PlayStation 2 DevEnv for Docker

A toolchain host for the open-source PlayStation 2 SDK, using a 🔗Retail Debugging Startup Cart (PSX-Place) for on-target debugging on retail systems.

See also: ps2ded-vscode, a VS Code Devcontainer for PS2DED

System Requirements

• Docker Desktop (Windows host) or Docker Server (Linux host)
• Retail PlayStation 2 w/ Ethernet interface (tested on SCPH-77004)
• uLaunchELF (tested with v4.43a)

Preparation

The buildscript will fetch the latest copy of the PS2DEV GitHub repository. Other third-party tools – such as the DSNET binaries – are hosted off-site, and need to be downloaded separately.

1. Download the DSNET tool set from the RDB project: 🔗PSX-Place (dsnet-bin.7z)
2. Place the 7zip archive into the install/ folder

Retail Debugging Startup Cart (RDB-UIF)

1. Download the binaries from the RDB project: 🔗PSX-Place (RDB-095-bin.7z)
2. Transfer the following files to your system, e.g. using uLaunchELF's FTP server. Place them in a new folder on your memory card, e.g. mc0:/RDB/
   • RDB-UIF.elf
   • thmon.irx

Building

To build the Docker image, open a shell session inside the cloned repo folder, and run:

docker build -t ps2ded-oss .

Due to limitations of the Docker build system, this will leave behind an untagged image of the builder stage, with a size of around 1 GB. This dangling image can be removed.

Usage

The container provides access to the PlayStation 2 SDK compiler and debugger toolchain, as well as all related header files. The DSNET server can be accessed from other tools, similar to a TOOL PlayStation 2, via the exposed network port 8510. In order to launch a new session, use:

docker run -v <workspace>:/work -e PS2IP=<ipaddr> --rm -it ps2ded-oss

Load the RDB-UIF executable on your PlayStation and start the DSNET server by running the following command inside the container shell. The script will use the IP address specified in $PS2IP.

start_dsnetm

The script will automatically start up an IOP module server, and dump the register contents of both processors to check the connection.

Note on compatibility

There are compatibility issues between the open-source SDK and the non-SCE DSNET binaries. For example, printf outputs are not passed to the IOP in a way to be forwarded over the debug port. Software breakpoints have been observed to cause lock-up of the dsedb application. In general, the open-source PS2SDK is more optimized for use with their own debugger ps2link, and its supporting tools.

Configuration

Use Docker environment variable arguments when launching a new container to configure the IP address of the target device:

-e PS2IP=192.168.1.100