Hacking [Release] ARK-4 CFW port for PSP.

[FPSUsername]

I have to change some icons around and I'll share the theme.

I have two questions:
1. How do we take a screenshot in the recovery now that plugins don't load? (I used CFE to take a screenshot before).
2. Why does the script need python 2? (can it be rewritten to python 3 instead)

 

[Acid_Snake]

1. How do we take a screenshot in the recovery now that plugins don't load? (I used CFE to take a screenshot before).

Yeah I asked myself the same question. It's really a bad idea to have plugins (and even settings) loading within recovery menu (it beats the purpose of launching it), so maybe I just add an option to take a screenshot within the recovery menu itself.

2. Why does the script need python 2? (can it be rewritten to python 3 instead)

Should be easy to port to python 3, the script (and file format) is easy enough.

 

[FPSUsername]

Should be easy to port to python 3, the script (and file format) is easy enough.

I will try and rewrite the script and make a pull-request on git with the update and my theme

 

[Acid_Snake]

Made a small release improving custom launcher and recovery:
https://github.com/PSP-Archive/ARK-4/releases/tag/r86-rev2

 

[FPSUsername]

@Acid_Snake I am having trouble rewriting the code. Python 3 reacts differently when calling write() and when reading the .png and .mp3 files.
Python 2 reads those files as strings, while Python 3 reads them as bytes (as it should).

Now I did try to directly convert the read file into a string with repr(), but no luck so far.

Here is my progress, the offsets are correct when I print pkg.tell() after every write, but there are some weird things happening.

Edit 1:
When I compare the files in a hex viewer, I see that the Python 3 file contains a lot of C2 bytes, which is the only difference so far. Perhaps I can do a hacky workaround and delete them for now.

Edit 2:
It all boils down to the chr() function between Python 2 and Python 3. I'm looking for a solution

Final edit:
Fixed it! Apparently Python 2 makes a bytearray with the chr() function.

I accidentally made a pull request where I had an unused import in the code. I closed it (apparently I could've edited it if it was still open). I'm not sure if you can delete the closed pull request, but I made a new one which is good.

 

[FPSUsername]

New themes have been added as well. See the pull request here.

 

[Acid_Snake]

New themes have been added as well. See the pull request here.

They look awesome, thanks, I'll take screenshots and add them to the main post.

 

[Acid_Snake]

Latest release here: https://github.com/PSP-Archive/ARK-4/releases/tag/r86-rev3
Includes several improvements to the custom launcher.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

THEMES AVAILABLE FOR CUSTOM LAUNCHER

* PSP blue theme: https://github.com/PSP-Archive/ARK-4/blob/main/extras/menus/arkMenu/themes/blue2/DATA.PKG

* PS4 blue theme: https://github.com/PSP-Archive/ARK-4/blob/main/extras/menus/arkMenu/themes/blue/DATA.PKG

Credits to FPSUsername

* PS4 red theme: https://github.com/PSP-Archive/ARK-4/blob/main/extras/menus/arkMenu/themes/red/DATA.PKG

Credits to FPSUsername

 

[FPSUsername]

I don't want to be misleading, but the themes I made do not resemble a true PS4 theme. The only thing I used is the notification sound as boot.mp3. (hence why I didn't call it a PS4 theme)

 

[Acid_Snake]

I don't want to be misleading, but the themes I made do not resemble a true PS4 theme. The only thing I used is the notification sound as boot.mp3. (hence why I didn't call it a PS4 theme)

What should I name them?

 

[FPSUsername]

I guess also just PSP Blue and PSP Red

I might make a more faithful PS4 or PS5 theme one day and make a pull request for it.

 

[Acid_Snake]

Latest revision for Release 8.6:
https://github.com/PSP-Archive/ARK-4/releases/tag/r86-rev5

Improves the custom launcher by adding ZSO support and other small fixes.

 

[FPSUsername]

Hey, I was wondering if you could create a launcher that looks like the Nintendo switch. I think it looks pretty cool and I saw it on the PSVita as well.

Also, judging from the pictures in the post, it somewhat resembles XMB, which would fit the PSP.

PS: For the current custom launcher, you might want to round the file size notation to just two decimals. Would look a bit cleaner.
I also noticed some missing needed features such as support for USB storage transfer with a computer (need to return to XMB for that) and possibly support for the Category lite plugin. I noticed that in the game category that it only shows first level items in /PSP/GAME and nothing inside /ISO and /PSP/GAME/MYCATEGORY

 

[Acid_Snake]

Hi there, I've created a new release that adds preliminary support for previous PRO installations:
https://github.com/PSP-Archive/ARK-4/releases/tag/r88

The end goal is that you can update PRO instalations (i.e. Infinity users) with ARK rather than having to load ARK as a separate CFW.
For now the CFW still uses the Live loader, but it should be soon possible to just install ARK on top of PRO Infinity.

 

[Acid_Snake]

New BIG release guys: https://github.com/PSP-Archive/ARK-4/releases/tag/r89

ARK is now compatible with existing PRO installations, including Infinity users.
This means you can now run the CFW permanently!

The process is simple:
- Install PRO and Infinity like you normally would.
- Install ARK's savedata (ms0:/PSP/SAVEDATA/ARK_01234).
- While running PRO, install and run ARK_PRO_Updater. It will install ARK CFW files on top of PRO.
- Now you are running ARK instead of PRO!

 

[kane159]

Finally have permanently support for this before I install this bad boy want to make sure,I need to place the file on both internal storage and the memory stick right?like the plug-ins main ark file and so on

 

[Acid_Snake]

Finally have permanently support for this before I install this bad boy want to make sure,I need to place the file on both internal storage and the memory stick right?like the plug-ins main ark file and so on

If you are talking about PSP Go, I would recommend ONLY internal memory, there's no real reason to have it installed on external too.

 

[kane159]

If you are talking about PSP Go, I would recommend ONLY internal memory, there's no real reason to have it installed on external too.

Cool thanks bro,because in pro or lme plug-ins only work on where it place (ex.cheatmaster plug-in) if I only put it in internal storage then I can’t make it work when launching anything in external

 

[DinohScene]

Is it possible to change the title of the post? I can't seem to be able to. The CFW itself is not longer "experimental", can a mod change this?

Changed the title for you ; )

Next time, feel free to report your post if you want a thread title to be changed/edited or locked.
An active mod will see it and take care of it quicker then a mod that scours the forum for messages like this.
They tend to go unnoticed until someone reports it or we actually stumble upon it.
Everyone can do this to their threads, feel free to report it and give a small description of what you want us to do with it.

 

[Acid_Snake]

Cool thanks bro,because in pro or lme plug-ins only work on where it place (ex.cheatmaster plug-in) if I only put it in internal storage then I can’t make it work when launching anything in external

Yeah those CFW change the runlevel depending on where it is launched.
They do this so that classic homebrews that use ms0 get redirected to ef0 (filer and such).
ARK itself doesn't do this since it breaks compatibility with homebrews that do differentiate between ms0 and ef0, such as arkMenu (the default custom launcher and recovery for ARK), but arkMenu itself will apply this runlevel patches so you can use that instead of XMB for classic homebrews.