Back to the Firmware

[SylvWolf]

On March 27, 2008, well-known developer Yasu released a program that R4DS users might find useful. Known as back2fw, this program brings a flashcard back to the main NDS/L firmware. This could be useful for any user with a card that skips the main splash screen like the R4 does.

Yasu does not like people linking to either his downloads or pages other than his main, so this is how you can download back2fw:

1. Go to Yasu's main page.
2. Click "ETC" at the top.
3. Click the "Nintendo DS" option.
4. Click "in english."
5. Under "DS Programming," look for back2fw and the download.

NOTE: Does not work on any DS with FlashMe installed.

 

[techforumz]

Cool. Even though I'm (will be...) using a cyclo, it's always cool to have a soft-reset to firmware.

 

[Maikel Steneker]

I saw this a while ago. It works on my brother's DS, but mine if flashed, so I can't use it

 

[Dunny]

Nice - better than that firmware dump that's floating around, as I can set the brightness etc. Shame it starts up with black text on a white background briefly. Would have been better without the message on a black screen. As it is, it looks a tad ugly when it starts up

 

[funkyfranz]

Yeah, this works fantastic with the DSTT. Great program....and only like 38KB unlike the firmware dump that is over 500KB.

 

[Upperleft]

nice
but i see no problem with skipping the splash screen =P

 

[jelbo]

What firmware dump floating around?

 

[Dunny]

There's a dump of the DS-phat's firmware available, which can be run like a normal ROM image. It's ok for phat users, but those of us with a DSL can't set screen brightness with it.

I use the original firmware mostly for the clock whilst at work, and this prog has now replaced my old dsfirmware.nds file which was 500kb - a nice saving. Just gonna have to see about getting rid of that startup message

 

[pilotwangs]

This is useful.

TBH,i always thought there was a program like this already.

 

[SylvWolf]

I saw this a while ago. It works on my brother's DS, but mine if flashed, so I can't use it

Yeah, I forgot to mention that if FlashMe is installed, it won't work.

 

[coolbho3000]

Wow, both my DS are flashed.

 

[Bri]

Thanks to Yasu who was kind enough to write this program after I requested it. His YSMenu already had the functionality, and I thought a standalone version might be useful to folks with other carts. I figured it would be fairly easy for him to strip out the relevant sections of code, and he had it done within days of my request!

Yasu's program runs the firmware that is on the NDS, whereas the "firmware.nds" file that is circulating around is just a runnable dump of the DS Phat firmware. Which explains why this is so much smaller and runs the native firmware on both the Phat and Lite (i.e. you can change the brightness on the Lite). Unfortunately, there's still no way to get from the NDS firmware back to the cart menu without hard resetting.

@coolbho3000: Yasu mentioned that he would look into getting it to work with a flashed NDS, but he doesn't currently have one flashed to test it with.

-Bri