Hacking R4 Ultra / Acekard Clones

[kiafazool]

Hey guys
im not sure if this is the rite section for this question because i think its kinda related to like both R4 and Acekard
i want to know how a normal guy can go about making a firmware for a dead card ( R4 ULTRA) (www.r4ultra.com)
so can someone tell me if this is like possible and i will release to the community for others if someone can tell me how to get started
i know that r4 ultra is like a acekard clone but it doesn't have the acekard menu for the more update firmware for like which was 1.54 so they were like updated the r4 firmware
so if someone can tell me how to get started (i have lots of time and can do it like every day or two)
help will be greatly appreciated
pong or someone who make firmware for other carts please help me with this because it will help me and most importantly the gbatemp community with acekard clones

 

[TrolleyDave]

First of all, do you have any actual programming experience?

 

[tk_saturn]

If you have to such a question, then the chances of you sucedding are 0. The place to start is to download Wood RPG and DevKitArm.

You're better off just buying an Acekard 2i.

 

[kiafazool]

i will buy a dstwo later on when i get like a job or something because i dont like to bug my parents like some people do (those guys are messed up)
so i will when i get a summer job but atm im stuck with an r4 ultra and i am hoping my friend finds his r4 (original) so i can buy it off him for like $3
but atm i just want to know how to start it up
i do understand alot of stuff related to computers so i just want to know how people do it like Pong
ill try download wood r4 and using devkitarm
ill post up anything new
so until then can people tell me how to start

 

[Pong20302000]

Ysmenu can be compiled to work on your cart i velieve

save time and effort by compiling it and using my files

 

[SixtySixHundred]

...The place to start is to download Wood RPG and DevKitArm.

You're better off just buying an Acekard 2i.

True say, but the R4 Ultra is actually a decent card as far as clones go! It was the 1st card I bought when I was a DS no0b but later moved on to an AceKard 2i. I'd also like to see a 'Wood R4' type kernel made for it but the chances of that happening are zero thanks to people in the DS coding community being (insert random, highly offensive obscenity here)! There seems to be an 'elitist' mentality with some of them, (Normatt, Yasu) so as long as people like those are on the scene, cloned cards will NEVER get recognised. It's such a shame as the R4ultra aint a bad card at all and I would really like a Homebrew-esque kernel for it. I have a small amount of coding experience but nowhere near the skills needed for this.

Anyway, enough of my lamenting, there's other options for your R4ultra if compatibility is an issue...

 

[tk_saturn]

You can get a R4 which will run Wood (and so play the latest games) from ShopTemp for $6. These don't support SDHC or work on DSi's.

If your friends is an original R4, this his won't support SDHC or work on DSi's either.

 

[kiafazool]

Ysmenu can be compiled to work on your cart i velieve

save time and effort by compiling it and using my files
@pong how will i go by doing that explain please (new to compiling and stuff but will learn fast)
QUOTEYou can get a R4 which will run Wood (and so play the latest games) from ShopTemp for $6. These don't support SDHC or work on DSi's.

If your friends is an original R4, this his won't support SDHC or work on DSi's either.

i know that already (not to be rude)
he is offering me his r4 with 2gb microsd card (non-sdhc) for $5 and with microsd card for $3
and i have a dslite

 

[SixtySixHundred]

he is offering me his r4 with 2gb microsd card (non-sdhc) for $5 and with microsd card for $3
and i have a dslite

Do it. Then get Wood, (so to speak) Wood R4 is nothing short of awesome atm.

 

[kiafazool]

sixty
the problem is that he misplaced it while cleaning his room
i have to wait for him to find it
he said he will try his best to find it but he alot of homework and projects because only 2 weeks of school left
but i think he will try to find it today because i want to school like 2 hours ago and a pipe burst on the 3rd floor and they called it no school
so i think he has time today to look for it
i wishing that tommorows a holiday too so i have like a 4 day weekend

 

[exangel]

i want to know how a normal guy can go about making a firmware for a dead card ( R4 ULTRA) (www.r4ultra.com)
so can someone tell me if this is like possible...
i know that r4 ultra is like a acekard clone...
pong or someone who make firmware for other carts please help me with this because it will help me and most importantly the gbatemp community with acekard clones

...from scratch?
if by "normal guy" you mean "guy with no programming experience" and or "guy with no software engineering experience," then realistically speaking, it would be an extraordinary amount of trial and error efforts for you to undertake alone. i won't say it's impossible, but if you really are normal, it wouldn't even make sense to try unless you decide you actually enjoy coding and troubleshooting.

