Homebrew Freeshop as an alternative to Sky3ds?

ZAINheroOFtime

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Hey there,
Please note that im all new to hacking stuff with 3ds and some help would be appreciated.
Im thinking about using freeshop on my 3ds (ver. 10.7.0-32U [Old] ) as an alternative to sky3ds. Most of the guides here point out to installing arm9loaderhax, isnt it possible without it? Cant I just use Browserhax or menuhax to downgrade my 3ds to 9.2.0 and run freeshop as its just a cia? If the answer is no, can someone please tell me what actually a9lh is and what are the risks of installing it?
Thanks.
 

Hayleia

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What you need for freeshop is a CFW. A9LH is just an entrypoint (the best one, but still just that (well ok, there are a9lh versions with CFWs included but whatever)) but you can use other entrypoints too, like menuhax.
As for the risks of installing it, read the guide :P
You'll see that downgrading from 10.7 to 9.2 is actually more dangerous (since if it fails and you never hardmodded, you're doomed, while if a9lh fails (which is also less likey than a downgrade fail), you can still hardmod and save your console).

Now, about the "alternative" part, not really.
Sky3DS runs on OFW 11.0, freeshop doesn't. Sky3DS supports .3ds files, freeshop doesn't.
But if you plan on getting a CFW, the first point is moot, and not a lot of people are hard supporters of .3ds files, so make your own opinion out of it ;)

And about your downgrade, you can't use browserhax or menuhax to downgrade from 10.7. You need a game. And that's also a point for Sky3DS, except that once you downgraded and installed CFW, your Sky3DS might become useless.
 

Sumsquat

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Hey there,
Please note that im all new to hacking stuff with 3ds and some help would be appreciated.
Im thinking about using freeshop on my 3ds (ver. 10.7.0-32U [Old] ) as an alternative to sky3ds. Most of the guides here point out to installing arm9loaderhax, isnt it possible without it? Cant I just use Browserhax or menuhax to downgrade my 3ds to 9.2.0 and run freeshop as its just a cia? If the answer is no, can someone please tell me what actually a9lh is and what are the risks of installing it?
Thanks.

Well, you could downgrade to 9.2 and run a cfw via menuhax, that's fairly simple if you have homebrew access, grab 9.2 cia files, downgrade with safesysupdater, run browserhax, install menuhax, setup an emunand(with emunand9 or gateway), and let luma3ds/cakes/reinand etc boot with menuhax and install the cia in your emunand.
But the boot takes a lot of time compared to a9lh and menuhax isn't that accurate, it fails quite often.

A9LH is another option, for an introduction you better watch smea, plutoo & derreks presentation at 32c3 or read the introduction of Plailects guide. Short, it's a fast and accurate way to run homebrew from coldboot.

EDIT:
Some links you might want to check out.

Safesysupdater: https://gbatemp.net/threads/wip-safesysupdater.409392/
Tutorial on getting browserhax running without update nag: https://yls8.mtheall.com/3dsbrowserhax.php
Luma3DS: https://github.com/AuroraWright/Luma3DS/wiki/Installation-and-Upgrade
32c3 presentation(a9lh info at roughly minute 55):
Plailects A9LH guide: https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki
 
Last edited by Sumsquat,

Sumsquat

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Like I said, menuhax does fail quite often and the boot requires more time.
With a9lh you don't have to use EmuNand. Just run everything in SysNand which saves a lot of space on your SD.
BUT, A9LH takes more time, especially for a noob, and the risk of bricking is higher. But if you follow all steps in Plailects guide, everything should run fine. Most, if not all bricks resulted from user error.
 

cbxero

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Whats Luma3ds?

So is A9LH just another way to boot into Homebrew?

Luma3ds is a CFW. Currently considered to be the "best" (most supported, stable, widely used, user-friendly).

Essentially yes, that's what A9LH is. I bought a sky3ds last year when it was my only option. a few months ago after never updating I downgraded from 9.8 and installed Luma3ds and A9LH. Head and shoulders above the sky3ds in my opinion.

You are on 10.7 so you won't be able to use browserhax, you'll need a cartridge based entry point.
 

ZAINheroOFtime

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Im trying to use Oot3dHax but it seems complicated. Some say that its a secondary hack and it could require another entry point to install it.
 

Quantumcat

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So is A9LH just another way to boot into Homebrew?
No, you use homebrew from the homebrew launcher (through a *hax entrypoints like browserhax, freakyhax, Ninjhax, etc). Some homebrew only needs userland permissions (like games, save managers, theme changers) and will work up to 11.0 while others need arm9 permissions, which they can only get on 9.0-9.2 firmware (like Decrypt9 for dumping and restoring NAND).
CFW is an environment where you can ignore sig patches and play pirated and otherwise modified software. Usually you have to have your real system on 9.2 or less.
A9LH is a way to boot into a CFW, special because once you have it, it still work on the latest firmware. Luma3DS is the standard accepted choice but there are a few slightly different ones like SaltFW (removes options and ability to use emuNAND), and Corbenik (for devs).
 

