Hacking Why flashcarts launch automatically?

IC_

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Every time I insert a flashcart and turn on my DS it automatically goes to the flashcart menu, even though I have manual mode enabled. It normally goes into the DS menu when I insert a normal game. Why does that happen and is it possible to disable it?
 

The Real Jdbye

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Every time I insert a flashcart and turn on my DS it automatically goes to the flashcart menu, even though I have manual mode enabled. It normally goes into the DS menu when I insert a normal game. Why does that happen and is it possible to disable it?
I believe they simply make use of the autoboot flag that kiosk cartridges use.
IIRC some carts let you disable it in the settings.
 

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I believe they simply make use of the autoboot flag that kiosk cartridges use.
IIRC some carts let you disable it in the settings.
I doubt I can disable it because the setting would probably be saved on the SD card, and it works the same way without the SD card except that it shows no card inserted
 

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It kind of annoys me that I have to check if it’s there and remove it every time I want to use the menu, and why can’t they just make it work with manual mode like real cards?
But what do you need to use the firmware menu for? There's not much you can do there besides use Download Play.
 

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As far as I know, it was necessary in the past, way back when Slot 2 cards were used. You needed a way to boot into it. Slot 1 PassMe cards were used to execute a GBA ROM in DS Mode at boot time. Eventually, someone figured out how to use the exploit to boot to the same card as the card used in the exploit process. The first Slot 1 flashcard was made. Much later, the first non-autobooting card was made. These don't use that exploit. They use a different one to fake a valid header in order to seem like retail cards that can be started from the DS menu.

Tldr:

Old cards autoboot, new cards don't.
 
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IC_

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DS, DSLite.
I believe they don't autoboot.

Been a while since I used me DS.
Let alone used the DSTwo.

I've got a Supercard SD which i used as an mp3 player.
I’m using a DS Lite and it happens on every of my DS Lites (except the one that doesn’t read cards)
 

FAST6191

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As others mentioned it is something of a hidden extra mode, tiny bit more on
http://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#dscartridgeheader

Setting the alarm
If you have your flash cart in then the sleep mode current of many (maybe all, don't tend to measure them as part of reviews or anything) carts is quite high and will drain the battery somewhat faster than being out.
Equally there are half a dozen alarm clock homebrews
http://gamebrew.org/wiki/List_of_DS_homebrew_applications
 

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