From: "Michael Reid - CSCI/P2003" <m6reid@...>
> thanks alot john, you've really helped my understanding of the flashing
> process of these carts.

Glad to be of assistance.

> i found some f2a flashing code (for linux) from
http://deyv.free.fr/gba/f2a
> with source included. i think i'm going to take a risk and assume i can
> port that source to write through a serial interface, making the mbv2+f2a
> combo a full solution. i'd go so far as to say it might even simplify the
> code, as writing through a serial port is probably easier than through
> usb, but i'll have to investigate further.

Yes, I knew about that code, forgot to mention it in my previous email.
Ironically though, most of the info you can extract from it is about the
f2a usb cable, not about the flashing process itself. From what I've seen
they just use the f2afirm.hex code from the windows utility provided with
the cable, but they don't provide the source for that GBA code
(though reversing the interesting part shouldn't be that hard).

> the reason i'm so hung on the mbv2 is that it has some good pc
> file-serving code already written for linux. unless there exists such a
> thing for the f2a linker (must be for linux, or have the source available
> for me to port) it seems easier for me to use jeff's mbv2 file serving
> code.

A PC file-server for the GBA, whether through serial or USB
(provided you have the code to drive the USB cable) can't
be that hard to write from scratch ?

I still think an USB linker would be a better choice because you
would have the certainty of being able to flash the card, and the
possibility of file-serving with a bit of work, much of which has
already been done in if2a.

With the MBV2 you'd have multiboot and file-serving out of the box,
but the ability to flash the card remains theoretical.

In the end it all depends on which feature is more important to you,
I guess.

> i don't have any of the hardware yet, so i won't be starting for some
> time, but if anyone's interested i can post this when i'm done.

I'de be very interested to hear about what you are doing. For myself,
I'd like to try driving the USB cable from a PC program to communicate
with the GBA (file-serving and more) so I'm always keen on following
what others have done in this domain.

Could you please keep me in touch if you make any progress ?

Cheers,
--Jonathan