FIXED!!! Investigating Wood 1.62 NAND save problems

[AmigaFred]

i Have a Gateway Blue card for a long time, and never try this Wario DIY.
If i want to play with it, i need your modified kernel, and follow your tutorial ?
With only one game ?
I respect your hard work, but only one game on an sd :/
I never eard before about this game and bug.
Is there some other games who hangs on this old kinker ?

Thanks for your work

 

[davidmorom]

Hi AmigaFred, thanks for your interest!

The guide I wrote initially is for the original kernel, which is bugged and WarioWare DIY and Jam with the Band don't work, or only work in a very specific scenario.

A couple of days later I realized what the problem was, so I patched the kernel and now both games work perfectly fine, as expected. You only have to download the file "Blue Gateway Wood Kernel 1.62.rar" from the first post, extract it to the root of you SD card, and then copy as many games as you want. The only consideration is to format the card in FAT32, specially if it is bigger than 32GB.

With this patched kernel, the only non working game that I'm aware of is "Puppy Palace / My Puppy Shop". The USA version of "Emily the Strange" doesn't work neither, but the EUR version seems to work fine.

For Pokemon BW2 you need to activate the AP-Fix cheat, to prevent the game acting weirdly (pokemons not gaining exp, for example).

Hope this helps you.

 

[edgii]

No way. Unless you want to burn the few bridges that are still present, it isn't a topic to discuss with whoever might still be around us from that team. There's a reason why it stopped being open source, and why they seem to still haven't changed their mind years and years later.

Just recently EZ-Flash took Wood R4 and modified it for their own flashcard (such a terrible execution, it's so incredibly bad). Chinese manufacturers can't stop milking the dead cow Wood R4 is, whether with the clones (some even include a Wood4TT kernel in their flashcards that doesn't even works) or this now recently released flashcard. So convincing them of making the last version open source seems something pretty far from happening.

Again, I'm all in for making it open source, I want it too. Sometimes you just gotta do what you can, and see if things change someday.

as much as i understand their reasoning it just isn't good
you will literally never stop chinese companies from violating copyright law, the only thing keeping it closed source does at this point is punish literally everyone else for something they didn't even do
but i'm essentially just talking at a brick wall here. i just hate that ds flashcarts are essentially stuck in the dark ages partially as a result of this and partially because everything available is either a shitty clone of a shitty clone or original but outright bad

 

[Deleted member 702243]

for what it's worth, normmatt was open (lol) to open-sourcing akaio at least releasing builds without clone detection code, now that acekard team basically hasn't existed in over a decade, but the blocking issue is that the source doesn't build with modern toolchain. maybe they would be willing to accept private contributions to bring it up to date, and maybe they'd also be willing to simply open-source after all this time. the kernel is pretty acekard-specific, but surely nothing prevents it from being forked and adapted to other hardware

 

[BETA215]

as much as i understand their reasoning it just isn't good
you will literally never stop chinese companies from violating copyright law, the only thing keeping it closed source does at this point is punish literally everyone else for something they didn't even do
but i'm essentially just talking at a brick wall here. i just hate that ds flashcarts are essentially stuck in the dark ages partially as a result of this and partially because everything available is either a shitty clone of a shitty clone or original but outright bad

Honestly, it's his code and we aren't entitled to have the latest version if we want to. The fact that it exists in the first place is wonderful, and Ace3DS+ (which is a clone being currently sold, and uses Wood) isn't half bad. Pair the kernel with AP patches in DSJ's cheat codes database, and you really got a solid flashcard. And if you wanna go even further, use TWiLightMenu++ in your flashcard and you'll probably be able to run the few games that might not work with the stock kernel.

