[Release] multiBootMenu V3 for ARK, TN-C and TN-V

[Acid_Snake]

multiBootMenu was a pioneer at his time. It was a menu that allowed you to boot other menus without reinstalling them, it allows you to change from any menu to any other menu at any time, without recopying the menus over and over again.

Features
Big changes come to this new version of multiBootMenu, here's a quick changelog:
- new PATH.TXT file allows you to to add new menus and homebrews (30 max) or remove them, without having to recompile the program (MBM V2 required you to recompile it to add new menus/homebrews, this is not needed anymore).
- the program now has a background image (optional)
- the program allows you to have preview images of the menu (optional), some preview images are provided by the menu.
- when you launch a menu that doesn't exist, MBM will restart instead of crashing.
- the overall speed and memory consumption has been improved
- lots of code rewrites and optimizations

Screenshot

thanks to The Z for it

Overall Features

- Retro Compatibility with older installation methods
If you've installed an older version of multiBootMenu you don't have to reinstall the menus you already have, just replace the old MBM with this version and you're good to go.

- Ability to change the default menu installation path
The default path to install a homebrew is ms0:PSP/SAVEDATA, you can however change this by adding the following at the end of PATH.TXT

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default=ms0:/your_path

so if you want to install homebrews in ms0:/PSP/GAME then use the above example to change the default path

- Different menu installation methods
Unlike most multi menu tools, multiBootMenu gives you more freedom with how you want to install your menus, giving you 3 different installation methods, the third one allowing you to install them however you want.

- Preview images
MBM can visualize preview images if they exists, these images can be a screenshot of the menu/app or it's icon0.png
By default, MBM comes with a set of prepacked images for most widely used menus.
Read bellow to find out how to make and install preview images.

- Non hardcoded menus
Unlike older versions, V3 does not have any hardcoded menu or path, it all relies in PATH.TXT, so if you want to remove a menu, add a menu, or add a homebrew you use a lot, just edit PATH.TXT (see below for instructions on how to edit them).

- Open Source
This menu is license under the GPLv3, even if there's no license file cause I forgot to put it there. So if you make any modifications to it and release a binary, you must release the source code with such modification too. This applies to multiBootMenu V2 and multiBootMenu V3, it does not apply to V1 cause I forgot to release the source code back then, and now there's no way of getting it back.


Download
- Source Code
- Common Files
- ARK
- TN-C
- TN-V


Instructions

- Installation
Download the common archive of the menu and extract it. You should have a few PNG images and FTP.PBP
Download the version of MBM for whatever eCFW you are using and extract it, you should have PATH.TXT and the menu's eboot (the name changes depending on eCFW version), copy both files where the PNG images and FTP.PBP are.
ARK and TN-C: copy all files to your savedata, copy savedata to PS Vita. Launch the game and enjoy
TN-V: create a folder named BOOT in ms0:/PSP/GAME, copy all the above files into that folder. Open recovery menu,
enter "Configuration", scroll down to "Autorun ms0/PSP/GAME/BOOT/EBOOT.PBP" and press cross to enable it. Enjoy

- About preview images
Preview images are scaled down screenshots of the menu or app, it has a 300x170 size and are named just like the homebrew (in PATH.TXT) with the .PNG extension. These images go in the same folder as multiBootMenu.

- Menu installation method
There are three ways to install a menu, V1 method, V2 method and V3 method. The install method is determined by PATH.TXT, as you can see, menus in PATH.TXT follow this structure:

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name_of_menu=path_to_menu

name_of_menu is what will be shown in MBM, and path_to_menu is what MBM will use to launch the menu
V1 and V2 installation modes will have path_to_menu equal "default", this tells MBM that the menu is installed using a predefined pattern: V1 or V2, from there on MBM will automatically detect if V1 or V2 are used.
If on the other hand you manually specify the path of the menu, MBM will use V3 method. Now let's see how these methods are used.

--- V1
This method follows the following structure: ms0:/default_path/name_of_menu/MENU.PBP
by default, default_path = ms0:/PSP/SAVEDATA, so the menu would be installed in ms0:/PSP/SAVEDATA/name_of_menu/MENU.PBP
to make it simple, here's the path pyMenu would have using method V1:

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ms0:/PSP/SAVEDATA/pyMenu/MENU.PBP

the same applies to all other menus:

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ms0:/PSP/SAVEDATA/yMenu/MENU.PBP
ms0:/PSP/SAVEDATA/vMenu/MENU.PBP
ms0:/PSP/SAVEDATA/gMenu/MENU.PBP

and pretty much whatever app you've added to PATH.TXT

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ms0:/PSP/SAVEDATA/my_app/MENU.PBP

now, what if you don't want to have menus in ms0:/PSP/SAVEDATA? well multiBootMenu allows you to change that, all you have to do is edit PATH.TXT and add this line at the end of the file:

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default=ms0:/my_path

so, if you want to install homebrews in ms0:/PSP/GAME, add this at the end of PATH.TXT:

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default=ms0:/PSP/GAME

--- V2
With V2 method menus are installed in the same folder as multiBootMenu, the main eboot of the menu being named name_of_menu.PBP, as an example, if I were to copy pyMenu in the same place as multiBootMenu I would have to rename it's main eboot into PYMENU.PBP, then I can copy it into MBM's folder .So you can have an idea, MBM comes with FTP installed, this FTP app is named FTP.PBP and is in the same folder as MBM and it's called "FTP" by PATH.TXT

--- V3
This is a free-to-use method, you can manually specify the path of any menu or homebrew, for example, let's say you have pyMenu installed in ms0:/PSP/GAME/pyMenu/FBOOT.PBP
using method V1 won't work cause the main eboot must be named MENU.PBP, here it is named FBOOT.PBP
so to fix this we can edit PATH.TXT and change pyMenu's entry from this:

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pyMenu=default

to this:

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pyMenu=ms0:/PSP/GAME/pyMenu/FBOOT.PBP

multiBootMenu will automatically load that path you've specified. The same applies to homebrews, imagine you have PSP Filer installed in ms0:/PSP/GAME/Filer/FBOOT.PBP, then you can add this entry to PATH.TXT

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PSPFiler=ms0:/PSP/GAME/Filer/FBOOT.PBP

with this, PSP Filer will be added to the main menu and will be loaded using that path you've specified


Credits
Developer: Acid_Snake
Beta-Testers: SMOKE and The Z
Background Image: MrPicsou00759

Advertising

[SMOKE]

Thanks for adding me in the credits

Also, update your sig

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[oscar1]

Wonderful, thank you very much always innovating.

[mkc88r]

thanks to your works!!!

[Acid_Snake]

Thanks for adding me in the credits

Also, update your sig

I have, before I read your post

[Acid_Snake]

I guess people don't care about this app anymore, I'll just declare it a dead project
but hey, at least I improved my C programming

[Ocsicnarf X]

I guess people don't care about this app anymore, I'll just declare it a dead project
but hey, at least I improved my C programming

why????????????

[Acid_Snake]

cause people don't care for this app
same for pyMenu, there's no need to finish 0.4 and release it, there's TN-V

[Ocsicnarf X]

cause people don't care for this app
same for pyMenu, there's no need to finish 0.4 and release it, there's TN-V

but i really like multiBootMenu and pyMenu, and i really want the release of pymenu 0.4

[MadZiontist]

Thanks for this. It's def useful in many ways. Gonna install it, and see how I like it. I encourage you to keep on with pyMenu v0.4, but it's your call of course.