Homebrew Commercial ROM Loading with MoonShell 2 & YSMenu Guide

[Montevieau]

I LOVE YOU Blackiris ;O;

I started all over with your guide for R4, and now it's working! However, I'd like to point this:

(...)

4) Rename moonshl2.nds.DAT into "_DS_MENU.DAT".

(...)

When I renamed it to "_DS_MENU.DAT", my R4 popped the following: "_DS_MENU.DAT could not be found" (or something like it). I guess that point should be rewritten to:

"4) Rename moonshl2.nds.DAT into "_DS_MENU"

Just my two cents. I know it's kind of obvious, but that's just what guides are. That and the fact I almost faint with that could not be found stuff.

 

[HoTsHoT89]

I LOVE YOU Blackiris ;O;

I started all over with your guide for R4, and now it's working! However, I'd like to point this:

(...)

4) Rename moonshl2.nds.DAT into "_DS_MENU.DAT".

(...)

When I renamed it to "_DS_MENU.DAT", my R4 popped the following: "_DS_MENU.DAT could not be found" (or something like it). I guess that point should be rewritten to:

"4) Rename moonshl2.nds.DAT into "_DS_MENU"

Just my two cents. I know it's kind of obvious, but that's just what guides are. That and the fact I almost faint with that could not be found stuff.

This is because Windows (I assume you're on XP) automatically hides file extension names, so what you are actually doing during the fourth step is renaming the file to _DS_MENU.DAT.DAT, since the .DAT extension is not shown.

Sometimes we just slip up over the simplest things

 

[Blackiris]

@irchief & a2h
Point taken. Also, MoonShell 2 combined with YSMenu loading is like having an almost-fully-functioning M3Sakura on carts like DSTT, R4 and AK2. Plus it's a shiny default GUI.

@Montevieau
Lol, thanks I guess ^^; It did take me a lot of my own time to guarantee my new method working, but it would've taken longer if not for the team currently supporting this guide (specifically people from the "Guide/Tool Contributers" Special Thanks section). Thank them too XD

@HoTsHoT89
Oh yeah, I forgot I did that step too; thanks for the reminder, I'mma go add it in the guide.

 

[WoobiE]

Thanks everyone. It now works on my R4. Just a question though. I just want to clear up some things.
Which flashcards firmware is Moonshell 2 currently running on?
How would I run cheats?
Is there a way to boot up YSmenu itself through Moonshell 2?

 

[Blackiris]

Thanks everyone. It now works on my R4. Just a question though. I just want to clear up some things.
Which flashcards firmware is Moonshell 2 currently running on?
How would I run cheats?
Is there a way to boot up YSmenu itself through Moonshell 2?

1) Flashcart's firmware? I don't think it matters which flashcart you're using, since if you get MoonShell 2 to run as your default "firmware" then it's already good on its own. This answer is a hunch.

2) Cheats is another problem; I've never tried running cheats with YSMenu. I think it's possible, but you're gonna have to run it from YSMenu itself...this answer is also a hunch. XD

3) Yes, you can. First off, the YSMenu directory is hidden because there's a certain configuration file in the moonshl2 folder that hides it. There's a post Unneon made here that shows how to un-hide the folder from MoonShell 2. Simply run YSMenu after allowing the YSMenu directory to be shown.

 

[fgghjjkll]

for people who dont want to make moonshell2 their firmware on r4 and get the fatinit error all you had to do was....
DLDI patch YSMenu.NDS. hope i helped someone.

 

[Blackiris]

for people who dont want to make moonshell2 their firmware on r4 and get the fatinit error all you had to do was....
DLDI patch YSMenu.NDS. hope i helped someone.

I appreciate the intentions, but DLDI-patching of YSMenu.nds is already included in all tutorials. o_o

Also, I sure do hope "and get the fatinit error" doesn't mean that the current guide posted for R4 causes this?

