Burning DreamShell question

[darthcloud]

Hi,

I'm trying to run the Dreamshell for some day but can't get it to work on my dreamcast.

I've download the cdi version "DreamShell 4.0 Beta 4 (CDI Image)" and burned it with DiscJuggler 6.

When I put the disc in my dreamcast nothing happen, I stay forever at the BIOS screen.

I also tried to burn the image with Alcohol 120% without more succes.

I have no problem burning game with DiscJuggler or Alcohol btw.


So I don't get why it's not working. Does DS always need and SD card to run.

Thank for help.

[SWAT]

At what speed you burn CDs? DreamShell can run without SD.

[darthcloud]

I burn at 8x, like I said I have no problem burning normal DC games.

What software and which version do you use for burning?

[TuxTheWise]

(03.09.2010 08:16)darthcloud писал(а):  I burn at 8x, like I said I have no problem burning normal DC games.

What software and which version do you use for burning?

IMO the first thing you need to do is check if your disc was recorded correctly. Make an image of your recored disc with DJ and test it with NullDC. If it doesn't work, the problem was in recording process. If it works, the problem is elsewhere.

[SWAT]

This image created with mkisofs and cdi4dc, type data/data.

[darthcloud]

TuxTheWise was kind enough to help me with this issue today.

I did exclude the possibility that I was burning the cdi incorrectly. I made an image of one of the disc I've burn with DiscJuggler and this image worked fine in nullDC.

So the problem seem to be that my Dreamcast cannot read in the area too close of the center of the disc. I have one of the first batch of DreamCast released (Manufactured in August 1999). My DC has an Yamaha btw. Is anyone was able to try DreamShell CDI image with the first DCs batch with Yamaha drive?? This never caused me trouble until today, all cdi game I burned work fine, even those using 99min CDs

This is what Tux suggested me to try (I edited it to reflect our last attempt):

Цитата:1) Extract the files from the image.
2) Unscramble the main binary (dcscram -d 1DS_CORE.BIN new.bin) and replace the old one.
3) Add a DUMMY.DAT file of about 100Mb.
3) Create an ISO for the files and put DUMMY.DAT at the lowest position on the CD (mkisofs -l -o data.iso -sort sort.txt data).
sort.txt content:

Код:

data/DUMMY.DAT 60000

4) bin2boot the ISO. It will say IP.BIN was not found, tell bin2boot to create it and give the 1DS_CORE.BIN as the main binary name.
5) Test it on NullDC before burning.

The result CDI of this manipulation work fine in nullDC. Doing this did improve what happen with my DC. With the genuine release of DreamShell, my DC stay at the BIOS opening (DC logo) forever. Now with the modified image I can see the "SEGA Produced by..." logo screen but after that the screen become black and nothing happen.

So it look like my DC can't access the first track because I guess the TOC is located to close of the center of the disc and unfortunately the systemfile of DS are located on that data track.

Do you have any idea that could help me?

Thanks.

[neon]

1.You can use an utility named DC Hakker (Dream Loader) to boot DS.
2. You can burn DS on different CD-R manufacturer.
3. You can ask Mr. SWAT to create non-selfboot iso image that works with Utopia.

http://www.dcevolution.net/index.php?id=dchakker

[darthcloud]

Thanks neon for the DC Hacker suggestion after some trial I got it to work.

Simply putting the DS disc doesn't worked since my DC can't read (I guess) the TOC of the first track.

To bypass this I started a multi-session disk and put an useless 512Kb file on it and burned it with nero.

After that I extracted all the file from the DS cdi and continued my multi-session diss with that.

Now DreamLoader can read that CD and I'm finaly able to start DreamShell

I seam to work fine that way. File browser crash when I exit it, but the same thing happen in nullDC so I guess it's fine.

Thanks to everyone who helped me on this

[SWAT]

Do not close the file manager, just hide it (the button on the left of the closing).
There is a small problem when closing applications.

[dottor_male]

Hello. I have a similar problem, but it's a little different. My Dreamcast will not boot neither Dreamshell nor DC Hacker, but it see them as audio CD (so it can read the TOC).
Every other cd I have boot fine. I burned them with imgburn at 12x and 8x. I see that all my games have two sessions, where dreamshell as only one. Can this be the problem?

[SWAT]

Try to burn CD at 4x in other burn program. Cleaning the laser on gd-rom maybe it help you.

[TuxTheWise]

(01.11.2010 22:40)dottor_male писал(а):  Hello. I have a similar problem, but it's a little different. My Dreamcast will not boot neither Dreamshell nor DC Hacker, but it see them as audio CD (so it can read the TOC).
Every other cd I have boot fine. I burned them with imgburn at 12x and 8x. I see that all my games have two sessions, where dreamshell as only one. Can this be the problem?

