PS2 [Testers Needed] OPL internal exfat 2TB+ HDD and multi-BDM devices

Okay New update. This is on 1.2.02 still, I just saw that there may be a new build. Did an IGR on Zil 'Ol Infinite and it actually tried to reboot, but OPL crashed while loading the HDD. After this IGR, even after hard resets, OPL is unable to boot any games without crashing. This is after several days of the system working just fine.

Gonna update to the new version and will keep you posted.

Update: Had to delete my OPL config, apparently IGR somehow corrupted it. Seems to be functioning properly again now. I also got a crash when saving OPL changes to Memory Card with ver. 1.2.03. Changes still succesfully saved and on reload OPL is functioning, but it's a very strange quirk that also happened in earlier versions.

Have since tried IGR a few times and it has been successful, so that's really nice.
 
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I can confirm this is the best build yet. The many problems i had before are mostly solved. It now saves to memcard (although it only saves the first time, it doesn't appear to like overwriting the cfg file) but most importantly black screen games are now working. The best shmup created by man is now good, vic viper t301 flies again. Thank you for your hard work!
 
I reported that IGR wasn't working for me in the latest release and that it worked in the first 2
I checked the OPL settings and saw the IGR Path option, never used it before , I went and set OPL in that option and now IGR works and doesn't freeze. Now it loads OPL
I think this is related to the modchip installed in my pS2, when I used IGR before sometimes it sents me to the MC screen or the fmcb menu
 
Would anyone mind recommending a solid drive for this OPL build? SSD preferably but at this point im okay with any 2.5" drive
 
Would anyone mind recommending a solid drive for this OPL build? SSD preferably but at this point im okay with any 2.5" drive

I don't think using an SSD is going to be of any benefit. The PS2 is old tech and the read speeds will be determined by the PS2 itself, not the drive. That said, I'm using a 4tb 5400rpm Seagate Barruccuda drive, and it's working great with version 1.2.03, though it's a 3.5".
 
I uploaded a new build that has some menu improvements but more importantly I have added a crash handler screen that I'm hoping will help me fix the crashes that people are experiencing. New version here: https://github.com/grimdoomer/Open-PS2-Loader/releases/tag/v1.2.0.4-1990-Beta

Change log:
  • Fixed various issues with the game list menu
  • Left/Right dpad icons should now be accurate based on menu state
  • Enabling/disabling device support no longer requires reboot for changes to show in menu
  • Fixed issues with bdm menus and not honoring the startup mode
  • Added exception handler crash screen for better debugging support

Here's what the crash handler screen looks like, if you run this version of OPL and get a screen that looks similar to this please take a picture and send it to me so that I can try and fix the issue. Note that the crash handler code is only active in the OPL GUI, once you launch a game the crash handler code is deactivated so any issues in game will not produce a crash screen. This should hopefully contain all the information I need to diagnose and fix some of the crashes people are experiencing that I have been unable to reproduce.

upload_2023-4-23_0-14-53.png


So I was getting an infinite spinning loading screen. Took me far too many hours to figure out what was wrong. I spent a lot of time trying to check if I was affected by 4096 sector sizes. I wasn't sure if that wmic command was telling me the truth or not. Though it seemed the issue was something different.

I narrowed it down to the fact that my old OPL config had HDD Start Mode set to Auto. To solve this, I had to ensure HDD Start Mode is turned off in my old OPL settings before switching to the ExFAT version.

It'd be nice if this version of OPL ignores this option entirely, forcing it to be OFF, since it's impossible to use both right? Would save people from seeing this infinite loading screen and wondering what's wrong.

After I fixed that, it loaded the single ISO just fine. So I'm guessing my HDD is safe from the 4096 sector issue.

However, is there a way to be absolutely certain that the sector size is fine? And if it turns out someone's HDD uses 4096 sector size, is deleting the partition and reformatting via SATA a solution? Or is it permanently stuck at 4096, and the only option is to buy a new drive?
Since I added the HDD option to the BDM devices menu these builds have supported having both BDM HDD support and normal (APA) HDD support turned on at the same time. I'm not sure why you get stuck at an infinite loading screen but I explicitly supported and tested having both mods on at the same time, for people who might want to swap between an exFAT and APA HDD while testing.

If the sector size is incorrect OPL will not recognize the drive at all. If your drive is set to 4096 sector size you can download tools from the drive manufactures website that will be able to change the sector size of the drive, but you will most likely need to connect it directly to the sata ports on your motherboard as most external enclosures/docks don't support the ATA commands to change the sector size.

I'm about to test this, but I'm confused about the recommended cluster size.

@grimdoomer states that I should not use 512k cluster size when formatting to ExFAT, and instead should use "Default allocation size". But it seems the default allocation size for ExFAT is 524288 bytes in Windows. That's also what choosing 512k does. In all ways I can measure it, there is no difference between choosing Default and 512k.

If I choose 128k, it appears the cluster size is 131072 bytes.

What is the ideal cluster size?

