Hacking Question Can you tell me if I can proceed hacking my Switch with the steps outlined? with AutoRCM and bootlo

[ipisano]

Hi there, I posted my question already in a megathread but apparently it was too long.

Spoiler: Useless and completely skippable explaination for the reason why this post is so long

I'm sorry in advance for the longish post but I want to provide all the details so you don't have to ask me and show that I already did my research by outlining what I perceived to be the procedure. I'm not a noob when it comes to homebrews, I soft modded PS2 slim, PSP 2000, Wii (TwilightHax first, Letterbomb later), PS3 (downgrade+CFW and HAN), 3DS (Menuhax, then A9LoaderHax which was painstakingly long to setup then finally boot9strap) so I confide I'll be able to solve eventual problems on my own, I just need help to get started. With that said:

Hi there, I have a launch model (unpatched) Switch on 4.1.0. ; inside it is a 128 GB microSD formatted in exFAT (ouch, I know...) with a digital copy of Odyssey downloaded on it (my only Switch game).

My goal is to backup NAND, update without burning fuses, install SX OS on an EmuNAND (hidden microSD partition); at that point I want to be able to play my new copy of Smash ONLINE on SysNAND while playing OFFLINE modded Odyssey and eventually backups of other games on EmuNAND (SX OS).

I own a Ns-Atmosphere payload injector (the rectanglish white one which you can reprogram with your own payloads).

Basically this is what I understand I should do:

Put Hekate CTCaer payload on my injector, boot in RCM with the tool and backup my NAND.

Then run choidujournx (hope I got the name right) to update to latest firmware without burning fuses, but here comes my first doubt: I heard doing so installs AutoRCM, and I honestly don't know if that is going to cause me trouble later on (will it get me banned when I try to play my smash online on SysNAND?).
I understand that AutoRCM is installed along with the updating procedure since you won't be able to boot a recent OFW using stock bootloader if there are not enough burnt fuses, so you need an alternative one like Hekate. Still, is Hekate needed or even compatible with SX's own bootloader? This is by far my biggest perplexity.

At this point, it is facultative but I really SHOULD reformat my SD to FAT32. I heard I need to do some magic with Hekate or the Nintendo folder won't be recognized or something like that (?)

After that I should install SX OS, I think by writing my payload file into my injector. Now, I don't want it writing ANYTHING on my SysNAND, I want it to be pristine , any heads up? Also, will it wipe my SD card since I want to get the hidden partition EmuNAND? If that's true then is the previous step of converting the SD to FAT32 even needed? I don't mind redownloading Odyssey from the eShop but I'd like NOT to lose my save). Should I have already purchased my SX license at this point? How do I activate it?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Kafluke]

If you do any of what you typed above you can forget about playing Smash online. You'll get banned. Regardless of emunand or anything. The most "safe" method is to completely restore your pre-hacking nand backup and then go online with that. And that's not even proven to be 100% safe. This is why I have two switches. One for legit online play and one for CFW.

Do you want to have to constantly flash your nand back and forth just to be able to go online? Me neither.

 

[ipisano]

If you do any of what you typed above you can forget about playing Smash online. You'll get banned. Regardless of emunand or anything. The most "safe" method is to completely restore your pre-hacking nand backup and then go online with that. And that's not even proven to be 100% safe. This is why I have two switches. One for legit online play and one for CFW.

Do you want to have to constantly flash your nand back and forth just to be able to go online? Me neither.

Thanks for your reply, however there are lots of people playing online on SysNAND while playing offline backups on EmuNAND. If I'll eventually be banned, then so be it, especially if a more powerful Switch is coming out sometime this year, but I still want to take every precaution I can to avoid getting banned.

My biggest issue comes with the updating with ChoiDoujourNX and having to use AutoRCM to boot on OFW, i think SX OS has recently denied the possibility of being launched by Hekate. So I was wandering if SX's own bootloader had the ability to "bypass"/"patch" the burnt fuses check when booting a recent OFW with not enough to burnt fuses in the same way Hekate does.

Also when to / if reformat my card to FAT32

 

[Kafluke]

Thanks for your reply, however there are lots of people playing online on SysNAND while playing offline backups on EmuNAND. If I'll eventually be banned, then so be it, especially if a more powerful Switch is coming out sometime this year, but I still want to take every precaution I can to avoid getting banned.

