Yet Another nds-bootstrap Forwarder

YANBF (Yet Another nds-bootstrap Forwarder) is a forwarder structure for nds-bootstrap.

Features:

• "forwarders" are referred to placeholder icons that will shortcut to a particular application (in this case, nds-bootstrap)
  • Skip the second menu and just directly launch
• Launches from 3DS-mode.
  • The other implementation by @RocketRobz and @Olmectron, https://gbatemp.net/threads/nds-forwarder-cias-for-your-home-menu.426174/, is DSiWare, which means you are limited to only 40 titles. This works great on the DSi, it does not work great on the 3DS.
  • This means you can now install as many icons as you want until you max out the HOME menu icon space!

How it works:

• A pre-existing forwarder template exists: https://gbatemp.net/threads/nds-forwarder-cias-for-your-home-menu.426174/
  • This uses a DSiWare template, copies the icon and title and the ROM path, and then installed as a CIA. The CIA, when launched, will boot sdcard.nds which will do all the nds-bootstrap setup.
  • I instead opted to create an sdcard.nds bootloader, and then a 3DS-mode app that launches said bootloader
    • you can't launch .nds files from 3DS-mode. So a bootloader is required.
    • the bootloader does the same thing as the DSiWare template, in actuality

How to use:

1. Go to https://github.com/YANBForwarder/YANBF/releases, and download the appropriate zip file for your PC OS
2. Go to https://github.com/RocketRobz/NTR_Forwarder/releases, and download the zip file that is not the source code
3. Extract the zip files
4. From the DS Game Forwarder Pack, copy everything in the for SD card root folder to your SD card root
5. From YANBF, copy bootstrap.cia to the sd:/cias folder
   • If this folder doesn't exist, make one
6. Download the latest TWiLight Menu++ version here. Only get the 3DS.7z file
7. In the 7z file, go to _nds, TWiLightMenu, and extras
8. Drag the apfix.pck and widescreen.pck file to sd:/_nds/ntr-forwarder/

Using the command-line program

1. Open a terminal or command prompt and cd inside the generator folder
2. Run generator <path to ROM on your SD card>
   • Make sure to replace <path to ROM on your SD card> with the full path to your ROM
   • If you do not have your SD card inserted in your computer, you must provide a custom ROM path using -p <ROM path on SD>
     • This ROM path must follow POSIX standards
       • i.e. if your ROM on SD card is at "sd:/ROMs/ROM.nds", pass -p "/ROMs/ROM.nds"
3. The resulting CIA will be generated in this same folder. Copy this to the sd:/cias folder
4. Boot your 3DS and install both CIAs using FBI

Using the graphical user interface

1. Open the generator folder, then:
   • Windows: Open YANBF-GUI.exe
   • macOS:
     1. Open YANBF-GUI.dmg
     2. Install YANBFGenerator app
   • Linux: Open YANBF-GUI.AppImage
2. Set the generator directory to the path of your generator folder. A file browser icon next to the input can help with this
3. Drag and drop as many ROMs as you need on your SD card to the app
   • If you do not have your SD card inserted in your computer, you must provide a custom ROM path in the drop-down options
     • This ROM path must follow POSIX standards
       • i.e. if your ROM on SD card is at "sd:/ROMs/ROM.nds", write /ROMs/ROM.nds
4. Click the Download button to start the generation process
5. The resulting CIA will be generated in this same folder. Copy this to the sd:/cias folder
6. Boot your 3DS and install all CIAs using FBI

Updating files:

Using Universal-Updater

1. Open Universal-Updater on your 3DS
   • You can download it here: https://github.com/Universal-Team/Universal-Updater/releases
2. Navigate to YANBF, then install the YANBF Forwarder Pack

Manually

1. Re-follow steps 1-8 in the "How to use" section

To build:

1. edit romFS:/path.txt to any file path in sd:/. Do NOT end with newline, this kills it.
2. run make dist
3. install both CIAs
4. voila

Current issues:

• no idea. report if you see one

Credits:

• devkitPro for their toolchain
• RocketRobz for the TWLNAND bootstrap code
• Epicpkmn11 for bannergif.py and testing
• Olmectron for the GUI wrapper

License:

Bootstrap:

 Copyright (C) 2010  Dave "WinterMute" Murphy

 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
 as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 GNU General Public License for more details.

 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.

The rest:

MIT License

bannergif.py
Copyright (C) 2021 Pk11

generator.py and CIA template
Copyright (C) 2022-present lifehackerhansol

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.