Hacking r4i gold question

[ezzieyguywuf]

I just recieved my r4igold in the mail yesterday, and everything seems to be in order. I've opened her up and verified that it is indeed the card from www.r4ids.cn . I downloaded the wood 1.21 from that website, extracted the files, and placed them on the root of my sd card. I am able to boot into wood, and even run a few games such as superscribblenauts and new super mario bros. I can't seem to get zelda: phantom hourglass working properly though! I've tried to different files and though it loads ok and shows me the opening cinematics, it shows nothing but a black screen afterwards with garbled sounds. The file is 64.0Mb big. I've seen something about a 'file trimmer' on the cn website: do I maybe need to trim this file?

 

[CannonFoddr]

[I actually answered this in your other post - but it must've just got moved as I posted - so I've had to repeat it here]

Well 'Zelda Hourglass' works for me OK with no problems - got through the intro, got pass the creating save file & as far as actually controlling Link

I'm using the same WoodR4 version with a 8Gb class 2 MicroSD card on a DSLite BTW ....

Did you format your MSD card before installing everything ???
Did you already have a sav file on your card or did you allow it to create a new one ??

As for the 'trimming' - all that does is remove some excess 'garbage' @ the end of the ROM code to 'shrink' it smaller - it won't fix problems (in fact IF you try using it on a DSi Enhanced game you could cause more problems)

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

hey, sorry for giving you the runaround, you must have _just_ replied when I moved it. I figured this was a better place to post. I too have a 8gb class 2 microSD, formatted to fat32. There was no save file, I allowed it to create its own.

I'm running this on a dsi, and also, I put the .nds files in their own folders, will this cause any problems? Should I just drop them all on the root of my sd card?

 

[CannonFoddr]

hey, sorry for giving you the runaround, you must have _just_ replied when I moved it. I figured this was a better place to post. I too have a 8gb class 2 microSD, formatted to fat32. There was no save file, I allowed it to create its own.

I'm running this on a dsi, and also, I put the .nds files in their own folders, will this cause any problems? Should I just drop them all on the root of my sd card?

Nope - my NDS games are in a folder called - not suprizingly - 'NDS_Games' & as I said it worked fine

FYI - My version of 'Hourglass' is the USA version & it is 62.3Mb (65,337,444 bytes) in size

- one other thing to note is that it MUST be a 'Clean ROM' i.e. hasn't been hacked in any way.
You say you've 'tried different files' - do you mean different versions of this game & were they from different places ??

EDIT: Just tried it on a DSi as well - still works OK

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

Yea, I've tried a few files downloaded from different places. They are all marked as (U) and none of them say anything about being unclean. To be more precise than I was being earlier, my file is 67,108,864 bytes , so it seems its slightly bigger than yours (for some reason). Maybe I should try d/ling from yet another source?

 

[twiztidsinz]

Yea, I've tried a few files downloaded from different places. They are all marked as (U) and none of them say anything about being unclean. To be more precise than I was being earlier, my file is 67,108,864 bytes , so it seems its slightly bigger than yours (for some reason). Maybe I should try d/ling from yet another source?

67,108,864 Bytes (/1024) = 65,536 KiloBytes
65,536 KiloBytes (/1024) = 64 MegaBytes

All games written to ROM (Read-Only Memory, or the chip inside a retail cart) must fill a size to the power of 2: 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 (1GB), so padding data (00's and FF's in hex) must be added to the end.
A clean dump keeps this junk data which then may be trimmed off later on by the end user (you). CannonFoddr's game is (most likely) trimmed which is why it's 62.3MB.
The trimmed game is still clean, but it will not pass any verification since the file is not 100% exactly the same.


You can verify your clean copy by comparing the CRC32 against the one found on the AdvanScene database (Remember to tick the green NDS box).
Once you have the good CRC32, you need the CRC32 of your copy. I prefer to use HashCheck which is small, fast, sits in it's own tab in the File Properties window (right click the file -> Properties -> Checksums tab) and works perfectly with Windows Vista/7 (as well as XP).

 

[CannonFoddr]

Nah - I can't see ALL those sources all having the wrong sized file - unless they ALL have the same file on them. (Unfortunately we can't say which sites you got them from to compare)

So I've just gone & downloaded a version that IS 64MB (67,108,864) in size (so where the HELL did I got that last version from I don't know
[EDIT: Just read twiztidsinz post after posting this - he could be right, mine MIGHT be trimmed] ) but the bad news is that that version also works fine - this is Weird !!!

[I'm not sure if I'm breaking the rules but the rar file I just downloaded has '1456' and 'iND' in the title]

You said you formatted the MSD card - but how did you do it - through Windows or by using the SD formatter program ?

IIRC Windows don't format SD cards to the correct 'standard' for SD cards

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

Checking the hash of mine against the 'good' CRC32 at the wedsite you listed shows that I indeed have a clean ROM.

The Legend Of Zelda Phantom Hourglass [NDS].nds 8B431C41
thats the output of my hash checking prog, the hash is at the end. listed on the site is '8B431C41'

so what else could be the problem here? I am using Wood v1.21 from the r4ids.cn site. Could it be Wood's fault? I've heard talk about updating flash cart firmware: how is this done exactly? Is updating Wood to v1.21 not the same as updating the firmware? I don't think I 'flashed' anything, as all I did was download, extract, and drop on my sdcard (the wood os thing).
as a sidenote, any idea why md5sums aren't being used here to verify?

edit: I used gparted in linux to format my microsd card.
edit edit: also, I should note that I've disabled a bunch of crap for this game in Wood, i.e. cheats and soft reset, in the hopes of getting it working. Nothing.

