Open PS2 Loader

Copyright 2013, Ifcaro & jimmikaelkael Licensed under Academic Free License version 3.0 Review the LICENSE file for further details.

Introduction

Open PS2 Loader (OPL) is a 100% Open source game and application loader for the PS2 and PS3 units.

It supports five categories of devices:

1. USB mass storage devices;
2. MX4SIO (SD card connected to memory card port via adapter);
3. iLink (SBP2 compliant storage devices via IEE1394);
4. SMBv1 shares;
5. ATA/IDE HDDs.

All of the devices mentioned above support multiple file formats, including:

• ISO;
• ZSO (Compressed ISO);
• USB Extreme (ul);
• Homebrews (Apps) in ELF format;
• HDDs support the HDLoader format.

It's now the most compatible homebrew loader.

Note

OPL is developed continuously - anyone can contribute improvements to the project due to its open-source nature.

You can visit the Open PS2 Loader forum at:
https://www.psx-place.com/forums/open-ps2-loader-opl.77/

You can report compatibility game problems at:
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/open-ps2-loader-game-bug-reports.19401/

For an updated compatibility list, you can visit the OPL-CL site at:
http://sx.sytes.net/oplcl/games.aspx

Release types

Open PS2 Loader bundle included several types of the same OPL version. These types come with more or fewer features included.

Type (can be a combination)	Description
Release	Regular OPL release with GSM, IGS, PADEMU, VMC, PS2RD Cheat Engine & Parental Controls.
DTL_T10000	OPL for TOOLs (DevKit PS2)
IGS	OPL with InGame Screenshot feature.
PADEMU	OPL with Pad Emulation for DS3 & DS4.
RTL	OPL with the right to left language support.

How to use

OPL uses the following directory tree structure across HDD, SMB, and USB modes:

Folder	Description	Modes
CD	for games on CD media - i.e. blue-bottom discs	USB and SMB
DVD	for DVD5 and DVD9 images (if filesystem supports +4gb files)	USB and SMB
VMC	for Virtual Memory Card images - from 8MB up to 64MB	all
CFG	for saving per-game configuration files	all
ART	for game art images	all
THM	for themes support	all
LNG	for translation support	all
CHT	for cheats files	all
APPS	for ELF files	all

OPL will automatically create the above directory structure the first time you launch it and enable your favorite device.

For HDDs formatted with the APA partition scheme, OPL will read hdd0:__common/OPL/conf_hdd.cfg for the config entry hdd_partition to use as your OPL partition. If not found a config file, a 128Mb +OPL partition will be created. You can edit the config if you wish to use/create a different partition. All partitions created by OPL will be 128Mb (it is not recommended to enlarge partitions as it will break LBAs, instead remove and recreate manually with uLaunchELF at a larger size if needed).

HDDs are also able to be formatted as exFAT to avoid the 2TB limitation. Please see below in the HDD section for more details on this configuration.

USB/MX4SIO/iLink

Supported file systems: EXFAT (since OPL v1.2.0 beta - rev1880) and FAT32, both use the MBR partition table

Game files should be ideally defragmented either file by file or by whole drive.

NOTE: Partial file fragmentation is supported (up to 64 fragments!) since OPL v1.2.0 beta - rev1893

If you choose to use the FAT32 file system, games larger than 4gb must use USBExtreme format (see OPLUtil or USBUtil programs).

We do not recommend using any defrag programs. The best way for defragmenting - copy all files to pc, format USB, copy all files back. Repeat it once you faced defragmenting problem again.

SMB

For loading games by SMB protocol, you need to share a folder (ex: PS2SMB) on the host machine or NAS device and make sure that it has full read and write permissions. USB Advance/Extreme format is optional - *.ISO images are supported using the folder structure above.

HDD

For PS2, 48-bit LBA internal HDDs are supported. The HDD can be formatted as:

• APA partitioning with PFS filesystem (up to 2TB)
  • OPL will create the +OPL partition on the HDD. To avoid this, you can create a text file at the location hdd0:__common:pfs:OPL/conf_hdd.txt that contains the preferred partition name (for example __common).
• MBR partitioning (up to 2TB) or GPT partitioning (unlimited) with the exFAT filesystem
  • Files should be added contiguously or synchronously to avoid fragmentation. For example, drag and drop files one at a time, or ensure that files are added sequentially.
  • When formatting drives for the exFAT filesystem, please make sure the Allocation unit size is set to Default.

APPS

There are two methods to add apps to OPL.

conf_apps.cfg method (Legacy)

Composed of two parts separated by an "=" sign
Where, the first part consists of the name that will appear in your OPL apps list.
And the second part consists of the path to the ELF.

