Hacking Future of 3DS hacking and homebrew after arm9loader hax?

[Ranomez]

So I've read about the arm9loader hax before it was even a thing and now that it is I would like to ask a few questions to help me get a image of what the future of the hacking and homebrew scene is.
I already searched and read a lot on the arm9loader hax threads here on the forum, github, etc. yet I didn't find answers to my questions.

1. The first question would be if it adds any extremely needed functionality compared to the before *hax, I know already in which parts it is better (and how it behaves) but what I meant is how will this impact the development of homebrew or CFW, will there be any homebrew apps or specific CWF features that might surface in the future that will only be able to run on a arm9loader hax device (in other words if I decide to not switch away from menuhax in the future will I still be able to enjoy any and all features of CFW's and any and all future homebrew apps, I am asking since I don't actually know if it gives any benefits in term of accessing the hardware/kernel that can't be achieved on other *hax)?
2. The second question is more of a give your opinion question: do you think that in the long run it will totally replace the other *hax in the CFW scene, in other words: do you think CFW's in the future will no longer have support for booting using menuhax/browserhax and those will become obsolete?
3. The third question is once again a opinion question: Do you think it's worth switching from menuhax to arm9loader hax? For me it doesn't seem so because I don't care about the long booting times (and the only time my N3DS is actually powered off is when I take out the microSD card to add some things on it), the fact that it totally reboots after going in settings (have menuhax setup to auto-boot in CTR Boot Manager and that to auto-boot CakesFW in Emunand mode) or the fact that the 3D is broken after each boot (as I said my console is on most of the time and even when I do power off it takes only 1 second to close and open again the console to fix it) and I know there are a few more advantages but I mostly ignored them as those are the only things that I find a bit annoying (not even annoying actually but idk what other word to use) at the time (well also the few times when the CFW's fail to load but I'm not 100% sure if that's related to the *hax or the CFW I am using as menuhax loaded almost every time but the CFW's seem to have different boot rates, best being CakesFW which I think only failed once or twice, followed by ReiNAND and then by RXTools with clearly the lowest boot rate) but I would like to hear your opinion on it.

Thank you for any answers and also other information or opinions related to where you think the future of 3DS hacking and homebrew is heading towards with arm9loader hax.

 

[muskieratboi]

Right now, the only benefit to arm9loaderhax is faster boot times and avoiding sysnand entirely.

for some that's enough, tbh

But for the layperson, right now it's WAY more trouble than it's worth since you need to downgrade to 2.1 temporarily just to grab the keys. (and this is fraught with danger.)

if there ever comes a point at which it becomes possible to either grab the keys in 9.2 (and that's damn near impossible), we should see an explosion of progress on this front.

otherwise, it's an interesting oddity that provides some cool benefits if they're willing to risk a treacherous path to reach it.

 

[Deleted User]

Right now, the only benefit to arm9loaderhax is faster boot times and avoiding sysnand entirely.

for some that's enough, tbh

But for the layperson, right now it's WAY more trouble than it's worth since you need to downgrade to 2.1 temporarily just to grab the keys. (and this is fraught with danger.)

if there ever comes a point at which it becomes possible to either grab the keys in 9.2 (and that's damn near impossible), we should see an explosion of progress on this front.

otherwise, it's an interesting oddity that provides some cool benefits if they're willing to risk a treacherous path to reach it.

Maybe we can downgrade a linked emuNAND? Or would that downgrade sysNAND too? :S

 

[daxtsu]

if there ever comes a point at which it becomes possible to either grab the keys in 9.2 (and that's damn near impossible), we should see an explosion of progress on this front.

That's probably not possible, but if we get a mod of a CFW which can boot downgraded emuNAND 2.1, then that would pretty much make the downgrade infinitely safer, since you can check your work and not have to do it blindly. While you cannot dump the OTP from emuNAND 2.1, if it boots, you know it's more than likely safe to then flash it to sysNAND. Hopefully this will become a real thing in the not so distant future.

