Hacking EZ-IV kernel 1.75 (SDHC for EZ4)...new ez-iv version released...."soon"....

Frederica Bernkastel · Jan 10, 2015

As luck would have it, earlier today I just uncovered my EZ 4, and received a 32GB uSDHC card in the mail yesterday. I feel a marathon session of Castlevania and Metroid is in order.

So far the update is working okay, SanDisk Extreme 32GB working great.

+1 for using GBAATM over the inbuilt cheat functionality, though honestly there isn't that much point anymore.

Fish17 · Jan 10, 2015

Ok guys I'm a noob so please bear with me. I just ordered my ex flash IV for my GB micro. I also ordered a 16 GB sdhc card that will be arriving today. My question is can I set up my SDHC card so it's ready to roll when my ez flash arrives? Here's what I want to do.

1) install the new 1.75 software
2) install nes, game gear, game boy, and GBA emulators

So what do I need to do? How should I format my card? FAT? Sorry for all the questions.

FAST6191 · Jan 10, 2015

You will need a SD card for a while to install the new firmware (I usually find old phones will have one in that will do for updating if you otherwise lack one). That is as simple as having the update program (called ezfla_up.bin) on root of the SD card and holding R when booting. For SDHC it will probably end up in fat32 format, for the SD stuff though it needs to be FAT.

2) GBA emulators do not exist for the GBA -- you play things natively. You need to patch the games to work and most do it with the EZ4client program. Set the program to where your SDHC is, open the ROM(s) you want patched (they can even be in zip/rar form, sadly not 7z) and press patch. It should send the patched ROM and the save to the cart.

NES, GB, GG emulation is quite doable on the GBA. In some cases it is not ideal and I would definitely prefer a DS for most of it but hey.
For NES it is a split between two emulators, PocketNES and HVCA being the emulators in question. Pocketnes will probably do what you want though.

Goomba for GB, Goomba color for GBC and I think SMSadvance is now the suggested GG emulator.
For some reason they can be fiddly for the EZ4 but they should be fixed with stuff from
http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=12660

Goomba color is still getting the odd update, more
https://gbatemp.net/threads/still-working-on-goomba-color.373395/

vonfnas · Jan 10, 2015

Well, I can confirm that 2GB SD-cards still work on my EZIV after this update (I have a later batch of EZIV, and I am using a microSD-card with a MiniSD-card adapter).
Yoshi's Island seems broken though, as some has already reported here.

FAST6191 · Jan 11, 2015

For those with yoshi island problems what happens if you hold L and press a to launch it?

DanTheManMS · Jan 11, 2015

Dang, color me surprised. While this isn't technically the first use of SDHC on GBA flash carts [*], it's the first use of them for storing GBA games. I'm impressed.

FAST6191 said:
Micro to miniSD adapters are just things to reroute pins and reshape to fit in a miniSD slot. I have no idea why they are so problematic -- every micro to SD adapter I have ever tried has been basically bombproof and it is the exact same concept, however so many people have had issues with them that is not funny. Many people have had them work fine and it is definitely worth a go if you have one sitting around but again so many people have had issues that the default line/party line is try to find a proper miniSD if you can.

I have to wonder if something fundamental changed with the MicroSD specification somehow. Maybe some backwards compatibility with older MMC cards was removed or crippled and the slot-2 GBA carts used them or something. I've never owned an EZ-IV but I was heavily involved in the slot-2 Supercard scene at the time. I always found it strange that the patching software and firmware updates for the Supercard SD and MiniSD were always the same, but for the Supercard Lite with its MicroSD card you had to use separate firmware and software. Like you said, in theory those adapters are just rerouting pins so why could they be so universally problematic?

[*] The M3 Perfect/Pro were able to use SDHC cards after a software update, but only for storing music/video files using the built-in M3 media player software. Come to think of it, I don't remember if this SDHC compatibility was limited to specifically GBA mode or if it could do DS mode instead. Either way, it's not terribly noteworthy.

Metoroid0 · Jan 11, 2015

reprep said:
Yoshi's Island stopped working with this update. It was working before and i own an old ez flash iv, not the new models.

reprep said:
It supports SDHC now, unbelievable.

Edit: Just tested and it works with my 4 gb SDHC mini SD card. though it stopped working with 2 gb one.

can someone confirm what he^ is saying?

KidIce · Jan 12, 2015

<blink> The EZ site has been dying a slow death: pages disappearing, broken links, 404's. And now this, AND the web site has largely been restored. Color me shocked and awed.

Hope to god this sign of life means something good in regards to the EZ Flash team. Up date the EZVi to work on 3DS 9.X? New products? If this hints at a resurrection, I personally can't wait.

Akiranon · Jan 12, 2015

FAST6191 said:
For those with yoshi island problems what happens if you hold L and press a to launch it?

This makes Yoshi's Island work again. Holding L apparently makes it 'hard reset' and shows the GBA splash screen before starting the game.

