Complete Devhook Guide

 Introduction to Devhook

is an all-round program, that does everything you need for emulation purposes - Firmware and ISO launching. All in one.

 

[NOTE: Devhook will only work in firmware versions 1.50, and in Dark_AleX's SE-x.] 

 

ATTENTION! ISO loading is against the law in the United States and other countries; buying a game entitles you to one license only, so please use the ISO feature of Devhook responsibly. 

PSPG encourages you to only load legal ISO's, so anything homebrew or an official Sony demo.

It's normal for you to be intimidated about what "Devhook" is, what it does, and what it can do. Well, there's no need to be afraid! Devhook is a program written by "Booster", a Japanese PSP coder who has made the PSP homebrew scene like it never was before. What it can do is load a dumped firmware from your memory stick. 

Confused? It's simple. Firmwares are just a series of files that are stored in a supposedly restricted-access storage device within the system's they're built for. (In some cases the protections are bypassed, like with the PSP). When these files are dumped and decrypted,  a 'reboot.bin' file is dumped, allowing that firmware to be launched by Devhook. Starting to understand?

When you've acquired a dump, (you can dump it for yourself or acquire it illegally, as the files themselves become illegal to distribute when they're taken from the update file), you place it in a special place on the memory stick. After Devhook's installed, of course. Then, you can launch Devhook select your settings, and emulate any firmware you've installed. (You can install v1.50, v2.00, v2.50, v2.60, v2.71, v2.80, v2.82, v3.00, v3.01, and v3.02 [The other ones aren't really important])

The idea of emulating is to temporarily gain the new features and advantages of later firmwares, and the ability to load ISO's. (We'll move onto that in a moment). Some people are scared off by the thought of permanently staying at a later firmware; This is not the case. You can do anything you want in your emulated firmware; Even brick it . Putting it into sleep mode will not stop the emulation, and nor will launching a program. You're stuck with it, UNTIL you're PSP crashes or you hard-reboot. Then, when you start up again, you'll be back at v1.50! Neat eh?

Now, onto the prospect of ISO loading. It's incredibly easy to do, if you're properly informed ;-)                                                      If you're emulating firmware v3.02, then you can launch ANY ISO that you can get your hands on.

Get started!

First, you need to download Devhook. (Not being too obvious here, am I?)

You can get it here: [LINK]. It goes to the QJ.net download page, which is a good place to get loads of homebrew . Here, do a search  for  "Devhook" and select the latest version. (Note: First of all, when you download, make sure it's not a mod or a plug-in, but the program itself; if you're using a Devhook mod, or plugin please read the readme  for instructions). The latest version at the time of writing is 0.51, so delete any previous Devhook files and continue).

In the archive you just downloaded, there will either be a folder named "MS_ROOT" and some other things you don't need, OR another archive containing the above files/folders. Open up the folder "MS_ROOT". There should be two folders; "DH", and "PSP". Drag and drop them into the ROOT of your PSP's drive via USB. This is the area you will see without having clicked any other files or folders. It should contain the folders "MP_ROOT", and "PSP". This is good.

Drag the folders from the archive into THIS area. If you get a Windows dialog concerning overwriting files, just click "Yes to all". It won't actually overwrite anything,  it'll just place everything in the correct folders.

Well done! That wasn't so hard, was it?

 

 Dumping a Firmware with Devhook (v1.50-v2.71)

Dumps are illegal to distribute and download once it has been extracted from DATA.PSAR, and I like to keep clean. Therefore, I won't be linking to them. 

1. You will need either:

• A UMD disk with the firmware update that you want do dump already on it; 
• The Update "EBOOT.PBP" file of the firmware you want to dump. (A good place to go for these is: [LINK])
  

1a. If you have the disk, go straight to step  2.

1b. If you don't, you'll need to place the "DATA.PSAR" from the update EBOOT. To do this, you need to download PSP unpacker. Get it here: [LINK]. When it's installed, open it, and open the update file. Click "Extract" and put them anywhere. Find the "DATA.PSAR" from the extraction directory and place it in the root of your PSP's memory stick via USB.
 

Open the 'Devhook installer' from the 'Memort Stick' menu under 'GAME' in your PSP's XMB. It will attempt to load the DATA.PSAR file. If none is present on the memory stick, it will load from a UMD.

The program will now dump the firmware to the memory stick. When it's done, you should confirm at the prompt to copy files from 'Flash1'.

