Hacking Full report on my downgrade attempt (9.9.0-26E New 3DS)

[Dedede]

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[Damon_girl]

After all those steps I was sure this was going to be a success story. Nice plot twist! And yes, definitely wait for a better release.

 

[SterneSchreien]

Using SDFormatter is usually recommended to format SDs over the default windows utility.

But man all those detailed steps for this sad ending.

 

[Dedede]

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[beefsloth]

Man, that is awesome you have a hardmod atleast. I am still wary of doing it as I don't have one myself. I updated to 10.3 myself just recently following a guide to install some legit .cia's. I wonder if updating first would make any difference in the least, but I doubt it. Hmm.
Please update us again as thoroughly as you did this time if you intend to try and downgrade again and hopefully succeed this time. It must be nice having a hardmod haha.

 

[JAWS_XS]

I'm going to have to agree with beefsloth...just update all the way to 10.3. However, you did everything perfect! Glad to see teracopy was used.

there was another pastebin I read through that might have some different info. Like hitting "y" in Homebrew menu.

http://pastebin.com/ZfA8wtA2

 

[G25900]

The only things that I did different to you is you put sysupdater in /3ds/sysUpdater/ so in it's own folder, I just put the 3dsx and smdh straight in /3ds/ and not it's own folder, I also used menuhax. Worked fine first time, no retries and fully downgraded from the same 9.9E, got emuNand/CFW running fine and everything.

Either I got stupidly lucky, the extra folder can cause problems, or a mix of both. You pretty much took all other precautions you could and you have a hardmod so nothing lost at least.

 

[Dedede]

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[G25900]

I thought it required it's own folder as I'm sure something else I tried didn't show up before and all other homebrew goes in it's own folder too, but the tutorial said to just put the files in the 3ds folder which I thought wouldn't work but tried it anyway and it showed up in the menu.

I haven't seen any mention of the location at all affecting things but I have to wonder if maybe it is factor in at least some cases now as I followed all other precautions you did.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

1. I began the process on my 9.9.0-26E regular sized New 3DS purchased in Australia with the charger plugged in the whole time. It has a hardmod for use with NAND backups. I have never used the Badge Arcade or installed any badge data through homebrew.

2. I deleted all saved custom Home Menu layouts I had on my device.

3. I removed my custom theme from the 3DS, selecting an official premium theme before cycling back to the default theme, and also removed all folders from my Home Menu.

4. On a 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate computer, I downloaded the TeraCopy utility here (http://www.codesector.com/downloads)

5. Using a micro SD card adapter, I used TeraCopy to copy everything off my Class 10 32GB micro SD and backed it up on my computer.

6. I performed a full format of the SD card using the default Windows utility, selecting the following:

· File System as “FAT32 (Default)”
· Allocation unit size as “Default allocation size”
· “Quick Format” unchecked
​

7. I performed an error check of the SD card using the Windows utility, selecting the following:

· “Automatically fix file system errors” checked
· “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors” checked
​

8. I received a prompt stating that no problems were found on the SD card.

9. I then used TeraCopy to copy the backed-up folder entitled “Nintendo 3DS” back onto the SD card. I didn’t copy back any of the folders for homebrew files, Music or DCIM.

10. Using Google Chrome version 44.0.2403.157 (64-bit), I downloaded Smealum’s latest homebrew launcher kit from here (https://smealum.github.io/ninjhax2/starter.zip) and extracted it with 7-Zip.

11. From the extracted folder, I used TeraCopy to transfer the “3ds” folder and “boot.3dsx” file to the root of my SD card.

12. I downloaded the version of sysUpdater posted by Julian here (https://gbatemp.net/attachments/sysupdater-zip.34439/) and extracted it using 7-Zip.

13. The extracted contents gave a “sysUpdater.3DSX” file 229,392 bytes in size and an .SMDH file, both of which I copied with TeraCopy to the directory /3ds/sysUpdater/ on my SD card.

14. I then downloaded the file “9.2.0-20E(Full)_n3DS.ZIP” from “that” ISO site.

15. I used this website (http://onlinemd5.com/) to confirm the MD5 and SHA-1 checksums of the 9.2.0-20E(Full)_n3DS.ZIP file, which came to “6DCCA8FCBC9A28C82C2A4E5182F3ACF8” and “E7C77BF205137167F1F1BEFA0C4DB9D879A21A2E” respectively. This is correct according to the verified checksums for my region’s firmware .ZIP file.

16. I used 7-Zip to extract the 9.2.0-20E(Full)_n3DS.ZIP file which was 148,417,184 bytes in size to become 102 seperate .CIA files which collectively measured as 149,543,616 bytes in size.

17. I then used TeraCopy to copy the 102 .CIA files to the directory /updates/ on my SD card, I also clicked “Verify” on TeraCopy once it had finished copying to confirm the CRC for each file.

18. I then removed my Micro SD from the computer after using the “Safe to Remove” feature on Windows, put it back into my 3DS and powered it on to enter the Home Menu.

19. As I had been recently receiving prompt to update my 3DS, I suspect that my system had downloaded some update data whilst in sleep mode. I powered off my 3DS and turned it on again whilst holding down L, R, A and Up, which enters the recovery menu and also deletes any sleep-mode-downloaded update data.

20. I then clicked cancel whilst in the recovery menu and powered on my console once more.

21. I opened IronFall: Invasion on my 3DS and entered the Homebrew Menu 2.5 through my previously set up IronHax exploit.

22. I then opened the homebrew application “menuhax_manager v2.1” from the starter kit and installed MenuHax.

23. I powered off my 3DS and restarted whilst holding L to boot, which successfully launched the Homebrew Launcher.

24. I entered the homebrew application “ftBRONY” from the starter kit and excited, as doing so is said to increase the chance of sysUpdater running successfully.

25. I then entered the sysUpdater homebrew app at which point it froze on “#5: Restoring SlabHead backup” and I was forced to hold down the power button until my system powered off.

26. I then re-entered the Homebrew Launcher, this time through IronHax, and repeated the same process, at which point sysUpdater froze at “#4: Overwrite completed…”

27. After about 10 to 15 more attempts, I finally got sysUpdater to fully open. This was after first opening CHMM2, exiting it, opening FTBrony, exiting it, and finally opening sysUpdater. This method seemed to get me further in the numbered steps when booting and ultimately was the method which allowed sysUpdater to fully open.

28. Having reached the screen prompting for the instalation, I pressed Y.

29. The .CIA files began to install one by one and the process only took a few minutes. Upon completion the screen stated "Installation Complete, rebooting in 10 seconds...", however, it did not reboot after the 10 seconds.

30. After waiting approximately 8 minutes I held down the power button to turn off the console. Upon trying to power it on again, the blue light appears but nothing shows on the screen. Trying to enter recovery mode doesn't work and gives the same result. Removing the micro SD also changes nothing.

Luckily I have a hardmod to restore my NAND, but this attempt did in fact result in a brick. I'll try again when something more stable comes along.

Since you have a hardmod, there's not much harm in trying again, it should be successful the second time, if it isn't then there's probably something else preventing the downgrade from being successful that isn't the fault of sysupdater.

 

[_v3]

I tried downgrading on 9.9 but it didn't work, I ended up on updating to 10.3 and then attempting the downgrade, it was succesfull. If you have a NAND backup try updating and then downgrading.

 

[DjoeN]

If it kept failing, I would try to update to 10.3 (now that it's still possible) and downgrade from there.
Try to not use MenuHax, but other entry points, to avoid problems later with Menuhax when downgraded on N3DS.

 

[Dedede]

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