Dark_AleX has sent me this file for you guys to test, which he says should fix the flash0 over USB nand corruption issues.

The problem:
Sony's lflash driver cannot retrieve the last sector. DAX fixed this by using internal functions of the lflash to do it directly, but it appears this may be glitchy at random intervals (though he managed to restore an entire flash0 dump before releasing M33-2 and had no problems).
This was introduced in M33-2, rather than the original code. The fix for M33-2 was a separate ioctl handling issue.

The fix:
Overwrite flash0:/kd/usbdevice.prx with the attached file.
It uses the old flash0 over USB code, with the small-file corruption issue from 3.71 M33-1 fixed.

Obviously you'll have to use flash0 over usb to actually copy this file, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A WORKING NAND DUMP BEFORE YOU DO, as you may corrupt the partition records when copying it. (Unlikely but possible).

He is releasing the source to this file very shortly.

This is the source of the last usbdevice.prx, in case anyone is interested.

Let's hope this one has not the bug.

I'm really annoyed of bad remotejoy build made with wrong switches which requires psplink to be run (while this isn't necessary) and also of the various user mode screenshoot plugins.
so i took the change to rebuild remotejoy in the proper way and to work in the 3.71 kernel and also a proper build of the screenshoot_bmp plugin originally made by nekokabu which works in !! KERNEL !! and not USER (something AWFULL FOR PLUGINS!!! it will messup a lot of things even if it works. PLUGINS MUST BE KERNEL AND THAT'S ALL!!!) so it doesn't mess up with your cheats and all games should work without "can't start game" errors. plus w00t no lines >_>.
also this is for 3.71 kernel

oh as of commands. for remotejoy just load usbhostfs and then remotejoy and then connect whathever you want and you will get the picture everywere you loaded it. ah and as of drivers no one needs to make them compatible with vista or xp and the psp they are part of the libusb project so just get on their page (the one of the windows port) and get it.
as for screenshot_bmp it uses note (w00t XD) and will save on PICTURE and make the folder if missing

usbhostfs didn't require any work as it's compatible with 3.71 kernel as is (sony didn't change things there)

Hello, World.

After a hard discussion between every member of M33 (3 votes against 2),
we have decided to take a little break before releasing anything else.
(Take it as the russian winter that might come even when there is sun
in front of us)

The main reasons for this decision are as follow:

First, looking at how have things have come since we started our work,
we now know how might have felt other developers when there are much
other interests that don't benefit to the entire Scene. We all know
what we are talking about, and we will make our best to eradicate all
of this rotted side of the world in which we are nowadays, in the near
future.

Second, to teach a lesson. A mayor percentage of the PSP (and others)
Scene(s) has to think about what it has come into since there are lots
and lots of people that just want to steal money and attention when they
don't even deserve it. This has existed since the beggining, and this is,
clearly, to that hackers-wannabe that modify a couple of files and want
to be acclaimed as a God-like.

And third, to have fun looking at how all this lamers that steal codes
don't know what to do when there is no binaries or sources to modify ;-)
Ok, that last one was kidding a bit... but that doesn't mean that it's
not right :-P

We know, of course, that lots of psp webpages will full with insults and
lame plots (we surf daily most of them), but this won't make change this
decision, so here's a little advice: Don't waste your breath reinforcing
what we have just said, and have patiente. Also, don't look for guilty
ones, as you might have to look deeply into every one that have demanded
without any right to be released something that will be free for all of
the scene, as always.

Also, it's interesting to say that you should buy the games you like,
gaving support to the ones that you think that they have done a good job,
as we are all developers, and all the ones that stay hours and hours
in front of a pc screen have their rights to have a remuneration for what
is, after all, their job.

And, by the way, to avoid lamers saying that we have lied or prophets
telling lies to the Scene, 3.71m33 *is* finished, and will be released
when we come back. (or a later version if needed)

You can always contact us via a pm on pspx.ru forums, and on [email protected].
Thanks for all the support till this day. See you all soon :-)

Team M33

When PSP homebrew legend Dark_AleX decided to take leave of the scene, uncertainty existed for the future of custom firmware. Just who would follow in his footsteps?

