Need help with the installation? Please read the Troubleshooting Guide.
A tutorial with screenshots is provided by tiplanet.org. You will also find a video tutorial by OnlineGamerDOTcom on YouTube.
This is an Open Source project. You like it? Support the Ndless effort, 
or 
What is Ndless for TI-Nspire?
Ndless combines an executable loader and utilities to open the TI-Nspire to third-party C and assembly development.
As a TI-Nspire user, installing Ndless on your calculator will enhance the Operating System with the functions required to run assembly programs.
Requirements
- A TI-Nspire CAS or non-CAS Clickpad, Touchpad, CX. CX-C or CM-C
- OS v3.1.0 installed on it. v3.2.0 is not yet supported.
- TI-Nspire Student Software, or Teacher Software, or Computer Link v3.2 or higher (previous versions of Computer Link are not supported).
Installation and upgrade
Upgrading from Ndless v2.0
Upgrade your OS to v3.1 and follow the installation procedure.
Installing from a computer
Create a directory called ‘ndless‘ on the calculator. Send the files ‘ndless_resources.tns‘ and ‘ndless.cfg.tns’ from the ‘calcbin/‘ directory of Ndless to this new directory. Dismiss on the TI-Nspire the popup for the file reception (this is important).
Then locate the file ‘ndless_installer-.tno|tnc|tco|tcc‘ in the ‘calcbin/‘ directory of Ndless which matches your device type:
- .tno: classic TI-Nspire
- .tnc: classic TI-Nspire CAS
- .tco: TI-Nspire CX/CX-M
- .tcc: TI-Nspire CX CAS/CX-M CAS
- .tmo: TI-Nspire CX-M
- .tmc: TI-Nspire CX-M CAS
Send this file as an OS upgrade to the calculator. The calculator will display a popup about the success of the installation. The linking software’s progress bar will freeze, and an error message may be displayed on the computer side. Just ignore it. You may have to close and reopen the linking software to be able to use it again.
If you have forgotten to dismiss the ndless_resoures.tns reception popup and can’t dismiss Ndless’s popup, just turn off and on the TI-Nspire to make it disappear.
Note that only ndless_resources.tns will be visible in the Documents screen. The .tno|.tnc|.tco|.tcc|.tmo|.tmc file won’t appear as it is a special OS image.
That’s it! The installation is reboot-proof. Never delete ‘ndless/ndless_resources.tns‘ as long as Ndless is installed.
Upgrading from a computer
Follow the installation procedure. The calculator needs to reboot.
Installing on the nspire_emu emulator
Create a folder named ‘ndless‘. Set the target to ‘ndless‘ (menu Link->Set target folder…). Send ‘ndless_resources.tns‘ as a document, and ‘ndless_installer-.tno|tnc|tco|tcc‘ as an OS.
Running native programs
Native programs have the same ‘.tns‘ extension as standard documents. Transfer the executable with a linking program to any folder of the TI-Nspire. Then run the executable from the Documents screen of the TI-Nspire.
You may try the particles demo available in the calcbin/samples/ directory.
Programs built for Ndless v2.x should work as is on classic TI-Nspire. Programs must be rebuilt and slightly adapted to run on TI-Nspire CX. If a program is not yet available for CX, ask his author.
File association
(since v3.1 r538) You can directly run files with extensions from the OS native document browser, for example to open .png files with mViewer or .nes files with NESpire (demo for NDoom).
Ndless comes with default associations for several TI-Nspire programs. These associations are configured in ndless.cfg.tns. You can edit this file on a computer with a text editor my renaming it to ndless.cfg.txt. To add a custom file assocation for a program (for example to associate .txt files with a program named textviewer.tns), add the following line:
ext.txt=textviewer.tns
Rename the file back to ndless.cfg.tns, and send it to the ‘ndless/‘ directory of the TI-Nspire.
When a document named <document-name>.txt.tns is open from the OS document browser (and displayed as <document-name.txt on the TI-Nspire) a program named “textviewer.tns” will be searched in all document folders and used to open the .txt file. Note that programs must explicitely support file association, ask their authors for it.
Startup programs
(since v3.1 r540) Some programs such as OS patches have to be run at OS boot time. The startup programs feature is useful for these kind of programs.
Any native program stored in the folder ‘ndless/startup/’ and its subfolders will be run at OS boot time sequently in alphabetical order. You have to create the ‘startup/’ directory manually. Maintaining the ESC key pressed during startup (when the progress bar is almost done) skips these programs – this is useful when a buggy program has been stored in the startup folder.
Uninstallation
Open ‘ndless_resources.tns‘ from the Documents screen. A reboot will be initiated.
Troubleshooting
Please follow the Troubleshooting Guide.
Known issues and limitations
- Ndless v1.x/v2.x programs which use the show_msgbox() function must be rebuilt to be compatible.
