Hacking AKAIO 1.1r2 Released

[Bri]

Did you format one or both in FAT16? I think it may be a FAT16 issue.

-Bri

 

[Smiths]

Yeah, seems the init routines currently used to check RPG vs AK2 are so identical that there is the chance an RPG checking routine, when used on an AK2 can actually return the data that makes it think the RPG initiated fine.

We're working on an alternate detection method. should sort this out. just need to find a good one.

 

[Normmatt]

I think I've found a good way of detecting the between the two. It will initially try to detect it as it did in 1.0 and 1.1 but will now try too open the akmenu4.nds file and if its unsuccessful it will then init the other system.

 

[Mikeypr]

I think there may be a problem with 1.01 and GBA games.

I have an Ezflash V 3in1, All was working fine in 1.0 but now GBA games seem to be irratic in starting.

Somtimes they just wont start.

the Progress bars will just flash up for a seccond then nothing happens. Just goes back to as if I neever pressed the button.

A game may play, then may not.

Somtimes none of the GBA games play, I can drop right back to the SLOT 1, SLOT 2 selection menu then reselect and then it will play.

Other times I have to run a .NDS file, and then the .GBA game will play.

ALSO the ICON on the left is a SLOT 2 CART, and not a .GBA ICON as it used to be.

I'm using a Kingston 2gig, with FAT 32 (Windows Formatted)

Any Ideas?

Thanks

MK

 

[johnchan]

Also, I haven't followed the development of AKAIO, so excuse me if this has already been answered (and maybe it was related to some of the arguments that were going on prior to release that I read about), but is the AKAIO source available? Or can it not be released because of the AK2 loader? If that's a problem, maybe a forked RPG-only version could be released?

I like to tinker with NDS projects and would also like to know if the source code is available - would be great to see how this all works and I really hope that politics wont get in the way

If it is only the AK2 loader keeping this from getting released, would it be possible to just keep the AK2 specific stuff in a few separate files which are omitted from the source release and then a few #ifdefs in the source to disable AK2 functionality? I have an AKRPG so am only interested in source modifications running on this, AK2 stuff isnt needed...

 

[Lametta]

Back up all saves beforehand anyway, especially if you're an RPG user.
AK2? Back it up but really i've been playing FFIV since it came out and been putting every build of AKAIO on my AK2 and testing it, and still have loaded up FFiV just fine.

Always back up (I usually do it from within the GUI, just select the .sav file and it'll back it up to .bak extension).

ok thank you, I have AK2
so I'll back up my saves and try AKAIO since all the people say it's cool (I've always been a Bliss OS fan)
I'll tell later how it is and if I find some bugs

Edit: bugs found with Ak2:
*Italian language special characters where all screwed up (weird symbols instead of letters with accents)
*it get stuck when I try to load FFIV usa cheats
*get stuck and doesnt update cheats via wi-fi (though wi-fi connection is open and working, tested before with opera)
*gba rom doesnt load (size under 16MB) while worked fine with bliss os

too many bugs still I stick to bliss os

 

[Bri]

Smiths and Normmatt:

Just a suggestion, but it might be advantageous to release a beta version of updates to AIO before releasing a "final" version. That way, people can't be too upset when things aren't working as expected and will also give you the ability to make bug fixes without changing version numbers. And those who aren't interested in making backups of their save files simply wouldn't use the beta, while others (like me) are very interested in testing the newest versions and understand the dangers of data loss and the steps to prevent it. Might also give you more control over cataloging bugs since fewer people will be reporting the same ones over and over again.

-Bri

 

[Smiths]

Edit: bugs found with Ak2:
*Italian language special characters where all screwed up (weird symbols instead of letters with accents)

Yeah, that's due to the language.txt itself being bad. I musta copied the new strings into it and not saved it properly. just replace it with a different existing one, it'll be missing some strings but characters will display. Simple saving format error (I only test English, no offense to all but that's the language I use)

*it get stuck when I try to load FFIV usa cheats
I load cheats and FFIv all the time... even just did it while using Italian language set. Your cheat database is probably corrupted.

*get stuck and doesnt update cheats via wi-fi (though wi-fi connection is open and working, tested before with opera)

Opera means nothing to this. If the AKAIO countdown timer finishes, it didn't connect. If it connects, it will immediately display the WhatsNew. if it doesn't... then it didn't connect. It uses the default WFC connection and oeprates like any Wifi thing. If master bliss put it in, it'd still have problems too.

Wifi is tempermental at best anyway on the NDS.

