uLaunchELF Documentation Project

[HypERSoniC]

This is the official uLaunchELF Documentation Thread. Discussion relating to, as well as contibutions made to the documentation should go here.

For the latest documentation see here
http://www.ps2-scene.org/forums/show...0&postcount=43



--- Old Information ---

This documentation is provided as an open method for users and programmers to help each other understand LaunchELF. All users are able (and encouraged) to contribute to it. If you wish your work to be included in the official documentation provided with each LaunchELF release, then submit your revised changes or additions to the uLaunchELF documentation thread on the ps2-scene.org forums. If your work is of professional quality and usefulness, it will be added to the main documentation.

Current Official Documentation Version

• v0.1.3

WIP Version

• v0.2

Download

• v0.1.3 (KB) - [EN]
  v0.1.1 (214KB) - [EN]
• v0.1 (214KB) - [EN]

Issues/Problems with current version

• Explanation needed for settings->screen settings->interlace
• Detailed button information need on a screen for screen basis(?)
• 7. Acknowledgements should we include ALL launchelf contributers here or just the documentation contributers?

[gravelhead44]

Hypersonic, I have a boat load of labelled uLaunchelf screenshots I can post, However there are about 30 640x480 24 bit Jpegs to the tune of about 5Mb. I think I have Graphically covered all topics most people would need a screen shot of(and Possibly a few extras that no one would)Would you like me to post them? And Can I post a file that large?

[gravelhead44]

I don't know what I was thinking before. Here are .gif's. Take any you like. Throw the rest away. If you want I will be happy to post or email the full .jpg's. Hope this helps.

[E P]

Originally Posted by HypERSoniC

[E_P, please link to this thread from your original unofficial LaunchELF thread.]

Ok I will link to this thread when a next version is released. Nice work

Originally Posted by HypERSoniC

Issues/Problems with current version

• Does settings->startup settings->reset iop reset the iop before launchelf is run, or before LOADER.ELF is run?
• Is 5b.Locating the settings file correct?

Reset IOP currently resets the IOP right as LaunchELF is loading up. I had tried in the past to get a reset IOP upon the nexts apps execution. Unfortunately it never quite worked right so reset IOP as of now only resets the IOP upon LaunchELF's startup.

Locating the settings file is mostly correct although I don't think that it looks to mc1:/SYS-CONF/ except if launchELF was started from mc1. I believe dlanor told me before that the procedure for looking to mc1 never quite worked right.

[gravelhead44]

Here are a couple of detail pics taken from the previous screenshots.

[gravelhead44]

HypERSoniC, submitted for your approval: draft of uLaunchelf doc with cleaned up graphics. I added a Network settings entry with new screenshots and brief description. Format should be in line with yours. I wasn't sure whether to submit only additions or to post this as a draft, so I am posting your document with my additions.

[HypERSoniC]

thanks gravelhead44 and E_P!

sorry i havnt been able to get back to you, ive been quite busy.

thanks for your contributions gravelhead. i will update the documentation today with your contributions and E_P's reccomendations.

it will also be updated for the latest "l" revision of LaunchELF



E_P, do you think its a good idea to include the documentation in the main ELF release archive? I think its a bit to big to fit in..

Maybe a reference to this thread in the README.txt would be enough.

[gravelhead44]

Detailed button information need on a screen for screen basis(?)

How did you want to go about this? It could show the screen when describing all the settings, but that seems like it would get kind of large. On top of that you have stepped through things pretty accurately. Are you thinking of something along the lines of a detailed users manual?

[robocop]

Are you interested by a french translation?

[ivc]

Maybe you should choose a open document format, something like OpenOffice or preferable a HTML document with the pictures attached in a rar file.

Would definitely compell to more people. Just my 2 cents..

[gravelhead44]

I would be happy to post my submitted for approval in OO.o Writer format if that will help people, but Open office will open and let you modify .doc files won't it? If we really are trying to do this generically I will see waht the results are in .rtf as well

[gravelhead44]

Here is my revised copy of the document in both OO.o format hope this will help folks who are using open source to add to /help with the documentation project.

Robocop, I don't really have any say over this project, but I will bet the better question is do you wish to translate it into French. How can it hurt to have a copy yourself and other native French speakers can easily read?

[dlanor]

Originally Posted by gravelhead44

Here is my revised copy of the document in both OO.o format hope this will help folks who are using open source to add to /help with the documentation project.

What the heck is 'OO.o' ???

The '.odt' file in your attachment is in fact a kind of PKZIP archive containing various XML (and related files). I've unpacked it and had a look at the contents, but I have no software that supports this document format. I assume it's some kind of proprietary format used by some commercial word processing or DTP package(s)...?!?

I've browsed around a bit, finding (among others) the site "http://www.oasis-open.org/", which appears to be the origin of that document standard. However, if there is no freeware software available for it, and I have found none, then I consider it unsuitable for use in documenting any freeware project.

Please use some format supported by freely (and widely) available software instead. (What's wrong with standard HTML, for example?) I'm not going to buy some commercial package just for this purpose and (more to the point) any document included with LaunchELF should be readable by standard software freely available to all.

Robocop, I don't really have any say over this project, but I will bet the better question is do you wish to translate it into French. How can it hurt to have a copy yourself and other native French speakers can easily read?

Of course it won't hurt to have translations made, but I think it is a bit too early to start worrying about that now. There will be time enough for that once we have an english version available.

Best regards: dlanor

[gravelhead44]

dlanor, OO.o is Open Office.org. It is an open source office suite for Unix/Linux Operating Systems. I don't believe it is available for Windows, but someone is bound to have a port somewhere. Rich text didn't work out very well. I thought that might be more universal. Would HTML be the most universal way? You're the second person to request it. Therefore, I'll try to post an HTML version tonight.

[gravelhead44]

OK, Here is the documentation in HTML format(Looks OK in Firefox and IE6). If I should eliminate any of my attachments because they are of no use, let me know. I can send it in most document formats, so if we could agree on a best format, please let me know.

Edit: Revised with most of Dlanor's suggestions and corrections. I have a question for HTML folks, though. The symbol !! appears in various places in the document instead of - . Is this a keymap issue or something else? If anyone has a clue I would love to know.

Enjoy,
gravelhead44

[Slam-Tilt]

Open Office is available for Windows too, but HTML is much much much more suitable for a project like this.

[Velocity_7]

How about a Wiki?

[dlanor]

Originally Posted by gravelhead44

dlanor, OO.o is Open Office.org. It is an open source office suite for Unix/Linux Operating Systems. I don't believe it is available for Windows, but someone is bound to have a port somewhere.

There probably is (someone else said as much), but that's beside the point. It is clearly not widely available, so relying on that format would be asking for trouble. Just imagine the flood of posts from all newbs (and there always will be new ones) with no idea of how to read it...

Rich text didn't work out very well. I thought that might be more universal. Would HTML be the most universal way?

Well, it might not be the best format, but it is useable by everyone with a modern OS, so that does make it the most universal one (apart from pure ascii text ).

You're the second person to request it. Therefore, I'll try to post an HTML version tonight.

Ok, I've checked it out, and here are a few suggestions:

First, in the section on boot methods you might want to add the BEST non-mod boot method for v12/v13 PS2 models, which is also dependent on Swap Magic, that you already mention. Some versions of that program (definitely v3.6) allow booting an ELF from "mass:/SWAPMAGIC/SWAPMAGIC.ELF". No configuration is needed for this. If such an ELF exists on the USB stick it will be launched automatically when booting the Swap Magic disk. I believe some of the older versions had this feature too, although I'm unsure if the folder/file names were the same. I've had reports that some users boot uLaunchELF this way, so it definitely works.

An existing reference in that same section to "ps2fs:/__BOOT/BOOT/boot.elf" is in fact incorrect (or at least inconsistent with path standards used in LaunchELF). It is also 'miscased'. The normal way to express that path would be "hdd0:/__boot/boot.elf". At least that is the path used by the Matrix Infinity. I am not sure what the DMS needs, since I've never used it.

Also in the boot section, you mention the folder "mc0:/BxDATA-SYSEM".
This needs to be corrected to "mc0:/BxDATA-SYSTEM", with the additional explanation that the "x" in fact represents a region dependent letter.
(I=Japan/Asia, E=Europe, A=America)

Most of the other stuff seems OK except for one thing which is slightly misleading. You mention that the same file systems are shown both for the button mapping file browser and for the normal file browser, and that is not quite true. The "MISC/" pseudo device is only available when mapping buttons, and the "host:/" network device is only available in the normal browser. (Mapping buttons to the PC would be inappropriate.)

Another difference is that the display of game titles only works for the normal browser, not for the button mapper. It's no big deal, but it should be mentioned somewhere.

That's all I can think of right now.
Oh, and thanks for your efforts. (almost forgot that bit )

Best regards: dlanor