Six years ago today(11th November), the PS3 was released in Japan.

The original plan was to have a world wide release on the 17th of November 2006, but Japan got theirs early and EU was made to wait until 2007.

You might see various websites celebrate the PS3′s birthday on the 17th of November, this will probably include the official US PS3 website, but don’t get it confused, this is the PS3′s US release date and not its birthday, here are some highlights/lowlights of the PS3 since it was first released:

11th of November 2006
PS3 released in Japan.

17th of November 2006
This is the EU/US release date, but due to low stocks, the EU release gets delayed.

26th November 2006
DCEMU reports that a someone called deadsoulasis promised a ISO loader for the PS3.

26th Of November 2006
The very first Ps3 game rip, was uploaded to the internet, this was done by a well known warez scene group called Paradox, the game was Madden 2007.

28th Of November 2006
Firmware 1.11 released, this added account management.

13th of December 2006
Firmware 1.31 released, added better compatibility for PS1/PS2 games, also added the ability to save some PS2 games to the HDD.

21st of December 2006
Firmware 1.32 released, which updated the online gaming functionality.

24th of January 2007
Firmware 1.50 is released, it fixes some graphical glitches, present in PS1/PS2 games.

4th of February 2007

A group known a ferrox, release a video showing proof that they had an ISO loader for then PS3.

27th February 2007
Someone called PSPHaCkErAOD says he will release a PS3 ISO loader, he calls it ps3load3 v0.5 beta.

28th of February 2007
Firmware 1.54 released, added USB web cam support and added individual icons from the photo menu.

1st of March 2007
Seen the very first method of running PS2 backups on the PS3

4th of March 2007
PS3HaX is created.

22nd of March 2007
Firmware 1.60 released, this is quite a big update and adds many updates, such as support for, Install Other OS, support for bluetooth keyboards and mice, support for recordable Blu Ray disc’s, it
added the folding@home client(f@h), background downloading and an on-screen qwerty keyboard.

23rd March 2007
The PS3 is released in Europe, it is backwards compatible, but is missing the Emotion Engine

September 2007
hermes release a method of playing Emulators, without the need of Linux on the PS3, this was accomplished by using PSXLoader and SwapMagic

Between October 23rd and 26th 2007
The successor to the PS2′s Eye Toy was released

During January and February 2008
A group called Team ICE(International Couch Entertainment), which was run by StreetskaterFU(SKFU), iQD, UltraBull, Alec and a few other, they released some interesting tools and videos, tiff exploits, customized XMB, customized games and customised Home Beta.

10th of March 2008
A group called Team Slump/Group Slump promised backups, with an exploit/hack they dubbed “i.load”.

April the 10th 2008
Saw the first real PS3 hard modification, a PS3 laptop created by Ben Heck.

July the 18th 2008
Seen the release of the first Blu Ray Java homebrew, this utilised Blu Ray Java from BD Discs, to enable us to use Java homebrew on the XMB.

August 2008
zerojayzero, brought us The Zero Game Project, which was an automated script.Emulator package for Linux, this was true homebrew on the PS3, all you needed was Linux installed and you were good to go.

22nd Of September 2008
SKFU managed to partially dump the Ram on a retail machine.

November 2008
Seen the details of PS3 Service Mode released to the public.

During December 2008
Sony patented what many believed to be the return of PS2 Emulation on the PS3, diagrams showed that the Emotion Engine could be fully emulated on the Cell.

23rd Of April 2009
A developer/hacker by the name of Dashhacker from dashhacks.com, successfully reverse engineered Remote Play

20th Of August 2009
Saw what appeared to be the first mod chip for the PS3, created by a group called Belzar.

Around the 23/24th of August 2009
Famous iPhone hacker GeoHot, joined the scene and promised to hack the PS3.

December 10th 2009
seen the release of the 3.15 firmware.

23rd of January 2010
GeoHot announces that he has finally hacked the PS3.

April 1st 2010
Seen the release of the infamous 3.21 firmware, this was the OtherOS killer for all fat PS3, after Sony promising, to keep on supporting us fat PS3 owners who had OtherOS, they lied and basically kicked us in the face, at the start, this firmware was dubbed “optional” by Sony, thus being you could keep your OtherOS but loose PSN and the ability to play on-line or you could give up OtherOS and keep PSN, this of course was dirty underhanded tactics by Sony.

19th of August 2010
PSX-Scene announced that the had been in contact with “PS Jailbreak”, they claimed that they were able to prove this as they had a working dongle.

26th August 2010
The PS Jailbreak device is Reverse Engineered by Gamefreax

31st of August 2010
PSGroove is released, for Teensy++ USB Development Board or AT90USBKEY, it was released by Mathieulh and his team, it is an open source, free version of PS Jailbreak.

That and much more awesome PS3 History can be read at:
PS3 History – The Only True PS3 History On The Net

Here are some images of the PS3 through its history:

Original Concept

Release 20/60GB models

Fat PS3

Slim PS3

Super Slim PS3

Comparison

Thanks to @CaptainCPS-X for the info share with us

What is this all about:

I know that last month an article was posted regarding a clone of a clone. But in this thread I want to share my personal findings after doing tests with a JB-King dongle and inspecting PB2 (PS3break new product).

