Hacking creating a M3/R4 firmware replacement

[AionSkull]

Perhaps the R4 forum is a better place to post this:

It would be o-so-cool to be able to write my own firmware for the M3/R4...

Plus it seems that the only differences in the two firmwares so far are they check to make sure they are running on the right card. So it would be nice to have a homebrew firmware that doesn't check (and could be used for both cards) and that more features could be added to.

im still a noob to the homebrew stuff, but to me it seems that the firmware must consist of some arm7/arm9 code and all the other files just like any NDS rom?

just for the hell of it i tried to get at them using ndstool... but i don't think that was the right direction to go in...

does anyone have any ideas about this?
or some piece of information that could point me in the right direction?

 

[adgloride]

I don't think the R4/M3 have released the source code for the firmware yet, so no one can write their own until they do.

 

[AionSkull]

Meh, Nintendo hasn't released the source for their firmware, and we have replacements for the DS. Its just a matter of figuring it out.

I spent some time last night in a hex editor going though the differences in R4 and M3 firmware... tying to find and change the part that checks to see if i can get the R4 firmware to run on my M3.

 

[Killermech]

This guy Chuck over here
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=42331

was trying the same thing.. but he left and we never heard of him again... he most likely went to train on his dragon uppercuts under a waterfall

 

[AionSkull]

Thanks. I would be more interested in designing a custom firmware over a modification.
If there was a way to just make the firmware automatically load a nds file, that might work. Then a custom interface could be written that way.





...Dragon Uppercuts are Awesome and Totally Sweet.

 

[Katalyst]

This guy Chuck over here
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=42331

was trying the same thing.. but he left and we never heard of him again... he most likely went to train on his dragon uppercuts under a waterfallÂ

Aww, come on. It hasn't been that long. His profile says he was active yesterday. He's just yanking your chain, guy! His post says he's already done it and is just trying to "perfect" it. I'm assuming he either did it and realized that it was completely useless (for the time being at least) or he was just claiming he did and laughing at the hopeful readers. But, I see the true answer is dragon uppercuts. Question it no more. Dragon uppercuts.

 

[Scorpei]

Hi guys,

I have figured out a way to softmod a M3 Simply or R4 into each other (no soldering). However, I need v1.00 of the R4 firmware to proceed. Please help!

Okay so what you are doing is exchanging the code around offset 00005D40 in the binary. Just say that in stead of saying this half noted things. All you are doing is a binary compare and then exchange code.

 

[zone97]

I want to be able to hack/edit the firmware so the root folder isnt listed as "a root folder" It sounds so engrish!

 

[AionSkull]

it might be more conductive to try and find where the arm9/arm7 code is located within the firmware and replace that... then a 'softmod' could make the new code compatible with both cards.

I'm going to start looking into the 1.00 firmware, it seems to be more verbose? or something, it looks completely different in hex.

 

[Katalyst]

I want to be able to hack/edit the firmware so the root folder isnt listed as "a root folder" It sounds so engrish!

...Where exactly is this now?

 

[Killermech]

I want to be able to hack/edit the firmware so the root folder isnt listed as "a root folder" It sounds so engrish!

...Where exactly is this now?

I guess he also went to the waterfall to train on his dragon uppercuts..

 

[Katalyst]

I want to be able to hack/edit the firmware so the root folder isnt listed as "a root folder" It sounds so engrish!

...Where exactly is this now?

I guess he also went to the waterfall to train on his dragon uppercuts..

roflmao

 

[zone97]

I want to be able to hack/edit the firmware so the root folder isnt listed as "a root folder" It sounds so engrish!

...Where exactly is this now?

My R4 isnt here yet... but this image is from the review here. I could be mistaken after examing the image closer but that may be just a folder name inside the root for th sd card...

BTW: My dragon uppercut is flawless, no training needed.

 

[MaHe]

Don't worry, it's just a folder Shaun made for the review.

 

[Katalyst]

I want to be able to hack/edit the firmware so the root folder isnt listed as "a root folder" It sounds so engrish!

...Where exactly is this now?

http://gbatemp.net/reviews/r4ds/Dscf0057.jpg

My R4 isnt here yet... but this image is from the review here. I could be mistaken after examing the image closer but that may be just a folder name inside the root for th sd card...

BTW: My dragon uppercut is flawless, no training needed.

lawl, that's just the name of an example folder. That's not really on there, unless you name one of your folders "a root folder"

 

[Killermech]

PIC

My R4 isnt here yet... but this image is from the review here. I could be mistaken after examing the image closer but that may be just a folder name inside the root for th sd card...

BTW: My dragon uppercut is flawless, no training needed.

That's not firmware related. Someone just created a folder in their card that is named 'a root folder' , so no worries about hex editing.. you may get back to your dragon uppercuts now

EDIT: Bloody hell, does everyone type faster than me here

 

[Kyuzumaki]

made a tool for the very purpose of comparing the kernels. Posted under byte muncher in homebrew forums.

Anyway i would love to be able to actually create a new R4/M3 kernel but without source it's hard. Only real option at this point is either hex editing it all (no chance in hell) or dissasembling it into pseudo source which i personally don't know how to do on a NDS....

 

[iamwhoiam]

The topic of changing R4/M3 firmware via softmod has already been discussed and done on chinese forums, most notably YYJ. I know it's not exactly easy to google for, but it's there.

 

[Katalyst]

The topic of changing R4/M3 firmware via softmod has already been discussed and done on chinese forums, most notably YYJ. I know it's not exactly easy to google for, but it's there.

Pics or it never happened

 

[Killermech]

Pics and links plox
Or i'll send you to the waterfall along with the others grr ;P