I’m sure some of you still remember uOFW (Unofficial Official Firmware) – a project that plans to fully reverse engineer the PSP 6.60 OFW Modules. While reverse engineering the whole firmware seems unrealistic, a significant part of the low-level modules is what they’re aiming for. Obviously this is a very long term process so don’t expect this to pop up just yet. Anyways, uOFW needs your support, and if possible they can use some contributors as well. You’ve probably noticed they’ve been pretty quiet for a while on their github, but hopefully some more support here can change this. 
Developers, just so you know, in order to contribute you need to have an advanced knowledge in MIPS ASM and C.
So like what can this do?
The point of this project is simply put as:
- To understand how the PSP and the PSP firmware works.
- To enhance our knowledge on the console.
- To be able to build a ‘complete’ custom firmware. By complete I mean an alternative firmware that can be modified freely.
- To be able to build other possible low-level hacks. This is still undetermined, but possible.
Reverse of chnnlsv by qwikrazor87 – _kirk7 – Address 0x00001418
So like what’s the difference from a Custom firmware and this ‘alternative firmware’?
Well to answer this, a CFW is a modified official firmware. CFW Developers only understood some parts of the official firmware and replaced them with modified modules, depending on what was required. With uOFW, developers are aiming to fully understand the official firmware. With that said, developers may build firmwares that are free of rights and can open your PSP to more opportunities. This isn’t a part of uOFW’s goal, but something developers can possibly do with uOFW once it’s made more progress.
What are the benefits?
- Well it’s possible to get a better understanding of how eCFW works for the Vita.
- It leads to better progress in emulators. For example, the audio.prx module reverse engineering was essential for emulators like PCSP. uOFW has also been used as reference for PPSSPP a couple times. It has also been used as a reference for kernel related projects.
- More low level development.
There are many possibilities that can be dissected from this project. Many interesting possibilities, such as being able to build a new firmware from scratch or even developing more kernel related projects. While the objective tends to be too high to be realistic, they are still possible but undetermined. This is pretty much ‘the last thing’ left to do on the PSP, and without doubt one of the aspiring projects the PSP scene has ever had. These are the developers so far who have been contributing to this project so far. You should recognize most of these guys, as they’re well known in the PSP/Vita scene.
- artart78
- Omega2058
- libcg
- qwikrazor87
- Felix-Dev
- Kern—
The following modules are being worked on:
- 0x00008768 modulemgr (Felix, noname120)
- 0x00001C84 dmacman.prx (Kern–)
- 0x00001B44 idstorage.prx (libcg)
- 0x00000524 mlnbridge_msapp.prx (xerpi)
- 0x00000674 http_storage.prx (Joel16 – me)
You can have a look at their current module status on this page.
Hopefully my name might make it on the list pretty soon, as I myself have been hitting the docs so that I can get started with this, and I’d encourage any other developer or enthusiast to join us. Feel free to have a look at their reverse engineering guide, but like I said earlier you need to have a strong C, MIPS and ASM knowledge. Those that are interested and willing to contribute, you can contact the team via IRC on the FreeNode server (irc.freenode.net) by joining the channel #uofw, or via e-mail at the team’s common email address uofwteam@gmail.com
The post Developers and users – uOFW needs you! appeared first on Wololo.net.