Hi all, I just made an account to say that this solution worked for me:
I had the hekate file named incorrectly. This was back when I'd say homebrew on the Switch was starting to get practical and before RetroArch even got it's official port to Horizon (the community-dubbed name for the Nintendo Switch's OS), and I was nervous I'd destroy my dirty Switch that I bought specifically for hacking. Just make sure that "hekate_ipl.ini" ends there and doesn't have a .txt or any other extension at the end of it. I don't remember the deets as it was a year ago, but I'm thinking I may have been using Notepad because I'm not gonna bust out Notepad++ for something I'm just gonna use once. If you have to, check the box in File Manager on Windows 10 to show file extensions.
Otherwise, I don't know if there was anything else that went wrong or that contributed to this issue. What OFW do ya' got? While I think CFW works on every FW right now, I also haven't updated the FW on my dirty Switch because of the potential for it to introduce compatibility problems with homebrew for the Switch.
I had followed the same guide (nh-server.github.io/switch-guide/) that others mentioned, several times, and repeated the process at least 3 times to no avail. There are all kinds of solution suggestions on the internet, from updating patch files to connectivity issues, but the fix turned out to be very simple: the hekate_ipl.ini file was
saved incorrectly. The original source, by default, saved it as a text file.
There is an extra step that should be mentioned (and what solved my problem). Even though the .ini gets saved as a text file, you may have to save it again as a .ini file to get it to work:
Step 1
Step 2
File > Save as > All files (not text).
There will be a pop up from Windows complaining about file types, just disregard it and save anyway. Your same text file will immediately
convert to the .ini format it is supposed to be in.
And then go back to your folder and paste it where it's supposed to be... To be on the safe side, I actually pasted 2 copies of my .ini file:
And then the process to launching finally worked.
So yeah. Just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to Silent_Gunner, Geridious4, and Maupiti for pointing me in the right direction. Hopefully my screenshots pay it forward and help someone else out there!