Hacking GW Team warns against modified launchers

[crazyace2011]

is the _DSMENU.DAT that was updated to 1.62 safe to use?? or should we stick to what gateway put together?

 

[Xzi]

It's starting to look that way to me too.
If it truly was a deliberate action to brick clone users' consoles, that's quite a low blow...

I'm curious to see what Normatt's response to Gateway will be.

Somebody would have picked up on that being a part of the Gateway launcher's code. Whether it be a competing/clone team or tech-savvy individual user. The vast majority of reports about bricked consoles are coming from 3DSLink/R4i users, and we all know that their most recent firmware release was broken. Even their two releases prior to that may well have been ticking time bombs in the form of memory leaks, etc.

 

[Xzi]

is the _DSMENU.DAT that was updated to 1.62 safe to use?? or should we stick to what gateway put together?

No reports of bricking from that, only on 3DS mode carts. The blue card is DS mode.

 

[crazyace2011]

I know its a ds card im just wondering if we shouldn't alter something that wasn't done by gateway. I mean I understand the _dsmenu.dat file is a ds profile. I mean no one is telling anyone you have to use the updated dsmenu file I just figured that gateway didn't make it 1.62 for a reason

 

[Saturosias]

If it truly was a deliberate action to brick clone users' consoles, that's quite a low blow...

Assuming GW did this intentionally, it's not like letting someone else freely rip off their code would be any smarter a business move. These are piracy devices, I don't think "ethics" really have ground when Gateway wants to punish the "'so-called' competition", they didn't even force you to use the unofficially modified versions of their launchers originally designed for their hardware.

What are people going to do, boycott Gateway and purchase an R4i/Link/Orange and brick their own 3DS just to prove a point? No, being aspiring pirates anyway, they'll go for the safest option that gives them the highest game compatibility.

And I sincerely doubt people working on homebrew would do anything significant in response to users of warez devices having their consoles bricked. It's not like they'd release a rom loader to spite Gateway or anything.

 

[kyogre123]

No reports of bricking from that, only on 3DS mode carts. The blue card is DS mode.

There's a report of a bricked DS mode of a 3DS, but the user didn't explain in deep what he did and he also didn't mention anything about using the 1.62 dat. Personally I don't know how that could brick the DS mode to be honest.

 

[Xzi]

I know its a ds card im just wondering if we shouldn't alter something that wasn't done by gateway. I mean I understand the _dsmenu.dat file is a ds profile. I mean no one is telling anyone you have to use the updated dsmenu file I just figured that gateway didn't make it 1.62 for a reason

It's entirely possible, but in so far as we know, the hardware architecture of the blue card indicates that it's only slightly modified from an R4 cart. Naturally Gateway isn't going to recommend you use R4's firmware updates on it, but I don't believe there's any chance that 1.62 will conflict with it.

 

[Ryukouki]

If there really was a hardware kill date, that's impressive, and while I feel bad for everyone who was affected, I'm pretty impressed that Gateway had the gall to do something like that. Talk about taking the initiative.

 

[crazyace2011]

It's entirely possible, but in so far as we know, the hardware architecture of the blue card indicates that it's only slightly modified from an R4 cart. Naturally Gateway isn't going to recommend you use R4's firmware updates on it, but I don't believe there's any chance that 1.62 will conflict with it.

I appreciate your input on the matter. I went ahead and went back to the _dsmenu.dat file that gateway put with its files and if they release a updated dsmenu file then ill use that. last thing I need is to brick my 3ds over a file that could or couldn't damage the system. I mean really we shouldn't be using the cards but what fun is it not

 

[Xzi]

I appreciate your input on the matter. I went ahead and went back to the _dsmenu.dat file that gateway put with its files and if they release a updated dsmenu file then ill use that. last thing I need is to brick my 3ds over a file that could or couldn't damage the system. I mean really we shouldn't be using the cards but what fun is it not

Your call. I understand the thought process that it's better to be safe with expensive hardware.

 

[tomiga]

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty scared to even touch my 3DS right now. I have the region free patched GW3DS launcher on it and it's booted up into EmuNAND currently in sleep mode. But so far I haven't seen any reports of anybody with the modded GW3DS launcher with region free patch reporting a brick, just those using the R4iGold/3DSLink launcher.

Can anybody confirm the region free patched launcher doesn't cause a brick?

 

[crazyace2011]

Your call. I understand the thought process that it's better to be safe with expensive hardware.

don't really need to mess with the blue gateway card as I have a dstwo card that is updated and can play any game I throw at it that I know of so no real reason to change something. not saying I don't trust the people that updated the _dsmenu.dat file they are better skilled at that kind of stuff than I am. I did good get imenu on my dstwo to work in my favor that took time and somewhat of a challenge.

 

[kyogre123]

*sigh* My MicroSD got corrupted, I hope it's software related and not with the card itself (I bought it recently and I fear I could have been scamed). What happens is that I couldn't copy the NAND.bin file from the MicroSD to my computer (0x80070057) and also I can't paste anything on the MicroSD. I booted emuNAND again knowing this and everything went OK.

I'll try to reformat the card hoping this resolves the issue.