A more complete list of known isues can be found in the tracker: http://www.unsads.com/projects/nsptools
Support and suggestions
- Forum
- Issues and enhancements tracker
- TI-Nspire hacking wiki
- Development version of the source code (guest/guest)
Problem report
First make sure that:
- You are using the right ‘ndless_installer-.tno|tnc|tco|tcc‘ file compatible with the Operating System (OS) version currently installed on your calculator
- You have followed the steps in the troubleshooting section above
- You don’t find a solution on the web sites above
E-mail anything which may help the author to fix the issue, or fill in a new ticket on http://www.unsads.com/projects/nsptools
Many thanks to
calc84maniac (HW info), Goplat (TI-Nspire emulator, HW info), hwti (OS info, v1.0 64-bit support), squalyl (Hackspire and development tools hosting), tiplanet.org (data hosting).
Thanks to all the contributors and beta testers, including Adriweb, apcalc, BrandonW, bsl, bwang, calc84maniac, calcforth, chronomex, critor, Levak, Lionel Debroux, shrear.
Development team
Olivier Armand aka ExtendeD – < olivier.calc@gmail.com >
Former team member: Geoffrey Anneheim aka geogeo – < geoffrey dot anneheim at free dot fr >
Ndless is brought to you by Omnimaga: The Coders Of Tomorrow www.omnimaga.org
Legal stuff
Most of the work is covered by the Mozilla Public License, version 1.1 (MPL). Please read careful the file “Mozilla-Public-License-v1.1.html” before distributing of any part of Ndless, with or without modification.
Some parts are covered by other licenses. Others are in the public domain. These parts are identified by the files LICENSE.txt or LICENSE.html in the sub-directory.
Changelog
See Changes.txt in Ndless folder.
Need help with the installation? Please read the Troubleshooting Guide.
[...] make sure to follow the User Guide for installation instructions. New developers, make your first steps with the SDK. [...]
where can I find compatible program for CX ? thanks
Currently only the programs pointed to by this post have been ported to CX: http://ndlessly.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/r3leased/
You can frequently check http://www.omnimaga.org for new programs and CX ports.
my calc always shuts down right before success, is this normal?
I have a ti nspire cx cas
It isn’t. Does it make Ndless installation fail? If it does please read the Troubleshooting Guide: http://ndlessly.wordpress.com/ndless-troubleshooting/
Where and how do you get pokemon for Ti Nspire cas with this emulator???
Ndless is not itself the emulator. You can get support for NESpire and gbc4nspire in their respecting topics on Omnimaga: http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?topic=4466.0 and http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?topic=1243.0
Halfway through OS install, the pc gives an error message (The Handheld is Not Responding). Is this to be expected, and if not, what am i doing wrong?
Edit: This is on the nspire CAS, OS version 3.1. The gameboy emulator does not work after the installation, so apparently the installation has indeed failed.
Nevermind, it works.
Others may come across the same problem. Could you please tell me what was the mistake so that I can update the toubleshooting guide? Thanks.
haha lol i was 3.0, that’s why?
Could it be possible now to run some TI-89 assembly programs, like for example “smart bars” on TI-Nspire CAS?
The TI-89 has a different processor and its own API, so assembly programs written for this platform cannot be run directly on the TI-Nspire, nor easily ported.
calc84maniac wrote an emulator a while ago but lost it during an hard drive crash, so it would have to be rewritten from scratch: http://omnimaga.org/index.php?topic=1301.0
There are two betas, 515 and 526, which one should i download? my calculator is TI Nspire CX CAS, and i want to use the gbc4TINspire
Ndless v3.1 is in beta stage and frequently updated. The highest will always be the best.
After many fruitless attempts at calc to calc installation, I come here to ask if anyone has actually successfully done it. I transfer the ndless directory from mine to the other, and then send the os, but I constantly run into errors. Both are cx cas on os 3.1.0.392. Of the 3 that I have tried c2c installs on, none have worked. Any help is appreciated.
Hi lilb,
I got both success and failure reports, but nothing can explain why it works randomly.
Are you getting the error message “”transfer error, check cable and retry” or “”the OS was refused by the receiving unit”?
I get the OS refused message
Os refused
The feature seems broken, I’m removing it from the documentation. Sorry about that…
I have upgraded my CX to version 3.1.0.392, and selected Install OS in the computer linking software and selected the “ndless_installer-3.1.0.tcc” file (all the others were greyed out) and tried to install. It game me this error: Wrong handheld type for the OS being sent. I have done this successfully on my Touchpad calculator with the same OS, but it doesn’t seem to work. Can you help?