Attention:

This thread is not made to cause any controversial discussion and as the thread opener I ask of you, please let’s stick to the main topic: “using PB2 firmware with JB-King dongle”. If you want to discuss any other controversial stuff, please do so in the appropriate “drama” section.

The Findings:

As a very curious person that I am, and as a owner of various dongles / hardware that were at some point used and still are used in the ps3 scene to achieve some kind of jailbreak, like for example E3 Card Reader, CobraUSB, TI-84 Plus Calculator (yeah LOL, old payload days), and just recently I got a JB-King from a local store.

I was wondering what was PB2 all about, so I went to their site and started looking at the documentation, for my surprise I noticed that everything, including the documentation images where exactly the same as JB-King documentation. Immediately I decided to check the download section and obtain the PB2 dongle firmware files, I then kept my curious investigation by opening them on my Hex editor, check sizes, names and extension.

Now check this out, here you have JB-King FW files information (main FW and last update FW):

Code:
File Name: 2.3_upgrade.dfu (main dongle FW)
Size: 2.00 MB (2,097,461 bytes)
CRC32: FFFFFFFF
MD5: 2A9CEA5056A5681F0126EABCA117B47D
SHA-1: E426B39291197AB21F671411F63C49A0E987417B

Code:
File Name: upgrade_2.51.dfu (update FW)
Size: 25.2 KB (25,813 bytes)
CRC32: FFFFFFFF
MD5: C41A2E1433CA297A7E104502C53C7389
SHA-1: 718AF82E4B40624C720FD8B8CA7AE6556CA3895C

and here you have PB2 FW files information as well:

Code:
File Name: spitb27.dfu (main dongle FW)
Size: 2.00 MB (2,097,461 bytes)
CRC32: FFFFFFFF
MD5: CF988AC5EA526304981F0DC182E4D059
SHA-1: 56995A63B04793A8500F1CFB7B61D624BD76D325

Code:
File Name: upgrade_2.71.dfu (update FW)
Size: 20.5 KB (21,013 bytes)
CRC32: FFFFFFFF
MD5: 9F8947326DCF46C0D02DF2E27F83F478
SHA-1: F814938B857F99687DD008E6D41DA61717268E7C

Note: CRC32 was apparently modified in both cases JB-King / PB2, since this algo is flawed and if you have enough knowledge you can practically do this with all files, other hashes seems to be fine though.as you can see, the sizes and extension, and even the file header matches with each other (they are not identical in data though).

The Test:

After all that I came to the conclusion that if I flashed / upgraded my JB-King dongle with the PB2 dongle FW files it should in theory work.

So I did it…

- Connected the JB-King dongle to the PC (while holding the upgrade switch / button)
- Run the JB-King upgrade utility
- Loaded the main PB2 FW file, spitb27.dfu, and updated my dongle with it.
- Disconnected the JB-King dongle from the PC
- Connected it again, and did the same flashing but with the latest PB2 FW file, upgrade_2.71.dfu.

The Results:

After connecting the JB-King dongle flashed with the PB2 FW to my PS3, I turned it on and as expected, everything was fine. I didnt even change my PS3 CFW, still using the JB-King CFW v2 provided in their site.

I then, loaded multiMAN to test Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (has TB patch applied) and after returning to the XMB the game loaded with no problems.

Conclusion:

This is at least good news for those who bought JB-King, since there hasn’t been any updates in their site with new FW that brings compatibility with newer games.

At least from my personal test findings, you can actually flash a JB-King dongle with PB2 FW and use it without any problems =).

Stay tuned

I will eventually update this thread with information about tests with games like: Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier, so far not supported on JB-King 2.51 FW (as far as I know) , but supported on PB2 v1.02.

Important:

Please note that I am in no way responsible for anything that happen to your dongle / hardware / console by doing what I personally decided to do, if you don’t know how to flash the FW files to JB-King, please be careful.

PS: Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be as informative as possible =). I will try to update this post with more information as I have more free time to do so.

SeeYa!

Update:

Note: I will keep updating this with more info soon, like games tested, etc.

What is PB2?

PB2 is a recently released PS3 dongle by the creators of PS3Break. It works exactly as JB-King and TB.

PB2 CFW and JB-King CFW

Both firmwares provided by their respective websites are identical, they have the same file hashes:

Code:

File Name: PS3UPDAT.PUP
Size: 170 MB (178,826,845 bytes)
CRC32: 8FCA62E8
MD5: FF689E1E8CDD02A46DDADB14C3C5B85C
SHA-1: BA28DAD2975D58B0E55742CE0DA910F22D9516DF

Extra Info (might be useful for devs)

This probably is nothing big, but might be of interest for those working on reverse engineering these kind of dongles (JB-King / PB2 / TB / etc)

Both JB-King and PB2 use a Firmware format with a DFU extension, DFU stand for “Device Firmware Upgrade”, and they are designed for STMicroelectronics / devices.

