When I ordered the R4DS a few months ago, I was very confused with how to operate it and set it up. I have read many forum posts all over the internet that have guides on how to set up the R4, but none of them worked for me, because I was setting it up on a Macintosh computer. I have finally found out the problem and how to fix it, and I will now show all of the mac users scratching their heads about this issue how to solve this problem:
Problem:
Since the R4DS was originally made to be formatted on a pc, all of the files that are used to run the R4 are written with FAT files which are native to the Windows operating system. When you first put your Micro SD card into your mac, it was formatted to read Mac only files and documents, so when the R4 operating system is loaded onto it, the FAT files do not correctly read on the Mac formatted SD card.
Solution:
Although it seems very simple, this solution works very well.
YOU MUST EDIT THE FILE NAMES BEFORE PUTTING THEM ONTO YOUR SD CARD OR THEY WILL NOT WORK, DO NOT EDIT THEM IF THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN LOADED ONTO THE SD CARD!!!!
1.) You need to have the "English-1.11.rar" (the R4 v1.11 kernel) download from the R4DS website, heres the link: r4ds.com/soft/17-en.htm
2.) Open the "English- 1.11" folder after extracting the .rar file. There should be four items inside: _ds_menu.dat, _ds_mshl.nds, _system_, and moonshl.
3.) Hit Caps Lock and put the four items in all CAPITAL LETTERS: _DS_MENU.DAT, _DS_MSHL.NDS, _SYSTEM_, and MOONSHL.
4.) After putting the four items in all caps, go into the _SYSTEM_ folder. There are four items inside of this folder: cheat.dat, ebook, gbaframe.bmp, and themes. Once again put all of these items in all CAPS: CHEAT.DAT, EBOOK, GBAFRAME.BMP, and THEMES.
5.) After putting those four items into caps, go into the "THEMES" folder. You guessed it, rename all of the folders from theme01-theme12 to THEME01-THEME12.
6.) Finally: although this has already become very tedious, you WILL have to go into each individual theme (THEME01-THEME12) folder, where you will find five items: bckgrd_1.bmp, bckgrd_2.bmp, icons.bmp, logo.bmp, and theme.ini, and capitalize all letters of each file: BCKGRD_1.BMP, BCKGRD_2.BMP, ICONS.BMP, LOGO.BMP, and THEME.INI.
You CANNOT leave any file that I have listed uncapitalized or there will be a part of your R4DS not working.
Moonshell should now boot when you choose "Multimedia" on the main screen, ebook files will now appear, and best of all, pressing select will now change the theme on your DS. Just remember that each theme you download must be edited so that all files names are in capital letters.
The only problem left with the system is that when you launch Moonshell, on the bottom of the screen when the Moonshell desktop is loading, it is displayed that the /moonshl directory cannot be found. This to my knowledge does not effect anything, and I have already tried putting all files inside the MOONSHL folder into caps (except for the .txt files becuase some of them have both capital letters and lowercase letters in the file names, which if changed would mess up the system), and this did not change anything. Someone else can solve that problem
Hope this guide helps all mac users of the R4DS!!
Problem:
Since the R4DS was originally made to be formatted on a pc, all of the files that are used to run the R4 are written with FAT files which are native to the Windows operating system. When you first put your Micro SD card into your mac, it was formatted to read Mac only files and documents, so when the R4 operating system is loaded onto it, the FAT files do not correctly read on the Mac formatted SD card.
Solution:
Although it seems very simple, this solution works very well.
YOU MUST EDIT THE FILE NAMES BEFORE PUTTING THEM ONTO YOUR SD CARD OR THEY WILL NOT WORK, DO NOT EDIT THEM IF THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN LOADED ONTO THE SD CARD!!!!
1.) You need to have the "English-1.11.rar" (the R4 v1.11 kernel) download from the R4DS website, heres the link: r4ds.com/soft/17-en.htm
2.) Open the "English- 1.11" folder after extracting the .rar file. There should be four items inside: _ds_menu.dat, _ds_mshl.nds, _system_, and moonshl.
3.) Hit Caps Lock and put the four items in all CAPITAL LETTERS: _DS_MENU.DAT, _DS_MSHL.NDS, _SYSTEM_, and MOONSHL.
4.) After putting the four items in all caps, go into the _SYSTEM_ folder. There are four items inside of this folder: cheat.dat, ebook, gbaframe.bmp, and themes. Once again put all of these items in all CAPS: CHEAT.DAT, EBOOK, GBAFRAME.BMP, and THEMES.
5.) After putting those four items into caps, go into the "THEMES" folder. You guessed it, rename all of the folders from theme01-theme12 to THEME01-THEME12.
6.) Finally: although this has already become very tedious, you WILL have to go into each individual theme (THEME01-THEME12) folder, where you will find five items: bckgrd_1.bmp, bckgrd_2.bmp, icons.bmp, logo.bmp, and theme.ini, and capitalize all letters of each file: BCKGRD_1.BMP, BCKGRD_2.BMP, ICONS.BMP, LOGO.BMP, and THEME.INI.
You CANNOT leave any file that I have listed uncapitalized or there will be a part of your R4DS not working.
Moonshell should now boot when you choose "Multimedia" on the main screen, ebook files will now appear, and best of all, pressing select will now change the theme on your DS. Just remember that each theme you download must be edited so that all files names are in capital letters.
The only problem left with the system is that when you launch Moonshell, on the bottom of the screen when the Moonshell desktop is loading, it is displayed that the /moonshl directory cannot be found. This to my knowledge does not effect anything, and I have already tried putting all files inside the MOONSHL folder into caps (except for the .txt files becuase some of them have both capital letters and lowercase letters in the file names, which if changed would mess up the system), and this did not change anything. Someone else can solve that problem
Hope this guide helps all mac users of the R4DS!!
