Hacking SWITCH NOOB PARADISE - Ask questions here

[binkinator]

Hello friends,
Its been 1-2 ish years since I've done anything to my switch. I've mainly used it for party games, but I've been meaning to go out and buy Pokemon Arceus so I want to update without breaking anything. I've tried finding guides here but it seems even the forum has changed quite a bit and even the guides have.

My System version is 8.0.0 with Atmosphere 0.9.4. with the AutoRCM auto boot.

A few questions I have are:

How do I update?

https://rentry.co/SwitchHackingIsEasy

Do I still use ChoiDuJourNX for system update with out blowing fuses?

Choi is out of date. Use Daybreak (see link above for instructions).

Where do I find system updates to download? (or is it against rules to say)

See above…it has links or Google phrases that pay.

I've seen new guides reference sysMMC and EmuMMC. How is this different to what we did before? Should I change to this?

SysNand for stock and online play. EmuNand for dirty stuff done offline.

Is online play still not a thing or does what I mentioned above help with that?

See above

I plan on buying a hard copy of the game, can I still dump them myself or better to find online? (I see a lot of guides referencing Tinfoil and 'shops,' I always used Goldleaf, is that still a thing?)

NXDumptool can help but honestly it’s easier to find online. /r/switchpirates has a good FAQ section and you could also Google

Luffshop by carcaschoi​

And anything else I should I know so I don't break my switch would be helpful.

Thank you for you help

You bet!

 

[bupeapoop]

I preface that none of this is necessary to enjoy your switch. Everything on my switch works…no broken crap (have lost some good apps along the way) but some of it I had to modify and/or recompile using DevKitPro’s tool stack https://devkitpro.org/ So fair warning some of this might not be plug and play. I’m running a trinket M0 and am pondering doing a 256G emmc upgrade so not everything I do is purposeful and sometimes it’s just because. I tie a rope around my penis and jump from a tree. You probably want to grow up to be just like me…
Without further ado (and you’re on your own with this)…
From my hbmenu installed page and my /switch directory (apologies to anyone whose app I don’t mention and in no particular order ):

Tinfoil
DBI
Tinwoo
Goldleaf
Hekate Toolbox
Homebrew App Store
Themezer-NX
NXThemesInstaller
Switch 90DNS tester
Tesla Menu
nx-ovlloader
ovl-sysmodule
Sysdvr Overlay
FastCFWswitch
shareNX-Overlay
Status-Monitor-Overlay
sys-clk-overlay
dns-mitm-manager
sys-clk
sys-clk Editor
sys-con
ldn_mitm
BeanNX Button Checker
nxmp
nxsh
pplay
sysdvr
emuiibo
amiigo
tegraexplorer
missioncontrol
switchident
fizeau
edizonSE
payloadlauncher
checkpoint
Linkhalo
lockpick_RCM
homebrew Details
jksv
neumann
TriPlayer
QuickNTP
argonnx
nx-activity-log
avatool (ban for changing avatar)
nx-btred
browseNX
nxdumptool
SaltyNX
SaltyNX-Tool
simpleModManager
SwitchNews
reverssenx-tool
nx-shell
sys ftpd light
Jc-color-swapper
consoleeditor
bootsoundNX
PowerTools
AIO Updater
Breeze
GIC
IconGrabber
NSPIndexer
Reboot to Payload
vgedit

here are a couple other places to look but I cant personally vouch for them running on your switch:

https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/List_of_Switch_homebrew
https://switchbrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_Applications

Enjoy the your trip down the rabbit hole!

Holy Moly Batman! That's quite the list. No doubt this will keep me busy going through all of these apps, and trying to figure out which of these best serve me best.

Thanks once again for all your help @binkinator. You've been a huge help throughout me getting my Switch up and running across this Jailbreaking experience. So far, so good though and I can't wait to get started. I feel like I'm 90% of the way there now! Well.. I say 90%.. that was until I seen the ridiculous amount of sys-modules you have installed. This may take some time to get through of all of these!

 

[bupeapoop]

Another couple quick questions.

Now that I'm up and running with Atmosphere, I've went ahead and taken a NAND backup following the Rentry guide HERE. Is it advisable to take another backup once I've got apps and games installed? And if I do restore a backup, will it restore absolutely everything, or the bare bones?

Secondly, is it recommended to connect to the internet? To stay on the side of caution, I haven't bothered yet, but I see things like the Homebrew App Store, and think it may serve a purpose being connected to the internet.

Lastly, is it important to setup Incognito?

One thing I've noticed with the Rentry guide is it goes into detail on how to perform certain actions to get things up and running, but it fails to describe in detail on why you're carrying out the necessary steps.

