gbadev.org forum archive

This is a read-only mirror of the content originally found on forum.gbadev.org (now offline), salvaged from Wayback machine copies. A new forum can be found here.

Flash Equipment > Any flash software for Linux?

#15540 - helloyo - Sat Jan 24, 2004 12:16 pm

Hi, I have recently switched over to linux completely, so i don't have windows anymore. Is there a program in linux that will let me write to my Flash card?

If anyone know how to emulate a program in wine properly it could you please let me know?

Thanks in advance.

#15871 - spooo - Mon Feb 02, 2004 1:22 am

Hello,

For the Flash2Advance // and USB, you have :
http://www.emulinks.de/f2a/
and (only USB) :
http://deyv.free.fr/gba/f2a/

Try http://linux.gbadev.org for other cards.

#20123 - Gnurou - Sun May 02, 2004 6:03 pm

Hello guys,

I'm in the same situation as helloyo - looking for flashing software running on Linux. After some time spent looking for supported hardware (I had your first link spooo, but not the second - thanks!) I decided to go for flash2advance, which seems to be best supported (that is, not much, but whatever... :/).

But I wonder if the software you mentionned does support the flash2advance ultra cards? Do you have informations on how much they are compatible with the original flash2advance cards? Are they using the same cable? Any hint on this would be greatly appreciated, as if they work I'll rather go for an ultra.

Thanks!

#20365 - spooo - Sun May 09, 2004 12:19 am

Hello,

I have no clue whether this linux driver (they are nearly identical) support F2AU flash cards. One has to check. There's good hope if the cable (ezusb2131 chip for the usb cable) is the same.

Note that linux 2.6 is not supported yet, but it seems that little change is needed since the ezusb2131 driver is integrated into it.

#21209 - Vince - Tue May 25, 2004 9:52 pm

Hello,

Just got the if2a soft and an F2A 256 ultra card. I can confirm that the cable is the same (still AN2131 from Cypress plus it is bundled separately from the cart).

However, the amount of supported features and complexity of the Ultra carts may render the Linux if2a unusable.

Do you have any hints/feedback about that?

Thanks a lot for your time, it is a must for my cart to be supported under Linux. Actually, I got an Ultra by error since I ordered a normal (Pro) card. I was wondering whether I could go for it and keep it...

Vince

#21229 - Gnurou - Wed May 26, 2004 7:47 am

Vince wrote:
Hello,

Just got the if2a soft and an F2A 256 ultra card. I can confirm that the cable is the same (still AN2131 from Cypress plus it is bundled separately from the cart).

However, the amount of supported features and complexity of the Ultra carts may render the Linux if2a unusable.

Do you have any hints/feedback about that?

Thanks a lot for your time, it is a must for my cart to be supported under Linux. Actually, I got an Ultra by error since I ordered a normal (Pro) card. I was wondering whether I could go for it and keep it...

Vince


Hi Vince,

Have you tested it with if2a? If you don't use Linux, then the Windows program should be ok for you - otherwise the best thing to do is probably to give it a test.

#21234 - Vince - Wed May 26, 2004 8:34 am

Hi Gnurou,

Yes, I will give it a try this afternoon. It may work since I saw on forums that the Ultra carts are still compatible with the old F2A at the writing level.
I am also in contact with if2a developer and we will carry tests to see if everything is fine.

I'll keep you informed.

Cheers,

Vince

PS: I was wrong saying it is an AN2131. The chip is a derivative (AN2535SC) but the cable still seem to be the same.

#21291 - Gnurou - Wed May 26, 2004 9:04 pm

Vince wrote:


I am also in contact with if2a developer and we will carry tests to see if everything is fine.
[/quote]

I guess that's spooo on this forum.

[/quote]I'll keep you informed.

PS: I was wrong saying it is an AN2131. The chip is a derivative (AN2535SC) but the cable still seem to be the same.[/quote]

Thanks you. Good also to know the chips are not the same. I bought a cable that works with FA Pro cards, and it's an AN2131. I'm curious to know if yours still works with if2a. Would be great news if it does.

#21313 - Vince - Thu May 27, 2004 3:42 pm

Hello back,

I have very good news concerning the Ultra carts : they are indeed compatible with the older F2A carts. I have successfully been able to flash my F2A 256M with the old F2AW3.1 under Windows.
Everything works, including the bootloader. I still need to do extensive checks about saves because it seems that the system is different (SRAM virtual disk). Hopefully, lots of the cart internal aspects (such as the SRAM virtual disk) are managed by the new bootloader.
Concerning the bootloader, someone got it extracted from PowerWriter which means we will only have to write it to the first 2M of the cart.

Concerning Linux, the cable is the same. It also shows up as an AN2131 and the module properly loads and gets ready for download. It did not try to send an hex file though since it may damage the linker (see Ulrich warning in the linux f2a README).

I am currently busy with extracting the hex file that PowerWriter sends to the cable to get it re-enumerated as a F2A linker. We will also need to extract the multiboot image that get sent to the GBA in order to write to the cart.

That's it. All in all, and for the moment, I am satisfied with the Ultra cart. I gained a broader HW support for saves and an RTC along with updated software. This however comes at the cost of extra complexity and maybe instability problems.

Since the cart has a good software base under Linux, I will keep it and improve the soft (add functions for the Ultra carts and a GTK frontend to if2a).

Cheers,

Vince