Dreamshell boot loader and booting ISO's

Hi all,

I have just flashed my DC bios to the Dreamshell boot loader, which loads up fine and loads up the full dreamshell form the SD card. I then go to launch a game (quake III in this case) and it just resets back to the loader.

I can load and run the game fine from the SD card when I boot up with the dreamshell disc but not from the bios...any clues as to why

Thanks for any help

Cheers

 

You have to install the bootloader with BIOS in order to load games and bypass the GD-ROM drive.

 

Hey atreyu,

Already tried that, made no difference...still resets....can't figure it out...happens on two dreamcasts exactly the same

 

Works fine on mine not sure what your problem would be then bud.

 

No, me neither thanks for trying though...will post back if I find the solution

 

Looking in the archive of the latest Dreamshell I see 2 possibly 3 different bios files that could enable playing SD-ISO files without booting DS from a CD. "dreamshell_boot_loader.bios" and "dreamshell.bios" are dated Feb 2012 and "dreamshell_loader_with.bios" is dated Nov 2011 (less chance that's the one you're looking for). Have you tried them all?

Maybe the one you flashed does not contain de required data to play SD-ISO of commercial games.

 

Thanks for your input on this.

Unfortunately though, yes I have tried all 3 variations available but none of them have worked

 

For thoroughness, here are some additional troubleshooting questions - -


- Have you tried a different SD card?

- Have you tried a different SD card reader?


I discovered over the last while that the serial port is very touchy with regards to good, positive contact on BOTH the SD card adapter and the SD card itself.


Examples include - -

- I would get no-boot situations using an SD card that I finally discovered had some oxidation on one pin.

- Random resets, particularly during loading a game, or shortly after starting it, would occur while using an older XCKDIY-manufactured (well-known Chinese modder) SD card adapter that I discovered had some pushed in pins on it that were not making good contact with the serial port. A quick re-adjustment stopped the issues!


Although at first glance it might not seem to be related to your issue, I would say try again with a different SD card AND adapter and then check back in with results . . . ?

At least we can check those possible issues off the list if you do that . . . !


-a2a

 

Interesting, I will have to perhaps look into trying another card reader if I don't get anywhere soon...already tried another SD card but got the same result. Will report back if I ever solve this one

 

Okay, because I am a curious fellow, and I happen to have half-a-dozen SD card readers and five Dreamcasts around the shop right now . . . and because the neighbor's dog came out to bark at 3:30 AM, and the robins started singing loudly outside the window at 4 AM . . .

. . . I have some updates for you.

I was trying out the Skies of Arcadia SDISO, and noticed that it would simply not boot using Dreamshell RC1 on a modded DC with a Dreamshell-flashed BIOS, a built-in SD card reader, and the appropriate DS folder on the SD card. Skies of Arcadia would load, and then the screen would go black. Just freeze. No game. I tried it on another similarly modded unit, Dreamshell would load Skies of Arcadia, go to black . . . and then Dreamshell would restart, and take me back to the desktop!

I then tried booting from the Dreamshell RC1 CD, with a SD card with the DS folder on it in the reader, and was able to successfully launch the game - - on several machines


To summarize - -

- Boot with Dreamshell flashed BIOS, SD card with DS folder present at boot, Dreamshell loads ISO, tries to launch, and goes to black and freezes (or restarts Dreamshell)

- Boot with Dreamshell RC1 CD, SD card with DS folder present at boot, Dreamshell loads ISO, launches game successfully

- I also Booted with Dreamshell RC1 CD using a freshly formatted SD card, no DS folder on the card, and Dreamshell loaded the Skies of Arcadia ISO and launched the game successfully.



So, just another data point, I see a similar issue as you with certain ISOs - - many/most of them work fine with the Dreamshell-flashed BIOS booted system, others freeze or cause a reboot of the Dreamshell system.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 behaved similarly, for instance.


Did you follow mmmonkey's mod instructions for the BIOS, like many of us? I don't think the install method is the issue, but I am curious.


This sounds like some sort of memory space or file system issue where certain games want something that is not available when Dreamshell has been booted from the BIOS using the DS folder on the SD card?

I imagine it's an issue that will be worked out in the next Release Candidate.


-a2a

 

Interesting....thanks for taking the time to experiment whilst the animal kingdom sang it's happy song

I seem to be having this issue with all Commercial ISO's, they all get to the point where it says that it's executing and then reboot. Like you I have tired this on multiple consoles...two modded by me using mmmonkey's tutorial and one that was modded by Bad_Ad84.

I have so far tried headhunter, Quake3, DOA2 and skies of Arcadia all from the sdiso section of dcisozone.com

I am currently trouble shooting this with SWAT himself over at DC SWAT and he seems to be as confused as I am so far....seems to be an odd one.

I have tried it over VGA, Scart and composite just to make sure it wasn't that causing the issue but no dice so far

Anyway, thanks for your help...if you have any further ideas/thought then please share....

Thanks again

 

Hello I am having the same problem ... someone has already found the solution? thank you and excuse my english I'm using google translator!

 

The developer of Dreamshell answered the question over on his site - -

http://www.dc-swat.ru/forum/thread-1856-post-22930.html#pid22930

And, an image of that post - -



Basically, ". . . it's a known issue, might get resolved in later releases . . ."

-a2a