​

 

[noahgambles]

i want to know about using exosphere and dns.mtm as everyone say 90DNS isnt safe anymore also want to use if you should use incognito mode or just exosphere and dns.mtm is enough , if you have a video thats best or a guide would do too .

Thanks\

This explanation is from the "Switch Hacking Is Easy" guide that's on that "rentry" website, namely the "How to avoid getting banned" page.
I don't think I'm allowed to post links so you can web search for it if desired.
Also this guide is actively maintained to the best of my knowledge and it worked great for me (not banned yet lol).

 

[binkinator]

This explanation is from the "Switch Hacking Is Easy" guide that's on that "rentry" website, namely the "How to avoid getting banned" page.
I don't think I'm allowed to post links so you can web search for it if desired.
Also this guide is actively maintained to the best of my knowledge and it worked great for me (not banned yet lol).

View attachment 300197

Reentry doesn’t link to any copyrighted materials. You can absolutely post it. https://rentry.co/SwitchHackingIsEasy

 

[binkinator]

Holy Moly Batman! That's quite the list. No doubt this will keep me busy going through all of these apps, and trying to figure out which of these best serve me best.

Thanks once again for all your help @binkinator. You've been a huge help throughout me getting my Switch up and running across this Jailbreaking experience. So far, so good though and I can't wait to get started. I feel like I'm 90% of the way there now! Well.. I say 90%.. that was until I seen the ridiculous amount of sys-modules you have installed. This may take some time to get through of all of these!

don’t get bogged down in all of it. like I said it’s mostly because I could…not because I should. read read read and enjoy the learning process! You don’t NEED any of it…

Edit: install Homebrew App Store first and then you can let it install about 90% of this using their GUI and it will just work. It also gives you a little blurb on what it does and some idea who and what to look up to read more if you want to know more.

 

[binkinator]

Another couple quick questions.

Now that I'm up and running with Atmosphere, I've went ahead and taken a NAND backup following the Rentry guide HERE. Is it advisable to take another backup once I've got apps and games installed? And if I do restore a backup, will it restore absolutely everything, or the bare bones?

I do a NAND backup after every FW upgrade. I swap out my SD card every couple of weeks and do just a file system copy before I do anything major. Rotating the cards like that spreads out my wear and tear and means I’m only ever a couple weeks of lost work in the hole if something really bad happens.

Secondly, is it recommended to connect to the internet? To stay on the side of caution, I haven't bothered yet, but I see things like the Homebrew App Store, and think it may serve a purpose being connected to the internet.

I determined I was going to go online since I had exosphere.ini configured according to the guide. https://rentry.co/SwitchHackingIsEasy

Some of the homebrew and installers make heavy use of the Internet and with DNS blocked and Prodinfo blanked I personally feel good about it. YMMV

Lastly, is it important to setup Incognito?

No need. Exosphere does prodinfo blanking for you. Don’t risk jacking up you boot capabilities…https://rentry.co/SwitchHackingIsEasy

One thing I've noticed with the Rentry guide is it goes into detail on how to perform certain actions to get things up and running, but it fails to describe in detail on why you're carrying out the necessary steps.

​

Indeed, most guides leave that out. Theres still a lot to read read read.

 

[bupeapoop]

don’t get bogged down in all of it. like I said it’s mostly because I could…not because I should. read read read and enjoy the learning process! You don’t NEED any of it…

Edit: install Homebrew App Store first and then you can let it install about 90% of this using their GUI and it will just work. It also gives you a little blurb on what it does and some idea who and what to look up to read more if you want to know more.

Thanks for the sound advice. What I've went and done is simply copy/paste some of app names you listed and read up on their Github page for more information. There's a bunch already that I've went and placed on my SD card, but I've not gotten round to booting it up yet since I'm now trying to figure out how to use my newly purchased RCM Loader.

The apps I've went and placed on the SD Card from the list you sent are as follows:

• Homebrew App Store
• DBI
• Fizeau
• NXMP
• Tinfoil
• Tinwoo
• TriPlayer
• BeanNX Button Checker
• Checkpoint
• Daybreak
• Goldleaf
• HekateToolbox
• NX Theme Installer
• Reboot to Payload
• Sigpatch Updater
• sys ftpd light
• Switch Ident

This is way more than I need to get started. Tomorrow, I'll fire up the Switch and play around with most of them and see what I like and don't like. It seems like a good spread of apps, which is another reason I always wanted to Jailbreak my device.

Thanks again for all the help man!

 

[bupeapoop]

I do a NAND backup after every FW upgrade. I swap out my SD card every couple of weeks and do just a file system copy before I do anything major. Rotating the cards like that spreads out my wear and tear and means I’m only ever a couple weeks of lost work in the hole if something really bad happens.

