Hacking Supercard DSTWO Clarification and Questions

[Miss Panda]

Ok if you haven't taken some valium today stop reading now!
I mean it! Turn back!

Here is what I have done
On the root of the SD card I initially put two files _dstwo & ds2boot.dat (from DSTWO_v1.11_0322_eng which I had already patched with dstwo-2011-04-27)
I then added a folder named Games containing .nds and .sav files.

Is this correct because I have read for example.

I do not use my microSD's root for any files except an icon file and autorun.inf file so that the card shows up as my "Supercard DSTwo" drive when in my PC. All of my roms, homebrew, and videos are in sub-directories. However my set up does include a bunch of plugins.

And this Exangel girl knows stuff. I don't understand half of it but she definitely knows what she is doing.

So
/_dstwo folder
ds2boot.dat
games folder

1. Is putting the files in this way correct? Or should the games folder be somewhere else (like within the _dstwo folder)? Or can we do either?

2. When I launch the EDGE card in a DSLite I get the Nintendo health and safety page followed by a booting page and then I'm into the EDGE menu.

But with the DSTWO on a DSLite I get the Health & Safety page followed by the Nintendo settings page with the DSTWO visible on it. Followed by all these and a booting page.

On the DSi XL I get the Health & safety page followed by all these and a booting page!

Is this where plugins are displayed? And can we get straight to this menu like with the edge? Or do we have to go through all the other screens first?

3. What is the difference between ordinary homebrew and a plugin on the DSTWO? Is a plugin on the DSTWO simply homebrew with a fancier launch position? i.e. on the screen shown above.


4. I want to use both ikureader and dslibris where do I put the folders? I found a 'plugin' for DS Libris and followed the instructions but it doesn't work. I can now get ikureader (not as a plugin) to work but having to get through five pages to get to it is just silly.
If being a plugin simply means I get to launch it straight from the screen above then I would like to do it with both ikureader and ds libris (I have read the ikureader thread, every page before someone links it).

5. Also can you soft reset back to the menu from ikureader. I cannot get it to work. And from within a game it is so ridiculous.
L+R and select take me to another screen (cheat options and such like). I then have to click the top left hand corner. Then I have to click OK.....

I could have made a cup of tea in that time. I must be doing it wrong.

 

[CannonFoddr]

1. Is putting the files in this way correct? Or should the games folder be somewhere else (like within the _dstwo folder)? Or can we do either?
You cannot put them into the DSTwo folder

my 'root' looks a little bit like this

Spoiler

_bagui
_ds2video
_dstwo
_dstwoplug
_imenu
Bagsfc
books
cbds
DS Games
GB games
GBA games
Homebrew
iReader
Moonshl2
MP3
:
:
:

All of these are 'folders', but there's a few extras files etc in the root because SOME homebrew insist that their data folder are placed there (that's why the cbds [Comic Book DS homebrew] folder is on the root)

2. ....Is this where plugins are displayed? And can we get straight to this menu like with the edge? Or do we have to go through all the other screens first?

That screen IS the plugin screen, & no AFAIK there's no way to jump straight to this menu

3. What is the difference between ordinary homebrew and a plugin on the DSTWO? Is a plugin on the DSTWO simply homebrew with a fancier launch position? i.e. on the screen shown above.
Yep - The Plugin's are nothing more than the normal NDS homebrew, but with a couple of added files so that the DS2 can show a different icon/text on the plugin screen

4. I want to use both ikureader and dslibris where do I put the folders? I found a 'plugin' for DS Libris and followed the instructions but it doesn't work. I can now get ikureader (not as a plugin) to work but having to get through five pages to get to it is just silly.
Hmm - If I get time I may have a look at those (Not used them myself actually so never tried them) but AFAIK you just set up the homebrew as normal (as in how the developer instructs you) - except you place the NDS file into the '/_dstwoplug/' folder (along with the necessary 'plugin files' (the BMP/INI)).
However there MAY be some badly programmed homebrew that insist that their 'data folder' need to be either on the root, inside a '/data/' folder on your root, or even in the SAME folder as the NDS file


