#119430 - Yooser Naim - Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:50 pm
I've just bought an EFA-Linker II, and I'm having a few problems getting the drivers installed properly. First of all, the windows plug and play software installed the generic Microsoft disk drivers automatically, so I'm trying to change them to the ones included with the "EFA Client V2.83 DS" package from the EFA website (http://www.efa.cc/support.html). When I select the driver file from the Hardware Update Wizard a message pops up, informing me that "The specified location does not contain information about your device." I've tried just about all relevant files in the package, but am getting the same results. Would anyone have any idea what I've done wrong?
#119455 - Yooser Naim - Fri Feb 23, 2007 2:50 am
I've found my problem. Anyone encountering similar problems, or wanting to know more about the EFA linker II before purchasing it, should look at this site:
site prohibited here
#119485 - SimonB - Fri Feb 23, 2007 2:01 pm
I had an EFA II at one time (it was crap). You dont need any drivers for the unit, it will work just like a usb memory card. You were trying to force it to use the EFA-Linker drivers....(the earlier generation EFA's). Thats why it didnt work.
#121011 - Yooser Naim - Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:56 am
You're right, SimonB. Unfortunately, I found this out from personal experience as well (I should have done more research). What device would you recommend?
(Note: Sorry for mentioning the site, I didn't think that through well.)
#121012 - wintermute - Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:20 am
Almost any of the media card type devices are great.
I have a SuperCard miniSD and an R4DS which both work well for me.
If you want to run gba homebrew then a slot2 card such as the supercard is probably best - avoid the supercard rumble though, it has no RAM and can't currently run nds binaries built with the latest devkitARM.
For just DS homebrew then my preference would be the R4DS or maybe the supercard dsone. The former I have, no experience of the latter.
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#121057 - Yooser Naim - Thu Mar 08, 2007 3:23 pm
The slot-1 devices, such as R4, look a little daunting to me with all the patching and compatibility issues. I'm trying to develop very simple applications for the DS, and am not incredibly experienced with coding or setting up development environments. I've looked at chism's DLDI/patcher page, and the directions on how to set up the environment so that it uses the correct libfat seem a little...sparse, especially for an issue that is complex enough to be opaque to me. It's a few too many new things all at once. I'm running some code tests that are working on emulators, but I haven't put anything on hardware before, so if I were to experience any difficulties putting the code on the device or executing it on the DS, I definitely wouldn't know where to even start analyzing the problem. It could be any number of things, all of which I wouldn't have a great understanding about. But, anyways, now that you know a little more about my situation, I have a few more questions:
Would you know of a better, more thorough walkthrough of using a specific DLDI tool such as R4?
Does the GBA MP (slot-2/Compact flash) have a simpler developer's setup than the slot-1 cards?
If I could get my DS flashed using my crappy EFA II (it doesn't seem to work, but more on that at the bottom**), would wireless multi-boot be a fairly simple solution? (I don't plan on my software being any larger than 100Kb or so)
Thanks for all the help.
**EFA II problems:
**I now understand the EFA II works like a U-disk, and that you must load the stored roms into NOR flash using the firmware. I also understand the "work around" for using the EFA II to load DS files. But, the device still doesn't work when I try to test it using verified, working ROMs off of GBADEV.org. The loader screen simply displays the same message all the time "No valid roms found." I've tried updating the firmware with no changes in the results. Would anyone know of the problem? Or does everyone agree that I bought an expensive piece of crap?
#121084 - tepples - Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:13 pm
Did you run 'gbafix' on the GBA programs that you downloaded? Sometimes, flash card firmware checks for a valid header including a valid Nintendo logo, and the homebrew tools do not insert a valid Nintendo logo into the file by default.
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#121100 - Yooser Naim - Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:11 pm
No, tepples, I didn't think of that. I just assumed every .gba file had the fix. Well, that makes the GBA games work. But I still need to figure out the DS / EFA II workaround. Thanks again, tepples.
Last edited by Yooser Naim on Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:26 pm; edited 2 times in total
#121170 - Yooser Naim - Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:23 pm
Well, I figured the workaround out. Here are the steps:
1. Load the .ds.gba file into the cart.
2. load the file into the NOR space from the EFA firmware, then select that file to execute from the ROMS screen. A Game Boy screen will pop up, followed by blank screens.
3. Plug the USB cable into the flash cart, turn off the ds, insert a passcard, and turn the DS back on.
4. The .ds.gba file should execute.