Nds-bootstrap: Golden Sun Dark Dawn black screen at launch

[Stack3r]

This game gets stuck at a black screen after loading from dsimenu++, even an AP patched rom has issues loading

[ahezard]

I do not think this is AP (I mean not only AP)

[Stack3r]

Yeah i'm starting to think the same
Edit Just ripped a rom from my cartridge and had the same issue with and without the AP patch

[ahezard]

I have an issue in no$gba with this file : "jumped to empty wram", I am using a fat16 virtual sd card in no$gba so it may be the issue (the fat table cache is probably bigger than allowed)

[ahezard]

arm7 is not thumb and is properly patched

[ahezard]

arm9 is not thumb but I have some doubt on the card read patch here

edit : no, arm9 is thumb, it seems to be not properly detected because arm patch are applied instead of thumb

[Kalanyr]

Testing: Haven't tested with an AP Patch, but this still black screens on launch on an unpatched ROM.

[ahezard]

Could be linked to #517

[ahezard]

The RomId of the card have a very specific behavior :
Fomr user Jeod
"GS: Dark Dawn's card chip id is E080FF80
If I press a button to re-get card id, it changes to FF000000"

[ahezard]

Could be linked to #539

[ahezard]

golden_sun_card_commmand_dma.txt
Attached card command/dma log at startup (onlyfew seconds). The games sends a lot of card command (ap check?) and then the opening video start with dma card read command (AF000001).

[ahezard]

This can be linked somehow to https://github.com/chishm/nitrohax/issues/3

[ahezard]

Wood contains a specific patch for this game
https://github.com/ahezard/woodrpg_forwarder/blob/e0280c91b21e28443c23f98a171012ef8a301b0c/akloader/arm9/source/patches_pr.cpp
Related to CP15 / data cache management function at 4BA60 (US version)
Could be a good hint

{0x45354f42,0x0204ba64,KMemProtMe,0x02049850,true }, //BO5E: 5367 - Golden Sun - Dark Dawn (USA)

The patch applied is
https://github.com/ahezard/woodrpg_forwarder/blob/e0280c91b21e28443c23f98a171012ef8a301b0c/akloader/patches/unprot_015.s

[ahezard]

The cardId function is not properly matched :
findCardIdEndOffset:
Card ID end SDK 5 found: 0204994C

findCardIdStartOffset:
Card ID start SDK 5 not found
Card ID start SDK 5 alt 1 found: 02049850

[ahezard]

Card ID start should be : 02049904

[ahezard]

the game is looping on this code, blocking on irq forever :

02055DB4 EB000000 BL 0x02055DBC
02055DB8 EAFFFFFD B 0x02055DB4
02055DBC E3A00000 MOV R0, #0x0
02055DC0 EE070F90 MCR P15, 0, R0, CR7, CR0, 4
02055DC4 E12FFF1E BX LR

[firelad97]

Hello, hoping it's ok for me to post on this issue. I am still new to nds-bootstrap.

In all honesty, I really love Golden Sun series, even Dark Dawn (idc about the flaws). So, as of writing the time now is 4:43 pm EST, on Oct 4th. Using the latest nightly version included in Twilight Menu++ Updater, Dark Dawn still starts on the black screen with AP patched.

Any updates? Anything I can do to help? I'd love to see this game running on my 3DS, haha. Thanks!

[KevinTheStarfish]

Yeah i have the same problem with the black screen is there a solution?

[dubbz82]

Currently no. I know there was some work started on it, however at least as far as I'm aware, there's been no progress on this game yet.

[Kalanyr]

Yes, this still Black Screens on launch on the latest Stable as of this post (both with and without an AP-fixed ROM)

Same with the nightly (https://github.com/ahezard/nds-bootstrap/commit/4b1258bc7380a053cfb625ca44d4ab2a2d90cfd4 )

[JeodC]

This appears to be in part related to the absence of nds firmware. No$gba stalled at black screen without firmware.bin in same path, but booted the game without issue after firmware.bin was added to same path as no$gba exe. Speculate nds firmware has an irq handler.

[nickdesaulniers]

Perhaps interrupts were disabled, then never re-enabled?