How to setup and use The M3 Quad-Boot
Introduction
The main reason for this guide? To finally help the masses with setting up and using The M3 Quad-Boot. There has been people asking me to create this and never enough time nor motivation. So I felt now as a best a time as ever to create this.[/p]
Pre-Setup
To start setting up The M3 Quad-Boot, the best thing to do is to make sure you have the right flashcard, this means your flashcards has to be one of these three flash cards; M3 Real v1, M3 Real v2, and M3i Zero. Why most you make sure of this fact you may ask? Because the M3 Team produced one last flashcard to lock out alternate firmwares called M3i Zero gmp z003 (picture provided by danijeljames) If you have that flashcard, then I suggest buying another flashcard since that one has some serious problems and isn't worth much if you are annoyed with the long waits between M3 updates.[/p]
Setup
Before doing anything I suggest backing up your microSD card and reformatting with the Panasonic SD Card Formatter (use these options : FORMAT TYPE - FULL (Erase ON) : FORMAT SIZE ADJUSTMENT - ON), this will ensure full use of The M3 Quad-Boot.
Now after doing that you have to download the M3 Quad-Boot from either the Filetrip link or the Megaupload link, both links are kept up to date by me.
After you finished downloading the file, you need to extract the files to the root of your microSD card, I would suggest using 7zip, it's free and easy to use. So your microSD card should look something like this. Now you are ready to start using The M3 Quad-Boot[/p]
Using The Quad-Boot
At point there won't be any screenshots due to my lack of a fully working M3 Real.
Once you have everything setup, you can just put your microSD card into your M3 Card and start it up. It should start up as M3 Sakura automatically, please note that you can boot into Touchpod, but it won't work for rom booting or anything, it's only there to provide a game loading engine for Sakura.
Now that you have booted into Sakura you can scroll around either using the d-pad or using the stylus. Most people know how to do this since most M3 users already use or have used Sakura by now. Unlike Sakura though, The Quad-Boot comes with 3 other firmwares.
To boot into YSM3, you need to scroll down "YSM3.nds" and click on it, it will take a little bit of time, but it will start up. YSM3 is just YSMenu for M3 Real or M3i Zero and is using RetroGameFan's files for regular updates. Using it is pretty simple, you go into your game folder and you just open a rom the same as you always do, high-lighting them, then pressing "a" and the game will boot, it takes a little bit longer to boot depending on the speed of your microSD card.
To boot into R4i RTS firmware; it's the same as YSM3, but you just scroll down to the file named "R4iRTS.nds" and click on that. It will take a little bit of time to boot and will go through some screen blinking before it will boot into a firmware that clearly looks like the R4 firmware. You got your normal 3 options, the Multi-Media button doesn't open Moonshell since I didn't want to provide Moonshell for file size reasoning, so you will have to get that yourself and rename it yourself. To start up games it the same as R4.
Finally to boot into M3 Wood; just do the same as the others, but click on "wood_r4_m3". Once it's starts up you need to open the start menu, go into the settings and change the Save extension to .sav instead of .nds.sav. As I was about to say, to boot roms is the same as before, but I won't go into detail about wood because there are already enough tutorials to using it and this is not for M3 Wood.[/p]
Post-Setup
All the firmwares can soft-reset. Just follow the on screen instructions or in YSM3's case press "R+L+A+B+X+Y" as well for M3 Wood just press "R+L+A+B+?" and it should reset. M3 Wood can not soft-reset though. As well 3 out of 4 firmware do not get regular updates, but YSM3 does. As well with M3 Wood, when you add a new game or your files are fragmented you need move the file off your mircoSD card and move it back on and it will work.[/p]
Updating after installation
As always there is a method to updating if I am too slow on updating it myself.
Starting with Sakura: For Sakura, I suggest cheating this site for any of the latest updates. If there is an update, just extract the System folder to the root of your card. You can delete Touchpod if you want.
R4i RTS: For that, it's a little more complex, but you need to check this site for any updates. Then using this method to update it.
YSM3: Go to RetroGameFan's thread, all you need to do is download it and just replace the extinfo.dat, infolib.dat, and savlib.dat.
