Media Preservation Frontend (MPF)
Redumper/Aaru/DiscImageCreator UI in C#
This is a community project, so if you have some time and knowledge to give, we'll be glad to add you as a contributor to this project. If you have any suggestions, issues, bugs, or crashes, please look at the Issues page first to see if it has been reported before and try out the latest WIP build below to see if it has already been addressed. If it hasn't, please open an issue that's as descriptive as you can be. Help me make this a better program for everyone :)
Releases
For the most recent stable build, download the latest release here: Releases Page
For the latest WIP build here: Rolling Release
Media Preservation Frontend UI (MPF.UI)
MPF is the main, UI-centric application of the MPF suite. This program allows users to use Redumper, Aaru, or DiscImageCreator in a more user-friendly way. Each backend dumping program is supported as fully as possible to ensure that all information is captured on output. There are many customization options and quality of life settings that can be access through the Options menu.
Configuration files are stored by default next to the application as config.json. This contains all settings for the UI including credentials. In addition to this, the configuration can also be located at ~/Library/Application Support/mpf/config.json on MacOS, %localappdata%\mpf\config.json on Windows, or ~/.config/mpf/config.json on Unix-like systems. The second path will be used by default if running from a read-only device or folder. If neither directory is readable, no options will be loaded or saved.
Note: On Windows, older versions may have stored configuration files in %userprofile%\.config\mpf\config.json. These should be moved or deleted to avoid any confusion.
UI Support Limitations
The main UI has some known limitations that are documented in code and in some prior support tickets:
- Windows-only due to reliance on WPF and Winforms
- MAUI is not a viable alternative due to lack of out-of-box support for Linux
- Avalonia is being heavily considered as an alternative
- For those who need .NET Framework 4.8, there is an official fork: MPF Legacy
- Some archive types may not be supported for protection scanning, see Compatibility Notes for more details
Media Preservation Frontend CLI (MPF.CLI)
MPF.CLI is a commandline-only program that allows users to use Redumper, Aaru, or DiscImageCreator in a more user-friendly way. Each backend dumping program is supported as fully as possible to ensure that all information is captured on output. All options are manually configured through the configuration file. See below for details.
Configuration files are stored by default next to the application as config.json. This contains all settings for the UI including credentials. In addition to this, the configuration can also be located at ~/Library/Application Support/mpf/config.json on MacOS, %localappdata%\mpf\config.json on Windows, or ~/.config/mpf/config.json on Unix-like systems. The second path will be used by default if running from a read-only device or folder. If neither directory is readable, no options will be loaded or saved.
Note: On Windows, older versions may have stored configuration files in %userprofile%\.config\mpf\config.json. These should be moved or deleted to avoid any confusion.
CLI Support Limitations
The main CLI has some known limitations that are documented in code and in some prior support tickets:
- Some archive types may not be supported for protection scanning, see Compatibility Notes for more details
Media Preservation Frontend Checker (MPF.Check)
MPF.Check is a commandline-only program that allows users to generate submission information from their personal rips. This program supports the outputs from Redumper, Aaru, DiscImageCreator, Cleanrip, PS3 custom firmware (CFW), UmdImageCreator, and Xbox Backup Creator (XBC). Running this program without any parameters will display the help text, including all supported parameters.
If using alongside an application like MPF.UI or MPF.CLI, the genereated configuration files may be used for common settings. Configuration files are stored by default next to the application as config.json. This contains all settings for the UI including credentials. In addition to this, the configuration can also be located at ~/Library/Application Support/mpf/config.json on MacOS, %localappdata%\mpf\config.json on Windows, or ~/.config/mpf/config.json on Unix-like systems. The second path will be used by default if running from a read-only device or folder. If neither directory is readable, no options will be loaded or saved.
Note: On Windows, older versions may have stored configuration files in %userprofile%\.config\mpf\config.json. These should be moved or deleted to avoid any confusion.
System Requirements
MPF.UI, MPF.CLI, and MPF.Check have the same system requirements for running, with the exception that MPF.UI is Windows-only.
Ensure that your operating system and runtimes are as up-to-date as possible, since some features may rely on those updates.
Linux Drive Access
Redumper and DiscImageCreator send some drive commands, such as the Plextor reads, that Linux only allows for programs with the CAP_SYS_RAWIO capability. Without it, they stop with Operation not permitted, and DiscImageCreator also reports that the drive does not support the command. Unpacking MPF does not keep this capability, so set it again after every download, from the MPF folder:
sudo setcap cap_sys_rawio=ep Programs/Redumper/bin/redumper
sudo setcap cap_sys_rawio=ep Programs/Creator/DiscImageCreator.out
scripts/setcaps.sh runs the same commands for a given MPF folder: sudo sh setcaps.sh /path/to/MPF. After that, both programs work as a normal user, without sudo.
Build Instructions
To build for .NET 10.0, ensure that the .NET 10.0 SDK (or later) is installed and included in your PATH. Then, run the following commands from command prompt, Powershell, Terminal, or shell:
MPF.UI (Windows only):
dotnet build MPF.UI/MPF.UI.csproj --framework net10.0-windows --runtime [win-x86|win-x64]
MPF.CLI (Windows, OSX, Linux):
dotnet build MPF.CLI/MPF.CLI.csproj --framework net10.0 --runtime [win-x86|win-x64|win-arm64|linux-x64|linux-arm64|osx-x64|osx-arm64]
MPF.Check (Windows, OSX, Linux):
dotnet build MPF.Check/MPF.Check.csproj --framework net10.0 --runtime [win-x86|win-x64|win-arm64|linux-x64|linux-arm64|osx-x64|osx-arm64]
Choose one of win-x86, win-x64, win-arm64, linux-x64, linux-arm64, osx-x64, or osx-arm64 depending on the machine you are targeting.
Build Scripts
Windows users may run publish-win.ps1 and Linux users may run publish-nix.sh to perform a full release build. Both scripts will build and package all variants of MPF.UI, MPF.CLI, and MPF.Check with commandline switches to control what is included.
publish-win.ps1 requires 7-zip commandline and Git for Windows to be installed and in PATH.publish-nix.sh requires zip and git to be installed and in PATH. Optionally, if wget is installed and in PATH, you can enable pulling dumping programs on publish.
Information
For all additional information, including information about the individual components included in the project and what dumping programs are supported, please see the wiki for more details.
Changelist
A list of all changes in each stable release and current WIP builds can now be found here.
External Libraries
MPF uses some external libraries to assist with additional information gathering after the dumping process.
- Binary Object Scanner - Protection scanning - GitHub
- WPFCustomMessageBox.thabse - Custom message boxes in UI - GitHub
Additionally, included in this program is public domain code from the Aaru Data Preservation Suite. The code consists of the auto-generated code relating to CICM sidecar data as used in versions of Aaru prior to version 6. The terms from which the included code are released are as follows:
The sidecar schema is under public domain as long as any change you made is compatible and upstreamed, or you change the root element type from CICMMetadata to anything else. Besides that, you can use it anywhere.
If you want to give due credit, this schema is created by Natalia Portillo.
Please see the link above for the full text.
Contributors
Here are the talented people who have contributed to the project so far in ways that GitHub doesn't like to track:
- ReignStumble - Former Project Lead / UI Design
- Shadów - UI Support
For all others who have contributed in some way, please see here.
Notable Testers
These are the tireless individuals who have dedicated countless hours to help test the many features of MPF and have worked with the development team closely:
Community Shout-Outs
Thanks to these communities for their use, testing, and feedback. I can't even hope to be able to thank everyone individually.