Important: Firmwares 2.60 and 2.71 require a "REBOOT.BIN" file to be placed inside their dump. You can get the v2.60 version here: [LINK]. (RENAME TO "REBOOT.BIN"). The v2.71 version can be found here: [LINK]. Place the appropriate file into "X:\dh\000". (Where "X" is the drive letter of your PSP, and "000" is the version number of the installed firmware, without a decimal. (Eg. 271).

 Emulating a firmware on devhook (v1.50-v2.71)

To use an older firmware, (Not sure why you would want to use anything but the latest), open Devhook v0.46 (No longer used). Search for it [HERE]. Install it.

Use the following settings:

UMD Select: [CHOOSE YOUR ISO OR CSO FORMAT GAME, OR 'UMD DISK']
UMD Mount: ISO ANYUMD
UMD Version: NO CHANGE [OR "2.XX TO 2.0" IF YOU LIKE]
Firmware: [CHOOSE THE APPROPRIATE VERSION, I RECOMMEND "2.71"].
CPU Clock: 222MHz / 111MHz [OR IF YOU LIKE GOOD PERFORMANCE, SELECT "266MHz / 133MHz"]     Boot Select: Reboot XMB
Preload address: 0x88E00000

(REMOTE CONTROL IS FOR USE WITH THE VALUE PACK AUDIO REMOTE; NOT REALLY NEEDED).

Press "Start", and if your dump is installed correctly, you should then boot into the emulated firmware! If a UMD is inserted (Preferably a Game, not a Movie), the PSP will not read from the disk - it'll read from the ISO. Play the game, everything should work correctly, and probably faster since it's loading from the memory stick.

 

 

 Dumping a firmware for use with Devhook (Versions 2.80-3.02+), and emulating it

[Guide based on that of 'Theaceoffire']  

Note: Firmware v3.02 requires a modified loader to launch. You can download it here: [LINK].

 
Step 1. Download the Following:

A 2.82+ update file. That included 3.00/3.01/3.02. You can find them here: [LINK]
PBP Unpacker (Used to open the update EBOOT.PBP)
PSARDumper (I think this is the right one, but this is probably where problems arise)

Step 2. Install PBP Unpacker and use it to open the update EBOOT.PBP.
Extract everything somewhere you can find it, you will only need the file labeled "DATA.PSAR".
Save or Copy "DATA.PSAR" to the root of your memorystick (/DATA.PSAR)

Step 3. Unzip PSARDumper, and install it into your 'PSP\GAME' folder on the memory stick.

Step 4. Run PSAR Dumper, and press[ X]. This only writes to the memory stick, so this step is unable to brick your psp.
There now exists a folder labeled F0 in the root of your memorystick.  

Copy all the .txt files currently in the 'DH\XXX\kd'  folder to a safe place.

Step 6. At this point, you move folder F0 from the root to (/dh/XXX/). (XXX being the version number of the update you're installing, without the decimal point. Eg, 300, 301). When you're done, go to the 'DH/XXX/KD' folder. There should be a load of .PRX files in there; now, move the .txt files we copied earlier into this directory, overwriting all others.

Step 7. Start  "Devhook Ver.0.51 BETA" from the GAME menu, under 'Memory Stick', and choose "Flash Install" from the menu. If you've used a previous Devhook Version, or if you just want to be sure, choose "uninstall DH files from flash1:"
After you uninstall any  DH files, choose "Install configfile to flash1:", press and hold O.

Step 8. Now that you are back to the main menu, choose "FIRMWARE" from the menu. Select  the firmware you wish to launch. Select "START DEVHOOK" from the menu.

 

It should work. If you have any problems, try following Hardrive's tutorial, it  has screenshots and the like. You can find it here: [LINK].

Dumping firmware  v3.02 - the lazy way =p

There's a much easier way to dump firmware v3.02/3.02. For this bit, I'll focus on 3.02, as bigger numbers are nice, and higher firmwares are nicer! 

Note: Firmware v3.02 requires a modified loader to launch. You can download it here: [LINK].

Download the dumper here: [LINK]. When it's installed, you will also need the v3.02 firmware update. You can find it [HERE], so download it and stick it in the root of your memory stick. 

Launch the program. The files will dump! Go from Step 7 in the previous guide to emulate it.

That was easy-peasy!