The header of these files start with the following data (this one is from PB2 FW 1.02 / spitb27.dfu)

Code:

DfuSe.%. ..Target.....ST....:.ourceCode.stm32_psgroove.genkeytools.spi.tb27.dfu

Code:

unsigned char rawData[80] = {
	0x44, 0x66, 0x75, 0x53, 0x65, 0x01, 0x25, 0x01, 0x20, 0x00, 0x01, 0x54,
	0x61, 0x72, 0x67, 0x65, 0x74, 0x01, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x53, 0x54,
	0x2E, 0x2E, 0x2E, 0x00, 0x3A, 0x5C, 0x00, 0x6F, 0x75, 0x72, 0x63, 0x65,
	0x43, 0x6F, 0x64, 0x65, 0x00, 0x73, 0x74, 0x6D, 0x33, 0x32, 0x5F, 0x70,
	0x73, 0x67, 0x72, 0x6F, 0x6F, 0x76, 0x65, 0x00, 0x67, 0x65, 0x6E, 0x6B,
	0x65, 0x79, 0x74, 0x6F, 0x6F, 0x6C, 0x73, 0x00, 0x73, 0x70, 0x69, 0x00,
	0x74, 0x62, 0x32, 0x37, 0x2E, 0x64, 0x66, 0x75
};

Here you have some links to a couple of PDF with more information about the “DfuSe USB device firmware upgrade STMicroelectronics extension”.

http://www.st.com/internet/com/TECHN…CD00155676.pdf
http://www.st.com/internet/com/TECHN…CD00158241.pdf

And here you have a link to download the suite of applications that allows you to, for example: Upgrade a STM device in DFU mode, Extract a DFU firmware as s19 / HEX / BIN, and even do some tests.

http://www.st.com/internet/com/SOFTW…EMO/um0412.zip
http://www.st.com/internet/mcu/produ…7.jsp#SW_DEMOS (have to click on ‘Design Support’ tab)

On the original thread I attached some screenshots I took from my personal installation of these applications on my system.

No matter how much of an asshole people think i am and its true i can be a complete dick at times, there is no denying that i have a huge passion for the PS3 Scene, i know its not the best scene in the world, in fact its probably the worst, but my passion for it outweighs all the negativity.

That passion developed more when the PS3 was “Jailbroken”, it drove me to create PS3History, which i originally started here on PS3HaX, but it got to large and cumbersome for the one page, so i created www.ps3history.net which has been going for almost two years, then the PS Vita was announced, which made me decide to create “consolehistories”, i have history for the Vita and WiiU, though none of them are anywhere near the same caliber as PS3History, quite recently i was inspired by PS3HaX member “jennys” to create Retro History, so with that said, now and then i post my PS3History progress and that is what im just about to do below.

I know the PS3History is not complete, it is very far from being complete, what i would like from my fellow PS3HaX comrades is input and on the website and remind me of anything i have left out, anyhow here goes:

PS3History

2000 – 2001

These years may seem early for a story on the History Of The PS3, but these dates will be understood as you read further into the PS3 history.(Thanks to winocm, for making me go back this far :p).

(more…)

It has been a while since i update my PS3 history on this site, so instead of rehashing the same old thread, i thought i would make a new post, to get those acquainted with the history that is the PS3:

2000-2001

These years may seem early for a story on the History Of The PS3, but these dates will be understood as you read further into the PS3 history.(Thanks to winocm, for making me go back this far :p).

During the year 2000, Sony Computer Entertainment, Toshiba, and IBM(STI),formed an alliance, an alliance that would see the creation of the Cell Processor, Cell is short for Cell Broadband Engine Architecture.

March 2001
The STI design center opens and begins production of the Cell processor, this would be a four year endeavor, which would lead you to 2005.

Part of the above is sourced from Wikipedia.

2005

(more…)

The french Scene site PS3-Addict has interviewed Mathieulh. Thanks to both of them for taking the time for this interesting read

Source PS3-Addict.fr

I start developing PS3MFW Builder 0.2.1 a few mouths ago, and since then it’s just laying around my computer.
It’s fully working, only one function should rewritten.

Features:
Settings:
- Choose language.
- Select Temp folder.
- Select PS3_KEYS folder.
- Save/Default all the settings, including selected/unselected tasks, original/modified firmware paths, theme and so on.
- For developers: you can restart PS3MFW Builder by pressing Shift-R .

Languages:
I added the option to translate PS3MFW Builder to any language, including RTL, unique symbols and so on..
Thanks to eussNL for creating most of the translations.

You can also easiely create your own translation, all the text it stored in an .xml file.

Tasks:
- Added the option to select multiple files using “files” option type.
- Added the option to select directory using “directory” option type.

Developers: The only thing should be rewritten is the “save_settings” function.
The best way is to add a function in xml.tcl which will replace the text in specific node.

Download – PS3MFW Builder 0.2.1

It is almost a year since the PS3 was hacked, it has been a time full of excitement and a time full of drama, it has been a time filled with court cases and lawsuits.

It all started of in August 2010, when a little device was released, this device enabled game back ups and home brew on the PS3, Sony where hot on the heels of any one selling such devices, the original device, retailed at $100+, but clones soon emerged which were cheaper, around the same time open source versions began to appear, PSGroove from Mathieulh and his team, PSFreedom from KaKaRoTo, all these methods needed some sort of hardware and was only compatible with firmware 3.41 and below.

At the end of December 2010 a group known as fail0verflow, exposed the PS3′s lack of security, this brought on a chain of events, including the PS3 Keys being released and eventually a CFW for 3.55 consoles, this then lead to GeoHot who had released a CFW, being sued by Sony, so things died down for a little while.

