This is meant to keep a record of my PS Vita config, as the process is rather nuanced and I tend to forget after not using it for a while.

For starters, I followed The Guide, I think I went the 3.60 HENkaku Ensō (h-encore) route (I was on 3.70, maybe?).

PS Vita with pirate flag splash screen.
Hacking the PS Vita gets you the most out of its impressive hardware.

When I installed it, TLS for the vita still worked though that’s no longer the case, so I went ahead to install iTLS (adds TLSv1.2 support in older firmwares for online connection)… but for that, I needed Vita Deploy – also new to me.

I don’t really remember how I connected to the PS Vita the first time, so here’s a summary of how I’m doing it now:

  • Create a directory from which serve files to the vita: mkdir ~/vita
  • Install FTP client: dnf install tftp, brew install tnftp
  • Move all your .vpk files to the vita directory: mv ~/Downloads/*.vpk ~/vita
  • Start the FTP server from VitaShell in the PS Vita. In Vita Shell, press the Select button.
  • In a terminal, go to the vita directory and connect to the FTP server (do this for every .vpk file):
$ ftp ftp://192.168.XXX.YYY:1337
Connected to 192.168.XXX.YYY.
220 FTPVita Server ready.
331 Username OK, need password b0ss.
230 User logged in!
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
200 Okay
ftp> cd ux0:/data
250 Requested file action okay, completed.
ftp> put iTLS-Enso.vpk
local: iTLS-Enso.vpk remote: iTLS-Enso.vpk
227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,1,203,241,136)
150 Opening Image mode data transfer.
100% |******************|  2681 KiB    1.30 MiB/s    00:00 ETA
226 Transfer completed.
  • Now, install them in the Vita Shell application. Go to ux0:/data and press X in .vpk files.

Recommended links, mods & applications

These are some of the applications and mods I tried and/or use:

  • PKGJ: This homebrew allows to download and unpack pkg (free games) file directly on Vita together with your NoNpDrm fake license. NOTE: this can be installed from VitaDeploy!

  • Adrenaline v.7: Custom Firmware Adrenaline for the PSP Emulator. NOTE: this can be installed from VitaDeploy!

  • mGBA: New generation of Game Boy Advance emulator.

  • vita-savemgr: Savegames dumper/restorer for PSVITA. NOTE: this can be installed from VitaDeploy!

  • Thread Optimizer: Plugin + config application for PS Vita that allows to adjust thread parameters to achieve maximum performance.

  • r/VitaPiracy: Vita Piracy subreddit. Check the pinned posts!

  • Final Fantasy Tactics WotL patch on PS Vita: Fix slow cast/action animations for PSP version of the game

Final Fantast Tactics: War of the Lions

Given a local directory structure like this:

$ tree vita
vita
└── psp
    ├── game.txt
    └── livepatch
        ├── fftpsp
        │   ├── fast.live
        └── livepatch.prx

3 directories, 4 files

$ cd vita/psp
$ cat game.txt
ms0:/livepatch/livepatch.prx 1
$ ftp ftp://192.168.XXX.YYY:1337
Connected to 192.168.XXX.YYY.
220 FTPVita Server ready.
...
ftp> cd ux0:/pspemu/seplugins
ftp> put game.txt
ftp> cd ..
ftp> put livepatch/livepatch.prx
ftp> put livepatch/fftpsp/fast.live

At the end, the directory structure in the PS Vita should look like this:

ux0
└── pspemu
    └── ISO
        ├── ...
    └── livepatch
        ├── fftpsp
        │   ├── fast.live
        └── livepatch.prx
    └── PSP
        ├── ...
    └── seplugins
        └── game.txt

"PS Vita with pirate flag" by Tech James, no license provided.