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DS Flash Equipment > R4 always boots even with booting set to manual

#129443 - Hamper - Tue May 22, 2007 10:08 pm

Hi, I have two questions which are kind of linked together:

First:
i have Flashme V8a noauto and a R4 card. But the R4 card always boots even if I set booting to "Manual" in the NDS firmware menu.
And to access the NDS firmware menu I have to remove the R4 card.
Is this a normal behaviour?

Second:
Then, I also have a M3 lite. If I start the NDS with Select pressed, the M3 lite boots in DS mode instead of the R4 (because of the V8a "noauto"). Is there any way or any button combination to boot the M3 directly in GBA mode?
(boot setting to "Manual" in the NDS firmware menu does not work because of the R4, which always boots as described above)

Thank you for your help,
Hamp

#129447 - chuckstudios - Tue May 22, 2007 10:22 pm

First:
Yes, it is a special bit set in the header that tells the firmware to abandon whatever it's doing and pay attention to the R4.

Second:
The only way would be to use a third-party GBA mode booting application, such as the one found on cryptosystem.org.

#129498 - Hamper - Wed May 23, 2007 8:56 am

Ok, i see.

I tried your suggestion, (gbaswitch.nds). I renamed it to _DS_MSHL.nds and now I can start my M3 Lite directly from the R4 Menu in GBA mode instead of the moonshell.
It works great.

Chuckstudios, thanks for the quick reply.

#129557 - dantheman - Wed May 23, 2007 7:17 pm

You said you tried setting it to Manual in the firmware, and you said you tried Select, so this may be a stupid question, but did you try both at the same time? For me, using v8a with a Supercard miniSD, if I set it to manual mode and hold Select upon bootup, I can get to the DS firmware without ejecting anything. However, this may change due to the use of the noauto version and/or the use of a slot-1 device, so this advice probably won't work too well.

#129561 - Hamper - Wed May 23, 2007 7:43 pm

Yes, this changes if you have a slot-1 (R4/M3) device. Like chuckstudios pointed out, there seems to be "a special bit set in the header that tells the firmware to abandon whatever it's doing and pay attention to the R4."

But I just tried a EZFlash V (Slot-1). This card shows a different behaviour. If the DS is set to manual boot, the DS starts into the normal DS firmware (with Pictochat etc.)

So this seems to depend on the Slot-1 Card and the DS firmware (Flashme / Flashme Noauto / original Firmware).

Perhaps there will be a way to patch the firmware of the R4/M3 somehow to avoid the R4/M3 autoboot behaviour.

Also very nice would be a Flashme where for example Slot1 boots with nothing pressed, Slot2 boots in GBA mode with A pressed, Slot2 boots in DS mode when B pressed and normal DS firmware boots with X+Y pressed. Just an idea... ;)

#129562 - dantheman - Wed May 23, 2007 7:57 pm

You could try using FlashMe version 7, as that had different booting order button combos, as explained by Tepples at http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?t=12780&start=15

However, since you want slot-1 to boot by default, this probably wouldn't be the best solution.

#129567 - Hamper - Wed May 23, 2007 8:27 pm

Hi, yeah, I actually had Flashme 7. And i was happy when the Flashme 8 noauto came out.

Now Im happy with my solution. It is not optimal (no moonshell in slot1, always boot to slot1), but it is much better than before.

Besides that, slightly another topic: Is there any way to remove the M3 perfect "warning" blah: "This product is not produced or blablabla by Nintendo"? Is there any kind of "FLASHM3" for the M3 (non-ST3ALTH;) to get rid of this stupid message?