Weeks following Alex’s leave, a Russian team of developers known as “M33″ blasted onto the scene, with their first release being a 3.51 custom firmware. Of course, this was a surprise to many, but little did we know that another team with a similar goal would soon be emerging alongside M33.

This team became known as Team Wildc*rd. Their first release, although released to the public eariler than the team wished, was a custom firmware known as 3.40 WildC*rd.

We recently had a chat with Team WildC*rd, to find out more about what’s in store for the next WildC*rd release, as well as their personal views on the homebrew scene.

Read on for the first exclusive interview with Team WildC*rd.

eXophase.com: When was the team formed?
WildC*rd: July 2007

eXophase.com: Was the team created to pick up where AleX left off, or was the timing of AleX’s retirement a co-incidence?
WildC*rd: Not a coincidence. After Dark_AleX announced he was leaving the scene, a thread started on MaxConsole in which a few hackers started talking about how OE works and considered reversing it. People in there spoke on IRC and gathered some experienced developers, and we started to reverse 3.40 OE a short time later.

eXophase.com: Once AleX left, did your team receive any help from him?
WildC*rd: Not from him directly. As Mathieulh has clarified on PSPGen, he got word of our project, and asked for a sample of our code. He realised we were serious, and after we had reversed around 90% of 3.40 OE, he gave us the 3.10 OE source code (with AleX’s agreement) when we had reversed around 90% of 3.40 OE and used it to check our work, verify it, add comments to it, and so on. Unfortunately we kept it on our SVN which was later compromised and it ended up being leaked, which we apologise to AleX for.

eXophase.com: How many members actively contribute to every new custom firmware release that comes from your team?
WildC*rd: Around half of the team contribute to the code, which means about 7 people.

eXophase.com: Perhaps a few words about the different members, and the role each one plays in the creation of a new custom firmware?
WildC*rd: I would prefer not to mention names as everyone makes their own contributions which the team would struggle without. There are people who reverse code and write code, people who think of new features, people who write our statements and readmes, and importantly the testers who we’d be screwed, shooting in the dark, without.

eXophase.com: Is there any sort of an informal rivalry between you and the Russian team M33? Maybe not officially, but will you be trying to beat them to a new feature?
WildC*rd: We pride ourselves on working alongside M33 rather than against them, and are extremely grateful for their recent support after the source code leak. We reversed some of the features they added to 3.5X M33, such as 99.9% NO-UMD compatibility (the np9660.prx patcher), because no custom firmware can be without them, but we write other features by ourself.

eXophase.com: How difficult or easy is it to bring together a whole custom firmware, considering the number of people contributing to it simultaneously?
WildC*rd: Quite difficult; it presents interesting security issues as we have seen. There is also a problem when two people who start reversing a module without being aware of the other person doing it, and end up wasting their time, but sometimes it’s useful to compare code and it helps because it makes it easier to find mistakes.

eXophase.com: What motivates the team? Is it a “damn the man” attitude, or do you see it as just a hobby improving what Sony has released and perhaps giving Sony some ideas on what the people want?
WildC*rd: Our primary aim is to keep providing custom firmware for the PSP scene. The official firmware locks out any attempts at homebrew which we feel is entirely wrong, and we’ll continue unlocking the true potential of the PSP until Sony do it themselves.

eXophase.com: How difficult was it when a certain website got into your group’s secret forums and decided to steal all your code and release it into the open?
WildC*rd: The first few days were very difficult, we felt our privacy and security had been completely violated, and considered ending the project. But then we realised, it’d be pointless to let that site benefit and profit from our hard work, so we released the source ourself, and the 3.40* binaries a few days later. We have re-organized ourselves and are now working towards 3.52*.

eXophase.com: After the

It's with much regret that I have to announce that I'm going to retire from the sharp end of the PSP homebrew scene. The betrayal of trust that preceded the Pandora release was extremely hurtful, and has left me unable to fully trust the people I'd previously enjoyed working so hard with. And so, I have had to decide to stop working on projects that require that level of trust.

