Hacking [RCM Payload] Hekate - CTCaer mod

[Azel]

1) yes, you can disconnect it onece you're on hekate's menu. no it doesn't matter.

2) I don't think you can.

3) the only "pro" would be for nand restore, you can't restore a splited rom dump, you need to join the parts on a computer and copy it back on an exfat sd card. (you can zip a fresh nand on your computer btw, and it will be less than 1Gb, ofc the switch wont be able to read the zip archive, so it's just for archival purposes)

don't forget to dump boot0/1 too

 

[huma_dawii]

If you restore your nand you still banned?

 

[Rune]

I kinda feel paranoid that something will mess up my backup when I join it together, or that it won't be "perfect" in some way.
I think I'm gonna do it all over again at some point for my own peace of mind.

 

[Krude]

If you restore your nand you still banned?

The Ninty Online Experience is an exclusive club. Entry only for those on the guest list. You get a spot on the guest list by buying a switch.
If you start shit in the club, you get bounced, simple as that.

The bouncer won't suddenly forget that your name is blacklisted just because you dressed in last week's clothes.
You'll need a new name on the guest list to get in again (meaning, buy a new switch)

 

[moopas]

Hey, just a quick question about backup and restoring of NAND. Which current option do I want to choose if I want the most protection? I read the differences in the emmc Boot0/1 and the RAW, as well as GPP and so on, but are they all different? is one option just a combination of all of the others? Do I need to do a GPP and an emmc Boot0/1? If restoring, which do I choose? I just don't want to do multiple, and end up having like 3 NAND backups all at 32GB each and spend hours only to find that I made somethign super redundant when it was a simple option, or vice versa, do just one, and be screwed later if something happens. Basically, I want to be protected from something like that recent fake SX OS bricker. I watched a few videos and they said to backup the NAND and boot 0 and Boot 1, so I am assuming the emmc is the NAND? This is probably a stupid question, so I apologize for it in advance, but thanks for any clarifications.

 

[Azel]

yup, you just need boot0/1 and the 29.1Gb rawnand.bin (option under boot0/1), and that's it. I've been dumping and restoring a few times and it went great each time ^^
I use the normal (long ?) vefication each time.
you can zip that nand on your computer it will be like 700-800Mb depending on compression and il you have a lot of files on you nand already or not) and put it in a cloud service for a better backup plan.

 

[moopas]

Tyhank you very much for the info. Just finished backing up everything.

 

[Chrisssj2]

A few questions. So I only need this, "hekate_Ctcaer_3.2.bin" file to run hetake? And how do I install it
What does "[Firmware] Add upstream changes for 4.xx/5.xx firmware launching support" mean?

Does that mean this hack/cfw can be run on all switch firmware or is this emulating 4.xx/5.xx firmware support so you can launch games while you are under firmware 3.0 for example.

 

[Azel]

you only need hekate's bin to run hekate.
to run a custom fw from hekate, you'll nned more : https://github.com/tumGER/SDFilesSwitch/releases sdfiles.zip content goes in the root of your sd card.

it can run on every fw.
you can't emulate another fw on your fw for now, there is a way to install a newer fw without burning efuses though, which means you'll be able to reflash you 3.0.0 nand afterwards. be aware that this will upgrade you cart reader fw and burn a card reader fuse if you go from under 4.0 to above 4.0, which means your cart reader won't work on 3.0.0 when you reflash it. the only work around is to ALWAYS boot your switch with a .kip1 plugin that will turn off you cart reader. (this won't work with sx os or stock switch fw)

 

[Ashura66]

So here's an issue i've been having with Hekate: Sometimes it takes WAY too long for tegraRCMsmash to load hekate, when it does the menu is all distorted and then when i try to load firmware it says the sd card is not mounted, even though it actually is. Is the issue my mem card?

 

[Nazosan]

How exactly does one make the boot logo bitmaps? I get the impression from the very few images I've gotten online that they must be 32-bit (otherwise I can't see any difference in the files I've created versus what actually works,) but normally a bitmap won't have an alpha channel and it's hard to somehow force it. I basically just want to do the image on the first page simply expanded to fit the screen for Hekate starting up because it's just so much nicer than the default but still basically an "official" image for this. I can't see any other differences between the image I created and the one that actually works.

Also, is it just the one logo? The sample INI I saw showed a logo under a CFW. It would be nice if I could make a different logo depending on what it's actually booting (especially with autoboot.) It seems like it only ever did the one however?

 

[NativeCode]

.

 

[BloodRose]

I got a Switch just a week ago and after installing the exFAT update in OFW I then took a backup using this payload.

I did the full RAW backup first and then backed up the BOOT0 and BOOT1 after that. The result was 2 x 4MB files and 1 x 29.1GB file.

rawnand.bin
BOOT0
BOOT1

Hekate-ctcaer-mod completed and verified both backups.

