Hacking The M3 Kaura FAQ

DeltaBurnt · Feb 2, 2010

<div align="center">The M3 Kaura FAQ
I wrote this because there hasn't been a good proper english post with all the info of the new "firmware".
Backup all your saves before using Kaura, it has a save corruption bug where some of your saves may be corrupted (only if the game is run though).

<a href="http://filetrip.net/f9613-M3i-ZeroM3DS-Real-Three-Core-2-1-Beta.html" target="_blank">Download The Latest Version Here</a>
(includes Sakura 1.44, Touchpod, and new Kaura system)

<a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=89197" target="_blank">The M3 Sakura FAQ</a>
For if you have any questions about Sakura that don't involve Kaura</div>

Latest News:<ul><li>4/24/10 - <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=222962" target="_blank">Stormwave releases the M3 Skin Maker which allows people to make their own Kaura skins</a></li><li>3/5/10 - <a href="http://filetrip.net/f9907-M3-Kaura-Language-Builder-1-0.html" target="_blank">Kaura Language Builder made by Xenon++ is put up (the linked file is my noob friendly edit, but all thanks should go straight to Xenon++)</a></li><li>3/2/10 - <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=209400&view=findpost&p=2631311" target="_blank">The Hex-Boot is released with the help of Xenon, the M3i Zero can now boot 6 different firmwares.</a></li><li>2/18/10 - <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=209400&st=0&gopid=2608237" target="_blank">dsrules comes out with the M3 Quint boot</a></li><li>2/1/10 - 0.9 Beta version of Kaura is released</li></ul>

Popular Questions:
Q: What is M3 Kaura?
A: It is the new "firmware" made my gbalpha (the M3 Team) for the M3 Real and M3i Zero flashcarts. It isn't an actual firmware (even though some people call it that), instead it's more of a boot menu. Think of the bootmenu the sakura touchpod dualboot had but more fancier.

Q: Does Kaura corrupt your saves?
A: Yes it will corrupt some saves. It is highly recommended that you backup your saves before using Kaura. It is suspected that this only happens because Kaura uses Sakura 1.44 (it had a corruption bug too) instead of 1.45.

Q: Why can't Kaura play barely any homebrew?
A: My assumption is that the m3 team forgot to include an auto dldi engine with this release. My evidence is when play still alive ds (and a few others) it asked me to dldi patch it.

Q: Why does Kaura have 2-3 bugs, 2-3 WHOLE BUGS! OMG!
A: Notice how it's a beta release ;D

<div align="center">Frequently Asked Questions:</div>

Q: What is M3 Kaura?
A: It is the new "firmware" made my gbalpha (the M3 Team) for the M3 Real and M3i Zero flashcarts. It isn't an actual firmware (even though some people call it that), instead it's more of a boot menu. Think of the bootmenu the sakura touchpod dualboot had but more fancier.

Q: What makes Kaura different from the last bootmenu?
A: It can boot roms, some homebrew, shows a list of recently run roms/homebrew, let's you choose between sakura/touchpod in an interface similar to the DS Lite menu, you can change the brightness by clicking the brightness button (DS Lite/DS Phat only, DSi's can just use select+volume button), it's skinnable, it has a calender, real time clock (uses your DSi's time) that actually moves as it ticks (like an analog clock), it has multiple languages, and you can make it so the boot menu always boots.

Q: Why the name M3 Kaura?
A: This is just speculation, but notice how Kaura is an anagram for Sakura just no S is in it.

Q: Why not just use Sakura or Touchpod?
A: Kaura seems like a perfect mix between the two. It has the speed and a cool interface like Sakura, but it has the latest game engine, no long cheat description bug, etc. like touchpod. It even shows the internal rom name (much requested feature) instead of the rom's specific file name (like blahblah(releasegroup)[releasenumber].nds). Not only that but it also has a built in button combination for bypassing Sakura's disk check in case it locks you out (L+R+A+B right as sakura starts).

