Hacking Any reason not to update sysnand?

C Dale

Well-Known Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 12, 2015
Messages
88
Trophies
0
Age
40
XP
469
Country
United States
My switch is not banned and I've been running custom firmware for over 2 years. I've never taken it online since then. The sysnand is still on 9.2 if I recall.

Last week I updated my emunand to 11.0.1 with daybreak and atmosphere to 19.1. They are both working fine. But I've been itching to play some smash online.

Is there any reason I shouldn't update my sysnand? I'm pretty sure that updating won't affect anything with my emunand or custom firmware, but I just want to cover all my bases.
 

urherenow

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
4,752
Trophies
2
Age
48
Location
Japan
XP
3,645
Country
United States
You'd have to google which updates also update the game card slot. Many people have run into issues using nogc/autonogc, and once you remove that and let the game slot update, you can forget about it working correctly if you decide to downgrade for some reason (until you upgrade again).

But personally, I see no reason not to always update, except when waiting for Atmosphere to play catch-up. So I don't use nogc, or rather, I set it to 0. Only reason to not have both emmc AND emuemmc updated, is if you're still holding on to SXOS for some reason.

Some folks are still holding out on FW 4 or something like that, still expecting a stable cold-boot hack. It's been so long since patched models came out, not to mention the lite and Mariko versions, that I still think it isn't going to happen. Or by the time it does, the console will be outdated anyway. Haven't messed with them myself, but there are already a couple of Switch emulators out there.

TL;DR
Remaining on lower firmware, especially on unpatched consoles, is pointless.
 

C Dale

Well-Known Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 12, 2015
Messages
88
Trophies
0
Age
40
XP
469
Country
United States
You'd have to google which updates also update the game card slot. Many people have run into issues using nogc/autonogc, and once you remove that and let the game slot update, you can forget about it working correctly if you decide to downgrade for some reason (until you upgrade again).

But personally, I see no reason not to always update, except when waiting for Atmosphere to play catch-up. So I don't use nogc, or rather, I set it to 0. Only reason to not have both emmc AND emuemmc updated, is if you're still holding on to SXOS for some reason.

Some folks are still holding out on FW 4 or something like that, still expecting a stable cold-boot hack. It's been so long since patched models came out, not to mention the lite and Mariko versions, that I still think it isn't going to happen. Or by the time it does, the console will be outdated anyway. Haven't messed with them myself, but there are already a couple of Switch emulators out there.

TL;DR
Remaining on lower firmware, especially on unpatched consoles, is pointless.

Thanks. I didn't know about the game cart thing. I'm not too concerned about that though since i barely play anything on a cartridge.

That only affects emunand right? For example, if I update to 12.0.1 on my sysnand and play a game on cartridge, sysnand never have problems playing it, but it will blow the fuse on the cartridge, meaning I would have to update emunand to the same firmware version or higher if I wanted to play that same game on emunand. Is that how that works?
 

tabzer

This place is a meme.
Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2019
Messages
5,844
Trophies
1
Age
39
XP
4,910
Country
Japan
Thanks. I didn't know about the game cart thing. I'm not too concerned about that though since i barely play anything on a cartridge.

That only affects emunand right? For example, if I update to 12.0.1 on my sysnand and play a game on cartridge, sysnand never have problems playing it, but it will blow the fuse on the cartridge, meaning I would have to update emunand to the same firmware version or higher if I wanted to play that same game on emunand. Is that how that works?