 

[WoobiE]

Just a update on using YSmenu. I unhid the "ysmenu" folder and tried to access "ysmenu.nds" and it kept on getting a repeating loading screen. I think I know the reason why. We renamed the "moonshell2.nds" to "_DS_MENU.DAT" This isn't the file that ysmenu wants. ysmenu wants to use a different file with the same name and therefore will not load. This is an assumption.

 

[Blackiris]

Just a update on using YSmenu. I unhid the "ysmenu" folder and tried to access "ysmenu.nds" and it kept on getting a repeating loading screen. I think I know the reason why. We renamed the "moonshell2.nds" to "_DS_MENU.DAT" This isn't the file that ysmenu wants. ysmenu wants to use a different file with the same name and therefore will not load. This is an assumption.

Assumption it may be, that could be very likely since the original firmware was replaced by MoonShell 2...

This would probably mean that anyone following this guide and making MoonShell 2 the default firmware would not be able to access YSMenu normally. Since I'm not a frequent user of YSMenu myself (kinda odd since I did start this guide XD; I use EDGE o_o) so what're the disadvantages? Assuming you're using R4, I'll try some testing on DSTT to see if it's affected the same way.

EDIT:
Oh my God, why didn't I see this coming, lol XD Users of this guide cannot use YSMenu normally. Why? It's very simple.

You're launching YSMenu.nds. Using YSMenu.

Which would cause YSMenu to launch YSMenu to launch YSMenu to launch YSMenu...so on and so forth.

Realizing this made me laugh.

Thanks for telling us that though, I'll update the guide XD

 

[Airth]

Actually, you can get to YSMenu very easily. You just need to make a dummy nds file.

Create a text file, rename it YSMenu.nds (or whatever name you prefer), select it from Moonshell, and you'll find yourself in YSMenu.

Basically, when an nds file can't be loaded it will always default to YSMenu. I discovered this when I was having trouble with the Japanese names on my files.

One thing to be careful of is to ensure file extensions aren't hidden in Windows, otherwise you'll just make a file called YSMenu.nds.txt

 

[Blackiris]

Actually, you can get to YSMenu very easily. You just need to make a dummy nds file.

Create a text file, rename it YSMenu.nds (or whatever name you prefer), select it from Moonshell, and you'll find yourself in YSMenu.

Basically, when an nds file can't be loaded it will always default to YSMenu. I discovered this when I was having trouble with the Japanese names on my files.

One thing to be careful of is to ensure file extensions aren't hidden in Windows, otherwise you'll just make a file called YSMenu.nds.txt

Wow, you people are something

I didn't think of that, and I wonder if anyone else did XD

Thanks so much for that piece of info Airth; I'll be adding it in the guide after 30 minutes or so since I have to do things...

 

[linoul]

Hold B when boot ROM. you can use YSMenu normally

 

[Blackiris]

Hold B when boot ROM. you can use YSMenu normally

...well, that works too o_o But to be honest, I like the "dummy file" idea too, since it's like normally launching any NDS.

I'll add both then.

 

[HoTsHoT89]

Just a update on using YSmenu. I unhid the "ysmenu" folder and tried to access "ysmenu.nds" and it kept on getting a repeating loading screen. I think I know the reason why. We renamed the "moonshell2.nds" to "_DS_MENU.DAT" This isn't the file that ysmenu wants. ysmenu wants to use a different file with the same name and therefore will not load. This is an assumption.

It's quite simple, actually. When you click on a ROM in Moonshell 2, you invoke the YSLoader, which will check the config.ini if you had enabled autobooting. If you did, it will create a line in the YSMenu.ini file to automatically boot the selected ROM after loading YSMenu. So what happens when you run YSMenu via Moonshell?

1 Moonshell calls YSLoader to load the selected ROM.
2) YSLoader checks for autoboot in the config.ini file, and if enabled writes autoboot code to your selected ROM to YSMenu.ini
3) YSMenu loads, and checks for the autoboot code, which leads back to YSMenu

... thus creating the loop. Selecting the YSLoader instead of YSMenu via Moonshell 2 will practically do the same thing.

