Homebrew GBARunner2

[Gericom]

Hey I've had some experience with GBA Rom hacking, but I'm kinda new to NDS Homebrew.
Anyway, I tried the Commit a61e70e version of this emulator out, using the tutorial on the /wiki/GBARunner2 page. When I started it up with a clean Pokemon Ruby (E) Rom and the Bios loaded, it was stuck in a repeat of the GBA Bios/startup screen. I also tried this with a SRAM patched Fire Red Rom, same effect. I've also tried using other GBA emulators here, but the Gbaemu4DS came up with "The save file has been deleted..." after trying to load previous saves.
Also, I am using the R4 SDHC 2016 with the 2018 kernel.
Is there any way anyone here can help me? I've been trying to get ANY Pokemon GBA game to work on my DS Lite for like a week now

Edit: Also, is there any support for goomba emulator converted GB/C Roms yet? (Don't question why I want to do this, I know about GBC emulators)

Have you checked that that rom has no release intro or something? I thought it worked for other people.

Afaik it should work. You should just give it a try.

 

[Tarmfot]

Can ezflashiv patched roms work with gbarunner2?
Or some way to patch them?
I have a lot of saves.

 

[pgattic]

Have you checked that that rom has no release intro or something? I thought it worked for other people.

Afaik it should work. You should just give it a try.

Release intro? Like the GBA startup, or the Pokemon, Nintendo, Game Freak copyrights in the beginning?

 

[Deleted User]

Release intro? Like the GBA startup, or the Pokemon, Nintendo, Game Freak copyrights in the beginning?

Google mode 7 intro.
That is a Intro attached from the Group that dumped the Rom.
If you want clean, Intro less Rom, search for No-Intro roms.

 

[pgattic]

Google mode 7 intro.
That is a Intro attached from the Group that dumped the Rom.
If you want clean, Intro less Rom, search for No-Intro roms.

I tried the GBATA intro remover patch as well as a no intro Ruby rom from a different source (both also GBATA patched clockfix and SRAM) annnnnddddddd....

Neither one worked! However, the one no-intro patched by GBATA went a little farther to a blank white screen after GBA startup rather than repeating it.

Should I patch something else, or not do clockfix...?

 

[t0w3l]

Hello, I'm using it with DSiMenu++ and enjoying a lot. You said it is a supervisor like Nintendont, but Nintendont just uses the Wii backwards compatibility with the Gamecube to run the games and the DSi wasn't (supposed to be) backwards compatible with the GBA. Is GBARunner2 just an emulator? Is it like AGB_FIRM on the 3DS?

 

[pgattic]

Hello, I'm using it with DSiMenu++ and enjoying a lot. You said it is a supervisor like Nintendont, but Nintendont just uses the Wii backwards compatibility with the Gamecube to run the games and the DSi wasn't (supposed to be) backwards compatible with the GBA. Is GBARunner2 just an emulator? Is it like AGB_FIRM on the 3DS?

Sorry I can't answer that question, but I just wanted to say that its called a hypervisor. Anyway, just don't question it, just be glad it works!

 

[Deleted User]

Hello, I'm using it with DSiMenu++ and enjoying a lot. You said it is a supervisor like Nintendont, but Nintendont just uses the Wii backwards compatibility with the Gamecube to run the games and the DSi wasn't (supposed to be) backwards compatible with the GBA. Is GBARunner2 just an emulator? Is it like AGB_FIRM on the 3DS?

From Gericom himself:

The hypervisor is simply a software layer the gba game is not aware of that solves all differences between the ds and the gba. Like, when accessing the gba slot, the memory protection makes sure my code is called which gives the gba game it's data. For the gba game there is no difference. It does not notice that the data is coming from somewhere else, except for that the read took a little longer than it might have expected. The gba game lives in it's own simulated restricted world so to say. There are however still things it can do that it would not have been able to do on a real gba. Using armv5 instructions for example. And there are surely still bugs and stuff that's not correctly emulated (link port for example and the gb sound registers) which causes games to act weird. This can however also come from timing problems, which are much harder to solve. And there are a couple of subtile differences in the handling of some instruction edge cases on the ds compared to the gba when data is read from memory that exists on a ds and does not have to be emulated (=slow), which causes problems in a couple of games. V-Rally3 for example.

The GBA mode on a ds actually switches the hardware in gba compatibility mode. I'm not sure if it has any differences from a real gba, but I suppose that's not the case. I'm still wondering if the arm9 can be kept running for example or if that's physically impossible (for example because the clock is disabled or something). If the is-nitro is able to keep debugging in gba mode I might be able to shed a light on that. It should be here now pretty soon. It has passed the customs already.

