Free Memory Card Boot (FMCB)

(FMCB) :

Update 2016/05/21: v0.971 (FMCB v1.951) released.
Update 2016/01/04: v0.97 (FMCB v1.95) released.
Update 2013/10/13: v0.96 (FMCB v1.94) released.
Update 2013/10/13: v0.95 (FMCB v1.93) released.
Update 2013/08/22: v0.94H (FMCB v1.92) released.
Update 2013/08/19: v0.94H (FMCB v1.91) released.
Update 2013/08/17: Beta v0.94D & H released.
Update 2013/07/20: Beta v0.94C released, minor bugfix and translation update.
Update 2013/07/16: Beta v0.94B1 released, minor bugfix.
Update 2013/07/14: Beta v0.94B released, minor bugfix.
Update 2013/07/12: Beta v0.94A released, minor bugfix and features update.
Update 2013/07/11 03:21: Added a translation template.
Update 2013/07/10: Beta v0.94 released!
Update 2012/11/04: Beta v0.93B1 released!
Update 2012/04/07: Beta v0.93B released!
Update 2011/11/14: Beta v0.93A released! (Late update)
Update 2011/10/03: Beta v0.93 released!
Update 2011/09/20: Beta v0.92 released!
Update 2011/09/16: Beta v0.91 released!
Update 2011/09/14: Beta v0.90 released!

Quick jump

1. Preface
2. How to use this
3. Changelog
4. Known bugs
5. Additional notes
6. Warnings against potential pitfalls
7. Notes regarding the sources
8. Supported languages
9. Downloads/links

                                            Preface

This is an Free Memory Card Boot (FMCB) installer. It was previously known as the "Unofficial FMCB v1.8C" installer.
No part of it was directly re-used from FMCB v1.7 itself, but parts of it were based or referenced from the code of FMCB v1.7.
The files in the fmcb-install folder are from Jimmikaelkael's PS3MCA project. Of course, I didn't include the questionable files which Sony claimed as a breach of their copyright.
Since FMCB v1.9 was born, the FMCB installer has been used for installing both versions of FMCB (v1.8C and v1.9x).

                                    How to use this

1. Download the archive linked to in the downloads section
2. Extract the contents into one of these places:
   1. A USB device
   2. A CD/DVD
   3. A Memory Card (Not the memory card that FMCB will be installed to)
3. Launch the installer with your Playstation 2 console

Option name	Description
Install	Performs a normal installation of FMCB
Multi-Install	Performs a "multi" installation of FMCB. A multi-installation can boot on all consoles of any region, and not only on the console it was installed with.
Uninstall FMCB	Removes a normal installation of FMCB from a memory card.
Uninstall MI	Uninstalls a multi-installation, turning it back into a normal FMCB installation.
Format MC	Formats a Memory Card.
Dump MC	Dumps a Memory Card to an image installer's directory.
Restore MC	Restores a Memory Card from an image located in the installer's directory.
Shutdown	Switches off the Playstation 2 console.
Exit	Exits the installer and returns back to the OSDSYS menu.

As of 2014/06/29, FMCB v1.8C will no longer be circulated from here as the FMCB v1.9 appears to have achieved proven stability.

                             Changelog for FMCB

Changelog for v1.951:

1. Fixed USB device support; added 2s delay to the boot process + 10s timeout to the FMCB core.
2. Updated code to work reliably with the PS2SDK.
3. Added button hints to FSCK.
4. Corrected flipped button processing (OK -> Quit) in FSCK.

                           Changelog for the installer

Changelog for v0.971:

1. Added button legend.
2. Once again, all files in the BOOT folder will be copied.
3. Added a BOOT folder for the HDD (BOOT-HDD). Files in there will be copied to hdd0:__sysconf/FMCB.
4. Removed unused file flag bits.
5. Added new Portuguese, French and Spanish localizations.
6. Button legend will be dynamically positioned, to cater for the varying lengths of labels in various languages.
7. Users can now cancel at the memory card selection and installation type screens.

                                                             Known bugs

I think that I've fixed all of them by this release. :)
Known bugs:

1. None!

                                                          Additional notes

I've spent slightly over a hundred hours working on this, and I hope that it works well.... but of course, anything could go wrong - so I have provided a memory card dumping and restoration facility within the installer.
A dump of a memory card in slot 1 will get saved as mc0.bin, and a dump of a card in slot 1 will get saved as mc1.bin.
The file will be saved to the directory where the main executable of this installer resides in.
Caution! You can only make one dump of a card from each port. Making additional dumps will overwrite the previous dump.
During development, I have sent 2 out of 3 of my cards to their graves and damaged the filesystems of all of them too. Thank goodness for the dumps that I made at the beginning of this project!
(I seriously don't know what's wrong with those damaged cards... they were hardly used and now they cannot be detected at all).
Supported installation media:

• USB devices only

                       Warnings against potential pitfalls

!!! WARNING !!! If you make a multi-install, do not delete any of the B*EXEC-SYSTEM folders or any of the OSD*.elf files inside them!
Doing so might result in SEVERE data loss.
Do not delete uninstall.dat from the SYS-CONF folder either, or you will probably be stuck with the multi-install files forever.
Lastly, read the included README file for more details.

                                         Notes regarding the sources

The sources have been released. :) Check out the downloads section below.
Within the sources, I have created:

1. SECRMAN, a clone of the Sony Security Manager (SECRMAN) module that has card-binding functions (SecrDownload*).
2. SECRSIF, a clone of the Sony Security Manager SIF RPC server.
3. MCTOOLS, a RPC server module that provided misceallenous functions for the memory cards like dumping and restoration, and filesystem manipulation.
4. UDNL, the Updater module. Used for updating the IOP with newer modules (Which is only SECRMAN for this installer).

Hopefully, they will be useful for the homebrew community after their release.

                               Supported languages

For more information on supported languages and how support for languages can be completed, click here. A template for translating this software is provided in the downloads section of this page.


 Supported languages and their translation status

Language	Status
Japanese*	Unassigned
English	Completed and built-in.
French	Translated by ShaolinAssassin.
Spanish	Translated by ElPatas.   Original translation by pool7.
German	Translated by Delta_force.
Italian*	Translated by master991.
Dutch*	Translated by port187.
Portuguese	Translated by gledson999.

* Not updated for v0.97 (2016/01/09) and later.

Download & Source (via developer's official website):
ichiba.geocities.jp​