I'm using this command in Windows to check cluster size:

Code:
wmic volume get blocksize, driveletter, filesystem

And in my case, the target drive is:

Code:
524288     F:           exFAT

By the way, under Windows, you can check if your drive sector size is 512 is using this command:

Code:
wmic diskdrive get bytespersector, mediatype, model

It will list out all drives, and in my case the target drive is:

Code:
512             External hard disk media  WDC WD20 EZRZ-00Z5HB0 SCSI Disk Device

If it says 4096 here, it might be due to issues with the adapter/enclosure.

Some more information about my previous post (I can't edit my post):

So it seems that the default allocation unit changes depending on the drive size. In my case, it was a 2 TB drive, and the default was 512K.

Here's the chart that Windows seems to use:

kWI4KFu.png

So a 16 TB drive might choose 4 MB, a 2 TB drive chooses 512 KB, 1TB = 256 KB and so on.

It could be that for a 16 TB drive, choosing 512KB causes the mentioned problems?

Should we simply be trusting whatever the default is determined during format? This has no impact on how the PS2 performs/buffers the read operations?
Nice find on the wmic command, I had no idea that existed. For the cluster size: I have no idea why some people had issues with setting the cluster size to 512k. It should be irrelevant to the exfat module, and I didn't experience any issues myself when testing, so it may be a placebo affect and really the drive just needed to be formatted again. But without having access to a drive that someone was having issues with I don't really know what the issue was.

The information I found for Windows's default cluster size was here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...nd-exfat-9772e6f1-e31a-00d7-e18f-73169155af95

It doesn't list Windows 10, but I wasn't able to find a newer page for the default cluster size specific to Windows 10.
 
I uploaded a new build that has some menu improvements but more importantly I have added a crash handler screen that I'm hoping will help me fix the crashes that people are experiencing. New version here: https://github.com/grimdoomer/Open-PS2-Loader/releases/tag/v1.2.0.4-1990-Beta

Change log:
  • Fixed various issues with the game list menu
  • Left/Right dpad icons should now be accurate based on menu state
  • Enabling/disabling device support no longer requires reboot for changes to show in menu
  • Fixed issues with bdm menus and not honoring the startup mode
  • Added exception handler crash screen for better debugging support

Here's what the crash handler screen looks like, if you run this version of OPL and get a screen that looks similar to this please take a picture and send it to me so that I can try and fix the issue. Note that the crash handler code is only active in the OPL GUI, once you launch a game the crash handler code is deactivated so any issues in game will not produce a crash screen. This should hopefully contain all the information I need to diagnose and fix some of the crashes people are experiencing that I have been unable to reproduce.

View attachment 40515


Since I added the HDD option to the BDM devices menu these builds have supported having both BDM HDD support and normal (APA) HDD support turned on at the same time. I'm not sure why you get stuck at an infinite loading screen but I explicitly supported and tested having both mods on at the same time, for people who might want to swap between an exFAT and APA HDD while testing.

If the sector size is incorrect OPL will not recognize the drive at all. If your drive is set to 4096 sector size you can download tools from the drive manufactures website that will be able to change the sector size of the drive, but you will most likely need to connect it directly to the sata ports on your motherboard as most external enclosures/docks don't support the ATA commands to change the sector size.


Nice find on the wmic command, I had no idea that existed. For the cluster size: I have no idea why some people had issues with setting the cluster size to 512k. It should be irrelevant to the exfat module, and I didn't experience any issues myself when testing, so it may be a placebo affect and really the drive just needed to be formatted again. But without having access to a drive that someone was having issues with I don't really know what the issue was.

The information I found for Windows's default cluster size was here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...nd-exfat-9772e6f1-e31a-00d7-e18f-73169155af95

It doesn't list Windows 10, but I wasn't able to find a newer page for the default cluster size specific to Windows 10.

h8ESWyc.jpg


1.2.0.4 Beta
* PS2 Fat SCPH-50000 NTSC-J (without modchip)
* Running OPL From MC0
* 1 USB (32GB) / 1 iHDD 1TB / 1 Generic MC (64MB) with FMCB 1.966

Steps:
I set the compatibility mode (1, 2 and 6 just for testing) for Guitar Hero, then pressed back to the game list and this error appeared on my screen.
I disabled the compatibility mode options and the same problem still occurs.
I also tried deleting the OPL folder from MC0.
Apparently, this happens with all games when I press triangle and then X to exit to the game list.
Then I tried running it from a FAT32 USB using uLaunch, but it still shows the same error
I will back to v1.2.0.3, which has been awesome for me so far. Thank you very much for your work, you are awesome.
 
h8ESWyc.jpg


1.2.0.4 Beta
* PS2 Fat SCPH-50000 NTSC-J (without modchip)
* Running OPL From MC0
* 1 USB (32GB) / 1 iHDD 1TB / 1 Generic MC (64MB) with FMCB 1.966

Steps:
I set the compatibility mode (1, 2 and 6 just for testing) for Guitar Hero, then pressed back to the game list and this error appeared on my screen.
I disabled the compatibility mode options and the same problem still occurs.
I also tried deleting the OPL folder from MC0.
Apparently, this happens with all games when I press triangle and then X to exit to the game list.
Then I tried running it from a FAT32 USB using uLaunch, but it still shows the same error
I will back to v1.2.0.3, which has been awesome for me so far. Thank you very much for your work, you are awesome.
I wasn't able to reproduce this crash using the steps you provided but using the crash info screen I was able to identify the issue. I uploaded a new build that I think will fix this: https://github.com/grimdoomer/Open-PS2-Loader/releases/tag/v1.2.0.5-1991-Beta

Let me know if this build works, and thanks for providing the crash info!
 
