Autolaunch

Auto Loading global settings (#545)

Issue #545 tracks CosmicScale's upstream report on an SCPH-50001: options saved as Global did not apply when a game was started by Auto Loading instead of the menu. The reporter's setup is PSBBN Definitive. Each game partition starts OPL with:

path = hdd0:__system:pfs:/launcher/OPNPS2LD.ELF
arg = Fantavision.iso
arg = SCUS_971.05
arg = DVD
arg = bdm

conf_opl.cfg and conf_game.cfg sit at the root of the exFAT volume, next to the games.

The disk layout

PSBBN's installer builds an "APA-Jail" disk. Sector 0 is a valid, checksummed APA header and a DOS MBR. The MBR lists the APA area, a small ext2 recovery partition, and the exFAT volume that holds the games (partition 3).

Official OPL's probe checks the MBR signature first, so it never loads APA on such a disk. Its settings, games, CFG/ and ART/ all live on the exFAT root. The APA side holds only launchers such as __system/launcher/OPNPS2LD.ELF.

What was wrong in RiptOPL

1. Every BDM Auto Loading launch crashed. autoLaunchBDMGame calls bdmLaunchGame(NULL, ...), and the launch read itemList->mode for folder browsing. mode is at offset 0, so this loaded from virtual address 0, which the EE's default TLB leaves unmapped. The result on hardware is a TLB-miss exception and a black screen, on USB as well as HDD. The bug came from folder browsing (master 7b05b8a2, 2026-07-14). It is the black screen reported on #545.
2. The settings home was wrong for this disk. RiptOPL maps every APA launch to its APA data home (+OPL or __common/OPL). On a hybrid disk nothing of the user's is there, so the menu opened with defaults and the exFAT games stayed hidden.
3. Official's master file was never read. RiptOPL's master settings are private (settings_riptopl.cfg, legacy conf_riptopl.cfg). Even when the right folder was found, official's conf_opl.cfg in it was invisible.
4. Two ways to lose loaded settings.
   • A missing conf_network.cfg re-ran the whole settings search. When that search ended in a miss it cleared every loaded set, including the global game settings.
   • Auto Loading also had its own exFAT probe (#642), so it did not always use the same settings as the menu.

Behaviour now

The menu and Auto Loading run one discovery path. miniInit calls resolveBootDirToMass and tryAlternateDevice exactly as _loadConfig does, with no Auto Loading-only branch.

• APA + exFAT hybrid. hddIsApaMbrHybrid reads sectors 0-1 through xhdd0: without loading ps2hdd. It requires a valid APA header, 0x55AA, and a FAT/exFAT MBR entry that starts beyond the APA reserved area (0x40000). A residual 0x55AA on a plain APA disk does not count. The exFAT root comes from the existing typed resolver (ata0:/ → massN:/, 5 s budget, no ELF name). Like official OPL, the settings then always live on the exFAT root:

  1. RiptOPL settings (or a Custom Settings Path redirect) on the exFAT root are used as they are. PFS is never mounted in this case.

  2. A Custom Settings Path saved in the APA data home is an explicit instruction, so that APA home is kept and the redirect decides.

  3. Otherwise the exFAT root is the home. Files an older build saved to the APA data home are carried over, read-only, wherever the exFAT root lacks them: RiptOPL's master settings (ahead of official's seed) and conf_game/conf_last/conf_apps/conf_network.cfg. Official's files on exFAT always win. The first save writes everything to exFAT. With nothing to carry over, official's conf_opl.cfg seeds the first boot, or defaults apply.

     To look for those files the APA data home is mounted, but nothing is created in it: no __common/OPL/ folder on a disk that never had one. When nothing is carried over it is unmounted again, so the menu does not announce "__common partition mounted" for a partition it is not using. Carried-over settings are announced as loaded from the HDD, and official's seed as "Official OPL settings loaded from massN:".

  An exFAT home is an ordinary ATA-BDM boot from then on. The boot-device reconcile enables the ATA transport, and saves take the BDM path. Official OPL starts its BDM page Auto whenever it finds its config on a BDM device; RiptOPL does the same on a hybrid's exFAT home while the master is not its own saved file there (defaults, official's seed, or carried-over APA settings), so the exFAT games appear with no setup. Once RiptOPL has saved on exFAT, the saved BDM start mode stands.

• Official conf_opl.cfg is a read-only seed. If a folder holds neither RiptOPL name, configRead reads official's file from that folder.

  • The set keeps RiptOPL's filename, so the first save writes settings_riptopl.cfg and official's file is never written.
  • Official has five BDM slots, so default_device 5/6/7 maps to ETH/HDD/APP. Every other official master key has the same name and meaning, and the video-mode and GSM mode indices are identical.
  • A seed never picks the save home. In particular, a memory-card launch does not start saving into official's mc?:/OPL.

• conf_game.cfg already shares official's name. With the home fixed, Auto Loading applies the same Global GSM, cheats, PADEMU and OSD options as the menu.

