https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki

This guide includes information to get you from nearly any situation to full arm9loaderhax CFW.

If you appreciate this guide and the work I put into maintaining it, I accept donations through both Bitcoin and PayPal.

 

[zhdarkstar]

Followed the guide to the letter. SafeA9LHInstaller keeps spitting out an error that OTP.bin doesn't exist or is the wrong size. I've dumped it twice and it keeps coming up with that error. My PC says that the file is 256 bytes.

 

[regnad]

I have a N3DS with A9LH successfully installed.

To my surprise, using an installed cia launcher from the home menu, HBL still hangs on a yellow screen maybe 1 out of 5 times. Is that normal? I would assume A9LH would take care of those problems.

 

[Just Passing By]

I have a N3DS with A9LH successfully installed.

To my surprise, using an installed cia launcher from the home menu, HBL still hangs on a yellow screen maybe 1 out of 5 times. Is that normal? I would assume A9LH would take care of those problems.

Sounds like bad luck. My boot rate is like 9/10. And yes it is normal. A9lh doesn't influence the boot rate of the homebrew launcher in any way.

 

[WiteWulf]

Hiya, wanted to chime in and say thanks to plailect for a very clear and easy to follow guide.It certainly takes a long time to work through but it's worth it in the end.

 

[Magic Kaito]

I still can't get into emuNAND holding Y, @Plailect. Do you have any idea what I need to do or can I start over from minipasta or restore sysNAND? Arm9 installed successfully, I opened Decrypt9 pressing X, Cakes worked after I replaced the folder like you told me, and I was able able to restore emuNANd_original.bin, but now I can't proceed any further now which is troublesome. I've tried replacing the emuNAND files but it didn't work.

 

[Redferne]

The guide says if you have a CFW go to part 4, but part 4 only mention redNAND.
Do I must have a redNAND to follow the guide or does it work with emuNAND?

 

[Bullseye]

@Plailect Hey there. I used your guide to successfully downgrade an O3DS and a N3DS XL before you updated it to use RedNAND and I checked Part 5 to check one thing regarding AuReinand payloads and I saw that there is a new slot file, slot0x1BKeyX.bin that wasn't there before.

What is that one for? Just wanted to know if I should add it to the three others I have or if it is related to RedNAND. BTW, my nand backups are 1.24 GB, so rednand doesn't seem to be of use to me if I already have emunand, unless its different reading algorithm helps in any discernable way.

Thanks for the guide! Great work!

 

[zhdarkstar]

Got a9lh up and running on 2/5 O3DSes in my house thanks to this guide. However, there are a few things that came to mind that could make the guide better.

1. Where does the Unbrick FW 2.1 EmuNAND feature of OTPHelper come into play? I know that it's a part of the process that is specific to the N3DS, but I see no mention of it anywhere in the guide. That omission is part of what's preventing me from attempting to install on the 2 N3DSes in the house.

2. There should be lists of which files must be kept and which can be safely deleted after completing Part 5. Also, the Homebrew Starter Kit comes with a lot of superfluous apps that aren't vital to the a9lh installation. Perhaps you could limit the files in the zip to only include those necessary for the purposes of the guide? An idea that could take it a step further would be to used ZIP23DSFX to create 2 self-extracting archives with only the needed files. The first archive would contain the needed files for parts 1-3 and also contain the second archive with the files for parts 3-5 as the starter.bin for EmuNAND9.

 

[Just Passing By]

Got a9lh up and running on 2/5 O3DSes in my house thanks to this guide. However, there are a few things that came to mind that could make the guide better.

1. Where does the Unbrick FW 2.1 EmuNAND feature of OTPHelper come into play? I know that it's a part of the process that is specific to the N3DS, but I see no mention of it anywhere in the guide. That omission is part of what's preventing me from attempting to install on the 2 N3DSes in the house.

2. There should be lists of which files must be kept and which can be safely deleted after completing Part 5. Also, the Homebrew Starter Kit comes with a lot of superfluous apps that aren't vital to the a9lh installation. Perhaps you could limit the files in the zip to only include those necessary for the purposes of the guide? An idea that could take it a step further would be to used ZIP23DSFX to create 2 self-extracting archives with only the needed files. The first archive would contain the needed files for parts 1-3 and also contain the second archive with the files for parts 3-5 as the starter.bin for EmuNAND9.

1. One Click Setup does it for you.
2. There isn't a definite list of files that should or shouldn't be kept, but there is a picture right at the end of part 5 that shows everything you need in your sd card and everything else can be removed. I don't see a part in limiting the amount of apps to only the ones you need. It seems like a waste of time for @Plailect and while they aren't vital to the a9lh installation, they may be nice to have later on.

 

[zhdarkstar]

1. One Click Setup does it for you.
2. There isn't a definite list of files that should or shouldn't be kept, but there is a picture right at the end of part 5 that shows everything you need in your sd card and everything else can be removed. I don't see a part in limiting the amount of apps to only the ones you need. It seems like a waste of time for @Plailect and while they aren't vital to the a9lh installation, they may be nice to have later on.