Uziskull

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Im pretty much stuck here, can anyone else guide me?
OOThax is indeed a secondary hack. That is, you can't use it to access homebrew for the first time; you need another exploit.
Unfortunately, browserhax (a primary exploit) stopped working on your console's version, so you're limited on your options.
You'll either need Freakyforms Deluxe or Cubic Ninja (both these games have primary exploits), or one of the secondary exploit games (OOThax or Pokemon OR/AS) along with some way of installing the secondary exploit (you can use a friend's already-hacked 3DS or a save-file editor, like Powersaves).

Since your ultimate goal is to be able to play games (installed by Freeshop), you'll need a CFW. There's plenty of them for you to choose (and all of them will do for what you want), but people recommend Luma3DS. You'll also need some way of booting into said CFW (what's known as an entrypoint; this is what exploits are used for).

But you wouldn't want to keep entering OOT every time you wanted to access your CFW to play games, right? There's mainly two fixed entrypoints that can boot up your CFW without having to use other games or apps, and those are menuhax and A9LH. A9LH has many useful features that menuhax doesn't, but menuhax is far simpler to install for a first-time user. Ultimately, it's your call. Both work for what you want.

Finally, what you'll need to actually use your CFW and play downloaded games (and also for installing A9LH) is downgrading. As soon as you have access to homebrew, you're able to downgrade. There's a risk involved with downgrading, but there's plenty of guides online and if you follow them exactly as they say you'll be fine. The common version used to access CFW is 9.2, so you'll want to downgrade to that version (A9LH also requires you to downgrade to 2.1, but that's irrelevant to CFW altogether).

You'll also need to setup an emuNAND (if you choose to use A9LH instead of menuhax, you're probably going to remove emuNAND in the future). Think of it as 2 consoles in one; you're going to install every game into emuNAND and, if something bad happens to it, you can fix it (if it happens in your actual console (referred to as sysNAND), you might brick your console. And you don't want that to happen.)
There's many ways of setting up an emuNAND, I personally set it up with Gateway's launcher.dat but some people say that's outdated. Just use whatever you want.

Here's an example of how things'll go:
Use exploit to access homebrew > Install menuhax (if you choose this over A9LH) > Downgrade to 9.2 > Setup emuNAND > Install CFW > Install A9LH (if you choose this over menuhax) > Play free games :D


PS: Sorry if this is a very basic tutorial, I'm assuming you're very new to 3DS hacking.
Also, there are people out there who've made complete tutorials better than this quick mockup. Go find 'em.
 
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ZAINheroOFtime

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Alright, but im stuck at the first step. I dont know of any way to access homebrew on 10.7. I just have Oot3d and i was hoping that maybe I could use it, but like you said its a secondary hack. So the only solution is to get cubic ninja or freakyforms?
 

Hayleia

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Alright, but im stuck at the first step. I dont know of any way to access homebrew on 10.7. I just have Oot3d and i was hoping that maybe I could use it, but like you said its a secondary hack. So the only solution is to get cubic ninja or freakyforms?
Or powersaves so you can inject a hacked save in your OoT.
 

vb_encryption_vb

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Alright, but im stuck at the first step. I dont know of any way to access homebrew on 10.7. I just have Oot3d and i was hoping that maybe I could use it, but like you said its a secondary hack. So the only solution is to get cubic ninja or freakyforms?
Correct or find someone with a homebrew enabled 3ds and install oot.
 

urherenow

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This is where a sky3ds comes in handy, if you can afford one. Any game with an announced primary exploit will be a download away. I saw a CN cart at a GameStop a few days ago, and the darn thing was like $29. For a used copy of one of the worst games ever.

There are a few misunderstandings in the posts above. First... The very first step after being able to run the homebrew launcher is to make a nand backup and save it to PC. With this backup, any mistake with any method can be fixed with a hard mod (not just the a9lh method). One of the many differences is that AFTER you have a9lh installed without bricking, it will be possible to fix a future brick without a hard mod (as long as you don't mess up firm0/firm1).

Homebrew: Anything that isn't official; coded at home with devkitArm. Every CFW is still homebrew in and of itself.

The cheapest option for you, if you don't know anybody with a hacked 3ds, is to spend ~$25 on a power saves to get your OOT3d ready for the exploit. Unless you find a Freakyforms Deluxe cart for cheaper. I've never seen Cubic Ninja cheaper since about a week after Ninjhax came out, and I've never seen Freakyforms Deluxe cart at all.
 
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