Ben, you should use the .tco file for a non-CAS CX. See “ndless_installer-3.1.o.xxx is rejected when transferred” in the troubleshooting guide: http://ndlessly.wordpress.com/ndless-user-guide
I can not tranfer the files to the TI-Nspire cx, an error “There were one or more files not supported.
So were transferred files supported”
May you help me?
I can not tranfer the files to the TI-Nspire cx, an error “There were one or more files not supported.
So were transferred files supported”
I’m referring to games for gameboy and wad to nDoom.
May you help me?
Please follow Texas Instruments’s documentation p.76: http://www.seg.etsmtl.ca/nspire/documentation/TI-Nspire_CX_Handheld_GettingStarted_EN.pdf
If you are unable to transfer any files, even TI’s official files ( http://education.ti.com/calculators/downloads/US/Software/Detail?id=6694&ref=%2fcalculators%2fdownloads%2fUS%2fSoftware%2fSearch%2fResults%3fcp%3d6001%23view-31 ) please contact TI-Cares for support by Texas Instruments.
When I plug in my device, the student-software says connection with handheld is unavailable now. Please help!
This works on a regular ti Nspire cx (non-cas) right?????
[...] The latest update of Ndless v3.1 has been enhanced with file association support! You now can open files with extensions directly from the OS document browser: This will run the corresponding program if it has been declared in the configuration file ndless.cfg.tns. More details are available in the user guide. [...]
I did all of those things what listed, but still after ”installation” it says that filetype isn’t supported. Other thing what I noticed after putting the ndless_installer.tcc in it doesnt show the pop-up window after rebooting. Im running CX CAS with latest OS 3.1. Where should I start looking for the problem?
Before sending the .tcc file, did you make sure to transfer the file ndless_resources.tns to a directory called ‘ndless’ under ‘My Documents’ that you need to create?
The calculator shouldn’t reboot when installing Ndless, it will if you haven’t correctly transfered ndless_resources.tns.
hi im currently using a ti-nspire calculator CX CAS and whenever i try to upload the .tcc or even .tno file (because it comes up on things that can be moved) it wont work and it just says, “Wrong handheld type for the OS being sent” and it doesn’t let me do it. Can you give me some help please. Ive even tried going onto tools and then going onto install OS but says the same thing. :(
damo, are you using Student or Teacher Software? Computer Link Software doesn’t support transfers of .txx files.
And you should use the .tcc and not the .tno since you have a CX CAS. What do you mean exactly with “because it comes up on things that can be moved”?
Im pretty sure its a student calculator but im not sure. And when I say, “because it comes up on things that can be moved” I mean that there are 4 different files in the folder (including, .tcc, .tco, .tnc and .tno that all have ndless_installer at the begining) and only .tcc and .tno show up to be transferred. And if I do have to use .txx files will I still b able to download a emulator?
“Student Software” is the computer side program used to transfer the files: http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/productDetail/us_nspire_software.html
Can you please confirm that the .tcc file is refused by this program?
I can’t seem to download the ndless_installer for my ti-nspire cx cas which is odd because I was able to with my normal TI Nspire Cas…..I can’t really seem to figure out whats wrong. I looked at the file extensions and it says .tcc like it’s supposed to.
How does the installation fail exactly?
When I drag the ndless resources nothing shows up in the handheld ndless folder of the student software
When I drag any of the files (ndless resources, ndless installer) it comes up with an error message that this file type is not supported.
For ndless_installer, make sure to pick the right version for your calculator model:
.tno: classic TI-Nspire
.tnc: classic TI-Nspire CAS
.tco: TI-Nspire CX
.tcc: TI-Nspire CX CAS
Are you trying to drag files within Student Software, or from the Windows explorer to Student Software? If one fails, try the other one.
Good afternoon,
After instalation i had installed the gbc4nspire v0.91 emulator. I have a TI nspire CX CAS calculator and when I tryed install Pokemon emulator it was everything fine ( By the way, thank you for your work :D ) but it had a little issue, i can’t run the Game with colors.. I mean, it work but without colors. Is it a ndlessly issue or maybe it is because of the emulator?
Regard
Mykola, this is most probably an issue with the emulator. Did you make sure to convert a Gameboy *Color* ROM image? You can ask for help on gbc4bspire’s thread on Omnimaga.org: http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?topic=1243.0
this doesnt work on 3.1.392 right? ive been trying forever.
eve, it does work with OS 3.1.0.392. Please refer to the troubleshooting guide ( http://ndlessly.wordpress.com/ndless-troubleshooting/ ), or post more details on where the installation process fails for you.
There are also a couple of video tutorial that may guide you, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f829jr03FNM or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr8XIfyk8iA for instance.
Hello,
I know this is not the Actual post of your Blog, but i just want to say, that i didn’t need to restart my TI Nspire CX CAS (touch) when i sent the new ndless_resource to it.
My last version was 568 and i could directly update it to 620 by overwriting the existing ndless_resource.
