Homebrew DSi Downgrading - The Complete Guide

marc00077

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The term 'patched' is a bit confusing. It means that Nintendo is selling a new 'patched' sudoku version in DSi shop, which is no longer allowing to play homebrew. Basically that's making it useless to buy the game since you'll just need to replace it by the older 'unpatched' sudoku version.
You might still want to buy it for two reasons: It's tendencially more legal when buying the game. And, when buying it, the DSi shop is probably somewhere registering sudoku as installed title (so it will show up in system menu) (not sure on that, but I would assume that it won't show up if it isn't registered in the system menu .sav file, or in the wrap.bin file).

Btw. is Sudoku really the best choice? When starting it, it's hanging for about 1 second in a White screen, then it's hanging for another second in LicensedBy screen, and then it's coming up with an entirely useless TouchToStart screen, and thereafter, after touching, it's finally letting you to boot your homebrew stuff.
I think there are around 4-5 other exploitable games. Are any of them booting faster... or are they even worse, with more delays, or requiring you to navigate through some menues before booting homebrew?

Just went to dsiware (european) and there are only 2 more xploitable games available and those are Legends of Exidia (800 points) and Fieldrunners (500) so I'll stick with sudoku because I already have the 200 points it costs and i won't need to add anything. I hope the title downgrading thing will work and if it doesn't I'll buy one of those.
 

zoogie

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The term 'patched' is a bit confusing. It means that Nintendo is selling a new 'patched' sudoku version in DSi shop, which is no longer allowing to play homebrew. Basically that's making it useless to buy the game since you'll just need to replace it by the older 'unpatched' sudoku version.
You might still want to buy it for two reasons: It's tendencially more legal when buying the game. And, when buying it, the DSi shop is probably somewhere registering sudoku as installed title (so it will show up in system menu) (not sure on that, but I would assume that it won't show up if it isn't registered in the system menu .sav file, or in the wrap.bin file).

Btw. is Sudoku really the best choice? When starting it, it's hanging for about 1 second in a White screen, then it's hanging for another second in LicensedBy screen, and then it's coming up with an entirely useless TouchToStart screen, and thereafter, after touching, it's finally letting you to boot your homebrew stuff.
I think there are around 4-5 other exploitable games. Are any of them booting faster... or are they even worse, with more delays, or requiring you to navigate through some menues before booting homebrew?
Sudoku is the best. It's the fastest and doesn't require any menu navigation.
It's a moot point in most cases, but it's also the cheapest:
sudoku $2
exidia $8
fieldrunners $5
Guitar Rock Tour [removed]

It's worth noting that Exidia is the only title available in Japan, and it and Fieldrunners still have the exploitable version on the eshop.
 
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nocash123

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Thanks for the info about price and ease-to-use. Didn't knew that japanese DSi's were already hacked, too. Interesting that there are still unpatched exploitable versions in the shop (though they aren't of too much use in practice since you would still need to do stuff like firmware-downgrading in order to use them).
Wasn't there also a "4swordshax" around? I can't find details about that hack, and it seems that the game is no longer available, and I am not sure if it was released for DSi at all, or if it's been something for 3DS, or for 3DS-in-DSi-mode, or whatever...???
 

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Great! Now that the resources the of DSi mode can be used (so easily!), i can't wait for all the great HB's and Emu's that will be released using it's power! :ph34r:
 

zoogie

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Thanks for the info about price and ease-to-use. Didn't knew that japanese DSi's were already hacked, too. Interesting that there are still unpatched exploitable versions in the shop (though they aren't of too much use in practice since you would still need to do stuff like firmware-downgrading in order to use them).
Wasn't there also a "4swordshax" around? I can't find details about that hack, and it seems that the game is no longer available, and I am not sure if it was released for DSi at all, or if it's been something for 3DS, or for 3DS-in-DSi-mode, or whatever...???
I've never heard of such an exploit but the game was pulled down once during it's five month availability from Sept 2011 to Feb 2012. It was re-released with an updated version. Maybe there was a savegame exploit? Interesting mystery.

Anyway, during that time, it was a free download on 3DS/DSi to celebrate Zelda's 25th anniversary. It was also notably developed by Grezzo, who are well known for leaving a nice little unchecked string length bug in the Zelda OOT 3D nickname just a few months earlier that summer. ; )
 
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Gadorach

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Just went to dsiware (european) and there are only 2 more xploitable games available and those are Legends of Exidia (800 points) and Fieldrunners (500) so I'll stick with sudoku because I already have the 200 points it costs and i won't need to add anything. I hope the title downgrading thing will work and if it doesn't I'll buy one of those.
Just a heads up here, but I don't know if there's any public dump of the exploitable version of the European Sudoku. I'd recommend sticking with Fieldrunners, or buying both. I've heard reports that the US dump will not boot when replaced in a European DSi. Use at your own risk.
 

marc00077

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Just a heads up here, but I don't know if there's any public dump of the exploitable version of the European Sudoku. I'd recommend sticking with Fieldrunners, or buying both. I've heard reports that the US dump will not boot when replaced in a European DSi. Use at your own risk.
Oh I see, but won't I be able to inject the exploited savefile to my own save?
 

