# EZ4 loader 1.76 released, some bug fixes.



## FAST6191 (Mar 18, 2015)

The EZTeam released a new version of their EZ4 loader, it seems to be aimed mostly at those with the new GBA sized microSD version but it should work with any EZ4 model you might have.

The changelog is as follows


			
				EZ4 1.76 changelog said:
			
		

> fixed the halt at 254Mbit when writing a 256Mbit game
> improved the compatibility
> improved the saver


The 254 issue is seemingly more for those with the new EZ4 microSD model but those with the same issue with 2013 versions might also wish to try it. **update** GBAtemp user migles confirms it fixes the 254 hang on a 2013 miniSD model.

It is unknown what "improved the compatibility" entails at this point, mostly likely a slightly improved soft reset capability (you can do a hard reset by holding L and A to launch the game, this tends to allow games like Yoshi's Island to launch properly).

EZFlash.cn download section
Filetrip download
Discussion thread

Thanks to mbmax for the news.


----------



## Essometer (Mar 18, 2015)

I'd never thought that I would get support for my EZ-Flash in 2015.
The only downside is that their gui looks god awful.


----------



## migles (Mar 18, 2015)

OMG YES!!!!!!!!
OMG I AM SO GLAD AND HAPPY
24 hours masturbating celebration!


i have a mini sd version with this problem, and there was lot of people reporting it too, i get angry sad and angry that i would have to buy a new card to fix this

I AM SO HAPPY
GIVE ME EZ IV TEAM EMAIL FOR SEND NUDES!!!!


----------



## jonthedit (Mar 18, 2015)

I am happy to see the EZTeam is not dead, even if they only support the EZ4.


----------



## FAST6191 (Mar 18, 2015)

Essometer said:


> I'd never thought that I would get support for my EZ-Flash in 2015.
> The only downside is that their gui looks god awful.



The SDHC update was released a couple of weeks ago ( http://gbatemp.net/threads/ez-iv-kernel-1-75-sdhc-for-ez4-new-ez-iv-version-released-soon.377952/ ) in case you missed it. It will mean you need to reformat your ?SD as FAT32 (everything should just be able to be copied back). Apologies if you did catch it but I could read that as though this came out of the blue for you.

The GUI, personally I do not mind it though I should note the Mario Loader is back if you had updated to one of the 1.75 clearlooks or some other alternative skin. If 1.75 works for you (no NOR issues or what have you) and the GUI is a concern then http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=20397 should be able to do something until such a time as clearlooks or some other fancy loader gets bundled into a skin (the old skinning tools are troubled a bit by the changed loaders).



migles said:


> OMG YES!!!!!!!!
> OMG I AM SO GLAD AND HAPPY
> 24 hours masturbating celebration!
> 
> ...



The issue was more for the new model, does it fix the issue with an older run of the EZ4 for you?


----------



## migles (Mar 18, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> The SDHC update was released a couple of weeks ago ( http://gbatemp.net/threads/ez-iv-kernel-1-75-sdhc-for-ez4-new-ez-iv-version-released-soon.377952/ ) in case you missed it. It will mean you need to reformat your ?SD as FAT32 (everything should just be able to be copied back). Apologies if you did catch it but I could read that as though this came out of the blue for you.
> 
> The GUI, personally I do not mind it though I should note the Mario Loader is back if you had updated to one of the 1.75 clearlooks or some other alternative skin. If 1.75 works for you (no NOR issues or what have you) and the GUI is a concern then http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=20397 should be able to do something until such a time as clearlooks or some other fancy loader gets bundled into a skin (the old skinning tools are troubled a bit by the changed loaders).
> 
> ...


 
i am testing,
it stopped working with my 512mb nokia MINI sd card.. downgraded to 1.75 same issue, (yeah i heard about lossing support to several mini\micro SD cards, was not expecting my mini sd card being one of them)
i did grabbed a 2gb MICRO SD(from transcend) with an adapter and it is working on 1.75

i am trying to flash a 256mb game (mother 3) into NOR under 1.75, (i like to double check things xD)
after this i will update to 1.76 and check if it works 

as for the skin, i preefer this skin over dark vader xD, but meh, skin is a optional concern

UPDATE. on firmware 1.75 a 256mb game still freezes at 254mb
i noticed when a mini\micro sd card is not compatible, there is no message, the screen goes all glitched.... (i thought the update bricked the card for a moment....)

SO I UPDATED NOW FOR 1.76
copying to NOR is slow as hell (maybe slower than before...)

CAN CONFIRM IT SOLVED THE PROBLEM, MOTHER 3 NOW FLASHES FINE!!!!

NOW I HAVE NO USE FOR A MINI SD CARD >:C


----------



## FAST6191 (Mar 18, 2015)

Thanks for the update migles. I had honestly thought it was a hardware issue, maybe there was some kind of sector reallocation command.


----------



## migles (Mar 18, 2015)

yey, for this to be perfect i just ask one (or 2) things!
update the damn client, or release it as open source for people to improve it!
the current one sucks.. sometimes it crashes for whatever reason, (i noticed it does this specially if you only have 1 drive on the pc...)
and the reset thing, not sure if the problem is on the card or the client... never worked here...

i can't ask about rtc since the card doesn't have a clock... that would need a new card... but for that i am guessing best change is wait for krikzz to release is gba card


----------



## FAST6191 (Mar 18, 2015)

The client needs a D: drive to be present which is probably why you had that issue. There was a fix for an older client (the d: drive is referenced in the exe, change that and you dodge that issue) but I am not sure it was remade for the newer one. Most people assign a network drive, add a virtual cd drive, get one of those folder to drive things going on..... just so there is one if their machine does happen to lack such a thing.
The main other crash people encounter is trying to edit the soft reset commands (note this is a different concept to soft reset launching in the loader*), no fix for this but if you want to change them then edit c:\windows\temp\ez4para.ini (it is all reasonably obvious and text based).

Cheats and soft reset patching I will cover in a second, they would require some extra work but basic save patching can be accomplished by any number of programs.

Yeah RTC would really need a new card, or something really fancy work to be done with the DS in DS mode. It is not without issues though (battery drain being the big one) and there are so very few games that use it but we already had all those discussions in the other various threads.

*the ez4 automatically reads the EZ4 loader section of memory and boots whatever is there (typically the EZ4 kernel file you flash using some kind of ezfla_up.bin), it then reads the contents of the NOR and the SD card to allow you to select whatever in the loader. When the GBA file is in the relevant memory section it then has a few options
1) Do a hard reset and make the GBA reading device think the game is there. The game boots as it normally would.
2) Do a soft reset and just assign the memory and tell the game to branch to 08000000 (the location of the cart in memory), technically this is a hidden/undocumented function of the GBA.

Soft reset is quicker as it does not show the logo and in some cases you can some fancy things with code already in memory, nothing you can not do otherwise but easier to do it this way. Not all games work when launched this way (various reasons, most commonly memory is not set how it would be/should be in a normal GBA; good programs clear/allocate memory properly and are not worried about this, other programs might not) hence the option to do a hard launch instead. This was not why the hacked Modulo loader defaulted to hard reset (the reason there was to work around a bug introduced in a later EZ4 kernel, though one that also included nice extra functionality) but as everybody used it, mainly as everybody suggested people use it, the soft vs hard reset distinction was lost got many.

Soft reset in EZ4client is a way to patch a game so you can soft reset at any point in the game by holding a button combo. Depending upon the setup you might prefer to just reset the game itself or you might want to get back to the EZ4 menu without touching the power button. Never something that has appealed to me on any system but to each their own.


----------



## migles (Mar 18, 2015)

FAST6191

i thought the soft reset options on ez iv client were for get back into ez loader?(which never did anything when i tried)
i am confused, i had been using a+b start+select for soft reset a game and get back to the game main menu

EDIT: JUST TESTED SOFT RESET, IT WORKS! can press L+UP+a+b to get back to ez iv menu!
(i remember i tried it several times in the past, never worked for me)
this is so amazing, i am delighted...


