Hacking Acekard + 3in1 NOR save issue

[gr3yh47]

Hey guys, I have an Acekard 2i and an EZV 3in1, running akaio 1.9.0 on my DS Phat

Running GBA games from SRAM works 100%
However, if I flash a game to NOR i have save issues.

First problem was with astro boy, when flashed to NOR it wouldnt keep the save at all, every time i turned off and back on it would be blank save slots. I didnt do other testing, and replaced the battery thinking that might be the issue, but even with a new battery no luck.

So I ran SM Advance 3 from SRAM and it saved fine. I thought maybe the problem was the astro boy rom so I flashed Metroid fusion to NOR and was able to save fine once. Also the astro boy save worked from SRAM.
So I played Metroid Fusion for a good 2 hours only to find out that after saving, turning off and back on... It didnt load the GBA save when I went back into akaio. To my horror, when I loaded Metroid Fusion again, my test save from 2 mins of playtime was there, not my new one or any of the ones in between :< I lost 2 hours of gameplay...

also of note, not sure if this is normal, when I flash a game to NOR, the first time loading it freezes at the Gameboy screen, then i power off and back on and it works fine.

I love the NOR feature because of no load time but... I have to be able to trust my saves. Help me GBA wan Tempnobi, you're my only hope!

 

[Another World]

the freezing probably means you have a 3in1+, which was never correctly supported.

try the version of gba exploader that supports it.

-another world

 

[gr3yh47]

I'm not really worried about the freezing issue, and per wikitemp "GBA ROM flashing and playback has been supported on the new 3in1+ since AKAIO 1.3 Final." http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/AKAIO#EZ-Flash_3in1

are there known saving issues with the 3in1+ ? I'd really like to use the akaio built in flashing functionality if possible

 

[Another World]

i'm not saying that you are. i'm making the point that if you have the nor boot freezing that probably means you have a 3in1+. please try the build of gba exploader that supports it and run some tests. try the same games which are giving you issue with akaio.

akaio does have 3in1+ support but it was not from official code released by ez flash. many people with the 3in1+ have had nothing but issue. most of which are fixed by using the correct version of gba exploader. the issues you are having could be related to your sram, but you can't debug that until you try other tools, different verified clean dumps, etc.

you really don't need to quote the akaio wiki to me, i wrote 90% of it, including the section you just quoted. =P

http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/AKAIO#Main_WIKI_Contributors

-another world

 

[gr3yh47]

Wasn't questioning you or quoting it 'at' you so much as looking for clarification as to whether you were telling me to use that for the freezing issue only or also for the save issue. sorry if it came off as unpleasant.

I saw you posted in another thread that neither smiths or norm had a 3in1+ for testing and dev, but it was from years ago. is this still the case? I'll be happy to donate one.

I'll let you know what happens with GBAexploader, and thanks agaiin

 

[Another World]

that is still the case. smiths got the 3in1 stuff working with a gba sized kit. i'm not sure if he even has a ds lite. so donating one might not be of much help.

try a few builds of gba exploader, not just the latest. let me know if it fixes your saving issues or if it makes them worse.

-another world

 

[gr3yh47]

Did some more testing and I have some new info.
1) GBAexploader scared me so I ended up not using it. i tried using the latest (0.58bx i believe) and it would seem to freeze as soon as i ran it, at least it wouldnt respond to any button presses despite showing that it detected the "3in1pls" as it called it
i tried a version back (0.57) and it doesnt detect the card, version info shows that the first version supporting the 3in1+ was 0.58a after the freezing with the first one and some of what i've seen I'm worried i could do something bad to my 3in1, and it really was a b*tch to mod so that it would fit in my dsphat.

BUT! and here's where it gets mildly interesting

2) I flashed Mega Man Zero 2 to Nor, freeze/reboot like normal, and ran it directly from the DS Main menu. Made a save change, rebooted, and acekard picked up the save. then I ran it in passme mode from the acekard. save change, reboot, save detected again. Once more, direct boot from DS Menu, save NOT detected.... but booting it from the acekard again and the save was detected, i repeated these last 2 several times
so the actual form of the problem is this:

1st save successfully detected from direct boot, then direct boot saves fail to be detected by the acekard but passme boot saves are fine.
of note related to this if i direct boot, save, reboot, and direct boot again, the save stays on the 3in1 but because it isnt detected by the acekard i can't get it off the 3in1 it gets overwritten next time the passme method is used

soooooo any thoughts? could it have anything to do with save types/save patching?

