PS3 XMB Package Downloader - An XMB MOD that intergrates a Homebrew Store on the XMB v0.70

[DeViL303]

Thanks aldo for confirmation it is working, at least I know its not just me now.

Yes place holders can be removed no problem, I was hoping to have some packages to fill them but suggestions are very scarce so I will just remove the category/placeholders for now. (Actually, Ive done it just now, just hit update)

I realise the amount of themes is a bit much, when I added them I was hoping to add preview icons for them too. Not sure what I'll do with them tbh, I cant really be arsed sorting them all into categories now, might remove them..

 

[Drag]

It worked I got download, but as I told this webman's with various bugs and I'll explain better in the webman mod 1.43.35

 

[Drag]

posted in wrong place, sorry

 

[bguerville]

@DeViL303
Are you sure about replacing Rebug Package Manager instead of using XMBM+?

Also the Update Package Manager++ should probably have a version number or something similar so that a user can make sure that an update was successful. Otherwise one would have to look for changes...

Having tons of themes is cool, many people will probably like that but creating subfolders is probably required...

It may be good to remind users about a potential latency period between the end of a download & start of the installation.
Just be patient. [emoji6]
It's due to the polling behind the scenes which we will hopefully get rid of soon..

 

[STLcardsWS]

It worked I got download, but as I told this webman's with various bugs and I'll explain better in the webman mod 1.43.35

Re-download, as there is various commits to the same version. So you may have bigs in v1.43.35 but a later commit for v1.43.35 may of fixed it. Even though its same version, your bug may of been fixed already. Also good to do when running into any issues.

 

[DeViL303]

@DeViL303
Are you sure about replacing Rebug Package Manager instead of using XMBM+?

No, not sure at all, but I asked for suggestions and got none so just went with whatever. Im not going to release a new version of XMBM+ so that why I didn't and wont use that for lots of reasons, ill leave that to bitsbubba for one, and I didn't want to create this as an add on to XMBM+ as then it required XMBM+ to be installed first and thats just messy really (install that and then this etc), Also the XMBM+ package only works with Rebug etc etc. This is just a stand alone XMB item that can be installed on any CFW, it doesn't need to be part of package manager though, could easily be out on its own. I just though that as it was for packages mainly it made sense to combine it with Package Manager.

Also the Update Package Manager++ should probably have a version number or something similar so that a user can make sure that an update was successful. Otherwise one would have to look for changes...

Maybe in a future version I will have separate app versions and list versions. For now people can be sure they are on the latest version if they have selected update after installing, I havnt had that fail for me once so far, only had fails with pkgs.

Having tons of themes is cool, many people will probably like that but creating subfolders is probably required.....

Yeah it would be nice but sorting them and re writing the xmls is not for me. I think they will have to stay as they are or I'll can remove them. If someone has a large collection of sorted themes and wants to write a script for creating the new xml sections then that would be cool too but I don't have personal time for that.

It may be good to remind users about a potential latency period between the end of a download & start of the installation.
Just be patient. [emoji6]
It's due to the polling behind the scenes which we will hopefully get rid of soon..

Yeah I did say after a slight delay but maybe this is the problem people are having, not sure. To be honest it is working quite good here and I expected it would for others too.

EDIT: When/if there is a new version of XMBM+ it will be very easy for this to be added to it if its wanted.

 

[bguerville]

Everything is working good for me too! [emoji6]

I dunno what's happening with XMBM+ either & I totally get where you are coming from.
However I, for one, would like to keep Rebug Package Manager & xmbm+ is the obvious candidate for this.

@bitsbubba

Bitsiboo, what is the situation with you & xmbm+?
Are you still into updating it at some point or not really?
Don't get me wrong, no pressure either way & free time is limited for everyone but it would be good to know... [emoji5]️

 

[DeViL303]

One plus point for replacing package manager is that it makes this "one installer suits all", if this doesn't replace package manager then I will need to make different installers for different FW due to the different category game xmls, or what I would probably do is ONLY support Rebug.

 

[bguerville]

One plus point for replacing package manager is that it makes this "one installer suits all", if this doesn't replace package manager then I will need to make different installers for different FW due to the different category game xmls, or what I would probably do is ONLY support Rebug.

I completely understand your point of view & your choices here... [emoji6]

IMO, ideally, your work would be integrated into xmbm+ & the rest of xmbm+ would be updated, at the very least obsolete entries need to be removed.
A github repo for xmbm+ would be created for contributors like yourself & a github release page made available to end users.
Also, the xmbm+ installer would backup & edit the xml files rather than replace them using a collection of files...

