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DSx86 Doesn't Work in DSi Mode

Open poudink opened this issue 2 years ago • 4 comments

Your console: DSi Launch Method: Launched through Twilight Menu 22.2.0. My DSi is on the latest firmware (North American) and is set to automatically launch Twilight Menu on boot. I have Unlaunch 2.0 installed. HiyaCFW is not installed. Version used: 0.49.1 Game tested/used/applicable: DSx86 0.43, available here: http://dsx86.patrickaalto.com/DSdown.html

Expected Behavior: DSx86 should've launched 4DOS, as it does in DS mode. Actual Behavior: Nothing happens and DSx86 gets stuck on a white screen.

Steps to reproduce

Put DSx86 in your SD card and put the 4DOS files available on the DSx86 download page in SD Card/data/dsx86/4dos/. You'll know you've done it right if it succesfully launches 4DOS in DS Mode. Then, enable DSi Mode and launch the emulator.

Logs

NDSBTSRP.LOG

Other notes

Worth noting that turning on direct boot in Twilight Menu does allow DSx86 to progress further and you'll even get to see the "Running in DSi mode!" text, but it'll freeze at the "Initializing libFAT" step.

Also, the reason this is an issue is that DSx86 is a DSi-enhanced homebrew app and is meant to work in DSi mode. When launched from a DSi-mode flashcart, the speed of the emulated CPU is doubled from a 10MHz 80286 to a 20MHz 80286 and the amount of emulated XMS RAM is increased from 512KB to 8MB (see homepage). This really helps increase the compatibility of the emulator with newer DOS and Windows 3 games and simply setting the clock speed and VRAM to DSi mode doesn't allow you to benefit from it at all, since DSx86 still thinks it's running on a DS and is still trying to emulate a 10MHz CPU with 512KB of RAM.

poudink avatar Oct 20 '21 22:10 poudink

DSi mode isn't tested much with nds-bootstrap, and isn't recommended for use with homebrew that can already read the SD card natively. Try turning on direct boot in the per-game settings for DSx86 to boot in DSi mode. nds-bootstrap will not be used as a result, leaving the remaining issues in DSx86 itself.

RocketRobz avatar Oct 20 '21 22:10 RocketRobz

As I said, I already tried direct boot. "Worth noting that turning on direct boot in Twilight Menu does allow DSx86 to progress further and you'll even get to see the "Running in DSi mode!" text, but it'll freeze at the "Initializing libFAT" step." I don't believe it can already read the SD card natively. Not the console SD card, anyway, since it was meant to be used with DSi-mode flashcarts.

poudink avatar Oct 21 '21 02:10 poudink

Sorry, only saw the text below that one.

RocketRobz avatar Oct 21 '21 02:10 RocketRobz

As I said, I already tried direct boot. "Worth noting that turning on direct boot in Twilight Menu does allow DSx86 to progress further and you'll even get to see the "Running in DSi mode!" text, but it'll freeze at the "Initializing libFAT" step." I don't believe it can already read the SD card natively. Not the console SD card, anyway, since it was meant to be used with DSi-mode flashcarts.

I tried it on the latest version, and DSi Mode does seem to work with direct boot, though I don't have any software to test/make use of these capabilities.

spellboundtriangle avatar Mar 10 '22 10:03 spellboundtriangle