Hacking The status of Gateway and A9LH

[Kazuma77]

Make a dump of your gw's a9lh nand, open it in HxD > goto B800000 and select gw's stage, should be from B800000 to B802EF (9456 Bytes).

This is what gets executed on booting to start launcher.dat.

I will check it out. Thanks for the info.

 

[KidIce]

Exactly. They didn't try to monopolize with MenuHax. Just put out the .3dsx file. So it seems out-of-place for them to be reinventing the wheel this time. They have to know lots of users have already installed A9LH. I think they will put out a .bin file ultimately. If they weren't already planning one, they probably will be now. They do tend to listen when enough customers complain.

God I hope so. I'm one of those few GW advocates still left (for the right reasons, I mean).

I still see the advantages, even though I am capable of setting up and using alternatives, and in fact I use either depending on the need. Don't lock us down GW... We ARE your customers... And from what I have been reading, more than just myself doesn't like this.

'Nough ranting. I'm going to bed.

 

[CoolFangs]

Would just like to point out that the update remains unreleased for a reason. That's the whole point of this closed beta test is to find these issues and fix them before sending it out into the wild.

 

[liomajor]

I will check it out. Thanks for the info.

Depending on your installer (i used aurora's), there should be already a button to load from another offset.

 

[GothicIII]

I found a way how GW A9LH can co-exist with our current A9LH.

As for this, i've extracted from GW A9LH's NAND the Stage from B800000 (9456 Bytes)
and tested to insert it into my non GW A9LH NAND. GW A9LH boots now Launcher.DAT

There is only one thing to do >> add a button combo to load it from another offset.

Thanks for finding this out Please provide more information. It's not clear if you inject the GW stage.bin into your non-GW a9lh NAND or if you extracting the stage and load it up with a boot manager. If it's the former then it's not that helpful though because you still lock out the possibility to use other cfw with it.

Is the stage.bin per console encrypted (not talking about xorpads)? If yes could you share a decrypted copy?

EDIT: or do you inject the stage.bin into a different offset and load it up with a payload which jumps to different offsets. If it is, then it's pretty clever . That would make most sense.

 

[urherenow]

If they do, hopefully they'll provide some sort of way out for people that are now stuck like I am. It was a low blow to lock out hardmods. In a day or so I might try reinstalling 9.0 FIRM via PlaiSysUpdater; in theory it should work as long as Gateway didn't issue some sort of lock command to the NAND chip itself, since 9.0 uses NAND key1, not key2.

Something is wrong with your hardmod or your system. I've been flashing back and forth since last night. No problems. Flashing right now from GW_a9lh to my Luma a9lh backup. Reboot your PC, then unplug any iPhones or other card readers, and try again.

 

[liomajor]

Thanks for finding this out Please provide more information. It's not clear if you inject the GW stage.bin into your non-GW a9lh NAND or if you extracting the stage and load it up with a boot manager. If it's the former then it's not that helpful though because you still lock out the possibility to use other cfw with it.

Is the stage.bin per console encrypted (not talking about xorpads)? If yes could you share a decrypted copy?

EDIT: or do you inject the stage.bin into a different offset and load it up with a payload which jumps to different offsets. If it is, then it's pretty clever . That would make most sense.

Never said anything about bootmanager > injected into nand.bin, or to be exact, opened the disk drive in hxd via hardmod and connected new3ds in write mode.

It should work for everyone since its just gw's stage0x5C000.bin

 

[GothicIII]

Never said anything about bootmanager > injected into nand.bin, or to be exact, opened the disk drive in hxd via hardmod and connected new3ds in write mode.

What did you exactly do? I don't care HOW you wrote it. I want to know WHAT you did it's still not clear.

 

[urherenow]

Make a dump of your gw's a9lh nand, open it in HxD > goto B800000 and select gw's stage, should be from B800000 to B802EF (9456 Bytes).

This is what gets executed on booting to start launcher.dat.

The whole thing? Do I need to decrypt it first?

 

[Kazuma77]

Never said anything about bootmanager > injected into nand.bin, or to be exact, opened the disk drive in hxd via hardmod and connected new3ds in write mode.

It should work for everyone since its just gw's stage0x5C000.bin

So, what you're saying is, if we used Safe A9LH Installer, we can just write it to offset 0x8006000, flash the NAND dump back (using the forced option), and it should work when we hold the home button?

 

[liomajor]

http://gbatemp.net/threads/the-status-of-gateway-and-a9lh.427889/page-16#post-6386005

 

[Kazuma77]

Sector 5C000 = Offset B800000
Sector 5A000 = Offset B400000

Ah, OK, so we overwrite B400000, and it will work? Nice.

 

[liomajor]

Old3DS can use Home Button but New3DS fails since i2c is different initialized.

http://gbatemp.net/threads/the-status-of-gateway-and-a9lh.427889/page-16#post-6386005

 

[stl25]

Once someone is able to get GW stage0x5C000.bin to play nice with any of the current A9LH forks (Aurora Wright, delebile, FIX94, darksamus) please release a video unless GW decides to fix this after hearing about the workaround.

 

[samiam144]

Wow, so you don't have to modify the launcher.dat to use it with the "good" A9LH? Finally some good news lol

 

[Kazuma77]

Old3DS can use Home Button but New3DS fails since i2c is different initialized.

I just modified aurora's installer and switched Home Button out for Button_A.

Any way we could get one pre-compiled with B? I use A to go back to SysNAND when I exit System Settings on EmuNAND occasionally.

 

[liomajor]

Any way we could get one pre-compiled with B? I use A to go back to SysNAND when I exit System Settings on EmuNAND occasionally.

Just installed mine, i'll test it and post what to edit if it works.

 

[Sumea]

With all this, just as someone who looks from the side as I missed Gateway bandwagon when it started. Back then I was envious, back then when Gatway was new I wanted one if I had just also not updated my 3DS.

But now, I have to honestly ask what is the point in using or remaining a gateway user, current CFW's do things better, have better update response especially if you just follow the nightlies of your favorite non-RXtools CFW, and bunch of other features.

That is; does Gateway honestly currently have still some features that "pay back" it's shortcomings?

 

[stl25]

With all this, just as someone who looks from the side as I missed Gateway bandwagon when it started. Back then I was envious, back then when Gatway was new I wanted one if I had just also not updated my 3DS.

But now, I have to honestly ask what is the point in using or remaining a gateway user, current CFW's do things better, have better update response especially if you just follow the nightlies of your favorite non-RXtools CFW, and bunch of other features.

That is; does Gateway honestly currently have still some features that "pay back" it's shortcomings?

Most of us GW users like the cheat menu so that is how we justify keeping and using it. Obviously CFW have solutions NTR, and I am not advocating anyone to go out and buy a Gateway at this point (quite the opposite), but if you have it, there are some uses (.3ds when your internal 3DS SD card is full, cheats (already mentioned)). I personally do not use mine much but I like having the option available anyway. A9LH is just supposed to make it easier for GW users to enjoy it (quicker and reliable booting).

 

[Temarile]

There have been some interesting developments around the GW Launcher.dat so I'm getting a little bit of hope here that we can use GW next to Luma3DS on A9LH.