The current state of flashcards isn't that bad, a bit of information goes a long way. It isn't super shockingly wonderful either, but tbh not a hellscape. It has improved.

https://www.flashcarts.net/ds-quick-start-guide

 

[edgii]

Honestly, it's his code and we aren't entitled to have the latest version if we want to.

not what i was trying to say really, i just think the current state of things kind of sucks (though yes, it could in fact be worse)
i do hope at some point the source does get released or atleast nds-bootstrap/some other project gets to the same level of compatibility
i do have an ace3ds x and yea it's about the most solid flashcart you can actually buy, just not as great as some of the cards that used to be available
i think it mostly just bothers me because nds flashcarts should be in a much better state but because everything is a clone of a clone and very closed source we still have issues that SOME carts fixed well over a decade ago but aren't available anymore

 

[Deleted member 702243]

or atleast nds-bootstrap/some other project gets to the same level of compatibility

it's getting there tbh

 

[BETA215]

not what i was trying to say really, i just think the current state of things kind of sucks (though yes, it could in fact be worse)
i do hope at some point the source does get released or atleast nds-bootstrap/some other project gets to the same level of compatibility
i do have an ace3ds x and yea it's about the most solid flashcart you can actually buy, just not as great as some of the cards that used to be available
i think it mostly just bothers me because nds flashcarts should be in a much better state but because everything is a clone of a clone and very closed source we still have issues that SOME carts fixed well over a decade ago but aren't available anymore

You can use TWiLightMenu++ with both nds-bootstrap and your flashcard kernel at the same time. It's a setting you can change, and you can even change it per-game. Both can compliment each other.

 

[Jayro]

It seems like this whole wood kernel thing is a VERY big mess, with a lot of versions, variations, clones...

The WOODR4 dev(s?) just need to open-source their project, it's pissed me off that it's been under lock and key all this time.

 

[CMDreamer]

I've got a R4 flashcard clone and actually I've been using Wood (can't remember its version though), never had issues with the games beside two or three of them not working at all which got solved "out of nowhere". One of the games is Bejeweled 3 which I really love playing on my DSi XL. The microSD card I use is an 8 GB one.

Will test this modded kernel. Does it need something specific for it to work (beside the FAT32 formatting scheme)?

Thanks a lot!

 

[davidmorom]

I've got a R4 flashcard clone and actually I've been using Wood (can't remember its version though), never had issues with the games beside two or three of them not working at all which got solved "out of nowhere". One of the games is Bejeweled 3 which I really love playing on my DSi XL. The microSD card I use is an 8 GB one.

Will test this modded kernel. Does it need something specific for it to work (beside the FAT32 formatting scheme)?

Thanks a lot!

This is only for Ace3DS+/Ace3DS X/R4iLS and their respective clones, including Blue Gateway. Won't work on any other flashcart. You need to figure out what flashcart exactly is your R4 clone.

Take into account that this mod only fixes two games that never worked correctly on the mentioned flashcarts, WarioWare DIY and Jam with the band. If you don't have one of these flashcart or you are not interested in these two games, this is useless for you.

 

[CMDreamer]

This is only for Ace3DS+/Ace3DS X/R4iLS and their respective clones, including Blue Gateway. Won't work on any other flashcart. You need to figure out what flashcart exactly is your R4 clone.

Take into account that this mod only fixes two games that never worked correctly on the mentioned flashcarts, WarioWare DIY and Jam with the band. If you don't have one of these flashcart or you are not interested in these two games, this is useless for you.

Thanks for the details.

You're correct, I don't have these two games and I don't have plans for playing them. I'll keep the wood kernel I already have.

Great job fixing the issue!

 

[edgii]

You can use TWiLightMenu++ with both nds-bootstrap and your flashcard kernel at the same time. It's a setting you can change, and you can even change it per-game. Both can compliment each other.