That's a really good shout. I'm guessing you have two exact matching SD cards and rotate between the two. Do you use any app in particular to copy everything over? Or is it simply a good ole' copy/paste job using Windows to do the job.

I determined I was going to go online since I had exosphere.ini configured according to the guide. https://rentry.co/SwitchHackingIsEasy

Some of the homebrew and installers make heavy use of the Internet and with DNS blocked and Prodinfo blanked I personally feel good about it. YMMV

Do you recommend installing 90DNS Tester to avoid being banned? It seems like a useful tool. I've already went and done the same as yourself and created a exosphere.ini file and added the Block Nintendo Servers list in default.txt as recommended in the rentry guide.

Jumping online looks like it would come in useful, especially for access the app store etc.

No need. Exosphere does prodinfo blanking for you. Don’t risk jacking up you boot capabilities…https://rentry.co/SwitchHackingIsEasy

OK I'll skip the Incognito mode.

 

[binkinator]

That's a really good shout. I'm guessing you have two exact matching SD cards and rotate between the two. Do you use any app in particular to copy everything over? Or is it simply a good ole' copy/paste job using Windows to do the job.

yes…two 400Gs. They are getting really cheap these days. When one fries I’ll play on the other one until I can replace it with another one as my new A/B cycle.

Do you recommend installing 90DNS Tester to avoid being banned? It seems like a useful tool. I've already went and done the same as yourself and created a exosphere.ini file and added the Block Nintendo Servers list in default.txt as recommended in the rentry guide.

Yes, 90DNS Tester should have been on that long ass list. It’s comforting to see all green test results. That said, somebody in another thread said they were able to hit Ninty even though the tester said all green. I’ve not been able to duplicate that and to the contrary can see the results when I turn exosphere on/off soooooo…grain of salt?

Jumping online looks like it would come in useful, especially for access the app store etc.

Internet is absolutely crucial for some of them to even work. Exosphere is my copilot. If I go down…I go down.

OK I'll skip the Incognito mode.

 

[Scofield_TR]

@binkinator @impeeza @Hayato213 Guys, I solved the problem. I reset the console to factory settings and installed the game and it opened without any errors.

 

[binkinator]

@binkinator @impeeza @Hayato213 Guys, I solved the problem. I reset the console to factory settings and installed the game and it opened without any errors.

A bit of a nuclear option for sure, but if it works…

Glad you’re sorted!

 

[Scofield_TR]

A bit of a nuclear option for sure, but if it works…

Glad you’re sorted!

Thank you. We struggled all day, but the result was good.

 

[bupeapoop]

yes…two 400Gs. They are getting really cheap these days. When one fries I’ll play on the other one until I can replace it with another one as my new A/B cycle.

Yeah, like you, I bought a 400GB to get me started. They were on offer at the time. Looking back, I wish I had bought another one now knowing some form of redundancy would come in handy. Next time I see them pop up for sale though, I'll be sure to grab another one. Doing what you're doing is a real smart idea.

Yes, 90DNS Tester should have been on that long ass list. It’s comforting to see all green test results. That said, somebody in another thread said they were able to hit Ninty even though the tester said all green. I’ve not been able to duplicate that and to the contrary can see the results when I turn exosphere on/off soooooo…grain of salt?

Yeah you had 90DNS Tester on that list of yours. Tomorrow once I get the Switch up and running, I'll take a look at 90DNS Tester. Luckily, I have a Pihole where I've blocked all Nintendo Domains, but I've ever out and about and connected to a Public Wifi, it would be a wise idea to run something like 90DNST to play on the side of caution.

Internet is absolutely crucial for some of them to even work. Exosphere is my copilot. If I go down…I go down.

OK. It sounds like connecting to the Internet is the way to go.

Thanks again for all the help binkinator. You're a real credit to this community! Much love! <3

 

[DictatorZero]

I assume this happens when you try to launch CFW from Hekate? What happens if you use fusee as the payload instead?

Still the same error message.

 

[Bangbruhzx]

So that’s really wild. Good news is we eliminated a ton of typical things like incompatible apps, bad sys-modules or themes by going the .bak route.

I’ll be curious to know if the new SD reader fixes things.

In the mean time, if you have a backup of your card, you could always reformat it to FAT32 and try to have Hekate make a new emunand again. Since swapping out the directories didn’t work that’s the next level of things to “reset.”

edit: what Firmware version are you on BTW?

Hey Binkinator! Thanks so much for the help.
I am on firmware 13.2.1.

so, it seems that the SD reader was faulty. Glad it wasnt a motherboard problem!
Everything is up and running. Emummc works great
Be very careful of your SD card reader. It is very fragile and having it run in 1bit mode definitely makes using Emummc impossible, in my case.