Besides that, life continues to be very busy in the run up to fatherhood, and there are various non-PSP projects that I'd like to play with. Not to mention the fact that I'm tired of the continual pressure and idiocy of the PSP scene - long gone are the fun days of pioneering amongst like minds, in a mutually supportive and gentlemanly environment.

The Pandora Battery therefore marks my last major PSP project. I expect that Team C+D and Noobz will continue to release stuff without me, and I still hope to finish up some of the non-exploit projects that I'd been working on (Installotron, piKey etc.).

It was a fun ride while it lasted.

The All-Seeing Eye is watching you...

Following research in conjunction with Archaemic, Noobz are proud to present the first ever all-firmware exploit for the PSP. Based on Lumines, the "Illuminati" exploit is a user-mode exploit using a buffer overflow in the savedata file - similar to the GTA exploit.

That's right - if you've got a legal UMD copy of Lumines, then you can run homebrew on your PSP - whatever the firmware version. That includes v3.50! Right now, the only homebrew is the Hello World demo released below - but in future we intend to release a HEN and downgrader.

To make the exploit work:

* Check that you have an EU or US version of Lumines (ULES00043 or ULUS10002). Currently we don't have a version for the Japanese version, but we're working on it, as soon as we get hold of a Japanese UMD.
* Extract the contents of the 'MS_ROOT' folder from the ZIP file into the top-level of your memory stick. (HINT: If you wind up with an 'MS_ROOT' folder on the stick, you've done it wrong).
* Start the game, and as soon as it gets to the 'Press START' screen, press START. If you wait until the demo has started, the exploit may not work.
* The screen should go blank, and the exploit will start after a few moments. It doesn't do anything except look pretty at this stage - but feel free to enjoy the first homebrew on your v3.10 - v3.50 PSP Wink

Here's a picture of the exploit in action:



If you don't own a copy of Lumines, why not go and buy one? It's cheap these days, and it's a great game - get it before it gets patched!

It seems that the Illuminati exploit doesn't work properly if your PSP is set to non-English settings. At a guess, it's something to do with unicode when displaying the profile name.

Anyway, if you are having problems, especially with the European Lumines, then try switching your PSP to 'English' settings.

One other note - Lumines sales on Amazon.com have gone up over 14,000% since yesterday!

3.30 Decrypter!
* From Team Create+Destroy.. *

Some thought we failed - or had disappeared,
But $ony beware - your last hour is near.
In spite protections and multiple locks,
In spite busy lifes and - unwashed - socks,
For you to enjoy but for $ony to fear,
3.30 decrypter is ready, so cheer!

Presenter: Computer hackers have appeared to have scored a strike in the battle against the industry giants. They’ve found a way to unlock Sony’s handheld games console, the playstation portable, or PSP. The PSP is sold with its own built-in software which is known as firmware. This controls how the console operates. The firmware “locks” many of the PSP’s capabilities so that enthusiasts can’t write their own programs for it. It also prevents the PSP from running pirated games or films. But now, inevitably you might say, hackers have found a way round the locks and controls. David Court, (Fanjita) professional programmer, part time hacker is among those who’ve unlocked the PSP. He joins us now from Edinburgh in Scotland. David Court, why did you want to do it?

Fanjita: Well it’s quite simple. We were just frustrated by the fact that having bought this 200 pounds console, it wasn’t possible to do what we wanted with it.

Presenter: But one of the reasons that these sort of limits are put on is to stop piracy, it’s to make sure that you only run games that are legitimately bought and paid for, for instance.

Fanjita: Indeed and that is a very important thing to bear in mind. The aim here was definitely not to allow piracy of software. Working as a professional programmer myself, piracy is a thing that is quite dear to my heart. If I was to go around pirating software, then I’m going round pirating from my colleagues.

Presenter: So you don’t see yourself as some sort of modern day digital pirate then?

Fanjita: Absolutely not, absolutely not. The aim here was just to enable running of legitimate and personally developed software that would basically unlock the capabilities of the machine.

Presenter: But hang on a minute, this is a machine that Sony have designed and invested lots of money into, don’t they have the right to restrict what you can and can’t on it?

