[XsavioR]

First off, Thanks Exad
Original post by Exad

THIS GUIDE DOES NOT EXPLAIN HOW TO INSTALL 3.XXOE CUSTOM FIRMWARE BUT RATHER EXPLAINS HOW TO USE IT AFTERWARDS. FOR INSTALLATION PROCEDURES CHECK THE STICKIES OR CHECK THE README THAT COMES WITH YOUR 3.XXOE INSTALLATION FILES.



*******************
The Guide to 3.XXOE
################
# CONTENTS
#
# 1. What can I do with custom firmware?
# 2. Recovery Menu (including how to recover)
# 3. Plugins
# 4. Running Homebrew
# 5. Running Ripped UMD Games
# 6. Running Ripped PSX Games
################################################## ###############


1. WHAT CAN I DO WITH MY CUSTOM FIRMWARE?

The entire OE set of custom firmwares are custom firmwares allowing the user(you) to take advantage of all the capabilities of both the 1.5 golden firmware and Sony's latest firmware, which is currently 3.10.
The questions now becomes "What can firmware 1.50 do?" and "What can firmware 3.10 do?"

Firmware 1.50 allows us to take advantage of homebrew. Homebrew are applications designed to run on the PSP straight from the memory stick. There are many different types of homebrew ranging from emulators to everyday applications. All of these help to make the PSP an all round portable multimedia device. So what exactly does this mean? This means you can run other console games on your PSP as well as things like calendars, media organizers, WiFi tools, and lots of other nifty applications. Some of which can even help to customize the way your PSP looks! It is also possible to rip and compress UMD games to fit on your memory card so you no longer have to carry all your UMD discs with you. Firmware 1.50 is a great firmware but it has it's limitations. One of which is that you cannot play most of the newer UMD games. A lot of games require you to update to a later firmware in order to play them. There are also different fixes and additions in the later Sony firmwares that are very useful that 1.50 does not take advantage of.

Sony’s official 3.10 does not have the ability to run homebrew or UMD rips but allows us to play the most current UMD games, includes all the latest sony fixes and has a built in PSX emulator meaning you have the ability to play your favorite PSX games on your PSP. The catch behind this is that you need a PS3 in order to do so.

3.10 OE allows you to have the abilities of both those firmwares without the cons. So you are able to use the homebrew and the UMD rips as well as play the latest UMD games without having to update to Sony’s official 3.03. Also, with 3.03OE you can rip your PSX games and run them on your PSP without having to spend all that money on a PS3. There is also a recover menu embedded into the OE firmwares allowing you to recover from a brick. So if something goes wrong you merely place your RECOVERY folder in your ms0:/PSP/GAME/ folder and run the recovery from the recovery console and you’ll be back at 1.50. (This is covered more in the recovery menu section)

Now that you know about the 3.XXOE set of firmwares I’ll take some time explaining how to use all these great functions.





2. RECOVERY MENU
The most important in my opinion is how to get to the recovery menu. Note: you must be running a custom OE firmware to have the recovery menu. To do this hold the power switch upwards until your PSP is off. Hold R� and turn your PSP back on. You should now be in the recovery menu.



In the recovery menu there are a list of options:

.Toggle USB: This allows you to access your PSP's memory stick via USB so you can add/remove things while in recovery mode.

.Configuration:
..Skip SCE logo: This will skip the SCE logo when enabled.
..Hide corrupted icons: This will hide any corrupted icons caused by your homebrew.
..Game folder homebrew: This folder allows you to set what firmware version the ms0:/PSP/GAME/ folder operates under, 1.50 or 3.10. If set to 1.50 you can run homebrew in that folder but not files requiring firmware 3.10. If set to 3.10 you can run files requiring firmware 3.10 and homebrew must be in the GAME150 folder to work.
..Autorun program...: Enabling this will cause your PSP to run ms0:/PSP/GAME/BOOT/EBOOT.PBP at boot.
..Use NO-UMD: This option, when enabled, will allow you to run UMD ISOs without the need for a UMD in the drive.
..Fake Region: Fakes the region of your PSP Firmware (EUR, JAP, USA)
..Fake UMD Region: Fakes the region of your UMD (EUR, JAP, USA)

.Run Program...: This allows you to run a 1.50 eboot from the recovery menu in order to recover a semi-brick. The 1.50 eboot(and other recovery files) must be in ms0:/PSP/GAME/RECOVERY/ to work.

.Advanced: As this is a beginners guide I will not get into it too much but in 3.03OE-C This is where you can find:
..Toggle USB(Flash1): Allows you to access your flash1 via USB *
..Toggle USB(Flash0): Allows you to access your flash0 via USB * (ALTERING THESE CAN BE DANGEROUS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND CAN RENDER YOUR PSP INOPERABLE)

.CPU speed: In this option you can change the CPU speed while in your XMB and/or while running a UMD/ISO (DO NOT ALTER THIS OPTION IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING)

.Plugins: Under this option you can enable or disable plugins you have downloaded.

.Registry hacks: Allows you to change which button is the "enter" button("x" or "o" only). You can also enable WMA playback and the Flash player.





