DS-Xtreme OpenSource Firmware Project

DS-Xtreme OpenSource Firmware Project The scope of this project is to open up the DS-Xtreme flash cartridge hardware/firmware for homebrewers to modify. I have asked the DSX for the information prior on embarking on this project. No information was forthcomming. Please remember that this wiki is updated and maintained by YOU - Please help out where you can! Donate your DEAD DS-X cartridges to this project PM reveng @gbatemp

Project Plan I propose the following tasks to achieve the "OpenSource" goal. 01) Do Under The Hood research on the DS-X hardware for an insight into what the firmware may be. --DONE-- 02) Acquire all the files that make up the firmware. --DONE-- 03) Disassemble the PC application that updates the firmware. --IN PROGRESS-- 04) Create a new, "OpenSource" updater application based on the knowledge gained. 05) Disassemble the core8051 EZ-USB controller firmware. 06) Create a new, "OpenSource" firmware from the knowledge gained. 07) Disassemble the configuration for the FPGA. 08) Create a new, "OpenSource" project from the knowledge gained.. 09) Disassemble the native NDS application (the launcher) 10) Create a new, "OpenSource" launcher from the knowledge gained.. 11) Using the knowledge gained make some schematics of the DS-X cartridge. This order was chosen because the firmware " update.bin" is one large zipped?, binary file. So first we have to decompile the updater application to understand how its zipped and what parts make up the USB, FPGA and NDS launcher....

How Shuny's Downgrader Works

At offset 0x000B79F4 in the DSX updater application file you will find the URL that points to the DSX server. This is where update.txt can be loaded by the updater application.

In the file update.txt there is a URL which tells the DSX updater application file where it can load updater.bin from.

Shuny patched these URL's to point to another server where the older update.txt and update.bin could be found.

Hats of to Shuny for a very clever and inventive piece of work.

Work In Progress Log

5th January 2008:

Initial viewing of the PC Updater tool yields the following information.

1) The updater was coded with Borland Delphi development enviroment in C/C++.
2) The updater contains ZLIB compression librarys (probabily for the firmware).
3) The updater contains Altera Jam FPGA communication librarys (maybe for the JTAG connector on the circuit board).
4) The updater contains Indy Sockets library.
5) The Updater contains Cypress USB communication librarys.

On running the updater, it uses windows sockets api to download update.txt and update.bin from the DSX server. The Indy Sockets api is probabily the wrapper to call the windows sockets api, for platform independancy. Delphi also has wrappers for the application windows. The applications resources can easily be pulled out with XN Resource editor. I've also noticed on some of the disassembly that the updater looks like it can take command line arguments?

7th January 2008:

main page redesigned for clarity.

Firmware and other files moved to a seperate wiki page, and descriptions added for the files.

Link to the initial hardware explorations, files and api's added.

Changed the Mozilla references to the Indy.Sockets librarys.

Some terminology corrected

ToDo:

I'm currently trying out a few disassemblers on the PC updater application .exe to see which gives me the best results.
The hardware investigations need putting on the wiki on a seperate page.
Get hold of the NDS launcher that was aquired with NO$GB and the wifi homebrew. This could be usefull to find out where in-
- the update.bin the NDS launcher resides.
This log need moving to the discussion page.

All in all not bad going for a weak lameass like me :)