 

[crazyace2011]

*sigh* My MicroSD got corrupted, I hope it's software related and not with the card itself (I bought it recently and I fear I could have been scamed). What happens is that I couldn't copy the NAND.bin file from the MicroSD to my computer (0x80070057) and also I can't paste anything on the MicroSD. I booted emuNAND again knowing this and everything went OK.

I'll try to reformat the card hoping this resolves the issue.

are you inserting the microsd card the card reader alone or putting in a sd card adapter? I know my wifes kids microsd cards were getting corrupt using the card reader for the microsd and I switched to using a sd card adapter and it seemed to work better. I also use the suggestion from http://gbatemp.net/threads/pokemon-white-2-not-working-on-new-r4i-3ds-gold-r4ids-cn-card.345099/ second post down formatting it exactly the way the suggest and never had a corrupt error problem worth a shot

 

[kyogre123]

are you inserting the microsd card the card reader alone or putting in a sd card adapter? I know my wifes kids microsd cards were getting corrupt using the card reader for the microsd and I switched to using a sd card adapter and it seemed to work better. I also use the suggestion from http://gbatemp.net/threads/pokemon-white-2-not-working-on-new-r4i-3ds-gold-r4ids-cn-card.345099/ second post down formatting it exactly the way the suggest and never had a corrupt error problem worth a shot

Both ways. I can't backup the files because it's displaying the same error with some of the files I'm trying to copy... I feel tired to keep trying today...

 

[frown]

Somebody would have picked up on that being a part of the Gateway launcher's code. Whether it be a competing/clone team or tech-savvy individual user. The vast majority of reports about bricked consoles are coming from 3DSLink/R4i users, and we all know that their most recent firmware release was broken. Even their two releases prior to that may well have been ticking time bombs in the form of memory leaks, etc.

Well I hope it was just a bug as opposed to something malicious from Gateway, but what about Normatt's region-free modification?
It looks like it's a pretty simple patch that doesn't change much. Are there any actual reports of it causing bricking to occur as well, or is that just Gateway saying don't use it?

It's not like letting someone else freely rip off their code would be any smarter a business move. These are piracy devices, I don't think "ethics" really have ground when Gateway wants to punish the "'so-called' competition", they didn't even force you to use the unofficially modified versions of their launchers built for their hardware.
What are people going to do, boycott Gateway and purchase an R4i/Link/Orange and brick their own 3DS just to prove a point? No, being aspiring pirates anyway, they'll go for the safest option that gives them the highest game compatibility.
And I sincerely doubt people working on homebrew would do anything significant in response to users of warez devices having their consoles bricked. It's not like they'd release a rom loader to spite Gateway or anything.

I am under no illusion as to what these devices are intended for or the ethics of the type of people who design and profit from them are.
However, that does not stop me from being disappointed by the potential prospect of such a lowbrow trick being used in order to punish competitors/copycats.
What are people going to do? I don't know. I guess that depends on their ethics and understanding of the subject. :/
I'm not expecting Normatt or other hackers to "do anything" other than to perhaps clarify/demystify what the cause of the issue is.

 

[Xzi]

Well I hope it was just a bug as opposed to something malicious from Gateway, but what about Normatt's region-free modification?
It looks like it's a pretty simple patch that doesn't change much. Are there any actual reports of it causing bricking to occur as well, or is that just Gateway saying don't use it?

No reports that I've seen in relation to that patch and bricking. At the same time, my 3DS scene knowledge doesn't extend very far beyond this site. Seems like Gateway is just playing it safe, as I'm sure they haven't fully vetted that patch or any other launcher modifications for themselves yet.

 

[GUIDOBOT]

There is no evidence about gw team bricking systems intentionally. Someone disassemble a decrypted gw launcher and show us all there was a time bomb hidden, please stop speculating and creating rumors until some proof is shown.
Also it is interesting that cloners didnt check this supposed bomb when copying, talk about incompetence

 

[frown]

No reports that I've seen in relation to that patch and bricking.

That's good. I hope this remains the case, as it seems (to me, at least) that this would point towards it just being a problem introduced by the R4i/3DSLink team.
The reports of some Gateway users having the same issue worries me though. D:

At the same time, my 3DS scene knowledge doesn't extend very far beyond this site.

Same here. lol
I don't know much about the internal workings of Gateway's launcher.dat.
I'd be interested to see an analysis of it though.

There is no evidence about gw team bricking systems intentionally. Someone disassemble a decrypted gw launcher and show us all there was a time bomb hidden, please stop speculating and creating rumors until some proof is shown.
Also it is interesting that cloners didnt check this supposed bomb when copying, talk about incompetence

You're correct.
There is currently no evidence that Gateway has done anything intentional to brick consoles.
In fact, aside from Gateway Team's word, there's currently no evidence as to what the cause of the problem is at all! Proof is exactly what I'm waiting for here, as I can't help but be curious and skeptical.

Spoiler

Stop speculating? On GBAtemp? Do you know what you're asking?

 

[tHciNc]

There is no timebomb, the memory corruption is in relation to some sketchy copy/pasting with the clones launchers coding