----------



## Joe88 (Mar 18, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> in case you missed it. It will mean you need to reformat your ?SD as FAT32 (everything should just be able to be copied back)


I just tried reformating my 2GB MiniSD to FAT32 (was FAT before) and still getting the same problem in the video here: http://gbatemp.net/threads/ez-iv-ke...sion-released-soon.377952/page-4#post-5298280

tried flashing clearlooks v6 (1.75 first)
with 1.75 flashed my cart (old ez-flash iv) ignores the minisd formated to FAT32 when trying to flash a new firmware and just boots the main menu and crashes
reformated back to FAT and flashed 1.76 in the op, and it crashes at the menu

flashed 1.72 (soft-reset) clearlooks v5 and everything works fine again

I was gonna buy a microsd->minisd converter seeing how my card wouldn't work with new firmwares anymore but waited to see if if the ez-flash team would release a new firmware to fix it but I guess not.


----------



## DinohScene (Mar 18, 2015)

Essometer said:


> I'd never thought that I would get support for my EZ-Flash in 2015.
> The only downside is that their gui looks god awful.


 
But but.
Finding Nemo :c

I really should update me old EZ.
Then again, I barely play GBA games these days.


----------



## xwatchmanx (Mar 19, 2015)

Essometer said:


> I'd never thought that I would get support for my EZ-Flash in 2015.
> The only downside is that their gui looks god awful.


 
Hopefully we'll get an updated version of the clearlooks skin soon enough.

Why the EZ team insists on these godawful themes based on licensed IPs that don't even have to do with video games is beyond me.


----------



## physicallyinsane (Mar 19, 2015)

Just received my EZ flash IV micro sd today coincidentally. Now I'm waiting for a 4gb sdhc card with an adapter to come in. I'm fairly new to the flash cart scene and I know this isn't exactly the right forum, but can someone verify these incredibly dummed down directions I've made by learning from various tutorials on setting up the cart?

1. Format sdhc card to FAT32 and place ezfla_up.bin for 1.76 in it
2. Put sdhc in cart and insert cart in any gba device and hold R while booting up
3. Hold R until update reaches 100% then turn off device
4. Place sdhc back into computer and delete the ezfla_up.bin and create folder for ROMS
5. Use the EZ4 client to patch roms (and to customize the soft reset button combination) then allocate them to the micro sdhc
6. Put the micro sdhc back into the cart and plug and play.

Am I missing anything? I know how the change the skin ( using another ezfla_up.bin with a custom skin to update the cart again) but since update 1.76 came out would I have to wait for someone to make 1.76 compatible skin? And what is the relevance of holding L and A to do a hard reset? I apologize before hand for the barrage of questions, but I believe now is a good time to update the info on setting up the cart. Especially for the newer micro sd compatible versions.


----------



## TecXero (Mar 19, 2015)

I can confirm it fixes the glitch with loading large ROMs into the NOR on older EZ4s.



physicallyinsane said:


> Just received my EZ flash IV micro sd today coincidentally. Now I'm waiting for a 4gb sdhc card with an adapter to come in. I'm fairly new to the flash cart scene and I know this isn't exactly the right forum, but can someone verify these incredibly dummed down directions I've made by learning from various tutorials on setting up the cart?
> 
> 1. Format sdhc card to FAT32 and place ezfla_up.bin for 1.76 in it
> 2. Put sdhc in cart and insert cart in any gba device and hold R while booting up
> ...


 
That's right. Just to warn you though: the soft resetting patch might not work, but it's not hard to flick the power off and on again when you want your save file updated, once you get used to it.


----------



## FAST6191 (Mar 19, 2015)

Good to know TecXero.



physicallyinsane said:


> Just received my EZ flash IV micro sd today coincidentally. Now I'm waiting for a 4gb sdhc card with an adapter to come in. I'm fairly new to the flash cart scene and I know this isn't exactly the right forum, but can someone verify these incredibly dummed down directions I've made by learning from various tutorials on setting up the cart?
> 
> 1. Format sdhc card to FAT32 and place ezfla_up.bin for 1.76 in it
> 2. Put sdhc in cart and insert cart in any gba device and hold R while booting up
> ...



Mostly OK. Most of the old guides are still good anyway other than now wanting FAT32.

3 is unnecessary --- once the loader update screen is visible you can let go of R
4 You don't have to delete it, though deleting it will not hurt anything. You can have ROMs on there from the get go if you want and they do not need their own folder either. The only folder that has to be on there is one called saver which is where every save for every game goes. If you want to put ROMs in folders then feel free to do so.

5 Yeah EZ4client can be used to patch GBA games (GBATA from http://www.no-intro.org/tools.htm is another tool and there are several others).

You can make your own 1.76 skin, however the existing tools to do it are not working with the new SDHC kernels so people are having to go manual for the time being.

L and A to launch I covered above but short version is the EZTeam's preferred soft reset to boot is slightly quicker, the hard reset is necessary for some games (yoshi's island being one that people seem to run into a lot, must be one of those games people never talk about). It is different to the soft reset patch in the EZ4client -- that is to do a software launched reset during the game, this is just how the kernel loaded it in the first place.


----------



## migles (Mar 19, 2015)

Joe88 said:


> I just tried reformating my 2GB MiniSD to FAT32 (was FAT before) and still getting the same problem in the video here: http://gbatemp.net/threads/ez-iv-ke...sion-released-soon.377952/page-4#post-5298280
> 
> tried flashing clearlooks v6 (1.75 first)
> with 1.75 flashed my cart (old ez-flash iv) ignores the minisd formated to FAT32 when trying to flash a new firmware and just boots the main menu and crashes
> ...


 
thats the exact same problem that appears on my 512MB nokia MINI SD card, i had switched to a 2gb MICRO SD card from transcend and it works..

if you remove the card it will do the same thing


----------



## physicallyinsane (Mar 19, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> Good to know TecXero.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


By "having to go manual for the time being," does that mean we're stuck with the Nemo theme for now :L? Also, say I encounter problems with a rom such as Yoshi's Island, I would have press L and A when selecting it from my list of roms?


----------



## Donel (Mar 19, 2015)

Could anyone do a Carboon Skin for the loader 1.76?

1.76 is faster in folder navigation and WAY faster in saving, but I have noticed it takes more time to load games. Do these things happen to anyone else?


----------



## FAST6191 (Mar 19, 2015)

physicallyinsane said:


> By "having to go manual for the time being," does that mean we're stuck with the Nemo theme for now :L? Also, say I encounter problems with a rom such as Yoshi's Island, I would have press L and A when selecting it from my list of roms?



If you are familiar with GBFS and can manually convert the images you can insert new ones into the skin, the older skin building methods usually amounted to "copy these BMPs into the GBA directory of this program and press build".

L and A is the button combo to tell the EZ4 to launch the GBA ROM with a hard reset, the older modulo RESET loader that everybody suggested for previous models did a hard reset by default. You don't even need to hold L the entire time, just hold it and then press a, once the percentage bar starts going up you are good.



Donel said:


> Could anyone do a Carboon Skin for the loader 1.76?
> 
> 1.76 is faster for folder navigation and WAY faster for saving, but I noticed it takes more time to load games. Does this happen to anyone else?



I hadn't seen the navigation and save speeds but games seemed about the same for me, I will have to time a few things.

As for Carbon I will have to figure out a way to build skins with my current setup. Personally as long as I can read the text I do not really care what the skins look like but I tend not to care about the appearance of irrelevant things to what I am doing.


----------



## physicallyinsane (Mar 19, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> If you are familiar with GBFS and can manually convert the images you can insert new ones into the skin, the older skin building methods usually amounted to "copy these BMPs into the GBA directory of this program and press build".
> 
> L and A is the button combo to tell the EZ4 to launch the GBA ROM with a hard reset, the older modulo RESET loader that everybody suggested for previous models did a hard reset by default. You don't even need to hold L the entire time, just hold it and then press a, once the percentage bar starts going up you are good.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the info c: Know of any guides to manually changing skins?


