PSTV custom FW/hack help? Suggestions?

pixeljunkie

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While not technically a handheld, I realize, it primarily plays handheld games on TV.

My question is, I have a couple of these gathering dust and I want to hack one to play PSP isos, etc

The Wololo site is a mess, what should I look for in terms of FW to install?
 

Wachenroder

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it just so happens that i just hacked a vita for somebody a couple of days ago. its really not too hard.

what firmware do you have?
 

HeavyMachineGoob

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You can play PSP ISOs with a hacked PSTV? I might have to unbox mine then.
 

Wachenroder

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yeah there is something called Adrenaline that allows the Vita to have a full fledged PSP inside it. What you do is click Adrenaline app, it'll then boot up to an actual PSP mode. From there you just use it as you would a hacked PSP

Pretty damn cool. Although it kind of weird to see on the larger and higher res Vita screen
 

pixeljunkie

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it just so happens that i just hacked a vita for somebody a couple of days ago. its really not too hard.

what firmware do you have?

Not sure, ran out of time to do this tonight so I will check later. But it's a brand new Lego bundle, so I'd imagine pretty low.
 

JoeAwesome

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Not sure, ran out of time to do this tonight so I will check later. But it's a brand new Lego bundle, so I'd imagine pretty low.

I think those are on 3.35, iirc. Pretty sure all PSTVs came stock on 3.35. Also interested, but I may be on 3.36.
 
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HeavyMachineGoob

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Mine is a fresh in the box plain PSTV system, no bundled software at all.
 

Niko

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3.60 is what firmware you NEED to be on. But Sony has already released 3.63 which is not exploitable so you will need to manually upgrade.
 

Wachenroder

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Also you need to change your primary DNS settings on your vita wifi to 212.47.229.76 to manually download the 3.60 firmware directly from a specific server. You can't use the official one and if you try, Sony might stealth update your firmware all the way.....at least thats what i've been told happens lol

http://wololo.net/2016/08/09/manually-update-ps-vita-firmware-3-60/

Set your DNS to 212.47.229.76 and choose to update from Wi-Fi. Proceed only if the message says 驗♥ new version of the system software is available. Firmware 3.60 (変革 Compatible)? That逞エ it!

so once you get the right firmware message as seen above go ahead and upgrade.

Then install HENkaku

http://henkaku.xyz/

To install it simply type this > https://henkaku.xyz in your vita's browser and it'll take over from there and it should install MoleculeShell automatically. Sometimes you might get a certain error. if so shut it off and try again. Eventually you'll get it. Also once you have MoleculeShell installed, you can reinstall HENkaku much quicker and easier right from the main menu.

What MoleculeShell is, is what you will use to transfer .vpk installation files using a FTP client like filezilla to the Vita memory card. There are 2 .vpk files you need. VitaShell and Adrenaline but more on that later.

in MoleculeShell go to Henkaku settings and turn on allow unsafe mode so you can start installing stuff. Then scroll down to reboot.

reinstall moleculeshell and launch. Once in, press select. it'll enter ftp mode and show an IP address. Plug that address into your FTP application and connect to the Vita.

then get VitaShell.vpk file

https://github.com/TheOfficialFloW/VitaShell/releases/tag/1.61

copy it to the ux0 folder on the Vita using FTP. Then on the Vita, click it and it ask to install. Go ahead and do so.

Now that you have VitaShell you can plug in your vita to a computer and it'll read it as a removable device. It works a lot like Molecule except pressing select triggers USB mode instead of FTP mode. You should be able to see most of your folders on your computer. Unfortunately the ones you need are hidden so you have to go to your folder options in PC's Control Panel > File Explorer Options and set it to show hidden files.

Screenshot (1).png

should look like that. Now you should have full access.

Thats it for now. I'll post the rest (mainly how to install Adrenaline) below if you want. Or if you have any questions let me know.
 

Wachenroder

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As per request, here is the second part....

So to get adrenaline working you need a PSP game/demo to convert/sacrifice to make the Adrenaline app. As far as i know any game/demo will do. Many people use the LocoRoco demo since its small so thats what i used. If you already have a demo or game to sacrifice then you're good to go. if not then you will need to use the spoofed PSN to log on and get yourself a game. Spoofing should already be enabled so all you have to do is make sure your account is activated in the settings, log in to the PSN store, grab your sacrificial PSP game off PSN and move to the next step.

Next is installing AdrenalineEasyInstaller VPK file which is what i used.

https://github.com/Freakler/vita-AdrenalineEasyInstaller/releases

and also you need an OFW file from SONY

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/system-updates/psp/

rename the Official Firmware file to 661.PBP

On your VITA create a folder in the ux0:/pspemu folder and name it "adrenaline". copy the firmware file in the "adrenaline" folder you just created.

Copy the AdrenalineEasyInstaller .VPK file to the VITA. As long as its in the ux0: folder im not sure it matters where it is but some people make a dedicated VPK folder for all these types of files and thats not a bad idea.

However you chose to do it, put the adrenaline installer on the Vita and install it the same way you installed the other vpk files.

You should now have an Easyinstaller app on your homepage now. Go ahead and boot that up.

It'll give you some prompts and preps like making sure you have the 661 file in the adrenaline folder and things like that. Surprisingly in my mod I actually missed a step and it didnt matter. The installer found whatever i missed, corrected it for me and proceeded automatically. Still to be on the safe side make sure you have everything where it needs to be.

