Hacking NTRBootHax vs Bricked N3DS, help required

[eworm]

Legends say NTRBootHax can be used to restore any bricked 3DS, due to it booting before anything else (and probably a myriad other reasons, whatever). I decided to do so with my New3DS that got bricked after - if I'm even remembering it right - I stupidly updated the firmware while on 2.1, something that New3DS doesn't handle well.

I have a brand new R4i RTS Gold 3DS flashcart from our lovely sponsor and as far as the NTRBootHax goes, it went swimmingly. I've flashed it onto the cart, installed boot9strap on my little brick, even installed Luma... But here's where problems began.

The almighty guide instructed me well up to this point, but after doing the initial config for Luma and pressing Start, I got an error: "Failed to mount CTRNAND". Can't do anything but shut the console down. The guide tells me "if you get an error, just continue to the next page". But the stuff on the next page consists half of things I can't do because my console won't boot (System Update and installing the CIAs and stuff) and half of things that don't help (writing Luma to CTRNAND - it claims to be successful, but taking out the SD card results in the console not turning on, meaning it failed).

I'm not sure what to do at this point. Oddly enough, the one thing I can do is boot into GodMode and other firms. However:
a) choosing "build support files" in GodMode allows me to build encTitleKeys.bin and decTitleKeys.bin, but not seeddb.bin (failed).
b) attempting to launch Decrypt9WIP.firm is a failure - "0x05 KeyY: not found" (it skips this one) and 0x24 KeyY: not found (this freezes Decrypt9WIP and I can't do anything)

Anyone has any idea what the problem might be and, more importantly, how to fix it?

 

[HiddenRambler]

Did you try this : https://3ds.guide/9.2.0-ctrtransfer.html

Since your nand might be corrupted the ctrtransfer might be needed to fix it.

 

[eworm]

That was one of the first things I thought of. But it didn't help.

 

[DocKlokMan]

Legends say NTRBootHax can be used to restore any bricked 3DS, due to it booting before anything else (and probably a myriad other reasons, whatever). I decided to do so with my New3DS that got bricked after - if I'm even remembering it right - I stupidly updated the firmware while on 2.1, something that New3DS doesn't handle well.

I have a brand new R4i RTS Gold 3DS flashcart from our lovely sponsor and as far as the NTRBootHax goes, it went swimmingly. I've flashed it onto the cart, installed boot9strap on my little brick, even installed Luma... But here's where problems began.

The almighty guide instructed me well up to this point, but after doing the initial config for Luma and pressing Start, I got an error: "Failed to mount CTRNAND". Can't do anything but shut the console down. The guide tells me "if you get an error, just continue to the next page". But the stuff on the next page consists half of things I can't do because my console won't boot (System Update and installing the CIAs and stuff) and half of things that don't help (writing Luma to CTRNAND - it claims to be successful, but taking out the SD card results in the console not turning on, meaning it failed).

I'm not sure what to do at this point. Oddly enough, the one thing I can do is boot into GodMode and other firms. However:
a) choosing "build support files" in GodMode allows me to build encTitleKeys.bin and decTitleKeys.bin, but not seeddb.bin (failed).
b) attempting to launch Decrypt9WIP.firm is a failure - "0x05 KeyY: not found" (it skips this one) and 0x24 KeyY: not found (this freezes Decrypt9WIP and I can't do anything)

Anyone has any idea what the problem might be and, more importantly, how to fix it?

The CTRNAND transfer needs to be done with Decrypt9, not GodMode9. So the first thing to do is get Decrypt9 working. According to the Decrypt9 readme, you may need aeskeydb.bin if it’s not pulling the keys right from the 3DS. That file has an MD5 hash of A5B28945A7C051D7A0CD18AF0E580D1B if you wanna google for it. Place it on the root of your SD card and try Decrypt9 again. If it works do another CTRNAND transfer.

 

[eworm]

Can I use the aeskeydb.bin from my other console? Is it console type specific or region specific or something? Or will any aeskeydb.bin do?

 

[vb_encryption_vb]

The CTRNAND transfer needs to be done with Decrypt9, not GodMode9. So the first thing to do is get Decrypt9 working. According to the Decrypt9 readme, you may need aeskeydb.bin if it’s not pulling the keys right from the 3DS. That file has an MD5 hash of A5B28945A7C051D7A0CD18AF0E580D1B if you wanna google for it. Place it on the root of your SD card and try Decrypt9 again. If it works do another CTRNAND transfer.

Why? Godmode9 is the successor of Decrypt9.

 

[HiddenRambler]

Why? Godmode9 is the successor of Decrypt9.