Fanjita: I don’t believe they have the right to restrict what you can do with a piece of equipment that you bought outright. If it was rented from them, then fair enough. But the fact that I’ve paid 200 pounds for a piece of electrical equipment that I then can only do what they tell me to do, that to me is frustrating.

Presenter: But what’s the difference between that and the sort of agreements you sign when you buy a bit of software.

Fanjita: Well, I think that’s the key difference, where’s the agreement, on the actual hardware? If there was an agreement like that, would people agree?

Presenter: So, you’ve got this machine, you’ve unlocked it, what is it that you are now going to be able to do what the rest of us who have got them in their plain ordinary form can’t do?

Fanjita: Well there is a whole wealth of things. It opens it up to this sort of “bedroom” industry of people churning out games, and all sorts of other creative things that they otherwise would not be allowed to do.

Presenter: But why not use a computer then, because the PSP doesn’t even have a keyboard?

Fanjita: That’s correct, but then again, most computers aren’t as portable. If you are sitting on a bus, it’s nice to be able to pop this thing out of your pocket and just play a simple game on it or something. More than that of course, there’s all sorts of other exciting applications that are opened up. For instance, there’s a guy that has written what’s effectively a Sat-Nav application for the PSP, that was something that was promised by Sony from the first day of the PSP. It took them about two years to come out with this thing, this guy beat them by about a year.

Presenter: But I guess this is a bit like all the arguments that go on about the free software that you can, or can’t download from the web. It’s sort of about people’s intellectual property rights and sort of about what people can and can’t do with something they’ve bought. There are going to be fights like this over and over again aren’t there?

Fanjita: Sure, sure, and I think it’s important for the industry to realize that restraining people in this sort of way, is something that they are going to object to.

Presenter: Ok. David Court, Professional programmer, thanks very much indeed.

A lot of people have asked for a downgrader for v2.80 that's both safe and simple to use. Well, the Noobz aim to please - we've merged and ported Dark_AleX's generic downgrader and TA-82 downgrader, to bring you what is probably the best v2.80 downgrader!

And as a bonus, we made this possible by porting Dark_AleX's HEN-D release to firmware v2.80, which means that if you don't want to downgrade yet, you now have a good platform for launching kernel-mode homebrew.

Why should you use this downgrader? Well, the major advantages are:

• safety - this downgrader has plenty of safety checks in place to try to avoid accidental bricks (but read the warning below)
• convenience - because this downgrader works with an official firmware EBOOT.PBP file, and includes the TA-082 idstorage changer and HEN files, you don't need any other files (except for a v1.5 update EBOOT) to perform the downgrade. No more finding a v1.5 owner to get dumpfiles!
• latest TA-082/086 support - the bundled TA-082 registry fixer includes the latest fixes to make sure that USBHost support won't be messed up.

So, let's not hang around, how do you use this to downgrade?

1. Install the HEN files, by following the details in the readme.txt file.
2. Test that HEN is working fine, by running one of the bundled sample applications - e.g. the cube demo.
3. If you have a TA-082 or TA-086 PSP, run the "TA082 IdStorage Changer", via HEN, to patch your registry before downgrading.
4. Get a copy of the v1.5 upgrade EBOOT (e.g. from here) and copy it to the /psp/game/UPDATE/ folder on your memory stick, as UPDATE.PBP.
5. Start the"PSP Update ver X.YZ" program via HEN, and follow the instructions.
6. Congratulations, you now have a v1.5 PSP!

WARNING - Like any downgrader, there is always a risk of bricking your PSP. We have done our very best to make this as safe as possible, but by using this program, you accept all responsibility for any problem that may occur. ALWAYS READ ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USE.

Full credit is due to Dark_AleX and Mathieulh, who generously provided code and assistance during porting of both HEN and the generic downgrader, and HarleyG, who was instrumental in much of the research that went into that code.

One final word - this shows what is possible when developers ignore artificial boundaries and egos and help each other out. We hope to continue to work closely with Alex and Mathieulh in the future, to keep the homebrew scene moving forward like an unstoppable juggernaut