Hacking How do I set up a R4 card for my DSi?

[Floppyfish]

Im a complete noob on this topic. I recently found my old DSi and picked up this card for it.
I cant add an image so heres the name: 2020 Upgrade R4 SDHC Lite
or at least thats what the seller is calling it.


Im super confused on everything lol. I know roughly what to do, download ROM games onto a SD card and put it into the cartridge, but still am confused about certain stuff. Whats a kernel? do I need one? I heard about time bombs, does this cartridge have one? If so how do I get rid of it? I dont understand much when looking online, so can someone explain to me like Im 5, how to get from where I am now, to being able to play HeartGold on my DS.



Thanks a million.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Can you provide a picture of your card?

Think of a kernel kind of like the operating system your card runs. A time bomb is basically a killswitch in the software of the card you use, and you can usually get around it by using different software (or a different kernel, in proper terms). If the card has a year on the label, this usually means it has a timebomb.

We can proceed if you can provide a picture of the card, and if not, provide the website on the card's label.

 

[Floppyfish]

I can't upload a picture because my account is too new I think, but the website on the card is r4isdhc,com (can't put links either so excuse the comma) and it has the year 2020 on it.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

So, you almost definitely do have a timebomb card. This isn't a huge deal. You can download the official kernel from this page for your card: http://www.r4isdhc.com/r4-download/

Though, I usually would recommend downloading RGF's multi-cart update software from here for your card:

Info: https://gbatemp.net/threads/retrogamefan-updates-releases.267243/
Download: https://gbatemp.net/download/retrogamefan-multi-cart-update.35737/

The latter should get around the concerns with the timebomb... but if it doesn't, you can also change your system date after the card stops working and that may make it work again. I'm not extremely familiar with them but you probably have a couple years before you have to be too concerned about it.

It's pretty much as simple as downloading the files and extracting the ones for your cart on the root of your microSD card.

 

[Floppyfish]

Okay thank you so much, I appreciate it

 

[Floppyfish]

One more thing, if the kernel doesn't get around the time bomb, how will I know when the kill switch is flipped? Will it just stop working? And will any game data be lost? Sorry about all the questions I'm very clueless lol. Thanks.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

One more thing, if the kernel doesn't get around the time bomb, how will I know when the kill switch is flipped? Will it just stop working? And will any game data be lost? Sorry about all the questions I'm very clueless lol. Thanks.

As long as you're running YSMenu from RGF Multi-cart update, the timebomb will not become an issue. I've confirmed this through some research.

 

[Floppyfish]

As long as you're running YSMenu from RGF Multi-cart update, the timebomb will not become an issue. I've confirmed this through some research.

Ok thank you very much