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AnyPS5/docs/dev/debt/libSceSystemService.md
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Dean 0aa55ef293 Merge pull request #8430 from shanu337/fix/systemservice-tournament-stub
fix(libSceSystemService): stub sceSystemServiceOpenTournamentOccurrence
2026-10-21 19:25:03 +13:00

25 KiB

libSceSystemService technical debt

Silent stubs

  • libSceSystemService - sceSystemServicePowerTick, sceSystemServiceReportAbnormalTermination, sceSystemServiceDisableMusicPlayer, sceSystemServiceReenableMusicPlayer, sceSystemServiceDisableMediaPlay and sceSystemServiceReenableMediaPlay return success and do nothing: the host has no auto power-off timer to reset, no system crash reporter to notify, no system music player to pause or resume and no system media playback to disable. PPSA01521 calls sceSystemServiceDisableMediaPlay during start-up, and its wrappers for both pass no arguments
  • sceSystemServiceLaunchWebBrowser (libSceSystemService) - AnyPS5 launches no web browser, so the call fails and nothing is shown. RommPS PPSA76677 then tells the player to scan its QR code instead
  • sceSystemServiceShowControllerSettings (libSceSystemService) - returns success without showing the controller settings: AnyPS5 has no system UI to open. Cat Quest III (PPSA15065) imports it
  • sceSystemServiceShowDisplaySafeAreaSettings (libSceSystemService) - returns success without showing the display safe area settings dialog: AnyPS5 has no system UI to open. PPSA03332 imports it, and the no-argument signature is assumed: Orbital has sceSystemServiceShowControllerSettings but not this call
  • sceSystemServiceOpenChallengeActivity (libSceSystemService) - returns success without opening the challenge activity: AnyPS5 has no system UI to open. Cat Quest III (PPSA15065) imports it
  • sceSystemServiceOpenTournamentOccurrence (libSceSystemService) - returns success without opening the tournament occurrence: AnyPS5 has no system UI to open

Unknown function info

Functional

  • sceSystemServiceLoadExec (libSceSystemService) - besides "exit", it starts the title's own /app0/eboot.bin or another executable under /app0 that the relinker converted with --executable, which is looked up beside the running one (/app0/picker/picker.bin as picker.picker.bin with the running executable's extension). The main executable is the one APS5_EBOOT names, which the first call sets to its own path. After the guest shutdown the old process ends without running guest exit handlers or host destructors; as during exit, a guest thread that calls a library the shutdown has stopped waits for the end instead of unwinding. "exit" ends the process after the host shutdown without running the title's atexit and __cxa_atexit handlers, since the console's shell closes the title instead; a line the title writes just before through its own thread, such as a forwarded standard error line, may not be printed. VLC for PS5 (PPSA85300) relaunches itself with no arguments; RetroArch (PPSA99169) starts its frontend picker with {"", NULL}, and the picker starts eboot.bin with {"--ps5-mode=retroarch", NULL} or /app0/es-de/es-de.bin (picker.cpp), so the list holds only arguments. A list with a first entry becomes the whole guest argv, with no program name in front (LoadExec.cpp): a PS5 RetroArch console transcript records a restart with one argument entering with argc=1, argv[0]="--ps5-relaunch=1", and a launch from the home screen with argc=1, argv[0]="" (relaunch_ps5.cpp). For such a list Linux replaces the process with fexecve, and macOS with posix_spawn and POSIX_SPAWN_SETEXEC: the PID and the standard streams stay, the other descriptors are closed and the working directory becomes the executable's. Windows starts a suspended process that inherits only the standard streams and a handle of the old process, and its entry stub waits for the old process to end before it loads the title's libraries, so a shell or script that started the title sees it end. A null list or one without a first entry keeps the earlier launch: the new executable gets only its own path as its command line (CreateProcessW on Windows, execv on Linux and macOS), so its argv[0] is the host path, and the old process ends without waiting for it. What the console passes for such a list is not known, nor are its argument limits and error codes. Paths outside /app0 and unconverted executables throw
  • Running application ID (libSceSystemService) - sceSystemServiceGetAppIdOfRunningBigApp reports 1 as the running title's app ID. The value is AnyPS5's own: the console's shell assigns app IDs and their values are not known here, so other calls that take an app ID must use the same one. sceSystemServiceKillApp with that ID and the arguments -1, 0 and 0, which SwanStationPS5 passes to close itself and ps5-payload-dev's hbldr passes to close the running game, ends the title as its own exit(0) would: the guest's shutdown and atexit handlers run and the process exits with status 0. On the console the call returns and the shell then ends the title, and whether those handlers run there is unknown; here there is no shell, so the call does not return. Another app ID or other arguments throw.
  • sceLncUtilKillApp, sceLncUtilKillAppWithReason (libSceSystemService) - the running title's app ID ends the title as sceSystemServiceKillApp does, which SharpProspero describes as a wrapper of sceLncUtilKillApp; the signatures follow its launcher utility bindings. Another app ID throws, and so does a reason other than 0, whose meaning and effect on the console are not documented
  • LoadExec descriptors (libSceSystemService) - on Linux, a call with an argument list replaces the process with fexecve, which first closes every descriptor above 2, and on macOS with posix_spawn, which closes them through POSIX_SPAWN_CLOEXEC_DEFAULT; a call without one uses execv, and the guest's descriptors stay open across it. On both paths descriptor 2 first gets back the host standard error a guest redirect kept, so the runtime's output does not follow the title's redirect (RetroArch's trace file, VLC's log) into the next executable. Which descriptors the console passes to the new process is not known