----------



## Trayton60 (Mar 19, 2015)

You need to use the skin builder tool to do that. It requires a lot of Bit map image converting and resizing. Very hard to make. The skin making program wont even run on most systems as it is for windows xp. It's really hard to do.


----------



## FAST6191 (Mar 19, 2015)

physicallyinsane said:


> Thanks for the info c: Know of any guides to manually changing skins?





Trayton60 said:


> You need to use the skin builder tool to do that. It requires a lot of Bit map image converting and resizing. Very hard to make. The skin making program wont even run on most systems as it is for windows xp. It's really hard to do.



It is not as much Windows XP and whatever flavour of visual basic runtimes the skinning tools want, though I guess that could be annoying in 2015, but the new loaders not using a DS skin and all the older programs seem to error out with that setup. It is all still the same underlying theory, save for the DS stuff not being there, but the legacy tools will not work. Equally the various mods, fixes and python skinning tools from modulo, Kuwanger and co were more version specific hacks; prior to the last 2013 run it had been years since the last loader update (late 2006 for the previous official and mid 2007 for the modulo hacked loaders -- http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=793 , the EZ4 itself kept being updated until April 2009) so that made sense really.

I forget which way around it went for the DS loader and GBA loader section. I believe it used the GBFS (gameboy file system, a popular homebrew file system for the GBA http://pineight.com/gba/#gbfs ) format to store things, equally it wanted the pictures in a custom/hardware close format for the GBA side of things so they needed to be converted to 16 bit BMP (easier said than done with a lot of image editing programs as it is not a very common format). Most things I have done with it have been more for extracting skins from old loaders than manually building new ones so I will have to read up before I go too much further. As it is BMP for the GBA side of things and thus should be the same size regardless of the input image then you should be able to copy things around/over older parts, on the other hand I vaguely recall some compression from the EZ3 skin days (the EZ4 GBA loader was very much based upon the EZ3 loader, hence the clock for the RTC it does not have).


----------



## codezer0 (Mar 19, 2015)

Nice that there is a firmware update... but will this allow resetting back to the loader again?

That said, when is the EZ client going to be updated? It keeps showing up as suspect to some antivirus apps, and further, its ability to batch convert is utterly broken, still.


----------



## migles (Mar 19, 2015)

codezer0 said:


> Nice that there is a firmware update... but will this allow resetting back to the loader again?
> 
> That said, when is the EZ client going to be updated? It keeps showing up as suspect to some antivirus apps, and further, its ability to batch convert is utterly broken, still.


 
reset to loader works fine here, except with 32mb roms (maybe because they have to use the whole memory, or i just didnt patched them propertly
but it works on other roms!

as for the client, yeah it could be better, i would ask to ez iv to open source the client so people can make a better one but meh...


----------



## codezer0 (Mar 19, 2015)

Are you sure? I make a point to apply the save and reset patches, but it never works on any ROMS. it hasn't worked since 1.72.


----------



## physicallyinsane (Mar 20, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> It is not as much Windows XP and whatever flavour of visual basic runtimes the skinning tools want, though I guess that could be annoying in 2015, but the new loaders not using a DS skin and all the older programs seem to error out with that setup. It is all still the same underlying theory, save for the DS stuff not being there, but the legacy tools will not work. Equally the various mods, fixes and python skinning tools from modulo, Kuwanger and co were more version specific hacks; prior to the last 2013 run it had been years since the last loader update (late 2006 for the previous official and mid 2007 for the modulo hacked loaders -- http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=793 , the EZ4 itself kept being updated until April 2009) so that made sense really.
> 
> I forget which way around it went for the DS loader and GBA loader section. I believe it used the GBFS (gameboy file system, a popular homebrew file system for the GBA http://pineight.com/gba/#gbfs ) format to store things, equally it wanted the pictures in a custom/hardware close format for the GBA side of things so they needed to be converted to 16 bit BMP (easier said than done with a lot of image editing programs as it is not a very common format). Most things I have done with it have been more for extracting skins from old loaders than manually building new ones so I will have to read up before I go too much further. As it is BMP for the GBA side of things and thus should be the same size regardless of the input image then you should be able to copy things around/over older parts, on the other hand I vaguely recall some compression from the EZ3 skin days (the EZ4 GBA loader was very much based upon the EZ3 loader, hence the clock for the RTC it does not have).


Thanks FAST you've been a real help  One last question: I noticed sending a patch game into the sd card places both the rom and .sav file in the SAVER folder. Is there any way to allocate them to separate folders so that the saves still work. I tried doing it manually but roms can't seem to read the .savs when they're in another folder.


----------



## FAST6191 (Mar 20, 2015)

Saves need to be the in saver folder. ROM cans be anywhere.
Have you got the saver folder selected in EZ4client? They should not copy there otherwise.


----------



## physicallyinsane (Mar 20, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> Saves need to be the in saver folder. ROM cans be anywhere.
> Have you got the saver folder selected in EZ4client? They should not copy there otherwise.


Yeah, I took the saves out of the SAVER file and left the roms in. Just switched it around is all  Another weird thing is that sending multiple roms at once didn't go so well and certain roms I sent showed as only ".gba" and ".sav" in the folder; I had to type in the titles manually for them to show up on the cart. The reset combination didn't work either despite the fact that I checked it before sending any roms.


----------



## FAST6191 (Mar 20, 2015)

Yeah the EZTeam never updated the game list. Grab romname.lst from the language directory of http://filetrip.net/nds-downloads/flashcart-files/download-ez4-client-2009-04-03-f31119.html and overwrite your one with it. I never got around to adding some do the redumps and v1.1s, and more importantly never got around to putting the mario games as 8:3 names but it should have basically all the commercial games, some choice homebrew games and some leaked betas/unreleased games too.


----------



## codezer0 (Mar 20, 2015)

Okay, I'm going to be as plain as I can.

I still have my EZ4 here. I have the miniSD one, now updated to this new 1.76 firmware.

Trying to use the newest build of the EZ4Client from Team EZ, with the romname.lst that FAST provided just now (thanks for that).

However, every time that I try to upload a bunch at a time, it always gives me some kind of error I don't understand. And then when I check the rom directory, the patched file appears to be in the microSD I am trying to prep for the duty. But, upon checking it seems the matching named file in the saver directory is 0KB and won't proceed any further. Further still, even when I do make a point to keep the "reset" patch checked, none of the ROMs *ever* return to the loader screen for saving or any of the sort.

So IS there a version of EZclient that works? because my end goal is that now that I found this 16GB microSD and with the updated firmware, I am trying to set up so that I can have a complete ROM archive on the EZ4... but currently, I can't seem to get this to work at all. I could really appreciate some help.


----------



## Donel (Mar 20, 2015)

*codezer0*:

http://www.ezflash.cn/zip/EZ4_20070521.zip

This one works fine. The newest version can't make the soft reset function work for me either. Use the romlist you got from FAST6191.


Still, I can't make soft reset work in the following games:

- Drill Dozer
- Final Fantasy IV Advance
- Final Fantasy V Advance
- Final Fantasy VI Advance
- Mother 3
- Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Red Rescue Team
- Super Mario Advance 3 - Yoshi's Island


----------



## draxoon (Mar 20, 2015)

I've been toying with the new loader and my old EZ4 to find out what saver improvements have been done in this version.
At first, patched my dump of SMA2 (USA) with GBATA, trimmed it down to 25 mbit (to avoid loading % issues), gave it a rather long name "Super Mario Advance 2 - Super Mario World (USA, Australia)", and then copied it along with blank save.
Suprisingly the game saves fine so far, no issues at all. Is it just me, or problem with long file names has finally been solved?


