Homebrew PHBank crashes at startup on rxtools emunand O3DS

[romanaOne]

I really like the idea of an OFFLINE, free pokebank alternative but I just can't get this to work.

I have Pokemon Alpha Sapphire (cia installed on rxtools emunand) and I am launching homebrew with the "Homebrew Channel" also installed on emunand from a cia.

PHBank.3dsx and PHBank.smdh are in /3DS/PHBank and I copied the pbank folder to the root of the SD card.

When I tap PHBank, there is a prompt to press A to choose target. When I press A, the screen goes all funny and after some weird stuff, the bottom screen turns yellow and the top goes black. Then all you can do is power off. I also tested with a Pokemon Y cart inserted and the same thing happened.

I thought maybe the binary was bad, so I downloaded devkitPRO, installed the dependencies for PHBank and compiled it from a clone of the latest git. Exactly the same thing happens with the freshly built PHBank.3dsx and PHBank.smdh.

So then I thought maybe the Homebrew Launcher didn't like something about running from rxtools emunand and decided to build a cia of PHBank. I am not at all sure I did this right, the problem being the complicated and undocumented RSF file. I followed the instructions on the Homebrew wiki and grabbed cia.rsf from blargsnes. I customized the unique id and commented ExeFs and PlainRegion because the latest makerom doesn't understand them:

#ExeFs: # these are the program segments from the ELF, check your elf for the appropriate segment names
 # ReadOnly:
 # - .rodata
 # - RO
 # ReadWrite:
 # - .data
 # - RO
 # Text:
 # - .init
 # - .text
 # - STUP_ENTRY

#PlainRegion: # only used with SDK ELFs
# - .module_id

Anyway, my cia of PHBank installed but crashes just like when I launch from the homebrew channel. The only thing obviously wrong with the cia file is the icon is black.

Copying the freshly-built PHBank.elf to myproject.elf and PHBank.smdh to myproject.smdh, I followed these instructions here to make the cia:

arm-none-eabi-strip myproject.elf
makerom -f cia -o myproject.cia -rsf cia.rsf -target t -exefslogo -elf myproject.elf -icon myproject.smdh -banner banner.bin

(I made a banner out of some clip art of a pokedex and a wav of pikacu making that dumb noise using bannertool.)

 

[Deleted member 373223]

can you give download of the .cia? i would like to test if it is a .cia issue or a phbank issue.

 

[Slashcash]

The latest commit of PHBank on Github is a total rework with some differences with the actual release. It needs some help to be compiled and used correctly, because me and gocario are going through a process of refactoring. Fell free to pm me or gocario for help

 

[romanaOne]

ok, It could be something about my 3DS that is making it crash... I'm on sysnand 4.5, emunand 10.3 and haven't updated rxtools in a couple months because everything else seems to work fine.

I've included the cia.rsf and banner, so you can check if I goofed up something simple.

I used unique id 0xF69F for testing b/c it is from a Homebrew I know is not already installed on my system.

 

[Deleted member 373223]

nvm

 

[romanaOne]

The latest commit of PHBank on Github is a total rework with some differences with the actual release. It needs some help to be compiled and used correctly, because me and gocario are going through a process of refactoring. Fell free to pm me or gocario for help

oh. I didn't know that.
Maybe first I need to figure out why the release version is not working on my 3DS.

 

[Slashcash]

oh. I didn't know that.
Maybe first I need to figure out why the release version is not working on my 3DS.

There should be something wrong with your enviroment. No need to switch to sysNand, i can assure you it works on rxtools emuNand. The .cia version you compiled won't work even in a correct enviroment without some fix and tweaks so don't rely on it.

 

[romanaOne]

PHBank.3dsx and PHBank.smdh are in /3DS/PHBank and I copied the pbank folder to the root of the SD card.

OMG: it is supposed to be called the pkbank folder. Somehow I must have renamed it. doh! doh! doh!

Mystery solved. 1.1.4-a release works fine from the homebrew launcher. Also, for some strange reason, the preselected default "target" is the hombrew launcher itself? I used the d-pad to select Pokemon Alpha, hit A, and it worked.

Is the source available for 1.1.4-a? I'd like to experiment with making a cia. Esp. if I can get more info on the what to change in the .rsf file.

 

[Slashcash]

OMG: it is supposed to be called the pkbank folder. Somehow I must have renamed it. doh! doh! doh!

Mystery solved. 1.1.4-a release works fine from the homebrew launcher. Also, for some strange reason, the preselected default "target" is the hombrew launcher itself? I used the d-pad to select Pokemon Alpha, hit A, and it worked.

Is the source available for 1.1.4-a? I'd like to experiment with making a cia. Esp. if I can get more info on the what to change in the .rsf file.

Yes, the title target selector scans your sd for installed application and gamecart so it listes them in the order they are installed. You have to navigate with d-pad to select your pokemon cart/digital copy

The 1.1.4-a release can't be compiled as a .cia. There is a technical reason behind this (hint: it relies on a feature of the homebrew launcher to access the save filesystem) so there's no need to experiment here, you wouldn't ever get a functioning cia.

The last commit on github may theoretically work as a .cia itself but i don't want to spoil @Gocario's work. I suppose he will release everything as soon as it feels confident enough.

 

[romanaOne]

Well, I compiled it and launched from homebrew launcher. Has the pkbank/data folder changed? I left it there from the previous working release. PHBank freezes with a red bottom screen. Oh well, I guess I'll just wait for the next release.

The main reason I wanted the cia in the first place is because I know of no clean way to exit homebrew launcher back to rxtools emunand. (Suspending the homebrew launcher locks up the 3ds.) I see there is now a GW.3dsx/smdh... Is there something like this to reboot rxtools-emunand?

For me, PHBank is the homebrew launcher's must-have killer app.