Homebrew SCFW: Custom Firmware & Kernel for Supercard

elchess · Oct 18, 2024

metroid maniac said:
SCFW is a custom firmware and kernel for the Supercard SD.
Currently it is in a preview state with minimum functionality.

Installation
Download the current release and copy the scfw folder to the root of your SD card.
That's it! You can now use the kernel by loading scfw/kernel.gba from the official firmware.
You can also select the firmware.frm file from within the kernel to flash SCFW to the Supercard's firmware. Because the firmware is minimal and the kernel is loaded from the SD card, updates to the firmware should be rare. You can enjoy kernel updates without updating the firmware.

Current features

Can browse files

Can load a GBA ROM

Can flash a Supercard firmware.

Automatic SRAM, waitstate, and prefetch patching (buggy)

Automatic SRAM loading & saving

Manual SRAM management

SDHC

Soft reset patch

Planned features

Nicer file browser

Support for more filetypes with builtin goomba/pocketnes etc.

NDS mode

Code cleanup, lots of it.

Cache patches after creating them to increase loading speed

Faster loading speeds

Cheats(?)

Save states(?)

Awesome work metroid maniac! I recently purchased a Mini SD Super Card and with the PC game parcher I have never been able to browse the games on the SD, I only get a screen with the menus at the top and the word path: at the bottom the flash cart software is 1.85. I followed your instructions on this forum I have the SCFW folder on the root of the SD with fonts and disksys.rom on the hvca folder and also the bin files on the mapr folder but still the GBA won´t read anything, the SD card is a 2GB SD with fat format. Any recommendations on what to do?

OmDRetro · Oct 19, 2024

elchess said:
Awesome work metroid maniac! I recently purchased a Mini SD Super Card and with the PC game parcher I have never been able to browse the games on the SD, I only get a screen with the menus at the top and the word path: at the bottom the flash cart software is 1.85. I followed your instructions on this forum I have the SCFW folder on the root of the SD with fonts and disksys.rom on the hvca folder and also the bin files on the mapr folder but still the GBA won´t read anything, the SD card is a 2GB SD with fat format. Any recommendations on what to do?

Hey @elchess looks like you're currently on stock firmware. If you want to load any SCFW supported file type, you must sideload the kernel within stock first. I can tell that you haven't installed the custom firmware yet cause SCFW is pretty simplistic / utilizes a text interface and doesn't have any sort of GUI.

The additional feature you mentioned, that loads Famicom Disk System games, is only supported by the pre-release builds(CLICK HERE) and not the release kernel(this thread).

Santiago_1981 · Oct 22, 2024

Dumb question: on fw 0.5.2, how do I get to settings?

OmDRetro · Oct 23, 2024

Santiago_1981 said:
Dumb question: on fw 0.5.2, how do I get to settings?

Pressing 🅱 from the root directory(default directory upon bootup of the cartridge) will allow you to see the settings.
Pressing 🅰 on a line item pertaining to a function will toggle it where

means ON/TRUE and

means OFF/FALSE.

The current directory you're on shows from the top. If it ONLY shows "fat:/" from the top that means you're on the root directory. Otherwise, you've gone through one or more subdirectories and pressing 🅱 will only go up from a subdirectory.

Santiago_1981 · Oct 23, 2024

O

OmDRetro said:
Pressing 🅱 from the root directory(default directory upon bootup of the cartridge) will allow you to see the settings.
Pressing 🅰 on a line item pertaining to a function will toggle it where means ON/TRUE and means OFF/FALSE.

The current directory you're on shows from the top. If it ONLY shows "fat:/" from the top that means you're on the root directory. Otherwise, you've gone through one or more subdirectories and pressing 🅱 will only go up from a subdirectory.

Thank you very much!

RICKME · Oct 23, 2024

i might have a problem, i dont know on what ofw i was, i downloaded the scfw, put it on my sd card, startet the kernel, installed the fw and now i have the error ''Kernel file open failed, critical failure''.
is there any way to get it back up running?

OmDRetro · Oct 24, 2024

RICKME said:
i might have a problem, i dont know on what ofw i was, i downloaded the scfw, put it on my sd card, startet the kernel, installed the fw and now i have the error ''Kernel file open failed, critical failure''.
is there any way to get it back up running?

The SCFW project has two parts:

The loader / lightweight firmware
SCFW Kernel

Good news: You have successfully installed the firmware.

Not-so-good news: You didn't install the kernel properly.

Take a look at the first post and read the instruction:

Download the current release and copy the scfw folder to the root of your SD card.
That's it! You can now use the kernel by loading scfw/kernel.gba from the official firmware.

