Hacking Bought a 'new 3DS xl' (pre-hacked). Some questions

[Taleweaver]

Well...as the title says: I've just bought me a second hand 3DS (new 3DS XL). It came pre-hacked, but the previous owner couldn't remember much details. As such, I call upon the mighty powers of gbatemp members to help out on a few questions I'll pose alongside me showcasing things...

So...the device has some programs that...kind of look like homebrew:
* 'Anemone 3DS theme manager' v2.0.1...I have no idea what this does (aside what the title suggests). Is this to put some fancy theme on your 3DS menu?
* 'Checkpoint' Seems like a program to backup and restore savegames, as well as inserting cheats. Is this correct?
* luma updater v2.4 shows some stuff about the 3DS. Erm...what does this do, exactly?
* homebrew launcher (Rosalina v2.1.0). I take it this launches actual homebrew?
* FBI 2.6.0 : I got that this is used to install games as CIA files, but it also has "Dump NAND" as option. Is it best practice to create a nand dump in case things go sideways?
* NTR Launcher (Nitrohax provided by Chishm modified by Apache Thunder). Erm...am I correct that this launches a regular DS "emulator" (or 'the settings for the DS' or however it's called) in the same way a wiiu can enter a vwii ?
EDIT: almost forgot: I still have an old acecard 2i lying around from once. Will this thing work or just blackscreen? Is there any harm in trying?

...there's also an empty map moved as far away from the rest as possible. It's called '1' and seems empty. Is it okay to delete this?


The device's current firmware is Sys 11.12.0.-44E. It's clearly not the latest firmware, and it sort of questions to update. I presume the answer is 'no', but still: can I update the firmware without having to redo an entire hacking process? (or worse: will it lock me out of any possibilities?)

And for the moment the last question: upon trying FBI I came across a game(1) that had no icon information next to it prior to installing. I aborted, but would it be okay to install it regardless? I mean...on wii, installing an out of region game as a channel could bannerbrick your device if you weren't carefull. Could something similar (or the same) happen here?

Thanks for your replies.



(1): I won't reveal sources for obvious reasons

 

[lilyuwuu]

* 'Anemone 3DS theme manager' v2.0.1...I have no idea what this does (aside what the title suggests). Is this to put some fancy theme on your 3DS menu?

Pretty much. The 3DS has a themes feature and Anemone3DS lets you insert custom ones (or even official ones), which changes the look and sounds of your home menu.

* 'Checkpoint' Seems like a program to backup and restore savegames, as well as inserting cheats. Is this correct?

Yep!

* luma updater v2.4 shows some stuff about the 3DS. Erm...what does this do, exactly?

It updates Luma3DS, your custom firmware. However, the one that you currently have installed is outdated and won't actually work properly, so you'll need to update it: https://github.com/KunoichiZ/lumaupdate/releases/tag/v2.5

* homebrew launcher (Rosalina v2.1.0). I take it this launches actual homebrew?

It launches homebrew in 3DSX format. The 3DS homebrew scene tends to put a lot of stuff out as installable CIA format that goes on home menu, though.

* FBI 2.6.0 : I got that this is used to install games as CIA files, but it also has "Dump NAND" as option. Is it best practice to create a nand dump in case things go sideways?

You should make NAND backups via GodMode9 (hold START on boot; https://3ds.hacks.guide/godmode9-usage will have useful information). NAND backups are good to make, but I can't vouch for how FBI makes them.

* NTR Launcher (Nitrohax provided by Chishm modified by Apache Thunder). Erm...am I correct that this launches a regular DS "emulator" (or 'the settings for the DS' or however it's called) in the same way a wiiu can enter a vwii ?

Seems to launch DS flashcarts... not 100% sure though, haven't used it myself. Nitrohax is for cheating in DS games. Either way, a DS 'emulator' like you'd see with vWii on a Wii U is generally unnecessary because the original DS doesn't really have much to do (DS profile settings are handled from the 3DS side).

EDIT: almost forgot: I still have an old acecard 2i lying around from once. Will this thing work or just blackscreen? Is there any harm in trying?

Depending on when you last updated the cart it may just work out of the box, but you might need to update it to a 3DS-compatible firmware. Luma will patch out the flashcart block.

...there's also an empty map moved as far away from the rest as possible. It's called '1' and seems empty. Is it okay to delete this?

I have not heard of this file.

The device's current firmware is Sys 11.12.0.-44E. It's clearly not the latest firmware, and it sort of questions to update. I presume the answer is 'no', but still: can I update the firmware without having to redo an entire hacking process? (or worse: will it lock me out of any possibilities?)

You can update the console safely. CFW has never been removed by a system update. It's generally wise to wait an hour or two after an update comes out to verify that it won't break anything on the CFW side, but I don't believe it's possible for the CFW loader itself to be removed unless you purposely try to do so.

And for the moment the last question: upon trying FBI I came across a game(1) that had no icon information next to it prior to installing. I aborted, but would it be okay to install it regardless? I mean...on wii, installing an out of region game as a channel could bannerbrick your device if you weren't carefull. Could something similar (or the same) happen here?

There's not really any "CIA brick" to speak of. A bad CIA would likely be stopped by FBI before it could actually do anything that would break anything. Even if the console somehow broke from a CIA installation (haven't heard of such a case), the issue would be localized to the SD card contents themselves, and even if you somehow managed to affect the console itself, the console gets homebrew access so early on boot that you'd be able to get out of it by restoring your NAND backup, barring hardware issues (think bootmii on boot2).

It may be a good idea to follow https://3ds.hacks.guide/finalizing-setup to update all your homebrew stuff, and to familiarize yourself with the homebrew applications you have -- you can wipe your SD card before doing this if you'd like. You should also get a fresh copy of Luma and HBL, available here: https://github.com/LumaTeam/Luma3DS/releases -- place `boot.firm` and `boot.3dsx` on the root of your SD card, replacing the existing files.

 

[Deleted User]

Yeah, my 3DS XL is a EUR model and I've got games installed from EUR, USA and JPN. No problems whatsoever.

The EUR copies are my favorite due to offering various languages, but kinda irrelevant for me as I play them all in English, anyway.