PS4: NoBD Updater will be free once the $225 ko-fi donation goal is reached

Update: the donation drive has now reached its goal, and the tool can be downloaded for free from the Homebrew store, or at https://pkg-zone.com/details/UDAT99998

 

Original article:

Developer LightningMods has been caught in a minor controversy recently when he announced his NoBD updater would become a paid service after the initial test phase. The developer has changed his mind on the remuneration process, and instead switched to a donation goal of $225, on popular donation service ko-fi. Once that goal is reached (currently at 80% at the time of writing this), the tool will become free for everyone. Until then, people who want to contribute to the goal can donate $10 and get a key for the NoBD updater tool before everybody else.

What is a PS4 NoBD, and how do I update mine?

It’s up to the community to fix this mess, and make it technically possible to update your firmware to the latest and greatest, by bypassing a few checks during installation of the firmware. These techniques are typically referred to as “NoBD updaters”.

There are specific requirements to run such an updater, starting of course with the fact that you need to run a Jailbroken PS4. LM’s NoBD Updater currently supports 5.5x, 5.03, 5.05, 6.20, 6.72, 7.0x, 7.5x. By following LightningMod’s instructions, you will be updating to firmware 9.00, allowing you to run the latest Jailbreak on that firmware.

What’s the controversy?

LightningMod wanted to get paid for his effort, by selling a “one time” key for each user who wanted to update their NoBD PS4. And to be clear, in general at wololo.net we have no concern with that. Their work, their choice. But the scene generally expects stuff to be free, or other means of payment than directly “buying” a license. The hacking scene has a long history of “teams” using other people’s work for a quick profit, and this is unfortunately going to be perceived this way even if the price one charges is fair. I personally feel a $10 license fee to update a stuck PS4 can be considered fair, but I understand why some people didn’t like that either.

LightningMods has reverted to a different solution, which is to reach a goal of $225 in donations, in order to make the tool free for everyone. I personally like this approach, and the goal is 80% met at the time of writing. People who donate $10 or more get a key automatically, ahead of time (you have to join a discord server here in order to contact LM – Beware though, at the time of writing, we’ve received an “invalid invite” error message when attempting to join). The scene in general seems to like this approach better, where people who can afford it can fix their PS4 right now, while others just have to be a bit patient.

 

Also probably worth mentioning that LightningMods has published a lot of useful homebrew for the PS4, free of charge, for years, such as PS4-Store.

NoBD Updater to 9.00 confirmed working by testers

The folks who have tried LightningMod’s files so far have reported success, for example here are pictures courtesy of user PTM (theboss) on the test discord channel, who confirmed update from 6.72 to 9.00 worked as expected:

Where to donate? Where to get the PS4 NoBD Updater?

The tool isn’t free currently, but might become soon. When it does, look for an announcement from LightningMods. In the meantime, you can donate on ko-fi to reach the $225 goal, but be sure to reach out to LightningMods on Discord ahead of time to understand where and how to get your key for donations of $10 or more.

What are your thoughts on homebrew developers getting paid for their releases? Let us know in the comments below.

Update: Discord invite updated to a new one, per discussion with LightningMods