I might have a solution as I just went through the same thing using a n3ds and following the guide
http://3ds.guide, what ended up working for me is using version 2.0.3 of SafeA9LH Installer from Aurora (the same guy that had the releases in the guide) as that particular version has the needed arm9.bin and the arm11.bin files, where as the layest releases has the newer exploit, true but it can't load them due to the missing arm9 and arm 11 bin files, after that i then got a9lh installed and i went ahead and updated everything to the lastest revisions and updated a9lh with the latest version for safe measure (after i restored my nand btw), that worked for me, i have an detailed explaniation in the same sub forum
it wasen't the ctrtransfer that was the problem, i had origionally assume the same but in the end 2.1.0-4 is good its the arm9 and arm11.bin files you need to get 2xrsa to run, after that it will glitch the bottom screen and should present you with the option to press select and install a9lh