Does this ARM tutorial and this article on the ARDSi pose any difficulty in comprehension for you? (They do for me, because though I have 15 years of computer experience I've never had more than a glance at any kind of assembly language.)

though it might be helpful to the community to some degree, you shouldn't decide to go through with this on the basis that it's entirely for the benefit of the AK-clone-cursed community unless you are prepared to get a lot of nagging and criticism. and most of all, if you still want to try, don't expect to receive help from other coders, especially strangers, "who make firmware for other carts" because they don't exactly champion the cause of supporting clones. if they do help you, it'd be quite a surprise.

all in all, my point is, if you decide you want to do this, do it for yourself first and foremost, because if you do it for others, they will never all be satisfied.

----
well it seems you've gotten some more responses in the time it took me to write this, but i'm going to post it anyway.
----

as for compiling YSMenu on your cart i'm uncertain that it'll work perfectly, i happen to have an old acekard clone myself and could only get YSmenu working to the extent that it'd load as an NDS file from the official firmware and would not execute games. it's not the same one you have, but nevertheless, there are two generators i'm aware of that support easy-mode compiling of YSmenu for acekard, akysauto and Mini YSMenu Generator.

 

[SixtySixHundred]

sixty
the problem is that he misplaced it while cleaning his room
i have to wait for him to find it...

Well if you're gonna be waiting, I'd suggest visiting shoptemp and buying one for a few dollars if your want one urgently. Personally, I'd say just buy an AK and put AKAIO on it. While I'm not keen on the mentality of the coders, I can't take away the fact that Normantt (plus the rest of AKAIO devs) are talented developers. Plus the AK is a better built flashcart than any R4. Also, when you have one, you can feel all 'l33t' like the resy of us lol.

Oh, and as an afterthought, I've tried and tried to get YsMenu compiled for my R4ultra with no real joy so gave up on it. I get it working on the AK but it's useless on that card due to AKAIO 1.6 being better, so if you do get YsMenu working on the R4 clone, please tell me how.

 

[kiafazool]

i want to know how a normal guy can go about making a firmware for a dead card ( R4 ULTRA) (www.r4ultra.com)
so can someone tell me if this is like possible...
i know that r4 ultra is like a acekard clone...
pong or someone who make firmware for other carts please help me with this because it will help me and most importantly the gbatemp community with acekard clones

...from scratch?
if by "normal guy" you mean "guy with no programming experience" and or "guy with no software engineering experience," then realistically speaking, it would be an extraordinary amount of trial and error efforts for you to undertake alone. i won't say it's impossible, but if you really are normal, it wouldn't even make sense to try unless you decide you actually enjoy coding and troubleshooting.

Does this ARM tutorial and this article on the ARDSi pose any difficulty in comprehension for you? (They do for me, because though I have 15 years of computer experience I've never had more than a glance at any kind of assembly language.)

though it might be helpful to the community to some degree, you shouldn't decide to go through with this on the basis that it's entirely for the benefit of the AK-clone-cursed community unless you are prepared to get a lot of nagging and criticism. and most of all, if you still want to try, don't expect to receive help from other coders, especially strangers, "who make firmware for other carts" because they don't exactly champion the cause of supporting clones. if they do help you, it'd be quite a surprise.

all in all, my point is, if you decide you want to do this, do it for yourself first and foremost, because if you do it for others, they will never all be satisfied.

