Hacking Gateway update regarding rumors

[Ryukouki]

If you guys looked at it from my perspective, word play is the least of the concerns you guys should be having, so long as the information reaches the right people.

 

[kyogre123]

Gateway put protection in their product for the same reason Nintendo put protection in their products. Sin & Punishment N64 ROM will wipe Doctor V64 BIOS. So, Gateway are acting just as professionally as Nintendo.. right?

I think it's pointless trying to justify the measures of Gateway. R4i played dirty with them for copying everything GW does without having their own research and Gateway played dirty with R4i by making the brick code. Gateway is a shady company that sells a not exactly legal product; if they can't sue R4i, they will just do things like these, it's the scene after all.

 

[XpertXP1]

I emailed the R4 team and received this as a response from them:
"It seems just the emuNAND feature to cause the blue screen issues....it's nothing related to clone or not, Please don't use the firmware V3.0~3.3 now but 3.3b only, until we find a solution and release it with the coming firmware V4.0 later, by the way, you might also know that the same issue has been reported by lot of GW card users on various forums recently... "

 

[JonnyMohawk]

Just that faulty SD cards with a genuine gateway device won't brick

hmm

This seems to be true, the clones disable the sanity check that would normally stop modified launchers from running. This sanity check would stop a corrupted loader from running if you have the official launcher.dat.

Here is jsons post about it in another thread

The ROP chain has a sanity check that prevents corrupted Launcher.dat file from running the ARM9 payload, and the ARM9 payload is checked as part of the sanity check (so this prevents memory corruption from running the ARM9 payload).

So even with corrupted SD card, the launcher will just hang the 3DS. And when you reboot it is fine.

You can test it yourself. Take the official 2.0b2 launcher.dat file, and modify 1 byte. The 3DS will hang, and when you reboot all is fine. The ARM9 payload is blocked off from executing so no chance for brick.

I have tried and modify random different bytes and rebooted 30 times.
Result: My 3DS is not bricked

Normmatt's patches are specially crafted, because it neutralize the sanity check, and so it will get to run ARM9 payload which (supposedly) bricks (not confirmed myself).

 

[gamerx9]

tbh im a bit sad that people had to pay the price for what the clones where doing, but i suppose most of them where aware the code was being copied from gateway and considered the clones invincible.....i guess if it is true that gateway did this it will at least ruin peoples faith in the clones abilities to copy code properly

I fully agree with this! I have a GW myself, so I am not as worried as I would be if I had a clone. But the end users are paying for this. I mean, WE know it's a clone, but we follow the scene and developments. But what about the people that have no idea about the Gateway 3DS, and only ever saw the 3DS Link or R4i Gold Deluxe... no clue that it's a clone, no idea that a GW3DS card even exists (lots of stores in various countries I am sure are stocking these cards) and unsuspecting end users have no idea they were buying a clone and saving a few dollars... all they know is that the card they bought is the only on they are aware of... Brick the clone cards, mess up the 3DS link or MT Card.. but don't brick an end users 3DS system, because chances are, if they aren't in the know, they bought it because it's the one they saw was available - and had no idea about other cards or whether or not this was a clone.

I understand what GW is doing... I would be p**sed too if someone was stealing my work... but don't make end users pay for it

 

[Huntereb]

I emailed the R4 team and received this as a response from them:
"It seems just the emuNAND feature to cause the blue screen issues....it's nothing related to clone or not, Please don't use the firmware V3.0~3.3 now but 3.3b only, until we find a solution and release it with the coming firmware V4.0 later, by the way, you might also know that the same issue has been reported by lot of GW card users on various forums recently... "

I'm glad they're actually responding to this issue, we'll see in the future. Maybe this'll force 'em to start doing their own work, and I'm welcoming it with open arms.

It makes me really scared to think the Gateway firmware has code implimented in order to ruin someone's piece of hardware. Probably not gonna open up my Gateway any time soon after this, I'm not gonna risk destroying my device, even if they promise it won't hurt me. They're not very good at making promises anyway. Jesus.

 

[Armadillo]

While I think it's harsh and should have just been something like randomly not loading roms etc, when the clones first appeared and people complained, the general feeling from the clone supporters, seemed to be, it's all piracy, everything is fair game, so no problem with R4 taking Gateway's work. So I guess, it's fair game.

It's an easy fix for R4 though. Just deliver on that "original work" they were suppose to do and there will be no more bricks .

 

[crazyace2011]

how do we know that people aren't using clone cards with gw launcher.dat and bricking their 3ds?