Only if you are using a cartridge. If you updated to 12 on sysNAND and are on a lower firmware with emuMMC (ie emunand), then your CFW will crash if there is a cartridge in the slot. But you can install an NSP and bypass that issue altogether.
 

tabzer

This place is a meme.
Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2019
Messages
5,844
Trophies
1
Age
39
XP
4,910
Country
Japan
Just imagine if you update and down the road an exploit is found that works on the firmware you updated from..
To entertain a hypothetical, what kind of exploit could be more ideal than that an upatched system already provides? My setup allows me to play online at current firmware on sysNAND and do homebrew on any firmware with emuMMC.
 

brettsmods

Active Member
Newcomer
Joined
Apr 18, 2020
Messages
28
Trophies
0
XP
355
Country
United States
With the nogc issue, I believe the gamecart firmware was last updated with 11.0.0, so you'd be fine having CFW on 11 and OFW on 12.
 

tabzer

This place is a meme.
Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2019
Messages
5,844
Trophies
1
Age
39
XP
4,910
Country
Japan
With the nogc issue, I believe the gamecart firmware was last updated with 11.0.0, so you'd be fine having CFW on 11 and OFW on 12.

OFW updated it on 12. It's not a big issue--just inconvenient. Don't have a GC in your slot when using CFW is all (if keeping CFW on lower FW).
 
  • Like
Reactions: brettsmods

The Real Jdbye

*is birb*
Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
23,243
Trophies
4
Location
Space
XP
13,794
Country
Norway
Only if you are using a cartridge. If you updated to 12 on sysNAND and are on a lower firmware with emuMMC (ie emunand), then your CFW will crash if there is a cartridge in the slot. But you can install an NSP and bypass that issue altogether.
Should be fixed with the next Atmosphere release I suppose, it seems they have to fix that issue per-firmware. Every new firmware released and the same thing happens.
My switch is not banned and I've been running custom firmware for over 2 years. I've never taken it online since then. The sysnand is still on 9.2 if I recall.

Last week I updated my emunand to 11.0.1 with daybreak and atmosphere to 19.1. They are both working fine. But I've been itching to play some smash online.

Is there any reason I shouldn't update my sysnand? I'm pretty sure that updating won't affect anything with my emunand or custom firmware, but I just want to cover all my bases.
No worries. I keep my sysNAND up to date. If you have RCM it really doesn't matter. Some people like to stay on a lower firmware in the hopes of some better coldboot exploit but we don't even have any evidence that such a thing exists so it all seems a bit vain. Like it or not we kind of lucked out with the RCM exploit and the firmware on later versions seems to be pretty secure. I believe everything that can get hacked will get hacked eventually, but 10 years from now when someone discovers a new Switch exploit most of us will be well past that and onto the next console by then. Doesn't really make much difference at that point. And there's no reason to think it'd happen any sooner, and I certainly am not going to wait 10 years before I can enjoy my Switch freely in the hopes there's some new exploit. Just enjoy it now while it's still fresh and there's games coming out. Nobody is going to be playing Switch games online in 10 years (if the services are even up) so you better do it now while you still can.
 

tabzer

This place is a meme.
Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2019
Messages
5,844
Trophies
1
Age
39
XP
4,910
Country
Japan
Should be fixed with the next Atmosphere release I suppose, it seems they have to fix that issue per-firmware. Every new firmware released and the same thing happens.

This is something that CFW hasn't been able to "fix". The best it can do is disable GC slot use while in CFW. It's really a minor issue and at this point it seems like it's ok to update to latest fw for both OFW and CFW so it wouldn't be an issue.
 

The Real Jdbye

*is birb*
Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
23,243
Trophies
4
Location
Space
XP
13,794
Country
Norway
This is something that CFW hasn't been able to "fix". The best it can do is disable GC slot use while in CFW. It's really a minor issue and at this point it seems like it's ok to update to latest fw for both OFW and CFW so it wouldn't be an issue.
Yes, what I'm referring to is that nogc doesn't work when this happens. Even with nogc the crashes still occur, they have to patch in changes later to make nogc work as expected with new firmware releases. And that's just a temporary "fix" until the next firmware update comes along.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tabzer

C Dale

Well-Known Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 12, 2015
Messages
88
Trophies
0
Age
40
XP
469
Country
United States
Thanks for the reply everybody. Definitely answered my question. I suspect I would have ran into this eventually if I get back into online play so that probably just saved me a lot of headache. Knowing that I can just take out the cartridge if it's an issue, I don't have any concerns about running 12.0.1sys and 11.0.1emu.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tabzer

Draxzelex

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2017
Messages
19,005
Trophies
2
Age
29
Location
New York City
XP
13,369
Country
United States
My switch is not banned and I've been running custom firmware for over 2 years. I've never taken it online since then. The sysnand is still on 9.2 if I recall.

