Hacking Gateway 2.0

[Pokeman060]

Sorry for the noob question, but I don't really understand this 100%. Can someone please translate this into easier to understand words/ jot notes?

GW 2.0b1 enables up to date compatibility, barring only the 2 known NAND based titles (for which support is coming very soon), as well as the long awaited emuNAND feature. Complementing these great advancements is our new GUI menu system accessible by simply holding down the L button when tapping on the DS Profile button on the touchscreen. For this release we have tried to make the plethora of options as automated and intuitive as possible, and we welcome more feedback from our users regarding the menu, settings and other options for in the coming revisions.

So we left a few things out you say ? Well if it was so easy then others would have it already, or might falsely make videos of such claims .. anyway we digress .. Both nand saving, which will officially make us 100% compatible with all known roms, and FAT32 (drag and drop) based multirom support are now close to completion and entering into our internal beta testing. As you can imagine, both these features required a major revamp of our hardware's internal firmware, something we had known and planned for from day one so rest assured, unlike others, GW3DS is a fully featured and FULLY updatable hardware design. Our policy has and will always be to stick by our customers and ensure they get value for their money. We will be calling on our beta testers shortly to help us stress test our next big step !


Release notes:

Booting into Gateway mode will now automatically check for the emuNAND partition and emulate the system NAND using this partition. We have also included an option to boot into Classic mode that enables genuine retail gamecards and the emuNAND functionality, allowing it to run like a regular 3DS on latest firmware.

If the emuNAND partition is not found, we fall back to the system NAND and boot into Gateway mode as in 1.x

WARNING NEVER ATTEMPT TO UPDATE YOUR SYSTEM NAND, MAKE SURE YOU ONLY UPDATE EMUNAND - PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW CAREFULLY !

We have gone to great lengths to ensure the stability and reliability of emuNAND, even though emuNAND is not currently required to allow full game compatibility. For those wishing to have the latest system firmware running concurrently with our device, please follow these instructions carefully:

Safety preparation: Please ensure you are either fully charged or plugged in to the charger before beginning. It is also advisable to turn off WiFi, and remove any stored WiFi access settings before proceeding.

1) Launch the Gateway menu and select the "BACKUP SYSTEM NAND" option. Follow on screen instructions to start the backup operation. This requires a minimum of 1GB free space on the Nintendo 3DS SD card, and will take approximately 10 minutes. Every console has a unique NAND image and if you accidentally update the onboard system NAND then there is currently no known way to restore back to 4.5 through software means. The only recovery option is to restore via hardware using the backed up NAND image as a last resort. So please make sure you physically copy the file created by our tool from the SD card to your computers hard drive.

2) Make sure you have backed up any other files you may need from your Nintendo 3DS SD card or use a fresh new SD card to run the Format emuNAND step in the Gateway menu. Once this is done (approximately 5 minutes) and for as long as you use the specific SD card, GW will boot from the specially partitioned SD card and show the "GW3D" label in the system version number in the System Settings application.

Once you have entered into the System Settings application and clearly seeing the "GW3D" version number, enter into WiFi settings and set up a connection.

3) Update your emuNAND partition. Boot into Gateway mode, and enter into the System Settings application. CHECK to make sure you see the letters GW3D before the system version located in the bottom right hand corner of the top screen. If you only see a version number "Ver." please exit and perform step 2 again. With the "GW3D" X.XX.X version number verified proceed to update the console by going to Other Settings and scroll right to the last page and press the System Update button.

IMPORTANT !! .. ONLY ever update through System Settings and ONLY when you have double checked the "GW3D" lettering in front of the system version number !!

For example, in the release notes part, you could say something like:

- going into Gateway mode will make the system check if you have emuNAND and if you do have it, then it will make the system (temporarily) on that firmware (so you can play games that would require and update)
- there is an option to go into a "Classic mode" that will let you play bought, physical, retail 3DS games (that would normally require and system update) without updating the system. So it will work like a 3DS on the latest Version/Firmware
-
-
-
etc.

^ Correct me if I was wrong and if I wasn't, can someone please translate the quote so it is easier to understand?

 

[ninditsu]

Strengthen your reading comprehension, this is good practice.

 

[Nurio]

Strengthen your reading comprehension, this is good practice.

Yes, very helpful...

