Hacking How to catch up on the last few months of development?

[apoptygma]

I've gone over the A9HL guide and a few other new guides, the state of the scene when I was last well across it was that menuhax into cakes or Reinand was the typical setup.

My system is a n3ds on sysnand 9.2 and emunand 10.x (I think 10.4? not in front of it to check). I'm booting menuhax into homebrew launcher with cakes and reinand both functionining

Just had a couple of points I'm not clear on and can't find straight answer to:

1) What's the function of CtrBootManager? I'm not sure if I'm running it already, does it load before or after homebrew launcher?

2) Is there any benefits to switching to A9HL from menuhax other than the ability to recover from a bricked system with hardmods?

3) Is 11.00 the current OFW version and is Luma3ds the only CFW to support it?

4) Completely lost me when they start talking about redNAND vs. emuNAND, is there a decent explanation of how that hangs together? I'm assuming redNAND relies on A9LH and makes modifications to the sysNAND in order to function but somehow still relies on the SD storage for something?

 

[Svaethier]

I've gone over the A9HL guide and a few other new guides, the state of the scene when I was last well across it was that menuhax into cakes or Reinand was the typical setup.

My system is a n3ds on sysnand 9.2 and emunand 10.x (I think 10.4? not in front of it to check). I'm booting menuhax into homebrew launcher with cakes and reinand both functionining

Just had a couple of points I'm not clear on and can't find straight answer to:

1) What's the function of CtrBootManager? I'm not sure if I'm running it already, does it load before or after homebrew launcher?

2) Is there any benefits to switching to A9HL from menuhax other than the ability to recover from a bricked system with hardmods?

3) Is 11.00 the current OFW version and is Luma3ds the only CFW to support it?

4) Completely lost me when they start talking about redNAND vs. emuNAND, is there a decent explanation of how that hangs together? I'm assuming redNAND relies on A9LH and makes modifications to the sysNAND in order to function but somehow still relies on the SD storage for something?

With a9lh you can use your sysnand instead of a emunand.
Rednand is a smaller Emunand basically.

 

[Deleted-379826]

I've gone over the A9HL guide and a few other new guides, the state of the scene when I was last well across it was that menuhax into cakes or Reinand was the typical setup.

My system is a n3ds on sysnand 9.2 and emunand 10.x (I think 10.4? not in front of it to check). I'm booting menuhax into homebrew launcher with cakes and reinand both functionining

Just had a couple of points I'm not clear on and can't find straight answer to:

1) What's the function of CtrBootManager? I'm not sure if I'm running it already, does it load before or after homebrew launcher?

2) Is there any benefits to switching to A9HL from menuhax other than the ability to recover from a bricked system with hardmods?

3) Is 11.00 the current OFW version and is Luma3ds the only CFW to support it?

4) Completely lost me when they start talking about redNAND vs. emuNAND, is there a decent explanation of how that hangs together? I'm assuming redNAND relies on A9LH and makes modifications to the sysNAND in order to function but somehow still relies on the SD storage for something?

1) loads on boot, it works by editing the configure file in a notepad to select and boot certain files. So basically on your console boot whatever you set up just use the d-pad and click a on what to boot

2) no need for emunand all safe on Sysnand you also always get to update to latest version, also 100% boot rate and just so many other things I say it's worth it and it's the best hack. Oh yeah you can also load certain homebrew on boot by holding a button which loads before the system which is how you can recover from brick

3)it is the newest ofw although you can't use cfw on it unless you have a9lh, you would have to be on 9.2 Sysnand otherwise.

4) here is the difference: Rednand takes up around 4-500 mb of less space maybe a bit more or less and emunand takes up more space. That's literally it

 

[apoptygma]

With a9lh you can use your sysnand instead of a emunand.
Rednand is a smaller Emunand basically.

So you'd be flashing CFW to the memory of the system instead of running it from a partition on the SD card, that makes sense. Does redNAND require A9LH and what makes it smaller?

 

[Deleted-379826]

So you'd be flashing CFW to the memory of the system instead of running it from a partition on the SD card, that makes sense. Does redNAND require A9LH and what makes it smaller?

Don't really know what your saying it's still the same thing just not on emunand. And no it does not need a9lh although don't know what makes it smaller but it doesn't matter in literally anyway

 

[Svaethier]

So you'd be flashing CFW to the memory of the system instead of running it from a partition on the SD card, that makes sense. Does redNAND require A9LH and what makes it smaller?

No rednand doesn't require you to have a9lh.

 

[A_Random_Guy]

So you'd be flashing CFW to the memory of the system instead of running it from a partition on the SD card, that makes sense. Does redNAND require A9LH and what makes it smaller?