Last week I updated my emunand to 11.0.1 with daybreak and atmosphere to 19.1. They are both working fine. But I've been itching to play some smash online.

Is there any reason I shouldn't update my sysnand? I'm pretty sure that updating won't affect anything with my emunand or custom firmware, but I just want to cover all my bases.
It will update your cartridge slot which will prevent you from using cartridges on either sysMMC or emuMMC since once the cartridge slot is updated for firmware 12.X, it will no longer work on any firmware version below. And since there are no games or updates that require firmware 12.X on top of you not going online, there is no reason you should update your sysMMC. Higher is not always better.
 

tabzer

This place is a meme.
Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2019
Messages
5,844
Trophies
1
Age
39
XP
4,910
Country
Japan
It will update your cartridge slot which will prevent you from using cartridges on either sysMMC or emuMMC since once the cartridge slot is updated for firmware 12.X, it will no longer work on any firmware version below. And since there are no games or updates that require firmware 12.X on top of you not going online, there is no reason you should update your sysMMC. Higher is not always better.
He wants to play Smash, online, so he would need clean sysNAND with latest update.
 
Last edited by tabzer,

petspeed

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2009
Messages
1,126
Trophies
1
Age
49
XP
1,730
Country
Denmark
Now that 12.0.2 is out (and the same happened with 12.0.0) payloads like Lockpick_RCM and TegraExplorer stopped working because of 'Unknown PKG1'. They have sinse been updated so problem solved. But my point is, could updating SysMMC break the payloads? I don't know what pkg1 and pkg2 is exactly but it is updated with some HOS updates. Is it a part of your MMC (either SysMMC or EmuMMC depending on which one you update) or is it something besides that, that gets updates by a firmware update (like the gameslot firmware). I hope someone can explain that.
 

M7L7NK7

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2017
Messages
3,892
Trophies
1
Website
youtube.com
XP
5,953
Country
Australia
To entertain a hypothetical, what kind of exploit could be more ideal than that an upatched system already provides? My setup allows me to play online at current firmware on sysNAND and do homebrew on any firmware with emuMMC.

Untethered Coldboot up to 6.2.0 with Pk1ldrhax

Almost impossible though
 
Last edited by M7L7NK7,
  • Like
Reactions: tabzer

tabzer

This place is a meme.
Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2019
Messages
5,844
Trophies
1
Age
39
XP
4,910
Country
Japan
Now that 12.0.2 is out (and the same happened with 12.0.0) payloads like Lockpick_RCM and TegraExplorer stopped working because of 'Unknown PKG1'. They have sinse been updated so problem solved. But my point is, could updating SysMMC break the payloads? I don't know what pkg1 and pkg2 is exactly but it is updated with some HOS updates. Is it a part of your MMC (either SysMMC or EmuMMC depending on which one you update) or is it something besides that, that gets updates by a firmware update (like the gameslot firmware). I hope someone can explain that.

I can't answer the full question in total confidence, but I can say that updating "sysMMC" won't break payloads as long as you keep your emuMMC on the version of firmware that the payloads are made for. The worst case scenario is that the gamecard slot becomes unusable (for earlier f/w versions), as far as anybody knows.

Untethered Coldboot up to 6.2.0 with Pk1ldrhax

Almost impossible though

Though it wooould be nice to cold boot into CFW, I personally cannot give up online play with my legit side of sysNAND.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    Sonic Angel Knight @ Sonic Angel Knight: :ninja: