[ISSUE]: Problems compiling with the latest PS2SDK

[CosmicScale]

Checks

• I have checked existing issues for duplicates and found none

Describe the issue

I'm trying to compile PS1VModeNeg from source but just like many homebrew apps, it will not compile on the latest SDK without modifications. I've resolved a number of the errors and warnings, but now I'm stuck.

The ELF file compiles but just displays a black screen when run. I get this warning when compiling:

mips64r5900el-ps2-elf-gcc -D_EE -Os -mno-gpopt -G0 -Wall -I/usr/local/ps2dev/ps2sdk/ee/include -I/usr/local/ps2dev/ps2sdk/common/include -I. -Tlinkfile -L/usr/local/ps2dev/ps2sdk/ee/lib -s -o PS1VModeNeg.elf main.o cnf_lite.o -lcdvd -ldebug -lc -lkernel /usr/local/ps2dev/ee/bin/../lib/gcc/mips64r5900el-ps2-elf/14.1.0/../../../../mips64r5900el-ps2-elf/bin/ld: warning: cannot find entry symbol _start; defaulting to 00084000

Console model

SCPH-50001

[10522]

@AKuHAK or @sp193 can probably help with this issue.

[AKuHAK]

@CosmicScale rickgaiser/neutrino#23 (comment)
Just note that DKWDRV has more options for video modes for PS1 disks

[fjtrujy]

This piece of software was never compiled with modern PS2DEV toolchain. (we can notice it in the CI/CD https://github.com/ps2homebrew/PS1VModeNeg/blob/main/.github/workflows/compilation.yml#L10 it is using 1.0 instead of latest)
You can do it but it requires some modifications:

1. You need to update the linkfile, most probably you can reuse the existing in neutrino
2. You need to update the Makefile, there are several things here wrong:

• Remove the custom compilation rules and import instead the include $(PS2SDK)/samples/Makefile.eeglobal
• This project was using before the -lkernel-nopatch, now this doesn't exist anymore, instead, we define some macros in the code, here you have an example: https://github.com/ps2dev/ps2sdk/blob/master/ee/kernel/samples/noPatchedHelloWorld/test_noPatchedHelloWorld.c#L18
• Once you use the Makefile.eeglobal you can define the linkfile by setting variable EE_LINKFILE
• You need to remove the -lcdvd -lc as now they are part of the standard libraries.
• I think this project try to be as small as possible, so my recommendation is to use newlib_nano
• Some of these changes can be copied from here: https://github.com/ps2dev/ps2sdk/blob/master/ee/elf-loader/src/loader/Makefile#L15-L18

3. Besides all said before, You can't load a binary with start address 0x84000 directly, it requires another loader in the middle, in the case of this app looks to be by using the ps2-packer as you can see here: https://github.com/ps2homebrew/PS1VModeNeg/blob/main/main.c#L398 . This basically means, you need to compress the binary and load that compressed version

Finally, my recommendation is that you show us the modified code (create a draft PR), adding it also to the CI/CD, otherwise it will be impossible to know if the modifications that you have done are right.

Cheers

[CosmicScale]

Thanks @fjtrujy, I've done as you suggested and made a draft PR with your suggested changes and a few of my own. Using the linkfile from neutrino resulted in a lot of errors, I used the linkfile from wLaunchELF instead.

It now compiles without any errors or warnings but when I run the app, all I get is a black screen.

#4