Easier said than done as usual of course... [emoji5]️
I don't think coding such an algorithm for the installer would be very difficult but it would require a fair amount of testing on various CFW because what looks good in theory doesn't always come out as expected in practice... And we know that these xml files can easily be source of problems...

 

[DeViL303]

Yeah.

Whatever happens I want to stay out of the network category anyway as all that xml renaming just makes it too annoying to work with and for people to install. It would be much better if CFW settings was enabled/disabled by renaming the cfwsettings xml (swapping it with a dummy xml) not renaming the network category xmls but anyway.. the solution for me is to use the game xmls for now.

 

[bguerville]

Yeah.

Whatever happens I want to stay out of the network category anyway as all that xml renaming just makes it too annoying to work with and for people to install. It would be much better if CFW settings was enabled/disabled by renaming the cfwsettings xml not the category xmls but anyway.. the solution for me is to use the game xmls for now.

Sure... [emoji6]

 

[pinky]

Everything is working good for me too! [emoji6]

I dunno what's happening with XMBM+ either & I totally get where you are coming from.
However I, for one, would like to keep Rebug Package Manager & xmbm+ is the obvious candidate for this.

@bitsbubba

Bitsiboo, what is the situation with you & xmbm+?
Are you still into updating it at some point or not really?
Don't get me wrong, no pressure either way & free time is limited for everyone but it would be good to know... [emoji5]️

bitsiboo = lmao! I had forgotten about that. I don't know much about xmbm+ though.

 

[DeViL303]

Couple of things I should mention about the initial test release:

1. When selecting "Update Package Manager" and downloading the update xml, don't select background download, if you do select background download the update will not work and you will end up with a useless bubble in downloaded packages, you can just delete it from there.

2. In the first test release if you delete the PKGMANPLS folder from your hdd or format your hdd then you will lose the ability to install packages, (easy fix via FTP) . I have fixed that now in the second test release, see the post below.

3. Like bguerville said, after downloading the package, there can be a pause of anywhere up to 5 seconds before the package installs, this is normal behaviour at this point and is due to the way webMAN MOD scans for packages.

 

[DeViL303]

So based on some of the feedback and problems I have seen arise I have come up with this idea for now:

This new installer will just add one line of code to the category_game.xml in the package manager section, and add one xml and some icons to the game/XMBPKGDLR folder.

<Query class="type:x-xmb/folder-pixmap" key="seg_xmbpd_main" src="xmb://localhost/dev_hdd0/game/XMBPKGDLR/XMBPD.xml#seg_xmbpd_main"/>

what this does is add a query that checks if the XMBPD.xml is present in the dev_hdd0/game/XMBPKGDLR/ folder, if it is present then XMBPD will be shown inside Rebugs Package Manager (Other than that Rebugs Package Manager is completely unchanged). It wont get changed to Package Manager ++ anymore and the icon wont be changed. It will just gain a new feature if the XMBPD xml is present.

So this has a few advantages IMO: Number one it means I will only have to edit 1 xml on flash, and even that will just be a very small 1 line edit so its good from a safety point of view. Also It means there is no longer any problem with formatting HDD or deleting the XMBPKGDLR folder. And it keeps the original Package Manager sections multi language (XMBPD section will still be English only).

What do you think of this @bguerville, @aldostools? This is just for now and Im open to suggestions, and Im still up for building this into XMBM+ (either instead or aswell) at a later time.

Download XMBPD_v0.40_TEST_01.pkg HERE (Rebug 4.80.1 Only)

(If you install this and then run it and select XMBPD and say yes to everything, then you can delete the folder PKGMANPLS inside dev_hdd0/game, this will get rid of the old test install)

Then update it from the XMB to get the the latest pkg lists. (reboot required after update)

What would be cool is if this 1 line query could be added to Rebug at release, similar to the way the XMBM+ query is already built in. Then there would not be a need to write to flash at all.

There could even be a few extra generic queries added to each category in ALL CFW, then it would make it easy for XMB mods like this to be added by others with universal compatibility.

For example if this was added to the root of the game/network category on all CFW, then I could claim one of the slots for this mod and others could do the same:

<Query class="type:x-xmb/folder-pixmap" key="seg_xmb_mod1" src="xmb://localhost/dev_hdd0/game/XMBMODS/mod1.xml#seg_main"/>
<Query class="type:x-xmb/folder-pixmap" key="seg_xmb_mod2" src="xmb://localhost/dev_hdd0/game/XMBMODS/mod2.xml#seg_main"/>
<Query class="type:x-xmb/folder-pixmap" key="seg_xmb_mod3" src="xmb://localhost/dev_hdd0/game/XMBMODS/mod3.xml#seg_main"/>

P.S. I think I will probably get around to sorting the themes into categories at some stage, but it will be a while.

 

[aldostools]

What do you think of this bguerville, aldostools? This is just for now and Im open to suggestions, and Im still up for building this into XMBM+ (either instead or aswell) at a later time.

I prefer the pkg downloader in this way... it's less invasive than Package Manager++

@Joonie is who needs to consider this suggestion:

What would be cool is if this 1 line query could be added to Rebug at release, similar to the way the XMBM+ query is already built in. Then there would not be a need to write to flash at all.

<Query class="type:x-xmb/folder-pixmap" key="seg_xmbpd_main" src="xmb://localhost/dev_hdd0/game/XMBPKGDLR/XMBPD.xml#seg_xmbpd_main"/>

Regarding to the extra generic queries, I think the idea is good, although I would prefer that any extra feature be included inside XMBM+ menu to avoid clutter in game category.

 

[bguerville]

Nice thinking @DeViL303 [emoji6]
I think the generic queries is a great idea overall & it offers a nice alternative..
And I share Aldo's opinion...100%...

 

[DeViL303]

New XMBPD Update available from the XMB if you have the TEST package installed, this update adds the No-PSN category back, with some No-PSN packages like youtube MLB,NBA and Redbull TV, and the latest webMAN 1.43.36 (25th sep) .

Thanks @0_obeWAN for the No-PSN packages and confirming they work.

Edit: Updated lists 26th with newer WebMAN Mod 1.43.36 pkg.
Edit: Updated lists 27th with newer WebMAN Mod 1.43.36 pkg

 

[gmipf]

Compatibility with the "db" file would be awesome

 

[DeViL303]

Compatibility with the "db" file would be awesome

Not sure how you mean but Im really trying to get away from using the db (if by db you mean xil2 xmls). Too many limitations and there is only 1 advantage really and that is background images, not worth it in my opinion

 

[DeViL303]

I completely understand your point of view & your choices here... [emoji6]

IMO, ideally, your work would be integrated into xmbm+ & the rest of xmbm+ would be updated, at the very least obsolete entries need to be removed.
A github repo for xmbm+ would be created for contributors like yourself & a github release page made available to end users.
Also, the xmbm+ installer would backup & edit the xml files rather than replace them using a collection of files...

Easier said than done as usual of course... [emoji5]️
I don't think coding such an algorithm for the installer would be very difficult but it would require a fair amount of testing on various CFW because what looks good in theory doesn't always come out as expected in practice... And we know that these xml files can easily be source of problems...

I want to answer this better as I was busy when I replied to it.

I like all the ideas about integrating into XMBM+ and updating XMBM+ etc. Creating an installer that could find strings / backup and edit files etc would be great. For example in the game category xml, the section where the xmbm+ query is added could easily be searched for on a hex level as that wont really change in other FWs.

Here is a basic idea for starters, (Im sure you guys will come up with better ideas but just for discussion anyway):

This string/section could be searched for in the category_game.xml's (on a hex level or a plain text level):

<Query
class="type:x-xmb/folder-pixmap"
key="game_xmbm_hdd0"
src="xmb://localhost/dev_hdd0/game/XMBMANPLS/USRDIR/game_main.xml#seg_xmb_hdd0_app"
/>

If it exists then the installer knows that XMBM+ is already installed (flash files anyway), either because its Rebug FW or because someone has installed it already on other FW.

If it doesn't exist then the string below can be searched for (again on a hex level or a plain text level),

<Query
class="type:x-xmb/folder-pixmap"
key="seg_package_files"
src="#seg_package_files"
/>

If it is found then the first string can be added below it. If its not then the installer can throw an error. This same theory could be used to offer options on where to install it to exactly.

As its only a 1 line edit (could all be added on 1 line I mean), and its conditional on an exact string being found first, and its only a query being added at that, I think not much can go wrong..

Once such an installer was made it could be used for loads of mods. Could be made noob friendly like the XMBM+ installer, for example, people include a searchfor.txt/.bin and a replacewith.txt/.bin inside folders with the correct path, and then the files to install to hdd etc or something like that, you know what I mean, could maybe even be built onto the XMBM+ installer as that already has the backup and install to hdd functions, I dunno, would be a nice project for someone with the skills. Wish I had them.