Yesterday I tried using the WAIN dumper for the first time and received two soft crashes with the 2345-0021 error. I want to restore the nand backup to remove all trace of those errors from my system however when I tried to do a BOOT0/1 restore, the restore failed saying that the files weren't there even though they're on the root of the MicroSD and I verified the file copy in TerraCopy.

Does anyone know how I can fix this? My Switch was running the latest official firmware before the dump was taken and I've mostly been running it in Flight mode since then. I am able to boot the Switch normally atm, presumably because nothing was changed during the restore attempt.

EDIT:

Sorry I've just noticed that the OP includes this:

Restore eMMC RAW GPP (Dangerous!):
Do not use that if you don't know what you are doing! No one is responsible for messing with your device.
You have a 10 second mandatory wait time before letting you start restore by pressing POWER.
This let's you restore your eMMC general purpose partition. If hekate find the /Backup/Restore/rawnand.bin it will restore it and verify it.
If it does not find it, it does nothing.
For now only exFAT is supported. No partial restoring.


Restore eMMC BOOT0/1 (Dangerous!):
Do not use that if you don't know what you are doing! No one is responsible for messing with your device.
You have a 10 second mandatory wait time before letting you start restore by pressing POWER.
This let's you restore your eMMC BOOT0 and BOOT1 partitions.
It will only restore the files at /Backup/Restore/BOOT0 and /Backup/Restore/BOOT1.
If a file does not exists, it will be skipped.

Does that mean that the files have to be moved within that folder structure for a restore operation to find them and also is the correct process for a full restore to restore BOOT0/1 first and then restore Rawnand.bin and then power off the console?

 

[mooglazer]

I created a thread for Hekate bootlogos, hopefully to keep the thread more technical and allow creatives to share their work.

Hope this helps:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/share-your-custom-hekate-bootlogo-thread.513033/

 

[Azel]

I got a Switch just a week ago and after installing the exFAT update in OFW I then took a backup using this payload.

I did the full RAW backup first and then backed up the BOOT0 and BOOT1 after that. The result was 2 x 4MB files and 1 x 29.1GB file.

rawnand.bin
BOOT0
BOOT1

Hekate-ctcaer-mod completed and verified both backups.

Yesterday I tried using the WAIN dumper for the first time and received two soft crashes with the 2345-0021 error. I want to restore the nand backup to remove all trace of those errors from my system however when I tried to do a BOOT0/1 restore, the restore failed saying that the files weren't there even though they're on the root of the MicroSD and I verified the file copy in TerraCopy.

Does anyone know how I can fix this? My Switch was running the latest official firmware before the dump was taken and I've mostly been running it in Flight mode since then. I am able to boot the Switch normally atm, presumably because nothing was changed during the restore attempt.

EDIT:

Sorry I've just noticed that the OP includes this:



Does that mean that the files have to be moved within that folder structure for a restore operation to find them and also is the correct process for a full restore to restore BOOT0/1 first and then restore Rawnand.bin and then power off the console?

yeah just restore, but if you've been online once since the rrors, thos have been sent out already.
(your nand backup is the same fw version as now, right ?)

 

[BloodRose]

yeah just restore, but if you've been online once since the rrors, thos have been sent out already.
(your nand backup is the same fw version as now, right ?)

I hadn't been online since the errors were thrown and there were no firmware changes in the meantime.

Since nobody replied yesterday I just went ahead and did the restore and it was fine. The verification took quite a while though.

 

[Azel]

try this instead of WAIN :
https://gbatemp.net/attachments/gcdumptool-rar.136912/

 

[Skyle]

I am sorry if this has been asked before as I could not find anything about this so here I go.

I dumped BOOT0, BOOT1 and RAWNAND on a 64GB card a little while ago. I just tested the sd card I used for the dump a few days ago and it turns out that I have a fake card that is only 29.2GB and not 64GB.

Considering the fact that I used CTCaer and that the dump and verification were considered successful by it, does it mean that I am good or would CTCaer have been fooled by the fake card and ended up dumping corrupted/incomplete files?

Anything I can do to test the files?

 

[Azel]

get a good card (would recommand samsung evos plus off a reputable place, but do as you like), backup again for safety. reflash your old nand to test it. if it did not work reflash the nand dump you did before.
(and thow away that ols card )

 

[Skyle]

get a good card (would recommand samsung evos plus off a reputable place, but do as you like), backup again for safety. reflash your old nand to test it. if it did not work reflash the nand dump you did before.
(and thow away that ols card )

A new backup followed by a flash of the one I had on my fake card was what I had in mind, but I am worried I could irreparably damage something by flashing a corrupted RAWNAND file.