Q: Is there a way to get back to the menu via Sakura or touchpod?
A: If you use the Hex-Boot R5 then it is somewhat possible. If you don't have a RAM expansion then run the .nds reset file from "_system_" (it will be called something like m3reset.nds). If you do have the ram expansion run the reset from the root of your microsd. This method should work on Moonshell, Sakura 1.44, and Sakura 1.12+ (it might work on others as well).

Q: Does Kaura use a touch interface?
A: It has a mix of both, there's maybe 60% controls and 40% touch interface. But whatever you can do via touch you can do via controls (it doesn't work the other way around though).

Q: If I soft reset in Sakura will it take me back to Kaura and vice versa?
A: Whatever you have set in Kaura to auto boot to is what your M3 will goto after soft reset. (so Sakura will reset to Kaura, Touchpod will reset to Kaura, and Kaura will reset to, surprise, Kaura)

Q: Can Kaura set settings for soft reset, RTS, cheats, etc.?
A: Yes, just press X when you've highlighted a rom!

Q: Does Kaura have global settings?
A: Not yet, hopefully soon it will. Until it does get it, you can just set global settings via Sakura and it'll carry over to Kaura.

Q: If you set global settings in Sakura with the setting "Set to all games", will Kaura not allow you to individually change the settings for a game like Sakura does when in that mode?
A: Nope, you can change the settings individually even if you apply global settings for all games in Sakura.
(Actually, I'm not too sure about this now. I'll need to test it a bit more)

Q: Is it hard to skin Kaura?
A: Not really. Just get Stormwave's M3 Skin Maker and edit the original Kaura.skn file.

Q: Does Kaura support multiple skins/does it have a cap on skins (like touchpod)?
A: Yes Kaura does support multiple skins, you can choose your skin in a menu similar to the itouch's favorite menu. Also, as far as I can tell Kaura doesn't have a skin cap.

Q: Does Kaura corrupt your saves?
A: Yes it will corrupt some saves. It is highly recommended that you backup your saves before using Kaura. It is suspected that this only happens because Kaura uses Sakura 1.44 (it had a corruption bug too) instead of 1.45. Kaura won't corrupt saves on games it originally made saves for (so if you run a game for the first time through Kaura, there will be no save corruption)

Q: Why can't Kaura play barely any homebrew?
A: My assumption is that the m3 team forgot to include an auto dldi engine with this release. My evidence is when play still alive ds (and a few others) it asked me to dldi patch it.

Q: Does Kaura play media like Sakura? Also does it play GBA roms if you have the expansion?
A: Currently it's no for both, but they may add support in the near future (the default skin came with icons for things like video, music, text, and gba files).

Q: How big is Kaura?
A: The folder itself is only 1.5 MB, but there's no telling the size of the files edited and new files elsewhere in the system folder.

Q: What languages does Kaura support?
A: Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish (there have been fan made versions including Portuguese and Japanese).

Q: How can I translate Kaura to my language?
A: Use Xenon++'s language builder for Kaura, you can get it from the links section of this FAQ.

Q: How do I install Kaura?
A: Just copy the system folder it gives you and paste it in your micro sd's root. If you already have the system folder just overwrite everything you already have.

Q: How do I install a Kaura skin?
A: Slightly more difficult than Sakura's skin applying/installing, but still easy nonetheless. Just take the folder of the skin (i.e. the default skin for Kaura is all in a folder called "Kaura"), put it in "SYSTEM/Kaura/Skin/", then apply it by tapping on the skin you want!

Q: If I set a folder as hidden via my PC, will it be hidden in Kaura like it would be in Sakura?
A: No, hidden files will show up in Kaura.

Q: What is the fourth button when choosing game options?
A: It's the option to backup the currently selected game's realtime save file to an is1 (if you do it again, or if is1 already exists it should make an is2 file).

Q: How do I set/clear a game/homebrew to the bottom box?
A: Select the NDS icon at the bottom, browse to your desired game/homebrew and select Y. To clear it make sure you have no roms in your microsd root and the browse to the root of your microsd (with the NDS button). Then just press R then Y and wait for about 20 seconds (you can also press L then Y, credit for this goes to dsrules).

