don't use winhiip you will not face such problems. No need to add into opl functionality for fixing bugs in another program.
There are more bugs with WinHiip. The most major bug: it is closed-source, so we cannot be sure, that it is doing everything rest ok. Some bugs that I experienced over 10 years of using HDDs in PS2:
It is also changing some partition attributes that are not necessary to change.
In case if in future someone will add more filesystem support, winhiip definitely will break new filesystems by "fixing" them.
Maybe there are more bugs, I just mention those that I was able to remember.
BatRastard
commented
3 years ago Easy fix though: you just gotta switch the IDs
Easy fix: do not use Winhiip at all.
Easier fix: do not use anything with bugs in it. Including OPL. Including Linux. Including Windows. Kill the electricity. Go back to candle light. Puritanism uber alles, baby! Rah! Rah! Rah! Yeah, let's DIE on that hill ...
As I already say if you don't use winhiip you will not face such problems.
And as I already said: kill all the electric. Move into a shack in Montana and proceed to write manifestos by candle light until your dying days. As long as those manifestoes don't contain the phrase "cool headed logicians", you will not face any problems.
No need to add into opl functionality for fixing bugs in another program.
Newsflash: the homebrew SDK and toolchain we use to compile OPL contains functionality for fixing bugs ranging from hardware (Gamestar) and other programs including Sony's own slop.
There are more bugs with WinHiip. The most major bug: it is closed-source ...
Exactly like the operating system it runs on!
so we cannot be sure, that it is doing everything rest ok.
Exactly like the operating system it runs on! The only difference between Windows and StarForce is the latter got pilloried for being a closed-sourced virus/rootkit after destroying enough optical drives instead of the closed-source virus/rootkit for an "operating system" it ran on.
Some bugs that I experienced over 10 years of using HDDs in PS2:
WinHiip will break all Ps2 Linux partitions (including BB Navigator) cause it will alter partition FS id
It will break any officially installed game (yes, there are some games that can be installed), cause it is removing passwords from the partition header.
it will reorder game order in HDD OSD, cause it will setup each partition time to the current time, and HDD OSD app list sorting is based on the date-time of the partition
it will break any i.LinkID based game with online support (there are some online games that are injecting IDs into net partition) - winhiip will try to "fix" net and just remove this info.
Contrast these bugs with how often the average OPL user:
I've noticed that the vast majority of hatred for WinHiip usually stems from other developers and users from regions where Sony released and supported their products differently -- perhaps better -- than they did in North America and the UK where PS2 Linux, Browser 2.00, i.Link where treated by Sony with the contempt and revulsion on par with lepers in the Bible.
ReductoAdAbsurdum
commented
3 years ago As soon as Windows detects a HDD with the PS2 HDD structure, it doesn't know what to do with it, and prompts the user to chose between an MBR partition type or GPT partition type. Any choice here automatically eats the MBR of the PS2HDD -- 100% certainty. 100% unavoidable. This is long before you can launch either WinHiip or hdldump. And even if you were to launch Winhiip nor hdldump at this point, it will not detect the drive as a PS2HDD since the MBR is toast. This is entirely Windows's fault, and this corruption can also happen if you don't use the same SATA or USB port consistently for the PS2 drive, on a re-install of Windows, or even after installing a Windows Service Pack (or "Cumulative Feature Update" in Windows 10's parlance).
So there will be no corruption as long as we ignore/close the MBR/GPT prompt ? also, Why would using a different USB port corrupt the ps2HDD ? you mean If we use a different USB port there will be a MBR/GPT prompt again and we might accidentally choose a partition type ?
Are there any other types of corruption ? I installed around 70 games on my 1TB HDD, there were errors because of the "long similar titles" bug...so I had to rename/re-install the failed installs...Is everything ok with how I did this ? will there be any corruptions using the WINHIIP to do this ?
J013k
commented
3 years ago There is something that I still do not understand... 
If there are other apps* that can install PS2 games into PS2's HDD attached into PC, and they do not have any\none of these problems than why someone still want to use WinHIIP? Who knows how many games are really incompatible with it? In the same way we can recommend HD loader and say that some games can be incompatible, but the vast majority are playable...
Theatrically we can compare HD loader to OPL. Which app we should use to play PS2 games?
IMHO WinHIIP is like HD loader, it has its flaws (It is no longer maintained...). OPL has made a huge progress, many games have been fixed to work with it. It is still maintained...
As for EHT and HDLGameInstaller average speed that I get is:
Additionally for HDLGameInstaller:
DVD9 games are supported from the PC client only, as the CDVDMAN module within the boot ROMs of all consoles does not support DVD9 layer 1.
[*] - Other apps:
BatRastard
commented
3 years ago So there will be no corruption as long as we ignore/close the MBR/GPT prompt ? also,
Nope, because Windows will make a "best guess" attempt at mounting the drive anyway, and the drive has to be mounted anyway in order for apps to detect and use it.
Why would using a different USB port corrupt the ps2HDD ? you mean If we use a different USB port there will be a MBR/GPT > prompt again and we might accidentally choose a partition type ?
Yup, there's a chance of the drive being remunerated, triggering the MBR/GPT prompt again. But even if you use the same USB port, you're safe until Microsoft does a major OS update. After the update, the MPB/GPT prompt could turn up again. On one hand, it makes me wish the homebrew community had developed a Windows APA/PFS Driver but on the other hand, we'd have to temporarily disable signed driver enforcement just to install it.
