Starters Guide

[enrique]

Starter Guide to the Sony PSP
By: enrique

Firmware, what you should know, and need to know.
For starters, Firmware is what you could call the PSP's OS. The firmware contains such things as the MP3 Player, the Photo Viewer, and other features found on your PSP. The PSP's Firmware is stored on what's called a "Flash Disk."

Now, when Sony finds bugs, or flaws in the OS, they release new updates and upgrades to the firmware. At the time of me writing this, there are currently three different firmware versions. Version 1.0, Version 1.5, and Version 1.51

What do the different Firmware Versions mean?
A lot. At this time, only PSP's with Version 1.0 Firmware can run what's called "Unsigned Code." What does this mean? It means that Version 1.0 PSP's can run all the Home-made applications and games you can find here on the site!

Now...I'm sure you want to know just WHY can 1.0 run these, while the other versions can't. Here's your reason, o' curious one. Version 1.0 does NOT have any encryption on it. Version's 1.5, and 1.51 DO have encryption on it.

Here's an example of the encryption: When you boot up a application with version 1.0, the PSP says: "Oki doki." But when you boot up an application with ether version 1.50, or 1.51, the PSP says "Oki doki...you want me to run this? What's the secret password?" If the program doesn't give the PSP the password, then the PSP wount even fully start the program, and it'll boot you right back to the home-menu.

Why doesn't someone just crack the password? Because it's in 128 bit (maybe more? Not sure on this) RSA Encryption. What's this mean? It means it's a royal pain in the arse to get the password. Royal...royal...pain, if not technically impossible (I don't know much about hacking passwords, so I MAY be wrong on this one. Laughing )

So how do I know which Firmware I have?
Just goto the PSP's main menu, then goto the following menu's: ~Settings ~System Settings ~System Information

Then you should see where it says: System Software Version 1.xx (The xx will change, depending on what version you have, of course)

WHA?! I can't run anything! I have Version 1.50 or higher!
That's right! Trust me, you're stuck on the same boat as a LOT of people. But that doesn't mean you have to give up hope! People across the entire GLOBE are working towards getting home-made applications to run on Version 1.50 or higher. ^^ So just stick in there. The PSP hacking and modifying genre is still in it's infancy.

So why not just do a roll-back on the Firmware? Unfortunatly, at this time, no one knows how to perform a roll-back on the PSP's firmware. Hence the real main problem. ._.' That's one of the common goals that everyone's trying to reach, though.

[Sqez]

Well explained, Enrique, well explained.

[enrique]

Thank u, Sqez, thank u.