[Release] DSi Language Patcher

UPDATE AVAILABLE at bottom of this post

[Release] DSi Language Patcher
A JPN DSi to EUR languages patcher.
==============================

The Language Patcher is a small tool for running on a DSi, which takes the
original App-Launcher and patches it to display european languages. It also
passes this information to apps started, so that - if possible - they show the
same language.

I have written this little patcher because I bought my son and his friends
four DSis cheap from JPN. It doesn't matter in unlaunch, but if one of the kids
removed the SD card, the non japanese and non-tech parents were unable to
understand and fix the problem.

WARNING:
--------
Use on your own risk.
This tool does some changes to the NAND. This will olways come with a risk to brick
your DSi. I tried my best to keep that risk as low as possible by doing the
actual work in RAM and only accessing the nand for write operations when everything
else went good.

However in the worst of cases, your nand will not be valid anymore ynd you will
need a hardmod. so BACKUP YOUR NAND and have the option to HARDMOD READY to go.

Prerequisites:
--------------

* A japanese DSi
* Have unlaunch installed
* Plug in the DSi into the charger
* SD Card
* Have your NAND backed up, in case anything goes wrong.

Process:
--------
1. Put the attached "Patcher.nds" onto your SD Card and insert it into the DSi.
2. Start Patcher.nds from unlaunch
3. Check that there are no errors displyed. If you have errors Patcher.nds will
not continue
4. If Patcher.nds instructs you to plug in the power cord. do so. But you should
already had it as of the prerequisite. The Pacher will not continue unless
you have it plugged in
5. The Patcher will wait for you to press [A] for the actual write operation.
You can power off your DSi at any time before pressing [A] but you need to
letit run through once you did press [A]
!CAUTION!
Be sure that everything worked smooth till here. There is always the
possibility that for some unforeseen reason (arbitrary power failure,
pink elephants ...) there is an error. So be sure you have a nand backup and
could hardmod to recover.
!CAUTION!
6. The write operation is designed to ba as short as possible. You should have
an ALL DONE message.
7. Turn off the DSi
8. Enter unlaunch ([A]+[ B]+ Power on) and select "nand:/launcher.dsi" as app to
start on load error. Save the options.
9. Launche "nand:/launcher.dsi" You will notice that the screen is already english.
10. Start System Settings from the launcher and change your language/country
11. You are all set


FAQ:
----
Q: I heard unlaunch will unable to be installed/uninstalled if the FAT was changed
by homebrew. Will I have problems?
A: all will be fine. Unlaunch checks the internal copies of the file allocation
tables and will stop on missmatch here. While libfat will only work on the first
table, the patcher will use the others as staging, updating them after all other
things went right.

Q: When I start the original japanese launcher, my settings are all reset. Is this
normal?
A: Yes, the japanese launcher will do a sanity check on various configuration
settings, like the touch calibration or the language. If it detects the language
setting outside of the japanese region, it will assume the settings are corrupt
and asks you to redo them. The pathed up launcher wil ignore the language, but
keeps verifying the other fields.

Q: Some applications are still japanese.
A: While the launcher reports the started apps the new language, it does not
change the actual reagion the DSi is programmed to. The files are kept
unchanged and any ap reading those will use the japanese region settings.
Also: the installed version of your app might be japanese only.



PS: Do not contact me about piracy. The sole purpose of this tool is to increase
the accessibility to my (JPN) DSi for my kids and their friends. You can use it now
too.
Please respect the work of developers. They need to earn money as we all do.

:edit: Formatting



UPDATE:
I have attached a new version.

Changes:

• added another method to read out the ConsoleID
• source Launcher Regions are now allowed to be JPN, US, EUR and AUS
• target Launcher Regions can now be selected
• added a basic UI (progress bars, more prominent info on power plug in, etc ...)
  
• added clearer indication of success and error with reboot on keypress

 

I have released the Source code of the tool in the first post.
It was also verified that this process works also the other way around (allthough source modification not included) from an US DSi to JPN.
The source code can now be found on githu: DSiLanguagePacher
(Board does not allow me to link it?)

There are still several points to clean up. Mostly regarding included/used prior work and it's attribution.
If anyone's code was used (it was not always clear who is the original author) needs attribution ASAP, please let me know.

 

Could you explain the process a bit more that lead to the problem?
After using the launcher.dsi and using the settings menu in the title list you should be able to set the language multiple times.
Once you go back to the original launcher it should then report a corrupted setting and ask you to recalibrate the touch & enter the name/settings like you do on a vanilla console.

I'll try that, right now I have it on fault or any button combination, but I never tried it on default startup. I wonder what should be different here. I'll check.

 

Ran it through several of my DSi but could not reproduce.
Give me a shout if you can find a way to do it again.

 

Is that on the hardware directly or is this in the emulator first?
Did you start the Patcher right out of unlaunch, or did you start it via TWiLight Menu++ or alike?
Which version of the Language patcher did you use?

I bringing one of mine back to stock FW 1.4.1J and will try it again in a few mins to check.

:edit: Can confirm. Will be fixed asap

— Posts automatically merged - Please don't double post! —

Sorry for that problem. The new method to retreive the ConsoleID got some problems and is disabled in v2.0rc4.
Updated the files in the first post.

Thank you for the report pietempgba