• Official PS3 Toolset is now supporting 4.92 Firmware

    View Official Release Post for additional information HERE

PS3 PS3 Toolset v1.1 Update

just by chance I found this repository, and I saw some PSL1GHT examples to dump and write the flash: https://github.com/sguerrini97/psl1ghtv2_ports

From what I understand, I think it could be possible to create a homebrew PSL1GHT app that dumps the flash, and then patch it and write it back so CFW can be installed afterwards. I know, the only way to run that homebrew would be installing HEN first, but still, it could be a way to have a kind of "offline installer".
(for sure, a lot of checks and validations would have to be added first to avoid a tsunami of bricks and dead consoles)

As I don't have a hardware flasher I won't be testing my theory, but if someone with a hardware flasher and time wants to test, I can try to build binaries for those 2 sample apps.

Of course & this is nothing new, the possibility has been discussed ever since HEN was released ;-)
Nobody has ever bothered with it. The needs are low & the few remaining ps3 devs already have their own stuff to work on.

At this stage, the procedure to write to NOR/NAND, the offsets & the patching contents, all of that is well known & wiki documented, it is also extremely easy to code, it's the same thing as copying a 7Mb file by chunks of 1Mb at a time but using different syscalls, not so easy to test without hardware flasher though as you could potentially corrupt the ROS regions (with the risk of corrupting other regions of your nor/nand offsets are wrong) temporarily without adverse effects as long as you don't reboot but you cannot afford to crash or it's a brick and on the PS3, you learn quickly that crashes happen often during testing/debugging & usually with devastating effects ie vsh crash, kernel crash etc..
In fact, I would go even further and this is no boast whatsoever, it is true for any C dev, if we are talking about a self without GUI, the whole thing with md5 validation could be written in under 1h, for a decent GUI it is more work, it goes without saying.

One may ask why I wrote the FMM tool if it was so easy to make a self for HEN in the first place. Well, I did it because I could, because it was a fun thing to do but mostly because it helped me acquire additional ROP programming & actionscript/javascript engine exploitation skills.
I said this before about the PS3 Toolset, it's a personal project, a personal journey of sorts, it is not meant to cater to the specific needs of the community. Currently, it happens that some of those needs are aligned with what some of the PS3 Toolset tools can offer, so part of the project is publicly accessible (for the time being anyway) but if someone wants to write a flasher self to use with HEN, great, the more development the better as far as I am concerned.
 
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Of course & this is nothing new, the possibility has been discussed ever since HEN was released ;-)
Nobody has ever bothered with it. The needs are low & the few remaining ps3 devs already have their own stuff to work on.

Oh I see, I guess that I arrived quite late to the party and missed all those discussions. :) I agree that there's no high need for such tool, and actually it would involve even more steps than just using the toolset

I just got into the cfw stuff a few days ago, and I started digging a bit of information trying to understand what I actually did to get a CFW installed :D

At this stage, the procedure to write to NOR/NAND, the offsets & the patching contents, all of that is well known & wiki documented, it is also extremely easy to code, it's the same thing as copying a 7Mb file by chunks of 1Mb at a time but using different syscalls, not so easy to test without hardware flasher though as you could potentially corrupt the ROS regions (with the risk of corrupting other regions of your nor/nand offsets are wrong) temporarily without adverse effects as long as you don't reboot but you cannot afford to crash or it's a brick and on the PS3, you learn quickly that crashes happen often during testing/debugging & usually with devastating effects ie vsh crash, kernel crash etc..

yes, I think that the development itself wouldn't be the difficult part, but actually the hard part is to properly test and check the correct behavior of the app in all the possible scenarios and situations. (and for sure takes a good amount of time)
Any mistake in the app means a corrupted flash as result and a broken PS3 :(

One may ask why I wrote the FMM tool if it was so easy to make a self for HEN in the first place. Well, I did it because I could, because it was a fun thing to do but mostly because it helped me acquire additional ROP programming & actionscript/javascript engine exploitation skills.

