Cobra USB - PS3 Dongle Runs Blu-ray & PS1 iSOs and PSP Minis

[seeman]

i hope rogero gets influenced by this to create a new cfw!!! with 431 keys... old packmanager... and the new cobra psp function...

i think sooner or later we will see this on our ps3...

[elser1]

good news. i really dislike these people and their dongle rip offs.

[phuqt]

Can we play games from nas now because it was a new feature in mm a few updates back only for cobra though, now that we have the payload we should be able to get this in a cfw

[smokyyuwe]

It's about time. I'd really like to be able to play some backups of old PS2 games I have.

[PS3 News]

Today deank updated to multiMAN v04.16.04 and aldostools also updated to PS3 Tools Collection v2.0.54, which now includes the mmRAS PS3-to-PC Server application that allows users to control a connected PC via multiMAN.

Download: multiMAN v04.16.04 Update CEX (20121218) (2.57 MB) / multiMAN v04.16.04 Update CEX (20121218) (Mirror) / multiMAN v04.16.04 Update CEX (20121218) (Mirror #2) / installPKG.pkg (486.47 KB) / http://aldostools.org/ps3tools.zip

multiMAN 04.16.04 is available online now:

• Improved speed when copying games/files from/to USB HDDs
• Improved speed when copying games from PS3 Game Discs
• Improved speed when copying/browsing folders via FTP (LIST/MLSD)
• Added support for up to 99 pkg files in the [* Install Package Files] queue
• [* Install Package Files] function will scan /dev_hdd0/PKGTMP and will MOVE the queued pkg files from this folder (saving HDD space by not copying to temp location)
• mmOS will now honor the "Verify USB Games" setting when starting games from icons/shortcuts/game-folder
• Scanning for active USB storage devices is now performed in the background and will speed up loading games on 4.xxCFW
• Verifying games in now performed in the background (when possible) to avoid delays when loading games

The last one means that mM will scan your USB game folders in the background. It if manages to scan a game at least once you'll never be bothered with 'Verifying data...' again Along with the background scanning of usb devices it is now "Press [X] and game is loaded..."

I hope you like that... Let me know if you have any issues.

From aldostools: I just updated the mmRAS Server 01.01.02 with new features:

• It now allows to configure a white list of allowed IP that can connect to your computer. (F6)
• The server port can be configured from the popup menu on the system tray. (F2)
• Minor optimizations in the code.
• Added support up to 8 concurrent clients (clients can be multiMAN or mmRAS client for PC)

I also updated Bruteforce Save Data to version 1.3.3 with some suggestions from haru3173

[BerserkLeon]

What ps3news posted seems to makes sense. I also find it funny that cobra ODE is being developed right after this xk3y for 360 comes out... isn't that amazing? Perhaps they're made by the same people.

Scene should be free. if you need a dongle to load this onto its not all that much better than the original cobra. Also find it amusing that he says the TB dongle and the cobra dongle are very similar, but he didn't notice this until after he 'swallowed his pride' and bought a dongle. Why didn't you notice that when you were diving through the dumps?

I initially thought PS3News was just being paranoid, but something does stink.

[PS3 News]

The best advice we can offer is simply to hold off buying mod products used to assist in running backups and wait for free PS3 scene solutions to surface... they always do, sure they may be 6+ months after the profiteers cash in but as they say patience is a virtue.

[CREEPSHOW]

i got one of the Cobra USB dongle but i should have waited for new cfw with the contents of the Cobra USB dongle so you can play psp and ps2 and full blu ray film iso and 1 ps1 and some one will do it new cfw with 430 or 431 with the contents

[PS3 News]

MultiMAN v04.17.00 is now available from deank with both speed optimizations and reduced PS3 RAM usage. Be aware the Stealth version (StealthMAN) isn't completely safe as Sony (or other users) can still see when you 'Install Package Files' (as pictured below) at the moment.

Download: multiMAN v04.17.00 Base (20121220) (111.88 MB) / multiMAN v04.17.00 Base (20121220) (Mirror) / multiMAN v04.17.00 Base (20121220) (Mirror #2) / multiMAN v04.17.00 Base (20121220) (Mirror #3) / multiMAN v04.17.00 Base (20121220) (Mirror #4) / multiMAN v04.17.00 Base (20121220) (Mirror #5) / multiMAN v04.17.00 Base (20121220) (Mirror #6) / multiMAN v04.17.00 Base (20121220) (PKG)

Changelog:

Includes:

• multiMAN ver 04.17.00 BASE CEX (20121220).pkg
• multiMAN ver 04.17.00 BASE DEX (20121220).pkg
• multiMAN ver 04.17.00 BASE CEX STEALTH (20121220).rar
• Latest versions of mmRAS and mmRAS_server by aldostools
• Latest version of installPKG (with support for /dev_hdd0/PKGTMP)
• Showtime, bdRESET, stDISC, gameDATA, lastGAME as usual

