Hacking Questions and concerns with GateWay 3DS

[SaitoKojima]

Unless you are trying some complex unsupported setups to play around with you should do nothing in sysnand. The main purpose of emunand is to make sysnand dead to you. Bottom line if you don't want to use emunand exclusively (classic and gateway mode) then you are jumping into a into a snake pit. Plan on spending more time reading threads and expirmenting than actually playing games.

I understand how this is all a little confusing. Understand as well that Gateway is not perfect especially when it comes to saves and encryption. It will what you say you want it to do and only gets complex if you try to make it comples by stretching its capabilities.

I get what you mean.

I'm just wondering what kind of steps are needed to be done to be able to still use the stuff that I already own, as well as what Gateway and emuNAND and whatnot, can offer as well, without screwing either of the two up.

And that's the issue I keep seeing with these guides. They only look at one extreme, which is just emuNAND by itself and that's it, more or less having no care in the world if you end up screwing your whole 3DS up as long as the almighty emuNAND works.

 

[thorasgar]

I get what you mean.

I'm just wondering what kind of steps are needed to be done to be able to still use the stuff that I already own, as well as what Gateway and emuNAND and whatnot, can offer as well, without screwing either of the two up.

And that's the issue I keep seeing with these guides. They only look at one extreme, which is just emuNAND by itself and that's it, more or less having no care in the world if you end up screwing your whole 3DS up as long as the almighty emuNAND works.

Can you give some examples of what you are talking about with these guides?

I thought I already gave you the steps to use what you already own. When you create emunand you get an exact copy of your sysnand with all eshop titles. You now run everything from emunand. That the way it works. You can still use your retail carts in classic mode. Sure you could run the. For sysnad for now but eventually carts will start having system updates past 9.2. That is why we run them in emunand classic mode, to prevent system updates.

I get the feeling you want Gateway to do something it does not do, but I am not sure what that is. You can run cia, roms, retail carts, eshop titles, DLC and game updates. The only way you are going to screw up your system is if you start messing around with sysnand and don't make backups.

 

[SaitoKojima]

Can you give some examples of what you are talking about with these guides?

I thought I already gave you the steps to use what you already own. When you create emunand you get an exact copy of your sysnand with all eshop titles. You now run everything from emunand. That the way it works. You can still use your retail carts in classic mode. Sure you could run the. For sysnad for now but eventually carts will start having system updates past 9.2. That is why we run them in emunand classic mode, to prevent system updates.

I get the feeling you want Gateway to do something it does not do, but I am not sure what that is. You can run cia, roms, retail carts, eshop titles, DLC and game updates. The only way you are going to screw up your system is if you start messing around with sysnand and don't make backups.

So what you're saying is, when my Gateway comes in, I make emuNAND and then from now on, I just play my retail games and eShop-legal stuff off Classic Mode, and for everything else it's Gateway Mode?

 

[thorasgar]

So what you're saying is, when my Gateway comes in, I make emuNAND and then from now on, I just play my retail games and eShop-legal stuff off Classic Mode, and for everything else it's Gateway Mode?

Yes except your eshop stuff is played in gateway mode. Get the basics down and comfortable with them and if you want to start branching out to more complex setups later feel free.

The only tool you need is emunand tool. Emunand consists of a hidden partition on the Sd card as well as the 3ds folder you can see. To make an emunand back up you need both. Once you have emunand set up and backed up, you format sysnand without the Sd card inserted, this unlinks them. For now you will need an Internet connection in sysnand to run the exploit. If you let the 3ds sleep in sysnand with the Internet on you will get a system update. Just reformat sysnand and you are good to go. It happened to me this weekend, five minutes later I was up and running again.

 

[SaitoKojima]

Yes except your eshop stuff is played in gateway mode. Get the basics down and comfortable with them and if you want to start branching out to more complex setups later feel free.

The only tool you need is emunand tool. Emunand consists of a hidden partition on the Sd card as well as the 3ds folder you can see. To make an emunand back up you need both. Once you have emunand set up and backed up, you format sysnand without the Sd card inserted, this unlinks them. For now you will need an Internet connection in sysnand to run the exploit. If you let the 3ds sleep in sysnand with the Internet on you will get a system update. Just reformat sysnand and you are good to go. It happened to me this weekend, five minutes later I was up and running again.

 

[iViperz]

Try this.



Simply put, create emunand. After that you have 2 options in emunand, Gateway mode and Classic mode.

You play roms and cias in Gateway mode. You play retail carts and eShop games in classic mode.
Considering you are on FW 9.2, you can play retail carts and eShop games just fine in Sysnand (your 3DS before running Gateway exploit

In order to play online, you must have the latest update for the game (Ignore this step for now while you're still new and getting started)

You may find that your SD card (the one that goes into your 3DS) has about 1gb less space than it should have. This is normal, ignore it.

 

[SaitoKojima]

Try this.

That part I understand, since it's real simple.

My concerns is after, what can/needs to be done to be able to still play my retail carts, as well as my downloaded eShop stuff without losing it all.

After I heard "Format", I got even more worried.

 

[iViperz]

That part I understand, since it's real simple.

My concerns is after, what can/needs to be done to be able to still play my retail carts, as well as my downloaded eShop stuff without losing it all.

After I heard "Format", I got even more worried.

I've just explained what each part is above.