I think that learning by doing is actually the best way to learn, indeed. And some times we start doing something just to see if we can turn that idea into reality. If the results are positive, great! but if not, the experience still brings a lot of lessons learned. :)
 
I just want to check I read this correctly about the update. Does this update allow for me to patch OFW 4.87, and then install CFW? I'm looking to add a slim to my arsenal so I just want to make sure I have a pathway from 4.87 OFW to CFW, before I buy one. I'm not really interested in HFW, I just want to go directly to CFW.
 
I just want to check I read this correctly about the update. Does this update allow for me to patch OFW 4.87, and then install CFW? I'm looking to add a slim to my arsenal so I just want to make sure I have a pathway from 4.87 OFW to CFW, before I buy one. I'm not really interested in HFW, I just want to go directly to CFW.
Yes you can go directly from 4.87 OFW to 4.87 CFW if the console is CFW compatible (minver 3.56 or lower).

With the older exploits you needed to install HFW before patching the system for CFW, now that is no longer required.
 
Yes you can go directly from 4.87 OFW to 4.87 CFW if the console is CFW compatible (minver 3.56 or lower).

With the older exploits you needed to install HFW before patching the system for CFW, now that is no longer required.

Gotcha. I appreciate the reply. So I take it I need to look for a slim that is CECH-2500 or below from what i'm looking at on the Ps3 dev wiki? and even then i'm kinda rolling the dice since the last two slim models we're released with 3.60. Does that sound correct?
 
Gotcha. I appreciate the reply. So I take it I need to look for a slim that is CECH-2500 or below from what i'm looking at on the Ps3 dev wiki? and even then i'm kinda rolling the dice since the last two slim models we're released with 3.60. Does that sound correct?
Yes, that's it basically, you need to check the date code or run the minver check pup. CECH2500 slims up to late 2010 are good to go (datecode 0D). And early 2011 CECH2500 slims are hit and miss (datecode 1A).
 
create a new user on your ps3 and try from that user.
Unfortunately I have the same issue and I just tried that creating another user. I'm using an original FAT PS3. After doing all the settings to the browser I get to "Initializing PS3 Toolset v1.1 build 001 Please Wait" My console just freezes up and doesn't unfreeze, only way to stop it is to manually turn off the system. I don't know what else it could be. I'm on the firmware 4.87
 
Unfortunately I have the same issue and I just tried that creating another user. I'm using an original FAT PS3. After doing all the settings to the browser I get to "Initializing PS3 Toolset v1.1 build 001 Please Wait" My console just freezes up and doesn't unfreeze, only way to stop it is to manually turn off the system. I don't know what else it could be. I'm on the firmware 4.87

Disconnect ALL usb devices is the main fix. This includes USB controllers unfortunately and if yours is wired, no way around.

Remove disc. Clear all browsing data, history, etc. Everything.
 
Disconnect ALL usb devices is the main fix. This includes USB controllers unfortunately and if yours is wired, no way around.

Remove disc. Clear all browsing data, history, etc. Everything.

The issue still happens unfortunately. I had a usb cable in the ps3 earlier when charging the controller but it wasn't plugged in when trying the site. I unhooked and rehooked everything back into the ps3, it's just the hdmi and power cable now. The controller is wireless and that screen is just frozen like Coro said. Very unfortunate D: I appreciate the attempt at helping regardless! I had my ps3 on for a good hour seeing if it would unfreeze earlier and nothing, just have to manually shut it down still. (Also no discs were in the console)

is this from experience or did you read it somewhere? AFAIK some fats have a freeze while the toolset loads but @bguerville has been unable to find the problem or solution so far.

That's really unfortune that it happens with some consoles, hopefully @bguerville can figure it out soon.
 
is this from experience or did you read it somewhere? AFAIK some fats have a freeze while the toolset loads but @bguerville has been unable to find the problem or solution so far.

I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to port the code to a "homebrew application" that runs using PS3HEN instead of the PS3 browser.
If so it could be developed and debugged using the regular tools (PS3L1ght or PS3 SDK).
 
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