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Hardware > dev hardware in linux??

#6057 - Zero - Fri May 16, 2003 8:02 am

I want to work totally in linux, what hardware should i get?? do the usb ones work/have software that works in linux??? am i dreaming???

#6067 - niltsair - Fri May 16, 2003 2:40 pm

I bought the 2 version of Flash2Advance (USB, Parallel port) and the USB one work so-so. I'd pick the parallel. It work fine and the Usb is only maginally faster because the card can't really write it's data faster.

#6661 - philip - Sun Jun 01, 2003 12:15 pm

As someone who works totally in Linux, let me save you a lot of time: None of the the flash kits you can get at the moment have Linux software suppplied. There was an old Dos/Linux linker program on www.gbadev.org, but that probably won't work with any current hardware. There are a couple of threads on this board about finding out how F2A works, called "Accessing the cartridge ROM" and "Flash2Advance - Linux support?".

Your best bet is to buy Flash2Advance with a Gamewallet. This way, you only need to be able to get your files onto a Smartmedia or CompactFlash cart, and the Wallet will do the writing for you. I've tried this and it works, though there doesn't seem to be any way of handling save games ie. getting them on and off the cart. You can use MBV2 to retrieve the first bank, but I'm not too sure how you'd put the bank back..

#6671 - tepples - Sun Jun 01, 2003 6:27 pm

philip wrote:
None of the the flash kits you can get at the moment have Linux software suppplied.

The MBV2 driver can reportedly write to F2A carts and any other Visoly-clone carts. (EZ Flash is not a Visoly clone.)

Here's what my copy of the MBV2 driver's help screen says:
Code:
GBA Multiboot v1.73
Usage:
[...]
        -p file Program flash cart
[...]
        -w n    Add wait states to make -3,-f,-g,-o,-p & -s more reliable

_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

#6680 - philip - Sun Jun 01, 2003 9:40 pm

tepples wrote:
The MBV2 driver can reportedly write to F2A carts and any other Visoly-clone carts. (EZ Flash is not a Visoly clone.)


Nice try; I thought that too, but MBV2 has no effect on the F2A cart (it says "No cart installed" with v1.75), sadly, except for reading its SRAM. It is similar to the old Flash Advance Pro carts (in fact, mine even came in a box with that written on it!), but not similar enough. I've been poking around this topic the last couple of days and it turns out that nobody knows how it works. That's why LittleWriter doesn't support it. Have a look at the topics I mentioned in my last post for more info on this.