Hacking Trying to Install Ark on Vita with 3.61 Firmware and Failing Miserably

[Rokku]

I mistakenly updated my Vita to 3.61 like right after I learned about Henkaku, but fortunately it's still on 3.61 and I refuse to update it. I discovered ARK, which, while not as good as Henkaku, would at least let me run emulators on my Vita, and it works on 3.61 and 3.63 so I decided I would try it. However, so far it's been a complete disaster, as I can't even complete the first step (connect the Vita to my PC and get my AID). Every time I try to connect via USB (using QCMA) the connection breaks because of update nagging, and connecting wirelessly isn't working either. I've tried tools that are supposed to disable the update nagging but they don't work (my Vita's firmware must be too new). What can I do?

 

[Wuigi]

Do you have a PSN account linked to your vita?
QCMA normally ignores new updates, there is an option to disable it, maybe it's not enabled?

 

[cvskid]

 

[Rokku]

Do you have a PSN account linked to your vita?
QCMA normally ignores new updates, there is an option to disable it, maybe it's not enabled?

I do have a PSN account linked. Tried messing around with some settings in QCMA but I still get "You must update the system software of this system" when I try to connect it to my PC via a wired connection. Wireless just can't connect to the network at all, despite the fact that the Vita is on my WiFi.

 

[Rokku]

Okay, I went looking on my PC and found some PS Vita folders in My Documents and what I believe is the AID, but without being able to connect the Vita to the PC properly I can't progress through the Ark install progress, since it requires backing up a game off the Vita...

 

[ShroomKing]

you need to disable wifi on your vita, and reboot it.

also enable offline mode in qcma and restart it.

now you should be able to connect

 

[Rokku]

Alright, I'm pretty close to finished...but I noticed the tutorial mentions a PBOOT.PBP file which running psvimg-extract was supposed to create. However, what I have instead is an EBOOT.PBP file. The ARK download has both a PBOOT and an EBOOT file. Do I bring over both?

EDIT-Tried copying over both the EBOOT and PBOOT and I get an error (C2-12858-4) trying to copy back the game I patched. I can't see the ARK files I copied into my saved data backup either.

EDIT2-Brought over the files but I have no ARK bubble. I'm lost...

 

[ShroomKing]

Alright, I'm pretty close to finished...but I noticed the tutorial mentions a PBOOT.PBP file which running psvimg-extract was supposed to create. However, what I have instead is an EBOOT.PBP file. The ARK download has both a PBOOT and an EBOOT file. Do I bring over both?

EDIT-Tried copying over both the EBOOT and PBOOT and I get an error (C2-12858-4) trying to copy back the game I patched. I can't see the ARK files I copied into my saved data backup either.

EDIT2-Brought over the files but I have no ARK bubble. I'm lost...

what you're supposed to do is the following:

backup your original psp game,

unpack it with psvimg

put the pboot inside the folder of the unpacked game (keep both: the eboot and pboot in there)

pack the game with psvimg.

there is a psp savedata in a folder called "ARK_01234" put it in your qcma directory/PSAVEDATA/0000000000000000/ (000... beeing your aid)

refresh the qcma database (or simply restart qcma)

then restore the ark save data to your vita (do this BEFORE transfering over your patched game)

transfer your game to the vita

done, now you have the ark bubble on your homescreen

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

i attached the ark savedata to this reply, i know it works for sure since i used it to setup ark on my friends vita a while back.

 

[Rokku]

All right, I finally did it! Now to go hunt down some emulators and PSP backups!

What are the compatible SNES, Genesis, and PSX emulators?

 

[ShroomKing]

All right, I finally did it! Now to go hunt down some emulators and PSP backups!

What are the compatible SNES, Genesis, and PSX emulators?

for PSX: ark can run psx eboots when set to "pops" mode. but they wont have sound as far as i know.

any signed psp emulator/homebrew should work with this, and maybe even some unsigned ones.

 

[Rokku]

What does it mean for an emulator to be "signed"? Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions, it's just the last time I messed around with a PSP was probably 5 years ago or so.

 

[ShroomKing]

What does it mean for an emulator to be "signed"? Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions, it's just the last time I messed around with a PSP was probably 5 years ago or so.

np, the PSP required homebrew to be signed (or at least back when m33 was a thing)

that pretty much means that the PSP's firmware detects the signed homebrew as if it was a legit game(through certain cfw hooks of course). and would just error out if it's unsigned.

but pretty much any homebrew you can find should be signed, because otherwise it would be useless (i think. that might have changed with the latest psp cfw)

 

[Rokku]

And how about PSP games? I'm guessing I'd need to load them with ARK to get them to work but I wouldn't need to do anything special to them, would I?

 

[ShroomKing]

And how about PSP games? I'm guessing I'd need to load them with ARK to get them to work but I wouldn't need to do anything special to them, would I?

all you need to do is transfer them over and run them.

oh i almost forgot, to transfer the iso's you have to rename them to: maximum 8 letters, and full caps including the extension. example: XXXXXXXX.ISO

then put the iso in a psp savedata folder and transfer that to your vita using, again, the content manager.

then in ark, navigate to that folder und select the iso

 

[Rokku]

Alright, thanks! I wasn't able to download a demo or something to sacrifice for ARK so I gotta get my copy of Persona 3 Portable back.

 

[ShroomKing]

Alright, thanks! I wasn't able to download a demo or something to sacrifice for ARK so I gotta get my copy of Persona 3 Portable back.

afaik you can navigate to the /GAME/TITLEID/ folder and run the p3p eboot.

no need to download an iso if you still have the psn eboot,

 

[Rokku]

That's good because when I tried downloading the game I got a folder full of RAR archives that are all r(number) and some other mysterious files!

 

[ShroomKing]

That's good because when I tried downloading the game I got a folder full of RAR archives that are all r(number) and some other mysterious files!

those are like part1 part2.... archives.

you need to extract them all to a folder and then extract them again to get the iso

 

[Rokku]

I put three games on their as testers in folders named after them but the folders show up as empty, despite me adhering to the strict naming conventions...

 

[ShroomKing]

I put three games on their as testers in folders named after them but the folders show up as empty, despite me adhering to the strict naming conventions...

did you put them in psp savedata folders?