Plus a wiki link for hypervisor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervisor

 

[Enzo995]

I Hope you can give me some help.
I have a R4iSDHC Dual Core 2017 with its own kernel inside the sd, as well as ys menu,GBA Runner2 ,gba bios and roms in the root.
I tried both FireRed US and EU roms, I SRAM patched them and removed the intro. While The US rom reaches the credit screen and then goes competely black screen, the EU one just gives me a white screen after the GBA bios boots up. Tried the latest build in all its versions (arm7/arm9/wramicache etc.) but the result is still the same.
What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: I found what was wrong: apparently the rom (at least in my case) did not need the intro removal. With just being SRAM patched , it works just fine (apart from some stuttering in battle and some sounds missing, but afaik this is normal). I am currently using the latest arm9 build, while the wramiche one doesn't work.

 

[Gericom]

I Hope you can give me some help.
I have a R4iSDHC Dual Core 2017 with its own kernel inside the sd, as well as ys menu,GBA Runner2 ,gba bios and roms in the root.
I tried both FireRed US and EU roms, I SRAM patched them and removed the intro. While The US rom reaches the credit screen and then goes competely black screen, the EU one just gives me a white screen after the GBA bios boots up. Tried the latest build in all its versions (arm7/arm9/wramicache etc.) but the result is still the same.
What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: I found what was wrong: apparently the rom (at least in my case) did not need the intro removal. With just being SRAM patched , it works just fine (apart from some stuttering in battle and some sounds missing, but afaik this is normal). I am currently using the latest arm9 build, while the wramiche one doesn't work.

Good to know that you managed to make it work!

 

[Deleted User]

Nice, program

 

[Gericom]

@bobrocks95 Does your sd card still invoke the save corruption issue? I might have found the issue, but I can't test it when I fix it atm because I can't reproduce the issue myself.

 

[Ziko]

When do you plan on putting the gui and saves being written differently in? I tried it earlier and it corrupted my R4 to where I had to reformat and recover it again. Also, you can't even soft reset back to the home menu with this thing. Come to find out all this was caused when my reader just up and decided to screw up everything but still it scared me. I ordered a new one and it should work a lot better now when I obtain that in a week.

Beyond my bad experience, Castlevania Dawn of Symphony ran really well on this thing. I just wish that you fix this to where I can see the saves instead of how it is now. There's too many things that can go wrong and it nearly did me in. I don't feel safe using this thing as it is now.

 

[Gericom]

When do you plan on putting the gui and saves being written differently in? I tried it earlier and it corrupted my R4 to where I had to reformat and recover it again. Also, you can't even soft reset back to the home menu with this thing. Come to find out all this was caused when my reader just up and decided to screw up everything but still it scared me. I ordered a new one and it should work a lot better now when I obtain that in a week.

Beyond my bad experience, Castlevania Dawn of Symphony ran really well on this thing. I just wish that you fix this to where I can see the saves instead of how it is now. There's too many things that can go wrong and it nearly did me in. I don't feel safe using this thing as it is now.

I can understand that this whole corruption thing is really scary and I'd love to get it fixed. But like I said I wasn't able to reproduce it so far, which makes it incredibly hard to debug. If you have an sd that reliably causes the issue, please get me a dump of it so I can reproduce.
To stay on the safe side, you can create an empty 64kb save file and put it on your sd. Then corruption definitely won't happen.

 

[Ziko]

I can understand that this whole corruption thing is really scary and I'd love to get it fixed. But like I said I wasn't able to reproduce it so far, which makes it incredibly hard to debug. If you have an sd that reliably causes the issue, please get me a dump of it so I can reproduce.
To stay on the safe side, you can create an empty 64kb save file and put it on your sd. Then corruption definitely won't happen.

It's my main R4 that caused it and it's not a clone. It's a legit one I had for a long time.

 

[Gericom]

It's my main R4 that caused it and it's not a clone. It's a legit one I had for a long time.

It shouldn't be related to your r4, but likely it's more related to sd fat fragmentation and such.

 

[Ziko]

It shouldn't be related to your r4, but likely it's more related to sd fat fragmentation and such.

I think so. That may be a place to start investigation. Again, it's really old and I bought two of these back when I was in college years ago. I may consider purchasing a new one and moving everything over to it eventually as it's been reformatted at least 6 times or so.

 

[firke_the_one]

I got a problem, when I compile gbarunner2 and when I run it I just get "TEST" on the bottom screen

 

[BatIron]

Hi a question. In Pokemon red fire I can save the progress?

 

[Deleted User]

You would have to find out on your own by just making a save file, exiting, and going back into GBARunner2

 

[TucanMistico]

Trying to SRAM patch Final Fantasy IV but the tool doesnt response, same with Mario Advance 2,3 and 4

How can i fix it?

 

[Deleted User]

Trying to SRAM patch Final Fantasy IV but the tool doesnt response, same with Mario Advance 2,3 and 4

How can i fix it?

View attachment 146263

This means that Final Fantasy 4, the Mario Advance games are already sram patched. You don´t have to patch them again.