My biggest issue comes with the updating with ChoiDoujourNX and having to use AutoRCM to boot on OFW, i think SX OS has recently denied the possibility of being launched by Hekate. So I was wandering if SX's own bootloader had the ability to "bypass"/"patch" the burnt fuses check when booting a recent OFW with not enough to burnt fuses in the same way Hekate does.

Also when to / if reformat my card to FAT32

All current custom boot loaders bypass fuse checks.

As far as what "people" are saying... You came here and asked if you'd be safe to play online this way. I'm telling you as nicely as I can, there IS NO SAFE METHOD FOR PLAYING A MODDED SWITCH ONLINE. I don't know how to be more clear. Those people that say everything is cool just haven't been banned yet... yet! This same thing happened early in the CFW switch scene. "I've been playing with CFW online for months with no ban!" Only to come back later and say, "guess what, I'm banned now".

 

[ipisano]

All current custom boot loaders bypass fuse checks.

As far as what "people" are saying... You came here and asked if you'd be safe to play online this way. I'm telling you as nicely as I can, there IS NO SAFE METHOD FOR PLAYING A MODDED SWITCH ONLINE. I don't know how to be more clear. Those people that say everything is cool just haven't been banned yet... yet! This same thing happened early in the CFW switch scene. "I've been playing with CFW online for months with no ban!" Only to come back later and say, "guess what, I'm banned now".

What if I backup my current nand so I can restore to 4.1.0 if a browser based exploit gets released, then update the OFW and play smash online with that, while waiting for the release of a better EmuNAND implementation, since apparently SX's one is bad because it doesn't block writes to the SysNAND? Would AutoRCM and Hekate cause a ban alone? I could just update to 6.2 losing the ability to downgrade but since my Switch is the old revision it will always be vulnerable, right?

 

[mattytrog]

What if I backup my current nand so I can restore to 4.1.0 if a browser based exploit gets released, then update the OFW and play smash online with that, while waiting for the release of a better EmuNAND implementation, since apparently SX's one is bad because it doesn't block writes to the SysNAND? Would AutoRCM and Hekate cause a ban alone? I could just update to 6.2 losing the ability to downgrade but since my Switch is the old revision it will always be vulnerable, right?

Look mate. You play online with anything but a genuine cartridge on genuine firmware, you will be banned. There are various certificates and other telemetry that everything has to be perfect and tie in with what Nintendo expect to see. If anything is not as it should be, you are banned. No ifs, no buts, you are banned. Maybe not today, maybe not this week. But it will happen.

Want to play smash online? Use a legit cartridge. On unhacked firmware.

Ideally with a modchip/sxos emunand on SD card (selectable via dual boot) for all your skull and crossbones activities.

This is safe.

But any cfw online or xci / nsp online? Forget it. And forget it quick. Or you will never play online again.

Didn't I say forget it? I mean it.

 

[Techjunky90]

You can NOT play smash online unless you update your switches firmware = burn fuses.

 

[InsaneNutter]

I could just update to 6.2 losing the ability to downgrade but since my Switch is the old revision it will always be vulnerable, right?

If your sysnand is clean that would be the most safe thing to do. Play online with a totally clean sysnand, then you can create an emunand for hacks / homebrew, never going online with the emunand.

In theory your sysnand will never know anything has happened to the Switch when your messing about with RCM and your emunand. Always power the Switch off before booting your sysnand though, don't boot it from RCM.

Any other way of updating without burning fuses or going online with an emunand is not safe.

 

[ipisano]

Thanks guys, that's what I've been wanting to do from the start: play online on SysNAND and keep the SysNAND pristine while playing backups OFFLINE from EmuNAND. I now learned thanks to you that I should go ahead and burn my fuses. Still, should I backup on 4.1.0 or update to latest and then backup? Maybe I'll do both backups, even tho I'm not sure how useful the 4.1.0 backup is gonna be in the future.

The only thing that worries me is that tidbit of info I see getting mentioned quite often about SX OS EmuNAND not blocking writes to SysNAND, so basically Nintendo or a "rogue" Homebrew could write stuff to SysNAND and you get banned. I hope I didn't give Nintendo or people like the guys which inserted brick code into an NSP any strange ideas