CFW's on Different SD Cards: Advice on Install

[Mrs_Glenn_Coco]

Hi Everyone!

So I'm having a bit of an issue moving to Atmosphere. The hubby and kids use the SXOS hard drive feature quite often, but we are now forced to move to atmosphere and I'm honestly sick of trying to figure out ways around the FW being stuck at 11. Hubby does NOT want to get rid of SXOS but we want to play new games. I've seen that you can dual boot both from a single card but they include kinda convoluted ways that I'm not really understanding and/or really wouldn't prefer to do (I think one way had me giving up the OFW sysnand). Aside, the card is pretty full anyway with the games they all want to be able to play on the go.

I was wondering:
- Can I just use a different 512 sd card for atmosphere, and leave the SXOS as is?
- If so, how do I go about doing that?
- Could I just follow the re-entry guide for installing atmosphere on Erista from scratch with this new card without causing ANY issue with our SXOS install?
Or
- Is there something different or extra that I should be doing aside from what is set out in the guide?
- Is there a guide out there for specifically this kind of use case?

Obviously I don't have an understanding of HOW this all works, I have just enough to follow the guides (hopefully, lol), so ELI5 handholding is not discouraged.

Also, while I'm here: is there anything I should avoid doing in the future to not break SXOS? I haven't updated this thing in a while and my memory is not great. I seem to recall that I can't update the OFW at all (past 11), is that correct? Anything else? Any advice on this is well is appreciated, as I will never hear the end of it if I mess up their SXOS, lol. I'm on SXOS 3.1 Emunand FW 11.

Thank you in advance!

 

[binkinator]

Hi Everyone!

So I'm having a bit of an issue moving to Atmosphere. The hubby and kids use the SXOS hard drive feature quite often, but we are now forced to move to atmosphere and I'm honestly sick of trying to figure out ways around the FW being stuck at 11. Hubby does NOT want to get rid of SXOS but we want to play new games. I've seen that you can dual boot both from a single card but they include kinda convoluted ways that I'm not really understanding and/or really wouldn't prefer to do (I think one way had me giving up the OFW sysnand). Aside, the card is pretty full anyway with the games they all want to be able to play on the go.

I was wondering:
- Can I just use a different 512 sd card for atmosphere, and leave the SXOS as is?

yes but the SDCard reader is the weakest link in the Switch. Swapping out the card will eventually lead to you needing to crack open the switch and replace the SDCard reader.

You might want to consider getting a 1TB SDCard and doing dual boot or even moving games to a portable USB drive for SXOS?

- If so, how do I go about doing that?

Since you asked I’ll continue even though I don’t recommend it for your SDCard reader…it will break.

- Could I just follow the re-entry guide for installing atmosphere on Erista from scratch with this new card without causing ANY issue with our SXOS install?
Or
- Is there something different or extra that I should be doing aside from what is set out in the guide?
- Is there a guide out there for specifically this kind of use case?

you can absolutely build a new card with entirely different setup. When you swap cards and boot into CFW (AMS or SXOS) it will take on the complete personality of the card that’s in place. There‘s nothing else you need to do after you swap cards.

Obviously I don't have an understanding of HOW this all works, I have just enough to follow the guides (hopefully, lol), so ELI5 handholding is not discouraged.

Also, while I'm here: is there anything I should avoid doing in the future to not break SXOS? I haven't updated this thing in a while and my memory is not great. I seem to recall that I can't update the OFW at all (past 11), is that correct?

As long as you set up an emunand you can upgrade OFW w/o issue…it’s just your Emunand that must stay on 11.0.0

Anything else? Any advice on this is well is appreciated, as I will never hear the end of it if I mess up their SXOS, lol. I'm on SXOS 3.1 Emunand FW 11.

Thank you in advance!

1) I highly recommend backing everything up to you PC right away. This includes backing up Sysnand and Emunand. Reentry guide tells you how to do this. Especially before mucking around with things. Always keep a backup. It could save your life.

2) I still recommend dual boot for those wanting to keep SXOS around. Mine has 7 different boots (including SXOS and AMS) and it runs great! @mikefor20 ’s dual boot guide is the one you want to follow.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-...en-partitions-on-the-same-sd-tutorial.601607/

 

[Mrs_Glenn_Coco]

yes but the SDCard reader is the weakest link in the Switch. Swapping out the card will eventually lead to you needing to crack open the switch and replace the SDCard reader.

I really appreciate you taking the time to explain everything to me in lieu of just saying "don't do it" like many others. So, I'll explain why we preferred it. I already knew the sd card thing but for our use case it makes sense. We'll be moving it infrequently, and when we do we treat it like we're disarming a bomb, lol. We also have a bunch of high-quality 512GB cards around while we'd have to shell out $100+ for a 1TB one. Lastly, hubby's friends are electronics technicians and they replace the sd card reader frequently enough. We'll move over soon I think, but in our niche use case, it makes sense for us in the short term.

