Homebrew ARM9Loader -- Technical Details and Discussion

[Sgt. Lulz]

What is stored in the FIRM partitions? I mean, if new firmwares were out (e.g. 10.6, 10.7) with updated FIRMs, what difference would exist between my payload-protected updated console and a commonly-updated console? Could I still access the Nintendo e-Shop and so on?

I believe the difference would be a "healthy" FIRM0/FIRM1 pair that decrypts to garbage because of the modified keystore, AKA a brick.

 

[FenrirWolf]

That said I still don't get why so many people want to do all their CFW stuff on sysNAND when emuNAND infers no disadvantages outside DSiWare and AGB titles.

Another thing is that on N3DS, apparently 3D output works properly when running a CFW'd sysnand. No need to enter and exit sleep mode to fix it like you do on emunand.

 

[Sgt. Lulz]

Another thing is that on N3DS, apparently 3D output works properly when running a CFW'd sysnand. No need to enter and exit sleep mode to fix it like you do on emunand.

Actually I'm running emuNAND only and the problem is gone on my end as well, since QTM doesn't have a chance to initialize before firmlaunch, unlike with sysNAND -> emuNAND CFW.

No, it's because there is no LCD and GPU init.

 

[Nintendo4DSXL]

Another thing is that on N3DS, apparently 3D output works properly when running a CFW'd sysnand. No need to enter and exit sleep mode to fix it like you do on emunand.

When you have a9lh you dont need it on emunand too

 

[dark_samus3]

Another thing is that on N3DS, apparently 3D output works properly when running a CFW'd sysnand. No need to enter and exit sleep mode to fix it like you do on emunand.

Because it hasn't ever been initialized before so now firm properly sets everything up, because it has to

 

[daxtsu]

Another thing is that on N3DS, apparently 3D output works properly when running a CFW'd sysnand. No need to enter and exit sleep mode to fix it like you do on emunand.

SS3D also works out of the box on A9LH emuNAND, no lid fix required.

 

[Earth97]

Well you'd just need to update your firmware.bin... Since the arm9loaderhax uses both firm0 and 1 slots they cannot be updated

Then updating would mean installing new system file versions that an updated firmware.bin can run, am I correct? Could I run them without updating the firmware.bin?

 

[Mrrraou]

Actually I'm running emuNAND only and the problem is gone on my end as well, since QTM doesn't have a chance to initialize before firmlaunch, unlike with sysNAND -> emuNAND CFW.

No, it's because there is no LCD and GPU init.

 

[FenrirWolf]

SS3D also works out of the box on A9LH emuNAND, no lid fix required.

Ah, even better then!

 

[Svaethier]

Well I used Decrypt9 to do it. I simply saved all the partitions from emunand with "9" appended to the name. Then exported partitions from sysnand with no number appended. Then transferred the "9" appended partitions to sysnand and the others to emunand. You don't have to remember all the partitions. Just go by the rule of not touching FIRM0 and FIRM1 and you'll be fine.

well I tried this by dumping my sysnand 9.2 partitions (excluding the firm files) and then injecting them into emunand to make it 9.2 but emunand doesn't boot afterwards so I had to do a restore from backup.

 

[Sgt. Lulz]

No, it's because there is no LCD and GPU init.

Oh, alright. I had assumed that it was QTM and not LCD/GPU, since I heard a bunch of times that reinitializing QTM fixes it and the problem doesn't affect O3DS.

 

[Apache Thunder]

Emunand not booting is probably related to the particular arm9loaderhax payload you are using.

 

[Epicdaftman]

well, my modified sysnand.bin is being injected. *crosses fingers and prays*

EDIT: Successful downgrade to 2.1

 

[Pneumaticat]

Hey, probably a pretty nooby question, but is it anything to worry about if the cia file names displayed in sysupdater appear sort of glitchily, taking a second or two to fully render?

 

[Epicdaftman]

Question: How large is the OTP supposed to be? Also, how long should it take to dump, because my screen flashed once, but then started flashing crazily. Is that normal?

 

[Vappy]

Question: How large is the OTP supposed to be? Also, how long should it take to dump, because my screen flashed once, but then started flashing crazily. Is that normal?

256 bytes, although Windows might show it as 1kb without checking it yourself. And yes that's normal, it means it's done. Should be on your sd card as a9f.bin

 

[Mrrraou]

Question: How large is the OTP supposed to be? Also, how long should it take to dump, because my screen flashed once, but then started flashing crazily. Is that normal?

256 bytes.

 

[Sgt. Lulz]

It should be fine after like a minute, really, and even that's overkill.
It's just 256 bytes of data.

 

[Epicdaftman]

Does somebody want to compile the installer for me. It's a lot more complicated than I thought

 

[qlm2009]

From what I know the first partition is not properly signed, because we added the payload at the and, because of this the bootloader will jump over to firm1, which is properly signed and shorter than firm0. It will be decrypted to garbage, which jumps to the payload.


I also created a pack for all people who want to test my bootloader, some people seam to have problems, but it work in both variations on my o3DS.

I used your bootloader on my JAP N3DS.
And it's working fine now.
Thank you.