----------



## migles (Mar 20, 2015)

codezer0 said:


> Are you sure? I make a point to apply the save and reset patches, but it never works on any ROMS. it hasn't worked since 1.72.


 
it works on 1.76. if you read my previous comments you will see i demonstrated great surprise that the back to loader works
i wouldn't say it works, if was not sure >:C

as for your next question about 0kb saves
format the card with sd formatter (overwrite complete)
and upload them 1 at a time, with the save and  thing checked...
also make sure the key combination is ok, i leaved as standarn, cuz i was scared to break something xD

i remember i had a similar problem when i turned off the the console while saving (when you boot the card), it started to corrupt the save folder..., i had to format the card, and load another game to fix it...

i didn't use the romlist thing, everything so far is working for me without it :/
the only thing it doesn't work but i can see a reason why, is 32mb games don't get back to loader (but maybe i forgot to check the reset thing


----------



## migles (Mar 20, 2015)

Donel said:


> *codezer0*:
> 
> http://www.ezflash.cn/zip/EZ4_20070521.zip
> 
> ...


 

mother 3 and pokemon mistery dungeon are 32mb game, i guess since they require all the memory, the card can't make them back to menu...
i heard some people telling yoshis island is kinda problematic... for instance you need to press L+A to boot it up using an hard reset
personally i never tried to play yoshis island...
however i had tried boot some games with L+A it does a hard reset (gba logo appears again) and the back to loader combianation still works :/
are others also 32MB games?


----------



## Donel (Mar 20, 2015)

Yes, I know about the L+A boot. Ninja Five-0 requires L+A, but the soft reset works anyway.

The only 32 MB games are the ones you quoted, Mother 3 and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.

The Final Fantasy series is known for not being compatible with EZ-Flash IV Client's soft reset method.


----------



## kuwanger (Mar 20, 2015)

Yea, I don't even begin to remember the long list of games that aren't soft reset key compatible.  However, there's sleephack as a possible work around.  But you'll want to actually test that it works without crashing the game.   Meanwhile, since holding R on reload of the loader seems to unconditionally flash the loader on the newer models...


----------



## Donel (Mar 20, 2015)

I've tried the sleephack method, but as you said, it kept erasing the loader, so I gave up.

My soft reset combination is L+Start+Select. Difficult to hit by accident in basically any game.


----------



## xy1154 (Mar 20, 2015)

1.72 works fine for me.

I guess the upgrade isn't necessary for old EZ4 models.


----------



## codezer0 (Mar 20, 2015)

So 1.76 at least fixes the file name problems with the mario advance games?


----------



## kuwanger (Mar 20, 2015)

Donel said:


> I've tried the sleephack method, but as you said, it kept erasing the loader, so I gave up.
> 
> My soft reset combination is L+Start+Select. Difficult to hit by accident in basically any game.


 

Yea, there's also abstartselect which includes a python script to change a slightly modified patch.bin so you can specify the actual soft reset combination.  So, there's that.  Meanwhile, I just am too lazy to go through and repatch everything. :/


----------



## migles (Mar 20, 2015)

xy1154 said:


> I guess the upgrade isn't necessary for old EZ4 models.


 
it is not you are fine with old updates, but this update improves lots of stuff, including support for SDHC (but can break SD support)

however, you can get back to  1.72 if you like\find problems.. the updates takes 1 minute...


----------



## Donel (Mar 20, 2015)

kuwanger said:


> Yea, there's also abstartselect which includes a python script to change a slightly modified patch.bin so you can specify the actual soft reset combination. So, there's that. Meanwhile, I just am too lazy to go through and repatch everything. :/


 

For some reason, sleephack.exe opens and closes instantly, before I'm able to do anything. It doesn't show any error on the screen (I was able to capture an screenshot of it), so I don't know what's going on.


----------



## kuwanger (Mar 21, 2015)

Donel said:


> For some reason, sleephack.exe opens and closes instantly, before I'm able to do anything. It doesn't show any error on the screen (I was able to capture an screenshot of it), so I don't know what's going on.


 

sleephack is a command line tool.  You should read the webpage a bit, as it's sort of obvious.


----------



## Donel (Mar 21, 2015)

Ok, I've learned how to use it, but the soft reset only resets the game itself, it doesn't get back to the loader.


----------



## codezer0 (Mar 21, 2015)

By the way, how do you change the reset-button combo on a ROM? I just realized that the default for the EZ4 (Up+L+A+B) is going to be very possible to press/trigger when playing through _Metroid Fusion_, actually.


----------



## devnoname120 (Mar 21, 2015)

Where can this be bought for cheap?


----------



## migles (Mar 21, 2015)

codezer0 said:


> By the way, how do you change the reset-button combo on a ROM? I just realized that the default for the EZ4 (Up+L+A+B) is going to be very possible to press/trigger when playing through _Metroid Fusion_, actually.


 
find the ez4para.ini (there is 2 of them) file
C:\windows\temp
C:\windows\Prefetch
they should be in this directories (this is the normal directories, it can be diferent depending on the pc)
open that file with notepad and edit it, just looking at it you should know how.

there is also a button to configure this on the client (if you bothered looking >:C ) but using the config button on the client seems to crash\break the client... you need to manually edit the file
i think ez team did a bad job making the client save to a windows folder... and that may be the reason it crashes the client (because since then windows get lots of security stuff\updates.. and it denies the client write access or something))


----------



## Jayro (Mar 21, 2015)

So have I missed the 1.76 clearlooks port/release, or is everyone still too lazy to do it? Just curious.


----------



## physicallyinsane (Mar 21, 2015)

devnoname120 said:


> Where can this be bought for cheap?


If you want cheap then nds-card.com sells it for 44.99 plus free shipping. But like all chinese vendors, there's always the possibility of the transaction going wrong. A lot of people recommend the site (it's gbatemp's sponsored site after all) but then again there are some who preach why we even sponsor the site at all since some people never got their order. But if you want to, there are two ez flash iv's listed on ebay rn going for $75. It's more pricey on there but a lot safer imo, plus you're guaranteed a refund if the cart is faulty.


----------



## devnoname120 (Mar 21, 2015)

Thank you, I was hoping that it would cost way less.


----------



## codezer0 (Mar 21, 2015)

This EZ Client is really grinding my gears.

Let me just run down the myriad of crap I've had to endure. Bad enough that I have to basically mix/match to get imports to work properly, but then we have the following:
- Try to batch a bunch together, and rather than skip those it has errors, it just flat out aborts but won't tell me what the problem is
- ... while it does that, it leaves behind a bunch of odd-sized sav files (either 0KB or the size of the ROM itself)
- SOME ROMs refuse to be batch processed at all. And wipe out the whole damn list.
- because of the file errors, I am constantly being forced to scan-disk to erase them because Windows won't let me erase them any other way. No amount of reformatting with SDFormatter makes any difference.
- ROMs that refuse to accept their given name at all. I can understand why with the ROMs for the cheat devices (because of their nature), but some are just MS DOS levels of stupid. Just now I had to re-rename River City Ransom *six times* before I found one it would accept!


----------



## physicallyinsane (Mar 22, 2015)

migles said:


> find the ez4para.ini (there is 2 of them) file
> C:\windows\temp
> C:\windows\Prefetch
> they should be in this directories (this is the normal directories, it can be diferent depending on the pc)
> ...


I found the .ini file but there was only one in \temp in the C: drive. I changed it and it certainly did change it on the client but the reset patch hasn't worked for any of my games so far. I'm not really sure what I'm doing wrong, since you said you've had success with boot to loader combo. I downloaded the client from this link on their site here:






I've used it successfully to patch games but I never did update the cart with the ezfla_up.bin that was included in the download. Do I need to in order to use the reset patch? I'm confused because I used the ezfla_up.bin that was included in the 1.76 kernel update so I'm sure what the other one is for.


