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[moviecouple]

So explain this sm-mk4ds.nds to me. Just not really understanding what you guys are talking about.

[bitblt]

So explain this sm-mk4ds.nds to me. Just not really understanding what you guys are talking about.

The sm-mk4ds.nds file is a dump of the Neo Team MK4-Mini slot1 device.  The fact that it behaves like a commercial ROM is mostly trivia.  The important thing about this ROM is that it can be patched to run on the Supercard.  When you run this program you will be presented with the menu option to "Boot from . . NDS slot" by pressing the A button twice.  So this program allows the DSLink to be booted from the Supercard menu without the need to patch the SC firmware.

[1NOOB]

just a noob question , can that help for the snes emulation?... like run game with better speed and no sprite probleme?

[moviecouple]

I'm confused. I thought having the DS-Link and the Supercard in slots at the same time made it directly boot into the DS-Link. Are you saying that I can put the sm-mk4ds.nds file onto the DS-Link and run it... and it will then allow me the option to boot into the Supercard?

Here is another weird question and not even sure if it is possible. If Ihave the actual European NDS Browser cart... can I use the Supercard somehow instead of the Ram cart?

[bitblt]

just a noob question , can that help for the snes emulation?... like run game with better speed and no sprite probleme?

Ummm no.

I'm confused. I thought having the DS-Link and the Supercard in slots at the same time made it directly boot into the DS-Link. Are you saying that I can put the sm-mk4ds.nds file onto the DS-Link and run it... and it will then allow me the option to boot into the Supercard?

Yes, you are a bit confused. I'll try to summarize how this all works . . .

Without using the hacks described here, normally when the Supercard and DSLink are both inserted in the DS at the same time only the Supercard will boot.  So if you want to use your DSLink you have to remove the Supercard.  Also, if you want to run Opera_patched you need to first boot the DSLink menu and then quickly hot-insert Supercard while the DS is still on. Having to swap cards like this is inconvenient.

So, using the hacks described here you can use DSLink and Supercard at the same time without removing them from your DS. You can also run Opera_patched with DSLink without needing to hot-insert your Supercard. (SCCF users will also be able to run homebrew from the DSLink menu and link to content on the Supercard flash media)

Supercard CF/SD/miniSD

For people who want to use DSLink and Supercard CF/SD/miniSD at the same time, using the Supercard firmware "unpatcher" is the best solution. This will work with the latest Supercard 1.70 firmware. With this method you can choose to boot the DSLink menu or the Supercard menu by using button combinations during power up.

When booting:
Pressing nothing will take you to the DS-Link menu
Holding A+B+X+Y will take you to the Supercard menu
Holding Select will take you to the Nintendo menu

Also, from the DSLink menu you can run LoveLite.nds, cartreset.nds, or sm-mk4ds.nds to switch to the Supercard menu without needing to reset your DS. Currently only sm-mk4ds.nds can be used to switch from the Supercard menu back to the DSLink menu.

Supercard Lite

The firmware "unpatcher" has not been tested with Supercard Lite. So until someone has the balls to test this, there is another solution. With both DSLink and Supercard lite inserted the DS will normally boot to the Supercard menu.  To switch to the DSLink menu simply run the sm-mk4ds.nds program and press the A button twice.

Using sm-mk4ds.nds with Supercard

To run sm-mk4ds.nds from the Supercard menu you will need to manually patch it by prepending ndsloader. The ndsloader.bin file is a special header that is combined with any homebrew .nds file to output a patched .sc.nds file for use with Supercard. Type the following at the Windows command line . . .

copy /b ndsloader.bin + sm-mk4ds.nds mk4ds.sc.nds

Then copy mk4ds.sc.nds to your Supercard and run it.

Here is another weird question and not even sure if it is possible. If Ihave the actual European NDS Browser cart... can I use the Supercard somehow instead of the Ram cart?

No, only Opera_patched can use Supercard as a RAM pack.

[moviecouple]

Makes sense now. Can you PM me the sm-mk4ds.nds that has already been prepended using the ndsloader. I do not have the ndsloader or the sm-mk4ds.nds file. I would be greatfully appreciative since I am using the Supercard Lite and don't want to take the chance of messing it up with the unpatcher.

[ZAFDeltaForce]

The Mini MK4 dump works like a charm! Thanks to bitblt and his patient explanations!

[ratx]

heres a version of scmhbp that supports the mk4 dump

http://l33t.spod.org/ratx/DS/SC/scmhbp/scmhbp-0.21.zip

[bitblt]

Now that I know it's possible, I'm going to try and figure out how to modify Licks libcartreset to support booting the DSLink menu. I want to create a simple utility that will allow switching back and forth between Supercard and DSLink.

I had a chance to mess with some DS code this weekend.  So far I've had no success booting DSLink from the Supercard menu with my code. The main problem is lack of documentation regarding how to boot a slot 1 device that requires flashme like the DSLink.  The closest thing I've found to documentation is looking at Loopy's fwnitro source code.  I tried many things to get fwnitro to boot DSLink with no joy, and even bricked my DS Lite a few times in the process (lol).  Luckily I know how to recover a bricked DSLite.  The thing I don't understand is how DSLink hooks into the flashme boot process. If anyone can explain how this works (Lick?) please let me know. Obviously the mk4 dump proves that it is possible to switch from the Supercard menu to the DSLink menu, but I'm at a loss as to how this is accomplished with code.  My next plan of attack is to ask Loopy for some pointers, and I've also ordered the debug version of no$gba(DS) that should hopefully allow me to trace execution of the mk4 dump in an emulated environment.

[Hi]

Good luck bitbit, keep us posted. Or should I say keep on posting on this form in order to keep us posted. :roll:

[moviecouple]

Not being any type of genius when it comes to this stuff... I thought I'd try something. Since the DS has to be Flashed to use the DSLink... and having both the Supercard Lite in Slot 2 and DSlink in Slot 1. I held down Select to boot the DS into it's normal mode. In theory, I should be able to choose the DSlink at that point, but it is not chooseable. Is that because booting it this way bypasses the Flashme even though it is installed?

[bitblt]

Yes, holding the SELECT button will bypass the flashme boot process.  Holding SELECT boots the DS as if flashme wasn't installed. Because DSLink hooks into the flashme boot process it cannot be started from the Nintendo DS menu.  The part I don't understand (yet) is how DSLink can hook into the flashme boot process not being slot 2 card?

[jas20]

I believe that was introduced into Flashme to boot a slot-1 neoflash card that needed a slot-2 card to boot it.

[moviecouple]

Interesting. I'll have to work on this some more. So far I am thoroughly impressed with the DSLink. Seems to be a very capable NDS device. So far all the games I have thrown at it work and no slowdown either. I am a little worried though that I haven't seen any tweaks (like touch screen menus) to the firmware/software from the DSLink team... like we get with the Supercard system.

The NDS Browser is also very impressive too. Seems responsive and quick. Reminds me of my Dell PDA Internet Explorer browser.

The NDS browser is hands down better than the PSP one... or so I think so. I do wish there was a way to save your Login/Password into the browser so you don't have to enter it everytime you want to login into a site... like this one.

[bitblt]

^ You will find a handful of newer ROMs don't work with DS Link yet.  So far the DSLink team has been good with providing regular firmware/patcher updates.  Hopefully we will have another update soon.  BTW DSLink does support IGR (in game reset) option now.

The part I don't understand (yet) is how DSLink can hook into the flashme boot process not being slot 2 card?

I believe that was introduced into Flashme to boot a slot-1 neoflash card that needed a slot-2 card to boot it.

Interesting. Can you locate a thread someplace that describes how this works?