An extremely talented developer/hacker known as graf_chokolo worked loyally on bringing back the OtherOS function that Sony stole from its customers, graf was only interested in the OtherOS function, he was only interested in bringing back, what we as PS3 owners payed for, he didn’t care about backups or the GameOS side of the console, his work was completely honest, but this wouldn’t stop Sony pestering him and unfortunately he was also sued, whilst he was fighting Sony he continued to work on the OtherOS function, but he was continually harassed by Sony, he was even raided on one occasion, so his work was put on hold.

That’s where a new group of talented people came in, when we first heard of them, it was a member under the nick of glevand, who took on graf_chokolo’s work and brought OtherOS++ to the PS3, so it is my pleasure to post this interview i had with these awesome group of people:

(Q.1)
When and why did you get involved in the PS3 Scene ?

Durandal – Me personally? I dabbled in a few things here and there that’d make a long and boring story, but it was when Sony began their aggressive litigation at the beginning of the year that Snowy and Das convinced me to help them with this new endeavour. We wanted to create a community safe enough that we could welcome any dev team, even when nobody else is willing to assist them. One of the unintended consequences of this is that we have a lot of very talented devs doing a lot of awesome stuff, so a lot of cross pollenation goes on between projects.

Snowy – I’ve been in other scenes just partly / mostly testing out things and debugging stuff for developers. I heard about the ps3 stuff from fail0verflow and tried seeing what i could do to help out further. After graf_chokolo got raided for the first time i tried to help him a few days later. We were both shocked that no one offered him a shell to their ps3 and from there it just started to development into more stuff.

(Q.2)
So you are the creators of Gitbrew.org, what was your reason for creating such a site ?

Durandal – After Mr. Hotz had his pleasant visit with Sony’s attorneys, a lot of sites pulled their resources out from under a lot of very good communities. We decided someone should take a stand, and set up a community with an infrastructure that allows safe communication and free flow of ideas. All of our servers are in secure datacenters, and I know the owners of most of them. Since I used to do forensic work, I set them up in such a way that if a server is compromised or seized, very little usable information can be pulled from it. Really about all anyone could do is come after me personally.

Snowy – After most websites were getting either taken down or data was being removed due to dmca, we had to find a secure place that we could give to other developers that couldn’t be touched. It worked out pretty well and we’re still going with it.

(Q.3)
How big is your team and who are they(No names have to mentioned of course) ?

Durandal - As far as the core team that keeps everything running, there’s only a handful of us. There are numerous groups with really awesome devs working on a lot of cool stuff, but we’re not allowed to give out any information on the number of people involved.

Snowy – Everyone helps everyone so far, because of that a lot of stuff gets done behind the scene. It just takes awhile for some stuff to be released.

(Q.4)
You guys keep working hard, and give us brilliant work, so how did you feel when GeoHot gave in to Sony ?

Durandal – Thanks… it’s nice to see we’re being noticed. As far as Mr. Hotz is concerned, he’s just an attention loving sellout. Maybe one day he’ll do seminars with Kevin Mitnick and HB Gary. To be honest, I don’t really think about guys like him. I’d rather stay focused on actually innovating.

Snowy – I don’t agree with it, but it’s his life so you can’t really stay mad at him because of his decisions.

(Q.5)
Some sites received DMCA take down notices, do you receive many and if so does legal action not bother you ?

Surprisingly we haven’t received one yet. Personally, I’m a tad disappointed. Guess we’ll have to wait our turn. As far as it bothering us, the way you deal with that kind of annoyance is to out annoy them.

(Q.6)
You used the work started by graf_chokolo, do you still have contact with him, if so do you know how his court case is working out.

Durandal – He cheers us on from time to time. I don’t think we can say any more than that until after his case is decided. I did have one very inspiring conversation with him when this all began. I promised him that as long as he was willing to keep up the fight in the court room, gitbrew would keep doing what we do best. And when Sony finally grows tired of pestering the guy, there’s definitely a place for him in our dev team.

Snowy – Yup, starting out was weird for setting stuff up, but after that I made sure I could help him in any way possible for development purposes. Graf, I have to say without you the scene wouldn’t be the way it is now. A lot of devs respect you because of it. Thank you for everything you’ve done man. Stand your ground and you will win, we’re behind you 100%

(Q.7)
What are your opinions on the PS3 Scene, the devs, the end users, Sony etc.

PS3 Scene: I can only speak about what I’ve seen. It’s, well…different from the communities I came from before. There’s some really awesome groups out there, but I think a lot of it’s too focused on sensationalizing things like the keys Mr. Hotz leaked.

The devs: All I can say is the PS3 community is lucky to have the level of talent a lot of these guys provide. Graf, KaKaRoTo, Mathieulh, tuxuser, etc are all guys I’d be honored to work with on any project for any platform. Maybe one day Sony’ll get bored of annoying them so we can get them all together under our roof.

The end users: Haven’t really had a reason to think on them much. Though more and more are using our solutions as an alternative to the official PS3 firmware.

Sony, etc.: There’s no reason to speak ill of them. They do more to alienate their own community than I could ever do with any words I could write. They’re not alone, either. Too many companies place a monopoly on innovation when it comes to their platforms. It’s funny that Microsoft’s Xbox is probably the least restricted platform currently. I guess they learned their lesson by trying to fight Linux developers.

(Q.8)
When the likes of Sony Fanboys see people that do your work, they immediately lumber you with being a “Pirate”, what would you say to them to convince them that piracy and homebrew/linux are not the same.

