PS3 sMAN (webMAN + sLaunch) combined into a single plugin by deank

We have seen developer @deank cooking up some nice brew lately, the latest creation of sLaunch has now evolved into a new plugin called sMAN, bringing the original vision of the developer to this single plugin containing webMAN & sLaunch, rather then having two separate plugins loaded at boot time (like the preview releases) deank uses a single plugin slot while making sLaunch an even faster sprx loaded dynamically. For simplicity, he concatenated into just one file called sman.sprx the various sprx parts of the app (rawseciso/netiso/slaunch/sman) as well as the html parts of the XMB "Sman Games" feature. If you like to use this alternative UI for loading games, then you should use the sMAN plugin going forward, if you like the traditional way (w/ My Games) then you can use the XMB feature or simply switch to the webMAN plugin as both version will still available for users.

sMAN Release Quote via deank Additional Notes/Comments from deank Video/Screenshot (preview version "sLaunch")

• 
  Now, let's move forward to the next step...
  
  Later today I'll release the "sMAN" - which is webMAN + sLaunch in one plugin. The reason - this is what webMAN was supposed to be - the way I wanted to be since day one:
  
  • Use only one plugin slot
  • Use about 128KB less vsh memory (about 384KB total vsh memory)
  • Support for /dev_usb000 to /dev_usb128
  • No need for boot delays for scanning usb drives
  • No need for XML generation, "refresh xml" or other complicated tasks
  • No need for the "My Games" entry in XMB (no need for custom category_game.xml)
  • Simplified setup page, eject/unmount/rescan/grouping options available within sMAN's front-end (sLaunch)
  • Support for over 1000 games
  • FTP/WEB/NTFS/NETISO support by the sMAN's back-end (webMAN)
  • Simple use in any cobra compatible CFW by adding sman.sprx to boot_plugins.txt without modifying other files
  • The front-end (menu) is not using resources when not active (opposed to slaunch.sprx)
  • Updated - it now supports switching groups/content-type (ALL/PS1/PS2/PS3/PSP/VIDEO) - press the [SQUARE] button.
  
  sMAN: http://deanbg.com/sman.sprx
  
  Dean
  
  p.s. The features in bold will be gradually introduced for easier transition for the users who decide to switch to sMAN.
  
  Edit: eventually deank decided to add the XMB "Webman Games" feature to sMan as many end users were asking for it.
  It brings back the old XML creation problem he originally wanted to get rid of however it works quite well.
  The only real glitch in sMan 1.11n (& in the latest wMM actually) is found with a limited number of ntfs hdd where the partition cannot be read using the libntfs_ext library port. Hopefully this bug should get fixed after investigation...
  
  The XMB Game list remains optional however, to be toggled in the sMan settings page.
  
  
  ​
• 
  Random Comments about sMAN from deank
  
  • The good thing about sMAN is that it doesn't require large amounts of memory no matter how many games you have. It can handle 2000, 3000, 5000 games even.
  • sMAN is working a bit faster than sLaunch (at least it looks that way).
  • If you decide to use sman.sprx - remove webftp_server.sprx and slaunch.sprx from your boot_plugins.txt. It is not possible to use them at the same time.
    
  • Yes, fan-control is still there, because it is "webMAN" in the background. For languages - there is nothing different to webMAN - you'll have to compile it yourself with proper gui.h.
  
  
• 
  

  Video (POC Version)​	ScreenShot (from preview version)​
  --------------------------------------------------------------------​	​

Download: sMAN -> http://deanbg.com/sman.sprx
Source: psx-place.com (via deank) (2) (3)​

 

Nope, nothing in particular to do.
Syscalls are all enabled by default so unless you are using another tool to disable them it should not be a problem.
Note that you should never disable syscalls unless you connect to PSN anyway.

The Rebug default settings are all explained in details on rebug.me.
If you are running sMan, it means that Cobra is enabled. Make sure webman is disabled in the Toolbox.
Choose Rebug Mode in the Selector column if you wish to use psnpatch.
The XMB mode (debug/retail) is up to you.
Leave other options on the Toolbox to default settings (Refer to rebug.me if you modified settings & cannot remember default values).

wii do, thanks for the help!

 

Any idea what would cause an ntfs drive not to work with the new ntfs driver, but still work with the old driver?

I replaced my old external hdd that was exploding with bad sectors after only a month with the same model, but sman and webmanmod can't access it. Yet it works fine in multiman. (can copy files, mount + play games fine etc.)

NTFS drive shows under the files section in sman, but comes up empty when you try click on it.
Trying to refresh the game list bumps the ntfs drive up a number, but immediately finds nothing.