5. Also can you soft reset back to the menu from ikureader. I cannot get it to work.
Only homebrew that have been programmed to 'softreset' can be softreset back to the DSTwo menu(s) - usually this only requires the homebrew to be able to run the 'reset2desktop.nds' file found in the '/_dstwo/' folder. I don't know (but I doubt it) that ikureader has been programmed to run this 'reset' program - so that's why you can't reset

The bit about the games reset - yep IFAIK that's the 'normal' way of doing it. I don't bother with that as it's a lot easier for me to just press my Dsi power button to reset and reboot

 

[Miss Panda]

Thank you so much Cannonfoddr, it is really appreciated.
I had the sd card out of the DSTWO so much yesterday trying different things. I was scared I would break the damn thing (the build quality on the DSTWO really is rubbish - I knew that when I bought it though). So I was scared to do any more fiddling with files in case I broke the DSTWO taking it in and out.

So basically I leave the games or a game folder in the root and no where else yes?

Is there not a way to configure a plugin so that you can click on an icon on the plugin menu and be taken straight into your games folder? I'm guessing that the answer is no? And that the answer is to configure plugins for everything and have only games in the root. So when you click on DS Games in the plugin menu you go straight in because it already is the plugin for it. Yay Nay or maybe?

While I'm complaining I hate the way it puts you back in whatever folder you where in last time you played. Is there a way to change that?

Any way to change the Alex Rider Stormbreaker thq icon to something more DSTWOish?

What advantages would you see using imenu?

 

[CannonFoddr]

You can leave the DSTwo in the DS & just remove the memory card from the DS2 - I do that by using the stylus - so that stops you worrying about the card jamming up or damaging the DS contacts etc although you MIGHT have some problems with the DSTwo not seeing the memory card

As for 'games folder on root' - yep, you can leave it there OR you could 'split it up further' so that you have just one 'games' folder then sub-folders for DS/GBA/GB/SNES Games etc etc.

The only way of 'configuring a plugin to take you straight to your games folder' that I can see is IF some1 created a homebrew folder selector of some sort OR the DS2 developer change the way their firmware works
- Unfortunately the 'wrong folder' problem is something built into the DSTwo 'DS game' program, & unless the developers change the way it works I think you just have to 'live with it'

No way of changing the Alex rider icon - it's there to 'fool' the DSi(XL) into thinking it has a genuine game cartridge in it. Unless the DSTwo team decide on a way of allowing us users a way to create our own custom 'header Firmware' then this will never happen



As with iMenu,Personally I just find it a better (prettier ?!?!) GUI than the existing plugin one.

(With a little work) you can set it up not only to run Homebrew from whatever folder you'd like (unlike the existing plugin menu where ALL homebrew HAVE to be put into the '_dstwoplug/' folder), but also you can run your most 'favorite' ROMS 'straight from iMenu' instead of going to 'DS Game' & then browsing through the directories to load in a game.
The downside is that you'll can't access options like you can in 'DSGame' (Brightness/Hotkeys etc) -
And (hopefully) when developers start adding an 'ARG()' function to their homebrew (AFAIK this 'ARG' business is to allow autoloading of files into Homebrew) - in theory - you can also set up GBA/GB/SNES/MAME roms to ALSO run straight from iMenu

iMenu is more like a 'Program Launchpad' than a true 'File selector'

Also don't forget an alternative to 'iMenu' is 'Bagplug' - which is more like a 'Moonshell as a Default OS' for the DStwo (although both are still 'in development') which does/will allow 'launching' different files with use of 'extensions'.

 

[9th_Sage]

It also needs to be said that a DSTwo plug-in can also be of the special .plg variety. Those are things like the GBA emulator, SNES emulator, or DS2x86 that use the built-in CPU and RAM of the DSTwo for things.

