Hello everyone!
I'm quite overwhelmed by the amount of information on here. My goal is to run my PS2 games on an SCPH-39004 from HDD. I have a FreeMcBoot card, but it would be cool to avoid having it inserted all the time. I also have the original network adapter, which is still IDE-only, but will update it soon to accept SATA drives.
My biggest problem: my PC has Linux Mint. I have no easy access to a Windows machine, that would allow connecting a SATA hard drive. I do have access to a Win11 laptop, but it's from work, not my personal machine, so I want to avoid using it for this.
So far, my understanding from reading this forum is, I've got two options:
1. format HDD with exFAT, put my ISOs on there and boot the PS2 with a FMCB memory card that uses the newest OPL capable of loading games off of exFAT drives
2. install FreeMcBoot on my harddrive ("proper" FreeHDBoot), but the HDD needs to be formatted by Windows specific tools (and copying ISOs will also require a Windows machine).
Is there a way to use option 2 when with GNU/Linux? Don't hesitate to recommend some command line applications, I feel comfortable with it. Is it possible to install FreeHdBoot with "dd"? Somehow like this:
dd if=[working-free-hd-boot-dump] of=/dev/[myhdd]
That would at least put me half way there (still need to somehow get the ISOs on this drive).
Please point me to the right thread, if there is one that I missed.
Regards,
Igorevich