----------



## migles (Mar 22, 2015)

physicallyinsane said:


> I found the .ini file but there was only one in \temp in the C: drive. I changed it and it certainly did change it on the client but the reset patch hasn't worked for any of my games so far. I'm not really sure what I'm doing wrong, since you said you've had success with boot to loader combo. I downloaded the client from this link on their site here:
> 
> View attachment 17291
> 
> I've used it successfully to patch games but I never did update the cart with the ezfla_up.bin that was included in the download. Do I need to in order to use the reset patch? I'm confused because I used the ezfla_up.bin that was included in the 1.76 kernel update so I'm sure what the other one is for.


 
the download page is a total mess... it also confuses me a lot i have a hard time finding the last client\know if client is the same or a different version

you just need the 1.76 kernel update, the file that is provided on that download is a old version of the kernel

are you sure you checked the box on the client that says "reset" ?

i will try to change the keys combo and check if it breaks...

tell me the games you tried?

if you still have problems, i can zip my client and give you, maybe i downloaded another version, i dont remember, i have several folders of the client that i organized (awfully) the last year and don't remember what i did


----------



## physicallyinsane (Mar 22, 2015)

migles said:


> the download page is a total mess... it also confuses me a lot i have a hard time finding the last client\know if client is the same or a different version
> 
> you just need the 1.76 kernel update, the file that is provided on that download is a old version of the kernel
> 
> ...


I absolutely positively checked the reset box. Here's my list of games:




I'm pretty sure it's the client's side having issues with the reset patch since 100% of my games don't work with it. But I would really appreciate that  I'm in no rush though. Other than the reset patch and the sleep mode not playing nice with games, this flash cart is a godsend.


----------



## migles (Mar 22, 2015)

physicallyinsane said:


> I absolutely positively checked the reset box. Here's my list of games:
> 
> View attachment 17293
> I'm pretty sure it's the client's side having issues with the reset patch since 100% of my games don't work with it. But I would really appreciate that  I'm in no rush though. Other than the reset patch and the sleep mode not playing nice with games, this flash cart is a godsend.


 
i noticed sleep problem as well, however it does work with mother 3, which i really get surprised
plus, i am using a ds lite, at first, i thought the console didn't supported sleep or something...
but meh, for sleep i just pause the game, mute it and close the lid (the screen still stay on but if i will leave it for a long time i just should turn it off...

metroid fusion reset works here, i will change the key combo and test if it breaks..
if it works i will zip my client and send it.. because i dont know which one i downloaded...


----------



## kuwanger (Mar 22, 2015)

Donel said:


> Ok, I've learned how to use it, but the soft reset only resets the game itself, it doesn't get back to the loader.


 

That's very odd.  Could you describe the exact procedure you use and the game/region you're patching?  I had to patch Dwedit's sleephack version to support the EZ4, so I hope you're using the right patch.bin.  In any case, I'd like to help if I can.



migles said:


> i noticed sleep problem as well, however it does work with mother 3, which i really get surprised
> plus, i am using a ds lite, at first, i thought the console didn't supported sleep or something...
> but meh, for sleep i just pause the game, mute it and close the lid (the screen still stay on but if i will leave it for a long time i just should turn it off...


 

Yea, it's a known issue and gba sleep mode can be potentially patched to work depending on the game or you can use the above mentioned sleephack (and probably abstartselect to change the reset keys) to enable sleep mode even in games that don't support it natively.  The latter, though, has the risk of crashing randomly or not working at all.   Then there's games like Sigma Star Saga which introduce a noticeable buzzing in the game; at this point, I might end up unpatching the game precisely for that reason as I've come a bit more picky.

It'd be nice if we had some guarantee from the EZ4 team that if we made a list they'd introduce patches to fix these reset/sleep bugs, but as it stands I can't even get on QQ and apparently that's the only way to talk to them from my end.  So, currently I'm at a dead end on making any sort of contact and me doing the patching while technically possible would be a pretty massive undertaking (basically, duplicating all the EZ4's teams work plus more).  So, yea, not something I'm currently interested.  But, I will/do try to help on a case-by-case basis.


----------



## Donel (Mar 22, 2015)

kuwanger said:


> That's very odd. Could you describe the exact procedure you use and the game/region you're patching? I had to patch Dwedit's sleephack version to support the EZ4, so I hope you're using the right patch.bin. In any case, I'd like to help if I can.


 
I have tried a different approach this time:

Just use EZ-Flash IV AIO and drag and drop the desired game to the sleephack box. That is, after you have overwrited the included patch.bin with the abstartselect one.

Works like a charm and it's REALLY easy.


----------



## kuwanger (Mar 22, 2015)

Donel said:


> I have tried a different approach this time:
> 
> Just use EZ-Flash IV AIO and drag and drop the desired game to the sleephack box. That is, after you have overwrited the included patch.bin with the abstartselect one.
> 
> Worked like a charm and it's REALLY easy.


 

That's good to hear.  Does make me wonder what exactly went wrong on the first attempt, but so long as it works. 

On a somewhat related note, as I stated I'm too lazy to repatch everything through the ez4 client (mostly because of tracking down the original rom with whatever manual/translation/feature-improvement patches were applied), so I wrote a simple script that should (hopefully) allow repatching an already soft-reset patched rom with a new reset key.

Anyways, here it is patch_ez4_reset_key.py.  You'll need Python 2.x to get it to work (most Mac OS X and Linux users should already have it).  Like most my tools, it's command line and pretty straight forward (just invoke it without args for a small blurb on usage).  A simple script should make it pretty easy to patch a lot of roms.  Like:


```
for f in */*.gba; do echo "$f"; ~/patch_ez4_reset_key.py "$f" L+Start+Select; done > ~/patched_ez4.log
```
 
If you've got your roms in subfolders, have patch_ez4_reset_key.py in your home folder, what L+Start+Select as your new reset key, and want a patched_ez4.log in your home folder so you can later review what all was patched.

Anyways, I've done only minimal testing on this, so it'd be a good idea to backup everything before using it.  Really, that's a good idea period as the EZ4 still might be unreliable in file save creation/modification*.  But, I hope this is useful to others.

* It actually was pretty reliable so long as you made sure you didn't power off when it was writing to the sd card and made sure to have a properly named .sav file in the saver folder.  The latter part is easy to mess up, though, when you're fiddling around with single-rom emulation roms with pocketnes/goomba/etc.


----------



## Donel (Mar 23, 2015)

kuwanger said:


> That's good to hear. Does make me wonder what exactly went wrong on the first attempt, but so long as it works.


I must have messed it up on the other attempt. I said the game only soft reseted itself, but after that I realized it was a built-in feature of the game. A lot of GBA games have built-in soft reset, like the Pokémon games. That means the patch simply wasn't applied. It is still strange, because the tool said they were patched successfully and even showed the changed memory adressess.


Now I want to change the soft rest combination from A+B+Start+Select to L+Start+Select.

abstartselect inclues a patch_bin.py file, so I can change the soft reset combination. I have downloaded Python 2.7.9 already, but I have no ideia on how to use it and how to change the combination. As you can see, I have zero knowledge in programming.

What I really would like to do is to only use the soft reset part of the patch, that is, I don't want to include the sleep hack.

Would you help me?


----------



## kuwanger (Mar 23, 2015)

Donel said:


> Now I want to change the soft rest combination from A+B+Start+Select to L+Start+Select.
> 
> abstartselect inclues a patch_bin.py file, so I can change the soft reset combination. I have downloaded Python 2.7.9 already, but I have no ideia on how to use it and how to change the combination. As you can see, I have zero knowledge in programming.
> 
> ...


 
For the former, in a cmd shell go to the abstartselect folder (easy way is to extract abstartselect to the root folder of a drive and then "cd \abstartselect") and run "python patch_bin.py L+Start+Select".

For the latter, the simplest way is to simply nop out the check for the sleep mode/jump to sleep mode.  So, you can use hexalter from the abstartselect folder and run "hexalter patch.bin 0x50=00,00,0xa0,0xe1,00,00,0xa0,0xe1".  You should only have to do this once.

Be sure to copy the patch.bin over to the sleephack folder.  And then you should be fine.


