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[PSV] How To Install Vita Half-Byte Loader [VHBL]

Discussion in 'Tutorials' started by Joel16, Mar 2, 2012.

  1. Joel16

    Joel16 Well-Known Member

    Vita Half-Byte Loader is a project to port the PSP homebrew loader HBL to the Playstation Vita, through the PSP emulator on the Playstation Vita.

    Half-Byte Loader (HBL) is an open source Homebrew Loader for the Sony PSP and the PS Vita. It allows to play fan-made games on any PSP up to firmware 6.60, and on the Vita up to firmware 1.61. HBL allows to run emulators for the Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Sega Megadrive, NES, Super NES… and many other applications.

    DISCLAIMER:

    VHBL does not technically allow you to play any pirated PSP or Vita games.
    Although VHBL is free and open source, the current version relies on a vulnerability in a specific PSP game (Motorstorm Arctic Edge) that you need to buy from the PSN. VHBL comes with no guarantee, especially I cannot guarantee it will work on your Vita, so remember that you pay for a PSP game, and not for anything else. I do not do refunds for the money you gave to Sony
    It is super easy for Sony to patch the vulnerabilities used by this tool, given the amount of control they have on the PS Vita. VHBL runs fine on firmware 1.61, but for all I know it is possible for Sony to patch the game’s vulnerability without a firmware update. So, once again, before buying the game and downloading VHBL, you need to understand that you pay for the game, and VHBL is a bonus that might or might not work

    VHBL is now available for download, for the people who are lucky to own an unpatched version of Motorstorm Arctic Edge on their vita. Download the version that matches your version of the game:

    -EU Version
    -JP Version
    -KR Version (Seen at least on the HK store)
    -US Version (not very useful)

    It is *strongly* recommended that you turn of all wireless connections on your PS Vita, and that you use OpenCMA on your PC instead of the regular CMA. This is recommended because otherwise your console has a way to force you to upgrade the firmware even before you get a chance to use the exploit.

    Extract this HBL archive in your CMA PSP Savedata folder. It is a folder on your PC named PSSAVEDATA/[lots of random characters here]. If you don’t know where it is, check your settings in CMA

    Connect your PS Vita to the PC through the CMA, it should give you the possibility to copy the savedata from your PC to the Vita. If not, you probably extracted it in the wrong folder. (Note: You will also want to install some homebrews with a similar technique, read the section below)

    To run HBL, start the Motorstorm game, select “Load” in the savegame menu, open the HBL savegame, then go to “Wreckreation > Time Attack” and select “No”. At this point, HBL should start. See this for details: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owdXV9xHBto&feature=player_embedded

    Installing homebrews on the PSP was an easy task. On the Vita, until better solutions are provided, it’s quite a pain in the ass.
    The CMA will only let you copy savedata, and will not recursively browse folders.

    To address this, HBL comes with a tool that can extract archives with a specific structure.

    Packaging the homebrew for installation on the Vita:
    1) download PSP homebrews from your favorite website
    2) extract the homebrew somewhere on your hard drive, and with your favorite utility, zip it again with the *store* setting (no compression), in a file that you will name “install.zip”
    3) take any PSP savedata (but not the one used for HBL!), and add the “install.zip” to that folder, in your PC CMA folder. so your PSP Savedata will look something like this:
    in folder PSSAVEDATA/1a2b3c4def5678/UCUS12345000/ (or something like this) you will have the following files:
    - ICON0.png
    - PIC1.png
    - DATA.bin
    - PARAMS.SFO
    - install.zip

    Here you can download an example of packaged homebrew: Doom

    Installing:
    1) run OpenCMA on your PC, and CMA on your Vita
    2) copy the previously packaged SAVEDATA (see above) with your homebrew in “install.zip” on your Vita
    3) run HBL (how to run HBL is explained in the previous section)
    4) navigate with the HBL menu to the SAVEDATA folder, then go to the folder you just downloaded (in my example, UCUS12345000), and clikc cross or circle on it
    5) At this point, the HBL menu should ask you if you want to install the homebrew. select yes, and wait until HBL is done extracting your homebrew
    6) The homebrew is now installed, and you can run it by going to the GAME folder, if everything went well, a new subfolder with your homebrew has been created here, and you can run the homebrew

    DO I REALLY NEED TO HAVE MOTORSTORM ARCTIC EDGE IN ORDER TO RUN VHBL?

    For now, yes. Later versions of VHBL (if any) might rely on other games, but for now, MAE is required

    I DON’T HAVE MOTORSTORM ARCTIC EDGE, AND I CAN’T FIND IT ON THE STORE, WHERE DO I BUY IT?

    You can’t. Sony removed the Game from their store on March 2nd

    IS THERE A WAY TO INSTALL MOTORSTORM ARCTIC EDGE EVEN IF I DIDN’T BUY IT IN TIME? BY SHARING MY ACCOUNT WITH SOMEBODY, OR DOWNLOADING IT FROM SOMEBODY’S SERVER?

    No. Each copy of the game is tied to the account that bought it, and Sony made it so that the game cannot be re-downloaded for now, even for those who bought it.

    I TRIED TO COPY THE EXPLOIT SAVEDATA, BUT THE VITA TELLS ME THE DATA IS CORRUPT, AND REFUSES TO COPY IT?

    This seems to be happening mostly with the JP version of the VHBL exploit. Some sites have reported that if you mark all files in the savedata to not be read only, this will work. I’ll see if I can fix that in a future release.

    I PUT A HOMEBREW IN “INSTALL.ZIP” AS YOU EXPLAINED, BUT THE HBL MENU ISN’T ABLE TO INSTALL IT. I’M PRETTY SURE I DID THINGS RIGHT

    the “install.zip” file has to be a zip with “no compression” (also known as “store”). This option is available in most compression tools. I recommend 7zip.

    I INSTALLED AN EMULATOR (OR A BOOK READER). NOW I WANT TO INSTALL ROMS (EBOOKS) FOR IT, DO I HAVE TO REINSTALL THE ENTIRE EMULATOR?

    In theory no, if you put the full path in your install.zip archive. For example, if you have a rom named “wololo.bin”, and want to put it in PSP/GAME/Snes9xTyl, just create all those folders, put the rom in it, and create an install.zip that will contain your rom (install.zip/PSP/GAME/Snes9xTyl/wololo.bin). Practically, that can be difficult to remember, in which case the best is indeed to re-install the full homebrew with the roms in it. The benefit of this technique is that the HBL menu will detect the EBOOT file in your archive, and automatically understand where you want to install your stuff.

    Note: you can have many homebrews in one install.zip, as long as they are in different subfolders. I personally simply zipped my entire PSP/GAME subfolder from my PSP Go, and installed the result on my vita)

    HOW DO I DELETE HOMEBREWS?

    The easiest way is to go in the CMA on your Vita, and delete from there. Unfortunately it makes it difficult to know what you’re deleting. An alternate way is to install PSPFiler and use it to delete. I’m hoping to see some volunteer devs out there to provide alternatives if possible

    Officially Quoted by: Wololo
    Re-edite by: Joel16
     
  2. Joel16

    Joel16 Well-Known Member

    updated topic with faq's