 

[twiztidsinz]

Checking the hash of mine against the 'good' CRC32 at the wedsite you listed shows that I indeed have a clean ROM.

The Legend Of Zelda Phantom Hourglass [NDS].nds 8B431C41
thats the output of my hash checking prog, the hash is at the end. listed on the site is '8B431C41'

so what else could be the problem here? I am using Wood v1.21 from the r4ids.cn site. Could it be Wood's fault? I've heard talk about updating flash cart firmware: how is this done exactly? Is updating Wood to v1.21 not the same as updating the firmware? I don't think I 'flashed' anything, as all I did was download, extract, and drop on my sdcard (the wood os thing).
as a sidenote, any idea why md5sums aren't being used here to verify?

edit: I used gparted in linux to format my microsd card.
edit edit: also, I should note that I've disabled a bunch of crap for this game in Wood, i.e. cheats and soft reset, in the hopes of getting it working. Nothing.

Firmware and Kernel/OS/Menu aren't the same thing.
Firmware is what gets updated on the DSi or through an update program on the flashcard itself.
Wood is a Kernel/OS/Menu that gets updated by replacing files.

I'll check if it works on my copy of Wood (real R4, not the gold) and update this post in a few min.


As for the reason MD5s aren't used, because simply... it's overkill. Why mess with 32 character lengths when a simple 8 will work just as well for this purpose?
CRC32 is good enough for 99% of what needs a simple checksum vs a digital signature. CRC32 has collisions, when two different files having the same CRC, but the second file wouldn't be usable. Example, I have an .EXE file with a checksum of 1A2B3C4D, I could make a file with the checksum 1A2B3C4D but it wouldn't work as an executable file.

 

[Evo.lve]

As I don't have this R4i Gold to test, I can't be sure, but this ROM of yours may just have some problems.

You state that you:

-Have disabled all patches
-Have verified that the ROM is clean
-Have tried numerous ROMs

From here on, all you can do really is make a bug report.

 

[twiztidsinz]

I can verify that my game has the same CRC as your copy, 8B431C41, and works on WoodR4 v1.21
Since your copy of Wood is not from Yellow Wood Goblin, I have to think the problem lies with the R4i gold team.

There is a version of Wood for R4i Gold put out by YWG, but I'm not sure if it will work on your card so use at your own risk.
http://filetrip.net/f23481-Wood-R4iDSN-1-21.html

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

Thanks for the help guys. I'll look into using ywg's wood (lol!). @twiztidsinz: thanks for your explanation of firmware vs OS/menu stuffs. Just to clarify, the firmware on my r4i wood /can/ or /can't/ be updated? And if it can, is there any way that an old firmware could be the issue? I see on their website they have a v1.41 of something or other, but its hard for me to tell what it is. It comes with a readme that describes a flashing procedure, but still never really tells me what it is.

[edit] ywg's wood says that its made to work with my r4i gold card, i.e. the one made by cn team, but I get a 'Loading...' screen when trying to boot into it.

 

[RoMee]

I see on their website they have a v1.41 of something or other, but its hard for me to tell what it is. It comes with a readme that describes a flashing procedure, but still never really tells me what it is.

that file is used to update your flash cart to work on nintendo's new 1.4.1 firmware

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

So if, out-the-box, my cart works fine on my 1.4.1 firmware, I don't have to worry about that file?

[edit] oh wait! according to my dsi I'm still on firmware version 1.4U. So maybe I /should/ upgrade my cart?

 

[RoMee]

So if, out-the-box, my cart works fine on my 1.4.1 firmware, I don't have to worry about that file?

if it works on your 1.4.1 dsi, than no, you don't have to worry about that file

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

Not sure if you saw my edit or not, but I am currently not running 1.4.1

 

[RoMee]

Not sure if you saw my edit or not, but I am currently not running 1.4.1

Than you should update your flash cart, because if you accidentally upgrade your dsi to 1.4.1, your r4i will not work and you will need a ds lite/phat to update your r4i
just put the file into the root of your memory card
select the file and run it, follow the instruction and your done

if you don't know what you're doing, I recommend you look for tutorial on how to do it, youtube has video tutorial

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

The upgrade actually came with a pretty good readme file. I'll go do that now, see if it fixes zelda.

[edit] tried running the upgrade. At the 'Card Check' screen, I got a 'Result No upgrading is needed' I guess this means the fw is up-to-date? Maybe updating to 1.4.1 will help then?
[edit][edit] updated to 1.4.1U and zelda still doesn't work properly *sigh* I think I'll wait for YWG's 1.22 and try that before filing a bug report.

 

[ezzieyguywuf]

I exchanged some messages with ywg over in the Bugs thread and he seems to think its my class 4 Scankdisk microsdhc card that is to blame. I'm not really in a position to purchase a better card at the moment, so I don't really know what to do. What cards are you guys using?

Also, a separate question: do I have any other options as far as OSs for my r4i gold? will ysmenu work on it, for instance?