----------



## Donel (Mar 23, 2015)

kuwanger said:


> For the former, in a cmd shell go to the abstartselect folder (easy way is to extract abstartselect to the root folder of a drive and then "cd \abstartselect") and run "python patch_bin.py L+Start+Select".
> 
> For the latter, the simplest way is to simply nop out the check for the sleep mode/jump to sleep mode. So, you can use hexalter from the abstartselect folder and run "hexalter patch.bin 0x50=00,00,0xa0,0xe1,00,00,0xa0,0xe1". You should only have to do this once.
> 
> Be sure to copy the patch.bin over to the sleephack folder. And then you should be fine.


 
That worked perfectly, thank you very much =)


----------



## Yepi69 (Mar 23, 2015)

migles said:


> OMG YES!!!!!!!!
> OMG I AM SO GLAD AND HAPPY
> 24 hours masturbating celebration!
> 
> ...


 
Dun have a heart attack, please my fellow portuguese
I'm just as glad as you.


----------



## Testo90 (Mar 23, 2015)

Hey Guys, I got a problem with my EZ Flash.. i got it today, patched a game (Golden Sun), uploaded the newest Kernel 1,76. The game starts normal and i save the game. But what do i have to do next that the savegame is written to the microSD? The method A+B+^+L doesn't work. When i reboot my GameBoy Micro a screen appears which says "writing goldensun.gba save.. but then the gbmicro freezes.

Sorry for my bad english.


----------



## Donel (Mar 24, 2015)

It may take a while for the game to be saved to the MicroSD, it used to take 10-15 seconds on the older firmwares.

Are you using the 2013 MiniSD version with an MicroSD adapter? Some adapters are known for causing these kind of problems.


----------



## Testo90 (Mar 24, 2015)

Donel said:


> It may take a while for the game to be saved to the MicroSD, it used to take 10-15 seconds on the older firmwares.
> 
> Are you using the 2013 MiniSD version with an MicroSD adapter? Some adapters are known for causing these kind of problems.


 
Got the 2015 MicroSD Version. I think the Problem is that there is no .sav in the SAVER Folder, do you know what i have to do that the file is created?


----------



## FAST6191 (Mar 24, 2015)

Testo90 said:


> Got the 2015 MicroSD Version. I think the Problem is that there is no .sav in the SAVER Folder, do you know what i have to do that the file is created?


EZ4client would usually take care of that. The files themselves are nothing but files named the same as the ROM in the appropriate size (or bigger if you want to waste space), a few DS games wanted saves to be made before playing but GBA games have nothing like that which I am aware of (though I have some suspicions about some). If you have the save from another game and the size is right then I tend to just copy that and rename it.

Anyway it looks like I will have to look into a few things. The EZTeam are actively listening to bug reports so this could get good.


----------



## Testo90 (Mar 24, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> EZ4client would usually take care of that. The files themselves are nothing but files named the same as the ROM in the appropriate size (or bigger if you want to waste space), a few DS games wanted saves to be made before playing but GBA games have nothing like that which I am aware of (though I have some suspicions about some). If you have the save from another game and the size is right then I tend to just copy that and rename it.
> 
> Anyway it looks like I will have to look into a few things. The EZTeam are actively listening to bug reports so this could get good.


Thank you, could anybody Upload a save file so i could just rename it? Otherwise i try it again with the program


----------



## Testo90 (Mar 24, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> EZ4client would usually take care of that. The files themselves are nothing but files named the same as the ROM in the appropriate size (or bigger if you want to waste space), a few DS games wanted saves to be made before playing but GBA games have nothing like that which I am aware of (though I have some suspicions about some). If you have the save from another game and the size is right then I tend to just copy that and rename it.
> 
> Anyway it looks like I will have to look into a few things. The EZTeam are actively listening to bug reports so this could get good.


Right now i patched a other game and finaly got the .sav in the SAVER folder. But after ingame save>hard reset> the Screen freezes while *waiting writingZeldaMinis.sav 8kb... i dont know what to do


----------



## Coto (Mar 24, 2015)

kuwanger said:


> Yea, it's a known issue and gba sleep mode can be potentially patched to work depending on the game or you can use the above mentioned sleephack


 

I took this post from the site you posted earlier because I couldn't find the #PostIndex button so I could get the post link.



			
				kuwanger said:
			
		

> I'm having a small problem with the sleephack using up too much CPU time, and I was hoping someone could look into it. Specifically, I'm working with Organya Demo 1.2.
> 
> The base rom doesn't work with the patcher properly because it contains the following code:
> 
> ...


 
What I see there is whatever ARM opcode/handler pointer (callback) [WORD] is at 0x080d05f0 (a WORD fetch from that offset on the GBA-ROM mapped area (being 0x000d05f0) is passed through IP (r11) and then stored at 0x03007ffc. This is the default IRQ offset where the CPU jumps as soon it is entered the IRQ mode.

The sequence for GBA IRQ mode is basically:

1. ARM CPU IRQ mode (0x00000000+0x18) (GBA BIOS read-only)

2.[handler code at GBA BIOS read-only that jumps to 0x03007ffc] (having the prefetch the lead of executing whatever is there.)

3.[do handler code]

4. [restore and exit back to (GBA BIOS read-only) by restoring LR from the stack]
5. [exit and continue game code by restoring SPSR from stack if CPU destroys the real SPSR when handling exceptions]

If you ask me, that is *mostly* [IRQ] handler *installer* code. Remember that every IF (Interrupt Acknowledge) bit must be anded with IE and then that bit must be set at IF. Otherwise the program flow will continue to execute the unattended IF bit. Note that the program is actually restored upon repeteadly jumping to it:

BL =IRQ_HANDLER_label_IF_BIT13 (if the callback does not swap ARM/THUMB modes) (BLX is armv5 so gba doesn't understand that opcode)
<continue>

(or)

MOV LR,PC ;
BX =IRQ_HANDLER_label_IF_BIT13; (if the callback does swap ARM/THUMB modes)
<continue>

I say extract whatever points at 0x080d05f0 (until a BX LR or pop {xxx,pc}), and add some code so the IF bit[13] (GamePAK IRQ) is cleared before returning from the extracted code. And patch back

edit:

ctrl+f "bios interrupt handling" @ http://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm

Also in my profile I have some code that says how the NDS9 executes an interrupt and how goes back. (pretty much the same as the GBA does (gba bios) )


----------



## kuwanger (Mar 25, 2015)

Coto said:


> I took this post from the site you posted earlier because I couldn't find the #PostIndex button so I could get the post link.
> 
> ...
> 
> If you ask me, that is *mostly* [IRQ] handler *installer* code.


 
Yea, that was the point.  Dwedit's patcher looks for a specific set of instructions for an IRQ handler installer and then overrides it with its own IRQ handler; ie, it turns it from "irq -> to be installed handler (in this case 0x080d05f0) -> return from irq" into "irq -> patch.bin's irq handler -> to be installed handler (in this case 0x080d05f0) -> return from irq".  Like I said, instead of fiddling with Dwedit's patcher I just rewrote the code to follow the format his patcher looks for and then it went downhill from there...



Coto said:


> I say extract whatever points at 0x080d05f0 (until a BX LR or pop {xxx,pc}), and add some code so the IF bit[13] (GamePAK IRQ) is cleared before returning from the extracted code. And patch back


 
Uh, yea, not really sure what you're trying to say here (been too long since I did gba IRQ stuff and honestly never fully understood it).

In any case, what you're quoting is a post made "Dec 11, 2008", so I don't even remember at all any of that stuff except, as I said in the post, some odd issue of having overly high CPU usage related to the patch.bin's IRQ handler being installed.  So, perhaps it has something to do with the GamePAK IRQ or precisely how the patch.bin deals with interrupts.  I never really got further into it because it wasn't worth the effort to me to figure out. :/  It just seemed odd because patch.bin, at the time, looked like it properly dealt with the interrupt demands it made or would readily just pass through to the underlying handler which worked fine alone.