HOW TO RECOVER TO 1.50 STEP BY STEP

If you're on a custom firmware and your psp won't boot properly anymore you can recover back to 1.50 to fix whatever went wrong. Here's how:

Download the recovery folder: http://www.mediafire.com/?4zj2ygymnzr

Boot into recovery mode (Turn off your psp completely, hold "R" while turning it back on)

Connect your PSP to your PC and go to Toggle USB

Unzip the recovery folder and place the recovery folder in /PSP/GAME/

Then run the recovery program from the recovery menu, say the magic words... Presto Chango!

Assuming you did everything right, you should now be at 1.50. From there you can Upgrade back to your custom firmware.


3. PLUGINS

Plugins are files, which usually add increased functionality to your psp. For example, the irsmp3 module is a plugin that will allow you to play mp3 files in your XMB and during gameplay.

The standard installation of plugins is as follows:

1. Place the .prx file(s) in your seplugins directory which should be at the root of your memory stick: ms0:/seplugins
2. You will then need to edit vsh.txt and game.txt with the path of the plugin. This will tell your psp where to look for the plugin while in the xmb(vsh.txt) and while in game(game.txt). These text files should be in your seplugins folder.
3. Enable the plugin in your recovery menu. (See the section on the recovery menu for more info)

Note: Having too many plugins enabled at the same time can cause lag and other problems so try to keep the plugins you're not using disabled.


4. RUNNING HOMEBREW

The most popular ability of the custom OE firmwares is the ability to play homebrew. There are two ways to successfully run homebrew on your OE firmware.

1. Place your homebrew application folder(s) inside folder ms0:/PSP/GAME150

2. Boot to the recovery menu and under configuration set the GAME folder kernel option to 1.50. This will allow you to run homebrew in your ms0:/PSP/GAME folder but you must reset the kernel option back to 3.10 every time you want to run a game that requires firmware 3.10.

Your homebrew will appear, most often, under the GAME menu of your XMB. For more detailed instructions on getting your homebrew to run as it should, check the readme file. This should be standard practice for downloading and installing all homebrew.

5. RUNNING RIPPED UMD GAMES

In order to run your ripped UMDs you must put the ISOs in the folder ms0:/ISO
These games will show up in the GAME menu of your XMB.
You will also need to either, enable NO-UMD in the recovery menu(see recovery menu section) or keep a UMD in the drive while running your ISO. Otherwise you will get an error.
Some games will not work with NO-UMD enabled. In this case you will need to disable NO-UMD and instead put a UMD in the drive.

6. RUNNING RIPPED PSX GAMES

To run PSX games from your psp you must first rip your PSX game to an ISO using your PC. You can then convert your ripped PSX games into an eboot.pbp and keys.bin using popstation. The eboot.pbp and keys.bin must then be placed in a folder inside ms0:/PSP/GAME
For example for Final fantasy VII I would put the eboot and keys.bin in ms0:/PSP/GAME/FFVII/
The game will then show up in the GAME menu of your XMB.

Note: Games converted in the popstation for 3.03OE and up will not work in older versions of the OE firmware.

I have yet to rip any PSX games myself as I am not interested in trying to fit them on my 1 gig memory stick. The games are usually, but not always, pretty big in terms of filesize.
For step by step instructions on ripping and converting your PSX games I would suggest looking here:
http://forums.exophase.com/showpost....12&postcount=3


There are many things that your custom OE/M33 firmware can do but as this is just a guide to get you started and give you an idea of the abilities of this custom firmware.

[gkid007]

What is kernel?

[Cheezeball99]

Well, basically the PSP needs different versions of it's 'kernel' to run different homebrew, because they took out the compatibility of the PSP with homebrew to 1.5, so basically you had to trick the PSP into thinking it was 1.5 when you wanted to run homebrew. Any custom FW now, however, it is all automated- messing with the kernel is completely unnecessary, or at least with the OE firmwares, I dunno about M33...

[gkid007]

So basicly, kernel is the thing to trick your psp's firmware.

What if i wanna play a ripped game that requires fw 2.0 for example, will the kernel have to be changed.

How do you setup the kernel?

[Cheezeball99]

Kernel is basically what is actually different from firmware to firmware, it's the programming 'n' such that's actually different from version to version. Messing with the kernel is completely unnecessary as long as you have everything in the right folders- 1.5 and 1.0 homebrew in the GAME150 folder, PSX games in the GAME folder, 3.40 or 3.51 homebrew in the GAME340 or GAME351 folder, and ISO files in the ISO folder. As long as you have everything in the right folder everything will work perfectly- if you have an ISO that takes 2.0 FW then just put it in the ISO folder and it will work perfectly. If you still want to mess with it (for curiosity or otherwise) it's in the recovery menu. I dunno exactly where, hold on, I'll check... Configuration>Game Folder Homebrew, that's where you can set it, although I wouldn't personally recommend doing anything if you just want stuff to work right.

[gkid007]

What if i have a ripped game that needs 3.5 where do i put that?

WHAT YOU said on top is for 3.40OE, right?

[Cheezeball99]

3.51M33 is the same as an OE. Put it in the ISO folder.

[gkid007]

But does the kernel have to be changed to run ripped iso's which require 3.40 for example.

[Cheezeball99]

Originally Posted by gkid007

But does the kernel have to be changed to run ripped iso's which require 3.40 for example.

No, no you don't, unless you have an OE FW less than 3.40.

[gkid007]

Okay, thanks CHeezy