 

[Bangbruhzx]

Cool…I mean, it sucks, but that would explain the odd behavior. Must have had just enough to give you Hekate and give up. Let’s see what tomorrow and a new sd reader brings.

Oh yeah, how am i able to connect using online? can you break that down for me please?
both online play & just simply accessing the homebrew shop. Too scared to change my DNS settings back to automatic. Lol, it's manually set to not connect to anything right now. Don't want to get banned after seeing the light finally from this tunnel. haha. ill wait for your reply. Thanks man!

 

[GamerWeeb]

90DNS isn’t the devil. You can run both, but yeah…exosphere does it all in one place and does it locally so it doesn’t have the external dependency scenario that people say MIGHT happen with 90DNS some day.


it‘s way easier than you’re thinking (obviously don’t copy the line numbers below)

• Create the file exosphere.ini in the root of your SD card and paste this inside (this step is needed in order to blank your prodinfo so that you can avoid getting your switch banned):
  

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

  [exosphere] debugmode=1 debugmode_user=0 disable_user_exception_handlers=0 enable_user_pmu_access=0 blank_prodinfo_sysmmc=0 blank_prodinfo_emummc=1 allow_writing_to_cal_sysmmc=0 log_port=0 log_baud_rate=115200 log_inverted=0

• Afterwards create a file named default.txt in /atmosphere/hosts/ (the hosts folder won't exist, so make sure to create it)
  and paste this in your default.txt file (this step is prevents you from connecting to Nintendo's servers):
  

  1 2 3 4 5 6

  # Block Nintendo Servers 127.0.0.1 *nintendo.* 127.0.0.1 *nintendo-europe.com 127.0.0.1 *nintendoswitch.* 95.216.149.205 *conntest.nintendowifi.net 95.216.149.205 *ctest.cdn.nintendo.net

Thanks

 

[bupeapoop]

So I followed this RCM Loader Guide HERE in this video and I got all the Atmosphere and Hekate payload bin files copied across. Hekate is in the ATMOSPHERE folder and Atmosphere (fusee.bin) is currently in the USER1 profile. According to this guide in the image below, the yellow light indicates the USER1 profile.

The issue I'm having is cycling through each LED / Folder name. The instructions set the following:

How to show current payload:
Click the button + to show the current payload (LED flash twice).

// When I do this, it currently shows the Blue LED Colour

How to change build-in payload :
Hold the button + to jump to the next payload (LED flash 4 times).

// When I do this, it currently shows the Green LED Colour

For whatever reason though, I'm unable to cycle through LED/Folders. It seems to be stuck on Blue and refuses to the next colour on the list which should be Red.

Am I doing something wrong? The device was fully charged overnight and should be working fine.

 

[binkinator]

Oh yeah, how am i able to connect using online? can you break that down for me please?
both online play & just simply accessing the homebrew shop. Too scared to change my DNS settings back to automatic. Lol, it's manually set to not connect to anything right now. Don't want to get banned after seeing the light finally from this tunnel. haha. ill wait for your reply. Thanks man!

So glad you’re sorted!

Going online is dangerous because of the possibility of bans. You can mitigate, but not eliminate, the risk. The way I and many other do so is through exosphere which is a built in module of atmosphere. It blocks the well known Ninty telemetry servers (ala 90DNS but locally) and, in the event of a leak beyond that, it also blanks out your Prodinfo (ala Incognito). This is pretty solid protection in my mind. You will need to assess the risks and decide for yourself.

Theres a ton of info about everything you need to hack a switch here: https://rentry.co/SwitchHackingIsEasy

You’ll find the following section to set up exosphere…

• Create the file exosphere.ini in the root of your SD card and paste this inside (this step is needed in order to blank your prodinfo so that you can avoid getting your switch banned):
  

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

  [exosphere] debugmode=1 debugmode_user=0 disable_user_exception_handlers=0 enable_user_pmu_access=0 blank_prodinfo_sysmmc=0 blank_prodinfo_emummc=1 allow_writing_to_cal_sysmmc=0 log_port=0 log_baud_rate=115200 log_inverted=0

• Afterwards create a file named default.txt in /atmosphere/hosts/ (the hosts folder won't exist, so make sure to create it)
  and paste this in your default.txt file (this step is prevents you from connecting to Nintendo's servers):
  

  1 2 3 4 5 6

  # Block Nintendo Servers 127.0.0.1 *nintendo.* 127.0.0.1 *nintendo-europe.com 127.0.0.1 *nintendoswitch.* 95.216.149.205 *conntest.nintendowifi.net 95.216.149.205 *ctest.cdn.nintendo.net