----
well it seems you've gotten some more responses in the time it took me to write this, but i'm going to post it anyway.
----

as for compiling YSMenu on your cart i'm uncertain that it'll work perfectly, i happen to have an old acekard clone myself and could only get YSmenu working to the extent that it'd load as an NDS file from the official firmware and would not execute games. it's not the same one you have, but nevertheless, there are two generators i'm aware of that support easy-mode compiling of YSmenu for acekard, akysauto and Mini YSMenu Generator.

im meant a normal guy with no programming experience i have lots of software expereince
you do bring up a good point on people not being satisfied
and no i dont understand that stuff but i will bu next year because next year im going in grade 10 and i chose both computer engineering (c++ based) and computer science (java based)
so i will be learning both c++ and java ( i know i made a mistake taking them both but ehh who cares)
pong told me that he updates dstt with hex editing
can pong or someone tell me how thats possible because i am not starting from scratch
i want to update the wood r4 or akaio or the r4 ultra firmware ( IF IM GOING TO DO THAT IM NOT GOING TO BE RELEASING IT TO PUBLIC I KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN NO FLAMING ME )

so can pong or someone please tell me how to update the firmwares using hex editing using the r4 ultra firmware from website

 

[TrolleyDave]

i want to update the wood r4 or akaio or the r4 ultra firmware ( IF IM GOING TO DO THAT IM NOT GOING TO BE RELEASING IT TO PUBLIC I KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN NO FLAMING ME )

By telling people you're not going to release your version you'll alienate alot of the people that would be willing to help you. It makes you come across as kind of selfish.

 

[kiafazool]

yea but if i realease it to the public it will also kill akaio and wood
and i also stated that i will only update those if updating the r4 ultra firmware is not possible
so i need someone to tell me how to hex edit the r4 ultra firmware

 

[exangel]

i want to update the wood r4 or akaio or the r4 ultra firmware ( IF IM GOING TO DO THAT IM NOT GOING TO BE RELEASING IT TO PUBLIC I KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN NO FLAMING ME )

By telling people you're not going to release your version you'll alienate alot of the people that would be willing to help you. It makes you come across as kind of selfish.

I think he might have had the AKAIO 1.5.1 crack drama in mind when he said that >.>

 

[TrolleyDave]

yea but if i realease it to the public it will also kill akaio and wood
and i also stated that i will only update those if updating the r4 ultra firmware is not possible
so i need someone to tell me how to hex edit the r4 ultra firmware

Not all firmwares can be hex-edited in the way that the infolib and savelibs for the DSTT can be. At least as far as I'm aware. And why would updating WoodR4 kill WoodR4? Also, sorry to break this to you but AKAIO is closed source so you wouldn't be able to update that anyway.

QUOTE(exangel @ Jun 3 2010, 05:28 PM) I think he might have had the AKAIO 1.5.1 crack drama in mind when he said that >.>

Forgot about that! That makes more sense!

 

[SixtySixHundred]

i want to update the wood r4 or akaio or the r4 ultra firmware ( IF IM GOING TO DO THAT IM NOT GOING TO BE RELEASING IT TO PUBLIC I KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN NO FLAMING ME )

By telling people you're not going to release your version you'll alienate alot of the people that would be willing to help you. It makes you come across as kind of selfish.

Ahh, the metaphorical rock and a hard place! Also, can I smell a project brewing? I've got a small amount of C++ experience. If I can help in any way, let me know. I'd suggest using Wood RPG as a starting point as it's open source, if you went and messed with AKAIO, you'd annoy some folk and it aint about that.

Good luck if you decide to undertake this challenge, I know a few folk who bought R4 ultras and are frustrated at the lack of updates beyond v1.55, (although I think v1.55 is actually v1.54 and they just put it online to look like they're working on updates) I hope something comes of this and it's not just the ranting of a bored person. lol.

 

[kiafazool]

I think he might have had the AKAIO 1.5.1 crack drama in mind when he said that >.>
yea i meant that
QUOTENot all firmwares can be hex-edited in the way that the infolib and savelibs for the DSTT can be. At least as far as I'm aware. And why would updating WoodR4 kill WoodR4? Also, sorry to break this to you but AKAIO is closed source so you wouldn't be able to update that anyway.

can the r4 ultra firmware be hex edited ?
wouldn't ywg be mad like normatt was?
ok if akaio is a closed source is the wood r4 source open? if yes link please

 

[SixtySixHundred]

...is the wood r4 source open? if yes link please
Wood R4 is based on Wood RPG...

QUOTEhttp://woodrpg.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/