To be honest, I wouldn’t waste my time trying to justify myself to the lot. Sony does a better job of giving us positive PR in front of the fanboys than we ever could.

(Q.9)
What projects do you have planned for the future.

On the PS3 we’ve got a few projects going on. Expect to see a suite of tools for blu-ray drives in the not so distant future. Also, there’s a good chance you’ll be seeing a linux video driver that makes better use of the RSX. I’ll also be furthering my work on distributed cluster computing on the PS3 and other platforms.

In our other communities, expect to see more utilities for the kindle, and a lot more in the way of android development. Also, I’ve brought in a couple of my old friends to develop security-oriented tools for various platforms. Long story short…there’s very little we don’t have planned for the future.

(Q.10)
Several consoles are being released in the near future, the PS Vita and WiiU, do you plan on working on them ?

If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be gitbrew…

——— ——— ———
——— ——— ———

There may be a few more additions to the interview, but from what is posted so far, you can see the passion, you can see the dedication these guys have, everyone of you that have OtherOS++ on your PS3, should be very thank full to these guys and the work they continue to bring for our benefit, you can be guaranteed that they wont sell out either.

With the interview over, i would like to personally request something from each of you and that is to send the guys at Gitbrew a little donation, it can be as little as $1, if one hundred people donate only $1 each, that’s $100, which helps a huge way to covering server expenses and it shows that you appreciate the work they do.

To donate, please follow this link.

For support with OtherOS visit them on IRC here:
irc.gitbrew.org
ssl
6697
Join #otheros

Follow Gitbrew On Twitter

To get tutorials and help with OtherOS++, visit the Gitbrew website here.

This guide will explain you how to translate the XMB and uselanguage_pack.tcl PS3MFW task.

LP structure:

font/name_of_the_font_file_to_replace.TTF

replace/name_of_the_rco_file.xml

edit/name_of_the_rco_file/language_name.xml

1. Create a folder – this will be our working directory.

2. If the language you want to translate XMB to is using unsupported font glyphs, you’ll have to include a modified PS3 font.

How to add glyphs to fonts?

I personally use font creator, open 2 fonts: the one I want to modify, and another one that contains the glyphs that I want to add.

Than all I need to do is to copy & paste the glyphs from one font to the other, and assign any glyph to it’s letter.

* I modify “SCE-PS3-DH-R-CGB.TTF”, but this should work with any font.

When you finished modifying your font, create the folder “font” inside your working directory, and put you modified font in there.

3. Extract language XML files from RCO files

Here you have two options:

1) Extract them one by one using RCOmage (CLI or GUI).

2) Using LP_RCO to automatically extract language XML files from all RCO files (or writing your own script).

* For those who doesn’t use LP_RCO:

You should extract only one language file from each RCO file (for example “English.XML”).

name each language file by the RCO file it was extracted from.

Now create a folder named “replace” in your working directory, and place all the extracted language files in it.

4. The translation itself

This is the exhausting stage, where you should just translate any string in the language files you extracted in charter 3.

* You should translate only the string between the and tags.

You could let Google to translate it for you, but then you’ll have to fix formatting and all Sony’s “special” glyphs (such as the “cross” symbol), and of course to correct all the typos.

5. Packing everything into LP

Use any tar compression tool, and compress the root of your working directory, and named it “name.LP”.

6. The “edit option”:

There is also the “edit” option in language_pack.tcl task, which allow you to fix typos in several RCOs and languages.

Create a folder named “edit” inside you working directory.

Extract the language XML files you want to edit, and put them inside a directory named by the RCO file they extracted from.

Now all you got to do is to edit the language files.

7. All you need now is to build your MFW with your new language pack!

Take attention that you don’t have to include any of those folders inside your LP – include them only if you want to use their function.

Good luck!

PSheb is a new project by PS3Hax member DanyL that will attempt to translate the whole PS3 into the Hebrew language.

This is a language pack for language_pack.tcl (language_pack.tcl – danyls-tasks in PS3MFW Framework – git.dashhacks.com), which is a task for PS3MFW.

• There are still a lot of typos, and it’ll take me a years to correct it myself – so please join PSheb project and help me to correct any typo.

• Because the PS3 isn’t a native Right-To-Left, the translation should be reversed, for example if you want to write “ABCD”, you’ll write “DCBA” instead.

• Sony are using illegal charters (such as “<>”) in her xml language files, so I had to remove theme all.

Download – Git
[View Hi-Res pictures here]

If your a lurker within the scene, then chances are you are not aware of the problems that have been going on recently with the PS3 scene (mainly due to everything was being censored). Now I really did not want to post this, but there is a limit for everyone and I believe that limit has been reached and the public needs to be told.

Recently two PS3 scene sites most of you are familiar with, PSX-Scene and PSGroove where bought out by a media company that also owns QJ.net. The new administrations lack of knowledge on PS3 scene has quickly spiraled the scene development downward, leading to the departure of many well known PS3 devs to other websites.

It has been unveiled that PSX-Scene is now bribing their lost developers back (Microsoft anyone?), and even trying to buy back ex-staff which were forcibly removed and banned in helping other scene sites.

What is even more disturbing is what was uncovered in the new TOS (terms of service), under the new PSX-Scene.com administration brought to light by well known emulator developer Squarepusher2, and Halsafar.

