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Mathieulh's update on Utopia: project goes public soon

Posted Jun 20, 2008 at 11:37AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Homebrew Development, News Tags: DRM, Linux, Mathieulh, psp homebrews, SDK, Sony, uClinux

QJ.NET reader Mark M gave us a heads-up on a hot update posted earlier by Mathieulh over at the Lan.st forums. The Utopia kernel seems to be closing in on a release and it'll be just a matter of time before the public finally sees what it can do.

These are the main points in Mathieulh's Utopia post as he detailed what he and Silverspring have decided so far:

The utopia official forums will be hosted among the lan.st forums.
The public release of utopia has been decided and will take effect as soon as I find time to setup the svn and forum sections.
Despite the project going public, the project is not done yet, thus you cannot (yet) compile a whole kernel from the soon to be supplied sources. We are looking forward seeing people contributing to complete the utopia project.
What we do not know about yet is if utopia will use GPL license or BSD but it is likely to be BSD.
The svn will be readable by everyone but only a few trusted people will be able to update it (so people do not start messing up with the svn by deleting changes or adding irrelevant ones). If you want to contribute to the utopia project you will have to send your code to the forums where it will be added by the staff to the svn later. People who often contribute to utopia will be granted write access to the svn as well.

If you're not familiar on what exactly Utopia does, it's to be an open source PSP kernel designed specifically for homebrew and development. It's going to use up over 1MB of RAM, perhaps 2MB at most. It's going to be fully documented and divided into two parts: one for developers (who need debugging tools, SDK) and one for homebrewers who want to run software on their PSP designed with it.

"Once completed and stable the utopia kernel is to be implemented as a new operative mode in future custom firmwares," posts Mathieulh.

Lastly, here's what Utopia can and can't do, according to Mathieulh:

Utopia is not meant to run Sony's code, thus current homebrews or games wont run on it.
Utopia will not feature UMD drive support of any kind.
Utopia will not feature any kind of DRM functionalities (at least this is not planned)
Utopia will most likely not feature any kirk engine support.
Wlan is planned but not a priority at this point.
No vsh or graphic interface of any kind is to be included in utopia or officially supported by the utopia project. Utopia is ONLY the kernel,
if you want to code your own shell on top of it, feel free to do so.
The utopia kernel is NOT based on Linux, freebsd or any other open source project (unlike uClinux for exemple) , it is based on the 3.71 IPL reverse engineering. (and later on existing kernel modules reverse)

Thanks to Mark M for the tip!

Via Lan.st

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seems like this is turning it into a Game Park system then? So the development is fully documented and you have all the devolper tools right in the Kernal.

BUT, I was not aware that current home brew was suffering for lack of any tools?? I fail to see exactly HOW this can be an advantage for the every day coder over what is currently availible.

I was under the impression that eventuially an entire CUSTOM firmware was to be released. One that would not require OE FW anymore, it would be open from the start and emply ONLY the features it needed from OFW to allow the games to run. The version number would just have to be stated as higher than any current Sony FW so that it could run games without forcing an update. It is possible that this is the begining of THAT setup?

# dam — xLinkinwormx 2008-06-21 01:51

people are dumb here, "this is pointless, this is stupid" your the people that dont know anything about psp homebrew like how to actualy do it, this will be awsome when it finished, i dont play my psp much anymore so im gona test this out when its ready, i not understand why there hasnt been and M33 firmwares, they was busy with the ultimate homebrew development platform, no biggie about the gui, i love stuff being in raw format, i think it looks better tbh when coding n ***** like just codeing lua in notepad or something, or useing DOS lol

# Hmmm... — kittykat 2008-06-21 04:47

Here we have a list of what this kernal can not do, but what can Utopia do that current kernals can not?

# Bunch of people without a clue... — userw12w 2008-06-21 05:39

To the people who are saying that this is the best thing since sliced bread - it will fail.

It is basically the 'Linux' of the PSP, and due to a few developers, Sony's UMD format not being supported, and until someone develops the GUI for it, no ISO support or homebrew support.

@digicron: Do YOU know what a kernel is; without Googling it?!

This is NOT revolutionary, and im not denying it is very impressive from the creator; has no foreseeable support for it.

Oh and I know what im on about: 3 years C# working with MS's XNA Framework for XBL Arcade games.

# Hmmm... — The Tjalian 2008-06-21 05:46

I suppose this might help if the PSP 2 doesn't have automatic backwards compatibility for the EBOOTS (so therefore homebrew developed for this Kernel can be crossed over easier), but even then, without supporting UMDs and current homebrew natively, I can't see this getting off the ground easy....

# .. — digicron 2008-06-21 07:05

i do know what a kernel is. comming from a computer engineer i think i am justified in what i said.

# .. — digicron 2008-06-21 07:09

furthermore i never said it was revolutionary, i said it was huge in terms of how impressive it is that a dev has been able to do this.

# Revolutionary? — n0thealthy 2008-06-21 07:31

OK, so this kernel... I'm not denying it's impressive, but:

it doesn't support any current games or homebrew, has no WLAN support or UMD support. So all the devs are going to have to recode their homebrew to have Utopia support, which will take a long time. Not to mention how long it will take to implement WLAN and UMD support. And what about no longer updated homebrew?

On the plus side, if all PSP apps run under Utopia, the problem of 1.5/3.x will be solved.

I don't think this is as big a deal as everyone is making it out to be. Now Pandora, that was a revolution.