Q: How do I set the language/boot priority of Kaura?
A: On the main menu just click the wrench icon in the bottom right.

Q: Why does Kaura have 2-3 bugs, 2-3 WHOLE BUGS! OMG!
A: Notice how it's a beta release ;D

<div align="center">Controls:</div>

<ul><li>A: Confirm actions, Launch roms</li><li>D-Pad: Move around cursor, select roms, etc.</li><li>B: Go up one folder, back out of current screen, cancel, etc.</li><li>Y: Set game for bottom box</li><li>X: Bring up highlighted rom settings</li><li>Select: Bring up recently used roms list when top box is selected.</li><li>L/R: Jump to the top/bottom of current folder.</li><li>Touch Screen: Various things such as choosing roms, choosing settings on settings list, etc.</li></ul>

<div align="center">Skins:</div>

Currently there is only 1 skin released (the default theme, the skin maker for the skins only came out recently), however there is already work going on for skins.<ul><li><a href="http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/2944/filelistbg.png" target="_blank">(WIP)Original DS Theme</a> by Rockstar</li></ul>

<div align="center">Tutorials:</div>

<ul><li>Hex-Boot Installation Instructions:
Make sure you grab the Quint Boot and R4 RTS on M3 creation tools from the links section of this FAQ before doing this. This is the general guide for running the r4 rts menu in sakura 1.12+, but it's most commonly used to "make" the hex-boot.
1. Download the r4 rts firmware from their website (r4rts.cn)
2. Get loader.eng from the root of the firmware, r4i.sys from "_system_/_sys_data/", and get all files in the "_system_/_sys_data/" that have an r4_*.ext (the star being numerous words like homebrew, etc. You will get about 4 of these files).
3. Run the .bat file SakuraMultiBoot.bat
4. It'll create some files, they'll be called "r4irts.nds" and "_ds_menu.sys". Copy those to the root of your microsd.
5. Next copy the "_ds_menu.dat" file to your microsd root (this file is in the r4 rts firmware folder's main folder). Then also copy the entire "_system_" folder to the root of your microsd.
6. Copy the r4i.sys and the r4_*.ext files in the folder with the bat files and overwrite them with the ones in "_system_/_sys_data/".
7. Boot up your HexBoot (or iSakuReal, or Quad Boot) and goto Sakura 1.12+ (for the Hex Boot it would be the touchpod button in Kaura). Then launch r4irts.nds to run the menu!

The Hex Boot will also work completely fine (all firmwares work) without any RAM expansion at all! It's completely compatible with DSi's.</li></ul>

<div align="center">Kaura Bugs:</div>

<ul><li>Some saves can become corrupted (BACKUP YOUR SAVES BEFORE USING KAURA). Some games can be prevented from being corrupted if you change "savename.sav" to "savename.SAV".</li><li>Alot of homebrew won't boot correctly.</li><li>The brightness level doesn't save properly (if you set it as level 1 it'll save it for level 2) (N/A for DSi's)</li><li>Clicking on the right most flag for language (russian) will "corrupt" your Kaura. The fix is to just copy over the Kaura.cfg from your computer to your microsd's SYSTEM/Kaura/ folder! OR you can download either of the 2 new edited firmwares that fix this problem entirely</li><li>Sometimes games won't save their RTS/SoftReset/Cheats settings properly, the easy fix is just setting global settings via Sakura.</li></ul>