To summarize, the new PSX-scene TOS states that by posting your work at PSX-scene.com you waive your rights to what you post. Meaning any theme/emulator/backup manager/homebrew/anything you post at their site, it is the property and ownership of PSX-scene.com and you give them the right to sell, redistribute, and do as they please with it.

To quote TOS:

“User Provided Content, License. You are solely responsible for all content or materials that you post, submit to, or transmit through the Service. By submitting materials or content to PSX-SCENE.COM, you grant PSX-SCENE.COM a license to copy, use, display and create derivative works of the material or content submitted for any purpose, including, without limitation, the promotion and marketing of the Service and the operation of the PSX-SCENE.COM system. By submitting materials or content, you automatically agree (or, to the extent you do not own all rights to such materials or content, you represent and warrant that the owner of the content or materials has expressly agreed) that without any particular time limit, and without the payment of any fees, PSX-SCENE.COM and anyone it permits may reproduce, display, distribute and create new works of authorship based on and including the content or materials. You may not submit content or materials trademarked or copyrighted by anyone other than yourself.”

You can read up more information detailing the TOS at Squarepusher2′s blog here. And if you thought that was bad, read this. You can also read more at Dashhacks here.

Its disappointing to treat respectable homebrew developers like dogs, giving them a bone to fetch – holding them by a leash.

Homebrew devs are welcome to post their work at PS3Hax, where we actually have a staff that is passionate and knowledgeable about the scene, and treat you with respect. We don’t have any of this crap in our TOS related to ownership, we are in it for the passion, and fun – not the money.

Ps3 Dev jaicrab has released dumps of the CobraUSB Dongle. However, these dumps are not confirmed to be working on any dongle, but it is a step forward to playing your PSX ISO as well as watching region free BLU-RAY on all PS3 models including SLIMS. And PS2 ISO compatibility on BC PS3(launch PS3s).

Here is a quote from the source:

This was translated by jean945

The original can be found at the source

Source

http://jaicrab.blogspot.com/2011/06/ps3-dump-cobra.html

http://psgroove.com/content.php?1160…sed-by-Jaicrab

Also thanks to manster for being the original source, by posting them here , and IRC.

[Update#3 at bottom] Remember a few weeks ago Mathieulh released a video of the QA flagged PS3? To refresh your memories; the QA flag is the internal console flag used by Sony, it enables hidden options and removes restrictions for both retail and debug consoles alike. It is used for QA centers and the R&D Department (there are 2 levels of QA flags, Minimum and Advanced). In short it could lead to a complete open PS3…and yes all the CFW, homebrew and backup manager your little heart desires.

Well the method of how to “QA flag” your PS3 was never posted/revealed but since then plenty of hints have been given in attempts for the “scene”, and one of the first steps was to figure out the secret button combo. Well after weeks of people trying and moaning, the man behind the emulators – squarepusher 2 has released/posted information on exactly what that button combo was. Noobs do not try this – the guide below is still a work in progress and QA flag button combo is the icing on the cake.

How to QA Flag your PS3, the button combo:

1. Be on 3.55 OFW (no rebug), download here.
2. Move the PS3 cursor/select “Network Setting“
3. Punch the following button combo with your PS3 controller: L2 + L1 + R1 + R2 + L3 + D-pad Down
4. Thats it, the “Edy Viewer”, “Debug Settings”, “Install Package” Menu will now appear.

Notes and disclaimers:

• Install Package is useless and can’t install homebrew at the moment – only signed PKGs (and the first one in root of USB only).

This is not all that is needed to QA flag your PS3, but its a big start for the community – we still need all the pieces to fully QA flag the PS3 and its the scenes job to “figure out the rest”.

Thanks to munky875821417 for news tip.

UPDATE 1:

And now within hours, more information is being leaked and it seems that now that developers have all the pieces of the missing puzzle to create an application to automate the QA Flagging process (courtesy to an anonymous tip from PSGroove for the following information):

Change byte 48 of the token seed to 0×02, hash it, encrypt it, write it to eeprom and flag yourself. Button combo is L1+L2+L3+R1+R2+dpad down. Only works on retail firmware.

By byte 48, I mean the 48th byte. Note that in programming the array of the token seed begins with index 0. So the 48th byte would be seed[47];

this info is more than enough to get someone to make an app.

Previously known information on QA:

erk: 0x34, 0x18, 0x12, 0x37, 0x62, 0x91, 0x37, 0x1C, 0x8B, 0xC7, 0x56,   0xFF, 0xFC, 0x61, 0x15, 0x25, 0x40, 0x3F, 0x95, 0xA8, 0xEF, 0x9D, 0x0C,   0x99, 0x64, 0x82, 0xEE, 0xC2, 0x16, 0xB5, 0x62, 0xED

iv: 0xE8, 0x66, 0x3A, 0x69, 0xCD, 0x1A, 0x5C, 0x45, 0x4A, 0x76, 0x1E, 0x72, 0x8C, 0x7C, 0x25, 0x4E

hmac: 0xCC, 0x30, 0xC4, 0x22, 0x91, 0x13, 0xDB, 0x25, 0x73, 0x35, 0x53,   0xAF, 0xD0, 0x6E, 0x87, 0x62, 0xB3, 0x72, 0x9D, 0x9E, 0xFA, 0xA6, 0xD5,   0xF3, 0x5A, 0x6F, 0x58, 0xBF, 0x38, 0xFF, 0x8B, 0x5F,0x58, 0xA2, 0x5B,   0xD9, 0xC9, 0xB5, 0x0B, 0x01, 0xD1, 0xAB, 0x40, 0x28, 0x67, 0x69,  0x68,  0xEA, 0xC7, 0xF8, 0x88, 0x33, 0xB6, 0x62, 0x93, 0x5D, 0x75, 0x06,  0xA6,  0xB5, 0xE0, 0xF9, 0xD9, 0x7A

And:

*runs away before the lawsuits come flooding in*

hmac to make the 20 byte digest at the end of the token and erk/iv to decrypt/encrypt it with aes256cbc.