Nah. We are flashing the payload that allows us to boot any payload on the SD Card
Nope. redNAND can also be used without A9LH

 

[apoptygma]

1) loads on boot, it works by editing the configure file in a notepad to select and boot certain files. So basically on your console boot whatever you set up just use the d-pad and click a on what to boot

Perhaps I already installed it? Presently if I boot up menuhax launches homebrew launcher unless I hold the L-trigger then I get a menu with some config options, is that it?

 

[Deleted-379826]

Perhaps I already installed it? Presently if I boot up menuhax launches homebrew launcher unless I hold the L-trigger then I get a menu with some config options, is that it?

I'm assuming yes!

 

[apoptygma]

SO - I can essentially skip straight to Part 4 of this guide - https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki/Part-4-(2.1.0-Downgrade) As I've already got a working emunand and I'm already running homebrew and I've backed up my sysnand using decrypt9 ?

 

[Svaethier]

Also with a9lh you don't have to deal with the 98% boot rate menuhax has since it has a 100% boot rate. Also most cfws are going over to a9lh implementation now and have their own bootloader so no need for ctrbootmanager then

 

[Deleted-379826]

SO - I can essentially skip straight to Part 4 of this guide - https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki/Part-4-(2.1.0-Downgrade) As I've already got a working emunand and I'm already running homebrew and I've backed up my sysnand using decrypt9 ?

Yes although you should switch your CFW to Luma3DS first as that's what they use. (Download it and place the Luma and 3ds folder along with Luma3ds.dat from the zip on the root

 

[apoptygma]

Also with a9lh you don't have to deal with the 98% boot rate since it has a 100% boot rate. Also most cfws are going over to a9lh implementation now and have their own bootloader so no need for ctrbootmanager then

I understand where menuhax 'sits' but where does a9lh reside? is it simply a payload that is stored on the sysnand and has a 'trigger' to load a specific binary on the SD card when the system is initialized? (similar to how the old DS profile hack looked for launcher.dat on the root of the SD)

 

[Deleted-379826]

I understand where menuhax 'sits' but where does a9lh reside? is it simply a payload that is stored on the sysnand and has a 'trigger' to load a specific binary on the SD card when the system is initialized? (similar to how the old DS profile hack looked for launcher.dat on the root of the SD)

Can't tell you too much but there is no splash screen nothing just a very quick 1 second flash right when you click power and then your in like a regular 3ds and if you hold one of the triggers on boot it will load whatever payload you set it too courtesy of luma3ds

 

[apoptygma]

Yes although you should switch your CFW to Luma3DS first as that's what they use. (Download it and place the Luma and 3ds folder along with Luma3ds.dat from the zip on the root

I've already setup Luma3DS and it's working with my existing, unlinked emuNAND, I notice a warning on the page "Your RedNAND SecureInfo_A MUST be the same as your SysNAND SecureInfo_A or you will BRICK" what would cause this to be modified? I've unlinked my emuNAND from sysNAND a long time ago, would it be safer to create a new, clean emunand for the downgrade process and then once the OTP has been obtained worry about re-instating my existing unlinked emuNAND?

 

[Deleted-379826]

I've already setup Luma3DS and it's working with my existing, unlinked emuNAND, I notice a warning on the page "Your RedNAND SecureInfo_A MUST be the same as your SysNAND SecureInfo_A or you will BRICK" what would cause this to be modified? I've unlinked my emuNAND from sysNAND a long time ago, would it be safer to create a new, clean emunand for the downgrade process and then once the OTP has been obtained worry about re-instating my existing unlinked emuNAND?

If you have no idea what that is then you are fine

 

[Svaethier]

I understand where menuhax 'sits' but where does a9lh reside? is it simply a payload that is stored on the sysnand and has a 'trigger' to load a specific binary on the SD card when the system is initialized? (similar to how the old DS profile hack looked for launcher.dat on the root of the SD)

Well I'm pretty sure that's what it is. Also @Shadowhand is making a cfw that when installed with his a9lh stage2 installer boots into sysnand without a SD card which v1 of a9lh couldn't do before but this is still in alpha phase so it's not recommended to install v2 yet.

 

[Deleted-379826]

Oh yeah what was just said above pretty soon you'll be able too boot a CFW/3ds without your SD card in because normally without your SD card your 3ds will have the blue light for less than a second then automatically close

 

[apoptygma]

I've read over the steps a couple of times but I'm not really clear what the involved risk(s) is/are - As far as I can tell only the emunand is downgraded to 2.x which would mean there's minimal changes to the sysnand which could introduce issues is that correct?

 

[Svaethier]

I've read over the steps a couple of times but I'm not really clear what the involved risk(s) is/are - As far as I can tell only the emunand is downgraded to 2.x which would mean there's minimal changes to the sysnand which could introduce issues is that correct?

You copy over your downgraded emunand to sysnand then grab your otp afterwards.