# .. — digicron 2008-06-21 07:43

if you can have multi-kernel loading then why bother coding utopia to have umd support, or support for older homebrew? if it aint broke, dont fix it. its all speculation on how this is going to be implemented into the newer cfw. perhaps as a subset addon as in 1.5kernel addon for phat? so you can still use 3.XXkernel and its purty vsh, UMD, wlan, play all your old brew, but yet new brew written for this kernel can be utilized as well? again im only speculating...

# thing is — Stinky_1 2008-06-21 09:56

This is coming out with no support, and basically starting over. So people who have learned how to code for the psp will have to learn this new core. So, like I said, if we have access to everything on the PSP now, why do we need a custom kernel to do anything?

The ONLY thing I can forsee is that this paves the way for an unique and NEW CFW. So instead of hacking OFW from sony to run our unsigned code, we can install a totally different OS. This would be similar to putting OSX on your psp instead of running windows. Both OS's have access to the same hardware, and can extract the same power. so the only thing that changes is the look of it, the design, and the programing laguage used to run on it.

This will mean that all the OLD homebrew is ALL going to have to be ported. If this is not VERY good then it will die. Because how many people will worry about adding this on to their psp if there is nothing worth adding it for. This will split the entire PSP fanbase and could create other problems instead.

I am not saying it cant be good. But its a little late in the game to change things up like this!

# Sigh — UltimaXIX 2008-06-21 11:27

But doesn't the fact that it's gonna be fully documented mean aything to anyone?

# ... — Chrisp6825 2008-06-21 14:10

I think it's a pretty good idea.. It is a bit late, considering that the psp scene is slowly dying though..

But the thing about this that I think is the coolest, is that this is pretty much independent from sony's firmwares...

I think of it like, we'll be in full control of the psp now.. if we aren't already...

# O.o — NDWolfwood 2008-06-21 18:10

i don't like you digicron -.- your mean -.-

# lol — NDWolfwood 2008-06-21 18:13

hahaha sry guyz, i still don't understand what this kernel is O.o

can somebody explain it plz? =D

thank you ^_^

# You seem to be the one with no clue. — Advertising 2008-06-21 20:54

Are you serious?

Why would you need access to the UMD drive in the first place? This kernel is homebrew only. If you want ISO, just launch it from the firmware's XMB. Since it is, after all, just a new mode in custom firmware. Utopia is to CFW just as the 1.50 kernel and POPs are, just another operating mode.

"...and until someone develops the GUI for it,"

Why do you need a GUI? like I said it's an operating MODE not operating system, not related to linux as you say it is. Unless you meant GUI for the compiler and linker? Not needed by real developers (The ones this project is aimed at).

Just so you know, 3 years of C# is not saying much. It's just a Microsoft language. Attempt to jump on the PSP scene with that experience and you will find your self stumbling upon many obstacles.

Eat less carbs please. Because you seem to be talking out of your ass.

# Kennel (ker-nul) noun- — c74gta4smash 2008-06-21 23:29

The kernel is the operating system's brain that runs and operates both the hardware and software components. Any more questions?

# Whole lot of flaming! — Rasb23 2008-06-23 03:51

It seems like there is a lot of people that don't understand, don't care, are trying to act like they know what this is and calling people stupid.

I can't wait to see it when it comes out, but I'm not sure if I'll try it right away. I did buy my PSP to play my UMDs and old PS1 games so I may wait till a homebrew app/plugin can enable that.

Please don't go on a flaming rant! Instead use that time to step outside of this world and get a life.

# I'm not sure this is true — coolguy5678 2008-06-25 01:39

"This will mean that all the OLD homebrew is ALL going to have to be ported."

AFAIK, Utopia is intended to be included in new CFW alongside 4.XX and (possibly) 1.50. So, applications written for Utopia would be in a folder called something like "GAME_UTOPIA" while the rest stay in GAME380 (or whatever), GAME150 and simply GAME.

# I have a quote — coolguy5678 2008-06-25 01:56

Matheuilh (I don't know how to spell) said:

"3) Right now we plan to implement it as another operative mode on current custom firmwares (such as pops on current firmwares or even the 1.50 subset) we could pack the binaries in PBP just like official/current ones and have a sfo with specific values set to recognise wether [sic] the utopia kernel shout [sic again] be ran for this homebrew. The eventuality of another game folder could also be used. This plan would render the development of a graphic interface unneeded since the firmwares would still use sony's one."

I was a bit off with the whole "GAME_UTOPIA" thing, but still, it is going to be included in new CFW's, which will still have everything we already have.

Calling Utopia "a new OS" or "like Linux is for PC's" seems to be confusing everyone. You won't need to upgrade to a special "Utopia firmware" that hasn't got SCE stuff.

Okay, it seems I've misinterpreted your post. But I still don't want people to be confused. Anyway, Utopia is completely documented and uses less RAM (so more RAM for developers to use).

# Clarification — coolguy5678 2008-06-25 02:33

Matheilh (I don't know spelling) has said that Utopia will be added onto new CFW, so your UMD's and PS1 games will still work.

quote:

"Right now we plan to implement it as another operative mode on current custom firmwares (such as pops on current firmwares or even the 1.50 subset) we could pack the binaries in PBP just like official/current ones and have a sfo with specific values set to recognise wether [sic] the utopia kernel shout [sic again] be ran for this homebrew. The eventuality of another game folder could also be used. This plan would render the development of a graphic interface unneeded since the firmwares would still use sony's one."

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