• A missing conf_network.cfg now just means network defaults. Discovery is not re-run.

• A refused Auto Loading launch returns to the menu instead of hanging. Examples are a missing ISO, a fragmented image or no mass device.

  • guiMsgBox answers "back" before the GUI exists, as guiWarning already did.
  • Both entry points tear down the autolaunch session, and configFree(NULL) is safe.
  • The menu then starts a fresh IO worker. ioInit waits for the old one to leave and clears the queue block.
  • The mass0: wait is bounded to about 12 s.

• Cheats prompt (#265). "Continue without cheats" had cancelled the launch, because the code compared guiMsgBox's result with 2 while accept returns 1.

• Missing vs broken cheat files. Only a cheat file that is not there at all counts as "no cheats", which is silent when cheats are on for all games. A cht.tar member that is empty or over 1 MB, or a loose .cht the device refuses (access denied, or held by another session), is reported as failing to load. A generic I/O error still counts as missing, because an SMB share answers a missing file with one.

Per-game CFG files still come from the game device. An absent conf_game.cfg never triggers discovery by itself. Nothing here creates, formats or edits APA partitions, and on a hybrid nothing creates folders in them either. The hybrid probe only reads, and the exFAT side is written only when the user saves settings.

Source review (not runtime tests)

Layout/state	Result
PSBBN hybrid, official configs on exFAT, nothing from RiptOPL	Menu and Auto Loading home on massN:/, seeded from conf_opl.cfg ("Official OPL settings loaded from mass0:"); conf_game.cfg globals apply; exFAT games visible (usb_mode=2, enable_bdm_hdd=1). __common is looked at, left without a new OPL folder, and unmounted. First save writes settings_riptopl.cfg there.
PSBBN hybrid after a RiptOPL save on exFAT	RiptOPL's file wins; PFS is not mounted for settings.
Hybrid with RiptOPL settings already on __common/OPL or +OPL	Home moves to massN:/; those settings are carried over read-only and the BDM page starts Auto; the first save writes them to exFAT.
Hybrid with a Custom Settings Path file in the APA home	That APA home is kept and the redirect decides.
PSBBN hybrid, no settings anywhere	Home massN:/, defaults, BDM page Auto and HDD (exFAT) on, so the exFAT games show; no "Config loaded" notice, no new __common/OPL folder, __common unmounted; the first save writes to exFAT.
Hybrid whose exFAT volume never mounts within 5 s	Falls back to the APA path.
Hybrid whose drive is not ready until the settings retry	Same home as when the drive is ready at boot: the retry runs the same hybrid check.
Plain APA disk	Unchanged; a pure-APA official user's +OPL/conf_opl.cfg now seeds a first boot.
Launcher mc0:/APPS, official settings in mc0:/OPL	Same-card recovery reads the seed; the save home stays the boot directory.
USB/BDM root with official conf_opl.cfg	Read as the seed; RiptOPL saves its own file there.
Master found, conf_network.cfg missing	Network defaults; loaded sets are kept.

Diagnostic build

Build make clean followed by make OPLDIAG=1 release. __DEBUG is unnecessary. At the end of miniInit, the diagnostic shows the following for eight seconds, then continues the launch:

• the resolved gBootDir, the home before the first read, and the final configGetHomePath();
• why that home was chosen (for example hybrid: exFAT, APA settings carried over, or APA: hybrid, but exFAT did not mount in time);
• the initial and final read masks (CONFIG_OPL=0x01, CONFIG_GAME=0x10);
• whether CONFIG_GAME is populated;
• the time spent reading settings.

A menu boot of the same build shows the chosen home, the reason, the BDM start mode and the HDD (exFAT) switch for about five seconds before the menu appears.

Hardware gate

Use run-pinned nightly.link downloads and check each archive's BUILD-MANIFEST.txt against the intended source revision.

Check	Setup	Status
Auto Loading starts the game (no black screen)	PSBBN hybrid; also a USB autolaunch	Pending hardware
Global GSM and cheats set in official OPL apply on Auto Loading	PSBBN hybrid, no RiptOPL settings	Pending hardware
Menu from APA shows exFAT games on first boot	PSBBN hybrid	Pending hardware
Save in the menu, then Auto Loading uses the saved globals	PSBBN hybrid	Pending hardware
Cheats enabled, no .cht: "continue" launches from the menu	Any	Pending hardware
Missing ISO on Auto Loading returns to the menu	Any BDM	Pending hardware
Plain APA and MC launchers unchanged	APA HDD, MC	Pending hardware

A tester who pressed Save in RiptOPL's menu on a hybrid disk with an older build has settings_riptopl.cfg in __common/OPL. Those settings are now carried over to the exFAT home, so nothing needs deleting; remove the file only to test a true first run.

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Source: docs/AUTOLAUNCH-GLOBAL-SETTINGS.md @ 02ddafcfa212.