PS2 [Testers Needed] OPL internal exfat 2TB+ HDD and multi-BDM devices

Managed to do a quick test last night:
- Original Network Adapter + SD2IDE adapter + Kingston 128GB SD card worked OK
- Original Network Adapter + sATA MOD + 2TB Western Digital 5400 HDD worked OK
 
I tried leaving a 16gb USB stick inserted like someone before me had mentioned, but I did not notice anything different. The USB drive has worked before, it's what I used to load OPL to mc1 initially.

I removed every game from the drive aside from Ace Combat 4, just to make sure it wasn't something related to the games. So on the drive I only have an ART folder and a DVD folder with one game.
 
As a sanity check I formatted the drive using Winhiip and put a single game on it.

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I was previously running both the old OPL and new OPL on the same MC1 using two different slots on the menu. I have since erased any trace of the old OPL from MC1, just to make sure it wasn't interfering at all. I have also erased all the config files for OPL from mc1.

So right now I'm running the new OPL with games loaded via Winhiip and it is working. I am totally unable to get OPL to detect games on an exFat drive in the PS2. I have the official network adapter with the SATA kit from ebay.

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I tried using the debug version, but I didn't see any logs anywhere on mc1, hdd, or mass. I'm not sure how to access any of the debug features other than a small amount of text on the main menu about VRAM usage.

Also a slight correction, this is a Samsung 870 EVO 500GB SSD. I previously thought it was an 850, but I don't think this matters.
 
Did some testing with 1.2.0.1 beta.
Hardware:
-SCPH-50001
-Sony Network Adapter with bitfunx SATA kit
-Seagate Barracude 2TB drive

Created exFAT partition inside a GPT table. Copied one PS2 game to DVD folder on drive. Was able to boot game successfully.
Powered off PS2, removed drive, and reattached to PC. parted and gdisk both reported that the primary copy of the GPT table had been corrupted, but the second backup table on the drive was still present and uncorrupted. (A very nice feature of GPT!)
Replaced primary GPT table with backup. Mounted exFAT partition in PC, saw that all of the OPL folders were still present, along with game in DVD folder.
Put drive back in PS2, was able to load the game successfully again.
Reattached drive to computer, and the primary GPT table is once again corrupted. Restored table from backup, remounted exFAT partition, data was still present.

I then decided to wipe the drive, and create a new exFAT partition inside a new MBR partition table. Copied over game, loaded game successfully in PS2. Attached drive to computer, and MBR partition table is uncorrupted and still correct. Mounted exFAT partition to find all data present. Hooked drive back up to PS2, loaded game successfully again, reattached drive to PC, mounted exFAT partition successfully again.

tl;dr: It seems to me that the OPL beta 1.2.0.1 posted here works perfectly, but only with a drive formatted with MBR, and not GPT. OPL appears to be rewriting the GPT partition table on the disk with some sort of malfunction, corrupting it.

Please let me know if I can perform any further testing for you.
 
I spent the last five hours working on this with Kero on discord and ended up finding the issue.

It was user error. I read the first post, but my brain didn't connect the dots for whatever reason. The exFat drive mounts as a BDM device not a HDD.

I will say I tested 2 separate SSDs and a reclaimed PS3 HDD. I verified they all worked after configuring it to BDM. I did not need a USB thumbdrive plugged in at all.

I highly recommend enabling sound effects in OPL whenever anyone is testing stuff. It's an easy way to tell if OPL has stopped responding or if it's waiting for input from the user.

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I will note that is it SIGNIFICANTLY slower than Winhiip. It took about 20-25 minutes to load the above list of games +2-3 more that are off screen. Booting into Baroque took about 3-5 minutes from pressing "X" to getting into the game. I'm still working on putting the rest of my library on the drive. I'm back to using the Samsung 870 EVO 500GB SSD.
 
First of all, thank you for your work on this!

I've tested an MX4SIO/USB combo on my slim PS2 and the games and apps show up properly! I'm using the latest version as of the time of writing this: 1.2.0.1 Beta.
I'm getting the 221 HDD error like others on this thread, even though I have disabled the internal HDD in my OPL settings. I saw that you already fixed that, however. Is the fix coming on the next version or is there an issue in its current implementation?

The main issue I have is that my 128GB SD is causing in-game issues. That problem is fixed by using the CCV2 OPL build from this thread: https://www.psx-place.com/threads/mx4sio-wip-sd-compatibility-thread.39479
You can check the details about my issue (and logs) here: https://www.psx-place.com/threads/mx4sio-wip-sd-compatibility-thread.39479/page-5#post-360552

I suppose the new BDM drivers from that thread should be ported on to the Mutli-BDM version for this fix to be applied? Will a joint version of these fixes be provided?

Again, thank you for all your efforts!
 