 

[stomp_442]

01/11/2013

Our work is close to completion, but as our users know, we care very much about quality and we won't release our new firmware before it has been tested in depth and approved by our beta-testing team.

Besides better compatibility for the latest roms, we also have in the meanwhile started working on some new features that will surprise and please you all. There are many more good things to come in the future of Gateway 3DS and its users. The Future is Gateway 3DS !

On a side note, there has been a clone announced under various different brand names.

We want to advise people interested in this product that it is a simple clone based on our 1.0 firmware (with all its limitations), with cheap Chinese design and components. It will inevitably fail and brick over time with or without updates as it is using our software which was not designed for their hardware.

By purchasing this device, you face the certainty of an unsupported and dead product before long. Please keep in mind the short life span of such products before going through a purchase, you might end up thinking you have been scammed.


We provide support and innovative features unprecedented by any other team before, and we will continue doing so with firmware updates that everyone can enjoy.

We will be back soon with 2.0 firmware and more exciting news about the future of Gateway 3DS!

I found this at a different website. This is where gateway admits the clones will brick using the gateway launcher.

 

[gamesquest1]

If they use the un modded GW launcher their clone cards don't work....it's not the card that is detected it's the disabling security checks and editing the code to work with their clone card that does it

 

[aXXo]

how do we know that people aren't using clone cards with gw launcher.dat and bricking their 3ds?

That's impossible since each launcher.dat is made for the specific card it is using, so you can't use GW's launcher.dat with your r4i card or r4i's launcher.dat with your GW card. The clone cards actually modify GW's launcher.dat to get it to run with their cards.

 

[crazyace2011]

That's impossible since each launcher.dat is made for the specific card it is using, so you can't use GW's launcher.dat with your r4i card or r4i's launcher.dat with your GW card. The clone cards actually modify GW's launcher.dat to get it to run with their cards.

I know that. what im saying this whole thing about gateway bricking 3ds systems how do we know that people aren't do exactly what I stated about using gateway launcher on a clone card causing the brick and blaming gateway.

 

[Mr_Pichu]

I am just concerned that news of all this trouble with these clones hasn't been heavily publicized on the popular console sites.

Who knows how many bricks may be out there by now because the clone makers and retailers are doing nothing.

 

[Ryukouki]

I am just concerned that news of all this trouble with these clones hasn't been heavily publicized on the popular console sites.

Who knows how many bricks may be out there by now because the clone makers and retailers are doing nothing.

That's because GBAtemp is better than other console sites.

 

[aXXo]

I found this at a different website. This is where gateway admits the clones will brick using the gateway launcher.

Actually, that post was made in November and talks about how the clone cards will brick and fail because they are made of cheap Chinese components and have a different design than GW's official cards. Also, this was before GW released the first firmware where the bricking code was found.

 

[gamesquest1]

I know that. what im saying this whole thing about gateway bricking 3ds systems how do we know that people aren't do exactly what I stated about using gateway launcher on a clone card causing the brick and blaming gateway.

....because it wouldn't brick the console if the launcher isn't edited. Trust me trolls and shills don't need anything like evidence to try spread rumours and lies.....they just use rumours and lies

 

[crazyace2011]

....because it wouldn't brick the console if the launcher isn't edited

so gateway isn't bricking 3ds systems?

 

[Xzi]

I know that. what im saying this whole thing about gateway bricking 3ds systems how do we know that people aren't do exactly what I stated about using gateway launcher on a clone card causing the brick and blaming gateway.

We know this because nothing happens when you try to use Gateway's launcher with a clone card. It just doesn't boot because it doesn't clear the initial checksum. But the 3DSLink/R4i/etc launcher is just Gateway's launcher with the initial checksum removed/recoded anyway.

 

[aXXo]

I know that. what im saying this whole thing about gateway bricking 3ds systems how do we know that people aren't do exactly what I stated about using gateway launcher on a clone card causing the brick and blaming gateway.

Considering that the official GW launcher.dat has to be modified (either by clone makers or even legitimate GW users who used the region-free hex patch on the official GW launchet.dat) to cause the bricking, using a virgin/untaouched GW launcher.dat with a clone card will just cause the clone card to throw up an error and freeze your system until you hold the power button to restart.

That's because GBAtemp is better than other console sites.

True that.

EDIT:I forgot a word.

 

[Mr_Pichu]

so gateway isn't bricking 3ds systems?

There are a few documented cases of bricking with GW.