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 DS-X for the information prior on embarking on this project. No information was forthcoming. 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 it's 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 DS-X 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.

Modifying The PC Updater Application To Load Update.txt and Update.bin Off Your PC

Using a hex/binary editor ,alter the URL found in the PC updater at offset 0x000B79F4

0x0B79F0: 02 29 B9 59 68 74 74 70 3A 2F 2F 75 70 64 61 74 - .)¹Yhttp://updat
0x0B7A00: 65 2E 64 73 2D 78 74 72 65 6D 65 2E 63 6F 6D 2F - e.ds-xtreme.com/
0x0B7A10: 75 70 64 61 74 65 6A 2F 75 70 64 61 74 65 2E 74 - updatej/update.t
0x0B7A20: 78 74 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - xt..............
0x0B7A30: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0x0B7A40: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................

To the following format: file://My PC Name or My PC IP/My Path/update.txt (you must terminate the string with zero).
Try not to go to far past the original URL string length as it might cause trouble.

0x0B79F0: 02 29 B9 59 66 69 6C 65 3A 2F 2F 4D 79 50 43 6F - .)¹Yfile://MyPCo
0x0B7A00: 72 49 50 2F 4D 79 50 61 74 68 2F 75 70 64 61 74 - rIP/MyPath/updat
0x0B7A10: 65 2E 74 78 74 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - e.txt...........
0x0B7A20: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0x0B7A30: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0x0B7A40: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................

Next change the URL found in update.txt with file://My PC Name Or My PC IP/My Path/update.bin

My PC Name is what you see the PC called on the network (Host Name)
My PC IP is your local machines IP address I.E 192.168.0.100
My Path is whatever path or paths you choose to put the update files in.

Use START->RUN->CMD ipconfig /ALL to find your Host Name and IP Address, if you don't know it

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 environment in C/C++.
2) The updater contains ZLIB compression libraries (probably for the firmware).
3) The updater contains Altera Jam FPGA communication libraries (maybe for the JTAG connector on the circuit board).
4) The updater contains Indy Sockets library.
5) The Updater contains Cypress USB communication libraries.

On running the updater, it uses windows sockets api to download update.txt and update.bin from the DS-X server. The Indy Sockets api is probably the wrapper to call the windows sockets api, for platform independency. 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 separate 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 libraries.

Some terminology corrected

11th January

corrected the how did Shuny do it (missed the bit about altering update.txt)

added a little tutorial on how to make the updater load locally

Although it pains me so, I removed the DS-X comment, by request of throwingwinks :(

ToDo:

I'm currently trying out a few disassemblers on the PC updater application .exe to see which gives me the best results.
Get hold of the NDS launcher that was acquired with NO$GB and the wifi homebrew. This could be useful to  This log need moving to the discussion page.