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I got a working version of Ps2Menu with a good memcard backup capability using the recursive copy function to copy stuff to the HD and back. The strange thing is, after being on the HD, GTA Vice City won't work. The files are all fine, so the only thing I could think could be the problem is the modification time not coinciding with an internal variable of the GTA save file that has the time. Anyone have any other ideas as to what could be causing this? I suppose I could use some Getstat and chstat commands in the recursive copy function to fix that problem, but how common of a problem would that even be?

Time can't be the issue because if you use a browser copy from one MC to the other, it screws up the time of the files. So if anyone can figure out why GTA: VC won't work, let me know.

Actually the problem might not have anything to do with Ps2Menu it might actually have to do with the game GTA:VC because i have this game and the same problem happened to me one day my save just wouldnt work and i have no idea whats wrong with it. But then again it could have something to do with PS2 Menu.

Well, I'll go with your explanation until I feel like testing some more :-) Makes things easier.

There are some games that appear to do something to their save files that prevents them from being copied correctly by things such as an Xport. GTA3 was one of these games, and I would assume GTA:VC is also.
To make another assumption, ps2menu is probably having the identical problem with the same cause.

I'd test that theory, but I don't have time today, but I'd say it's far far more likely to be the case than GTA:VC having problems.

Perhaps the difference is fileio vs. the mcserv API. IIRC, I've backed up GTA saves using PS2/Linux, and they've worked fine afterwards. PS2/Linux memcard driver goes through mcserv. All games use mcserv to read/write files to the memory card, as the fileio method is "undocumented". PS2MENU would probably be better off if it used mcserv instead of fileio.

how would I go about using mcserv? would that be the mcOpen and such commands from libmc?

Yep.

I'll try it. And since you seem to know about MC stuff, how would I set (if it's possible) the file creation or modification dates on an MC file? I can read them in with mcGetDir, but mcSetFileInfo doesn't use the mcTable structure, nor are the flags needed for what data is valid shown in the docs.

Sorry, but since I'm a licensed developer I can't talk about anything that's not already out in the open. The PS2/Linux kernel sources might have the answer you're looking for however.

Well, it turns out GTA: VC won't work no matter what. It's not the fileio stuff that's the problem as far as I can tell because nport uses libmc and it can't be backed up and restored with nport either (wish I had done that test 4 hours ago before I wrote a libmc based copy routine). As far as I can see, the only difference between a copied file and the one written by the game is the MC_ATTR_CLOSED attribute is on the one written by the game. The only way I can see to be able to set that flag is with the mcSetFileInfo command. So where can I find the PS2/Linux kernel sources? Are they only on the disc that linux comes on?

I've got another even weirder problem. My current version uses the exact same RecursiveCopy and copytodest as the original PS2Menu but for some reason, when I copy from the MC, the end of the files aren't right (variable amount of corruption, even with the same file). It uploads to the MC okay (the game loads the save fine) so the only explanation I have is that it just screws up somewhere when it reads from the MC which doesn't make sense when the functions that do it haven't been changed. Any ideas anyone?

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I think I solved that problem. Either my PC that I was compiling it on didn't have enough memory to compile it properly (something was sinking it and it finally did give me a memory error during compile) or the couple of unused variables I had laying around were taking too much overall memory and causing things to act weird. Either way, I think it's fixed. I just copied a 1 meg file and it came through perfectly.

I finally figured out a trial and error method to find out how to set that attribute. And now, GTA: VC is able to be backed up. (this is when all the villagers rejoice). This should mean everything is backup-able now!