The folder named in lower case is called scfw. Create that folder in the root of your SD card and transfer the kernel.gba file there.

denullz · Nov 3, 2024

is there an option besides the ds lite? i got a gamecube with the gamecube player, is there maybe to tool for this to flash it again?

it got bricked yesterday

Apache Thunder · Nov 4, 2024

denullz said:
is there an option besides the ds lite? i got a gamecube with the gamecube player, is there maybe to tool for this to flash it again?

it got bricked yesterday

I seem to recall the Gameboy player is basically a whole gameboy advance board with no screens with graphics output going to the GC instead. About the only data input it gets I think is controller data.

I'm not sure you can write data to carts on a GameBoy player. Might not be wired up for that. But then again I don't recall now how the gameboy player works.

GEMski · Nov 5, 2024

I am having problems with SwanGBA & PocketNES, where it's not loading the ROMS, for example PocketNES is giving me "Disk Trouble Err 22" and SwanGBA is just giving me a blackscreen with the fork provided, and when I got the latest SwanGBA, it started giving me a redscreen saying No ROMs found, or something similar.
Is there something that I am supposed to do? I just put the files and the ROMs and I did not fiddle with anything.

OmDRetro · Nov 5, 2024

GEMski said:
I am having problems with SwanGBA & PocketNES, where it's not loading the ROMS, for example PocketNES is giving me "Disk Trouble Err 22" and SwanGBA is just giving me a blackscreen with the fork provided, and when I got the latest SwanGBA, it started giving me a redscreen saying No ROMs found, or something similar.
Is there something that I am supposed to do? I just put the files and the ROMs and I did not fiddle with anything.

Pre-release concern - Please notify me there to prevent clutter on the release firmware/kernel.

...but to answer your concern:

PocketNES has no disks. You're likely playing an FDS ROM and running the game on HVCA ( Home Video Computer Advanced)
- FDS error table found here:
  - Err 22: Disk header block recognition isn't read and can ignores
    - Since you're on an emulator, this means your FDS ROM is corrupted / has no valid header.
SwanGBA used on SCFW is still using an older implementation so hot swapping the binary isn't possible for the latest release(?) as of now. I'll have a look into it though just to be sure

elchess · Wednesday at 12:59 AM

OmDRetro said:
Hey @elchess looks like you're currently on stock firmware. If you want to load any SCFW supported file type, you must sideload the kernel within stock first. I can tell that you haven't installed the custom firmware yet cause SCFW is pretty simplistic / utilizes a text interface and doesn't have any sort of GUI.

Hello OmDRetro,

I am a bit lost, how do I load the kernel for SCFW support? I have read several threads with no clear answer

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 1:52 AM

OmDRetro said:
Hey @elchess looks like you're currently on stock firmware. If you want to load any SCFW supported file type, you must sideload the kernel within stock first. I can tell that you haven't installed the custom firmware yet cause SCFW is pretty simplistic / utilizes a text interface and doesn't have any sort of GUI.

The additional feature you mentioned, that loads Famicom Disk System games, is only supported by the pre-release builds and not the release kernel(this thread).

I actually followed this video on youtube on how to load the SCFW but when I turn the console on and hold the right and left triggers in order to be able to install the the firmware but nothing happens I only get the SRAM test and later I can see the file "kernel.gba" listed but nothing happens when I click any button. Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

OmDRetro · 2024-11-17T12:31:23+0000

elchess said:
Hello OmDRetro,

I am a bit lost, how do I load the kernel for SCFW support? I have read several threads with no clear answer

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 1:52 AM

I actually followed this video on youtube on how to load the SCFW but when I turn the console on and hold the right and left triggers in order to be able to install the the firmware but nothing happens I only get the SRAM test and later I can see the file "kernel.gba" listed but nothing happens when I click any button. Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

That tutorial is (primarily)meant for those who use the EXEQ GameBox SP or any other clone console(I.E. - Digi RetroBoy / Revo K101). There are some similarities between setting it up with original hardware and on the clones.

Clones cannot show the menu text of the stock Super Card SD as it only shows tiles if the SD card is formatted correctly.
- You're navigating the stock SuperCard SD firmware blind.
Original hardware can show the menu as intended, but you can still follow the steps intended for GBA clones.

If you're on original hardware(NDS/NDSL Gameboy Advance mode or GBA incl. variants), simply follow the instruction mentioned on the first post:

Download the current release and copy the scfw folder to the root of your SD card.
That's it! You can now use the kernel by loading scfw/kernel.gba from the official firmware.

NOTE: The above instruction assumes that you've already formatted your storage medium(sd card in this case) to FAT/FAT16.

Navigate to the kernel.gba file, open it and everything should be usable from there.

Homebrew SCFW: Custom Firmware & Kernel for Supercard

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