Qoob Chip

[novenary]

Just tried, it fits thanks to dollz. I need to figure out a way to package it for flashing on a SX since you can't flash it via USB, and I'll upload it tomorrow.

[emu_kidid]

There is none. I'm going to try and make it fit but I can't promise anything.

Take the qoobSX update ELF and replace the GCB in it, easiest way to flash a SX.

[schooluser]

Just tried, it fits thanks to dollz. I need to figure out a way to package it for flashing on a SX since you can't flash it via USB, and I'll upload it tomorrow.

Wow! That's amazing! Thank you very much!

Edit-- Merging posts

Take the qoobSX update ELF and replace the GCB in it, easiest way to flash a SX.

What's in the GCB? Is the payload something else that's supposed to be on the qoobsx chip that I will need or is it a container that's specifically designed to just add it to the 1mb of space without overwriting the qoob necessary parts of the bios?

And how hard is it to hexedit it into there? I presume there are notes on how to find the gcb within the elf, header data or some such, that would help you know how to put it in there... it's a shame that you can't just include it on the qoobsx flash disc image and select to patch that particular file to the 1mb memory. How is homebrew loaded on a qoob pro via disc? If someone didn't want to use usb and instead wanted to load it up from a cd?

[novenary]

The GCB is just the raw flash image. It's pretty much equivalent to a regular IPL dump, but it contains the Qoob IPL instead. It looks like the updater for the SX might be a little annoying to patch, so I haven't tried anything yet. I also only have a pro so I'll need someone with a backup solution (another modchip, SDML, game exploit...) to try it out before I post it publicly.

[emu_kidid]

The GCB is just the raw flash image. It's pretty much equivalent to a regular IPL dump, but it contains the Qoob IPL instead. It looks like the updater for the SX might be a little annoying to patch, so I haven't tried anything yet. I also only have a pro so I'll need someone with a backup solution (another modchip, SDML, game exploit...) to try it out before I post it publicly.

I have a QoobSX GC running GCOS 1.5 or something ancient I'll happily try it on.

[schooluser]

I just want to say you guys rock! Thank you for all this help!

[theclaw]

Just tried, it fits thanks to dollz. I need to figure out a way to package it for flashing on a SX since you can't flash it via USB, and I'll upload it tomorrow.

Wow! That's amazing! Thank you very much!

Edit-- Merging posts

Take the qoobSX update ELF and replace the GCB in it, easiest way to flash a SX.

What's in the GCB? Is the payload something else that's supposed to be on the qoobsx chip that I will need or is it a container that's specifically designed to just add it to the 1mb of space without overwriting the qoob necessary parts of the bios?

And how hard is it to hexedit it into there? I presume there are notes on how to find the gcb within the elf, header data or some such, that would help you know how to put it in there... it's a shame that you can't just include it on the qoobsx flash disc image and select to patch that particular file to the 1mb memory. How is homebrew loaded on a qoob pro via disc? If someone didn't want to use usb and instead wanted to load it up from a cd?

Loading homebrew burned to a disc is normal for modchips.

If you want permanently installed homebrew, the usb connection is finicky on certain PCs and may take several tries.
Flashing qoob pro from a disc is believed possible, and was listed in the official product specs, but last time I asked we aren't yet sure how to do it.
http://www.eurasia.nu/mirrors/www.qoobc ... b_pro.html
https://www.gc-forever.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1741

[novenary]

Loading homebrew burned to a disc is normal for modchips.

It's a ridiculous thing to do nowadays, IPL replacements are much more flexible than that, and I'm surprised there isn't a solution out there yet.

[theclaw]

It's a ridiculous thing to do nowadays, IPL replacements are much more flexible than that, and I'm surprised there isn't a solution out there yet.

Like a module-based frontend? I can see giving apps a cohesive look and feel, by plugging them into provided font/interface options.
We'd want the defaults not to stray too far from Nintendo's style or it'd be strange.

[Sierron]

Now someone just needs to add additional stuff into the main gamecube dol and we're good.

[novenary]

Like a module-based frontend? I can see giving apps a cohesive look and feel, by plugging them into provided font/interface options.
We'd want the defaults not to stray too far from Nintendo's style or it'd be strange.

My bootstrap looks for an ipl.dol file on the SD card and loads it, or falls back to the Nintendo IPL. Doesn't get any simpler and I could even make it check for a button press on startup, though I see little point in that. Swiss does almost everything the Nintendo IPL does anyway.

[emu_kidid]

Like a module-based frontend? I can see giving apps a cohesive look and feel, by plugging them into provided font/interface options.
We'd want the defaults not to stray too far from Nintendo's style or it'd be strange.

My bootstrap looks for an ipl.dol file on the SD card and loads it, or falls back to the Nintendo IPL. Doesn't get any simpler and I could even make it check for a button press on startup, though I see little point in that. Swiss does almost everything the Nintendo IPL does anyway.

But Swiss doesn't look like the original IPL is what they're saying

[novenary]

Oh, fair enough. Well it's still there.

[theclaw]

Well, if the original IPL were made obsolete then looking different doesn't matter. A replacement that truly has every last conceivable feature Nintendo did. Including the memory card manager, and game language selection.

[novenary]

These two are already in Swiss. I think the RTC is the only missing feature. And the screen offset.

[theclaw]

These two are already in Swiss. I think the RTC is the only missing feature. And the screen offset.

I forgot about that. An uprising of Animal Crossing fans without their RTC isn't pretty.

[novenary]

The only downside to my IPL is actually that it breaks the RTC. I haven't figured out why yet.

[novenary]

Well, the good new is, the RTC is fixed, thanks to Extrems for pointing me in the right direction.

The bad news is, only half of the already tiny SX flash can be used, as the other half is used as a recovery IPL. I'll have to try harder if I want to make it fit. Or figure out how to use the entire SX flash. Current compressed size with all screen output disabled is 86KB.

[tueidj]

That should be plenty of room if you ditch libogc (write your own EXI functions...)

[novenary]

Yeah, it's feasible, but I really don't feel like doing this right now. libfat (probably together with the SD driver) seems to take up over a third of my binary so I'll probably try to replace that whenever.

[tueidj]

There's a very basic fat implementation (enough to find and load a specific file) in the twilight hack source code.

[schooluser]

Well, the good new is, the RTC is fixed, thanks to Extrems for pointing me in the right direction.

The bad news is, only half of the already tiny SX flash can be used, as the other half is used as a recovery IPL. I'll have to try harder if I want to make it fit. Or figure out how to use the entire SX flash. Current compressed size with all screen output disabled is 86KB.

Ouch, I thought the one MB was memory in addition to the unchangeable recovery part. I liked the concept of that because then I couldn't permanently destroy the chip by loading something incorrectly...

Anyone know if there's a way to detach the existing memory and install an upgrade to it?

[novenary]

That won't be necessary, I'm going to get rid of libogc and make it fit.
Swapping the flash chip is not really possible. We have no access to the FPGA source, so there is no way to make it aware that you have more space.

[novenary]

So I managed to golf it down enough by using kprintf and replacing libfat with fatfs while keeping libogc's SD driver. Source code here, binaries as soon as emu_kidid has tested it on his SX.

[vinzanity]

I'm very excited for the release of this. Hopefully flashing is as easy as flashing the wasp.