If anyone can help, I'm having the same issue. I'm using a knockoff r4 gold pro card. I tried to get YS menu from (https://www.reddit.com/r/3dshacks/comments/48oju8/ys_menu_on_r4isdhccom_cards_as_primary_kernel/) from this link someone posted (https://www.dropbox.com/s/3xxj84uplr97z1k/R4.dat?dl=0) and it sorta loaded, but has a bunch of errors and still couldn't run the Arceus distribution.
You could try the Wood R4 firmware here: https://forum.romulation.net/threads/wood-r4-the-new-firmware-99-8-compatibility-ck3.39701/ people have had success getting distributions such as the Arceus one to work with that firmware. With so many R4 clones its hard to say if you will have any luck. Cards by http://r4ids.cn/ such as the R4i Gold 3DS Plus generally work with everything and have no silly time bombs to stop them working.
I know it's been a while, but I have tried all of those menus and none have worked sadly. Is this a legit flash cart? https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/143252201421
Its a flash cart, as to if it has a time bomb or not its hard to say. The R4i Gold 3DS Plus from nds-card.com would be your best bet.
Just checking to make sure, this is the one you are talking about right? https://nds-card.com/ProShow.asp?ProID=575
Cool. Just ordered one. Where's the best place to find the kernel and hardware stuff? Half the websites are really sketchy looking
It works great! Thanks so much! Am I able to play gba games on it? I really want to play my favorite rom have, Light Platinum, but it doesn't allow me to play it?
Some old flashcards like the M3 DS Real could load GBA roms with a ram expansion pack on a DS or Ds Lite. However in general you'd be better off with a GBA flash cart.
That's what I thought, and I have one, but it's a SuperCard and kinda sucks lol, but I only bought it to run gba distributions so I didn't need anything fancy so I thought lol