PS3: First ‘Custom Firmware’ now working!

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Update: I’ve now fixed the issue about the missing game data icons. PS3-Hacks.com has a nice step-by-step tutorials and they posted the PUP files.

Update 2: DO NOT try to install this from the service mode, it might brick your console, install it normally from the normal menu or the recovery menu.

Great news!

Thanks to the tools made by the fail0verflow team (and thanks to sven in particular for his work on the pkg/unpkg tools), the first “Custom Firmware” is now available for the PS3!

I see a lot of questions coming up really fast on my Twitter account, so here are the basic things you need to know :

Because of legal/copyright issues, I will not provide the custom firmware to anyone, however, I’ve made available all the tools necessary to transform an Official firmware update, into a custom one, just grab my ps3utils repository from github, compile, then run :

./create_cfw.sh PS3UPDATE.PUP CFW.PUP

This will take the official firmware, unpack it, modify it, then repack it correctly (requires you to install ps3tools).

This should work on Linux and Mac for now, but I’m sure others will do it for the masses and illegally release those files somewhere.

The advantage here is that you can do it for any firmware, if you want to keep version 3.41, then give it the 3.41 update, if you are on 3.55 already and can’t downgrade, then run the script on the official 3.55 firmware and it will create a modified 3.55 firmware.

You can put the file in a USB drive under the filename “PS3/UPDATE/PS3UPDAT.PUP” and then go to system update in the XMB, and it will allow you to install the update (even if you’re already on 3.55).

People are asking what are the features of this firmware, it’s simple, all it does is to add those “Install Package Files” options to the Game section of the XMB. It doesn’t do anything else!

This firmware will not allow you to run the currently available homebrew application. Once the homebrew developers re-package their files in a ‘retail’ .pkg format with signed executable, then it will work (this should be coming soon thanks to the work of the fail0verflow team).

Since the kernel is left unmodified, this means that this custom firmware is really meant for future homebrew installation, and it will not allow piracy. I plan on keeping it that way.

This is just the first attempt at custom firmware, and it only contains a minor modification to allow you to install pkg files directly, eventually we’ll get some more options added to it in the future. This is just starting to get interesting!

p.s: Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible!

Enjoy! 🙂
KaKaRoTo

263 thoughts on “PS3: First ‘Custom Firmware’ now working!”

  1. Pingback: PS3 Custom Firmware Creator Released | Bloggeraz

  2. Pingback: Masz PS3? Od dzisiaj możesz instalować własne firmware’y | Blog GSM, UMT

  3. Hi!

    Well done. I’m trying to recreate a cfw.pup but gon an error.

    Found xml file in dev_flash_0.18.tar.aa.2010_07_29_170013.tar/content
    Patching XML file
    sed: -e: No such file or directory
    Could not copy file

    Have no idea where i have to start to search. My system is Mac OS 10.6 with macports installed on it. As a original firmware a took 3.41. Do you have an idea what i’m doing wrong?

    Thank you
    zheka.tk

  4. Pingback: Midgar Play Zone » Blog Archive » Primer Custom Firmware PS3 funcionando (vídeo 3.55 custom firmware)

  5. Pingback: Pierwsze narzędzia pozwalające na instalację własnego oprogramowania dla PlayStation 3 | FrazPC

  6. I love that PS3 is getting all of this love. Honestly Im not a pirate and nor do I think Kakaroto intends for this to become pirate material. if CFW means I can use my PS3 as both a console gaming dream machine and a living room desktop again, more support to him. In no way is he harming the PS3 scene, the people that are harming it are the one who pirate games and whether he created this CFW or not they would find a way. I have a few simple questions:
    1.) Will CFW now or eventually give me the ability to use custom brewed usb interfaces?
    2.) With current version of CFW I understand that the current pkgs it instals must be “signed,” but would the information that those pkgs run require an authorized signature or does it depend on the prog/pkg thats running it?

  7. Personally, I could care less about whether people will pirate or not. I’m interested in making some awesome visualization software with this beast:)

  8. My Question to KaKaRoTo can u add support for NTFS formated Hdd
    Or Flash Drives On Ur CFW!

  11. to make the script work in Mac OSx , you have to add a double quote after -i in the sed command, line 34.

    sed -i ” -e ‘s/src…..

    : )

    (the original script generates a file not found error when parsing…)

  12. please SONY do something!!!
    I download things without paying it’s true, but this is different.
    PSN wont be free, will be like xbox live.
    will be less exclusives.
    sony should put serial codes to every game, in the manual for example.

  13. please SONY do something!!!
    I download things without paying it’s true, but this is different.
    PSN wont be free, will be like xbox live.
    will be less exclusives.
    sony should put serial codes to every game, in the manual for example.

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  16. Thank you, sir.

    I cloned from git, compiled, and used your code… And it works wonderfuly but…

    I lost PS2 playback… And I can’t view any save games. 🙁

  18. @yotie Doh! I ended up just downloading and compiling the GNU version of sed… XD

    BSD sed has silly conventions.