My old 2 GB SD card is working fine after updating. I'm not experiencing any memory card issues on my end. If anything, the saving time seems to have improved dramatically.

Rayder · Jan 12, 2015

Wow! My old DSlite rarely gets touched anymore.

It's a black DSlite bought the week they first launched black ones in the US. I've had to change out the dpad/button's contact pads once, but it still works perfectly.

This SDHC update comes at a great time! I went to mess with my DSlite (has a fully loaded CycloDS in the DS slot and the EF4 in the GBA slot...I called it my "Pocket Arcade")......the EZ4 USED TO BE loaded with games, but the card is gone out of the cart. I've went around to local stores trying to get a replacement 2GB card, but no one has one smaller than 8GB unless I buy it online. Luckily I have a microSD to miniSD adaptor because I don't think stores even bother with miniSD anymore.

Man! It's been so long since I messed with the EZFlash as far as adding games to it, I'll have to re-learn how to do it. Re-install all the little necessary programs, since I'm on a completely different computer. The lack of time for anything will make this a PITA for me, but a worthwhile one all the same. At least I have a backup of what was on the missing card. It was a fully loaded 2GB.

If I hadn't lost the miniSD that was in it, I probably wouldn't' have really cared about this update.

reprep · Jan 12, 2015

i too can confirm holding L while booting Yoshi's Island solves the problem.

Fish17 · Jan 12, 2015

FAST6191 said:
You will need a SD card for a while to install the new firmware (I usually find old phones will have one in that will do for updating if you otherwise lack one). That is as simple as having the update program (called ezfla_up.bin) on root of the SD card and holding R when booting. For SDHC it will probably end up in fat32 format, for the SD stuff though it needs to be FAT.

2) GBA emulators do not exist for the GBA -- you play things natively. You need to patch the games to work and most do it with the EZ4client program. Set the program to where your SDHC is, open the ROM(s) you want patched (they can even be in zip/rar form, sadly not 7z) and press patch. It should send the patched ROM and the save to the cart.

NES, GB, GG emulation is quite doable on the GBA. In some cases it is not ideal and I would definitely prefer a DS for most of it but hey.
For NES it is a split between two emulators, PocketNES and HVCA being the emulators in question. Pocketnes will probably do what you want though.

Goomba for GB, Goomba color for GBC and I think SMSadvance is now the suggested GG emulator.
For some reason they can be fiddly for the EZ4 but they should be fixed with stuff from
http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=12660

Goomba color is still getting the odd update, more
https://gbatemp.net/threads/still-working-on-goomba-color.373395/

So I need a separate micro card formatted to FAT to install the software? I only have a SD to micro adapter and the mini to micro adapter that came with the EZ flash.

Never mind I can format the SDHC to FAT by creating a partition less than 2 GB.

FAST6191 · Jan 12, 2015

FAT vs FAT32 is not the problem, though you will want the one used by the respective kernels, as much as SD and SHDC using slightly different protocols. As it only knows how to read SD originally then it needs SD to load the update to read SDHC instead.

reprep · Jan 12, 2015

i formatted my working on old firmware, now non-working on new firmware 2 gb miniSD card from FAT to FAT32. It still doesn't work. Well luckily my 4 gb mini SD SDHC card works so no problem for me.

codezer0 · Jan 13, 2015

Has anyone been able to get batch importing via the EZ4 client to work correctly?

I just finished flashing the new firmware on my EZ4 here. I do somehow have a spare 16GB that would have just enough space for my archive.

However, Every time I try to import multiple ROMs at a time through the EZ4 client, I get a blank window and it does nothing at all. :cry:

Joe88 · Jan 13, 2015

does the clearlooks creator have any plans to update to this version?

fermio100 · Jan 14, 2015

I can confirm it works. After the update my 2GB card still shows the games and a new 4GB card that wasn't working now works.

Yoshi's Island works if you hold L while loading the game.

It's a great update since pure SD cards are very hard to find these days.

hunter291 · Jan 14, 2015

I was working with the Mother skinned 1.720RESET. After updating with the new firmware, I just saw a box with no text in it, and after a few seconds the screen turns black.
Does the new update only work with SDHC?
Also, is there a way to extract the skin from my old firmware and apply it to the new one?

Mbmax · Jan 15, 2015

Good. Now to get the ez5i sources.

reprep · Jan 15, 2015

hunter291 said:
I was working with the Mother skinned 1.720RESET. After updating with the new firmware, I just saw a box with no text in it, and after a few seconds the screen turns black.
Does the new update only work with SDHC?
Also, is there a way to extract the skin from my old firmware and apply it to the new one?

same problem here. copy the contents of your old SD card to a SDHC card and try with that. Probably it doesn't support all of the SD cards and i was unlucky to have a non-supported one.

Hacking EZ-IV kernel 1.75 (SDHC for EZ4)...new ez-iv version released...."soon"....

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