Here are the changes from 04.16.02/03/04/05/06 to the latest:

• Improved overall speed of all functions and GUI
• Data Test/Verify functions now take fraction of the time compared to previous versions
• Improved 'Verifying data' of USB games by a factor of 50
• Improved scan before copying a game/folder
• Improved loading folders in mmOS
• Improved just a bit deleting games/folders
• Greatly improved loading content when browsing PS3 HDD/USB drives in game modes
• Loading Retro ROM/Video/Photo and ISO folders while browsing PS3 HDD/USB is now about 15 times faster
• Added "Friendly" name option in "Settings"/"Network Servers" for /net_host parties
• Fixed over-scrolling when browsing through large number of entries
• Increased max number of entries in game modes by 50% to 3072 (from 2048)
• Improved speed when copying games/files from/to USB HDDs
• Improved speed when copying games from PS3 Game Discs
• Improved speed when copying/browsing folders via FTP (LIST/MLSD)
• Added support for up to 99 pkg files in the [* Install Package Files] queue
• [* Install Package Files] function will scan /dev_hdd0/PKGTMP and will MOVE the queued pkg files from this folder (saving HDD space by not copying to temp location)
• mmOS will now honor the "Verify USB Games" setting when starting games from icons/shortcuts/game-folder
• Scanning for active USB storage devices is now performed in the background and will speed up loading games on 4.xxCFW
• Verifying games in now performed in the background (when possible) to avoid delays when loading games

While on the 'improvement' track I decided to remove and completely rewrite another major function in mM - copying folders/games. Currently the memory used by the new function is down to 6MB (from 12MB - used to be 32MB in the beginning). While at it I added the double progress bar so you can monitor the progress for each file and the overall progress.

I used LittleBigPlanet game as a test/reference when I started improving things last week and finally got about 15-30% speed increase.

8343MB (240 files):

Before the optimizations:

• HDD->USB = 13:20min (800 seconds) (~10.4MB/s)
• USB->HDD = 11:30min (690 seconds) (~12.1MB/s)

After the optimizations:

• HDD->USB = 10:30min (630 seconds) (~13.3MB/s) (about 28% faster)
• USB->HDD = 08:30min (510 seconds) (~16.4MB/s) (about 35% faster)

Of course with games with less files the transfer speed hits the limit of the internal HDD (~30MB/s) or the external USB (~20MB/s) like for example copying GT5 (14056MB in 19 files):

• HDD->USB = 15:05min (905 seconds) (~15.5MB/s)
• USB->HDD = 11:58min (718 seconds) (~19.6MB/s)

Copying from PS3 Game Disc is at ~8.4MB/s (which is the max. read rate of the ps3 bd-drive). It may not look THAT much faster, but probably with larger games the saved time will be a lot more. 5 or 15 mins saved is still something.

p.s. To those who wonder about the latest speed improvements - you may remember my posts during the year: "Saved 5MB or RAM here... 20MB or RAM there... another 15MB RAM saved..." so finally I found time to utilize the resources I managed to free. Now I had to rewrite a lot of functions from scratch and optimize them as much as I can. The result is more speed and stability.

Here is how I do it in installPKG and mM: Method of calling to install "/dev_hdd0/PKG/TestFile.pkg":

bubble_pkg( (char*)"/dev_hdd0/PKG", (char*)"TestFile.pkg");

The example doesn't include "copying" the PKG to a temp location if using USB HDD. This one just moves the file from one location on the internal hdd to the game_pkg folder. It is very simple (just 20-30 lines or so) and doesn't need explanation - it only creates d0.pdb and the ICON_FILE.

u64 is_size(char *path)
{
        struct CellFsStat s;
        if(cellFsStat(path, &s)==CELL_FS_SUCCEEDED)
            return s.st_size;
        else
            return 0;
}

int exist(char *path)
{
    struct stat p_stat;
    return (stat(path, &p_stat)>=0);
}

void array_to_file(char *_path, unsigned char* _buf, int _size)
{
    FILE *flistW;
    flistW = fopen(_path, "wb");
    if(flistW!=NULL)
    {
        fwrite( _buf, _size, 1, flistW);
        fclose(flistW);
    }
}


u8 bubble_pkg( char* _path, char* _file)
{
    char task_path[512];
    char temp_path1[512];
    char temp_path2[512];

    cellFsMkdir((char*)"/dev_hdd0/vsh/game_pkg", S_IRWXO | S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG | S_IFDIR | CELL_FS_S_IFDIR | 0777); 

    for(u8 n=0;n<99;n++)
    {
        //sprintf(task_path, "/dev_hdd0/vsh/task/000000%02i", n);
        sprintf(task_path, "/dev_hdd0/vsh/game_pkg/800000%02i", n);
        if(!exist(task_path)) break;
    }
    if(exist(task_path)) return 0;
    mkdir(task_path, S_IRWXO | S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG | S_IFDIR); cellFsChmod(task_path, 0777);

