Not certain but it appears from here http://www.openpandora.org/firmware/images/ in the 'old' folder you can go back some way in the firmwares. I think the original HF4 that first shipped with CC units is missing though.
I have copies of most of them if you want them uploaded somewhere though?
Saying that, the improvements up to now are pretty dramatic, so aside from running off SD with a variant or using Slack, Arch or others, I doubt there is much point in using older ones anyway now.
I'd like to go more into detail. With a general fine working system setup at SuperZaxxon 1.51, pcsx-rearmed failed to work after update to SZ1.52. The buttons in the menu of pcsx didn't work, it was not possible to do anything, no game load, no quit at all. Yes, pcsx was updated very fast, thanks to notaz again. But what happens in case of no active developer?
There can be a situation where a downgrade of the OS ensures the use of "old" software. This is what we do with the emulators daily. During the emulator development the support for some games may change. The update of the emulator enables 4 new games to play but disables one old game. If you want to play that old game you have to use the old emulator version. If that emulator dosn't work with the actual OS, you have to downgrade the OS.
I'm not sure about the concept of this link, as far as i remember that is the link to the latest version. I can't check the history, because the downloads/ directory is not readable (403).
At http://openpandora.org/firmware/README.txt i found that the use of old images needs manual addition into a file set (like included in the firmware flash files like the above SuperZaxxonFinal.zip).
The UBIFS-Version
###############
[...]
To flash, grab the pandora-flash-kit, an UBIFS-image, a kernel and u-boot.bin.
[...]
To get a package with everything included [...], check the Support-Area on the homepage [...]
The everthing included package applies to the latest version only. For a downgrade i've to get the image, the kernel, the u-boot and the auto/boot.txt with matching bootargs. I failed to do so, because the contents of http://openpandora.org/firmware/images/old/ uses the internal date/version namestamps and i couldn't figure out which img, with which kernel and which u-boot belongs to which old firmware release version. If i could i still had the problem of the correct old boot.txt bootarguments.
For users there is no easy way to downgrade (for any reason) to an old firmware.
Thanks Mario for your offer, my vision was to have that ready to go files on the firmware/old/ folders for easy access for everybody. If there is any other easy way for everybody i'd like to try it. Maybe the files are still in the downloads/ folders, and we just need to post the links on the wiki?
^ Is that what is perhaps happening with PCSX in double7's case? AS certainly it's usually better to delete the old appdata bar your savestates with most of the upgrades.
@double7, your welcome to the offer if it'll help. My PC's are all in chaos at present and my CC unit is replaced and shipping back as 1Ghz from ED but i have somewhere, a copy of each firmware in both the flashing version and the SD Installer versions. When I find them I'll upload them somewhere if it helps ED.
Otherwise they need to wrap up each firmware package, both versions, plus uboots and bootxt files, as individual flash and SD installer versions for each firmware and host them again in a more organised manner like that. But ED's always hella busy.
I tested with a clean 32MB SDcard to exclude side effects. Originally i had two versions of pcsx installed, patched via *.ovr files into the menu. r7 and r13 afaik.
@double7 [...] firmware [...] When I find them I'll upload them somewhere if it helps ED.
Otherwise they need to wrap up each firmware package, both versions, plus uboots and bootxt files, as individual flash and SD installer versions for each firmware and host them again in a more organised manner like that. But ED's always hella busy.
I agree that there is not much demand for this additional work. There is still the option that the old firmware is still in the downloads/ section. Even if not, the creation at the source for future releases isn't a big problem, but can be done by ED or anyone with control over the official build and web server only. It's a rename/move of the existing firmware flash files, really no big deal.
I needed the downgrade to get the pcsx running again for advertisement and couldn't get it quick and easy. The result was i denied to show the pandora around, advertisement of "the emu is broken since the last firmware update" is not very helpful. The later update of pcsx fixed that, a solution isn't urgent now. But i think the problem is important enough to open an easy downgrade possiblility for the future.
The problem is in PCSX itself, I have no idea why you would want to downgrade the firmware for that.. It's also related to kernel, booting old kernel (assuming you have rebirth) on latest firmware would run those old versions fine.
(actually it's how those old PCSXs changes nub modes, if you set nubs to abs mode before launching those old versions, they would work).
Because i hadn't the resources (time, knowledge, patience) to explore the details. My quick win solution is a step back into the working system setup. I know it's a typical noob reaction.
Thanks a lot for the explanation, i patched my *r7.ovr to remind the facts. Please imagine if such a bug applies to software without active developer and without possible work around. If i can't fix the software in the new OS, i've to do a step back to the old OS to make it run. I'm just asking for easy access to the old versions. If nobody wants to use them, fine. But i like to have the option, e.g. to install Woody on a 386er machine.