PS2 TEST and Homebrew ISOs

[PiXEL8]

Heya,

I recently repaired the laser assembly in a DTL-H50001 I had in storage. Now that it's working again I added a HDD/BB adapter and have everything working fine except being able to boot any loader from disc. In particular HDloader, uLaunchelf, OPL, ect.

I've been using MasterDiscPatcher v3/v4 on every ISO downloaded and/or created by me before burning. The only homebrew app I've been able to get booting is PS2Link server which was already an ISO that I MD patched. This does allow me to run HDLoader, uLE, OPL, ect, but booting directly would be much better.

So far I've tried PS2CDGen and IMGBurn to create ISOs. With IMGBurn I've tried both Mode1/2, ISO9660, Level 1/2 (11/31 char) and created nothing but PS2 coasters.

Downloaded ISOs for games (CD and DVD) play fine after MD patching so I know the disc drive is working.

Can someone please let me know how to create reliable ISOs for TEST units?

Thank you very much!


-PiXEL8

[GENERiC]

PS2CD must be in Mode2/2352. Did you add a SYSTEM.CNF file to compilation? Without it it's impossible to read the disc.

[unclejun]

Did MasterDiscPatcher output an error with your attempts?

[PiXEL8]

PS2CD must be in Mode2/2352. Did you add a SYSTEM.CNF file to compilation? Without it it's impossible to read the disc.

Yes I always made sure there was a SYSTEM.CNF and also made sure the BOOT.ELF or whatever filename mached what I wanted to load from the iso.

[PiXEL8]

Did MasterDiscPatcher output an error with your attempts?

With some of the downloaded ISO it would have the 'common' error. With the newly compiled v4 it works on some ISOs where v3 wouldn't. But they still won't boot.

Also as a side note, on discs that seemed to load it would just stay on a black/blank screen or return to the PS2 menu, and on discs that you can tell are not loading at all the disc would seem to spin slower with a blank/black screen and after a few minutes would have the PSX boot sound then nothing.

[l_oliveira]

If it shows the "PlayStation 2" logo and drops back to the OSD, it's the laser that isn't correctly calibrated. Might be enough for reading originals but for reading writable media is not good enough.

Also, avoid using CDs because they're difficult to master properly.

[PiXEL8]

If it shows the "PlayStation 2" logo and drops back to the OSD, it's the laser that isn't correctly calibrated. Might be enough for reading originals but for reading writable media is not good enough.

Also, avoid using CDs because they're difficult to master properly.

It reads downloaded games on CD-R and DVD-R fine, so I think the laser and drive are working correctly.

I'd like to learn how to master CD/DVD ISOs correctly that can work 100% of the time. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[l_oliveira]

Use the SONY tool CDVDGEN. That's fail proof.

You have to merge the files if it's a DVD image and run this script to convert the CD image to 2048 sectors format.
Script: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums...ion2-CD-images

Then use CDMAGE to convert it to bin/cue format. Perfectly working CD master disk image.

DVD is easier as almost any mastering tool would work as long you inject the master disk data afterwards.

[unclejun]

Funny I never had any problem with the homebrew cdgenPS2...

For MasterDiscPatcher however, be sure to have a valid SYSTEM.CNF and the .elf you want to run must be renamed to follow the Sony naming standard e.g. SLUS_123.45

Here is a working ULaunchElf patched master disc :
http://lorezan.free.fr/ps2/ule442ps2dump_US.rar