This document briefly describes boot-related terminology for Wii disc applications and facts that developers should know.
Refer to NADK descriptions for terminology related to NAND applications.
The apploader module is stored on a disc to assist in booting disc applications. In the development environment, development machines use RVL/boot/apploader.img under the directory where Revolution SDK is installed.
The DOL file format is similar to the ELF file format used for the Wii. Use the makedol command to convert an application's ELF file into this format. This file is stored on a disc for disc applications. This file is given a .dsf extension, along with other system information, on the NDEV.
Please be aware of the following restriction for DOL files:
On a Wii console, sections (such as BSS and SBSS sections) cannot be placed at memory addresses above
0x8090_0000. On a development console in Development mode, sections (such as BSS and SBSS sections) cannot be placed at memory addresses above0x8120_0000.If violated,
apploaderwill generate an assertion error. To solve this problem if you violate this restriction, consult the.mapfile for the application to see which section is big.
- If it is a BSS or SBSS section, attempt to allocate memory dynamically instead of statically using uninitialized variables.
- If it is a DATA or SDATA section, attempt to put data on an optical disc and read it at run time.
- If it is a TEXT section, either use the Relocatable Module System or attempt to divide the DOL file (see
OSExec).
The FST contains information for all of the files under DVDRoot. See the disc drive programming manual for more detail. The FST is included in a DSF file on the NDEV.
The FST is placed at the highest address (24 MB, the maximum FST length) in MEM1. For "FST max length," see the next section.
The maximum FST length is the buffer size in MEM1 that must be prepared for the FST. For a game that consists of only one disc, the maximum FST length can be the same as that disc's FST length. For a game that consists of multiple discs, the FST for the second disc may be longer than the FST for the first disc. If this is the case, you need to prepare a big enough area for FST so that both the first and second discs' FST can fit. This area is usually MAX(FST size for the first disc, FST size for the second disc), which is the source of the term "FST max length."
The NDEV software supports creating multiple discs. Using this feature, the maximum FST length for multi-disc games will be calculated and set. For single-disc games, the disc's FST size will be the same as the maximum FST size.
The 8-KB Bootinfo2 region contains the following settings.
setsmem2size)
On the NDEV, bootinfo2 is saved to a DSF file after running ndrun.
To modify settings in bootinfo2, use the corresponding settings script. For details on how to use these scripts, refer to each script's page in the Revolution Function Reference Manual.
Note that you must execute ndrun at least once to propagate changes before creating master data.
The 8-KB Bootinfo3 region contains the following settings.
setcountrycode)Bootinfo3 is included in the rvl.bin file. On the NDEV, this information is saved in an RCF file after running ndrun.
To modify settings in bootinfo3, use the corresponding settings script. For details on how to use these scripts, refer to each script's page in the Revolution Function Reference Manual.
Note that you must execute ndrun at least once to propagate changes before creating master data.
rvl.bin)The Revolution System File (rvl.bin) contains the following settings.
On the NDEV, this information is saved to an RCF file after running ndrun.
To modify these settings, use the corresponding settings script. For details on how to use these scripts, refer to each script's page in the Revolution Function Reference Manual.
Note that you must execute ndrun at least once to propagate changes before creating master data.
A DSF file is an NDEV-specific file that contains Bootinfo2, DOL files, and an FST.
An RCF file is an NDEV-specific file that contains Bootinfo3 and rvl.bin.
2008/07/23 Revised wording.
2008/07/18 Updated.
2008/07/15 Initial version.
CONFIDENTIAL