Hacking Updating from rxtools to arm9loaderhax on o3DS, emunand disappeared?

[LoggerMan]

I had a o3ds with rxtools (Sysnand: 4.4.0-10E, Emunand: RX3d 10.3.0-28E) and it was finally time to update for SuMu. So I followed Plailect's OTP and full arm9loaderhax CFW Guide on GitHub, I had success along the way when the o3ds would boot to emunand 11.0 after turning on. So then I updated emunand in system settings, then I updated sysnand to 9.2. Now emunand isn't there. Does anyone have any idea of what I've done and how I can undo it? I couldn't get Win32DiskImager to work recently (not enough space error even though there's enough space) so I haven't actually cloned the sd card in a long while. I copied the contents of the sd card to my computer like the guide says, but that doesn't backup the emunand does it? I don't really know where to go from here. I must have accidentally doubled up on a step the guide told me to skip, or just blindly followed the guide and didn't realise I did something wrong. Any help will be greatly appreciated, I found the guide on Reddit and although they endorse it they don't support it. Is that old emunand really gone now?

 

[LoggerMan]

Some more info, my settings app in sysnand reads "Sys 9.2", and I have FBI, Homebrew launcher, and Luma updater. But I can't figure out for the life of me how to load into emunand again, it doesn't do it by itself and holding any direction on dpad or shoulder buttons or start or select while turning it on doesn't boot into it either, it just brings up the relevant mode (god mode for example).

 

[Cuphat]

Holding L while booting is the key for EmuNAND with Luma.

You can also restore your 11.0 EmuNAND backup to SysNAND using Hourglass and just use it on SysNAND without issue. I assume you have NAND backups?

 

[Quantumcat]

I had a o3ds with rxtools (Sysnand: 4.4.0-10E, Emunand: RX3d 10.3.0-28E) and it was finally time to update for SuMu. So I followed Plailect's OTP and full arm9loaderhax CFW Guide on GitHub, I had success along the way when the o3ds would boot to emunand 11.0 after turning on. So then I updated emunand in system settings, then I updated sysnand to 9.2. Now emunand isn't there. Does anyone have any idea of what I've done and how I can undo it? I couldn't get Win32DiskImager to work recently (not enough space error even though there's enough space) so I haven't actually cloned the sd card in a long while. I copied the contents of the sd card to my computer like the guide says, but that doesn't backup the emunand does it? I don't really know where to go from here. I must have accidentally doubled up on a step the guide told me to skip, or just blindly followed the guide and didn't realise I did something wrong. Any help will be greatly appreciated, I found the guide on Reddit and although they endorse it they don't support it. Is that old emunand really gone now?

You forgot to do this part:

If, before following this guide, you already had an EmuNAND setup and would like to move the contents of your previous EmuNAND to your new SysNAND CFW, now is the time to follow Move EmuNAND instead of doing the first step in this section.

 

[LoggerMan]

You forgot to do this part:

Oooo, I did that part actually, but I think I also did step 1 :S Maybe it was because it was so late in the am, or eagerness for Pokemon, but I didn't notice that it asked me to skip step 1 when transferring. Did doing that first step undo the emunand transfer?

Holding L while booting is the key for EmuNAND with Luma.

You can also restore your 11.0 EmuNAND backup to SysNAND using Hourglass and just use it on SysNAND without issue. I assume you have NAND backups?

I have a nand backup I made in the middle of the guide, a "NANDmin_emu.bin" and "NANDmin_emu.bin.sha", I left the name of the backup as the default. I checked it against the guide and it's exactly the right size. I didn't make a nand backup when I updated sysnand to 9.2, because I brain farted. But I do have the backup from a page or two earlier in the guide. Is it really okay to restore a EmuNAND backup to SysNAND? Would that mean I no longer have an emunand?

 

[Cuphat]

With A9LH installed, it is absolutely okay to restore your EmuNAND backup to the SysNAND (e: so long as you do it with Hourglass9). You can still have an EmuNAND (assuming you didn't format your SD card, it is likely still there) but you don't need one.

Make sure you have backups of your NANDs in multiple places, as you definitely don't want to lose them. Otherwise, go hog wild.

 

[LoggerMan]

Wow. Things have changed a lot since I last played with reinand and rxtools. Doing anything to emunand used to be kept to the absolute minimum. Why is it safe with A9LH installed?

 

[Cuphat]

A9LH is an exploit real early in the boot process. It takes over and runs arbitrary code within like a second from power on. So long as the exploit itself is not uninstalled or the portion of NAND that it is on is overwritten or broken, you're good. Any sane A9LH CFW blocks writes to that portion of NAND, preventing it from being tampered with. So long as you use Hourglass9 as the guide instructs, you can restore your NAND backups without worry as Hourglass9 will not let you mess up A9LH either. Even if you happened to do something really bad and brick your SysNAND, so long as you have a NAND backup, you should still be able to launch Hourglass9 and restore it in most cases.

Though, you should still be able to get to your EmuNAND. Assuming you setup Luma3DS to Autoboot SysNAND as the guide says, hold L while powering the console on and keep it held for a few seconds. Unless you formatted your SD card, it should still be intact and Luma is perfectly capable of using it. Even so, no reason not to restore your EmuNAND backup to SysNAND and ditch the EmuNAND altogether.

 

[LoggerMan]

Awesome. If sysnand is safe then that'll be the way to go, I *never* used the old sysnand for anything other than original DS carts (which didn't work on rxtools and reinand at the time I set it up). Just so I'm crystal clear, is there another guide that tells me exactly what I need to do to safely get the old emunand onto the sysnand with Hourglass9? I'll also need to do the same thing to a n3DSXL which has a separate Rienand emunand so I want to make sure I get it right.

