Homebrew 3ds nand issue, hardware problem, and NAND Backup

[HudU_]

Hi!, I have a question about a friends 3ds that needs fixing. This 3ds was a preproduction unit with a rare 3d tech demo and we are looking to dump the game. This game was only accessible through the 3ds dev menu. He did a hard mod to dump the nand to his computer but afterwards, accidentally damaged a trace that connects to the nand (as seen in the photo). We have the nand backup but no key to decrypt the backup. We were thinking we could get the key by somehow making the 3ds boot to GM9, but the 3ds hasnt been hacked yet. We were also thinking that we could do the hardmod to connect the 3ds to the computer again, but I dont know too much about that mod or if you can decrypt the nand through read/write on a computer. What are your suggestions? Heres the image: https://ibb.co/h8d1cN3

Is the nand required for the 3ds to boot? or can it be emulated via the sd card?

Also is there any method of decrypting the nand without a key or GM9? Or can GM9 be accessed without the 3ds's nand chip in tact?

Heres the hardmod in question:


and I was also wondering about emunand, can the 3ds work with emunand and have the regular nand damaged?

One last thought: Where are the nand keys stored? and if we could desolder the nand on the board and possibly the other chip with the keys (the cpu itself I assume) could we get this to boot on a different 3ds motherboard?

 

[8BitWonder]

I think ninfs would be able to navigate and extract contents from your friend's NAND backup, unless there's some incompatibility with it being a pre-production unit.
https://github.com/ihaveamac/ninfs

There's a setup section in its readme that explains what you'll need.
(Definitely boot9.bin, potentially SeedDB)

 

[HudU_]

I think ninfs would be able to navigate and extract contents from your friend's NAND backup, unless there's some incompatibility with it being a pre-production unit.
https://github.com/ihaveamac/ninfs

There's a setup section in its readme that explains what you'll need.
(Definitely boot9.bin, potentially SeedDB)

Whats SeedDB? And will it require a key to decrypt it? Also tysm for your input!

 

[8BitWonder]

Whats SeedDB? And will it require a key to decrypt it? Also tysm for your input!

SeedDB afaik is just a collection of 'seeds' for titles.
Afaik something about how crypto changed around firmware 9.6(?) made it necessary for extracting title contents.

It looks like ihaveamac has a downloadable version of it here if you can't dump it from your or your friend's system.
https://github.com/ihaveamac/3DS-rom-tools/wiki/SeedDB-list

Boot9.bin should contain all the necessary keys to decrypt and extract content from a NAND dump.

 

[HudU_]

SeedDB afaik is just a collection of 'seeds' for titles.
Afaik something about how crypto changed around firmware 9.6(?) made it necessary for extracting title contents.

It looks like ihaveamac has a downloadable version of it here if you can't dump it from your or your friend's system.
https://github.com/ihaveamac/3DS-rom-tools/wiki/SeedDB-list

Boot9.bin should contain all the necessary keys to decrypt and extract content from a NAND dump.

Thats only for retail games right? This is an unreleased game only available through the 3ds dev menu, Heres a video for reference:

 

[8BitWonder]

Thats only for retail games right? This is an unreleased game only available through the 3ds dev menu, Heres a video for reference:

I don't know if dev apps have any interaction with SeedDB, I assume they wouldn't.
I figured to mention it in case boot9.bin alone wasn't proving successful.

 

[HudU_]

I don't know if dev apps have any interaction with SeedDB, I assume they wouldn't.
I figured to mention it in case boot9.bin alone wasn't proving successful.

Is there any better way I can contact you in case of the situation? also would I try to dump titles like normal with a seeddb file and the dev apps should pop up anyway?

 

[8BitWonder]

Is there any better way I can contact you in case of the situation? also would I try to dump titles like normal with a seeddb file and the dev apps should pop up anyway?

If you'd like to PM me feel free.
I think all the titles on the NAND dump should be viewable in the GUI. It's just that those requiring SeedDB won't mount correctly if it's absent.

 

[HudU_]

If you'd like to PM me feel free.
I think all the titles on the NAND dump should be viewable in the GUI. It's just that those requiring SeedDB won't mount correctly if it's absent.

How do I use ninfs? I have a Mac and I downloaded the latest version and all required according to the readme file.

 

[8BitWonder]

How do I use ninfs? I have a Mac and I downloaded the latest version and all required according to the readme file.

I haven't used macOS in a long time, I'll set up a VM real quick and get back to you once I have it running.

 

[HudU_]

I haven't used macOS in a long time, I'll set up a VM real quick and get back to you once I have it running.

Sounds good, thx. I looked into the commands and everything for terminal but I don't know where to put the nand.bin so everything will work. Keep in mind, I only have the nand.bin and nothing else

 

[HudU_]

I haven't used macOS in a long time, I'll set up a VM real quick and get back to you once I have it running.