But, again, as I said I never did fully understand the gba IRQ handler stuff.  It's one reason my multiboot hexviewer is so crappy.   Could never figure out why doing a keypad interrupt didn't work right.  Maybe it had something to do with the arm/thumb switching you mentioned?  *shrugs*


----------



## Coto (Mar 25, 2015)

well GBA games use thumb code, and most cpu exceptions (as the default route of action of the CPU is to go idle through SWI wait for interrupt) a callback is triggered through the Interrupt Flags registers 
precisely when:
(IME ==1)--> (IE&IF == 1)
-> execute related callback, then restore LR

point is replacing the handler can break the game code, so extracting the handler and force setting bit[13] at IF vector through a rop chain or something is something definitely doable.



kuwanger said:


> Yea, that was the point. Dwedit's patcher looks for a specific set of instructions for an IRQ handler installer and then overrides it with its own IRQ handler; ie, it turns it from "irq -> to be installed handler (in this case 0x080d05f0) -> return from irq" into "irq -> patch.bin's irq handler -> to be installed handler (in this case 0x080d05f0) -> return from irq". Like I said, instead of fiddling with Dwedit's patcher I just rewrote the code to follow the format his patcher looks for and then it went downhill from there...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
I don't think any of your tools are crappy, they are useful. Last time we had a convo about the EZ kernel I didn't know that much about GBA Hardware tbh as well, but now I have some good experience about it. I have some code that actually injects whatever you compile (from GCC) and patchs by modifying the IRQ handler of pokemon sapphire. (so it calls a label before doing the IRQ routine). If you are interested, I can help through PM or something.

: D


----------



## draxoon (Mar 27, 2015)

Here goes some good stuff .

I just couldn't stand how messed up is latest (1.76) EZ4 update. It fixes some bugs, which is great, but:
1. File names were hardly visible with that Mario background...
2. The skin was attached to the loader twice, so the file was much bigger for no reason! (...those Ez-Flash guys who built it...)
3. The loader came with unused English-Chinese dictionary only covering letter A (twice). It was propably meant for EZ-Word, whatever it is.

I took "Customize Pack" for 1.75 from http://www.ezflash.cn and replaced loader with the one from 1.76, so it is up to date as of now (RomBuildPro.rom). I also cleaned everything up heavily, so the loader is less than a half in size in comparison to the official one! Additionally I made some generic skin to replace ugly backgrounds. In the end, I replaced font and text with the ones from Clearlooks skin (thanks to the author!). These come as an IPS file (apply it to RomBuildPro.rom before building loader, or to ezfla_up.bin after building it). Moreover I include cleaned tools, so you can replace the skin and build your own clean (less than 1MB) EZ4 v1.76 loader!

Enjoy!

Edit:
Uploaded a new version!
- Updated the skin with new icons,
- Fixed displaying some saves as '8,192', they now show as '8 KB'.

Edit 2:
- Added 'TinyTextFix' IPS file, which corrects 'waiting to sd' to 'Writing to SD' in v2. Apply to 'ezfla_up.bin' or 'RomBuildPro.rom'.


----------



## Donel (Mar 27, 2015)

Thanks for the custom loader, draxoon, I'm going to test it soon.

There's a really annoyng bug in the original loader, it shows the size of an 8 KB save file in bytes instead of showing it in KB, as it does for every other file. Could you fix that?


----------



## draxoon (Mar 27, 2015)

Donel said:


> Thanks for the custom loader, draxoon, I'm going to test it soon.
> 
> There's a really annoyng bug in the original loader, it shows the size of a 8 KB save file in bytes instead of showing it in KB, as it does for every other file. Could you fix this?


 
Fixed! Thanks for idea, it wasn't very hard to do. I replaced attachments in my previous post with a new version.


----------



## Donel (Mar 27, 2015)

Thanks for the fast fix =)

I've attached an already compiled loader with Clearlooks fonts and Carbon Fiber skin.


----------



## draxoon (Mar 27, 2015)

Nice, I'm glad it's useful .


----------



## physicallyinsane (Mar 29, 2015)

draxoon said:


> Here goes some good stuff .
> 
> I just couldn't stand how messed up is latest (1.76) EZ4 update. It fixes some bugs, which is great, but:
> 1. File names were hardly visible with that Mario background...
> ...


Could you possibly do a quick tutorial on building custom loaders with the programs you've uploaded? Or throw me a few links my way showing how to do it? I'm new to the flash cart scene and unless a README.txt comes with any program showing how to use it, I'm completely lost. I know a tutorial's a tall order on the spot so I'm in no rush on changing the skin on the 1.76 update.


----------



## draxoon (Mar 29, 2015)

physicallyinsane said:


> Could you possibly do a quick tutorial on building custom loaders with the programs you've uploaded? Or throw me a few links my way showing how to do it? I'm new to the flash cart scene and unless a README.txt comes with any program showing how to use it, I'm completely lost. I know a tutorial's a tall order on the spot so I'm in no rush on changing the skin on the 1.76 update.


Well... Just put your skin files (24bit bmp) or manually edit existing ones in '\Res\.shell\bmp\" and run 'Build.bat'. It will create 'ezfla_up.bin' file suitable for copying to SD card and updating Ez4. You can also apply 'Text+Font_Fix.ips' to 'ezfla_up.bin' using 'Lunar IPS' if you want. That's all.
More info at: http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewforum.php?f=13.


----------



## physicallyinsane (Mar 29, 2015)

draxoon said:


> Well... Just put your skin files (24bit bmp) or manually edit existing ones in '\Res\.shell\bmp\" and run 'Build.bat'. It will create 'ezfla_up.bin' file suitable for copying to SD card and updating Ez4. You can also apply 'Text+Font_Fix.ips' to 'ezfla_up.bin' using 'Lunar IPS' if you want. That's all.
> More info at: http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewforum.php?f=13.


Cool, thanks. I was able to compile the clear look skin but is there a way of changing the text in the help section so as to credit the author?


----------



## draxoon (Mar 29, 2015)

physicallyinsane said:


> Cool, thanks. I was able to compile the clear look skin but is there a way of changing the text in the help section so as to credit the author?


Simply edit 'help.txt'. It's obvious...


----------



## physicallyinsane (Mar 29, 2015)

draxoon said:


> Simply edit 'help.txt'. It's obvious...


Oops, sorry. Didn't notice the file. Thanks for the help


----------



## physicallyinsane (Mar 29, 2015)

Jayro said:


> So have I missed the 1.76 clearlooks port/release, or is everyone still too lazy to do it? Just curious.


Don't know if you need it still but, voila.


----------



## Jayro (Mar 29, 2015)

physicallyinsane said:


> Don't know if you need it still but, voila.


 
Thank you sir, I do!


----------



## Joe88 (Mar 30, 2015)

Finally got my hands on a microsd->minisd adapter
used a 2GB msd formated to FAT
flashed 1.76 from the dl 2 links up and it works (aside from the messed up text)

its just weird my 2GB minisd wouldnt work anymore with 1.75+ loaders


----------



## Donel (Apr 2, 2015)

Final Fantasy III skin with Clearlook fonts and all IPS fixes from *draxoon *applied.


----------



## codezer0 (Apr 2, 2015)

Ironic for a game that never actually came out *to* the GBA, even though it could have. 

Any chance for FF 4 or 5? Those were my favorite entries that were available on GBA. Or even a Mother 3 skin?


----------



## Donel (Apr 2, 2015)

I didn't make the skin, it was done by *slade*.

I couldn't find any FF 4 or 5 skin, sorry.


----------



## physicallyinsane (Apr 3, 2015)

I found an old comment of yours [http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic...zflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=16937] explaining how to run the ez4 loader on the vba. As someone who has no concept on debugging hardware specific code for an embedded platform, could you help me out on running the latest kernel on the vba? It's annoying to test skins I'm making by constantly loading and updating it on to my actual gameboy sp.