I was able to do it yesterday and, aside from a few hiccups, atmo is up and running. I guess I picked a bad time to do this, with a new Horizon FW coming out and people breaking their atmo, lol. Initially, all of my games except one got the "unexpected error" when loading. Sigpatches were from rentry. Ok, tried coomer sigpatches. No difference. Weird. Tried other games overnight, installing w/o update. Many worked. Original games STILL don't work, even without updates. Seemed at first it was newer games from 22 not working, but there was also one from 2020. Can't figure out the rhyme or reason to this error.

It does keep harassing me about updating whenever I try to open anything. Since I'm in Atmo, what happens if I accidentally hit update there?

I read elsewhere that a person updated their OFW and that helped (99% of the rest it was sigpatches). My OFW is old, 8.0. If they are completely separate (atmo is on an emunand), why would the FW version of OFW affect the operation of my CFW? I've also seen ppl mention their OFW is older and they have no issue. Any idea what I should do?

Also, if I want to update OFW but only to 15 for now, how can I go about that?

Lastly, one issue I ran into was that it wld connect to my wifi but not internet itself. Ppl advised taking the "*nintendo*" entry out of default txt fixed it. It did, but I wasn't entirely comfortable doing that. Any other way to fix this while keeping all blocks in the txt intact?

Again, thank you, SO MUCH, for your help with this!

 

[hippy dave]

Worth mentioning that swapping the SD card a lot can potentially lead to a bigger problem than just replacing the board with the SD reader on. The connector on the motherboard can get damaged, which would mean repairing by wiring up to alternate points. A careful soldering job which might not be beyond a decent technician, but definitely more work than just a board swap.

 

[Hayato213]

https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-...en-partitions-on-the-same-sd-tutorial.601607/

You can follow this if you want to set up two emunand on one SD card, you can keep one on 11.0.0 and keep the other one on 15.0.1.

 

[binkinator]

I really appreciate you taking the time to explain everything to me in lieu of just saying "don't do it" like many others. So, I'll explain why we preferred it. I already knew the sd card thing but for our use case it makes sense. We'll be moving it infrequently, and when we do we treat it like we're disarming a bomb, lol. We also have a bunch of high-quality 512GB cards around while we'd have to shell out $100+ for a 1TB one. Lastly, hubby's friends are electronics technicians and they replace the sd card reader frequently enough. We'll move over soon I think, but in our niche use case, it makes sense for us in the short term.

I was able to do it yesterday and, aside from a few hiccups, atmo is up and running. I guess I picked a bad time to do this, with a new Horizon FW coming out and people breaking their atmo, lol. Initially, all of my games except one got the "unexpected error" when loading. Sigpatches were from rentry. Ok, tried coomer sigpatches. No difference. Weird. Tried other games overnight, installing w/o update. Many worked. Original games STILL don't work, even without updates. Seemed at first it was newer games from 22 not working, but there was also one from 2020. Can't figure out the rhyme or reason to this error.

It does keep harassing me about updating whenever I try to open anything. Since I'm in Atmo, what happens if I accidentally hit update there?

I read elsewhere that a person updated their OFW and that helped (99% of the rest it was sigpatches). My OFW is old, 8.0. If they are completely separate (atmo is on an emunand), why would the FW version of OFW affect the operation of my CFW? I've also seen ppl mention their OFW is older and they have no issue. Any idea what I should do?

Also, if I want to update OFW but only to 15 for now, how can I go about that?

Lastly, one issue I ran into was that it wld connect to my wifi but not internet itself. Ppl advised taking the "*nintendo*" entry out of default txt fixed it. It did, but I wasn't entirely comfortable doing that. Any other way to fix this while keeping all blocks in the txt intact?

Again, thank you, SO MUCH, for your help with this!

I have my beliefs but religion is something I try to keep to myself. Information wants to be free!

Should be no need to remove the *nintendo* entry…it’s imperative to keep it on in most cases to prevent a ban.

Here’s how I set up my exosphere.ini and dns:mitm:

https://rentry.org/ExosphereDNSMITM


This allows:

1) vanilla Sysnand (no CFW) to fully connect online to Nintendo (but you MUST keep Sysnand 100% clean of any piracy or cheating or you will be banned)

2) Emunand with CFW to connect to everything online except Ninty servers because of the *nintendo* line. It also blanks out yiur serial number in case you accidentally connect somehow so if you do knock on their door…they hopefully won’t be able to ID you. There are exceptions for the servers that indicate that your switch is Online…these are OK.

 

[Mrs_Glenn_Coco]

Here’s how I set up my exosphere.ini and dns:mitm:

Awesome, I will try this instead!