QUOTE*gba rom doesnt load (size under 16MB) while worked fine with bliss os

GBA loading cannot be fully tested (I have a crappy 3in1 battery so GBA sav loading/restoring freezes every other game), but all I know is the routines are 100% ported from gelu's. I've loaded games successfully though many time. If the game was flashed in NOR mode once it will not load in PSRam mode (loader detects that you loaded it before so it should be on the NOR).. .that I know is part of the routine. Everything else? Can't help ya since my 3in1 is crap and Norm doesn't have one.

QUOTE

too many bugs still I stick to bliss os

Enjoy!

 

[Smiths]

Smiths and Normmatt:

Just a suggestion, but it might be advantageous to release a beta version of updates to AIO before releasing a "final" version. That way, people can't be too upset when things ......

-Bri

I know in official releases and all that and card manufacturers and all... beta testing is fine and ideal.

This is 100% a hobby for me, and I put a lot of time into making things work for me.
I do not want to be a prick, but honestly... for me this is simply a "Everything I wanted to put in is finished and it's working for me, so I'll give to others" project.

I know it's a card OS and I know people want to use it a lot.

But please understand, my limits of beta testing are me putting it on my card and having the things I want running working properly for me.

I did the support crap a lot for AKBBS/BNS and the shit that comes with it is a major reason development halted.
The only reason development is continuing from my side of the woods (I'm not speaking for Norm), is just that I do want to use my AK2 a bit more than I have, and there are random ideas that float in my head.

Once those ideas stop again (and they will), I will once again be done "developing".

 

[ste_sto_pv]

Did you format the card with windows quick format option? There has been reports from multiple sources that AKAIO does not like cards formatted with the quick formation option. Also try SDFormatter v2; my cards get lower speed ratings (which is good) on my AKRPG when I format with the Panasonic tool than with the Windows tool. I'm prepping two of my cards today for my testers to use with their AK2s later in the week. First card I'm leaving with the Transcend OEM format condition and the other card will be formatted differently.

Hi Rom Troll

For testing i formatet the Sd Cards with windows and full format Fat 32,
in post 60 raptor5001 have the same problem and formatet with SDFormater.

I think the problem is inside the code of akmenu4 from version 1.1.

maybe it was better coding differend loaders for akrpg and ak2
but i have read Smiths and Normmatt are working on this bug.


@ Smiths and Normmatt and the other coders: respekt for your work

 

[dib]

I load cheats and FFIv all the time... even just did it while using Italian language set. Your cheat database is probably corrupted.

Actually it's doing the same thing to my RPG, only under FFIV. I've attempted cheat.dat and usrcheat.dat from cheats.gbatemp.net that I downloaded+added to my RPG on my own, not within the archive or over the wifi. Using english language, cheat database is working fine for other games.

 

[Lametta]

I load cheats and FFIv all the time... even just did it while using Italian language set. Your cheat database is probably corrupted.

Actually it's doing the same thing to my RPG, only under FFIV. I've attempted cheat.dat and usrcheat.dat from cheats.gbatemp.net that I downloaded+added to my RPG on my own, not within the archive or over the wifi. Using english language, cheat database is working fine for other games.

same here my database it's not corrupted, I just downloaded it from gbatemp and it works fine for other games

language didn't affect the functionality, with english or italian only FF IV has probs with cheats.

To keep Akaio on my Ak2 I'll wait for the next version updates, with less bugs this os can be very good. I trust in your work and ideas for the future

 

[Smiths]

could just be bad cheats. try one at a time or whatever. don't have an RPG to test with, so can't help now.

 

[Bri]

This is 100% a hobby for me, and I put a lot of time into making things work for me.
I do not want to be a prick, but honestly... for me this is simply a "Everything I wanted to put in is finished and it's working for me, so I'll give to others" project.

Now Smiths...you put up a good front, but I don't believe for a moment that you don't care if it works for others. I understand what you're saying and I'm in no way implying that you're beholden to make it work for everyone, but I think you want it to work for as many people as possible and that you probably want AIO to be as stable as possible.

But even if we take you at your word, you probably want as few people complaining that it doesn't work as possible, right? If that's the case, limited beta testing would make some sense.

-Bri

 

[Devante]

I get the same problem with AIO freezing when trying to view Final Fantasy 4 cheats.
I also get that problem with Animal Crossing.

I just used the WiFi update function to update the cheat file.

 

[Smiths]

I do care, trust me. But seriously... multilingual support I dunno... it seems every language.txt file got corrupted somehow back in the AKBBS days. interesting discovery. But I support English so if you want another language, my advice is to start fresh and create new translations.
Guess notepad or wordpad or something just didn't like them... prolly has to do with my system settings on my PC set to Japanese for non-Unicode programs.

