Hacking Running Atmosphere and SX OS on the same EmuNAND (SD Card) Guide?

[crimsonnight]

Hi there, as the title suggests, I currently have an emuNAND on my SD card (not a hidden partition) built via SX OS that I run SX OS on. Due to the lack of support I am now looking to add Atmosphere into the mix and ideally would like the option to boot into either SX OS or Atmosphere using the same emuNAND. From what I understand this is possible, but I can only find a muddle of forum threads that don't seem to have any clear/concise outlines on how to set this up - would someone who has already set this up mind letting me know exactly what I need to do?

 

[Kallrkyle]

You can't use the same emunand/emummc on both SXOS and AMS

 

[xYuunax]

Due to the lack of support I am now looking to add Atmosphere into the mix and ideally would like the option to boot into either SX OS or Atmosphere using the same emuNAND.

While sharing emuNAND is possible, I don't really see much benefit in it. You mentioned 'lack of support', if you want the emuNAND to be compatible with SXOS, it will need to remain on fw 11.0.1 at most. If you really want to keep SX OS, I would suggest setting up a hidden partition for Atmosphere. Personally I ditched SXOS, and now using Atmosphere exclusively, even installed 13.0.0 on sysNAND. Is there a specific reason why you want to keep SX OS?

 

[mrdude]

You can't use the same emunand/emummc on both SXOS and AMS

Yes you can, I do it every day.

 

[Kallrkyle]

Yes you can, I do it every day.

You might be doing that on a hidden partition, but OP is using file based emunand, SXOS and AMS are using diff filenames and locations for the emunand files, besides that, what should be the benefit since SXOS support max FW 11.0.0 or 11.0.1

 

[crimsonnight]

While sharing emuNAND is possible, I don't really see much benefit in it. You mentioned 'lack of support', if you want the emuNAND to be compatible with SXOS, it will need to remain on fw 11.0.1 at most. If you really want to keep SX OS, I would suggest setting up a hidden partition for Atmosphere. Personally I ditched SXOS, and now using Atmosphere exclusively, even installed 13.0.0 on sysNAND. Is there a specific reason why you want to keep SX OS?

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Well the thing is, I've spent ages setting up SX OS so that it's running in exactly the way I'd like (including installing 512GB worth of games on the microSD and housing 4TB of XCIs on an external drive), the only issue I'm looking to tackle is that I now can't run newer games. What would you suggest?

 

[wiiNinja]

Keep your current SXOS emuNAND; this has to stay at 11.0.1. Setup another emuNAND for Atmosphere; this can be update to the latest fw for your latest games. If you want SXOS, you don't have a choice but to keep that emuNAND at 11.0.1. I used to have multiple TBs of XCIs on an external drive too when I was using SXOS, but 99% of the time, those will just sit there not being used (more like trophies than anything). Now with Atmosphere, I just have a handful of games that I play using the SD card, and those get rotated per mood. I don't miss those "hard drive queens" a single bit. Make a backup of your current SD card and try it out. If you don't like it, you can always go back.

 

[ganons]

Yes you can, I do it every day.

How?

 

[crimsonnight]

Keep your current SXOS emuNAND; this has to stay at 11.0.1. Setup another emuNAND for Atmosphere; this can be update to the latest fw for your latest games. If you want SXOS, you don't have a choice but to keep that emuNAND at 11.0.1. I used to have multiple TBs of XCIs on an external drive too when I was using SXOS, but 99% of the time, those will just sit there not being used (more like trophies than anything). Now with Atmosphere, I just have a handful of games that I play using the SD card, and those get rotated per mood. I don't miss those "hard drive queens" a single bit. Make a backup of your current SD card and try it out. If you don't like it, you can always go back.

I know what you're saying RE trophies, but I do have a lot of games I access regularly on the HDD and don't want to have to keep reinstalling - even thinning out the SD enough to add a 2nd emunand is going to be tricky

Is there a guide on how to create a 2nd emuNAND for Atmosphere that can be run alongside SX OS? I don't want to risk messing up my current set-up

 

[mrdude]

How?

Create a hidden emunand on your sd card with SXOS by holding down volume plus when booting into SXOS. Once done you can use that same emunand with Atmosphere by creating a config file to boot from it - folder and ini file below should look like this:

SD://emummc/emummc.ini

Contents of emummc.ini

[emummc]
enable=1
sector=0x2
nintendo_folder=Emutendo

That's all you need to do.

Then to switch between SXOS/Atmos - just use hekate as a payload to boot from, you can then launch sxos or atmos from hekate.

 

[Kallrkyle]

Create a hidden emunand on your sd card with SXOS by holding down volume plus when booting into SXOS. Once done you can use that same emunand with Atmosphere by creating a config file to boot from it - folder and ini file below should look like this:

SD://emummc/emummc.ini

Contents of emummc.ini

[emummc]
enable=1
sector=0x2
nintendo_folder=Emutendo

That's all you need to do.

And what is the purpose of having both SX and AMS running on same emunand ?, you still won't be abel to update it over 11.0.1

 

[mrdude]

And what is the purpose of having both SX and AMS running on same emunand ?, you still won't be abel to update it over 11.0.1

I have a hidden emunand and a file based emunand - any games that need firmware over 11.01 get used with the file based emunand - the only game I tried so far on 11.01 that doesn't work with SXOS is lost in random - however that game works fine on 11.01 with Atmosphere.

 

[Ratatattat]

My current sys nand is on 11.0 and fuse burnt to that level. I have SXOS set to 11.0 as a partition nand. I have Atmosphere and would like to set it up to use a second partition for 13.0. I've not found a way to create this second partition or even how to set it up to use Atmosphere. I am about to totally give up on Atmosphere because its so confusing.

 

[Maupiti]

My current sys nand is on 11.0 and fuse burnt to that level. I have SXOS set to 11.0 as a partition nand. I have Atmosphere and would like to set it up to use a second partition for 13.0. I've not found a way to create this second partition or even how to set it up to use Atmosphere. I am about to totally give up on Atmosphere because its so confusing.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/dual-boot-sxos-atmopshere-help-required.594266/page-4#post-9617933

 

[Maupiti]

I have a hidden emunand and a file based emunand - any games that need firmware over 11.01 get used with the file based emunand - the only game I tried so far on 11.01 that doesn't work with SXOS is lost in random - however that game works fine on 11.01 with Atmosphere.

That was my setup until I “moved “ to 2 hidden partitions : https://gbatemp.net/threads/dual-boot-sxos-atmopshere-help-required.594266/page-4#post-9617933

 

[Ratatattat]

Setup another emuNAND for Atmosphere

How? Is there a guide? I cannot find one.

 

[wiiNinja]

How? Is there a guide? I cannot find one.

I didn't need a guide to do that. I booted into Hekate, go in emuMMC, create one emuNand (file-based) and then create another one. After that I can select which of the two to boot from Hekate. I would imagine that partition-based will probably work the same way, but if I were to do it, I would backup my SD card, then just try it out.