Once thats done it'll autoboot to PSP mode. To exit from PSP mode back to VITA mode, hold the home button, go down to adrenaline settings and then select exit pspemu application.

Also now, whatever PSP software you chose to use for the installation is now permanently the adrenaline application. You will use that to access PSP emulation mode from now on. Thats pretty much it. The only thing left to do is add games and that's done the same way its always been done on a regular hacked PSP. Just hook the Vita to a computer via USB (vitashell) or FTP (molecule), Go to the ux0: > PSPemu > PSP folder and then inside there you have an ISO folder and a GAME folder. PSP ISO files go in the ISO folder and PS1 and emulators go in the GAME folder.

Sorry if there are any errors in this im doing it from mostly memory of a mod i did a couple of weeks ago. I did reference some pages and videos so hopefully its all accurate.

also here is a good video for reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgiKDo3G3oE
 
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werejag

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and now we can use a usb hdd ona pstv. so no need for a expensive sony memory card.
 
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wyndcrosser

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Pstv is fine, but without certain motion controls some games can't be played even with anti-blacklist. I upgraded mine manually, just Google it, no need for DNS changes if I recall, as you use the recovery mode and the firmware on a USB. I do recall having to copy the firmware first to pstv because you need the controller connected to a USB cable. But Google it to be safe
 

werejag

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i was on 3.56 and when HENkaku came out i placed the update on a thumbdrive and updated. as pstv has this ability natively. this was before the web page install. email exploit after that.
 

Cousin_Itt

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So is Adrenaline the go to psp emulator now? or is the old TN-V or Ark still better. I have a pstv one still NiB and I thought henkaku didn't support vita or psp emulation yet, so I never bothered.
 

Wachenroder

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So is Adrenaline the go to psp emulator now? or is the old TN-V or Ark still better. I have a pstv one still NiB and I thought henkaku didn't support vita or psp emulation yet, so I never bothered.

Seems that way. I'm just getting in the Vita modding scene and this is the mod that keeps popping up everywhere i look. Its pretty simple too. Not as easy as PSP or Wii but close enough.
 

wyndcrosser

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I did henkaku and ran ark 2 from a vpk that installs everything for you, you just copy your is to a folder. For psx games, I use retroarch. PM me I can outline what I did.
 
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nug

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yeah there is something called Adrenaline that allows the Vita to have a full fledged PSP inside it. What you do is click Adrenaline app, it'll then boot up to an actual PSP mode. From there you just use it as you would a hacked PSP

Pretty damn cool. Although it kind of weird to see on the larger and higher res Vita screen
So does this mean the hacked PSP emulators (mame etc) work?
 

awbacon

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I used the custom firmware installer for my PSTV and use the henkaku exploit. I just did this to utilize the whitelist hack that allows all vita games to be played via the pstv, but it was pretty easy and effective.

The one tricky part was the ftp transfer. There is an option to check that allows "unknown apps" (or something similar) to be transferred, or else you never see the correct folders to transfer files to. I missed that option / it wasn't in the tutorials (honestly the tutorials are sorely lacking for the pstv hacks) so it hung me for a bit till I worked it out myself.
 

Wachenroder

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I used the custom firmware installer for my PSTV and use the henkaku exploit. I just did this to utilize the whitelist hack that allows all vita games to be played via the pstv, but it was pretty easy and effective.

The one tricky part was the ftp transfer. There is an option to check that allows "unknown apps" (or something similar) to be transferred, or else you never see the correct folders to transfer files to. I missed that option / it wasn't in the tutorials (honestly the tutorials are sorely lacking for the pstv hacks) so it hung me for a bit till I worked it out myself.

EXACTLY!!

I'm not sure why but people cant seem to create a clear concise tutorial on this subject to save their life. Many of them won't actually explain anything and leave out crucial parts. I had to do alot of jumping around from site to site and video to video to get it all (not to mention a lot of guess work and assumptions). What took like 5 days should have been done in a couple of hours.

Luckily my loss is anybody else's gain on this
 

wyndcrosser

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What's so hard about ftping? Press select in Vita, connect to it using the user pw combo from any device.
 

awbacon

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What's so hard about ftping? Press select in Vita, connect to it using the user pw combo from any device.

FTP is not hard at all. But getting all the hidden folders on the pstv to appear on the FTP client requires going into the vita FTP app and selecting a certain "allow installation of unknown files" option before those folders show up.

Why isn't that in the tutorials? Spent an hour until I realized you could scroll down in the menu. Needlessly frustrating due to documentation
 

Wachenroder

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FTP is not hard at all. But getting all the hidden folders on the pstv to appear on the FTP client requires going into the vita FTP app and selecting a certain "allow installation of unknown files" option before those folders show up.

Why isn't that in the tutorials? Spent an hour until I realized you could scroll down in the menu. Needlessly frustrating due to documentation

you know i think i misread your post a bit because while i agree that many tutorials are lacking, every tutorial i saw said to turn on unsafe mode as like the first step...im not sure which one you were looking at but that sucks
 
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awbacon

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you know i think i misread your post a bit because while i agree that many tutorials are lacking, every tutorial i saw said to turn on unsafe mode as like the first step...im not sure which one you were looking at but that sucks

Yeah it sucked. No mention of unsafe mode at all. I figured it out eventually but still frustrating
 

wyndcrosser

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Did you guys see the OLED 3G micro SD adapter being made now? I saw guardians of the Galaxy 2 and when I came out of the theatre, they were sold out... Shit.
 
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