Hacking Practical differences between EmuNAND and RedNAND?

[pustal]

As discussed here I can understand the conceptual difference, or at least its origin and that at least is a practical difference on New 3DS with 1.8GB NAND.

Aside that is there a difference that can cause problems? Namely following Pailect's A9LH guide? My biggest concern would be in the parts where it copies RedNAND to SysNAND.

By the way, I have previously have followed this guide. I understand that some people refer to RedNAND as EmuNAND and don't make a distinction between RedNAND and GW EmuNAND. Can someone take a look at the guide and check if it is actually using GW EmuNAND or in fact is using RedNAND?

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Edit: I'm approaching the OTP dumping with and old 3DS, hence the doubts.

 

[astronautlevel]

If you already have emunand, substitute every instance of "RedNAND" with "EmuNAND" in the guide and you'll be fine.

Otherwise, just go with RedNAND as the guide says.

 

[pustal]

I'm trying to dump OTP in an Old 3DS now, should it make a difference?

 

[astronautlevel]

I'm trying to dump OTP in an Old 3DS now, should it make a difference?

No. Like I said, just use RedNAND if you haven't set anything up already and use EmuNAND if you already have one.

 

[pustal]

No. Like I said, just use RedNAND if you haven't set anything up already and use EmuNAND if you already have one.

Alright, thank you.

 

[xx4xx4]

i have RXtools installed in my N3DS XL with menuhax where do i start in the guide?

 

[pustal]

i have RXtools installed in my N3DS XL with menuhax where do i start in the guide?

If you have EmuNAND / RedNAND set up on the microSD card, part 4, if not, part 3.

 

[YourHero]

So what is REDNand? Google got nothing for this thus far.

 

[astronautlevel]

So what is REDNand? Google got nothing for this thus far.

Redirected NAND is an EmuNAND alternative. Only practical benefit is that it has a smaller size on the 1.8 gig n3ds

 

[pustal]

So what is REDNand? Google got nothing for this thus far.

Essentially is EmuNAND but not implemented by Gateway. Red stands for 'redirected', and as far as I understand, here is just another way of saying emulated. Main difference is that saves space if you have a New 3DS Toshiba NAND. Applications seem to treat it the same way though.

 

[YourHero]

Ok thats actually the one thing google did give me but it didn't sound right to me. But ok, no need for me to do this then.

 

[GerbilSoft]

The technical difference is how it stores NAND sector 0.

Assume we have a NAND with N sectors, with sector addresses [0, N-1].

Gateway-style EmuNAND stores NAND sectors [1, N-1] at SD sectors [1, N-1], and then stores EmuNAND sector 0 at SD sector N.
RedNAND stores NAND sectors [0, N-1] at SD sectors [1, N]; basically, it increases the sector ID by 1.

While it might look like Gateway-style is more efficient, it's actually less efficient than RedNAND, since it requires a branch. RedNAND simply requires an addition for all NAND accesses.

Since Gateway-style EmuNAND requires NAND sector 0 to be stored at SD sector N, the reserved space is always at least the size of the original NAND. The 1.8 GB NANDs don't actually make use of the last 600 MB, so this wastes space.

With RedNAND, NAND sector 0 is stored at SD sector 1, and since the last 600 MB of the NAND isn't actually used, you can shrink it down to 1240 MB (same size as 1.2 GB N3DSes).

tl;dr you can save around 600 MB of space on the SD card by using RedNAND if you have a 1.8 GB N3DS; for other models, it doesn't really make much of a difference. (If you use a Gateway card, you'll obviously have to use Gateway-style EmuNAND.)

 

[zoogie]

I honestly don't care if it's a slight improvement. The important thing is that it creates a new mutually incompatible standard, and that's a bad thing.

 

[LunaLogic]

Still I don't know how to create a redNAND and didn't find any guide to it.

 

[Rosselman]

Still I don't know how to create a redNAND and didn't find any guide to it.

Just use Emunand9Tool. It even can convert a EmuNAND to RedNAND.

 

[pustal]

I honestly don't care if it's a slight improvement. The important thing is that it creates a new mutually incompatible standard, and that's a bad thing.

So far, none of the applications I used seem to make a distinction or behave differently. Dunno if they follow the system and hence read the NANDs as they are told or have code for both cases.

Edit: Actually, now that I think of it, 3DS Multi EmuNAND Creator seemed to have a problem with GW Emunand regarding sectors, maybe it was designed for RedNAND.

Still I don't know how to create a redNAND and didn't find any guide to it.

If you still need a guide: https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki/Part-3-(RedNAND)

 

[XiaoDii]

Still I don't know how to create a redNAND and didn't find any guide to it.

The latest release of emuNAND9 can create a redNAND, and convert a emuNAND to a redNAND.

 

[SirByte]

How about Decrypt9? That's where we flash an emunand to our sysnand in order to get OTP...

 

[astronautlevel]

How about Decrypt9? That's where we flash an emunand to our sysnand in order to get OTP...

Decrypt9 fully supports RedNand now.

 

[NyaakoXD]

Just use Emunand9Tool. It even can convert a EmuNAND to RedNAND.

Do I need to backup the sd card before doing the conversion or no?