So this might work too if i send the new ndless_resource from Calc to Calc, that it get an update to the new?
Greetings Pomi
Pomi: if you ndless_resources.tns alone, the newest features of Ndless will be enabled only after the next reset.
Similarly, you need to force a reset on the target calculator after a calc to calc transfer.
Is it possible to install cas onto the nspire cx?
Hi
is it possible to run a C code with ndless on nspire ?
Sure navid.
This page will provide you with all the information you need to start: http://ndlessly.wordpress.com/ndless-for-developers/
Don’t hesitate to ask for help if needed.
Is there a video of this tut on youtube from you ?
im not good at linux GNU things …
There’s no video, but I’m considering the simplification of the setup procedure.
ok , thanks , and one more question , is it possible to run matlab codes (.m file) by this procedure ?
Porting GNU Octave (required to run a .m file) to the TI-Nspire with the help of Ndless would be an interesting project, but probably not an easy one.
>Computer Link is not supported.
I was able to install ndless using Computer Link (v3.2.0.123) without a problem. Did a recent update in the Link change this or something?
Thanks, Computer Link was indeed updated, I’ll fix the documentation.
when i try to install the new OS, an error keeps popping up. it says “wrong handheld type for the OS being sent”.
my calculator is a cx cas, and the file i tried update my calculator with is a .tcc
i dont know what i’m doing wrong. help?
Did you make sure to use Student Software to send the file, or the latest version (v3.2) of Computer Link Software? http://education.ti.com/calculators/downloads/US/Software/Detail?id=6772
Will this damage my calculator and/or void the warranty. I have the nspire cx
Blake,
“Will this damage my calculator?” > Although very rare failures have been reported, *no direct link* has yet been made between Ndless and these reports. Ndless still requires special usage precautions described in the user guide and the troubleshooting guide.
“Will this void the warranty?” > Most probably has running native programs is not considered normal usage of the calculator by TI. But as a complete reformat through the standard TI-Nspire maintenance menu wipes out any trace of Ndless installation, this is not really an issue if you want to get support from TI-Cares or send back the calculator to the after sales service.
Anyway if you have any doubt, you’d better not install Ndless at all.
[...] patches are compatible with Ndless’s startup feature. Share this:TwitterFacebookEmailLike this:LikeBe the first to like this. Categories [...]
Hello, I made sure that I have the right OS on my cx handheld and the student software (3.1.392), the right (ndless_installer-3.1.0.xxx) program, and tried dragging and selecting the file to get it installed, but my Nspire always reboots and tells me that the handheld is “Not Responding.”
I don’t understand why it won’t download :/
Melody,
Is your CX a CX CAS?
- If yes you should use the ndless_installer-3.1.0.tcc file (mind the extension).
- If not, use the ndless_installer-3.1.0.tco file.
The “Not Responding” message on the computer side will always appear in the installation sequence. Just make sure to close and reopen Student Software.
If you have any doubt whether Ndless was installed or not, try running the ‘particles’ sample provided.
i already updatre my calculater to 3.2.0.1219 befor i wanna do this and i know ndless is still not suported for that is there anny wy i can get 3.1.0 back ?? or do i ahve to wait till the support for 3.2.0.1219 comes ??
Just drag in the old 3.1 OS via the calc software. 3.2 software still allows the 3.1 OS to be transferred to the calc.
Just drag in the old 3.1 OS via the calc software.
Sorry about this com, meant to hit reply.
This doesn’t break any native functionality of the calculator right? >.> I mean I would love to program on the thing and play pokemon- but only if I can actually still do math and stuff :P
Don’t worry Arpy, you’ll keep all the native features. Ndless only adds its own ones.
When will be ndless supported to OS v3.2.0 or v3.2.3?
Support for OS v3.2 is not planned, as downgrading to OS v3.1 isn’t blocked at the moment and OS v3.2 introduces as much regressions as improvements. Updating Ndless for a newer OS version unfortunately requires much effort because of TI actively chasing it. Effort spent on Ndless means less time for projects that also deserve some.
I get it, thanks. v3.1 here I go!
How do I get CAS capibilities on my nspire touchpad
How do I get CAS capibilities on my nspire touchpad. I have ndless.
when i try to load the installer in, it says invalid or corrupt and to go to their website and get new OS file. I used to have ndless on my calc before I updated it though. Help?
and i made sure i am using the right file. i am using the TCO for my CX.
Evan, did you downgrade to OS 3.1 before the installation? Ndless doesn’t work on OS 3.2.
yeah. I forgot that you have to completely wipe the previous OS so it doesn’t override the new one.
Hi, when i try to extract or unzip the folder, it said it’s empty, so what should i do?
Sam, which OS are you using? Did you try http://www.7-zip.org/ ?