Any idea why I can't open certain games? I can't find that they're titles with issues themselves, and sigpatches were updated. It's like my fw is out of date, but I'm on the newest atmo 1.4.1 (well, newest official atmo, lol). I thought I shld be ok with most new titles with the most up to date FW. Nothing from 2022 is working and even one from '20. Any ideas on what I should do here?

Thanks!

 

[binkinator]

Awesome, I will try this instead!

Any idea why I can't open certain games? I can't find that they're titles with issues themselves, and sigpatches were updated. It's like my fw is out of date, but I'm on the newest atmo 1.4.1 (well, newest official atmo, lol). I thought I shld be ok with most new titles with the most up to date FW. Nothing from 2022 is working and even one from '20. Any ideas on what I should do here?

Thanks!

1.4.1 is perfectly fine. What firmware are you on? Be careful not to update BTW!

Grab latest Sigpatches from here:

Sigpatches (GBATemp) — get your Sigpatches here!

unzip those to the top level of your SDCard and you can be sure it’s at least 100% NOT your Sigpatches.

 

[Mrs_Glenn_Coco]

unzip those to the top level of your SDCard and you can be sure it’s at least 100% NOT your Sigpatches.

Done. Same thing, same games cannot open (software closed, error occurred).

After I did this I noticed that hekate launcher was different. It did not say Atmosphere as it normally did. It also now has a new entry. It now has 3 I can launch which say:
cfw - sysmmc
cfw - emummc
stock - sysmmc

I hit cfw - emummc assuming this was atmo. Loaded, but without Atmo splash screen. Settings said it was Atmo. Is all of this normal?

Loaded into Atmo, it says the following for version:
current version:
8.1.0|AMS 1.4.1|E

I assume it pulled this from my stock as this is the FW my stock is on? Could this be the issue? If so, how do I go about safely updating Atmo to 15 (not 16, not ready yet lol). The rentry guide for updating CFW only says how to update to newest atmo (which I already have).

In my defense, I figured Atmo was updated FW, since, you know, the FW in CFW stands for "firmware", lol. Again, appreciate you hand-holding me through my little journey here, lol.

 

[binkinator]

Done. Same thing, same games cannot open (software closed, error occurred).

After I did this I noticed that hekate launcher was different. It did not say Atmosphere as it normally did. It also now has a new entry. It now has 3 I can launch which say:
cfw - sysmmc
cfw - emummc
stock - sysmmc

I hit cfw - emummc assuming this was atmo. Loaded, but without Atmo splash screen. Settings said it was Atmo. Is all of this normal?

Loaded into Atmo, it says the following for version:
current version:
8.1.0|AMS 1.4.1|E

I assume it pulled this from my stock as this is the FW my stock is on? Could this be the issue? If so, how do I go about safely updating Atmo to 15 (not 16, not ready yet lol). The rentry guide for updating CFW only says how to update to newest atmo (which I already have).

In my defense, I figured Atmo was updated FW, since, you know, the FW in CFW stands for "firmware", lol. Again, appreciate you hand-holding me through my little journey here, lol.

No worries, yes, we need to update your firmware. 8.1.0 is really old.

If you search the Internet you may find my friend Darthsternie who collects firmware that you can download and unzip on your PC.
Make a directory called firmware on your SDCard. Right next to your atmosphereand bootloader folders is good.
Place the files in the unzipped folder on yiur PC into the sd:/firmware folder on your sdcard.
Then hold down your (R)ight shoulder button, and keep holding it down, while clicking one of your games that works. Keep holding down the (R)ight shoulder button until you see HBMenu pop up.
You will see an app called Daybreak.
Click that and follow the prompts to update your firmware using the files stored in your /firmware folder.

…after it’s done exit out and reboot your switch.

That should do it.

 

[Mrs_Glenn_Coco]

That should do it.

You wonderful human being, thank you so much! Your patience and kindness is greatly appreciated in this community, thank you for helping us all. I was wondering if you ever played WoW, I met a nice person on there ages ago and I could have sworn their name was Blinkinator but maybe it was you and I just put an "L" in there lol.

With this up and running maybe the hubby will give me back my Steam Deck. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

 

[rcpd]

You wonderful human being, thank you so much! Your patience and kindness is greatly appreciated in this community, thank you for helping us all. I was wondering if you ever played WoW, I met a nice person on there ages ago and I could have sworn their name was Blinkinator but maybe it was you and I just put an "L" in there lol.

With this up and running maybe the hubby will give me back my Steam Deck. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

bink really is the best. Patient, always helpful, and is a wealth of knowledge and experience. I’m really very glad they’re here and not annoyed at spending so much of their time helping people like us that can do it, just aren’t sure how without a little guidance.

Keep being you, bink. You rock.