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CrispyYoshi
Of course Gateway quit updating...sounds a lot like my luck in general. My loyalty to a particular brand goes as far as utility, so I don't really care what I'm using so long as it works. That said, while reading the guide, it did mention that having a flashcart would be necessary (
https://3ds.guide/installing-boot9strap-(mset)), so after getting b9s installed there is no longer a practical use for the red or blue cards, correct?
Well, that's up to you. The red card does provide extra storage. And there's no shortage of ROMs that have no online capabilities. I've got many of them, and can't be bothered to convert them. So, I still run GW on B9S. If you'd like to do the same, I actually WOULD advise copying EmuNAND to SysNAND. This way your NANDs are linked, and you can play the same installed games on both. But it's up to you what you want to do.
I've got something a bit better than that outdated tutorial Crispy linked for after you've followed the B9S guide. Have a
pre-made configuration. In fact, have 3. My method is drag and drop, and gives you a choice of chainloaders (and it doesn't use an extra chainloader for no good reason). I also included a couple of GM9 scripts that are useful for syncing tickets between SysNAND and EmuNAND. You'll need to do this to keep things from disappearing and then getting repackaged if you do link your NANDs. It's a small price to pay to be able to use your installed games with both Luma and Gateway (in case, say, you want to use GW's cheat engine sometime) IMHO.
As for the blue card, it is a DS cart. You can use it to play DS games. Though if you've already got something better like a DSTwo or Acekard 2i, you probably won't be needing it.
IDK which color is which mode, so I won't be referencing the colors.
3DS mode flashcarts are not only obsolete, but risky if playing online. They're detectable, and will cause a ban. Possibly even with a private header. Most people use
freeshop to download official games directly from Nintendo.
DS mode flashcarts are necessary for most games, though
nds-bootstrap loader has managed to boot a select few. One of the Gateway cards is an outdated clone of the r4i Gold 3DS, which most people use, should work fine. I prefer the DS2+. You can also use
forwarders, but it still needs a flashcart.
No one has ever been banned using a private header. The only people who got banned were people using the same public header on every online game. Someone was distributing online-patched ROMs all patched with the same header. Thousands of people playing with the same unique cart ID is kind-of blatant, so they all got banned. The carts themselves are not detectable. The Sky+ is especially indistinguishable from an original cart. If Nintendo could detect it, new games wouldn't work with it. Many games don't even have online play, and so far only Ever Oasis and Fire Emblem Echoes need 11.3 or higher (and a partial update gets them working, though the Echoes DLC doesn't work with GW for other reasons), so it's not necessarily a bad idea to keep a device that doubles your storage around if you've already got it. I probably wouldn't advise going out and buying one now, but I wouldn't exactly call them obsolete. And GW still has an unmatched cheat system.
Your use of the Freeshop is potentially dangerous. Unless Freeshop uses the title ID of an actual game, it could get you flagged for a future ban wave. The ban wave at the end of May was caused by people running unknown titles while connected to the Internet. So, you might want to switch to using CIAngel. It has a .3dsx version. So Nintendo sees you running Sound Player, Download Play, etc. instead of some title ID they never licensed out. Some people are abandoning homebrew CIAs completely. I'd call that an overreaction. I know how to turn the wifi off before backing my saves up. But for homebrew that goes online, use a .3dsx version.
And it's not that CIAs aren't detectable. It's a little something called resource/reward ratio. Nintendo could easily check the titles you're playing against your eShop purchases. It would just take a massive amount of resources to do that every time someone logs onto their network. But Nintendo could still do it if you did something that made you stand out. Running 200 different titles while online, for example.
Also, the blue GW cart is not a clone of the R4i Gold. If it was, you could install NTRBootHax on it (or try to). The most knowledgeable person on the subject outside of the GW team says it's a clone of the old Acekard model that predates the 2i. So, I'd be genuinely surprised if it can be reflashed at all. But it will play DS ROMs if it's all you have. Someone even put out a nice updated Wood launcher for it with all the standard features.
Uh oh...slight problem guys. I'm following the guide, but things aren't working out too well. I've copied all the files as displayed in the image, but nothing will happen. I tried using the Gateway launcher, but when I do, the .nds file will not appear in the selected games when I hit start. Granted they are all 3ds games, but even after removing all games from the card, no dice. Worse yet, when I replace the launcher with the one in the SafeB9SInstaller, all I get is a black screen. I don't know if this is an issue specific to Gateway or what, but some help in progressing would be nice since the guide doesn't list anything besides moving the SafeB9SInstaller.nds to the flashcart, meaning of course, the mircosd card and not the bigger SD card that is storing the 3DS's system memory.
Wrong cart. It's an .nds file. You can't run it from a 3DS mode cart. You have to run it from a DS flash cart (i.e. the blue cart). It's just an MSET exploit installer like the one Gateway uses on the blue card. Once that sets your MSET exploit up, going to "DS Profile" should run the "SafeB9SInstaller.dat" and you should be prompted to enter a key sequence to install B9S. I can't say I'm surprised the "Launcher.dat" fails. That probably received zero testing, just like the latest Skeith and CBM9 .bin files (the developers having moved onto B9S, thus only checking the .firm files).
If you still can't get it to work, you could just use any retail game from last year or this year to update (only the Japanese versions of "Hey! Pikmin" and "Ever Oasis" use 11.4, everything else is 11.3 or less). That should put you in the 10.x to 11.3 range. So you could just follow the Soundhax method.