Release: Yifan Lu’s OpenCMA and libVitaMTP
We’ve mentioned hacker YifanLu several times on this blog, being that he is one of the handful of people believed to be in possession of a “native” vita hack (I put “native” in quotes here, as I mean per opposition to a hack in the psp emulator, but I don’t want people to assume he has a hack available in the Vita’s firmware code). Today Yifan Lu released a beta version of his new tool: a full open source alternative to Sony’s Content Manager Assistant for the Vita.
The CMA is a tool divided in two parts: a server running on your ps Vita, and a client running on your computer (or your PS3, as a matter of fact). For those of you who just joined us, there are many reasons to hate Sony’s CMA, from a hacker’s perspective but more importantly from a customer’s perspective (see my article on CMA and privacy concerns ). Also, last time I checked, that tool is not available for Linux, only for Mac and Windows.
Nobody else than Sony can fix the fact that you have to use CMA to do anything with your Vita, but we’ve seen initiatives to lower the pain of using this tool. VirtuousFlame’s “OpenCMA” was one of those, a patch that let the CMA client on windows run without having to be constantly connected to the internet.
Today’s release from YifanLu should not be confused with VF’s OpenCMA above. The “Open” here is to be taken literally, as YifanLu’s OpenCMA is a complete open source implementation of the client side code of CMA. Basically, this tool can completely replace Sony’s client, where VF’s OpenCMA was a patch over the closed source tool from Sony.
More importantly, it is the first compiled version for linux ever, so linux users should finally be able to copy content to and from their Vita! (no thanks to Sony. You can’t begin to imagine how messed up I feel typing that it apparently takes a year and a half between the release of a computer device and the possibility to copy files to it, and that the initiative is not driven by the device’s manufacturer themselves. Feels like a 50 years step back to me)
Additionally, and more interestingly for devs out there, YifanLu also released the sources for libVitaMTP, a library for devs who would for example want to create their own content managers for the Vita. Think iTunes for the Vita, or even if you have lower ambitions it shouldn’t be difficult to come up with something that looks a bit more polished than the official Sony client, which does exactly nothing to help you manage your backups and files.
In theory nothing should prevent this code from being ported to Windows/Mac as well, provided motivated devs look into the sources.
Download
You can download the binaries here.
To provide feedback, bug reports, and access the source code, check the github pages here. Also check YifanLu’s original article on his blog, and feel free to drop him a line on the thread he opened on our forum here
Great thing! This means I can go back to “linux only” on my laptop!
Really really great news!
its about time im able to ditch windows and go back to only backtrack ^.^
Great news. Too bad that we do not have yet any native hacks 🙂
*** off. They’re not releasing it since the Vita isn’t selling well. The sales aren’t stable yet, and there are not enough games yet to help the sales. If they were to release it, piracy would become rampant, scaring game developers away, and with scarce games, the Vita will fail.
Actually its because there are not any native hacks that allow piracy.
hey if you wanna *** and moan get your own native hacks and exploit them and write all the code by yourself. can you do that? no? yea didnt think so. so shut up the developers will release them when they are ready.
There will be a version for windows?
Do you not understand the point of this release?
Your question is far more stupid than his.
huh…i dont really understand what it mean…huhu…but nice la..i hope someday vita fully been hack or jailbreak….
to put it simply, Yifan Lu recreated CMA on linux and now LINUX USERS can copy files from your computer to your vita as free as a bird in the sky 😉
Lol, I just love these conspiracy theories
“Feels like a 50 years step back to me”
I don’t quite understand this, sorry. Linux support in general is really not that widely spread when we concider how many applications (and games as well) that excist, so why is it surprising that one application doesn’t have Linux support?
The fact that one needs an application (other than the OS…) to copy files to their device is the 50 years step back. You can copy from Linux to any usb device or camera that follows the standard. I’m not a linux fanatic, but the fact that the Vita has the limitation “copying files to this device is only supported by Mac and Windows” is just a joke to me.
Oh, like that. I understand what you mean. I’m pretty sure that Sony went with this solution because of how much the PSP was hacked. Things that are done now might have consequences in the future, and i think that is what happened with PSP, then going further to the Vita. If the PSP wasn’t hacked that much, i think there would be a chance that the situation would be different with the Vita.
By the way, i think that there is a distinction between gaming systems and usb devices. USB devices in general (memory sticks, cameras, phones etc.) are not build around the concept of making money from software sales. They are built around the concept of making money on the sales of the hardware itself. Gaming systems on the other hand are built around the concept of making money from the software/game sales.
Didnt CMA work under Wine in Linux by the way? Or is this really the first solution for Linux to copy files over to the Vita?
Personally, i’m actually surprised to see Mac support with CMA. Not because it is Sony, but just in general. I have to admit that i havn’t followed things that much during the last years regarding software releases, so maybe things are differently now, but i remember before, then Mac versions of many applications were kinda rare, at least after my experience.
I can definitely understand why Sony went this way, but to me the way CMA works is beyond the limit, and proved to me how far some companies are willing to go, even if it means hurting the ease of use for some of their customers, just to avoid hacking and piracy. People who have tried CMA to copy MP3s can report that it takes 10 times longer than if you did it with a regular usb copy.
