Homebrew Arm9LoaderHax (A9LH) Questions, Answers and Resources Thread

[Ridge]

Seeing as there's been a lot of talk about A9LH lately, I decided it would probably be nice to have an all-in-one thread where people can come for answers to any question they might have, or ask if nothing is listed.

I will try to list as much as I know about it, and perhaps (hopefully) learn something from this thread too!
For the sake of making the thread as comprehensive as possible, let's start out with a few simple points. Let's say you're here and you haven't the foggiest idea of what Arm9LoaderHax is. You either just happened to stumble upon it now or just want a TL;DR of what it is and what it isn't.

Cool, so why should I use this?

There's reasons for you to install and reasons not to install. But mostly the pros outweigh the cons, so if you have the time and a bit of knowledge before installing, you should totally set up your 3DS for A9LH.
So, Arm9LoaderHax:

• Is technically available to all 3DS models, except any device in the Nintendo 3DS family with C, T or K firmware. (However, there might be a way to change the region on these temporarily. This is nothing I know about being possible. Yet.)
• Offers a faster and 100% successful boot to CFW.
• Offers some brick protection, in a similar fashion to BootMii for the Wii.
• Allow you to keep your SysNAND updated.
• Allows you to change the boot animation - pretty cool!
• You can boot faster with CFW to EmuNAND and SysNAND. But honestly, there's little reason to use EmuNAND with A9LH. More on that later.
• More. People are going to make more stuff that utilizes A9LH in many ways.

As for reasons to NOT install, well, that's just if anything of this doesn't sound interesting to you. If you're not gonna use a CFW, not gonna do any SysNAND tampering of any kind without a hardmod, and MenuHax works fine for you, you're probably better off saving your time. Just remember to check back, people are still making stuff using A9LH!

Ok, but how?

A9LH is an exploit that allows for very early code execution with full kernel access. In only a matter of milliseconds after powering on your device, you have full control of your device thanks to A9LH giving you kernel access immediately.
The exploit reads a payload off your SD card when you start the system and depending on how you've set it up will execute a CFW, recovery, boot menu or whatever, immediately.

To run it tho, you need a dump of your consoles OTP, and getting it can be kind of tricky. There's already guides on how to do this, and it's possible to get without even losing any data. When you've got this, you need to compile a payload with your OTP.

Setting all of this up is possible with and without additional hardware, but the method that requires additional hardware to be set up is only for New 3DS and is probably not going to be favored by most people.

Why avoid EmuNAND?

To quote @Plailect from this post on reddit:

With arm9loaderhax and FIRM write protection patches, SysNAND is no less safe than RedNAND, and it's perhaps 5 more steps to accomplish it.

Basically, no need to waste more SD card space than you have to, keep your SysNAND updated, no need to fiddle with Emu/RedNAND - it's simply just much easier for yourself.

I wanna set it up!

Note: As mentioned by @iAqua it's worth keeping in mind you NEED an SD card to boot if you decide to install this. Clear? Okay.
Then I strongly suggest you use the same guide as I did, written by Plailect.
[Plailect - A9LH setup guide]

The guide is very well written, and at the time of writing, this guide covers everything from setting up the Homebrew Launcher, acquiring your console's OTP and then setting up AuReiNAND or CakesFW, but there are already other CFW being made that makes use of A9LH.

Their guide provides SHA256 sums for required files, and I strongly recommend you check them before usage. Always remember the golden rule: better safe than sorry. Or should I say, better sure and safe than sorry?

Hopefully this thread has, can and/or will give you some insight on what A9LH is and what it's useful for! Feel free to add more, correct me (if possible PLEASE do) or ask further questions, and I'll definitely add some of the questions to OP, because I doubt I covered even most of it.

I wanna know more about Arm9Loader
Here's an excellent thread, made by @Selver just for that.
[ARM9Loader -- Technical Details and Discussion]

Glossary
A9LH: Arm9LoaderHax. The reason you're here, right?
SysNAND: Your 3DS' internal memory - it's stored on a chip on the motherboard.
EmuNAND/RedNAND: An emulated NAND on your SD card. Before this was the preferred method to load CFW, to protect the SysNAND from bricking.
CFW: Custom firmware. Firmware loaded with patches applied to allow things not usually possible on clean firmware.

Also check out http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/3DS_Glossary

 

[BothyBhoy]

If your setting this up on an n3ds is there more chance of bricking than there is if you were setting it up on an o3ds.....

 

[Ridge]

If your setting this up on an n3ds is there more chance of bricking than there is if you were setting it up on an o3ds.....

