ps2_drivers

A library for making it easier to use IO drivers (.IRX + EE .a) on PlayStation 2.

MOTIVATION

This library will make it way easier to load/unload and initialize the process of Drivers that requires IOP (using an IRX file) and EE (static library .a).

As a side project, I was trying to port SDL2 for PlayStation 2, and meanwhile, I was working on this since I found that it was difficult to implement SDL_main as was.

Without this, the current situation assumes:

• The developer needs to understand how IOP + EE works, making it a less attractive platform to newcomers.
• Makefiles are more complex. IRX files need to be either embedded with bin2s or bin2o.
• A lot of boilerplate is needed, for defining several extern libraries.
• It forces developers to copy & paste every time.
• Error handling is too messy.

With the solution that I propose within this library, the developer just needs to link the library and initiate the desired libraries.

AVAILABLE DRIVERS

Driver	Function	Description
Audio	init_audio_driver()	Sound output via audsrv
Camera	init_camera_driver(bool)	EyeToy camera support
CDFS	init_cdfs_driver()	CD/DVD filesystem
DEV9	init_dev9_driver()	Expansion bay device (HDD/Network)
FileXio	init_fileXio_driver()	Extended file I/O
Filesystem	init_ps2_filesystem_driver()	Combined filesystem driver (all storage devices)
HDD	init_hdd_driver(bool, bool)	Hard disk drive support
Joystick	init_joystick_driver(bool)	Controller input with multitap support
Keyboard	init_keyboard_driver(bool)	USB keyboard support
Memory Card	init_memcard_driver(bool)	Memory card access
Mouse	init_mouse_driver(bool)	USB mouse support
MX4SIO	init_mx4sio_driver(bool)	SD card via memory card slot adapter
Netman	init_netman_driver()	Network manager
Poweroff	init_poweroff_driver()	Power-off callback handling
SIO2MAN	init_sio2man_driver()	Serial I/O manager (dependency for many drivers)
SMAP	init_smap_driver()	Network adapter (Ethernet)
USB	init_usb_driver(bool)	USB mass storage support
USBD	init_usbd_driver()	USB host controller

Most drivers accept a bool parameter to automatically initialize their dependencies.

BUILDING

This library uses CMake as its build system. You need to have PS2DEV and PS2SDK properly set up before building.

Prerequisites

export PS2DEV=/path/to/ps2dev
export PS2SDK=$PS2DEV/ps2sdk
export PATH=$PATH:$PS2DEV/bin:$PS2DEV/ee/bin:$PS2DEV/iop/bin:$PS2DEV/dvp/bin:$PS2SDK/bin

Build and Install

# Create build directory
mkdir build
cd build

# Configure with CMake
cmake ..

# Build the library and samples
make -j$(nproc)

# Install to PS2SDK
make install

Build Options

• BUILD_SAMPLES (default: ON) - Build sample projects

To disable building samples:

cmake .. -DBUILD_SAMPLES=OFF

Build Output

The build process will generate:

• libps2_drivers.a - The main library combining all drivers and PS2SDK libraries
• Sample executables in build/samples/*/ directories (if BUILD_SAMPLES=ON)

After installation, the library will be available at $PS2SDK/ports/lib/ and headers at $PS2SDK/ports/include/.

EXAMPLE

Let me put an example, where we compare Before vs After. I'm not going to put the error handling in the before version otherwise will be too long :)

BEFORE

CMakeLists.txt

# Complex setup required for IRX embedding
add_custom_command(OUTPUT sio2man_irx.c
    COMMAND ${BIN2C} ${PS2SDK}/iop/irx/sio2man.irx sio2man_irx.c sio2man_irx)
add_custom_command(OUTPUT mtapman_irx.c
    COMMAND ${BIN2C} ${PS2SDK}/iop/irx/mtapman.irx mtapman_irx.c mtapman_irx)
add_custom_command(OUTPUT padman_irx.c
    COMMAND ${BIN2C} ${PS2SDK}/iop/irx/padman.irx padman_irx.c padman_irx)

target_sources(your_target PRIVATE sio2man_irx.c mtapman_irx.c padman_irx.c)
target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE mtap padx)

main.c

extern unsigned char sio2man_irx[] __attribute__((aligned(16)));
extern unsigned int size_sio2man_irx;

extern unsigned char mtapman_irx[] __attribute__((aligned(16)));
extern unsigned int size_mtapman_irx;

extern unsigned char padman_irx[] __attribute__((aligned(16)));
extern unsigned int size_padman_irx;

void load_modules(void) {
    SifExecModuleBuffer(&sio2man_irx, size_sio2man_irx, 0, NULL, NULL);
    SifExecModuleBuffer(&mtapman_irx, size_mtapman_irx, 0, NULL, NULL);
    SifExecModuleBuffer(&padman_irx, size_padman_irx, 0, NULL, NULL);
}

void start_libraries(void) {
    mtapInit();
    padInit(0);
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    // ...
    load_modules();
    start_libraries();
}

AFTER

CMakeLists.txt

target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE ps2_drivers)

main.c

#include <ps2_joystick_driver.h>

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    // ...
    init_joystick_driver(true);  // true = auto-init dependencies
}

ALL DRIVERS EXAMPLE

This example initializes the most common drivers:

• FileXio (extended file I/O)
• Memory Card
• USB Mass Storage
• CDFS (CD/DVD)
• Joystick (with multitap)
• Audio
• Poweroff
• HDD

CMakeLists.txt

target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE ps2_drivers)

main.c

#include <ps2_all_drivers.h>

static void init_drivers() {
    init_fileXio_driver();
    init_memcard_driver(true);
    init_usb_driver(true);
    init_cdfs_driver();
    init_joystick_driver(true);
    init_audio_driver();
    init_poweroff_driver();
    init_hdd_driver(true, true);
}

static void deinit_drivers() {
    deinit_poweroff_driver();
    deinit_audio_driver();
    deinit_joystick_driver(false);
    deinit_usb_driver(false);
    deinit_cdfs_driver();
    deinit_memcard_driver(true);
    deinit_hdd_driver(false);
    deinit_fileXio_driver();
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    init_drivers();
    // Your code here
    deinit_drivers();
    return 0;
}

FILESYSTEM DRIVER EXAMPLE

For a simpler approach, use the unified filesystem driver that handles all storage devices:

#include <ps2_filesystem_driver.h>

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    // Initialize all filesystem drivers (MC, USB, CDFS, HDD, MX4SIO)
    init_ps2_filesystem_driver();

    // Wait for a specific device to be ready
    waitUntilDeviceIsReady("mass:");

    // Your code here

    deinit_ps2_filesystem_driver();
    return 0;
}

CONCLUSION

I tried to follow the KISS concept while implementing this library.

SAMPLES

The repository includes several sample projects to demonstrate driver usage:

Sample	Description
alldrivers_sample	Basic initialization of all common drivers
alldrivers_verbose_sample	Verbose output during driver initialization
filesystem_sample	Filesystem driver usage
hdd_sample	HDD partition mounting
listdir_sample	Directory listing example
mtap_sample	Multitap controller support
poweroff_sample	Power-off callback handling
wav_sample	Audio playback example
basic_elf_loader	ELF loader example
showiopinfo_sample	IOP module information

Build samples with:

cmake .. -DBUILD_SAMPLES=ON
make

LICENSE

Licensed under GNU Library General Public License version 2. See LICENSE file for details.

THANKS