Holding L doesn't bring it up unfortunately, it just goes to the basic sysnand where I put FBI and home-brew channel and such. I can bring all the other modes like god mode though, after following the guide.

 

[Quantumcat]

Oooo, I did that part actually, but I think I also did step 1 :S Maybe it was because it was so late in the am, or eagerness for Pokemon, but I didn't notice that it asked me to skip step 1 when transferring. Did doing that first step undo the emunand transfer?



I have a nand backup I made in the middle of the guide, a "NANDmin_emu.bin" and "NANDmin_emu.bin.sha", I left the name of the backup as the default. I checked it against the guide and it's exactly the right size. I didn't make a nand backup when I updated sysnand to 9.2, because I brain farted. But I do have the backup from a page or two earlier in the guide. Is it really okay to restore a EmuNAND backup to SysNAND? Would that mean I no longer have an emunand?

Yep you can flash emuNAND to sysNAND. Follow that section I linked, then you will have to do a system update again (if your emuNAND wasn't on the latest version) and the FBI injection again.

 

[LoggerMan]

Okay so I did all the steps in this page https://plailect.github.io/Guide/move-emunand At step 11 it seemed to have worked and the emunand was transferred. But then after doing the rest of the steps on that page I find that I cannot boot up the 3DS anymore. Powering it without the sd card just makes the power light blink once. Powering it with the sd card makes the power light stay blue but the screen turns black, I have to hold the power button down and wait a few seconds to turn it off. I copied all the files back but I can't access God Mode again to have another go at this, I can't get anything to come up when I hold any of the buttons along with the power button. I don't suppose I have bricked it?

Also why did it seem to work after step 11 anyway, could I have just left it at that and it'd all be fine?

So I tried the test payload mentioned under Black screen on SysNAND boot after installing arm9loaderhax and when I press A it powers off, meaning I'm not bricked, the heart attack can stop :S

 

[Cuphat]

Hold Select while booting and make sure your Luma3DS settings are to Autoboot SysNAND. If it is trying to boot into EmuNAND, AFAIK it will black screen (you no longer have an EmuNAND).

 

[LoggerMan]

Hey that may have been the problem. After discovering that I wasn't bricked with that test arm9loaderhax.bin, I decided to try more trouble shooting and did step 8 in that same section, using Luma3DS v6.3.1 and the cetk file and 00000056 renamed firmware.bin. Now when I power it on it comes up to what looks like sysnand with all the old emunand cias all wrapped as gifts, unwrapping them reveals that the old game saves are still there, it doesn't look like anything was lost in the games I tested. The theme I had before is gone though. The settings app says "Sys 10.3.0-28E" so I updated it using the settings app and it's now "Sys 11.0.0-33E", then deleted those two extra files and updated the arm9loaderhax.bin to the one in the latest luma version. 11.2 is the latest though, oh I wansn't connected to the Internet, that's the update that must have been sitting there for months ignored. Anyway updated to 11.2, my games still load, my save data is still there. Even FBI v1.4.6 is still there and still opens. Is that it, is it ready for SUMO now or is there anything else I really should be doing. This is actually my nephew's 3DS and he's keen to get it back and play SUMO, I'll do my own N3DS later.

 

[Cuphat]

Now that A9LH is installed, I'd suggest making a new SysNAND backup and storing it somewhere, just in case something happens. Otherwise it sounds like it is good to go, besides grabbing some homebrew that could be useful, such as the latest FBI, freShop, JKSM, etc.

 

[LoggerMan]

Yeah good idea, otherwise all this work would be for nothing without a backup. Is Freeshop what it sounds like it is? Would that let my nephew do himself what I used to have to have to do for him?

 

[Zidapi]

I'll do my own N3DS later

Installing A9LH on a new3DS so easy, it takes all of 5 seconds if its already hacked. It's the copying of files to, and from your PC that's time consuming.

 

[Quantumcat]

Yeah good idea, otherwise all this work would be for nothing without a backup. Is Freeshop what it sounds like it is? Would that let my nephew do himself what I used to have to have to do for him?

Here's how to get freeShop working - afterwards, your nephew can help himself to whatever games he wants (provided the titlekeys have been dumped by someone) without your help or a PC.

1. Get the latest FBI.
2. Go to "TitleDB" in FBI and scroll till you find freeShop. Install it.
3. Find the 3DS titlekeys site using Google
4. Click the little button that looks like a QR code at the top of the site. I think the button is orange and is to the right of a green button. Or else it's green, to the right of an orange button.
5. A giant QR code will fill your screen. Leave it for the moment and go back to your 3DS.
6. In freeShop, go to settings (cog icon) then the Update tab.
7. Tap the little button that looks like a little QR code. The camera will open.
8. Use the camera to scan the giant QR code on your computer screen.
9. Press Select or Start to save the settings (I forgot which) and restart freeShop.
10. Now you can install nearly any game with no effort, as long as you are connected to the net :-)

 

[LoggerMan]

Excellent, that seemed to do the trick. I modded yet another o3ds and my n3ds now, I feel like I could mod a dozen more. Freeshop is amazing. It's missing a lot of games that little girls might be interested in, but it has so many features, updating, DLC, it even updates my existing CIA and DLC. It's incredible that after so long and so close to the end of the 3DS' life the modding scene finally gets this far, I never thought the day would come. Nintendo should have hired everyone involved in getting the cfw scene this far, you guys really know how to get the most out of Nintendo's hardware.