To begin:

1. Create a text file called conf_apps.cfg.
2. In this file, put the name you want to appear in the list of apps, followed by the "=" sign.
3. Put the device identifier (for a USB device it would be mass:, for MemoryCard it would be mc:, and so on for other devices)
   And finally path to the desired ELF

NOTE: Be careful to enter the exact path, OPL is case sensitive

The structure should look like this:

My App Name=mass:APPS/MYAPP.ELF

let's use OPL itself as an example:

OPL=mass:APPS/OPNPS2LD.ELF

With this method the ELFs don't need to be in the APPS folder, but keeping them there helps keep everything organized.

the conf_apps.cfg file must be in the OPL folder, on your MemoryCard.
Or at the root of the storage device

title.cfg method

Also composed of two parts, or to be more exact, two lines Where, in the first line we put the name that will appear in the list of apps, and in the second line we put the ELF

To begin:

1. In the APPS folder, create a new folder with the name of the ELF you want to add
2. In this new folder, place the ELF and create also a text file called title.cfg.
3. In that file, add the following instructions:

title=My App Name
boot=MYAPP.ELF

Using OPL again as an example:

title=Open PS2 Loader
boot=OPNPS2LD.ELF

I would like to emphasize that in this method it is necessary that the ELF file and the title.cfg file must be in a folder, within the APPS folder.

NOTE: In both methods, it is necessary attention to the file names, because, as already mentioned: OPL is case sensitive.

Cheats

OPL accepts .cht files in PS2RD format. Each cheat file corresponds to a specific game and must be stored in the CHT directory on your device. Cheats are structured as hexadecimal codes, with proper headers as descriptions to identify their function. You can activate cheats via OPL's graphical interface. Navigate to a games settings, enable cheats and select the desired mode.

cheat modes

• Auto Select Cheats:
  This mode will enable and apply all cheat codes in your .cht file to your game automatically.

• Select Game Cheats:
  When enabled a cheat selection menu will appear when you launch a game. You can navigate the menu and disable undesired cheats for this launch session. Mastercodes cannot be disabled as they are required for any other cheats to be applied.

NBD Server

OPL now uses an NBD server to share the internal hard drive, instead of HDL server. NBD is formally documented and developed as a collaborative open standard.

The current implementation of the server is based on lwNBD, go there to contribute on the NBD code itself.

The main advantage of using NBD is that the client will expose the drive to your operating system in a similar way as a directly attached drive. This means that any utility that worked with the drive when it was directly attached should work the same way with NBD.

OPL currently only supports exporting (sharing out) the PS2's drive.

You can use hdl-dump, pfs-shell, or even directly edit the disk in a hex editor.

For example, to use hdl_dump to install a game to the HDD:

• Connect with your choosen client (OS specific)
• Run hdl_dump inject_dvd ps2/nbd "Test Game" ./TEST.ISO
• Disconnect the client.

To use the NBD server in OPL:

• Grab the latest beta version (OPL 1.1.0 (current stable) has some bugs in the NBD server) - go to the Releases section and grab the one at the top.
• Ensure OPL is configured with an IP address (either static or DHCP).
• Open the menu and select "Start NBD server". Once it's ready, it should update the screen to say "NBD Server running..."
• Now you can connect with any of the following NBD clients.

nbd-client

Supported: Linux, Windows with WSL and custom kernel

nbd-client requires nbd kernel support. If it isn't loaded, sudo modprobe nbd will do.

list available export:

nbd-client -l 192.168.1.45

connect:

nbd-client 192.168.1.45 /dev/nbd1

disconnect:

nbd-client -d /dev/nbd1

You'll generally need sudo to run this commands in root or add your user to the right group usually "disk".

nbdfuse

Supported: Linux, Windows with WSL2

list available export:

nbdinfo --list nbd://192.168.1.45

connect:

mkdir ps2
nbdfuse ps2/ nbd://192.168.1.45 &

disconnect:

umount ps2

wnbd

Supported: Windows

WNBD client. Install, reboot, open elevated (with Administrator rights) PowerShell

connect:

wnbd-client.exe map hdd0 192.168.1.22

disconnect:

wnbd-client.exe unmap hdd0

Mac OS

Not supported.

ZSO Format

As of version 1.2.0, compressed ISO files in ZSO format is supported by OPL.

To handle ZSO files, a python script (ziso.py) is included in the pc folder of this repository. It requires Python 3 and the LZ4 library:

pip install lz4

To compress an ISO file to ZSO:

python ziso.py -c 2 "input.iso" "output.zso"

To decompress a ZSO back to the original ISO:

python ziso.py -c 0 "input.zso" "output.iso"

You can copy ZSO files to the same folder as your ISOs and they will be detected by OPL. To install onto internal HDD, you can use the latest version of HDL-Dump.

PS3 BC

Currently, supported only PS3 Backward Compatible (BC) versions. So only COK-001 and COK-002/COK-002W boards are supported. USB, SMB, HDD modes are supported.

To run OPL, you need an entry point for running PS2 titles. You can use everything (Swapmagic PS2, for example), but custom firmware with the latest Cobra is preferred. Note: only CFW supports HDD mode.

Some notes for DEVS

Open PS2 Loader needs the latest PS2SDK

OPL Archive

Since 05/07/2021 every OPL build dispatched to the release section of this repository will be uploaded to a mega account. You can access the archive by clicking the mega badge on top of this readme

Frequent Issues

OPL Freezes on logo or grey screen

Sometimes OPL freezes when loading config files made by older OPL builds.

hold START while OPL initializes to make it skip the config loading, then, you can save your own settings. fixing the issue.

Game freezes on white screen

Main game executable could not be found. Either game is fragmented or image is corrupted

OPL does not display anything on boot

You may have selected a Video Mode which your TV does not support. Hold Triangle and Cross while OPL initializes to reset your video mode to "Auto".