Also, how do you get the GUI to work? Id prefer that over using terminal

 

[lone_wolf323]

Uhm....is this the same console that you have posted about months ago aswell?

 

[8BitWonder]

@HudU_
Setting up a MacOS VM is proving to be a PITA to put it nicely.
Instead of just downloading the binary in releases try doing the following from the Readme:

• Install the latest version of Python 3
• Install the latest version of FUSE for macOS

Then run the following command in terminal to complete the installation (with GUI support):

python3 -m pip install --upgrade https://github.com/ihaveamac/ninfs/releases/download/v1.7b2/ninfs-1.7b2-src.zip#egg=ninfs[gui]

After the installation has completed try just typing ninfs into terminal. That should hopefully just pull up ninfs for you to use.

Keep in mind you'll still need to supply boot9.bin in the expected directory as outlined in the README.
From there you should be able to mount your nand, and then open up your CTRNand and search for the title you're trying to dump.
I'll be busy the rest of the day, let me know how this goes for you.

 

[HudU_]

@HudU_
Setting up a MacOS VM is proving to be a PITA to put it nicely.
Instead of just downloading the binary in releases try doing the following from the Readme:

• Install the latest version of Python 3
• Install the latest version of FUSE for macOS

Then run the following command in terminal to complete the installation (with GUI support):

python3 -m pip install --upgrade https://github.com/ihaveamac/ninfs/releases/download/v1.7b2/ninfs-1.7b2-src.zip#egg=ninfs[gui]

After the installation has completed try just typing ninfs into terminal. That should hopefully just pull up ninfs for you to use.

Keep in mind you'll still need to supply boot9.bin in the expected directory as outlined in the README.
From there you should be able to mount your nand, and then open up your CTRNand and search for the title you're trying to dump.
I'll be busy the rest of the day, let me know how this goes for you.

I always get the error "no module named _gui"

 

[HudU_]

Uhm....is this the same console that you have posted about months ago aswell?

Yes. We mostly got out of touch, but recently started to work on the project again.

 

[8BitWonder]

I always get the error "no module named _gui"

Try using one of the stable builds instead, install v1.6.1 in terminal with:

python3 -m pip install --upgrade ninfs[gui]==1.6.1

 

[HudU_]

@HudU_
Setting up a MacOS VM is proving to be a PITA to put it nicely.
Instead of just downloading the binary in releases try doing the following from the Readme:

• Install the latest version of Python 3
• Install the latest version of FUSE for macOS

Then run the following command in terminal to complete the installation (with GUI support):

python3 -m pip install --upgrade https://github.com/ihaveamac/ninfs/releases/download/v1.7b2/ninfs-1.7b2-src.zip#egg=ninfs[gui]

After the installation has completed try just typing ninfs into terminal. That should hopefully just pull up ninfs for you to use.

Keep in mind you'll still need to supply boot9.bin in the expected directory as outlined in the README.
From there you should be able to mount your nand, and then open up your CTRNand and search for the title you're trying to dump.
I'll be busy the rest of the day, let me know how this goes for you.

Ok: I just got it to work, But I think I need the OTP file, or if not, its telling me I need essential.exefs if I don't have the OTP file. Also what do I do from here? (look at image), Im not sure what to click or where to go to proceed.

 

[8BitWonder]

Ok: I just got it to work, But I think I need the OTP file, or if not, its telling me I need essential.exefs if I don't have the OTP file. Also what do I do from here? (look at image), Im not sure what to click or where to go to proceed.

Hmm, if we don't have the otp or if it was never embedded we may need to see if GM9 can be made to run from ntrboot without boot9strap installed.
I've never done that before and tbh I'm not sure if it's do-able.
I can test it later with my own unit.

In the mean-time, what you would need to do is create some directory you want the nand to be loaded into.
Ex: Create a directory named 'tmp' on your Desktop, and then select it when browsing for a mount-point.
Then you'd mount it, and open that folder to see the contents of your nand backup.

 

[HudU_]

Hmm, if we don't have the otp or if it was never embedded we may need to see if GM9 can be made to run from ntrboot without boot9strap installed.
I've never done that before and tbh I'm not sure if it's do-able.
I can test it later with my own unit.

In the mean-time, what you would need to do is create some directory you want the nand to be loaded into.
Ex: Create a directory named 'tmp' on your Desktop, and then select it when browsing for a mount-point.
Then you'd mount it, and open that folder to see the contents of your nand backup.

LMK if you can find a way to get GM9 running without Boot9strap, ill also look into the situation. Ill PM you the nand if you want to see if you can get that working, but I think it requires the keys sadly