WoodM3: Watch Gaboros thread for updates and just copy the "wood_r4_m3" and "__rpg" folder when it updates.[/p]
Any questions or something I should add, just post it up
The main reason for this guide? To finally help the masses with setting up and using The M3 Quad-Boot. There has been people asking me to create this and never enough time nor motivation. So I felt now as a best a time as ever to create this.[/p]
Pre-Setup
To start setting up The M3 Quad-Boot, the best thing to do is to make sure you have the right flashcard, this means your flashcards has to be one of these three flash cards; M3 Real v1, M3 Real v2, and M3i Zero. Why most you make sure of this fact you may ask? Because the M3 Team produced one last flashcard to lock out alternate firmwares called M3i Zero gmp z003 (picture provided by danijeljames) If you have that flashcard, then I suggest buying another flashcard since that one has some serious problems and isn't worth much if you are annoyed with the long waits between M3 updates.[/p]
Setup
Before doing anything I suggest backing up your microSD card and reformatting with the Panasonic SD Card Formatter (use these options : FORMAT TYPE - FULL (Erase ON) : FORMAT SIZE ADJUSTMENT - ON), this will ensure full use of The M3 Quad-Boot.
Now after doing that you have to download the M3 Quad-Boot from either the Filetrip link or the Megaupload link, both links are kept up to date by me.
After you finished downloading the file, you need to extract the files to the root of your microSD card, I would suggest using 7zip, it's free and easy to use. So your microSD card should look something like this. Now you are ready to start using The M3 Quad-Boot[/p]
Using The Quad-Boot
At point there won't be any screenshots due to my lack of a fully working M3 Real.
Once you have everything setup, you can just put your microSD card into your M3 Card and start it up. It should start up as M3 Sakura automatically, please note that you can boot into Touchpod, but it won't work for rom booting or anything, it's only there to provide a game loading engine for Sakura.
Now that you have booted into Sakura you can scroll around either using the d-pad or using the stylus. Most people know how to do this since most M3 users already use or have used Sakura by now. Unlike Sakura though, The Quad-Boot comes with 3 other firmwares.
To boot into YSM3, you need to scroll down "YSM3.nds" and click on it, it will take a little bit of time, but it will start up. YSM3 is just YSMenu for M3 Real or M3i Zero and is using RetroGameFan's files for regular updates. Using it is pretty simple, you go into your game folder and you just open a rom the same as you always do, high-lighting them, then pressing "a" and the game will boot, it takes a little bit longer to boot depending on the speed of your microSD card.
To boot into R4i RTS firmware; it's the same as YSM3, but you just scroll down to the file named "R4iRTS.nds" and click on that. It will take a little bit of time to boot and will go through some screen blinking before it will boot into a firmware that clearly looks like the R4 firmware. You got your normal 3 options, the Multi-Media button doesn't open Moonshell since I didn't want to provide Moonshell for file size reasoning, so you will have to get that yourself and rename it yourself. To start up games it the same as R4.
Finally to boot into M3 Wood; just do the same as the others, but click on "wood_r4_m3". Once it's starts up you need to open the start menu, go into the settings and change the Save extension to .sav instead of .nds.sav. As I was about to say, to boot roms is the same as before, but I won't go into detail about wood because there are already enough tutorials to using it and this is not for M3 Wood.[/p]
Post-Setup
All the firmwares can soft-reset. Just follow the on screen instructions or in YSM3's case press "R+L+A+B+X+Y" as well for M3 Wood just press "R+L+A+B+?" and it should reset. M3 Wood can not soft-reset though. As well 3 out of 4 firmware do not get regular updates, but YSM3 does. As well with M3 Wood, when you add a new game or your files are fragmented you need move the file off your mircoSD card and move it back on and it will work.[/p]
Updating after installation
As always there is a method to updating if I am too slow on updating it myself.
Starting with Sakura: For Sakura, I suggest cheating this site for any of the latest updates. If there is an update, just extract the System folder to the root of your card. You can delete Touchpod if you want.
R4i RTS: For that, it's a little more complex, but you need to check this site for any updates. Then using this method to update it.
YSM3: Go to RetroGameFan's thread, all you need to do is download it and just replace the extinfo.dat, infolib.dat, and savlib.dat.
WoodM3: Watch Gaboros thread for updates and just copy the "wood_r4_m3" and "__rpg" folder when it updates.[/p]
Any questions or something I should add, just post it up
Science Project?