<div align="center">Media:</div>

<div align="center">Links:</div>

<ul><li><a href="http://filetrip.net/f9613-M3i-ZeroM3DS-Real-Three-Core-2-1-Beta.html" target="_blank">Kaura 0.9 Beta Download</a></li><li><a href="http://filetrip.net/file.php?id=9731" target="_blank">Kaura 0.9 Beta Corrected v2</a>, by mc_B3oWoLF and amaro (has Russian language fixes, a new Portuguese language, and some other minor all around language fixes).</li><li><a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=209400" target="_blank">Kaura .9 Quint-Boot</a>, by dsrules(includes the Russian language fix, itouchds firmware, touchpod, sakura 1.44, and sakura 1.12+, R4i RTS menu if you do the hex boot, and more).</li><li><a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=209400&view=findpost&p=2631311" target="_blank">R4 RTS in M3 Files (Hex Boot files)</a>, by Xenon (raises the max number of firmwares runable on the m3 from 5 to 6!)</li><li><a href="http://filetrip.net/f9907-M3-Kaura-Language-Builder-1-0.html" target="_blank">Kaura Language Builder by Xenon++</a> (easily translate Kaura to your own language. The linked file is my noob friendly edit, but all thanks should go straight to Xenon++)</li><li><a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=222962" target="_blank">M3 Skin Maker</a>, by stormwave (used to make Kaura skins).</li></ul>

If you would like a question added, have found a bug, have a new link to add, or just have any sort of suggestion for this faq then please either post it here in this thread or PM me!

The Catboy · Feb 2, 2010

Thanks man ^-^ This was well needed!

DeltaBurnt · Feb 2, 2010

A Gay Little Cat Boy said:
Thanks man ^-^ This was well needed!

I'm such a forum whore, I hate myself xD

The Catboy · Feb 2, 2010

DeltaBurnt said:
A Gay Little Cat Boy said:

Thanks man ^-^ This was well needed!

Click to expand...

I'm such a forum whore, I hate myself xD

Lol
Hey still someone needed to make this, I vote this gets a sticky as well!

Technik · Feb 2, 2010

Images pleases. Before i get a new firmware i wanna see it in ACTION!

DeltaBurnt · Feb 2, 2010

Charmandersrule said:
Images pleases. Before i get a new firmware i wanna see it in ACTION!

That'll be what I add first thing tomorrow. Possibly even a video.

Until then I'll add the stock image from the announcement topic.

EDIT: Woah I just got a weird blue screen error. I tried changing my language to the flag on the furthest right and the top screen changes saying:

"An error occured, please turn off your DS and restart our program.

If the problem still presists, please contact our customer service representative.

ErrorCode: 0x8101007a"

Jakob95 · Feb 2, 2010

DeltaBurnt said:
A Gay Little Cat Boy said:

Thanks man ^-^ This was well needed!

Click to expand...

I'm such a forum whore, I hate myself xD

You wasted a hour doing this when you could have used that hour to watch Heroes like I did....

The Catboy · Feb 2, 2010

DeltaBurnt said:
Charmandersrule said:

Images pleases. Before i get a new firmware i wanna see it in ACTION!

Click to expand...

That'll be what I add first thing tomorrow. Possibly even a video.

Until then I'll add the stock image from the announcement topic.

EDIT: Woah I just got a weird blue screen error. I tried changing my language to the flag on the furthest right and the top screen changes saying:

"An error occured, please turn off your DS and restart our program.

If the problem still presists, please contact our customer service representative.

ErrorCode: 0x8101007a"

I know that error! Plug your card into your computer and you will notice that you have 0bits of space on your card
Delete some files and it will work fine

DeltaBurnt · Feb 2, 2010

A Gay Little Cat Boy said:
DeltaBurnt said:

Charmandersrule said:

Images pleases. Before i get a new firmware i wanna see it in ACTION!

Click to expand...

That'll be what I add first thing tomorrow. Possibly even a video.

Until then I'll add the stock image from the announcement topic.

EDIT: Woah I just got a weird blue screen error. I tried changing my language to the flag on the furthest right and the top screen changes saying:

"An error occured, please turn off your DS and restart our program.

If the problem still presists, please contact our customer service representative.

ErrorCode: 0x8101007a"

Click to expand...

I know that error! Plug your card into your computer and you will notice that you have 0bits of space on your card
Delete some files and it will work fine

Yah I just plugged in my micro sd and I'm just copying over the system folder again to see if that'll do the same thing. I'll have to see if I can recreate this error.

Jakob95 · Feb 2, 2010

This stupid firmware I think it curropted my MicroSD. I can't go on Sakura anymore because in the Disk Check it says something is wrong please format. And I ran a diskcheck yesterday and it was perfect.