 

[Another World]

passme is for running ds code from slot-2. it is strictly for .gba.ds homebrew. it most probably is not initializing the patching required for saves and not updating the globalsettings.ini save path strings correctly. do not run .gba games using passme.

try using the ak dldi file found in the official build of the kernel, swap it in for akaio's custom dldi file. this may fix the gba exploader freezing.

research your games and see what their savetype is. you may need to manually patch for the save type. delete the globalsettings.ini and then run 1 game, save, reboot, and let it dump the save to the msd. then read the globalsettings.ini strings and make sure it points to the correct path/rom. then repeat, checking the contents of globalsettings.ini each time. it is possible the ini is not being updated. in which case i would recommend that you try some older builds of akaio to help pin point where the problem started.

GBALoadedNORTitle = fat1:/GBAGAM~1/CodenameHackerGBA.gba
GBALoadedPSramTitle =

These will appear when a GBA game is flashed to the 3in1. They store the path of the rom as found on the microSD. When PSRAM is used the NOR variable will delete itself from the Globalsettings.ini. There is a bug in AKAIO that will not allow the PSRAM variables to be removed automatically. As a result the Globalsettings.ini may fill up with multiple GBALoadedPSramTitle = lines. It is safe to remove them manually.

-another world

 

[gr3yh47]

Err, sorry I guess I misunderstood the terminology.
In any case every time I said Passme I meant that I was booting the NOR Flashed game from within AKAIO/ From my acekard, as opposed to directly from the Stock DS Main menu. So given that I hope my post makes more sense

it definitely still uses the NOR when booting from AKAIO because it starts the game instantly, so the only differences is which menu i run the game from (AKAIO or stock DS home screen)

 

[Another World]

so you mean you flashed something to nor, akaio then froze trying to boot it, you rebooted and selected the GBA pack icon to boot the game?

because that is perfectly acceptable. double check the globalsettings.ini strings to make sure they are getting updated.

-another world

 

[gr3yh47]

so you mean you flashed something to nor, akaio then froze trying to boot it, you rebooted and selected the GBA pack icon to boot the game?

yes (flashed to nor from akaio, booted from gba pack icon on ds stock menu) and it saves to the cart but akaio doesnt see it (doesnt capture the save) unless i boot it from the akaiomenu

because that is perfectly acceptable. double check the globalsettings.ini strings to make sure they are getting updated.

-another world

here's my globalsettings.ini, please tell me what i should change:

Spoiler

[system]
hiddenFileNames = __aio,__ak2,__rpg,akmenu4.nds,_system_,moonshl,moonshl2,svsip
uiName = zelda
brightness = 1
language = 0
langDirectory = lang_en
fileListType = 0
romTrim = 0
downloadPlayPatch = 1
cheatingSystem = 1
resetInGame = 1
invertedScrolling = 1
bypassAP = 1
Shortcut = 0
useFAS1 = 0
FAS1Bank = 0
FAS1Dump = 0
scrollSpeed = fast
viewMode = smalliconinternal
norMode3in1Exp = 0
rumbleStrength = 0
autorunWithLastRom = 0
showHiddenFiles = 0
cheatsDB = fat0:/__aio/cheats/usrcheat.dat
deleteSAVtoo = 0
copySAVtoo = 0
showWhatsNew = 1
cheatSite = 0
DATorXML = 0
saveExt = 1
scrollingCheats = 1
scrollspeed = 4
scrolldelay = 5
gbaSleepHack = 0
gbaAutoSave = 1
gbaSavePrompt = 0
GBASavedPSram = 0
GBASavedNOR = 0
hideExtension = 0
Show12hrClock = 0
sortListAlpha = 1
LockStartMenu = 0
previousfiles = 0
hbResetType = 0
Animation = 1

 

[Another World]

GBALoadedNORTitle = fat1:/GBAGAM~1/GAMENAME.gba

you should have that line, after you have flashed something to NOR.

GBASavedNOR = 0

this value should be 1 if a save was backed up.

i'm not sure what the problem is. you really need to test with gba exploader. its the only way to determine if the issue is with your sram or akaio.

you might want to check the saves on an emulator. you'll need to strip out the 16byte header that akaio adds. you can use this tool: http://filetrip.net/nds-downloads/flashcart-files/download-akaio-gba-save-converter-12910-f9583.html

-another world

 

[gr3yh47]

Thanks for all your help AW.

I've basically found out through more testing that saving works every single time as long as I boot the game from the Akaio menu and not directly from the DS Stock menu.

so in case anyone finds this thread, after you flash a game to NOR just always boot from akaio with the 3in1+ and your saves will work