This is on AK2:
Just now, I downloaded and unzipped the latest DB with the stock 1.1. It unzipped, I restarted my DS, i selected FF4 and did rom info window -> cheats, and it was fine.
I selected cheats and it saved and I loaded it.

Now, you will need to specify what card this is. the reason bliss' and whatever are so damn dandy to everyone is because they are not global. The merging code is 100% Normmatt, and it is something even the AK team isn't doing. Naturally, there are going to be issues in this that precious bliss' OS doesn't have.
So if you do the bliss compare, you're on my shitlist. Apples and Oranges. AKAIO 1.1 can only be compared to AKAIO 1.0. Period.

Hopefully I'll get my RPGs in from AceKard soon and be able to test. I know when mine was working, FFIV would not load with soft-reset enabled.
So RPG users, I guess the question until I have my RPG again is: You're talking freezing on displaying the cheat window, or freezing on loading the game.
Cheat window freezing in general *should* have some fixes in it for a next release in general. A lot of stuff was using character buffers vs. strings and I enjoy strings more. But again, without an RPG I have no way of verifying any of this.

Delete all .cc files from your __aio/cheats/cc/ dir as well. just to be sure.


--- I do give a shit and like helping out, that just comes naturally. But there are realms I really can't delve into and honestly don't want to. bliss comparisons, multi-lingual stuff, etc. I know we're a global community, blahblahblah, but honestly... I left the AceKard forums because I was tired of tech supporting every country. I did enough of that while in Japan. I've chosen GBATemp because it's English posting and English news, and I'm working in my spare time on an English OS for the AceKard.

 

[Devante]

Hey,

I'm on AceKard2, Kingston 2GB microSD (JP).

Tried deleting all the .cc files and still get freezing on Animal Crossing and Final fantasy 4.

Another weird thing is, since using the wifi update, it now says "No cheat DB found" whenever I try to view info of a game.
I have to go to Start > Cheats > Select DB everytime to get the cheat button to even show up.


edit

By the way, don't take it so personally when someone says it works on bliss but not on AIO.
As a developer, I'd WANT to know if it were working somewhere else and use that information.
You have like a million people here raving about how great AIO is and 2 or 3 saying they'd rather stick with bliss.

Just keep up the great work for the overwhelming majority of us that wouldn't even consider using an AceKard without AKAIO. ;>

 

[Bri]

My cheat problems seem to be limited to certain games like Mario Kart and Animal Crossing. I had originally thought they didn't work with any games, but they do work with some games. But for at least those two it hangs immediately after accessing the microSD card.

-Bri

 

[dib]

Hopefully I'll get my RPGs in from AceKard soon and be able to test. I know when mine was working, FFIV would not load with soft-reset enabled.
So RPG users, I guess the question until I have my RPG again is: You're talking freezing on displaying the cheat window, or freezing on loading the game.
Cheat window freezing in general *should* have some fixes in it for a next release in general. A lot of stuff was using character buffers vs. strings and I enjoy strings more. But again, without an RPG I have no way of verifying any of this.

On my RPG, we're talking about it freezing by attempting to access the cheat menu. Go to the start > cheats or press Y then click on the cheats button, and it's frozen.

I just tried it after clearing the .cc cache but to no avail.



QUOTE--- I do give a shit and like helping out, that just comes naturally. But there are realms I really can't delve into and honestly don't want to. bliss comparisons, multi-lingual stuff, etc. I know we're a global community, blahblahblah, but honestly... I left the AceKard forums because I was tired of tech supporting every country. I did enough of that while in Japan. I've chosen GBATemp because it's English posting and English news, and I'm working in my spare time on an English OS for the AceKard.

A lot of projects put the burden of multi language on other people. Suffice to say, you speak english and therefore can only worry about english. If somebody else speaks another language, then they should prepare and submit the necessary file. That's the way I look at it anyway.

 

[Normmatt]

Seeing as I'm the low level programmer, The Animal Crossing problems are because this game uses more ram than other games especially the area of ram where we usually store the cheat engine etc so these get corrupted and cause black/white screens. The FFIV cheat window problems, I'm unsure of at the moment.

I'm not against the idea of beta testing, but I'd prefer to have closed beta testing as to not give away any new features we might be working on.

About Multi-Language support, as Smiths has already stated he and I are both native English speakers, we support the English language first, I can't speak for Smiths by I only know English.