Webmanmod can see the correct free space on it, but will bump the drive up a number even just trying to open it via the files tab. After a few failed attempts the drive gets as high as ntfs7 then disappears completely.

After some digging it appears the drive is currently using 512 byte logical, 4k physical sector sizes... Not sure if the old drive was set up as pure 512 byte sectors or not. Looking at old screenshots and comparing the drive appears to be setup the same, model numbers / firmware versions match etc... Tried changing various settings with no luck. (active partiton, resizing it to create some free space at the end, 4k alignment, anything non-destructive basically)

Going to juggle some files around and try reformat the drive eventually, but I'm hoping it can be avoided.

Only difference I know of is that I pulled the new drive from the enclosure and set it up from inside the PC before ever even using it in the enclosure to speed up the copy process.

Got me a bit stumped. lol

 

..

Drive model?
Enclosure model?

 

I actually have the same problem myself. I had to change external hdd for my game storage ever since the new library port is being used.
My old drive was a 2Tb 3"5' hdd with external power & it's working fine with all implementations using the psl1ght port of libntfs_ext but won't even be detected by implementations using the cellsdk port.
It's not only with sMan or the new wMM because the problem is the same with the libntfs_ext port code samples.

I am currently using a 2"5' hdd which is usb powered & that works fine with both libntfs_ext library ports.

It's possible that the issue is related to cluster size choices or maybe to the settings used in the cellsdk port.
I was meant to look into the issue but never found the time. Once I finish the extended xai_plugin planned implementations, I will look into it if no-one else has done so by then...

 

Hard drive is a 2TB Seagate Expansion.

Old one worked no dramas, replaced it for another model exactly the same after discovering some bad sectors but sman/wmm can't read it, yet multiman reads it no worries... :/

Replacement drive on the left, Old drive on the Right.
Not the best information, but the only comparable info I had in my old screenshots.

 

Seagate Expansion have 4 GB hidden partition that you need to remove iirc. Compare free space on hdd.

 

I don't have the old drive to compare anymore unfortunately...Just a few random old screenshots. No hidden partitions or anything going on. I wiped the drive and re-partitioned it before I even started.

Wondering if it is because I set the drive up directly via sata, before ever even using the usb enclosure. Might be something weird going on from that, although it appears to work fine for any other usage.

I did have some luck originally by resizing the partition to leave a few megs free space at the end of the drive like windows seems to do when creating a partition, but it was still hit and miss as to whether it would work or not.

Shifting all my files off the drive at the moment so I can play with some formatting options and see what happens.

Would a DD of the MBR / partition table (before and after tinkering) or something be of any use to anyone if I do get the new drive working with sman? I'll try see if it logs any errors or anything mounting the drive via socat later.

The programming aspect of the new driver etc. is way over my head, but if there's any information I can find that might help someone improve drive compatibility in the future I'm always keen to try help.

The old drive worked fine, so it has to be something relatively simple... Just a matter of what! :P

 

If you are sure that your drive have wiped those partition, then i see only one reason why it not work. Try different kind of MBR, is hard to advice any software that can do it on linux for me...

 

If you are sure that your drive have wiped those partition, then i see only one reason why it not work. Try different kind of MBR, is hard to advice any software that can do it on linux for me...

Yeah, I've tried playing with it using easus partition manager on windows as well, but no luck so far.

Once I've got a copy of everything off the drive I'll start getting a little more destructive and see what happens.

 

Try use aomei app on windows. And setup there MBR to windows xp style

 

I'll give it a try tonight. I'll let everything finish copying onto an alternate drive first just in case something happens...

Edit: Just gave it a shot, with no luck. :/
Back to copying files off the drive so I can try a full reformat.

 

Well I got the drive working again with sman after a format.

Need to poke around and see what's different, but at least I can copy my files back again and hopefully be done with it this time after the headaches of replacing a new drive.

Just using a windows 7 command prompt, and diskpart, clean, create partition primary, active, assign, then quick formatting worked straight away.

Fussy little beast. But what do you do?

Oh, small bug report as well. I noticed split isos on fat32 always get named blah_blah.iso regardless of naming option selected in sman setup.

 

Well, a new problem has arisen (Seems to be possibly related to the old one).

I just bought a bunch of new games and ripped them onto the internal drive with multiman, used irisman to copy them onto the NTFS drive and now sman can't read the PS3ISO folder, yet multiman/irisman etc. can....

Scanning for games with sman pulls up the PSX isos on the NTFS drive fine, but I can't even browse the PS3ISO folder anymore. (Just comes up empty, Not even a shortcut to the previous folder - basically how the entire drive showed before formatting it again)

Ran a chkdsk /f in windows, double checked filenames, Tried renaming the PS3ISO folder to jump start it so to speak, Deleted the new games I copied on and still nothing.