Gadorach

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Oh I see, but won't I be able to inject the exploited savefile to my own save?
Copying the exploited save file isn't an issue. The actual software version of SUDOKU has been updated and the exploit used previously has been patched. As a result, you must downgrade the installed copy of SUDOKU with the decrypted original version of SUDOKU, that is still exploitable. However, as the DSiWare dump of the original version of SUDOKU is a US dump, there is no available version of the EU version. I have an encrypted backup from NUS myself, but no way to decrypt it, as I don't own a European DSi. It is possible to decrypt the backup though, I just don't have the ability.
 
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marc00077

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I ended up buying Fieldruners and I succesfully extracted the ConsoleID. I'm going to do the hardmod soon and I have a raspi but i don't know how to extract the CID, will the guide be updated soon with instructions for noobs or it's faster to buy the game?

Edit: I found the game at a ridiculous price and bought it.

Edit 2: I'm having problems with the hardmod, I knew the pins were small, but theyre insanelly small, I have soldered it a few times and tried to get a nand backup without succes for the moment, I need better tools to do this ;(
 
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Razor83

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Its been a while since the last update to this thread, and I just had a few questions...

FIFA 11 has 64KB of memory. Although it doesn't have access to the SD card, it may be possible to port a WiFi loader to it.
Has any work been done on porting the payload to FIFA 11? It would be useful to have a WiFi loader.

Copying the exploited save file isn't an issue. The actual software version of SUDOKU has been updated and the exploit used previously has been patched. As a result, you must downgrade the installed copy of SUDOKU with the decrypted original version of SUDOKU, that is still exploitable. However, as the DSiWare dump of the original version of SUDOKU is a US dump, there is no available version of the EU version. I have an encrypted backup from NUS myself, but no way to decrypt it, as I don't own a European DSi. It is possible to decrypt the backup though, I just don't have the ability.
Has an EU version dump of the original SODOKU become available since this post? If not whats required from a European DSi in order to decrypt the NUS backup?
 
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Gadorach

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Has an EU version dump of the original SODOKU become available since this post? If not whats required from a European DSi in order to decrypt the NUS backup?
A backup of the decrypted .tik file for SUDOKU EU would be required. There's a few other steps, but just acquiring that file is the main issue at this time.
 

Razor83

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A backup of the decrypted .tik file for SUDOKU EU would be required. There's a few other steps, but just acquiring that file is the main issue at this time.
So if I purchased SODOKU from the European DSi Shop and then dumped my DSi NAND and decrypted it, would that give us the correct decrypted .tik file?
 

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Is it REALLY neccesary to have a DS/Lite? The thing is I want to downgrade the console PRECISELY because other options to solve what I'm attempting actually need a DS/Lite or unactualized DSi:/
 

atkfromabove

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Is it REALLY neccesary to have a DS/Lite? The thing is I want to downgrade the console PRECISELY because other options to solve what I'm attempting actually need a DS/Lite or unactualized DSi:/
Unfortunately yes. I tried to work around this but I couldn't get the CID without it. Only other option is a raspberry pi (first version)
 

Mangel

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Unfortunately yes. I tried to work around this but I couldn't get the CID without it. Only other option is a raspberry pi (first version)
well i happen to have one :D in the post it seems like BOTH are neccesary, pronouns tricked me XD anyways thanks for the fast answer
 

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is the TWL_FIRM of a 2DS/3DS capable of running in DSi mode for extra CPU speed and RAM? Or is it just impossible/not able?
The 2DS, 3DS/XL, and N3DS/XL all start in DSi Mode when launching DS games. The DSi firmware then switches to the DS-sandbox for launched DS games.

Is it REALLY neccesary to have a DS/Lite? The thing is I want to downgrade the console PRECISELY because other options to solve what I'm attempting actually need a DS/Lite or unactualized DSi:/
Yes, you do need either a real, physical copy of the game loaded with the hacked save, or a raspberry pi V1 (a or b, both work fine). Assuming someone felt like bothering to program a save-writer for DSi-Mode, it would be possible to do it on a DSi/3DS, but until then it's not. You could, of course, use a manual save writer as well, like the R4i save dongle. I should also probably mention that you'd have to be able to run DSi-Mode homebrew already from some kind of hack even if a save writer program was released for DSi-Mode. Flashcarts would still run in DS-Mode no matter what.

The reason behind the necessity of having the game be a real, physical copy, is that it runs in real DSi-Mode. Flashcarts are run in the DS-sandbox, so you cannot access the real memory of the DSi while it's running.
 
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