NOTHING needs to be done in order to continue playing retail and downloaded eShop stuff.

Formatting emunand allows you to create a 'copy' of your sysnand

To start off, run the exploit, then go to the right and choose "Backup NAND"

Next plug the SD card (the big card in your 3DS) into your PC, and copy everything from that folder onto a folder in your desktop. Make sure theres a file called NAND.bin that you're copying over too.

Once you've done that, put your SD card back into your 3DS and turn your 3DS back on and run the exploit again. Go over to the right and choose format emunand. What this does is create a copy of your system so the gateway can read this copy instead of reading your actual system.

Once finished, you'll notice everything has gone blank. The next step is to plug your SD card into your PC and copy everything EXCEPT that NAND.bin file back into your SD card. Make sure you replace EVERYTHING if you get a prompt.

That's all you need to get started. Steps that follow after aren't crucial to get you up and running, though they are important

 

[SaitoKojima]

I've just explained what each part is above.

NOTHING needs to be done in order to continue playing retail and downloaded eShop stuff.

Formatting emunand allows you to what's called "unlinking sysnand and emunand"

To start off, run the exploit, then go to the right and choose "Backup NAND"

Next plug the SD card (the big card in your 3DS) into your PC, and copy everything from that folder onto a folder in your desktop. Make sure theres a file called NAND.bin that you're copying over too.

Once you've done that, turn your 3DS back on and run the exploit again. Go over to the right and choose format emunand. What this does is create a copy of your system so the gateway can read this copy instead of reading your actual system.

Once finished, you'll notice everything has gone blank. The next step is to plug your SD card into your PC and copy everything EXCEPT that NAND.bin file back into your SD card. Make sure you replace EVERYTHING if you get a prompt.

That's all you need to get started. Steps that follow after aren't crucial to get you up and running, though they are important

So I do the format NAND with no SD inserted in the 3DS?

And after that, from now on, I just boot into Gateway mode and it will boot this emuNAND, and from now on that is my 3DS?

 

[iViperz]

So I do the format NAND with no SD inserted in the 3DS?

And after that, from now on, I just boot into Gateway mode and it will boot this emuNAND, and from now on that is my 3DS?

My apologies, let me edit my post again to clarify. After copying the files to your PC, put the SD card back into your 3DS

I've answered your first question.
emunand is used in both gateway mode AND classic mode, so simply put, yes.
Gateway mode = roms, cias etc
Classic mode = retail cards, eShop downloaded games

 

[SaitoKojima]

My apologies, let me edit my post again to clarify. After copying the files to your PC, put the SD card back into your 3DS

I've answered your first question.
emunand is used in both gateway mode AND classic mode, so simply put, yes.
Gateway mode = roms, cias etc
Classic mode = retail cards, eShop downloaded games

Alright, this is sounding a lot more clear to me.

My final question is, for the stuff that I have for retails and eShop, I will still have all my save data as long as I don't bother with downgrading, correct?

 

[iViperz]

Alright, this is sounding a lot more clear to me.

My final question is, for the stuff that I have for retails and eShop, I will still have all my save data as long as I don't bother with downgrading, correct?

Yes, and as long as you copy everything correctly to and from your PC

 

[SaitoKojima]

Yes, and as long as you copy everything correctly to and from your PC

ANd is it simple to delete CIAs after I am done with them?

 

[iViperz]

ANd is it simple to delete CIAs after I am done with them?

Yes, you'd use a software package called BigBlueMenu (This is covered in the majority of cia tutorials available online)

 

[SaitoKojima]

Yes, you'd use a software package called BigBlueMenu (This is covered in the majority of cia tutorials available online)

Alrighty. For a second I thought I had to use Data Management in System Settings.

That just about wraps up all the concerns I had.

 

[thorasgar]

I thought eshop games were played from gateway mode. Is there an advantage to running them from classic mode?

 

[iViperz]

Alrighty. For a second I thought I had to use Data Management in System Settings.

That just about wraps up all the concerns I had.

Nope, BigBlueMenu will be your go-to manager for cias

Sweet. Let me know how it goes or if you have any other questions.

Please keep in mind that the steps I've outlined above and just to get you started and everything working. There are other things to do but you can slowly learn them later after you're more comfortable about the whole process

 

[samiam144]

Yes, you'd use a software package called BigBlueMenu (This is covered in the majority of cia tutorials available online)

Or you can just go to system settings while in emunand and delete then from there. If you delete a gamr using big blue menu or devmenu, the eshop will still think you have the game downloaded and won't let you buy it if you decide to.

 

[iViperz]

I thought eshop games were played from gateway mode. Is there an advantage to running them from classic mode?

There's no advantage, but I'd suggest sticking to just one location, since I don't know if any problems may be caused

Or you can just go to system settings while in emunand and delete then from there. If you delete a gamr using big blue menu or devmenu, the eshop will still think you have the game downloaded and won't let you buy it if you decide to.

Yes this is correct, however, SaitoKojima is still new to this scene, so it'd be much better for him to stick with BigBlueMenu until he learns more about everything on the gateway scene.

 

[samiam144]

Yes this is correct, however, SaitoKojima is still new to this scene, so it'd be much better for him to stick with BigBlueMenu until he learns more about everything on the gateway scene.

Ah I see. But it's much easier through system settings in emunand, no? Don't have to mess with title IDs? Or does BBM actually display game names now?