2 more steps to go. Need the button combo and what to change in the dummy token.

Exciting times

Update 2 – The Tutorial (Linux):

Slynk has posted a tutorial on how to QA flag your PS3 via Linux. There are more than one ways to accomplish a QA flagged PS3, but this is just one of them.

To quote:

There are many methods to accomplish qa and I’m too lazy to document them all so I’ll tell you one way. Linux.

PS3
Step 1) Install OtherOS++, install linux, make sure to enable the ps3 modules when compiling the kernel.

Step 2) Download, and compile the ps3dm utils

PC
Step 3) Download my tokenator

PS3
Step 4) Dump your eid by running ./ps3dm_iim /dev/ps3dmproxy get_data 0×0>dump

Step 5) Set your flag by running ./ps3dm_um /dev/ps3dmproxy write_eprom 0x48C0A 0×00

PC
Step 6) Open your dump in a hex editor and type in the first 16 bytes into tokenator

PS3
Step 7) Run the script it spits out

PS3 Step Restart your ps3. Go to the Network Settings options and press L1 + L2 + L3 + R1 + R2 + D-Pad Down

Have fun. It doesn’t work on rebug yet. There are other flags to set for debug firmwares and rebug is pseudo debug.

Progress is still being made, so keep checking back for updates . We will have a nice easy to follow tutorial once all the details are ironed out.

Update 3, Game OS App WIP, Debug setting details, QA Flag setup with Grafs Payload:

Even more updates for you guys. A GameOS solution is being worked on to QA Flag your PS3. It could use improvements and you can grab the source code HERE, and the makefile here.

Further information related to the debug settings can be found at the PS3 dev wiki located HERE.

How to setup QA Flag with Grafs Payload:

First you have to dump your Flash -> Extract EID -> Extract EID0 and EID4 -> put them on eid.c

• To do this you can use Hardware_flashing, Linux with graf_chokolo kernel with acces to /dev/ps3nflasha Links_to_precompiled_stuff or using this payload uncommenting dump_dev_flash()

• More info in Flash

Once you are set

---

Use the payloads in the following order uncommenting the required function

• Set the QA flag
  • update_mgr_qa_flag()
• Calculate the token
  • update_mgr_calc_token()
• Verify token
  • update_mgr_verify_token()
• Set the calculated and verified token in update_mgr_set_token.c
  • update_mgr_set_token()

You should use wireshark or tcpdump to capture the responses

Thanks to manster for tip, more info as it comes in

Well know Spanish developer jaicrab has posted information on his blog about a new project he is working on, which seems to be a brand new CFW, this firmware will probably only be 3.55, so don’t get excited about a 3.60/3.65 release, some information on JFW:

In the works:

Including:
- Startup Plugins Manager.
- Multi tasking apps/Apps running while doing something else.(For Example: FTP while playing)
- Payload load before entering XMB. Free Cobra Payload…
. . .

Now whilst all that sounds awesome, this was not the most exciting information on the site, jaicrab posted keys, which i asume are the keys belonging to the Cobra Dongle:

Greetings to the Cobra TEAM.

0×500000 7C 08 02 A6 48 00 00 05 7C 68 02 A6 3C 80 00 00
0×500010 38 84 00 08 7C 64 18 51 41 82 00 58 38 C0 00 00
0×500020 64 C6 BA AD 60 C6 CA FE 3C 80 00 01 38 84 98 68
0×500030 3C A0 00 01 38 A5 AE D0 7C A4 28 51 41 82 00 34
0×500040 78 A5 E8 C3 7C A9 03 A6 7C 84 1A 14 E8 A4 00 00
0×500050 78 A7 00 22 7C 07 30 00 40 82 00 10 78 A5 00 20
0×500060 7C A5 1A 14 F8 A4 00 00 38 84 00 08 42 00 FF E0
0×500070 F8 01 00 10 F8 21 FF 81 F8 41 00 28 3C 80 00 01
0×500080 38 84 1D E0 7C 44 1A 14 48 00 0C 39 E8 41 00 28
0×500090 38 21 00 80 E8 01 00 10 7C 08 03 A6 38 60 00 00
Well, you could have at least changed the hash tables from PSGroove.
Keep selling all the SCENERS’ knowledge.

Source
Source Translated To English

Thanks to manster, as always an awesome source of news

Proper translation thanks to jean945

A while back Robo Hobo released the DosBox Emulator for the PS3, shortly after wards, psgroove.com member ps3cfw created a tutorial on how to install Windows 95 and windows 3.1 on DosBox, after that a few members of PS3HaX started tinkering and experimenting.