I understand, that is fair enough 🙂 Personally i don’t think that CMA really adds that much more difficulty to use, but i agree that it would be much more easy to just do a normal USB connection and transfer.
I just tried to transfer a MP3 file myself just to test, and it takes some seconds longer than normal USB transfer indeed.
Vita’s struggles to get on its feet on the market. Nevertheless Sony limits the potential buyers by saying -hey you if you want vita you need Mac or windows. For me that’s a clear message to the audience – we’ll always prefer security over your – nothing personal …
That’s a poor marketing strategy for me
That is true, but i think that not having native Linux support is Vita’s smallest problem when it comes to the poor sales. The biggest problem is that it needs more interesting games, and it also needs to get a bit more down in price.
I also don’t think that the lack of Linux support is because they are afraid of any security breach, if that is what you mean? I think the lack of Linux support is simply because they think the market is too small, so they (Sony) havn’t devoted any resources to make a Linux version of CMA. But isn’t it possible to just use Wine in Linux, then run CMA through Wine?
By the way, CMA is not absolutely required to use the Vita. It depends on what you’re going to use the Vita for. It is possible to use the Vita fine without using CMA at all. CMA is only used to transfer music and movies, and also take backup of savegames and the games.
And just to add one thing regarding CMA, i kinda wish that it was possible to upload the savegames to the cloud without having to go through CMA first. Its very easy to do it through CMA i think, but i don’t really know why i need to go through the PC first to upload the savegames to the cloud.
CMA is not required to use vita – you don’t belive that do you- I am with 16gb card and still need it – I can only imagine what happens with people with 4. And switching accounts can only be done with cma- otherwise you lose everything.
The lack of support for linux is due to the fact that sony is too lazy to port it but seriously if they didn’t introduced CMA’s concept they wouldn’t have that problem in first place. Moreover if a single person can port the CMA in 3 months or less without having the source of the drivers and overcomming the security sony introduced with CMA it would have taken less then a week for SOny to do it on their own. I do not understand why they didn’t. Linux is open source so they do not have any legal problems to do it. They are just lazy
When i said required, i mean it litterally 🙂 I just wanted to point out that it is possible to use the Vita without using CMA. If you never take backup of the games and/or the savegames, never change the PSN account and never transfer movies, pictures or music to or from the Vita, then CMA is not needed. But of course, if you want to do these things however, then CMA is needed indeed. I just wanted to mention it as general information, i’m not saying that you claimed that CMA is absolutely needed.
Yeah, i think that the lack of native Linux support is just because Sony doesn’t want to use any resources on it.
And speaking about memorycard, i agree that the memorycard can be filled up pretty fast. I actually find it easier to just delete the game, then redownload it later on if i want to play it again. But i have PS+, so i can upload the savegames to the cloud. If i didn’t have PS+, then i would use CMA to take backup instead, because that is the only way i can keep the savegame. I also hope that Sony comes out with a 64GB Vita memorycard 🙂 I also have a 16GB memorycard, and i have had to delete several of games to get room for new games.
Or to say it a bit differently, it is possible to play every game on the Vita without using the CMA 🙂
(Sorry for all the posts, i can’t edit the previous posts).
Gah, Autoconf 2.69, first time I ever had to build my own autoconf! Looks like libxml also needs to be more up-to-date than I expected.
Anyway, great work, thanks Yifan!
Yeah, sorry about that. I just used the latest tools and didn’t bother checking if they work on lower versions. In theory though, you should get away with using much lower versions of the tools.
is it possible to use this to one day form some sort of file explorer similar to what is used with the old psps?
I.e. something that resembles connecting your psp into your computer, going into My computer and drag/drop files in?
This would be awesome
Not until the vita is natively hacked, as it seems the only way to copy content currently is through the CMA app on the vita, which doesn’t exactly allow for a drag/drop file explorer on the PC end.
anything for android?
perhaps wifi? or assuming your device has a full USB port
then port this to both Android and ARM…
What does the Android have to do with this?
well i dont have access to a pc so i was hoping i could use my phone instead…
donde tengo que buscarel exploit del psvita 2.10\20.11
No hay uno, aun
Hi
Does this work on WINDOWS?
this tool sounds great, i’ve been reading the INSTALL file in the content “source package”… i didn’t understand, lol, i also download the “OpenCMA 1.0 (Ubuntu 12.04 x64)” wich ends in (.DEB), so i guess it can’t be run on windows 7,…
Anyway, could someone make a tutorial, or tell me in a easy way how to install it? i would appreciate it.
thank you Yifan Lu!