Also, no...there's no way to change the Alex Rider icon. Part of the way DStwo works on the DSi and 3DS is that it's tricking the system into thinking that it is the Alex Rider game (a legitimate game cartridge) instead of a Supercard DSTwo. It isn't something that you can just flip a switch and change.

As far as iMenu, it's a lot nicer looking and in some ways more customizable/easier to customize than the stock plug-in menu. I personally feel the UI of it is nicer too, a bit simpler to use.

*edit*
Oops, guess I took too long formulating that reply.

 

[Miss Panda]

So I think what I need to do is to leave all the games (I only have nds games anyway) loose (well in their genre folders) in the root and use the 'DS game' plugin icon to access them.
And then try to get plugins (ones that work ) for DSLibris and try to find out how people are using ikureader as a plugin. The creator hasn't been on here for a fortnight so that could be a problem.

I'm pondering the whole imenu thing or this bagplug thingy. Whether I should leave it until I get the plugins sorted or maybe it will make it easier. Based on my whinges so far would you say imenu or bagwhatsit would be the go. Or would that make it hard for such a permanent nooooooooooob to configure stuff.

If I could just work out the ikureader bit I'd throw a party.

Umm adding cheats. Do I add them for each game or what? There used to be some database think back in the R4 (original) days. And you just chucked the whole thing on there. And where do they go?


P.S. Is the plugin folder meant to be prefilled with stuff?

*edit*
Oops, guess I took too long formulating that reply.

No you didn't, I'm bloody grateful for all replies from informed individuals. It helps me learn

Even if people agree with each other they often say it in a different way or just reinforce the point so it genuinely is all helpful.

 

[Buleste]

For ikureader place iku.nds in the _dstwoplug folder, create an iku.ini file with something like this in it.

icon=fat1:/_dstwoplug/iku.bmp
name=IkuReader

Find an appropriate plugin icon and rename it iku.bmp and place it in your _dstwoplug folder

Create a folder in the root directory called DATA and extract the ikureader folder from the archive into it.

ikureader should now work. You can place your ebooks anywhere you want. I personally have a books folder withina homebrew folder.

ikureader does have a reset it's L+R+START+SELECT but all this does is turn your DS off.

 

[Miss Panda]

For ikureader place iku.nds in the _dstwoplug folder, create an iku.ini file with something like this in it.

Find an appropriate plugin icon and rename it iku.bmp and place it in your _dstwoplug folder

Create a folder in the root directory called DATA and extract the ikureader folder from the archive into it.

ikureader should now work. You can place your ebooks anywhere you want. I personally have a books folder withina homebrew folder.
When you say create a folder called data do you mean empty the ikureader data into it. Or place the ikufolder data file within the data folder?

If I put another program on the DSTWO which requires a data folder in the root am I stuffed or can it share?

I have never created an ini file before. Do I paste that QUOTEicon=fat1:/_dstwoplug/iku.bmp
name=IkuReader

into a text document and rename the file extension as .ini?

Edit: I all did that but it isn't showing up as a plugin. I'm going to take everything off and put on a clean copy of ikureader and the DSTWO firmware & see if that works. I'll be 5 minutes tops.

 

[Buleste]

When you say create a folder called data do you mean empty the ikureader data into it. Or place the ikufolder data file within the data folder?

If I put another program on the DSTWO which requires a data folder in the root am I stuffed or can it share?

I have never created an ini file before. Do I paste that into notepad and rename the file extension as .ini?
Sorry been a while since I touched the ikureader archive. Extract the data folder in the archive to the root of your SD card. The data folder can be shared with any programme that requires the data folder (DS2x86 also uses the data folder on my setup).

Yes copy and paste the text into notepad and save the file by changing the "Save as Type" to all files and the name as iku.ini.

QUOTEEdit: I all did that but it isn't showing up as a plugin. I'm going to take everything off and put on a clean copy of ikureader and the DSTWO firmware & see if that works. I'll be 5 minutes tops.

Have you placed the iku.nds into the plugins folder and have you found an icon you like and renamed it to iku.bmp?