Not sure if it's related, but I did notice that chkdsk only reported 4 large file entries when scanning. (The same number of new ISO files I just copied over)

If I let multiman create the .ntfs entries, the games are still able to be mounted by sman. (Haven't tried playing them yet, but seems to mount fine.)

This is doing my head in. lol.
I knew I should of just stuck with FAT32 after the initial dramas, but I do like breaking things.

On the upside it might be in a better state to work out what the problem was to start with.

Edit: Switched to rebug with debug cobra stage2.bin and the sman_test.sprx to try see what socat had to say. Doesn't pull up any errors unfortunately.
Just see it try to access the "broken" folder and that's it.

Did crash a couple of times when loading the games list though, although I'm not sure that's related. (Didn't crash before switching to rebug and the debug enabled cobra etc.)

Ignore the PS3ISO@ folder, That was just from me renaming the original folder and moving its contents into a new folder to see what happened.

Edit 2: Letting multiman create the ntfs files, then refreshing sman works and plays fine as a work around.
Although it's missing some details until mounting the game with sman, then refreshing the list again.

At least it keeps things playable for now without having to use multiman to change games.
Manually copying the artwork into wmtmp gets me 95% functional again... Until my next trip to the shop at least.

 

I downloaded 1.11n and it shows gamename.iso instead of just gamename. I am trying to update to 1.2 I thought just put the new sprx in hdd0 but it still shows 1.11n. How do I update? Will that solve the problem of showing .iso on my games list?

I read something on one of these pages that said once you run the game it will show the correct gamename without .iso but it doesn't change anything for me.

Only other issue is how do you make games autoboot after selecting them? I had this option working on webman but when I change to sman it doesn't autoboot and I don't see any settings to change this.

 

Well I solved the disc auto start problem I didn't realize I had to use the PS3's feature for that, still having the .ISO showing with my games problem.

 

To clarify, The .iso naming thing appears to be a minor bug with split isos. Non split games get named properly.

 

To clarify, The .iso naming thing appears to be a minor bug with split isos. Non split games get named properly.

In my case it's every .ISO game that's showing the .ISO, even ones that have no files greater than 4 gb. I have right at 100 games about half of them ISO all are showing .ISO.

Am I on the latest sman 1.11n? I thought I saw that there was a sman 1.2 but I might have been mistaken. Is there no way to keep the .ISOs from showing?

I guess if I had to I could convert them all to jailbreak format it would just take forever.

Also I noticed it only does it with PS3 ISOs, I have some PS2 ISOs on there as well and they show the game name only.

 

In my case it's every .ISO game that's showing the .ISO, even ones that have no files greater than 4 gb. I have right at 100 games about half of them ISO all are showing .ISO.Am I on the latest sman 1.11n? I thought I saw that there was a sman 1.2 but I might have been mistaken. Is there no way to keep the .ISOs from showing?I guess if I had to I could convert them all to jailbreak format it would just take forever.

Ahh ok, must be more to it then. Mine only shows the .iso name on split games on a fat32 drive.
I just downloaded the latest sprx and it is still 1.11n, so thats all good.
I wouldn't waste your time converting your games, maybe manually edit the xml for now to rename your games until deank has time to look at it, if it bothers you that much?

/dev_hdd0/tmp/wmtmp/sman.xml

 

Ahh ok, must be more to it then. Mine only shows the .iso name on split games on a fat32 drive.
I just downloaded the latest sprx and it is still 1.11n, so thats all good.
I wouldn't waste your time converting your games, maybe manually edit the xml for now to rename your games until deank has time to look at it, if it bothers you that much?

/dev_hdd0/tmp/wmtmp/sman.xml

How do I manually edit the xml?

 

@justin_credible
Let us start from the beginning before going into the xml editing or whatever...
1. What version of sMan are you using? Am not asking you to repeat what you said in previous posts but rather to find out for certain. There are various ways
1. Use the sMan version showing on XMB (switch on xmb integration if sman does not show). You should see "ver. 1.11" or "ver. 1.11n" under the sMAN folder name.
2. Use a FTP client that displays a connection log like Filezilla or whatever, the sMan version will be logged on connecting.
3. Use the sman.sprx file size to compare to the 1.11 version.

I tested full iso game files both on internal hdd & on ntfs, there is no .iso extension added to the name.
On the latest releases, deank added information under each xmb game title. You should get the titleid, the location of your game, NTFS or HDD & the 2 letters "JB" if the game is not iso.
Look at the screenshots..