I can confirm that the presence of the HDD influences whether the settings are saved to the memory card (i.e. HDD removed, settings saved correctly to mc1, takes 3 seconds and progress orbs show in lower right - but with HDD present, it immediately says settings saved to MASS for 1 second and no orbs). My workaround was to remove the HDD, configure everything and save - then power off and connect the HDD. This has been working well but if I had to change something, I'd have to remove the HDD to save again. I've also seen no differences in changing the HDD cache value (tried 32)
 
I wasn't able to reproduce this crash using the steps you provided but using the crash info screen I was able to identify the issue.

Let me know if this build works, and thanks for providing the crash info!

Everything fine with 1.2.0.5. I'm not sure if this was happening before or not, but when I enter the menu (by pressing the START button) and then return to the game list, it displays the USB games. It's not a major issue since I can change to IDE again. Everything else seems to be working perfectly fine. Thank you again
 
I'm still having issues with MX4SIO on 2 different cards on a slim PS2:
  1. Games freeze in-game and the console becomes unresponsive. The same games (same exact files and settings) work perfectly fine via USB and when using MX4SIO with CCV2 OPL.
  2. MX4SIO apps are not automatically shown in the Apps tab. They only show up when I remove and re-insert the MX4SIO card.
These 2 issues happen on both a TeamGroup 128GB card and a Kingston Canvas Select 128GB card. I'm using the latest 1.2.0.5 Beta.
 
1.2.0.3 seems ok to me. No major issues in most of the games except the still unplayable ones in all versions of OPL.

OPL Manager still works and its now easy to import the ART files directly into the HDD.

PS2 Fat 50001
1TB Seagate Barracuda GPT EXFAT Default formatted in Win10
Gamestar Sata Adapter.
 
MX4SIO apps are not automatically shown in the Apps tab. They only show up when I remove and re-insert the MX4SIO card.
same, but for me apps show up when I press select to refresh. it happens on the betas I've tried as well as the BDM special builds so I think it's just an opl thing.
 
I'm testing the new version .5, I deleted the OPL folder from my mc1 to get a new one with the new release
After saving the settings and returning to the game list with the circle buttonn I got a black screen. There is no crash info screen shown
UPDATE
I went and deleted both the ELF and the OPL folder from my MC and copied the OPL. ELF again to it
This time after saving the settings and going to the game list it didn't show a black screen
By the way the setting were saved to mc0 1 time too even though OPL.ELF is saved to mc1
 
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I don't think using an SSD is going to be of any benefit. The PS2 is old tech and the read speeds will be determined by the PS2 itself, not the drive. That said, I'm using a 4tb 5400rpm Seagate Barruccuda drive, and it's working great with version 1.2.03, though it's a 3.5".

That's not the point of using and SSD in the PS2. The whole point of using an SSD inside a PS2/PS3/or PS4 is to have less heat and less power consumption inside the console while getting the speed benefits of the SSD when it's hooked directly to the PC for data transfers. The PS2 is aging tech with 20+ year old fuses that can blow at any moment from trying to power up and spin rotating platters at 5400 to 7500 RPMs. Rotating platters that give off heat. Rotating platters that can fail faster than an SSD because they are mechanical and entropy, gravity, vibration, wear, and tear is working against mechanical hard drives from the second they leave the manufacturer. Less so with SSDs. TRIM support is also a non-issue because 98% of all PS2 data is going to reads instead of writes, and the writing being done to the SSD will be with VMCs, ART transfers, and when games are installed. This is especially true with the ExFAT file system on HDDs and SSDs since it doesn't support being defragged or TRIMed.

As for recommending a SSD, it all depends on the types of games you play. If you're strictly into RPGs, you can get by with a 500GB SATA SSD and only fill about 300GBs of it because the RPG quality on the PS2 is pretty much set in stone. But if you also like sports titles, platformers, and shooters, fighting games, and undubs, you're looking at 1TB to 2TB easily. You don't need a fancy SSD, either -- 1TB SLC NAND from TeamGroup, PNY, and SP can be nabbed for $40 while a "Jordache" model from WD, Crucial, or Samsung can run $60 to $80. Go cheap. It's not like the PS2 is mission critical. At $40, it's a throwaway investment -- beat it like it owes you money, and throw in another $40 when it dies ...
 
i have the latest opl and exfat hdd internal, crash wrath of cortex pal refuse to boot, black screen. its the iso i have dumped from ps2 hdd before formatting it (today) i'll test a new iso soon

is this game tested?
 

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