A quick question about how the HEN works!

[murxx]

Hey guys,

I have my new PSP 3.5 here and would like to taste the world of HB through 3.5 HEN without risking my PSPs life.
Reading the readme there is one question left about this section:

- When you run the program, you'll see a coloured screen that can be one of two colors:
  * Red: the files couldn't be written to the flash (it happens a few times). Just keep trying.
  * Pale Blue: The files were written succesfully, and HEN is active. After that, the xmb will
    be rebooted. Now you can run the homebrew in format prepared for 2.71. (see details below).
    Note that a pale blue screen will appear again every time the PSP reboots with HEN active.

What is written to which flash? Is this writing persistent?
What does the pale blue screen will reappear mean? Does this HEN somewhat stay, if I do a hardware reset, or will it be totally gone? I mean, when exactly will there be a pale blue screen again?

Thx for clearing this up for me. I know I'm a little security-focussed !

[wakaru]

I believe those instructions you just quoted belongs to the instructions originally supplied with HEN rev. D (for the TIFF exploit, on firmwares 2.71 and 2.80). It happened that the TIFF exploit was quite unstable, therefore it took a load of tries to get it working for first time. Whenever it could be run/installed properly, it would show the blue screen, and otherwise a red screen would show. That way the user would know wheter HEN was active or not.

With the new downgraders, a different exploit is used (GTA or Lumines exploit), and I believe both of them are a lot more reliable and stable than the TIFF one, therefore although the original HEN rev. D instructions have been kept, I do not think they are very relevant for the HEN 3.03/3.50.

So do not pay a lot of attention to the coloured screens when executing HEN. Just bear this in mind:

-Just a few small files are copied to the PSP´s flash memory on the first time the exploit is executed. First they are installed/copied onto the PSPs flash memory, and then they are executed so the HEN is active. These are the required files which will be executed everytime you run the exploit. Flash memory is non-volatile, meaning that it can retain the stored information even when not powered.
-These files are pretty small and it takes only a fraction of a second to copy them onto the PSP´s flash, therefore the chances of bricking are virtually inexistent.
-This writing is persistent (because of the non-volatile nature of the flash memory).
-Once executed, the HEN patch is resident in the RAM memory for as long as the PSP is on (this includes putting the PSP to sleep mode). The RAM Memory is volatile, this means that it will lose its data when the computer/PSP powers down, therefore:
-From a cold boot, you will have to run the HEN exploit again to get it active in RAM memory again (this means loading the savegame from GTA or Lumines again). But from the second time the files exists in the PSP flash memory, so there is not need to copy them again, they just need execution.
-Everytime HEN is executed a pale blue screen should appear on the screen.

Probably Fanjita could correct and extend some of the information I just wrote. I am just a simple user and the information provided might not ve completely accurate.

I hope this clarifies some of your doubts in regards to the HEN (Homebrew ENabler).

[murxx]

Thx for the extensive answer.

Two more question remain:
First - does using the HEN void warranty?
Second - these files that are copied to the flash, aren't they part of the FW? Why is it necessary to excecute them again and again through the Lumines exploit?

[wakaru]

Uhm...

FIRST - I would not say it voids your warranty, since you are not opening the PSP... I might be wrong.
SECOND - I was probably wrong, HEN might be executed automatically everytime the PSP turns on (obviously, only once it´s been previously installed through the Lumines exploit) So yes, it should not be necessary to execute the Lumines again and again. One single successful run should be enough. My bad, sorry about the misleading information (I was guessing. I have not used the HEN D more than once yet. Everytime I´ve used it I downgraded straightaway O:-)).

[Fanjita]

The files have to be copied to the flash in order for HEN to work properly - basically, it fools the PSP into loading some files from HEN instead of from the original firmware.  The restrictions on the way that is done mean that the tricked files have to be in the same folder as the original files - so they have to be copied to flash.

Technically, running any homebrew voids your warranty.  In practice, it's a lot less obvious than having opened the case, and if you do a downgrade then re-upgrade, it should be impossible to tell the difference from a PSP that has never run homebrew.

[murxx]

@Fanjita: Thx for the explanation - So when I have run the 3.5 HEN once through Lumines, there is no need to run it again? Will it be persistent, or do you have to execute it again, everytime that you wanna run a HB?

Oh, and: if you have a HENed FW, can you update it (sure it is stupid but anyway) through the normal means to another Sony FW, or will the FW not update?