 

[CannonFoddr]

So I think what I need to do is to leave all the games (I only have nds games anyway) loose (well in their genre folders) in the root and use the 'DS game' plugin icon to access t
Umm adding cheats. Do I add them for each game or what? There used to be some database think back in the R4 (original) days. And you just chucked the whole thing on there. And where do they go?You're right - the database of 'cheats' still exists @ http://cheats.gbatemp.net/
IIRC (I don't use cheats) you need the USRCHEAT.DAT type & it's gotta be placed into the '/_dstwo/' folder

As for the plugin folder - I think that the 'plugin folder' hasn't been included since v1.05 of the firmware & I THINK it's created by the firmware when first run, so you may find that you end up with icons with a orange '?' that do nothing.
I vaguely remember you needed at least 5 'plugins' to prevent any stray orange '?' from showing - so I'd suggest you download some of the official ones - & add them (or add any of the unofficial ones)


Oh BTW - I've looked into IKUReader problem - can't find out what's wrong as it works fine for me....
here's step-by-step on what I did

Spoiler

• Download latest ikureader
• Extract the file - ended up with 2 folders ('data' and 'books') and 4 files (a png, a 'nds' and 2 'txt')
• Copied the 'data' AND 'books' folders to the ROOT of the memory card
• Copied the NDS files into '/_dstwoplug/' folder
• Downloaded a 'plugin file' that consists of a BMP and a INI file
  (I used this one as it had a graphics of a book)
• Opened up the INI file in notepad to change some details
  

  [plug setting]
  icon=fat1:/_dstwoplug/iReader.bmp
  name=iReader

  was changed to
  CODE[plug setting]
  icon=fat1:/_dstwoplug/iku.bmp
  name=IKUReader

Spoiler

• Saved the file as 'iku.ini' and placed it into the '/_dstwoplug/' folder
• Renamed the 'ireader.bmp' (from the plugin download) to 'iku.bmp' & copied it also into the '_dstwoplug/' folder
• Started up the DSTwo & on the plugin menu I had a new icon for 'IKUReader' with this icon
  

 

[Buleste]

Here's my ikureader ini and icon. Place the two files into the _dstwoplug folder and then place the iku.nds file into the _dstwoplug folder. That should set up the plugin menu. Extract the data folder from the archive to the root of your sd card. It should now work.

 

[Miss Panda]

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!
It didn't work so I took everything off of the sd card
I then replaced everything fresh I re downloaded the DSTWO files and the latest patch from the supercard site and re downloaded the latest ikureader in case it was corrupted.

I put the iku.ini, iku.nds &iku.bmp in _dstwoplugins. I put the data folder in the root.

That didn't work so I noticed the book folder was called book instead of books so I renamed it (even though ikureader will normally find it no bother when it isn't being a plugin).
Still didn't work!
So then I looked in the data folder which I had lazily chucked on there.
(I don't know how to write this like you fellas do)
Inside the data folder it had just a folder named ikureader and in that the where four folders font, bookmarks, encodings and translations. So I took them out of the ikureader folder and deleted it and put them directly in the data folder.
It still won't work

 

[Buleste]

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!
It didn't work so I took everything off of the sd card
I then replaced everything fresh I re downloaded the DSTWO files and the latest patch from the supercard site and re downloaded the latest ikureader in case it was corrupted.

I put the iku.ini, iku.nds &iku.bmp in _dstwoplugins.

That's where you are going wrong the folder should be called _dstwoplug

 

[Miss Panda]

That's where you are going wrong the folder should be called _dstwoplug

I didn't change the name so I probably mistyped that I'll put the sd card back in the pc and rexamine it.

EDIT: It is just called 'plug'. That is not me changing it that is from the official supercard download.
Oh dear is that the wrong folder? Should I have created one from scratch?

 

[Buleste]

I didn't change the name so I probably mistyped that I'll put the sd card back in the pc and rexamine it.

EDIT: It is just called 'plug'. That is not me changing it that is from the official supercard download.
Oh dear is that the wrong folder? Should I have created one from scratch?

