Hacking AKAIO 1.2 Released

[cory1492]

Any special instructions required for setting up the toolchain to compile it? I see libfat in there, I'm assuming this one was changed to support unicode earlier than the official milestone builds? I presume R21?

 

[Normmatt]

AKBBS should compile fine in devkitarm r21 but anything above that will require you too fix the compiler errors, and will also break compatibility with any language other than english (atleast in the rom info and help window).

I fixed up the messy as hell build system acekard uses as they seem to hard code paths in their system variables. The AKBBS makefiles use relative paths instead which works ALOT better.

 

[Smiths]

^^^ exactly.
just unrar/unzip or download the latest AKBBS source and put it in a folder. install devkitARM as per usual, and try going into your acekard source folder and building stuff. i forget if the sources had Norm's "build_all.bat" but it should work with a simple "make" in the libiorpg, libfat, akloader, akmenu4 folders (maybe left one out)

 

[cory1492]

Remember, I'm considering this from the point of view of getting it to run on AK2 and still gaining access to the SD card - of which I only have access to the ak2 dldi file provided with the AIO builds.

Any rate, built like a charm once I added $(LIBFAT) path to the akmenu4 arm7, ipctool.h included into helpwnd.cpp - now if getting this working on my hardware (as a generic dldi using ak2 dldi) doesn't drive me completely batty I might be able to get something done. Maybe (of course, dldi patching the final binary doesn't exactly work easily as the bloody auto dldi patcher in the loader has the same strings... meh, batty I tells ya.) edit:/ success appears imminent, test case worked great.

(btw, at the moment I'm pretty much leaning toward "screw it" as this is equal footing to EZ5's public source - it's incomplete for the target and will never reflect current updates/changes - even RPG 411 isn't in SVN at this point)

 

[Normmatt]

Ideally i would like to release the main sources and keep the loaders private but that would only complicate things, as we'd need to setup a private svn server so we can block access to teh loader folders or just release the sources in a zip file with each release. either way i'll have to ask acekard if it's alright to open source the gui but keep the loaders closed source.

 

[Bri]

Normmatt, wouldn't it be possible to keep the loader(s) completely external, like the AK2 does now with the "ak2loaders" folder (but not have any internal loader at all)? If so, it seems like it would be possible for people to modify and compile the menu code to their heart's content on both the RPG and AK2 without having access to any loader code. If that were done, you'd open it up for more people doing development on the menu and GBA side of things without needing special permission from Acekard to access proprietary code as the menu and loader would be completely separate.

-Bri

 

[cory1492]

Not to mention the simple fact the less that is embedded directly in the bin, the less memory is consumed by externals that are only used in specific cases (and a slightly faster load time goes along with that.) Perhaps another merit for the nitrofs idea...? I presume AIO has two separate loaders now embedded (rpg/ak2), the file size has jumped quite a bit (~300k) since BBS.

 

[Smiths]

3 loaders... rpg/ak2/ak+ ...

 

[Giovannin]

It will be a good idea to implement also the update of savelist.bin ;-)
What do you think?

 

[VatoLoco]

It will be a good idea to implement also the update of savelist.bin ;-)
What do you think?

Heres an up to date savelist.bin thanks to RS1/logical thinker
http://rapidshare.com/files/134995391/save...l_2513.rar.html

 

[Smiths]

well.. the ak+ manager downloads the savelist.bin from http://www.acekard.com/wp-content/uploads/File/savelist.bin
there's a TXT file containing the version: http://www.acekard.com/wp-content/uploads/...listversion.txt
I don't know what an update would contain in that TXT file, so for reference I'm writing the contents of the current file here:
2512001

I can easily make it so it grabs the savelist.bin. I believe this is only needed by the RPG, right?
Download and replace existing one should be no problem. Is this what you'd like?

(glad i found the URL... yay hexediting the ak+ tool)

 

[logical thinker]

2512 is the last game added (according to Advanscene, it's 2513). I don't know what "001" means. Version?

 

[Smiths]

well the downloading and all is there is now in the wifi plugin, just gotta neaten the buttons up. only shows if you're on an RPG.
there's no "version checking". it's simply a "press the button and it downloads savelist.bin then reboots if successful". Ta-da.

 

[GH0ST]

Fine welldone Smiths but testing the savelistversion.txt for bandwith preservation would be a smart thing... here is what i found ( from changelog of AceKard Manager 1.02)

????savelistversion.txt???????????????????????????????????????????????????
Savelist’s version saved in savelistversion.txt.Please DO NOT modify this file,otherwise you can’t get the newest savelist.bin. You can delete this file if you want to force to download savelist.bin.

So your choice ... but I will drink a vodka (or two) if you really need a drunk beta-tester ;-)


For users with update DB troubles :
- Chkdsk your card and be sure you leave enough space delete previous file if it fails and try again ( JKdefrag is a great defrag tool and defragmenting will cure small & big gaps if your card is near full with a lot of little chunks it is important to keep free space in few blocks esp. if your card is slow or/and big ).
- Check your router settings try channel 1, 6 or 11 and turn on SID broadcasting. Leave advanced settings to default like Fragmentation Threshold ( mine is 2346) , CTS/RTS Threshold ( 2346 ) or Preamble Mode ( auto ) if you got advanced wifi settings.

Last thing, i wonder if high capacity SDHC can fall like asleep or turn WIFI in sleep mode ( it happened with some wm5 pocketpc with 8Go microSDHC but it is another story... )

 

[lalalax3]

hello, i am new to acekard.

can anyone tell me how does the ak-aio perform compare to the official firmware 4.08 for ak2

aio, i assume it means all in one. is it based on the official 4.08 firmware?

 

[Normmatt]

Its based on the last 4.07 release. The 4.08 sources have not been sent to us yet and probably won't for awhile. This can be overcome by putting the latest official firmware nds file in __aio/ak2loader and selecting it in the rom options menu.

 

[Devante]

By the way, isn't it true defragging flash drives doesn't work and is actually BAD for your flash drive?

Since it is a solid state drive and defragging was meant for disk drives.

 

[Minox]

By the way, isn't it true defragging flash drives doesn't work and is actually BAD for your flash drive?

Since it is a solid state drive and defragging was meant for disk drives.

Defragging flash drives does work, but it shortens it's life.

 

[13375p34k3r]

Quick question for anyone that can answer, how do you erase and bookmarks you place in a txt file. Using the Internal Loader?

 

[Smiths]

scroll to a bookmark and toggle it to "off".

I was gonna make a clear all bookmarks thing, but really stopped on the text thing for a while due to wifi plugin making.

technically, a hard removalis to go to __aio/bookmarks/ and delete .bk file of the txt file (yeah... i'm a fancy friggin coder with a file containing line #s

)