FFS, I tried setting the YSMenu.ini to read-only, yet the YSLoader was still able to write the autoboot code into the file. Perhaps it ignores file attributes?

 

[unneon]

@Unneon
Oh, okay. But still, the autoboot thing still happens whether ysmenu.nds is in a folder or at the root (I tested it myself). Using your loader would really require the deletion of YSMENU.ini, although it's not as if it'll affect anything since this is a different loader from linoul's. And yes, please post here with an upload of the splash screen-less alternate loader, to replace the alternate loader link

Here is my loader without splash screen: http://www.easy-share.com/1904704978/Moonshell Loader 10-04-2009 no-splash.rar

QUOTE(WoobiE @ Apr 23 2009, 08:05 PM) Just a update on using YSmenu. I unhid the "ysmenu" folder and tried to access "ysmenu.nds" and it kept on getting a repeating loading screen. I think I know the reason why. We renamed the "moonshell2.nds" to "_DS_MENU.DAT" This isn't the file that ysmenu wants. ysmenu wants to use a different file with the same name and therefore will not load. This is an assumption.

Assumption it may be, that could be very likely since the original firmware was replaced by MoonShell 2...

This would probably mean that anyone following this guide and making MoonShell 2 the default firmware would not be able to access YSMenu normally. Since I'm not a frequent user of YSMenu myself (kinda odd since I did start this guide XD; I use EDGE o_o) so what're the disadvantages? Assuming you're using R4, I'll try some testing on DSTT to see if it's affected the same way.

EDIT:
Oh my God, why didn't I see this coming, lol XD Users of this guide cannot use YSMenu normally. Why? It's very simple.

You're launching YSMenu.nds. Using YSMenu.

Which would cause YSMenu to launch YSMenu to launch YSMenu to launch YSMenu...so on and so forth.

Realizing this made me laugh.

Thanks for telling us that though, I'll update the guide XD

With my loader is possible to load ysmenu in moonshell. When try to loads ysmenu, the loader changes the auto_boot to default.nds

I found the reason of the slow loader... Its because of minini lib, that is so slow while editing ini files. If someone have an lib that edits ini files faster, please pm me

 

[Pendor]

Here is my loader without splash screen: http://www.easy-share.com/1904704978/Moonshell Loader 10-04-2009 no-splash.rar

I'm assuming there's a version of ysmenu inside that file.

You might want to remove that link. Yasu doesn't like people uploading his work.

 

[Blackiris]

@HoTsHoT89 & unneon

Thanks, these much more in-depth details will help the others seeking this information. But in any case, the original problem that led to this discussion's already solved ^^;

unneon, I updated the first post with your new link. Thanks for the no-splash-screen version.

Also, you mentioned something about "default.nds", but with the new guides a file named that isn't needed anymore at the root, just saying...(not unless the old R4 Clones Guide is followed)

Anyway, obvious as it already is I have not learned enough to be in the technical know-how that you two are, but I see that the current problem we have is the speed of the loading. If yes, then I believe the R4Ysauto thread should help. There's a part there mentioning unofficial libraries that make YSMenu load files faster.

If no, then what exactly is?

EDIT:
@Pendor
Nope, it's okay. That's not YSMenu but only a MoonShell 2 plugin that loads YSMenu.

 

[Depravo]

Has anyone figured out how to make cheats activate when booting from Moonshell? They work fine from YS mode (by either pressing 'b' or using the dummy file) but they don't work when booting straight from Moonshell.

If I have to manually boot YSMenu from Moonshell every time I want to play a game it kind of defeats the point.

 

[tsol]

Great work, Great guide. Makes me wish I hadn't gotten a CycloDS. It's kind of like the mac of flashcards, and I hate macs.. : /

Time to get a DSTT.

 

[WoobiE]

Hey thanks again guys. YSMenu now works. This is really kool stuff.
I can now play Final Fantasy.