----------



## kuwanger (Apr 3, 2015)

AFAIK, there's no trivial way to get the new ez4 loader to run in vba.  The old way I did it basically bypassed a check of some sort and left the loader think it was in a different (nds?) mode.  Ie, it's something more of luck that it didn't crash.  The new loader cut out a lot, presumably in part to make room for the fat32 code, and the check is apparently not there.  So, it falls through silently.  Which means if you just speed up the VBA, after a while you'll see it black screen.  So, yea, sorry about that.


----------



## sp957 (Apr 15, 2015)

Should I update my EZ Flash 4 to 1.76?

My EZ Flash 4 now is currently using 1.72. And my EZ Flash uses a MicroSD card on a Gameboy Advance SP.

It says EZ402 2006.03 on the back.


----------



## TecXero (Apr 15, 2015)

sp957 said:


> Should I update my EZ Flash 4 to 1.76?
> 
> My EZ Flash 4 now is currently using 1.72. And my EZ Flash uses a MicroSD card on a Gameboy Advance SP.
> 
> It says EZ402 2006.03 on the back.


 
Yes, it fixes a bug that can occur when copying 32MB ROMs to the NOR.


----------



## FAST6191 (Apr 15, 2015)

sp957 said:


> Should I update my EZ Flash 4 to 1.76?
> 
> My EZ Flash 4 now is currently using 1.72. And my EZ Flash uses a MicroSD card on a Gameboy Advance SP.
> 
> It says EZ402 2006.03 on the back.



If it holds enough games for you and you do not feel you want SDHC, and it does not have issues with loading full 32 meg games (mainly Mother 3 but get the right combination of hacks and there could be others) then you do not need to upgrade.

If you do need more space or you do face issues with full 32 meg games (most 32 meg/256Mbit titles trim a bit and thus are not troubled by this issue) then consider upgrading.

Upgrading it might cost you the ability to use smaller SD cards (512 meg and 1 gig sort of thing).


----------



## sp957 (Apr 15, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> If it holds enough games for you and you do not feel you want SDHC, and it does not have issues with loading full 32 meg games (mainly Mother 3 but get the right combination of hacks and there could be others) then you do not need to upgrade.
> 
> If you do need more space or you do face issues with full 32 meg games (most 32 meg/256Mbit titles trim a bit and thus are not troubled by this issue) then consider upgrading.
> 
> Upgrading it might cost you the ability to use smaller SD cards (512 meg and 1 gig sort of thing).


 
What about a 2GB SD card?


----------



## FAST6191 (Apr 15, 2015)

We have not yet found the consistent thread linking the smaller cards and not working on newer kernels. It just seems that some smaller ones no longer work, others carry on fine with them.


----------



## sp957 (Apr 15, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> We have not yet found the consistent thread linking the smaller cards and not working on newer kernels. It just seems that some smaller ones no longer work, others carry on fine with them.


 
I don't think I will update because I everything works so far with the Clearworks 1.72. And I like that skin.

But I was thinking about updating because my cart (or maybe the SD card) has been sluggish loading the game list, the games themselves, and creating/saving save files. You think this update will help speed things up, because it will allow me to replace the SD with an SDHC and use FAT32? 

Should I try reformatting the SD card from the 32 kilobyte allocation size to 64? Reformatting from 4000 bytes to 16 kilobytes on my R4i card really made the game loading and game browsing faster. But it couldn't load games do to some save file error if I went up to 32 or 64 kilobytes, which I think may be the case if I go from 32 to 64 kilobyte on the EZ Flash 4's SD card.


----------



## FAST6191 (Apr 15, 2015)

It did come with a marginal speed boost (nothing to do with SDHC as much as just having some improved code in this update) but nothing to write home about -- the ?SD was basically never the limiting factor.

How many games do you have on the cart? The more games it has, the more files it has to sort through during the saving process (you can replicate it by making a bunch of files in the saver folder if you want).

I have not played with sector sizes on this new SDHC line and have no idea what goes. It really is just loader code/FAT parsing and -- DS carts read solely from the SD card where the bottleneck of the EZ4 is mainly the NOR/PSRAM writing part of things.


----------



## sp957 (Apr 16, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> How many games do you have on the cart? The more games it has, the more files it has to sort through during the saving process (you can replicate it by making a bunch of files in the saver folder if you want).


I have 87 games. 12 of the games are in their own folder if that matters.

I tried just having one game on the EZ4 to see if it would speed things up. It loaded up the game list faster. But the game loads and save writes were about the same speed.


----------



## tiduscrying (Apr 22, 2015)

Hey guys, I just compiled the cobalt version of the carbon skin (since I have a cobalt blue GBA SP) using Draxoon's font patch and tools! It's version 1.76, obviously I guess. I found a thread on the ezflash forum with the files for the theme, among others, so I thought I'd give it a shot. If you guys want to take some of those themes and convert them, just download their zips, take the find the .shell folder and use those files instead of the ones in the res folder of Draxoon's tool. Be sure to apply the font patch though, because... that default font is... um, gross.

Also, side note, anyone know of a way to re-patch your games in bulk once they've already been transferred to the SD card? I just found out that a crapton of my games all have different reset combos because apparently my config didn't stick... 

PROOF:


Spoiler


----------



## TecXero (Apr 22, 2015)

tiduscrying said:


> Also, side note, anyone know of a way to re-patch your games in bulk once they've already been transferred to the SD card? I just found out that a crapton of my games all have different reset combos because apparently my config didn't stick...


 
Thanks for the updated theme. Anyway, you should be able to just run your games through the client again, just make sure it doesn't overwrite your save files. There is the option to not have it apply the save patch, which should be fine since they've already been patched for that. About the client button combination problem, you might have to manually edit the configuration file in the Temp folder of your Windows folder.


----------



## tiduscrying (Apr 22, 2015)

TecXero said:


> Thanks for the updated theme. Anyway, you should be able to just run your games through the client again, just make sure it doesn't overwrite your save files. There is the option to not have it apply the save patch, which should be fine since they've already been patched for that. About the client button combination problem, you might have to manually edit the configuration file in the Temp folder of your Windows folder.


 
Hmm, I figured I would have to re-run them through the client again. AH, I've been doing it for the past 30 minutes or so, haha! Might as well since I switched to a bigger card and the newer FW.


----------



## TecXero (Apr 22, 2015)

tiduscrying said:


> Hmm, I figured I would have to re-run them through the client again. AH, I've been doing it for the past 30 minutes or so, haha! Might as well since I switched to a bigger card and the newer FW.


 
Batch mode works well, if you update the ROM database. FAST6191 provides instructions and a link to update the database in this thread.


----------



## tiduscrying (Apr 23, 2015)

TecXero said:


> Batch mode works well, if you update the ROM database. FAST6191 provides instructions and a link to update the database in this thread.


 
Sweet, thanks! I updated my rom .lst file last night and everything seems to be working just fine!


----------



## [Truth] (May 11, 2015)

draxoon said:


> Here goes some good stuff .
> 
> I just couldn't stand how messed up is latest (1.76) EZ4 update. It fixes some bugs, which is great, but:
> 1. File names were hardly visible with that Mario background...
> ...


Here is the ready-to-use ezfla_up.bin of draxoons skin with all the IPS patches applied for the lazy folks:


----------



## damianiw (Aug 7, 2015)

Cant believe they added sdhc support :-) sad as like another post my minisd is now useless, glad i kept the microsd to minisd adapters though :-)

Only the fact to flash it I had to use a 1GB FAT16 formatted card threw me, had a panic as after flashing and rebooting the screen started to disolve! sorted when i had a fat32 formatted card in there, it was trying to write the save!

have also followed the tips for getting the updated tool and romname.lst :-)

Just wondered if I didnt want to use this patcher what settings do I have to use on gbatool ?

Im very tempted to get a gameboy everdrive for all the original gameboy games, for the most part i use goombacolor but its not quite the same :-)


----------



## Yepi69 (Oct 6, 2015)

migles said:


> OMG YES!!!!!!!!
> OMG I AM SO GLAD AND HAPPY
> 24 hours masturbating celebration!
> 
> ...


----------