*setting that only works on ysmenu carts to my knowledge which will give you... worse compatibilty than just outright using acewood and that has worse compatibility than the last official version of wood
edit: nvm it *does* work on the ace3ds+ but there's essentially no point, you lose features by running games through twilightmenu and having to manually boot twilightmenu to run the few specific games that don't work under the stock kernel is just annoying
no, we are not "entitled" to having it open sourced but the fact that it *used* to be gpl but they pulled it out has just always left a sour taste in my mouth and it has essentially set us back nearly a decade in terms of game compatibility
it helps no one at this point and everyone would be better off if they just released the source so it could be built for any flashcart

 

[Deleted member 702243]

having to manually boot twilightmenu to run the few specific games that don't work under the stock kernel is just annoying

it might be possible to adapt ntr-forwarder to work on flashcarts, if it doesn't already support it. then you could set the actual roms as hidden files so they dont show up in your game list, and you would run the forwarder instead which would run the game through nds bootstrap in b4ds mode

the repo has a bunch of flashcart-specific stuff in it which implies it must be able to work with flashcarts in some way, but it's not mentioned how it would work and the only examples are for running on dsi or 3ds. but it's open source, and if twilightmenu can work on a flashcart to run games through nds bootstrap then I see no reason why ntr forwarder couldnt also do it. it would essentially be a slimmed down version of twilightmenu with no ui that automatically configures and autoboots into nds bootstrap, on a per-game basis

 

[davidmorom]

it might be possible to adapt ntr-forwarder to work on flashcarts, if it doesn't already support it. then you could set the actual roms as hidden files so they dont show up in your game list, and you would run the forwarder instead which would run the game through nds bootstrap in b4ds mode

the repo has a bunch of flashcart-specific stuff in it which implies it must be able to work with flashcarts in some way, but it's not mentioned how it would work and the only examples are for running on dsi or 3ds. but it's open source, and if twilightmenu can work on a flashcart to run games through nds bootstrap then I see no reason why ntr forwarder couldnt also do it. it would essentially be a slimmed down version of twilightmenu with no ui that automatically configures and autoboots into nds bootstrap, on a per-game basis

NTR-Forwarder already works perfectly on DS flashcarts. Combine it with NDSForwarder for creating the forwarders and, as you said, hide the original ROM, and it will be indistinguishable from the original (except for the nds-bootstrap splash showing the first time).

 

[edgii]

that is actually cool and i might do that

 

[Deleted member 702243]

NTR-Forwarder already works perfectly on DS flashcarts. Combine it with NDSForwarder for creating the forwarders and, as you said, hide the original ROM, and it will be indistinguishable from the original (except for the nds-bootstrap splash showing the first time).

yeah that's what threw me off. it's called ntr forwarder dsi, but it's not just for dsi it also does flashcart forwarders

 

[E1ite007]

Huh, I have a similar issue; all 8KB save files aren't loaded by my Ace3DS X and corrupted the microSD cart several times I tried to load them. After checking, in the settings for each ROM there's no way to force 8KB saves for the games that require it (I have around 20 that do), so atm I'm using TWL++. Is someone else having some sort of similar issue?

 

[davidmorom]

Huh, I have a similar issue; all 8KB save files aren't loaded by my Ace3DS X and corrupted the microSD cart several times I tried to load them. After checking, in the settings for each ROM there's no way to force 8KB saves for the games that require it (I have around 20 that do), so atm I'm using TWL++. Is someone else having some sort of similar issue?

On the Ace3DS all save files are 512KB, despite the real size the game uses. For 8KB saves you have to use a hex editor and append 516096 ((512-8) * 1024) bytes at the end of the file. The save file should work fine after that, just tested a while ago with a New Super Mario Bros save file created on MelonDS.

The microSD corruption is weird, that should never happen. Maybe you should check if your SD card is legit and it's working fine.

 

[E1ite007]

On the Ace3DS all save files are 512KB, despite the real size the game uses. For 8KB saves you have to use a hex editor and append 516096 ((512-8) * 1024) bytes at the end of the file. The save file should work fine after that, just tested a while ago with a New Super Mario Bros save file created on MelonDS.

The microSD corruption is weird, that should never happen. Maybe you should check if your SD card is legit and it's working fine.

Maybe my SD card is failing, that's true. I've had it for like 9 years across multiple flashcarts.

Let me try to add the padding, since it worked the first time it tried to read a 8KB save without editing (it loaded and played normally), but then the cart stopped reading the SD properly, created some weird inaccesible folder, then I could recover it, but now it doesn't load those same 8KB saves.