1. Didn't know that.
2. If you're going to make the case that it'd be nice to have them anyways, then the guide should instruct us to include the starter.bin that comes with EmuNAND9. It includes a far better UI than the standard HBL and has even more potentially useful apps.

I only made the argument for keeping the copied over files to a minimum for the sake of confusion prevention. A smaller amount of files means less chance that the user gets confused about what an unmentioned file does, which lessens the likelihood of that confusion leading to user error and irreparable damage to the 3ds.

I'm all for the proliferation of homebrew and such. I just would rather only have the tools and parts needed for the job be included in the guide. It's like when you buy a piece of DIY furniture. If you receive more pieces than what are needed, then you'll second guess yourself about whether or not you put everything together properly. While the tools have come a long way in reducing the risk involved with the installation, we're still doing things that have the potential for bricking. A little focus on refining the toolset given out will go a long way to keeping the attention on the task at hand and following it to the letter. But that's just my opinion.

Side note, I think that a little more information should be given about how to remove TWL modification in the guide and when exactly they should be removed. The three main types that have existed during the 3DS lifecycle are Sudokuhax as DS Connection Settings, DS whitelist, and patched TWL_FIRM.

 

[BloodRose]

The guide says if you have a CFW go to part 4, but part 4 only mention redNAND.
Do I must have a redNAND to follow the guide or does it work with emuNAND?

Using it with emunand is fine.

 

[Just Passing By]

1. Didn't know that.
2. If you're going to make the case that it'd be nice to have them anyways, then the guide should instruct us to include the starter.bin that comes with EmuNAND9. It includes a far better UI than the standard HBL and has even more potentially useful apps.

I only made the argument for keeping the copied over files to a minimum for the sake of confusion prevention. A smaller amount of files means less chance that the user gets confused about what an unmentioned file does, which lessens the likelihood of that confusion leading to user error and irreparable damage to the 3ds.

I'm all for the proliferation of homebrew and such. I just would rather only have the tools and parts needed for the job be included in the guide. It's like when you buy a piece of DIY furniture. If you receive more pieces than what are needed, then you'll second guess yourself about whether or not you put everything together properly. While the tools have come a long way in reducing the risk involved with the installation, we're still doing things that have the potential for bricking. A little focus on refining the toolset given out will go a long way to keeping the attention on the task at hand and following it to the letter. But that's just my opinion.

Side note, I think that a little more information should be given about how to remove TWL modification in the guide and when exactly they should be removed. The three main types that have existed during the 3DS lifecycle are Sudokuhax as DS Connection Settings, DS whitelist, and patched TWL_FIRM.

I actually prefer Smea's homebrew menu layout better, but to each his own. Also all the homebrew apps would never actually cause a brick because it's all in userland. Even the ones getting arm9 access check for certain things before attempting something dangerous (and smea's starter pack contains nothing dangerous). So at most, user error would cause a crash if you're just looking at the starter pack side of things. Not trying to fight though

 

[xzeldax3]

Thank you Plailect for this straightforward and easy guide! I was able to install it successfully without a hitch.

 

[vengfulr3ap3r]

Hello! I wanted to stop by and show my appreciation for your guide. Very clean, very concise and easy to follow. I was a bit daunted at first since I was already on emunand and such, but after reading through the guide and then going back to start the process it was incredibly easy. So thank you!

I do have a question for you though, if you don't mind my asking in this picture https://camo.githubusercontent.com/...92e696d6775722e636f6d2f4566565630704d2e706e67 What theme are you using and how did you get the storage space pie thing beside the bar in nautilus (files)?

 

[Magic Kaito]

I decided to give up on CakesFW for arms, format everything and start over for AuReiNAND. Everything worked on the first try this time with no hiccups. I still don't know what I did wrong with CakesFW but whatever, I'm happy everything is working now. Thank you for the excellent guide, @Plailect.

 

[Viri]

3 out of 4 o3DSes are now part of the arm9 master race!

 

[zhdarkstar]

I actually prefer Smea's homebrew menu layout better, but to each his own. Also all the homebrew apps would never actually cause a brick because it's all in userland. Even the ones getting arm9 access check for certain things before attempting something dangerous (and smea's starter pack contains nothing dangerous). So at most, user error would cause a crash if you're just looking at the starter pack side of things. Not trying to fight though

It's all good. I was just thinking of ways to minimize the cleanup process.

However, I do think that the step about TWL modification removal could be expounded upon for the sake of error prevention. Nothing too expansive, just a set of substeps that go "If you have X installed, do Y to remove it" for each of the three major TWL mods (Sudokuhax/Whitelist/TWL_FIRM) that have been around.

 

[kkolat]

Plailect....can you add a proper method to uninstall arm9loaderhax in your guide...thanks

 

[Just Passing By]

Plailect....can you add a proper method to uninstall arm9loaderhax in your guide...thanks

If you want to remove a9lh, restore a backup of your sysNAND pre-a9lh

 

[kkolat]

Yes..i know...but from decrypt9 launched from aureinand Arm9loaderhax.bin? If aureinand blocks firm update could not be a problem?