[elver]

Hi, although this is my first post on the forum, I have been a silent news watcher for quite a while , I had the one of the first minimus dongles back in the day and later upgraded to the 3.41HERMES mfw with his HERMES Backup manager.

For the last 2 weeks, I have been running multiMan and I have to say it is impressive, so that leads me to investigate other possible firmwares for my FAT console.

The main thing is, I don't want to loose my ability to run PS2 games, play blu-rays or loose any other feature that I am used to on my current firmware, but I do like the sound of getting my OtherOS back as well as getting newer games backed up without the need for eboot or sfo patching.

So far I have looked at the following options, only one of which (kmeaw) seems to be on your list of possible list of firmwares thread :

Kmeaw 3.55 - seems to be the standard firmware nowadays , based on PL3 code (which was buggy on my console when I had it on my minimus) but does not require a LV2 loader for multiMan so equivalent to my current FW

Wanikoko v2 3.55 - Again a very similar firmware cannot see any advantages over Kmeaw, not much info since everyone got scared after his first FW, obviously I didn't go near it since I had a 256mb NAND

PS3ITA CFW 3.55 - Based on Kmeaw with PSN patches from what I can gather, although I am not even the slightest bit bothered about PSN, some of the patches are to "Improve Stability", if this is more stable than Kmeaw then I would prefer it.

Rebug 3.41.3 OtherOS++ - A 3.41 based firmware so thats a negative but comes with the cineva removed which is better and can run OtherOS++ but really sounds like it does more than I need it to. May be some useful features that I haven't noticed but the QA Flagging thing seems pointless since I don't need/want to go on PSN with my hacked console, I consider it my property to modify my console but logging on to Sony's servers is just asking for trouble.

Rebug 3.55.2 OtherOS++ - same as above really although the above sounds quite negative, this is a high contender at the moment which I'm seriously considering. Something about trophy issues was mentioned? but cant dig much up on that other than how to stop it by removing a patch, what removing that patch disables I don't know but since trophy's=PSN i'm not that bothered.

3.55 BobbyBlunt - Don't know much about this firmware but if anyone would know something its you guys seems to have a balance between the Rebug and the Kmeaw features but I would like to know more about it. Again this is a high contender.

3.55 JFW (Cobra Base) - If this firmware is released with all the features of the dongle then it sounds brilliant, but I don't know how long that is going to be so it puts me off. (like waiting for the 3.60 MFW)

3.55 MFW Builder - If anyone has any in-depth tutorials on the MFW Builder that explain every patch task in detail then I would have a go at building my own firmware but I would want to know exactly what i'm doing so it may be easier to leave it to the professionals above.

As you can tell from the above, I have no interest in PSN, and am happy playing offline. I installed a 640GB HDD a week after getting my minimus and have backed up all my games, it is therefore going to be a great hassle to dump all of them again so I would rather not format my HDD is that is possible. I want to be able to just launch multiMan from the XMB without any patching.pkg to launch first and I would like to be able to play my PS2 games and BluRays without any messing around. The 3.55 game support list is higher and requires less game patching so I would like to embrace that.

Advice on which firmware to choose would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Elver

[Pockets69]

you prety much got everything starigt and now what you are doing, so i don't see what is your problem. just a few stuff to help you decide.

kmeaw is outdated.
waninkoko v2 is also outdated.
ps3ita is also outdated and was useful when people wanted to go on line, you can't go online now ( and you don't even care about it).
rebug 3.41.3 is not worth anymore.
rebug 3.55.2 pretty much the best firmware out there, it does everything.
3.55 bobbyblunt - preety good firmware and updated, balances well what you use and what you need to use, you will use pretty much everything on it.
3.55JFW its is not its going to 3.41 based, is not even out so don't even pay attention to it...

as for the mfw builder you can pretty much create the firmware with whatever you want, as for the usage just keep trying the description is pretty much self explanatory, and don't worry mfw builder doesn't create firmwares that bricks your machines, its brick proof

with every single firmware you will be able to play ps2 and ps1 games (originals)

[elver]

^ thats all I needed to hear, BobbyBlunt MFW will cover my needs without loosing the features so I'll have a play around with that, if the mfw builder is brick proof I may also have a go at that later on.

That's the exact type of answer I was looking for, Cheers!

EDIT:
Sorry to be a nag but will installing a firmware with OtherOS++ support format my HDD?

[Persian McLovin]

Pockets69 summed everything up nicely for the free stuff. If you want to go premium, go buy a Cobra USB and get Cobra CFW, those guys deserve a reward for what they've brought to the scene.

[BobbyBlunt]

Originally Posted by elver ^ thats all I needed to hear, BobbyBlunt MFW will cover my needs without loosing the features so I'll have a play around with that, if the mfw builder is brick proof I may also have a go at that later on. That's the exact type of answer I was looking for, Cheers! EDIT: Sorry to be a nag but will installing a firmware with OtherOS++ support format my HDD?

What type of PS3 do you have? And Linux is supported about all systems now just be careful if you have a Nand unit. Nor units seem a lot more safe with otherOS++ My pup allows that and is stickied in this section. I plan on releasing a version 2 with cinavia disabled after I do some testing

[elver]

Originally Posted by BobbyBlunt What type of PS3 do you have? And Linux is supported about all systems now just be careful if you have a Nand unit. Nor units seem a lot more safe with otherOS++ My pup allows that and is stickied in this section. I plan on releasing a version 2 with cinavia disabled after I do some testing

I have a 60GB PAL (CECHC Software Emulation) which i believe is a NAND unit, with 256mb NAND. I already had Rebug downloaded to my PC from earlier so I've done the following:

3.41Hermes -> 3.55 OFW -> 3.55.2 Rebug

the strange thing is half my games are no longer working disc-less! I was expecting improved compatibility, maybe its the rebug firmware, will try your firmware next.

anyone know what would be causing this?

Resident Evil: 5 - Works fine (but was always an easy game to mount since it would even boot directly without returning to XMB)
Crysis 2 - black screen, returns to XMB
NFS: Hot Pursuit - black screen, returns to XMB

I haven't got a clue whats going on, all the above games worked fine without a disk in the drive before now? :s

[Pockets69]

its normal the games still work but some stop working discless... i still don't see what the problem is.

No installing the firmware with otheros enbale wont format anything, isntalling the tools to "prepare" otherOS after it will however format it.