PatchDL
A standalone PlayStation 5 ELF payload that downloads and installs official game patches on your terms. It serves its own web UI and runs without etaHEN.
PatchDL is built for setups where nanoDNS blocks Sony's servers for the whole console. It resolves the Sony patch CDN on its own path, so the rest of the system stays offline and only the patches you pick get fetched.
by Knutwurst
What it does
- Scans installed titles and classifies each one: genuine install, ShadowMountPlus mount, preinstall, or unknown.
- Reads the title name, installed version, and the Sony
version.xmlURL from the PS5 app database. - Fetches each title's
version.xmlfrom Sony's CDN past nanoDNS (a raw DNS query to 1.1.1.1) and verifies TLS against the pinned SCEI DNAS root. - Picks the newest patch compatible with the current firmware
(
system_ver <= firmware), so an update never forces a firmware upgrade. - Downloads the patch package and installs it through Sony's AppInstUtil service.
Safety model
Deny-by-default. A patch is installed only for a genuine install, and only when the patch metadata targets the installed game:
| Source | Check | Download | Install |
|---|---|---|---|
| official | yes | yes | yes |
| shadowmount | yes | yes | no |
| preinstall / unknown | yes | no | no |
Two independent guards stop the wrong target being installed: the patch target
id (read from version.xml / manifest_url) must match the installed game, and
the install call receives the installed game's content id from app.db. Sony may
store the actual patch bytes under a regional/master title id that differs from
the target; that storage id is accepted only when version.xml targets the
installed title. A true target-title mismatch is refused instead of installed as
a phantom title.
Build
Requires ps5-payload-dev/sdk. The network and install features also need the
prebuilt libcurl + OpenSSL from ps5-payload-dev/pacbrew-repo placed in the SDK
sysroot (target/user/homebrew); scripts/build_ps5.sh enables them
automatically when present. libmicrohttpd is vendored under vendor/etahen, and
SQLite is vendored under vendor/sqlite.
scripts/build_ps5.sh # produces patchdl-ps5.elf
Deploy
This console uses the BD-JB autoloader with itsPLK's Payload Manager on port
8084 (not a 9021 elfldr). scripts/deploy_ps5.sh uploads the ELF named with its
version and launches it; the payload replaces any running instance itself.
PS5_HOST=<console-ip> scripts/deploy_ps5.sh
On start it shows an on-screen notification with the URL. Open the web UI at:
http://<console-ip>:12880/
Status
0.0.2, early. Title scan, source classification, version resolution,
firmware-compatibility filtering, download, and install work and have been
verified on firmware 11.60. Patches download internally to /data/patchdl and
are removed once the install has applied. Each title has a single action button
(Download then Install, or Update when "install after download" is on). Open
items: the web UI marks a title "Installing…" but reads progress from the PS5's
own notifications rather than a percentage; a download queue is not built yet;
disc-based games need the disc inserted for their patch to apply (a normal Sony
requirement). Settings (global policy and the per-game toggle) persist to
/data/patchdl/config.json and survive a restart.