The Catboy · Feb 2, 2010

DeltaBurnt said:
A Gay Little Cat Boy said:

DeltaBurnt said:

Charmandersrule said:

Images pleases. Before i get a new firmware i wanna see it in ACTION!

Click to expand...

That'll be what I add first thing tomorrow. Possibly even a video.

Until then I'll add the stock image from the announcement topic.

EDIT: Woah I just got a weird blue screen error. I tried changing my language to the flag on the furthest right and the top screen changes saying:

"An error occured, please turn off your DS and restart our program.

If the problem still presists, please contact our customer service representative.

ErrorCode: 0x8101007a"

Click to expand...

I know that error! Plug your card into your computer and you will notice that you have 0bits of space on your card
Delete some files and it will work fine

Click to expand...

Yah I just plugged in my micro sd and I'm just copying over the system folder again to see if that'll do the same thing. I'll have to see if I can recreate this error.

Weird well I had that problem, this is how I fixed it.
I plugged my card into my computer and deleted some files, it worked then
But then my NDS file stopped working...so I tried renaming the file, strange thing is I was able to get into it, but I am still working on backing up my Sd card

DeltaBurnt · Feb 2, 2010

jakob95 said:
This stupid firmware I think it curropted my MicroSD. I can't go on Sakura anymore because in the Disk Check it says something is wrong please format. And I ran a diskcheck yesterday and it was perfect.

Yah I think that happens when you choose the Russian language.

To bypass disk check on sakura press L+R+A+B right as it starts up.

Jakob95 · Feb 2, 2010

DeltaBurnt said:
jakob95 said:

This stupid firmware I think it curropted my MicroSD. I can't go on Sakura anymore because in the Disk Check it says something is wrong please format. And I ran a diskcheck yesterday and it was perfect.

Click to expand...

Yah I think that happens when you choose the Russian language.

To bypass disk check on sakura press L+R+A+B right as it starts up.

I never picked the Russian language. I picked english.

Skyline969 · Feb 2, 2010

Hm, been a while since I stepped in the M3 Real scene. Does anyone have a link to some screenshots of this M3 Kaura?

The Catboy · Feb 2, 2010

jakob95 said:
DeltaBurnt said:

jakob95 said:

This stupid firmware I think it curropted my MicroSD. I can't go on Sakura anymore because in the Disk Check it says something is wrong please format. And I ran a diskcheck yesterday and it was perfect.

Click to expand...

Yah I think that happens when you choose the Russian language.

To bypass disk check on sakura press L+R+A+B right as it starts up.

Click to expand...

I never picked the Russian language. I picked english.

You might need to back up your card and reformat it. I had to do that.
Side note, I was able to get into NDS file and save my games ^-^ Sad Note, I lost all my sav files T-T

DeltaBurnt · Feb 2, 2010

Skyline969 said:
Hm, been a while since I stepped in the M3 Real scene. Does anyone have a link to some screenshots of this M3 Kaura?

Here's A screenshot. I'll have some up via my camera tomorrow.

Technik · Feb 2, 2010

Oooh pretty pretty shiny shiny

Jakob95 · Feb 2, 2010

I remembered when I used this new firmware
I booted up AKMenu4.nds
And New Super Mario BRos
Now in Moonshell on my Acekard I go to Diskcheck and it says
AKMENU4.SAV has 1fragments
and so does Mario
mario43434534.sav
something like that
I am just going to defrag my MicroSD to fix it

DeltaBurnt · Feb 2, 2010

jakob95 said:
I remembered when I used this new firmware
I booted up AKMenu4.nds
And New Super Mario BRos
Now in Moonshell on my Acekard I go to Diskcheck and it says
AKMENU4.SAV has 1fragments
and so does Mario
mario43434534.sav
something like that
I am just going to defrag my MicroSD to fix it

Yes it's a known problem that your saves will be corrupted.

MisterMooth · Feb 2, 2010

I think you mean "anagram", not acronym.

Hacking The M3 Kaura FAQ

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