There basically are 4 modes, in a sense.
Gateway mode with EmuNAND
Gateway mode without EmuNAND
Classic mode with EmuNAND
Classic mode without EmuNAND

If your Gateway detects an EmuNAND partition, it will load it up. Else it will load the 4.1-4.5 system NAND. The EmuNAND partition can be used to do things that would require you to have an updated system, like going on the eShop.
Gateway mode is there to play ROMs, whereas Classic mode is there to play retail cartridges.


...I believe that's it. But someone more knowledgeable, feel free to correct me where I'm wrong.

 

[Pokeman060]

GUI menu system accessible by simply holding down the L button when tapping on the DS Profile button on the touchscreen.

What is the GUI menu system?

Both nand saving, which will officially make us 100% compatible with all known roms, and FAT32 (drag and drop) based multirom support are now close to completion and entering into our internal beta testing

What is nand saving? What does it mean by FAT32 based multirom support? What is drag and drop in this context?

 

[Ryft]

Gui (graphical user interface) is like a visual menu where you can select multiple options. This didn't exist before and would just put you in the patched Gateway mode automatically.

Nand saving means those 2 specific games use a special save system that other games don't and need additional hacking so that those games can be playable.

The only way to play games now is to write the 3DS as a raw file to an SD card. This means you can only have 1 rom on an SD card at a time. Right now they are working on making it so you can just copy the 3DS files to an SD card and have multiple on one card. That's what they mean by "drag-and-drop"

 

[kenwa]

Gui (graphical user interface) is like a visual menu where you can select multiple options. This didn't exist before and would just put you in the patched Gateway mode automatically.

Nand saving means those 2 specific games use a special save system that other games don't and need additional hacking so that those games can be playable.

The only way to play games now is to write the 3DS as a raw file to an SD card. This means you can only have 1 rom on an SD card at a time. Right now they are working on making it so you can just copy the 3DS files to an SD card and have multiple on one card. That's what they mean by "drag-and-drop"

'the 2 known NAND based titles' which have the NAND saving feature are so far only Game Rom - Animal Crossing and Pokemon X/Y if I can add.

 

[tatripp]

Strengthen your reading comprehension, this is good practice.

That's not cool. He doesn't understand because he is unfamiliar with technical terms. No one is bashing you for using a comma instead of a period or semicolon.

 

[Schizoanalysis]

That's not cool. He doesn't understand because he is unfamiliar with technical terms. No one is bashing you for using a comma instead of a period or semicolon.

There are benefits to self directed learning. It only takes a little time to google the terms and figure it out. If you spoon feed people, they will not learn how to teach themselves.

 

[Pokeman060]

The only way to play games now is to write the 3DS as a raw file to an SD card. This means you can only have 1 rom on an SD card at a time. Right now they are working on making it so you can just copy the 3DS files to an SD card and have multiple on one card. That's what they mean by "drag-and-drop"

I thought that the 3DS ROMs go on the mircoSD card to be played. Did you mean microSD card when you said SD card?

So basically, drag-and-drop will allow multiple 3DS ROMs to be put on 1 microSD card and you will be able to play them all?

 

[phanteon]

yes, that's why its called multi-rom support

 

[Pokeman060]

* Full support for firmware 7.1 (including saving and emunand GW3D indicator, etc.)

Please note emunand is not essential for latest title compatibility!
For the time being we advise only those with adequate knowledge to attempt to update emunand to latest firmware and make sure you always have at least a hard backup copy of the system nand.

When they say full support for firmware 7.1, does it mean that with emuNAND, you will be able to get firmware 7.1 while the system NAND is still 4.1-4.5? Or does it mean that a 3DS on firmware 7.1 will be able to use the Gateway 2.0?

Also, how do you get a hard backup copy of a 3DS's system NAND?

 

[Armadillo]

When they say full support for firmware 7.1, does it mean that with emuNAND, you will be able to get firmware 7.1 while the system NAND is still 4.1-4.5? Or does it mean that a 3DS on firmware 7.1 will be able to use the Gateway 2.0?

Also, how do you get a hard backup copy of a 3DS's system NAND?

It means with emunand. You still have to be on 4.1-4.5 to start with.

Backup the system nand, you can can either use the Gateway's nand backup option (if you are 4.1-4.5), other than that, it's a hardware backup http://gbatemp.net/threads/nand-flash-dump-3ds-xl.350668/