Every Dreamcast selfboot disc has two sessions. Are you sure the disc was recorded correctly? Try to boot it on Chankast. If it's shown as audio CD, then the CD is recorded wrong.

[ms18e]

(05.09.2010 18:56)darthcloud писал(а):  Thanks neon for the DC Hacker suggestion after some trial I got it to work.

Simply putting the DS disc doesn't worked since my DC can't read (I guess) the TOC of the first track.

To bypass this I started a multi-session disk and put an useless 512Kb file on it and burned it with nero.

After that I extracted all the file from the DS cdi and continued my multi-session diss with that.

Now DreamLoader can read that CD and I'm finaly able to start DreamShell

I seam to work fine that way. File browser crash when I exit it, but the same thing happen in nullDC so I guess it's fine.

Thanks to everyone who helped me on this

Bingo. I have 4 dreamcasts, 3 of them load discs smoothly (including SEGA GD-ROM, commercial pirated CD-ROM and my CDRs burned by nero+daemon / Alcohol+cdi), but failed to load DreamShell disc burned with same methods; the 4th one has different feature, for loading DreamShell smoothly (burned by nero+daemon / Alcohol+cdi), by has problem loading my existing CDRs and commercial pirated CD-ROMs.

Then I re-created DreamShell using some tools, inserting 50MB dummy file named 0.0 occupied inner part of the disc, pushing useful files to out part, and all my Dreamcasts can load it well.

SWAT, maybe you can provide image containing such a dummy file in following DreamShell releases to improve the compatibility, since dummy file of pure zero can be compressed into few bytes: I compressed the cdi file of DreamShell into 300kB or so, which contains a 50MB dummy file.

[SWAT]

Ok.

[dottor_male]

(04.11.2010 10:45)TuxTheWise писал(а):  

(01.11.2010 22:40)dottor_male писал(а):  Hello. I have a similar problem, but it's a little different. My Dreamcast will not boot neither Dreamshell nor DC Hacker, but it see them as audio CD (so it can read the TOC).
Every other cd I have boot fine. I burned them with imgburn at 12x and 8x. I see that all my games have two sessions, where dreamshell as only one. Can this be the problem?

Every Dreamcast selfboot disc has two sessions. Are you sure the disc was recorded correctly? Try to boot it on Chankast. If it's shown as audio CD, then the CD is recorded wrong.

I've tried, but I can't find good bios for chankast, only for NullDC. I'll try reburn it with disc juggler.

[dottor_male]

Using DiscJuggler I managed to burn a correct disc with 2 session, but my Dreamcast suffer the same problem of ms18e (stuck at bios, and then goes to audio player with a 2 session disk).
So I'll wait for a new version with the dummy file or maybe I will try to create one myself.
Thank you all!

[TuxTheWise]

(09.11.2010 20:21)dottor_male писал(а):  Using DiscJuggler I managed to burn a correct disc with 2 session, but my Dreamcast suffer the same problem of ms18e (stuck at bios, and then goes to audio player with a 2 session disk).
So I'll wait for a new version with the dummy file or maybe I will try to create one myself.
Thank you all!

What does dummy has to do with the process? Have you tried the disc in Chankast like I suggested?

[ms18e]

(10.11.2010 00:52)TuxTheWise писал(а):  

(09.11.2010 20:21)dottor_male писал(а):  Using DiscJuggler I managed to burn a correct disc with 2 session, but my Dreamcast suffer the same problem of ms18e (stuck at bios, and then goes to audio player with a 2 session disk).
So I'll wait for a new version with the dummy file or maybe I will try to create one myself.
Thank you all!

What does dummy has to do with the process? Have you tried the disc in Chankast like I suggested?

It's in his post: he has problem finding an appropriate bios for Chankast.

Dummy file located in the inner side of disc may provide better compatibility or higher access speed by pushing useful files outside, since some Dreamcasts have problem loading track that is too close to the center of disc. It works on my dreamcasts indeed.

[dottor_male]

(10.11.2010 17:25)ms18e писал(а):  

(10.11.2010 00:52)TuxTheWise писал(а):  What does dummy has to do with the process? Have you tried the disc in Chankast like I suggested?

It's in his post: he has problem finding an appropriate bios for Chankast.

Dummy file located in the inner side of disc may provide better compatibility or higher access speed by pushing useful files outside, since some Dreamcasts have problem loading track that is too close to the center of disc. It works on my dreamcasts indeed.

Exactly. I remeber doing this in the early days, because some homebrew wasn't starting. Could you send me your image to test it?
Also, I've found a working bios for chankast, but it seem tha chankast can't interface with the drivers of Windows 7 x64. It tells me "can't read TOC" every time with every cd.

[Rio]

What is 'TOC', by the way?