 

[James310]

That's probably not possible, but if we get a mod of a CFW which can boot downgraded emuNAND 2.1, then that would pretty much make the downgrade infinitely safer, since you can check your work and not have to do it blindly. While you cannot dump the OTP from emuNAND 2.1, if it boots, you know it's more than likely safe to then flash it to sysNAND. Hopefully this will become a real thing in the not so distant future.

The Keys are no longer available since sysnand is loading into emunand, all the other people before had the same idea and saw the problem why its not possible....

 

[daxtsu]

The Keys are no longer available since sysnand is loading into emunand, all the other people before had the same idea and saw the problem why its not possible....

That's not what I'm talking about. I know it's not possible to dump OTP from emuNAND (hence why I said it). I'm saying you can test your emuNAND before flashing it to sysNAND if such a CFW was written to allow it. Right now, you have to flash emuNAND to sysNAND blindly, which is where the bricks can come from, if you made a mistake in the steps. If you can boot 2.1 safely on emuNAND, it's more than likely going to work fine on sysNAND, which is then where you would dump the OTP.

 

[James310]

That's not what I'm talking about. I know it's not possible to dump OTP from emuNAND (hence why I said it). I'm saying you can test your emuNAND before flashing it to sysNAND if such a CFW was written to allow it. Right now, you have to flash emuNAND to sysNAND blindly, which is where the bricks can come from, if you made a mistake in the steps. If you can boot 2.1 safely on emuNAND, it's more than likely going to work fine on sysNAND.

Well That make Sense but you need to tell it to a person that knows how to make cfw very well and ask them IF* such thing is doable, I wonder if theres something stoping them from doing it

 

[AtlasFontaine]

BootMii43DS when.

 

[daxtsu]

BootMii43DS when.

Probably after they figure out how to spin up the LCD screens and the GPU. They still can't yet.

Well That make Sense but you need to tell it to a person that knows how to make cfw very well and ask them IF* such thing is doable, I wonder if theres something stoping them from doing it

It's more a question of when than if, probably. There's little doubt in my mind emuNAND 2.1 could be a thing for testing purposes.

 

[AtlasFontaine]

Probably after they figure out how to spin up the LCD screens and the GPU. They still can't yet.



It's more a question of when than if, probably. There's little doubt in my mind emuNAND 2.1 could be a thing for testing purposes.

I said that Half-Joking but holy shit if we get something like BootMii

 

[4gionz]

I said that Half-Joking but holy shit if we get something like BootMii

Simply having decrypt9 boot up before sysnand by holding r on boot should create enough of a fail said since it can dump and restore nand it would be like a bootmii or priiloader whichever it was that guarentee basically that you can't brick. This hack is awesome can't wait.

At least that's how I understand it a new bootmii or wtv wouldn't even have to be coded technically. Probably just a few modification to decrypt 9 and boom bootmii3ds

Edit: all of this can only happen if they can get the screen to initialize before boot hopefully soon

 

[James310]

Simply having decrypt9 boot up before sysnand by holding r on boot should create enough of a fail said since it can dump and restore nand it would be like a bootmii or priiloader whichever it was that guarentee basically that you can't brick. This hack is awesome can't wait.

At least that's how I understand it a new bootmii or wtv wouldn't even have to be coded technically. Probably just a few modification to decrypt 9 and boom bootmii3ds

We have to wait until they find out how to use the gpu for the screen,might be soon,might be forever

 

[shinyquagsire23]

Right now, the only benefit to arm9loaderhax is faster boot times and avoiding sysnand entirely.

The real benefit is not using emuNAND at all.

 

[fate6]

The real benefit is not using emuNAND at all.

Indeed but a proper recovery mode and some form of protection so updating doesn't break a9hl(Or some way of easily and reliably reinstalling it) would be nice before we move back.

 

[tranxuanthang]

With menuhax, if anything goes wrong we can just remove sdcard or delete extdata to revert everything back to normal, so can a9lh do something like that?

 

[Svaethier]

With menuhax, if anything goes wrong we can just remove sdcard or delete extdata to revert everything back to normal, so can a9lh do something like that?

as long as you are careful nothing can go wrong. just make emunand backups daily if you want to feel safe and don't do anything with sysnand until future developments are made with a9hl for sysnand.