  19. Pingback: Y por fin, primer “Custom Firmware” para PS3

  20. @Heliz10 GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!

    —

    So… I can take any emulator, sign it and run it? just like that? wow

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  23. You have ruined what the playstation once was. Yes, you have forbid the use of pirated games, but it’s only a matter of time before someone manages to allow it. Then the next step is people cheating online, and that is where you have ruined a brilliant gaming community, by allowing cheats.

    Fair enough, I will give you credit for breaking the PS3, you have succeeded where others have failed.

    Thanks, Can’t wait for you to fuck up something else I enjoy!

  24. Pingback: PS3: root key, hackers, custom firmware « GAMUS | Games, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, Nintendo DS, Wii, PC

  25. Great work KaKaRoTo.

    I’m surely installing linux again soon on my PS3 and still able to play new games.

    Thanx for your hard work.

  26. I get the strong feeling that the all of the negative comments are posted by the same person…

    Can somebody verify?

    BTW, I tried the ps3-news pup, and it worked better than the one created with your utility. 🙂

  27. For Mac users: like yotie mentioned, sed does need an input for -i but instead of one double quote, use two single quotes. Otherwise you’ll get an unexpected EOF.

    For John: Your logic is seriously skewed. I don’t see how KaKaRoTo is at fault when the PS3 jailbreak movement was already building momentum. If he didn’t do this, someone else would have. All he did was make an easier platform for testing out homebrew.

    There are already homebrews to copy games onto your PS3 HDD, and there’s a massive amount of platforms and games that already open to modders. Homebrew is encouraging creativity, expanding locked systems, and generally making better use of available hardware.

    As for cheating, there’s also server-side detection. If your character is running through the entire map in 2 seconds, it can be detected.

  28. John I don’t mean to be mean here. Cheats online are mostly game design errors. And I do mean mostly.

    Even with the Xbox 360 particular games I can cheat using a router to introduce lag at key times so freasing the action so allowing me a easy hit of target. Due to game design flaws.

    There are 4 key things to prevent cheats.

    1) Physics done on the server not the clients.
    2) Don’t send the console more information than they need. Like where all the other players are if they don’t appear in view.
    3) Lag monitoring/activity monitoring. Anyone with highly variable Lag should become suspect and be investigated because they are most likely messing with lag correction to there advantage.
    4) Game Updates. One of the reasons why WoW is hard to cheat on is how often the engine changes.

    Problem for the PS3. Lot of games are doing Physics in the PS3 for online play. Including full disclosure of where all players are even if they are not in view and not displayed on map for everyone to see. So providing a big advantage to a cheat.

    Lot of games do not have Lag monitoring so yes there are a lot on the PS3 that are cheatable due to this. Game monitoring can also catch a lot of cheats as well. Reason lets say the best 20 people per country get invited to play out in a public competition on provided machines leading to a best in world prize . Now if they are truly good they will turn up. If they are a cheat/cheats they will not. These invites can even be targeted at people suspecting of cheating.

    Finally due to the signing of the PS3 lot of games don’t push out updates.

    A cheat with PS3 could have always gone for a man in middle attack on some games as well. Yes that does work as well against some PS3 games without breaching the console.

    About time you pull your head out sand. PS3 has not been truly stopping cheats. Console cracked will only make the games that are most flawed fail more badly. Maybe this will be a wake up call to some game designers to get off there backside and do secuirty properly.

    Wii has been fully breached for over a year. Cheats on that platform has not gone up badly. Yes a few games people have stopped playing because the Cheats were too bad. But those were the worse quality from game secuirty. Lot of the newer Wii games have online secuirty done right. So the cheat issue is almost pure game quality issue.

  29. Pingback: Primul CFW (custom firmware) pentru PS3 - kandrei.ro

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  31. hey…this does work, but the thing is we cant install package files such as the ftp sever

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  35. really like your learning approach

    I remember your first PS3 blogging posts, looks like shell&”app” level knowledge can drive to some more interesting “doors”

    ready to participate at this stage, since root is given

    cheers, &thanks (start with a TI is really collecting a lot of 76-84 geeks generation)

  36. I heard that you will block lv2 access from piracy. one thing i would like you to do is build in a backup manager right into the xmb and have a hash file somewhere on the HDD so that way you can make sure that the backups are from that ps3. I have 2 ps3’s at the moment so theres no real point having them both be “official”

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  44. In fact I have installed it from the recovery mode ‘cos the normal update menu didn’t work (error code 80029C55). I guess the error had been caused by a region code mismatch. My console is a German one. The PUP from PS3 Hacks is supposedly US or EN or something. After creating my own PUP from a German OFW updating worked like a charm without bricking my PS3 (thank goodness!).

  45. Argh, those who can read have clearly an advantage… well… Could anyone explain the difference between service and recovery mode to a PS3 novice like me? Thanks

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