DSiWare white screen/stuck on loading

[GAFGripen]

Sorry for my bad English. Some Dsiwares failed to load after using NTM to install it on SDNAND. I can also confirm those apps are not able to load on the twilight menu. I tested these apps on melonDS and confirm all of these apps can work when they are in the correct region. These apps are mydiary(Australia) and mynotebook(US).

I can also confirm that other dsiwares I installed are working as expected, those include Real Soccer 2009(US), web browser(US), and the iQue Nintendo dog(CN). The device I have is an iQue DSi

I tested different versions of mynotebook. The Blue (Australian) is stuck on loading, and the Pearl (US) and Carbon (US) are stuck on the white screen. Those working apps' regions are the US(web browser and real soccer) and CN (iQue Nintendo dog).

I can also confirm The Blue (Australian) shows something like 'creating saves and please don't power off the device' but is stuck on that and the loading indicator no longer rotates with the intro music playing normally.

Any suggestions?

 

[RocketRobz]

Try reformatting your SD card using this guide: https://dsi.cfw.guide/sd-card-setup.html

 

[redunka]

These apps are of those rare ones that don't have their own fonts and instead use shared system font TWLFontTable.dat, which is usually used for System Settings and in-game manuals.
Chinese and Korean regions each have a unique TWLFontTable.dat that is different from the one used on JPN/EUR/USA/AUS consoles, so to run these apps on an iQue (or Korean) DSi you would need to replace that font file with one dumped from a console that is either of those 4 regions.
Doing this will obviously break compatibility with Chinese apps that need that font, so better do that only temporarily.

P.S. It is actually possible to create a single TWLFontTable.dat that should be compatible with apps from any region, but this would require patching out signature check for that file.

 

[RocketRobz]

These apps are of those rare ones that don't have their own fonts and instead use shared system font TWLFontTable.dat, which is usually used for System Settings and in-game manuals.
Chinese and Korean regions each have a unique TWLFontTable.dat that is different from the one used on JPN/EUR/USA/AUS consoles, so to run these apps on an iQue (or Korean) DSi you would need to replace that font file with one dumped from a console that is either of those 4 regions.
Doing this will obviously break compatibility with Chinese apps that need that font, so better do that only temporarily.

P.S. It is actually possible to create a single TWLFontTable.dat that should be compatible with apps from any region, but this would require patching out signature check for that file.

Those .dat files can be added to "sd:/_nds/nds-bootstrap/", and should be named "TWLFontTable.dat", "CHNFontTable.dat", and "KORFontTable.dat", so replacing the file in the NAND is not necessary.

 

[redunka]

Those .dat files can be added to "sd:/_nds/nds-bootstrap/", and should be named "TWLFontTable.dat", "CHNFontTable.dat", and "KORFontTable.dat", so replacing the file in the NAND is not necessary.

Sorry, I wasn't really following TWiLightMenu's developement, so it's good to know it has that option.
Does it allow using completely custom FontTable.dat files, by any chance?
That could help with, for example, translating in-game manulas to languages that aren't supported by DSi normally, but I digress.

 

[RocketRobz]

Sorry, I wasn't really following TWiLightMenu's developement, so it's good to know it has that option.
Does it allow using completely custom FontTable.dat files, by any chance?
That could help with, for example, translating in-game manulas to languages that aren't supported by DSi normally, but I digress.

I don't think so, considering the checksum checks. If the proper checksums cannot be implemented in the .dat file itself, then the checks can easily be patched out, which is already done in B4DS mode on flashcards, due to the SHA checksum SWI functions not existing on DS or DS lite consoles.

 

[redunka]

I don't think so, considering the checksum checks. If the proper checksums cannot be implemented in the .dat file itself, then the checks can easily be patched out, which is already done in B4DS mode on flashcards, due to the SHA checksum SWI functions not existing on DS or DS lite consoles.

Well, checksums are not a problem, but we don't have the keys to sign the .dat file (RSA-SHA1 is used there). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As far as I know, neither DSi nor even 3DS custom firmwares have a signature check patch for that file specifically.
Custom .dat font files are only usable with no$gba emulator currently, since it supports decrypted signatures.

 

[RocketRobz]

Well, checksums are not a problem, but we don't have the keys to sign the .dat file (RSA-SHA1 is used there). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As far as I know, neither DSi nor even 3DS custom firmwares have a signature check patch for that file specifically.
Custom .dat font files are only usable with no$gba emulator currently, since it supports decrypted signatures.

I don't think it's possible to implement a patch in any CFW, since the SHA1 checks are implemented within the BIOS chips, and the function calls are in the DSiWare titles themselves.
The only way to patch the checks out would be with nds-bootstrap. Currently, the patch is only implemented in it's B4DS mode, but it can be easily ported over to regular nds-bootstrap mode, where the DSiWare titles would run normally in DSi mode.

 

[GAFGripen]

Try reformatting your SD card using this guide:

These apps are of those rare ones that don't have their own fonts and instead use shared system font TWLFontTable.dat, which is usually used for System Settings and in-game manuals.
Chinese and Korean regions each have a unique TWLFontTable.dat that is different from the one used on JPN/EUR/USA/AUS consoles, so to run these apps on an iQue (or Korean) DSi you would need to replace that font file with one dumped from a console that is either of those 4 regions.
Doing this will obviously break compatibility with Chinese apps that need that font, so better do that only temporarily.

P.S. It is actually possible to create a single TWLFontTable.dat that should be compatible with apps from any region, but this would require patching out signature check for that file.

I reformatted the SD card and put TWLFontTable&CHNFontTable into the folder, then try to run myNotebook Pearl (US). Unfortunately, the app still doesn't work, and only shows a white screen after the public save been created. Is there any setting I need to change?

 

[redunka]

I reformatted the SD card and put TWLFontTable&CHNFontTable into the folder, then try to run myNotebook Pearl (US). Unfortunately, the app still doesn't work, and only shows a white screen after the public save been created. Is there any setting I need to change?

Does it not work even if you replace the TWLFontTable.dat (backup the original one, obviously) on SDNAND and launch apps from the DSi's default Launcher/System Menu?
TWLFontTable.dat's CRC32 should be F1953B32
As far as I can tell, these specific apps don't use that strict locale check, like Metal Torrent or Oregon Trail do…

 

[GAFGripen]

Hey! You are my saver, thank you so much! After I change the TWLFontTable.dat to what I dumped from US firmware on SDNAND, the app is loading correctly! But now my problem is: how can I manage to do: A. make the setting app working(because obviously, the Chinese NDS' setting app requires the font file to include Chinese characters) and B. keep the app able to run correctly? @RocketRobz state the nds bootstrap can be configured to use different region's font file but I didn't find the obvious way to configure it.

Post automatically merged: Feb 1, 2023

Does it not work even if you replace the TWLFontTable.dat (backup the original one, obviously) on SDNAND and launch apps from the DSi's default Launcher/System Menu?
TWLFontTable.dat's CRC32 should be F1953B32
As far as I can tell, these specific apps don't use that strict locale check, like Metal Torrent or Oregon Trail do…

Sorry, I forgot to click the reply button obviously. I post what I have achieved and what more I want above. Thank you for your help!

Update: For some unknown reason, after several reboots and changing several settings, the app can now load correctly from nds bootstrap. Many thanks to both of you!

 

[redunka]

Update: For some unknown reason, after several reboots and changing several settings, the app can now load correctly from nds bootstrap. Many thanks to both of you!

Yeah, not sure why nds-bootstrap couldn't pick up fonts right away, but it's good that it worked out after all!