Are there any other types of corruption ? I installed around 70 games on my 1TB HDD, there were errors because of the "long similar titles" bug...so I had to rename/re-install the failed installs...Is everything ok with how I did this ? will there be any corruptions using the WINHIIP to do this ?
I can't say as I never had those errors myself, and I think it's because I'm so used to adhering to the 8+3 file naming scheme of DOS that it becomes second nature to me to automatically truncate long file names.
BatRastard
commented
3 years ago There is something that I still do not understand...
If there are other apps* that can install PS2 games into PS2's HDD attached into PC, and they do not have any\none of these problems than why someone still want to use WinHIIP?
Because I'm on the Autism spectrum and won't be leaving the Autism spectrum any time soon - if ever. Because I'm an Anarchist. Because I tent to do the exact opposite of everything government, religion, and politicians tell me to do. Because I got YOOGE difficulty seeing shit from the neurotypical and ableist perspectives and always will (and vice versa). Because Winhiip doesn't require .NET ... Because it doesn't require hunting down MS Visual Basic DLLs that we shouldn't be doing in 2021 ... Because I don't have Rule Of Rose nor any Ratchet & Clank game ... Because I don't have any boring ass sports titles. Because my PS2 collection hasn't changed and "MK Shaolin Monks" is the only thorn in WinHIIP's side. Because eventually we'll all be slinking back to WinHIIP for one reason or another ... no matter what we do! ;-)
Because I can recognize that a bunch domestic terrorists in business suits lollygagging in a boardroom somewhere have far more power to materially harm and effectively kill minorities/POCs (which they do!) than some rude white guy at a diner with three teeth and one red hat ........................... and still choose to leave HIM, his Twitter feed, and his YouTube alone (unlike the canceling and deplatforming Sandinistas Of Sanctimony) since he's merely a symptom and not the disease itself ...
ReductoAdAbsurdum
commented
3 years ago Nope, because Windows will make a "best guess" attempt at mounting the drive anyway, and the drive has to be mounted anyway in order for apps to detect and use it.
any way to fix this problem ?
J013k
commented
3 years ago Hmm. As for me there is still something missing... I do not know... maybe a missing spice? We could add some chili... to be more spicy... Maybe a sauce? How about sweet-and-sour?
I understand that WinHIIP is suitable for you, but will it be suitable for many other people?
Do any of the apps that I mentioned before (except of HDLGameInstaller*) need .NET Framework or Visual C++?
As I siad before we can recommend other people to ***k OPL and use HD Loader instead, because it has:
To the point. I know that "if it ain't broke don't fix it". Many old things e.g. old diesel engines were very reliable. Their mileage was really stunning, 500 000 miles without any major problems were normal. As for apps I still uses Nero 7 instead of newer versions, because it is quite lite and it has all the functions that I need. I even sometimes play PS2\PS3 games. I can afford to buy PS5, but I know that it will lay on a shelf rarely used. Will I recommend any of these examples... It depends.
Will I recommend WinHIIP knowing that it can be problematic. Hell no.
Do I need to have more than 256 games on PS2's HDD? No.
Can I install one game, play it and install another. Yes I can, it will took ~10 min to transfer it through ETH. I do not need to detach HDD from PS2, plug it into PC, plug it once again to PS2...
Anyway I have noticed that in the title there is HDCP, which means: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection. Instead of DHCP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol.
[ * ] - It needs Visual C++ 2010 x86 (~5 MiB to download)
rs1n
commented
3 years ago HDLBATCH might be helpful for those who wish to have a simple installer. It's just a short batch file that runs on top of hdl_dump and installs directly to a PS2 hard drive connected to your computer.
bignaux
commented
3 years ago i add this feature requirement "showing IP" to my NBD server 
Hello Everybody. We all love OPL, but there so many room for improvement. REcently I added 2TB HDD in to my fat ps2. uLE2TB perfectly fine formatted it, but copying games to it becomes kind of like difficult. With lower in size HDD I could use hdloader and copy my games through DVD-Drive, but with 2TB HDD is different story.
In original Xbox UnleashX menu when Ethernet cable is connected--it automatically gets IP-address through HDCP and starts FTP-server and shows IP-Address in lower left corner, also it shows temperature of CPu and Motherboard. It makes life so much easier, all you have to do it make folder structure from xbox game and chose your favorite FTP-client like filezilla,open port 20 and throw easily games at Xbox-HDD.
Is it possible to do similar in PS2? Why we have to deal with all this complicated SMB-IP-address share if it could be done perfectly fine through HDCP, show IP Adress on main screen and it would be easier to do game manegment?
Can DVD and CD folder to be created in +OPL folder and transfer ISOs of your games there?
Also maybe is better to get away from HDL server and HDL-Dumb and Winhiip soft and make "special FTP PS2 Game Transfer Software" which will do transfer of games --either through Ethernet or on PC through USB-SATA or just SATA more easier and more enjoyable process to do?
I personnaly had problems to transfer games through Ethernet and through USB-Sata dapter in HDL-dumb... Also can OPL support PS2 folder structure games? Can also OPL get File Browser Function in next Update? Would be so much appreciative to you guys if you would consider and possibly implement such usefull and helpfull functions in our lovely OPL...