Been A Long Time...firmware Suggestion?


zektor

Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2006
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359
Age
49
Hi all! It has been literally years since I have played around with the GP2X. I had an F100 and later an F200 when it was released, but sold off my toys some time ago. I was thinking about those good ol' GP2X days, and decided to purchase my beloved F100 on ebay with a bunch of accessories for a pretty nice price.

Now, waiting for it to arrive, I am looking around at what I had missed the past two or so years. I know the system coming to me has v2.1.2 firmware. I have been reading about Open2x, and also saw that the last official GPH firmware for the F100 was 4.1.0.

What would you recommend? I would like SDHC support of course, and I just can't remember what the v2.1.2 firmware limitation was. Can this firmware handle large SD cards? If not, it would mean I should go to one of these newer firmwares.

I read a little about Open2x and it does look very promising. But then again, I do want to try to keep "official" compatibility.

Basically, I don't want to screw up the unit coming ;) Like I said, it has been some time since I have worked with the unit and any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
 
Open2X is more "official" than the official firmware......and works better. but why do you care about it having the official firmware when the F100/200 were discontinued. There isn't going to be anything new that be official.

the lastest official firmware is 4.1.1, that fixes some bugs regarding the touch screen. But some games or programs don't work with this one.

Anyway, Open2X DR7 has a compatibility mode, that emulates FW 2.1.2 , Starts from cold in like 10 seconds less tha FW 4.1.1. And the overclocking and memory timmings things are built into the menu. I haven't had any problem with it. Furthermore you have joy2X (i think that was the name) that let's you control the gp2x from a usb joystick. (ej, gp2x + craddle, connected to the TV + Wireless psx clone joystick = WIN!!!)
 
Thanks for the kind words about Open2X, Iahari :)

Open2X doesn't installation doesn't touch the bootloader portion of your device's NAND memory. This means that there's zero chance of it bricking your unit, as long as you install the right version (F100 versus F200). Even if you install the wrong version it should be OK.

Also, Open2X supports SDHC out of the box. It doesn't have *perfect* compatibility but I am actually working with a guy right now to make it perfect this week.

A useful and interesting feature of Open2X I included in the latest releases is Soft-Reset: If a program ever crashes or you forget how to exit the program and want to play something else and you find yourself needing to turn the unit off and back on, you no longer have to: Hold L-TRIGGER+R-TRIGGER+A+B+X+Y+VOLUP+VOLDOWN for a second or two, then release all those buttons. Open2X's kernel will kill off the program(s) and relaunch the menu within seconds.

If you have an SDL game whose control mappings you don't like, you can remap them with another new Open2X feature I created. Go into the program link's settings under GMenu2X and scroll all the way down and you will see how you can map all the buttons to any other button.

You can see all the new features DR6 and DR7 brought to the table here and download here:
http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/gp2x.cgi?0,0,0,0,42,2751 (F100 version)
http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/gp2x.cgi?0,0,0,0,42,2752 (F200 version)
 
Awesome! Thanks for the replies. After reading the feature sets of Open2x, it looks like a must have. I *really* love a soft reset option, as I recall not being able to exit an app here and there and getting myself unnecessarily pissed off ;) And this can be installed right over 2.1.2, correct? Or I need to move to the last official firmware before updating?
 
zektor said:
Awesome! Thanks for the replies. After reading the feature sets of Open2x, it looks like a must have. I *really* love a soft reset option, as I recall not being able to exit an app here and there and getting myself unnecessarily pissed off ;) And this can be installed right over 2.1.2, correct? Or I need to move to the last official firmware before updating?

It doesn't matter what the current firmware is, it will install on anything. Be sure to use a non-SDHC card to flash it.
 
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Welp, got my GP2x and installed Open2x successfully. Great work! This is a HUGE improvement over the previous official firmwares, that is for sure. One small question however:

First thing I tested was to play some MP3 files (Squeeze!) and while they play fine in the Open2x music player, the second I move the volume rocker to increase/decrease volume, the sound completely shuts off! The only way to get the volume back for the song at that point is to exit the player, re-enter and play again...but I loose it again if I try to adjust volume of course. I tried playing the same songs in compat mode and it works fine there. Must be something stupid I am doing on my end...but I can't see what?

Also, I am assuming the compatibility of the player is not up to par with the official GP2x mplayer? REason I say this is because I have a mono 96khz mp3 here (prank call) that will not play at all withthe open2x player but plays fine in compat mode?

Sorry to bog you guys with questions. I did searching for "volume rocker problem", "open2x volume issues" and so on and couldn't seem to find anything that fit this specific issue.



EDIT: Nevermind, I just realized the volume was just WAY to low. Doesn't seem to register until you see the volume climb some :) My mistake ;) Thanks again for the help folks!
 
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