research/CONFLICTS.md

POPStarter Conflicts and Decisions#

Generated: 2026-06-21

PATCH_9.BIN Meaning#

Claims

• PSX-Place page 4: krHACKen says attached PATCH_9.BIN, placed in the POPS folder, should disable the bugged ELF loader and let IGR exit normally.
• Seed/ElOtroLado-derived notes: $NOPAL is described as equivalent to PATCH_9.BIN.

Decision

Document both claims as conflicting. The maintainer post is high-confidence for the loader-disable workaround. The $NOPAL equivalence stays visible but lower-confidence until archived wiki/package inspection explains whether there are different patch generations, contexts, or a mistaken seed mapping.

$NOIGR vs Loader Disable#

Claims

• $NOIGR disables IGR menu behavior.
• Loader-disable prevents POPStarter from chaining into BOOT.ELF on exit.

Decision

Keep them separate everywhere. Do not describe $NOIGR as a BOOT.ELF black-screen fix.

SMB Filenames#

Claims

• User notes list IPCONFIG.DAY, SMBCONFIG.DAY, and poweroff.irc.
• ElOtroLado lists IPCONFIG.DAT, SMBCONFIG.DAT, and poweroff.irx.

Decision

Publish .DAT and poweroff.irx as the documented paths. Keep the user-note spellings as likely typos and list package inspection as a remaining verification step.

Internal exFAT#

Claims

• User workflows mention exFAT/APA-Jail hybrid behavior.
• Core POPStarter does not support internal exFAT for the POPS/VCD side.

Decision

Document APA-Jail as a hybrid app-side launcher convenience only. Keep POPS files and VCDs on APA/PFS paths.

Modern Fork Device Support#

Claims

• Modern POPSLoader fork supports USB, MX4SIO, MMCE, and APAHDD workflows.
• Original POPStarter documentation predates much of this.

Decision

Preserve the modern workflows, but label them as POPSLoader/fork behavior. Do not rewrite original POPStarter core documentation around fork-only assumptions.