How to run PSP Homebrew (on 5.03 and lower)

This guide is only for people who are not currently capable of running homebrew on their PSP because their firmware is too high. If you're firmware is higher than 5.03, there is no hope for you right now; sorry.

Get your firmware to 5.03

First things first, you need to upgrade your PSP to firmware 5.03 if it's not on 5.03 already. I have, hosted here, the file that will do so. Rename it to EBOOT and place it in the following directory: /PSP/Game/Update From there, turn on your PSP, go to Game, choose memory stick, run the update.

Run chickHEN

First download chickHEN.

Then place h.bin in the root of your memory stick and the contents of the slim or phat folder in /PSP/PHOTO

Turn on your PSP, go to view the pictures on your memory stick, view slim (or phat) .ttf Your PSP will crash, turn it back on.

View the correct .ttf file again, your PSP should reboot into HEN mode. Now you can run homebrew from your memory stick! (Go to the memory stick option under GAME in your PSP)

Putting homebrew on your memory stick

Put an EBOOT.PBP file inside a folder inside /PSP/GAME/

Troubleshooting

If your PSP just keeps crashing and is not booting into HEN mode (like mine originally did :P) format your memory stick and restore your system's default settings.

Or as an alternative to formatting and losing all of your data, you can try the R2 Fix version of chickHEN if you are using a PSP 2000 or a PSP 3000.