While in theory, it would be possible to compile and run on Windows with a little bit of work, I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader mainly because there isn’t any feature with this CMA that is superior than Sony’s CMA (or VF’s “open”cma).
una preguntita nada mas para salir de la duda. y no creer que lo haceis por chuleria o jodienda porque creo que no es asi y para dejar claro el tema si tan rapidos fuisteus para poner el video del vhbl despues de la actualizacion 2.10 al iguak que la actualizacion 2.11 porque cuando dijisteis en esta misma pagina que ya estaba completo el exploit no desvelasteis el nombre del juego para tenerlo por lo menos ya descargado o ahora que ya esta el open cma y poder disfrutar de el los que estamos limtados de recursos yo no estoy a favor de la pirateria pero si a favor de no volver a pagar un juego ya comprado de psp ni gastar tantisimo dinero en juegos que casi ni utilizo ya que a mi la vita me la regalaron y no pude beneficiarme de anteriores exploit por cierto un gran trabajo es el que haceis y lo valoro como otra peña hara gracias de antemano
La razón de no develar el exploit es para utilizarlo en futuras versiones del firmware oficial, quizas la 2.2x?, versiones que tengan cambios “mas significativos”, pero la escena hack de la PSVITA parece estar en decadencia, quizás y por lo que dicen aquÃ, gracias de la mano de unos pocos, lleguemos a tener un ultimo CEFW o CFW para la PSVITA…
Almenos mientras llega PS4, que podrÃa empujar las ventas de VITA y hacer que todos vuelvan la mirada en ella.
When I read “libVitaMTP” I thought it was the release of the kernel explit jajaja
You’re not the only one that got the kool-aid smile.
Question : Is it possible to compile and run the CMA on OSX ?
Thanks
If not, will it be released for OSX ?
(apologies for my english 😉 )
It worked on OSX long before I ported it to Linux (since I use OSX). Just use MacPorts to install the dependencies.
Oooh, ok. I may have miss this news then. Thanks 🙂
I mean your openCMA, I know for the Sony’s CMA but I’m still on 2.06.
U.S. 2.06 )=
I know. There’s an .xcodeproj file in the source. Make sure you have macports and libxml and libusb1.0 and xcode can build it.
So I tried to compile it, but xcode’s telling me that : ” file not found”
but i can see it in my headers folder.
So i’ll try an other day, thanks anyway
” file not found”
“libusb-1.0/libusb.h file not found”
Where is the windows binary
Hopefully the VITA gets fully hacked already. There just aren’t many good games out for the Vita and I’d like to put some emulators on it so I could get SOME of my moneys worth.
I just wish Sony would pull their head out of their *** and bring out some FPS/ major tittes to the VITA. Meaning GTA, Battlefield, a COD that wasn’t half ***, etc. My VITA has been collecting dust for months now but I don’t want to sell it just on the off chance that sony actually pulls their *** together.
They would make so much money and sell way more consoles if they just answer to the community.eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
do you really think sony or devs would invest in making more games if the console was fully hacked? people would pirate games and never buy.. yea that sounds like a good investment.
stop being so cheap and buy your games.
Sony’s lost me as a customer…MS here I come. Kinect 2, illumiroom and a more stable network than sony. So many issues, so many restraints and it IS pretty bad when those fixing your mistakes or making your devices more appealing are hackers, that on top of that you make it a living heck to try to hack in the first place.
*Microsoft will soon be greeting you with an unpleasant surprise*
Good luck with the over ridden DRM and internet Connections. Not only do you HAVE to pay to get LIVE. But you need to have LIVE in order to just turn your Xbox-[Insert new BS name here] on (even offline play)
Goodluck,
P.S – Kinect was a tragic scene.
P.S.S.S (lol) I’m not hating, i’m stating what is terrible about the new *Xbox*
us linux users can just use virtualbox. I just download windows XP put it on a virtualmachine and go.. that is how i beat all the compatability issues when it comes linux. forget wine. iphone or vita
And CMA would work from in there? Really?
I would assume the Vita needed a working driver for Linux to be able to communicate with VirtualBox?
Anyways thank you Yifan Lu for this release, great stuff!!
Just reading the words “release” and “Yifan Lu” got me so excited for UVL.. oh well, maybe one day. It’s nice to know that Linux users can transfer media to/from their Vitas now. In my experience Linux users tend to be way more software engineering oriented than most so maybe this will help attract some new developers. Good work Yifan Lu!
the Mac support is only for Intel-Macs, so i’m still ‘F’-ed anyway.
boohoo woe is me…
This is the worst scene out of all the gaming consoles. No REAL progress.
hey yifan lu i just want to point out that your website is down its been Hacked By Badi that’s what comes up when you try going to your site- get this resolved or get to the bottom of it
ok i know this may be super far fetched but would it be possible to make cma into an android app so instead of a computer i can use my phone and its files. like if i could connect them through wifi the same way cma can on a computer
The source is open so anything is possible really, someone can port this to windows if they wanted. But your android will at least need USB hosting capabilities if you want to plug your Vita directly to it. There also a WiFi option too, but as of right now Yifanlu’s OpenCMA supports USB functions only (I think).
It also works with wifi you just have to set it to wireless in the command line option.
For example I use, “opencma wireless -p Home/jesse/psVita/Pictures -v /home/jesse/psVita/Videos -m /home/jesse/psVita/Music -a /home/jesse/psVita/Apps”, to run from the konsole.
Sorry forgot to add that I am using Kubuntu 13.04.
Linux is for nerds
is the mac version released?
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