nds-hb-menu VS elks

DSi modes uses nds-hb-menu bootstrap's TID by default, and is a bit slow to start as it needs to go through the native 3DS OS first no matter what

For most games you should be able to just put its .nds file on the SD card like any retail game, just check for a README file which will probably explain if there's anything special you need to do. Also flashcard kernels aren't great at running homebrew so if you have issues try run TWiLight Menu++, HBMenu, or GodMode9i and run the game from there.

YSMenu should work fine for homebrew... You could try installing TWiLight Menu++, HBMenu, or GodMode9i and load the game from there, those are better at running homebrew than flashcard kernels.

Hmm, try using either nds-hb-menu (you can rename the BOOT.NDS to whatever and boot it like a normal homebrew) or TWiLight Menu++ to load it if you haven't already. If that doesn't help then reformatting the SD with SD Formatter may help.

It may have something to do with homebrew compatibility on your flashcard, you can try your luck with devkitPro's Homebrew Menu, it sometimes fixes homebrew compatibility issues.

Hmm, you could try loading nds-hb-menu (the BOOT.NDS, you can rename it), TWiLight Menu++, or GodMode9i, then loading GBARunner2 from one of those.

Try loading it from nds-hb-menu, TWiLight Menu++, or GodMode9i.

Try loading GBARunner2 from TWiLight Menu++ or nds-hb-menu (the BOOT.NDS, can rename it) instead. Flashcard kernels often have issues running some homebrew.

and this for the BOOT.nds https://github.com/devkitPro/nds-hb-menu/releases/

Huh that's very weird... Can you try loading it from nds-hb-menu?

ELKS supported MMU-less operation on 8088 and 80286 machines, but I don't think an ARM port exists: https://github.com/ghaerr/elks

Roughly in the mid-90s I bought at a local surplus store a "Carry 1" industrial 8088 computer which to my surprise I later discovered it could run Linux (ELKS: https://github.com/ghaerr/elks). I ultimately sold it on Ebay because although it was a beautiful piece of old tech, I was struggling to find more space for other things.

Here's one. I had only the central unit, mine had two floppy drives.

I don't think you can replace the OS on these. Unless there is a way to boot them from DOS, but you are looking at 8c086 machine so the choice is limited. Linux or BSD won't work. But ELKS might if it can be made to boot from DOS. Minix 2.02 seems to work.

Yet ELKS works on 16 bit computers with 640k of RAM.

Some small size Linux-like OSes do exist though: one commenter suggested Lunix (which I didn't know, thanks for the link), and a slightly bigger one is ELKS which runs on old MMU-less x86 CPUs. I managed to run it on a 8088 industrial PC ages ago.

https://github.com/jbruchon/elks

I should have a Furby buried somewhere; now that I think of it, it may be the right platform to stick a bigger brain into, make it wireless so that it could be connected to the home IoT network then signal events or alerts.