Customizing RCOs/XMLs to Modify PS3 XMB Using Firmware Loader

[daveshooter]

sysconf rcos from 315.rar: Unexpected end of archive. sorry bud do you have the 3.15 xml's. from the dev_flash in zip form. thanks.

BTW: I have made complete dev_flash/pkg dumps from loads of PUPs for comparison of the code in files, i've done 1.00 debug , 1.50debug, 2.36 debug 2.52 debug 3.15 debug , 3.41 debug, 1.50 retail, 3.15 retail , 3.41 retail and 3.55 retail.

Comparing code from older xmls has some benifits, for example in the older xmls the address for the PS3 instrucion manuals is written in plain text in xml, in newer FWs the address is hardcoded into the sprx like netflix etc. Although in newer firmwares the address for Home and Folding at Home pkgs are still in plain text inside in xmls.

P.S. Swapping the address from home to folding at home will allow home to download, install and bootup without any PSN connection. It crashes a minute after booting tho or asks for software update depending on FW.

Very interesting thanks Devil, this is saving me a lot of time in me learning carve. Yes would love your complete pack, of packages. Thanks

[DeViL303]

here is a zip, i've included the 2 related sprx files from 3.15 too.

oops , forgot to include the zip.

[daveshooter]

Your a star bud, thanks I'll have a look after tea.

[alchybear]

with this access to the dev_flash you can edit coldboot ! boot up with the image you'd like! theres some more tools you need more than this also.

[Muguster]

i've been doing some work on this in hopes of getting to the point i can create a custom theme psp style. tested writing a customized rco in the flash directly today with varying success.

i targeted explore_plugin_full.rco and changed "turn off system" to "shutdown" and removed psn signup icons along with few others.

here's the result: after writing to flash and exiting blackb0x ftp, the screen gave me static for few seconds before returning to the menu, the icons were indeed gone, and the shutdown now did say shutdown. However, the create new user panel is now corrupted, and it seems that custom characters in text became corrupted (* symbol in "install packages" became ? as it obviously corrupted)

i believe the problem with this is that rcomage doesn't seem to recompress rco's when packed. if you unpack and then repack explore_plugin_full it will become 14mb isntead of the original 2mb, this might become an issue later on when a lot of rco's are edited.

[DeViL304]

You need to tick the zlib compression box in rcomage before you recompile and then your rco will be fine, ie. right size, normally a tiny bit smaller as the compression differs slightly.

[severusx]

Devil304, I was reading back through your posts and you said you were able to rename the PSN category. I too would like to do this and move my homebrew apps to it. I have done a lot of editing to my xml files but haven't tried this yet so I wanted to ask you for a few pointers.

In the xml files it looks like the homebrew apps are added using a search on the gamedir and are not hard coded in there. How would I remove them from Game and place them in PSN? Maybe remove the search call? Would it be possible to split them up (e.g. put MultiMan under PSN but have Last Game Played under Game? Thanks for all your help!

[DeViL304]

I can't tell you a massive amount about this area as cfwprophet was the one mainly working on the that, but basically its the letters in the param.sfo that decide which category the apps show up in :

HM=Playstation Network
CB=Network
HG=Game
AV=Video
AM=Music
AP=Photo
AT=TV

So if you are using a renamed network category for your homebrew then change your apps param.sfo to "CB"". I have done it with my ftp app and it works fine. it will not move over until you reboot or run the app once.

[severusx]

Nice, thanks! I haven't renamed my categories yet though. Did you do that via editing the RCO?

[DeViL304]

Yes, all the category names are in the first few lines of "English.xml" that is contained inside "explore_plugin_full.rco"

<TextLang>
	<Text name="msg_setting">Settings</Text>
	<Text name="msg_photo">Photo</Text>
	<Text name="msg_music">Music</Text>
	<Text name="msg_video">Video</Text>
	<Text name="msg_game">Game</Text>
	<Text name="msg_net">Network</Text>
	<Text name="msg_friend">Friends</Text>
	<Text name="msg_user">Users</Text>
	<Text name="msg_login">Log In</Text>
	<Text name="msg_tv">TV</Text>
	<Text name="msg_psn">PlayStation®