Yes, this is true, but it's unlikely if you don't do something stupid and heed warnings from the guides posted, and ideally just follow Plailect's guide.

 

[BothyBhoy]

This is true, but it's unlikely if you don't do something stupid and heed warnings from the guides posted, and ideally just follow Plailect's guide.

Thankmyou for that. I've done 3 o3ds machines with no probs. I just don't wanna break my n3ds......will think about it some more......cheers

 

[Ridge]

Thankmyou for that. I've done 3 o3ds machines with no probs. I just don't wanna break my n3ds......will think about it some more......cheers

Did it on my New 3DS without issue, and running updated SysNAND with AuReiNand. It's a dream. Good luck my friend!

 

[iAqua]

Might want to add the fact that a sd card is REQUIRED to boot the system.

 

[Ridge]

Might want to add the fact that a sd card is REQUIRED to boot the system.

That's a good point. Although I'm wondering if this thread is worth keeping updated, because I feel like I made a knockoff of an already older, bigger thread that I failed to spot before posting like a fool. I mean I'm all for it tho.

 

[driverdis]

Might want to add the fact that a sd card is REQUIRED to boot the system.

I made sure the 2 3DSs I had a friend mod via me guiding them over steam chat, were all done and had A9LH installed then I told them the SD card is required for now on

 

[iAqua]

That's a good point. Although I'm wondering if this thread is worth keeping updated, because I feel like I made a knockoff of an already older, bigger thread that I failed to spot before posting like a fool. I mean I'm all for it tho.

Keep this up to date that's an explanation on how it works and this is more of a " Noob Paradise ".

 

[Ridge]

Keep this up to date that's an explanation on how it works and this is more of a " Noob Paradise ".

Gotcha, aha ;w; Hope this thread doesn't get deleted now because I kinda panicked when I thought I made a thread someone already made. Thank you!

 

[BothyBhoy]

Other threads a bit deep and logical lol maybe if we keep this sweet n simple well be OK.....question.....I have cakes fw on one of my o3ds machines. It glitches quite bad so I WD like to change from cakes to aureinand think its 4.0.1....I know its the latest so what's the best way to achieve can result. Thcank you.....

 

[Just Passing By]

Other threads a bit deep and logical lol maybe if we keep this sweet n simple well be OK.....question.....I have cakes fw on one of my o3ds machines. It glitches quite bad so I WD like to change from cakes to aureinand think its 4.0.1....I know its the latest so what's the best way to achieve can result. Thcank you.....

Just delete everything relating to cakes and add the files for Aureinand.

 

[BothyBhoy]

Just delete everything relating to cakes and add the files for Aureinand.

Yes but aurienand needs a firmware file placed in some folder or other. I think its critical that you have that file

 

[Just Passing By]

Yes but aurienand needs a firmware file placed in some folder or other. I think its critical that you have that file

Yeah just download it and place it in the aurei folder.

 

[BothyBhoy]

OK will do it all tomorrow afternoon the for sure help.....

 

[BothyBhoy]

OK will do it all tomorrow afternoon the for sure help.....

Another question I have a SNES game and a GBA game both Zelda title SNES a link to the past and GBA the minish cap. How do I set them up too play. I used to have to install them to system and and emunand that way I CD play them in emunand but of course not now as I boot straight to aurienand on system band now......thank you. So much......sorry to be such a nuisciance......the

 

[driverdis]

Another question I have a SNES game and a GBA game both Zelda title SNES a link to the past and GBA the minish cap. How do I set them up too play. I used to have to install them to system and and emunand that way I CD play them in emunand but of course not now as I boot straight to aurienand on system band now......thank you. So much......sorry to be such a nuisciance......the

To play GBA Games, install patched AGB_Firm to SysNAND. to play SNES games, just install them to SD card. SNES requires a N3DS and does not run on a O3DS.

 

[Ridge]

Another question I have a SNES game and a GBA game both Zelda title SNES a link to the past and GBA the minish cap. How do I set them up too play. I used to have to install them to system and and emunand that way I CD play them in emunand but of course not now as I boot straight to aurienand on system band now......thank you. So much......sorry to be such a nuisciance......the

To play GBA Games, install patched AGB_Firm to SysNAND. to play SNES games, just install them to SD card. SNES requires a N3DS and does not run on a O3DS.

If you have an O3DS, you can always try a homebrew SNES emulator. Some games are perfectly playable, actually!

 

[BothyBhoy]

To play GBA Games, install patched AGB_Firm to SysNAND. to play SNES games, just install them to SD card. SNES requires a N3DS and does not run on a O3DS.

OK the once again......

 

[BORTZ]

requested by OP