    sprintf(temp_path1, "%s/%s", _path, _file);
    sprintf(temp_path2, "%s/%s", task_path, _file);

    rename(temp_path1, temp_path2); // <-- moves file from one location on internal HDD to another.
                    // if copying from USB you must deal with it here.
    if(!exist(temp_path2)) return 0;

    u8 d0[109]={0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x64, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x04, 
                     0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x65, 
                     0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 
                     0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x66, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 
                     0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x6B, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
                     0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x03, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x68, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
                     0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
                     0x6C, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 
                     0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0xD0, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x08, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x08};
    u64 task_size=is_size(temp_path2);
    u64 temp_val1=0;
    u32 temp_val2=0;
    sprintf(temp_path1, "%s/d0.pdb", task_path);
    FILE *fp = fopen(temp_path1, "wb");
    if(fp==NULL) return 0;

    fwrite((char*) &d0, 109, 1, fp);
    fwrite((char*) &task_size, 8, 1, fp);

    temp_val1=0x000000CE00000008ULL;
    fwrite((char*) &temp_val1, 8, 1, fp);
    temp_val2=0x00000008;
    fwrite((char*) &temp_val2, 4, 1, fp);
    fwrite((char*) &task_size, 8, 1, fp);
    temp_val2=0x00000069;
    fwrite((char*) &temp_val2, 4, 1, fp);

    sprintf(temp_path2, "\xE2\x98\x85 Install \x22%s\x22", _file);
    temp_val2=strlen(temp_path2)+1;

    fwrite((char*) &temp_val2, 4, 1, fp);
    fwrite((char*) &temp_val2, 4, 1, fp);
    fwrite((char*) temp_path2, strlen(temp_path2), 1, fp);
    temp_val2=0;
    fwrite((char*) &temp_val2, 1, 1, fp);

    temp_val2=0x000000CB;
    fwrite((char*) &temp_val2, 4, 1, fp);

    temp_val2=strlen(_file)+1;
    fwrite((char*) &temp_val2, 4, 1, fp);
    fwrite((char*) &temp_val2, 4, 1, fp);
    fwrite((char*) _file, strlen(_file), 1, fp);
    temp_val2=0;
    fwrite((char*) &temp_val2, 1, 1, fp);

    u8 d0_1[0x1E]={0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0xDA, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 
                   0x00, 0xCD, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x6A};
    fwrite((char*) &d0_1, 0x1E, 1, fp);
    
    sprintf(temp_path2, "%s/ICON_FILE", task_path);
    temp_val2=strlen(temp_path2)+1;
    fwrite((char*) &temp_val2, 4, 1, fp);
    fwrite((char*) &temp_val2, 4, 1, fp);

    fwrite((char*) temp_path2, strlen(temp_path2), 1, fp);
    temp_val2=0;
    fwrite((char*) &temp_val2, 1, 1, fp);

    fclose(fp);

    u8 icon_file[0x85F9]={...your PNG bytes here....}; // change 0x85F9 to the size of the PNG
    array_to_file(temp_path2, icon_file, 0x85F9); // here too

    return 1;
}

Update: Minor update is available online (04.17.01):

Download: multiMAN v04.17.01 / multiMAN v04.17.01 (Mirror)

The only change is installing PKG files when using "PSN/Bubble" mode (or on 4.30 Rogero CFW). It will not reboot the PS3 after quitting mM. The stealthMAN update (or the new standalone installPKG app) will also update your /app_home [*IPF].

Download: installPKG.pkg (486.59 KB)

Update #2: Minor update is available online (04.17.02):

Download: multiMAN v04.17.02 / multiMAN v04.17.02 (Mirror) / multiMAN v04.17.02 (Mirror #2)

• Minor fix for 4.30CFW Hermes payload
• Fixed copying folders with 0 byte files
• Fixed problem with split games in stealthMAN
• InstallPKG [Singstar Replacement] available (http://www.sendspace.com/file/klv9jz)
• InstallPKG standalone updated, too (http://www.sendspace.com/file/srhvk7)
• Installing PKG files will not reboot the PS3

[PS3 News]

Today deank has updated multiMAN once again to version 04.17.03 (20121224) with the changes below.

Download: multiMAN v04.17.03 Update (20121224) (5.56 MB - Includes regular and stealth updates + IPF + IPF[Singstar Replacement]) / multiMAN v04.17.03 Update (20121224) (Mirror) / multiMAN v04.17.03 Update (20121224) (Mirror #2) / multiMAN v04.17.03 Update (20121224) (Mirror #3) / InstallPKG [SingStar Replacement].pkg / InstallPKG.pkg

multiMAN 04.17.03 is available online now (cex/dex/stealth):

• mM is now even faster
• Installing PKG files from /dev_hdd0 now doesn't require copying and losing time and space (takes less than a second)
• Added progress bar when copying non-split files from USB in installPKG application
• Fixed problem with split games in stealthMAN
• InstallPKG [Singstar Replacement] available (updated)