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DS Misc > Idea for quick and painless homebrew development using WiFi

#57388 - 0xtob - Sat Oct 15, 2005 2:26 pm

Hi everyone!

I recently had an idea for a method that would make homebrew development, especially testing on hardware much quicker and more flexible. I develop and test my programs using WMB, because it's the easiest and quickest way. I would rather develop under Linux though, but I would quickly get annoyed with the task of swapping my CF-Card from the cardreader to the GBAMP and back. So I had an idea for quicker testing that would use sgstair's DS-Wifi:

We would need two programs that communicate via Wifi: A PC-Program that sends the compiled NDS binary and a DS program that recieves the binary and then runs it. The communiation should use standard TCP/IP, so that it can be done with every WiFi-Card, not just with WMB compatible ones. Also, this would work with Linux and Mac platforms by porting the PC-part to the respective platform.

The workflow would then look like this:
You have a homebrew program you are working on and a DS that runs the WiFi reciever (which is started from GBAMP or flashcart). The DS would always be on and wait for a connection. You compile the homebrew program and start the sender program on PC, that establishes a connection to the DS and uploads the file. The reciever program on the DS writes the recieved binary to memory and launches it. Afetr having tested it, you could use a certain keystroke in your homebrew that exits it and returns to the launcher, which then returns to the waiting mode. Then, you can make changes and compile and upload again and again.

So, you would never have to turn off your DS, waiting time would be minimized and you could use any WiFi-Hardware and any operating system for development. Wouldn't this be cool?

But is something like this possible or am I missing something? I would love to get some expert comments on this.

Bye,
Tob

#57398 - Ilomoga - Sat Oct 15, 2005 3:49 pm

That would be really cool, but the PC program has to be compiled for any platform. I don't know - do you have to change the code to get the same thing working on Linux and Mac?


But if that would be possible it would be great :D
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#57404 - revo - Sat Oct 15, 2005 4:54 pm

Even better thing should be possible - instead of writing to memory, write to CF cart in GBAMP or M3 (and maybe in future on SD in MagicKey2/3, Supercard and other stuff). Wireless CF/SD reader/writer on DS, yeah ;) No need of moving cart to PC (and wifi transfer should be pretty fast)
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#57412 - tepples - Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:09 pm

If you make an HTTP or CIFS client for the Nintendo DS, then it should work fine with any HTTP or CIFS server on any platform. The Apache HTTP server is ported to all three platforms. Windows has a built-in CIFS server, and Linux and Mac OS X have Samba.
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#57419 - 0xtob - Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:49 pm

tepples:

That would be a possibility, although I would rather like a solution where the DS is the server that waits for connections. This would then use a minimalistic custom protocol. My ultimate goal would be that I enter "make send" and my homebrew project is compiled, sent to the DS and executed automatically.

But your idea would be cool for Homebrew portals like ndshb. They could have special pages to be accessed from a DS client (a sort of minimalistic browser) from where you could download DS Homebrew to the RAM and/or CF/SD of your DS and run it. I know what many people are gonna say to this, so I add that it would of course need a checksum test for a certain beloved homebrew program of ours :-)

Tob

#57446 - mike260 - Sat Oct 15, 2005 10:33 pm

While we're on the subject, an NDS GDB stub would be pretty damn handy too. I can't wait for sgstair to finish his fine work...

#57493 - 0xtob - Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:36 pm

mike260:

Do you think it would be possible to debug over Wifi? Complete with support for breakpoints and stepping? That would be really cool!

#57502 - Mr. Picklesworth - Sun Oct 16, 2005 4:23 pm

Revo is right, it would be fantastic if it wrote the data to a CF card. Perhaps put an option somewhere...
Writing to RAM, it can only be 4 Mb in total.

This would not only save precious energy (at the expense of time, but that's actually a good thing -- You're meant to take a 10-15 minute break every hour), but also save money for those who lack a CF card writer.
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#57503 - tepples - Sun Oct 16, 2005 4:35 pm

Without a CF card writer, how are you supposed to get the HTTP client or whatever loaded onto the CF card in the first place?
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#57517 - juhees - Sun Oct 16, 2005 6:11 pm

tepples wrote:
Without a CF card writer, how are you supposed to get the HTTP client or whatever loaded onto the CF card in the first place?


wmb it to your ds and let it write itself via wifi to your card ;-)
a ds as wireless cardreader would be cool ;-)

but when i look over to sgstairs page, it seems to me, that ds wifi will still take a lot of time (writing your own tcp/ip stack isn't done in a few days i quess...). so how far is wmb for linux? this would still be a lot faster as via cardreader.

#57521 - tepples - Sun Oct 16, 2005 6:27 pm

juhees wrote:
tepples wrote:
Without a CF card writer, how are you supposed to get the HTTP client or whatever loaded onto the CF card in the first place?

wmb it to your ds and let it write itself via wifi to your card ;-)

RSA.

Without a CF card writer, how are you supposed to get FlashMe (renamed to _boot_mp.nds) loaded onto the CF card in the first place? Or is dspassme.com going to start reselling PQI CompactFlash cards preloaded with FlashMe (renamed to _boot_mp.nds)?
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-- I think he moved to Tilwick.