It was mentioned in many places that some of the features don't work exactly the same between the two, and for one or two things Decrypt9 was more reliable.

 

[eworm]

Decrypt9WIP doesn't load still. I'm not sure it sees the aeskeydb.bin (root of the SD card). Is there something I can do with GodMode9 that would revive Decrypt9WIP?

 

[vb_encryption_vb]

Pretty sure decrypt9 has to be in .firm in order to boot via boot9

 

[eworm]

It is. Decrypt9WIP.firm in the luma\payloads folder, just like GodMode9. It tries to launch itself, that's not the problem.

 

[antiNT]

It is. Decrypt9WIP.firm in the luma\payloads folder, just like GodMode9. It tries to launch itself, that's not the problem.

Try renaming Decrypt9WIP.firm to boot.firm and place it at the root of your sd card replacing luma's boot.firm.

 

[eworm]

Didn't work. That could be a solution if the console couldn't find the right .firm in the first place. But that's not what's wrong - Decrypt9WIP just freezes when trying to load itself.

 

[Shady Guy Jose]

I vaguely remember the key file not being supposed to be in the root. Maybe files9?

 

[antiNT]

Maybe your decrypt9 is corrupted, try to redownload it

 

[Shady Guy Jose]

Trying Decrypt9 as the boot.firm is a valid suggestion, since it may not like going through the current Luma's chainloader, for some reason.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Legends say NTRBootHax can be used to restore any bricked 3DS, due to it booting before anything else (and probably a myriad other reasons, whatever). I decided to do so with my New3DS that got bricked after - if I'm even remembering it right - I stupidly updated the firmware while on 2.1, something that New3DS doesn't handle well.

I have a brand new R4i RTS Gold 3DS flashcart from our lovely sponsor and as far as the NTRBootHax goes, it went swimmingly. I've flashed it onto the cart, installed boot9strap on my little brick, even installed Luma... But here's where problems began.

The almighty guide instructed me well up to this point, but after doing the initial config for Luma and pressing Start, I got an error: "Failed to mount CTRNAND". Can't do anything but shut the console down. The guide tells me "if you get an error, just continue to the next page". But the stuff on the next page consists half of things I can't do because my console won't boot (System Update and installing the CIAs and stuff) and half of things that don't help (writing Luma to CTRNAND - it claims to be successful, but taking out the SD card results in the console not turning on, meaning it failed).

I'm not sure what to do at this point. Oddly enough, the one thing I can do is boot into GodMode and other firms. However:
a) choosing "build support files" in GodMode allows me to build encTitleKeys.bin and decTitleKeys.bin, but not seeddb.bin (failed).
b) attempting to launch Decrypt9WIP.firm is a failure - "0x05 KeyY: not found" (it skips this one) and 0x24 KeyY: not found (this freezes Decrypt9WIP and I can't do anything)

Anyone has any idea what the problem might be and, more importantly, how to fix it?

Got a NAND backup from before you downgraded it?
That would be the easiest way to fix it.
Luma is erroring because your ctrnand is using o3DS encryption keys (as that's the only way to make an o3DS firmware boot), you need to somehow change the encryption back.
I'm not sure what other ways there are of doing that besides restoring a NAND backup, a ctrtransfer might work, not sure.

 

[eworm]

I did find places that say to put aeskeydb.bin in files9, but tried it and nothing changes. This is tough.
Redownloading Decrypt9WIP changed nothing.
Using it as the boot.firm, changed nothing.
I'm almost certain I got rid of the NAND backup after I bricked. Had no idea it would ever be recoverable, everything seemed doomed.

Wait, no wonder nothing is changing, my aeskeydb.bin is 0 bytes in size. For some reason my other console can't generate a proper aeskeydb.bin. That's a problem in itself, I suppose, but for now I'm gonna try to find a different one.

 

[DocKlokMan]

Pretty sure decrypt9 has to be in .firm in order to boot via boot9

GodMode9 doesn’t fix the headers in a CTRNAND transfer while Decrypt9 does. There’s an open issue about it and it’s being worked on.

 

[eworm]

Well, sh*t, a proper aeskeydb.bin doesn't do jack either, be it in root or in files9. I'm running out of ideas.

Do you think using Decrypt9WIP to "dump transferable CTRNAND" and using that one would help any? Both these consoles are same region and both are N3DS, but I would still only have GodMode9 to transfer it, so it might be a fruitless endeavor...

 

[HiddenRambler]

Got a NAND backup from before you downgraded it?
That would be the easiest way to fix it.

I agree. If you have a NAND backup from before the 2.1 downgrade restore it to bring the console to a pristine state and start over.