Hello guys, this is my first post here! I just got a MIG Switch card out of curiosity and I was tinkering with it. For those who don't know, it's used by placing XCI dumps as well as other game specific bin files in the sd card of the MIG Switch, and are obtained from the original cartridge by using an app like nxdumptool. Two of these bin files are mandatory to get the game to boot: Initial Data.bin and Certificate.bin. They stay the same for every cartridge of a specific game. Now, if you want to use an XCI dump from a shady website it's impossible to get it to work without those files. By using the Certificate.bin from another game it has no problem, but this does not count for the Initial Data.bin. So I looked for a way to obtain this Initial Data from an XCI file and read a bit of the XCI file documentation from switchbrew dot org. Here's what I understood so far: The Switch checks if the cartridge is valid by doing a challenge–response authentication on the Initial Data. The Package ID is contained both on the XCI and the Initial Data, on positions 0x110 and 0x0 respectively. The Initial Data hash is on the XCI at position 0x160. It is calculated by doing a SHA-256 hash on the full Initial Data content. So I was wondering, is there a way to to construct a functional Initial Data file starting from an XCI dump? I also tried a reverse approach by editing the Package ID in the Initial Data from another game, generating the Initial Data hash and putting it in the XCI file but is not enough to get the Switch believe it's a real game. Sorry if this may seem stupid but let me know what you think.

Tutorial Updated

How to setup Devkitpro to develop Nintendo Switch homebrew

First of all it is suggested (by me) to install Windows.
After having that please goto github.com/devkitpro/Installer/releases and download the latest Updater.
Launch the installer and click through, You will need to select "switch" selection and Install.
After installing please find the "examples" folder in the Devkitpro folder and open a command prompt inside of the "printing/Hello-World" and type "make" in command prompt.
After that if all goes well you should have a compiled "nro" file in the folder. Drag that file to the /switch folder on the SD card. Insert, launch CFW and open in homebrew.
It should have a "hello-world" example.
Thanks for reading!
This should work on the 3DS but you have to use the 3DS selection and build in the 3DS folder.

Notice: I am not responsible for anything that happens when doing this process as well as when developing homebrew. It's suggested to learn one of 2 languages. C or C++.

Last edited by midstor, Aug 11, 2018