Do you remember which archive you got that from?

Create a folder called _DSTwoplug and place all .ini, .bmp, .nds and .plg files that you have in your plug folder into it.

I take it then that you have not downloaded any of the official plugins from http://eng.supercard.sc/manual/dstwo/plugin.htm then.

 

[Miss Panda]

Do you remember which archive you got that from?

Create a folder called _DSTwoplug and place all .ini, .bmp, .nds and .plg files that you have in your plug folder into it.I got it from here
http://eng.supercard.sc/manual/dstwo/download.htm

I just did that created a folder called _dstwoplug and it still won't work! I didn't move all the plug folder contents into it though. I'll do that now. Should I just change the name of the 'plug' folder to _dstwoplug and have it all in together?
But first please can one or other of you clarify? My earlier query. QUOTEInside the data folder it had just a folder named ikureader and in that the where four folders font, bookmarks, encodings and translations. So I took them out of the ikureader folder and deleted it and put them directly in the data folder.
It still won't work

Should I leave it within the iku folder or not?

And no I have downloaded no official plugins.

 

[Buleste]

I got it from here
http://eng.supercard.sc/manual/dstwo/download.htm

I just did that created a folder called _dstwoplug and it still won't work! I didn't move all the plug folder contents into it though. I'll do that now.
But first please can one or other of you clarify? My earlier query.
Should I leave it within the iku folder or not?

And no I have downloaded no official plugins.
If you read the install file that is contained within the ikureader archive it says

QUOTEInstall:
Copy data folder to the root of your memory card.
Copy iku.nds and books where you want to.

In your case you copy the data folder to the root of your memory card and place the iku.nds file into the _dstwoplug folder. It is that simple.

If you had downloaded some of the official plugins and extracted the archives to the root of your card you would already have a _dstwoplug folder and would be able to seeexamples of how it works.

 

[Densetsu]

Any way to change the Alex Rider Stormbreaker thq icon to something more DSTWOish?

No way of changing the Alex rider icon - it's there to 'fool' the DSi(XL) into thinking it has a genuine game cartridge in it. Unless the DSTwo team decide on a way of allowing us users a way to create our own custom 'header Firmware' then this will never happenQUOTE(9th_Sage @ May 1 2011, 11:10 AM)

Also, no...there's no way to change the Alex Rider icon. Part of the way DStwo works on the DSi and 3DS is that it's tricking the system into thinking that it is the Alex Rider game (a legitimate game cartridge) instead of a Supercard DSTwo. It isn't something that you can just flip a switch and change.

I have firmware v1.08 and EOS v1.11. When I boot my SCDS2 I see this icon:

Spoiler: Icon

I'm not sure if this makes a difference, but on top of EOS v1.11 I copied iMenu v3.3.

 

[Miss Panda]

If you read the install file that is contained within the ikureader archive it says
In your case you copy the data folder to the root of your memory card and place the iku.nds file into the _dstwoplug folder. It is that simple.

If you had downloaded some of the official plugins and extracted the archives to the root of your card you would already have a _dstwoplug folder and would be able to seeexamples of how it works.

I did read it and when not using it as a plugin that is exactly how I had it setup. But when it wouldn't work as a plugin I was looking at what was written in the thread rather than the original instructions which were not describing using it as a plugin.

Sorry I didn't download official plugins. My priority was an epub capable ereader. No official plugins can read epub. That was the whole point of me upgrading to a DSi XL and getting the DSTWO as my old Edge card won't work on a DSi. So I could use it as an ereader.

EDIT:Anyway thanks for all your help it is appreciated, I recognise how frustrating this is for you when you are trying to help and someone doesn't get it.

I'll just have to live with it as it is without the plugin.

 

[CannonFoddr]

@Densetsu9000: Oopps - some1 (including me) should've mentioned that you ONLY see the Stormbreaker Icon

on DSi (XL) systems and NOT on DSLite

What you are seeing is normal for the DSTwo to show on a DSLite