nintendo ds / gba

**Legolas** · 01-12-2004, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by noeska

i try to spend an hour evening per day on it. Also i keep an eye on: http://linux.gbadev.org/gcc-gba/ as mentioned before. It seems i have to convert the generated .elf file to something binary. Just have to find the tool in my linux as the tool is supposed to be part of the binutils....

The hardest part wil be replacing the crt.o of linux arm with the gba one.

gcc-gba needs to link together (with ld) object file (for example yourfile.o) and crt0.o. Maybe your gba emulator can't find start function point because crt0.o is not linked. I don't know if your crt0.o file is good for pascal source... :?:
I must decide to install linux to do some test with fpc and gba :mrgreen:

**Legolas** · 01-12-2004, 07:32 PM

Originally Posted by noeska

if the free pascal compiler needs to be modified to implement crt0.o for the gba i am not going on with this project as i do not have enough knowledge for changing the free pascal compiler.

crt0.o comes from compiling crt0.s. This file make some initialization on gba hardware and sets the start function for your gba rom.
And, AFAIK, gba can't handle writeln function.

**noeska** · 01-12-2004, 08:12 PM

i have already compiled crt0.s to an crt0.o file. It just does not get included properly so it seems. And i do not know how to change free pascal so it does, nor do i know how to use ld manualy. Replacing the crt.o from free pascal with it brings no avail also....

Who knows how to change free-pascal?

It is important as i discovered something inside that looks like cartridge header inside....

brings to my mind how does one include an .o (or .obj) in an pascal file again.....

PS i do know writeln does not work, just a try to see if anything gets executed at all...

**savage** · 01-12-2004, 10:06 PM

with the knowlede that you have, maybe it could be passed on to someone on the FreePascal team, who could make the changes.

**WILL** · 02-12-2004, 01:49 AM

noeska: If you run into that wall, please tell us all you know about the problem and what the results(debugging information included). I frequent the #fpc IRC channel and keep my ear to the ground and also am able to pop in a question here or there.

Perhaps I can co-ordinate some kind of work-around for the problem. I'm sure that someone will be more than intrigued or excited about the prospect of someone working on GBA development using FPC.

**noeska** · 12-12-2004, 01:09 PM

The main problem for the moment is that ctr0.s is not linked in properly. Without that things will never work as that prepares the gba for code execution. But even more important is the acompanying lnkscript that tells how it should be linked against the code. I did find a newer? version of crt0.s here: http://www.devrs.com/gba/ccode.php#cmisc.

I have no idea what to change in fpc to add those things.

**WILL** · 12-12-2004, 05:21 PM

If FPK were able to provide you with the information you need and work with you on a port of FPC with GBA capabilities, would you be able to maintain it? I think that will be his driving force to help move that forward.

I for one would use it, as would at least 3 or 4 others from this thread alone. Plus who knows who else would be MORE than interested aswell.

I say, make the offer and I'll help you back it up with the user base thats interested simply by announcing it's versions and promoting it's use through tools, projects, etc.