Homebrew DS(i) Mode hacking progress thread

[Apache Thunder]

Last I recall, I was able to get NTR games to work from NTR Launcher booted from sudokuhax. Now this version of Sudokuhax had it's header modified though. I did not enable bit31 though, so aside from cartridge stuff, NTR games could in theory work. But their audio and touch screen will be fudged up. (because the mode switch can't happen like it should) It's the memory layout settings of arm9 SCFG_EXT that prevents them from booting at all and that is able to be changed from Sudokuhax. So maybe you could get rom loading working from Sudokuhax on a DSi. But the games would be somewhat broken.

You'd have to do what ever Cyclo iEvolution did to make NTR games run in TWL mode. They probably did the same thing by altering SCFG_EXT on arm9 and then patching games to use TWL SWI functions correctly so the audio isn't fudged up and to fix touchscreen controls.

This is before you even have to start worrying about getting them patched to run off SD.

If you want to try to see how NTR games currently behave from sudokuhax, get the new ntr mode switching hbmenu and use it as boot.nds of sudokuhax. Then launch a DS Download Play demo. The game should still boot. Audio/Touchscreen will be non functional. Audio will work partially with some garbled sounds/missing music notes. But touchscreen will be completely useless. Currently the only app on a DSi that has bit31 unlocked on 0x1b8 it's header and therefore has full arm7 SCFG_EXT access is Retail Launcher. So you'd have to exploit Retail Launcher or something before it (like boot2 or bootrom) to gain an environment where you can properly mode switch and launch NTR games from slot-1 and eventually from SD.

Well I found this page which seems to have some info on the checks Apache Thunder mentioned.
https://gist.github.com/Steveice10/08e75915d9993ec4efe2
I wasn't expecting this to work, but I went to the digest sector table offsets specified on the github page and 0'd them out in the rom, and it no longer boots in an emulator. So something else must need to be edited.

Maybe. Certain offsets in the header always points to the same locations in the arm9 binary (and arm9i binary for TWL sections). So what you need to patch out might at least be located in the same place. Hard to say until some one looks into it.

 

[FrozenDragon150]

I have a question.

Would any of the research here serve to do any advancement on actual DSi hacking? It's kinda sad to see the successor's backwards compatibility mode being hacked while the original console is pretty much unbroken xD

 

[DeoNaught]

I have a question.

Would any of the research here serve to do any advancement on actual DSi hacking? It's kinda sad to see the successor's backwards compatibility mode being hacked while the original console is pretty much unbroken xD

well there nand hardmods

 

[ecaep42]

I have a question.

Would any of the research here serve to do any advancement on actual DSi hacking? It's kinda sad to see the successor's backwards compatibility mode being hacked while the original console is pretty much unbroken xD

It might, but TWL was modified to work on the 3DS only and stuff here is only being tested on a 3DS, no DSi hacking advancements here.

 

[RocketRobz]

Anyone ever got this working?
https://github.com/ipwndev/fishshell2

It's a modification of the Moonshell2 source. I compiled it, and when running it, it just white screens.

 

[DeoNaught]

Anyone ever got this working?
https://github.com/ipwndev/fishshell2

It's a modification of the Moonshell2 source. I compiled it, and when running it, it just white screens.

Maybe cause you compiled it.... ill try it this weekend

EDIT#FIXED*

 

[Shah Isah]

I haven't been active on here for a while now. What's the latest? Someone fill me in.

 

[RocketRobz]

I haven't been active on here for a while now. What's the latest? Someone fill me in.

We'll be able to load non-homebrew ROMs from SD Card soon.

 

[DeoNaught]

We'll be able to load non-homebrew ROMs from SD Card soon.

But don't worry not Gateway SOON

 

[Shah Isah]

We'll be able to load non-homebrew ROMs from SD Card soon.

So. Actual nds games?

 

[RocketRobz]

So. Actual nds games?

Yes.

 

[Shah Isah]

Yes.

Woo! We're making history on the scene. If the project is a success. @azheard will be a recognised developer for the gbatemp community. I just wanna play some Metroid Prime Hunters so bad... good work.

 

[Fatalanus]

Do you heard any progress in the shadows recently Robz8? Do you know if it'll be here is weeks, or months?

 

[RocketRobz]

Do you heard any progress in the shadows recently Robz8? Do you know if it'll be here is weeks, or months?

I'm thinking a month or two. Probably before the year's up.

 

[Fatalanus]

Thank you to provide me a window launch!!
This is promising as Hell, and I'm really curious to see how you guys will handle such a hard project!!! I hope we will have some words to explain if it was really sick and stuff like that xD

 

[undergroundmonorail]

So I've been following this thread pretty closely and... is there a reason people think non-homebrew is coming soon? My understanding is that the progress that has been made with homebrew software was only possible because we have the source.

Have there been developments that I missed? Because, while I mean no offense to the people working very hard and doing a great job, it doesn't seem like we're any closer to launching cartridge games from SD than we were a few weeks ago.

It's entirely possible that I misunderstood something, though.

 

[RocketRobz]

So I've been following this thread pretty closely and... is there a reason people think non-homebrew is coming soon? My understanding is that the progress that has been made with homebrew software was only possible because we have the source.

Have there been developments that I missed? Because, while I mean no offense to the people working very hard and doing a great job, it doesn't seem like we're any closer to launching cartridge games from SD than we were a few weeks ago.

It's entirely possible that I misunderstood something, though.

@Apache Thunder said so himself.

We can now switch from TWL mode to NTR mode with SD access preserved, no patches to TWL_FIRM needed. That's how my recent forwarder templates work.

 

[undergroundmonorail]

@Apache Thunder said so himself.

We can now switch from TWL mode to NTR mode with SD access preserved, no patches to TWL_FIRM needed. That's how my recent forwarder templates work.

Ah, I must have missed him saying so. He would know better than me.

Out of curiosity, though, why is that such a leap forward? Switching between TWL and NTR so we don't need a patched TWL_FIRM is nice, but it still seems like the largest barrier (i/o patching) is unaffected.

 

[JuanmaHL]

awesome progress!!!

 

[RocketRobz]

Ah, I must have missed him saying so. He would know better than me.

Out of curiosity, though, why is that such a leap forward? Switching between TWL and NTR so we don't need a patched TWL_FIRM is nice, but it still seems like the largest barrier (i/o patching) is unaffected.

For flashcards, their ROM loaders patches the ROMs to read from it's microSD card slot instead of the Slot-1 card's ROM chip (in this case, the ROM in the chip starts up your flashcard).
When using a ROM loader like hbmenu, the ROMs aren't patched, so the ROM attempts to read the Slot-1 card's ROM chip.