Today PS3Hax Homebrew Developer samson, has released a beta version of a WinDos3.1, it is fully automated and will run without implementing any commands, here is a quote from the PM he sent me:

i’ve managed to give windows 3.1 a face lift, make it installable (to its own folder MINI90000) and included some funky stuff.

3.55 only for the mo.

drivers updated sb-16 , svga , ibmjoy

boots in about 45 seconds with optional 95/98 start menu (just remove from startup progs) with a nice custom portal wallpaper and GlaDos system sounds, and to top all that off afterdark (shareware i think) screensavers

other installed stuff incudes mod4win final beta and wmp .mod support, i’ve also incuded a large chunk of my mod collection (check Ghost in the CLI), wintalk .txt reader, paint shop, ms arcade acidwarp.. in fact too much to list.. check it out..

Download

This is for all homebrew devs out there.

Source

PSl1GHT wiki

PS3 Homebrev Development Learning

Blazie151 from Team SOS has released an updated version of his PS3 Cheat enabling application, here is a quote from the change log:

• SFO creation and patching is all done within this application now, instead of calling out to another application to do it. It’s now creating a new param.sfo from scratch, using any pertinent values from the original param that it can. By doing it this way it’s fixing a ton of current compatibility issues (like with Star Ocean and Ninja Gaiden 2). It’s not using a generic value for certain things like resolution and sound format either, so it should clear up a lot of issues there and make it virtually future proof.
• New version of unself included. This version is capable of creating elfs from already modified bins made with make_self. This will cut down on “Error creating elf” errors greatly.
• Key folder fixes. Now, you have 4 folders to choose from to place your keys, and they will be copied to the folder they should remain at during the first run. Choices are [userprofile].ps3, [userprofile]ps3keys, [applicationfolder].ps3, and [applicationfolder]ps3keys. This information is shown when the application launches if none are found, and displays the exact folders for your individual computer.
• Eboot fixing is now supported within this application. This means that eboots made for firmwares newer than 3.41 or 3.55 can be patched during creation instead of having A LOT on manual work needed after creation. Eboot patched for 3.41 work perfect for 3.55. At this time there is still no support for eboot fixing of 3.60 games do to the keys not being released yet.
• Performance enhancements. I optimized thousands of lines of code, making the application run much faster.
• Status bug fix. Status was not displayed until the process was finished. Status is now shown in real time

• Various other small bug fixes.
• XP compatibility (Still not 100% tested, working perfectly on 2 testers’ PCs). There seemed to be a permissions error when using XP and trying to delete certain temp files. This issue was caused by the .NET framework. I solved this by ignoring errors when attempting to delete certain problem files. Make sure you manually clean out any leftover files from your output directory when using XP.

REMINDER: This application is for entertainment purposes only, it is NOT intended for online cheating, if you use this application for cheating online the consequences will be fatal, or in laymens words- BANNED. What happens to you online while using these cheats is not our fault, and we will not be held responsible for your actions. Keep in mind people – Cheating online is lame, and destroys the experience for other users.

Download

Source PSGroove

Download Needed Keys

TeamOS has updated their application. This usefull app allows you to enable cheats on games by editing the EBOOT file.The newest update bring various bug fixes, and the ability to create CHEAT PKGs allowing you to cheat on backed up and original PS3 games.

To quote:

[Download PS3 Cheat Enabler v1.3]

[VIA PSGroove]

Robo Hobo, the dev well known for creating/porting Emulators to the PS3, has released a version of DosBox, here is a quote from the Read Me:

DOSBox-0.74-ps3-r1

Issues:

There are still some performance bottlenecks. In testing cycle values above 10000 provided the most issues. Tweaking some values in dosbox-0.74.conf may help to improve performance.
There are still some usability issues with the on screen keyboard. If a lot of typing is necessary you may consider hooking up a physical one.
Using the fluidsynth midi synth requires a soundfont is sf2 format. Place the file on the PS3 and edit dosbox-0.74.conf to set the value ‘midiconfig’ to the full path to the file. It’s also necessary to change the ‘mididevice’ option to the value ‘synth’.
There is currently no PS3 optimized loader. The DOS commands needed to launch the game need to be type every time you start the app. You can reduce the typing by adding common lines to the dosbox config file’s autoexec section.

Using soft mouse and keyboard:

When loading the application PS3 game pad one begins in Mouse Mode. In mouse mode the left stick moves the cursor, Cross sends a left click, and Square sends a right click. Pressing L3 will turn on keyboard mode.

In keyboard mode, the left stick moves the cursor, pressing cross presses the highlighted key. When a key is highlighted and any button is pressed (other than Cross, Square, L3 and R3) that button will be mapped to the key, in mouse mode pressing the button will be the same as pressing the key on the keyboard. Press L3 to return to mouse mode. This is useful, for example, to map the DPad to the keyboards arrow keys.

In mouse mode, press R3 to enter joystick mode. In this mode the game pad acts as an SDL joystick.

For original source and to download, visit manster’s thread here

On top of that, we also have a tutorial, created by ps3cfw from PSGroove, that go’s along with DosBox and enables you to install, Windows 95 on your PS3

[How to] Install windows 95 on PS3 using Dosbox
Things you will need:

1. One PS3 running a CFW.
2. Openftpserver 2.1 (Could be lower)
3. DoSbox (installed)
4. The pack located here: Download

Tutorial:

The tutorial can be viewed here.