An addendum to my last post: I formatted the SSD one more time and then put the entire set of games on there (156). I turned it on and after about an hour the list of games hadn't loaded yet, so I went to bed. I came back this morning and the list had loaded over night. I assume it took a couple of hours. I was able to boot into Ar Tonelico and get in game.

I restarted the PS2 and was given the game list instantly. I assume it initially took a long time due to some type of caching.

Games still take a significant amount of time to load on the "Loading Config" screen, even though I have no configuration files.

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I have tested about 30 games with an exFAT HDD and everything works fine for me. I have played a fair amount of AtelierIris3 and game and cutscene looks just fine. No stutter, no glitches.

One minor thing is the "Cover Art". It feels like it is slower to load/show up than before I converted the drive to exFAT. It is not a big deal but it feels slower.
I.e. same drive as before, just feels like the CoverArt takes longer to display after the conversion to exFAT.

This is a fantastic new feature.
 
Hardware:
-SCPH 50001
-Kaico Sata Adapter
-Pny 1TB SSD

Not sure if this is an existing issue, but after updating I can't access the HDD by default, I have to enable the BDM mode, then press the left button. I've tried deleting the configuration and reinitializing it but still run into the issue. When OPL starts it notifies that it mounted the +OPL partition successfully. The default page (which is blank) also says HDD games.
Default menu in the Settings menu is set to BDM by default, if I switch it to HDD Games, and save, it still reverts to BDM games every time I reenter the menu.
 
I struggled with this for hours on Saturday. As stated in the first post, the exFat volume is mounting as a BDM device. The system doesn't see it as a HDD. The games will still load under the HDD header in the OPL list.
 
Okay catching up on replies. First off huge thank you to everyone who has tested and provided feedback, this is extremely helpful. There are a couple issues I have identified and am working on fixing:
  • [Fixed] OPL displaying error 221 no hard drive connected when no HDD is plugged in.
  • [WIP] OPL not finding config files or not saving them in the correct location. This is an issue with the newly added multi-bdm device support.
  • [WIP] @KingGiddra OPL corrupting GPT formatted hard drives. This appears to be a problem with drives formatted outside of Windows. Due to the drive missing some protective MBR data the APA driver ends up writing a bunch of data to the drive which corrupts the GPT partition table. This may also have caused the slowness you were experiencing.
  • [TBD] Games with online support give "no network adapter" errors. I fairly certain I know what the issue(s) are here but I haven't had time to investigate just yet.
I'm still working on fixing these issues and will put up a new build once I get the two items labeled WIP fixed. The error 221 fix has not been uploaded yet.

Some pain points I'm going to address soon as well:
  • Needing to have HDD support enabled in addition to BDM devices. I want to add an option to the BDM devices menu for HDD and not require HDD support also be enabled at the same time.
  • There's a "phantom" HDD Games menu that shows with nothing in it. This will end up going away as part of the other bug fixes so there will only be one HDD Games menu.
 
Hi,
New here. OPL.elf only launches to a black screen.

I formatted my SSD to exfat, made sure it's on 512 sector size, not 4K, dropped the ISO in the DVD folder.
I drop the OPL.elf file on the root of a Fat32 USB key.

I launch uLaunchELF, go to MASS, and click O on the OPL.elf file. The screen goes black and seems to try to show something for a few seconds, and then nothing.

It's a 250Go SSD, so not that big. The PS2 is a SCPH-30001 (but the version with the 10 screws) serial U0673567.
When I launch the original OPL from the FreeMCboot menu, it works but of course can't see any game.

What is it that I did wrong?
Thanks
 
for what it is worth, i'm using a usb docking station, SABRENT USB 3.0 to SATA External Hard Drive Docking Station, i formatted a 1tb laptop drive i had just for testing and imported a single iso, and my ps2 was able to see and play the iso from the drive. so i guess not all sabrent docks force 4m cluster sizes. but like the above poster said, it took (in my eyes anyway) a painfully long time to load the config file once the iso is selected (painfully meaning, anything over 2 seconds seems too long to me based on playing iso from hardrives on many other hacked systems i have)
 
Hello. I wanted to report some games that don't work properly
I'm using the official network HDD adapter with an old IDE HDD 60GB formatted to ExFAT with a fat PS2 model. I checked the games on both current releases from the first post. The games do work fine when using an ExFAT formatted USB stick and using the same OPL so I don't think it is a problem with the ISO files
The following games freeze at certain points when launching from HDD
Simple 2000 Series Vol. 91 - The All Star Kakutousai (Japan)
The game freezes after the OP movie ends or if I stop it to get to the game proper
Gradius V
Game freezes at the very start, the screen is black but there is a Now Loading message at the bottom right. The text is corrupted and freezes there
KOF2 - Maximum Impact II (Japan)
Game just gives various blinking black screens and freeze, usually it starts with a message about the memory card

None of them worked by changing the game modes when launching them from HDD. There was no need to change game modes when using the USB stick. Other games work fine so far
 
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