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R4 Ultra BL2CK 1.31.0 #3

Closed Ammako closed 1 month ago

Ammako commented 1 month ago

For https://nds.flashcarts.net/card/r4ultra

I have R4 Ultra and I can't get those BL2CK files to work. It hangs on a white screen after the initial Loading screen.

I was able to make it work by using the _DSMENU.DAT from the AKAIO 1.8.6a download instead, which requires also copying akmenu4.nds to _MENU\.NDS, but I don't know if that can cause problems later.

Deletecat commented 1 month ago

That's weird, BL2CK should work just fine on this cart. Could you try reformatting your microSD card by following this guide: https://dsi.cfw.guide/sd-card-setup.html. Once formatted, try using BL2CK 1.31.0 again. flashcard-bootstrap used in this kernel seems to be a bit picky about how the SD card is formatted.

Ideally, you should be using AKAIO 1.8.6a on this cart instead of BL2CK. It's generally better for game compatibility although you may need to apply AP patches to some newer games.

Ammako commented 1 month ago

It's a 4GB Microcenter card, I already formatted using sd card formatter. I'm using that card because it had slightly faster random read speeds than my 8GB Lexar card on the benchmarks, and I didn't need the higher capacity. I guess I could try the Lexar one instead. I have a 4GB Sandisk I could try too, maybe it would like Sandisk more. I have a 16GB Kingston one too but it has terrible read speeds for some reason (maybe it's just old and worn out.)

Also I just realized the url I shared pointed to the main flashcart list, I don't know why because I copied the url from when I was on the r4 ultra page. but I guess it doesn't really matter since you understood what card I was talking about, anyway.

Do you know what the difference in compatibility is between AKAIO 1.8.6a and BL2CK 1.31.0? I know AKAIO 1.9.0 runs everything, but the AKAIO changelog doesn't include game fixes, and since loader changelog is separate from kernel changelog, I can't really know which loader version might be included in 1.8.6a for R4 Ultra... so I don't know what game fixes 1.8.6a might be missing. On the other hand BL2CK ran even Pokémon Black 2/White 2 without any issues, so I assumed it had perfect compatibility.

Deletecat commented 1 month ago

If you could try using other SD cards, that would be great. It would really help to narrow down the cause of the issue :)

Do you know what the difference in compatibility is between AKAIO 1.8.6a and BL2CK 1.31.0?

I don't fully know what the difference in compatibility is, but here's my understanding of it. AKAIO 1.8.6a seems to be missing some AP patches for newer games like Pokémon Black/White 2 but I haven't really heard of any issues besides that. It's not a huge deal though as you can just patch the ROMs manually or use cheats to patch them on the fly.

BL2CK has been a bit varied depending on the cart used. See this for instance: https://www.flashcarts.net/ds-quick-start-guide?tab=original-hacked#r4ds-pro - the issues mentioned for BL2CK seem to only occur specifically on the R4DS Pro, I haven't been able to replicate it on my other Acekard clone (R4i3D 2012). Download play doesn't work correctly on BL2CK no matter the cart used, but besides that, I don't think it's missing as many AP patches that AKAIO 1.8.6a is.

I might make up a website at some point to track game compatibility for different kernels/carts. BL2CK 1.31.0 is still somewhat new and we don't really know the full extent of what works and what doesn't.

Ammako commented 1 month ago

It doesn't work on the 8GB Lexar card either. I haven't bothered trying the 4GB Sandisk because it tested even worse than the 16GB Kingston on read speeds, and the Kingston one already had trouble running games correctly. but I could take the time to try them if you really want me to.

I'm not totally convinced the sd card is the problem though, because that same 8GB Lexar card loads BL2CK 1.31.0 fine on an AK2i. Same card, same files, doesn't work on R4 Ultra. Normally you wouldn't bother, you would just use AKAIO 1.9.0 with the Acekard, but R4 Ultra is better for running games from slot 1 in Twilight Menu, or so I'm told.

Anyway, I didn't know AP was the only problem with older AKAIO. That and download play not working at all on BL2CK, I should probably switch over. It's still worth trying to figure out what the problem here is though, because some people might want to use BL2CK instead for one reason or another and they might run into the same problem.

Deletecat commented 1 month ago

Hmm yeah that's odd. I'll bring it up with some people who know more about this than I do to see if they have an answer. I'll see if I can also get other people with an R4 Ultra to try it on their carts.

Ammako commented 1 month ago

I just realized that the official download for R4 Ultra AKAIO 1.8.6a includes a loader changelog which confirms that the March 3rd 2011 loader is included. So by comparing with the 1.9.0 loader changelog, you can know what needs manual patching. Maybe this changelog could be included in the mirrored download?

Ammako commented 1 month ago

For what it's worth, 1.30.4 works perfectly. but the _ds_menu.dat from 1.31.0 is completely different, and that doesn't load.

Deletecat commented 1 month ago

That actually helps a lot. The latest version of flashcard-bootstrap (included with BL2CK 1.31.0) has had reported issues with some carts not being able to boot, I wonder if this is the case for the R4 Ultra. The flashcard-bootstrap file is _ds_menu.dat, it is used to boot akmenu4.nds. That may be the cause of your issue.

Try this; use BL2CK 1.31.0 kernel files but replace _ds_menu.dat with the one from BL2CK 1.30.4. They are both copies of flashcard-bootstrap, but 1.30.4 uses an older version. If this works, I'll see if I can get the version on the flashcard-archive moved back to the older version of bootstrap.

To test that it works properly, try launching Animal Crossing WIld World - this is a game that shouldn't boot on 1.30.3/.4 but does boot on the latest version of BL2CK.

Ammako commented 1 month ago

Well, right now I'm running AKAIO 1.8.6a using the BL2CK 1.30.4 _ds_menu.dat, because it's nicer than the AKAIO one. I don't have Animal Crossing, I could get it just to check, but if running AKAIO works fine then I would imagine it would run 1.31.0 fine too.

Anyway, I went and checked still, as expected 1.31.0 loads and runs fine with the 1.30.4 _ds_menu.dat, just like with AKAIO.

Deletecat commented 1 month ago

as expected 1.31.0 loads and runs fine with the 1.30.4 _ds_menu.dat

So I guess it was an issue with flashcard-bootstrap then. Thanks for testing, I'll keep this issue open until I can get bootstrap swapped out on the archive :)

Deletecat commented 1 month ago

The flashcard-bootstrap included with BL2CK 1.31.0 has been switched out with an older version, it should now boot properly on the R4Ultra. Thanks again for testing this :)