Hacking Gateway 3DS and CFW

[Nava]

Is there anything special I need to know about using CFW while also using the Gateway 3DS cart?

I just dont want to mess anything up. Id also like to switch to the A9HL hack, seems to be better than the menuhax loader that im currently using. Is there anything I need to know for that?

 

[koyuki38]

The thing you have to know 1st is that if you decide to go A9LH with GW you'll be stuck with GW for ever.

Everyone will tell you to install A9LH hax with Plailect's guide, then use someththing like a boot manager to launch either a CFW or the GW payload.
(I can't help more on that, i haven't figured yet how do work boot managers with A9LH)

 

[Temptress Cerise]

The thing you have to know 1st is that if you decide to go A9LH with GW you'll be stuck with GW for ever.

Everyone will tell you to install A9LH hax with Plailect's guide, then use someththing like a boot manager to launch either a CFW or the GW payload.
(I can't help more on that, i haven't figured yet how do works boot managers with A9LH)

This is correct.

At OP, don't use GW-A9LH. Don't even bother with it.

Install Standard A9LH with Plailect's A9LH Guide.
Link: https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki

Once that's done, use BootCTR9 to setup GW's a9lh.bin payload for use with v2 A9LH (This is what you install with the guide.) Tutorial for this can be found on the following link.
Link: http://gbatemp.net/threads/using-gateway-on-a9lh-v2.431222/

 

[jscjml]

This is correct.

At OP, don't use GW-A9LH. Don't even bother with it.

Install Standard A9LH with Plailect's A9LH Guide.
Link: https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki

Once that's done, use BootCTR9 to setup GW's a9lh.bin payload for use with v2 A9LH (This is what you install with the guide.) Tutorial for this can be found on the following link.
Link: http://gbatemp.net/threads/using-gateway-on-a9lh-v2.431222/

^ these are the same 2 guides i used, works flawlessly. +1

after both of those guides you'll have A9LH completely installed and it will automatically boot into Gateway. (You can change what boots by default and what button combinations open which app through "boot_config.ini")

i cant stress the first part any more either, DONT USE GW-A9LH. You can boot Gateway through a "normal" A9LH installation that is much safer and nearly guarantees you dont lose your hacks or brick after complete install.

also as a side note: Make sure to create and store backups of your (9.2 SysNAND - before A9LH), (11.0 EmuNAND), and OTP.bin. The Plailect guide will have you do all of this but just make sure you have them. Store them on Google Drive or something so you dont accidentally get rid of the files.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Is there anything special I need to know about using CFW while also using the Gateway 3DS cart?

I just dont want to mess anything up. Id also like to switch to the A9HL hack, seems to be better than the menuhax loader that im currently using. Is there anything I need to know for that?

In addition to what other people have said, if you decide to go with updated sysNAND instead of emuNAND, never update your sysNAND in GW mode, only update it from Luma, or you'll either brick (on n3DS) or lose A9LH (on o3DS)

 

[koyuki38]

Another thing : You will need a good SD card with enought space.
2GB won't be enought, 4GB is too short IMO, 8GB is ok but you'll run out of space fast (especially if you install CIA game). I think you are OK at 16 GB (i don't know if there is a max GB space that the 3DS can read).
The quality must be good too. 3DS hax relies a lot on SD card, espacially 9LHhax.

Currently, once A9LHhax is installed, the 3DS can't boot anymore without SD card.

Also, when using GW you use emunand. Plailect's guide will teach you how to set up A9LH hax that does not use emuNand anymore. You'll have a 3DS with a 11.0 sysNand that can run CFW or gateway, and no more emunand.
That's not written in the guide but you can skip few steps in the last part of the guide if you want to keep your emunand
(my advice is to keep emunand, but that's probably not the opinion of a lot of members here)

Edit : in fact you don't have to skip step but to do something else to keep emunand.
At the end (part 5.4), when asked to restore sysNand with emunand_original.bin (supposed to be 11.0 emunand back up), use sysnand_original.bin instead (supposed to be 9.2 sysnand backup). Then don't forget to also restore emunand with emunand_original.bin.
So you'll get a sysnand 9.2 and a emunand 11.0.
If you chose Lumad3DS as CFW, you may want to configure it to boot emunand.
Obviously, don't do the part 5.5 which says to remove the emunand, duh

 

[jscjml]

4GB is enough space to install A9LH on a New 3DS that has a 1.8GB NAND, so it will work with 1.2GB NANDs also in terms of space.

But yeah after you install it, you'll likely need more space to have games. Unless you're using .3ds files from GW Red Card, then you need a SD Card for just that.

 

[Temptress Cerise]

Another thing : You will need a good SD card with enought space.
2GB won't be enought, 4GB is too short IMO, 8GB is ok but you'll run out of space fast (especially if you install CIA game). I think you are OK at 16 GB (i don't know if there is a max GB space that the 3DS can read).
The quality must be good too. 3DS hax relies a lot on SD card, espacially 9LHhax.

Currently, once A9LHhax is installed, the 3DS can't boot anymore without SD card.

Also, when using GW you use emunand. Plailect's guide will teach you how to set up A9LH hax that does not use emuNand anymore. You'll have a 3DS with a 11.0 sysNand that can run CFW or gateway, and no more emunand.
That's not written in the guide but you can skip few steps in the last part of the guide if you want to keep your emunand
(my advice is to keep emunand, but that's probably not the opinion of a lot of members here)

No limit on size of SD Card. So long as it is formatted to fat32. You could literally use a 256GB or 512GB SD Card in a 3DS. The problem you'd run into though wouldn't be space, but the 300 app limit. I guess one could use a CFW that allows for more than 1 EmuNAND and you could increase that limit by having multiple EmuNANDs.

 

[koyuki38]

When following the guide : make sure you create every back up that the guide says to do. There is a lot of back up to do in the guide. It's really long to create them all. You might want to not create them all. Still, do it.

While some of them are only here for security purpose and won't really be used (if something goes wrong during the process you can use them to recover some stuff), some others are NEEDED to perform the A9LH install. Especially when we downgrade sysnand from 9.2 to 2.1, we use a 9.2 system back up to go back to 9.2.

The guide is long. Make sure you have a lot of time before starting it.
If you already have emunand and sysnand version 9.2, you can start at part 4 BUT you'll have to install homebrew launcher (and menuhax) and a custom firmware before.

 

[Nava]

So im having trouble updating my RedNAND. I get to the system settings and when I try and update it connects to the internet fine, then starts to update. It immediately says there is a problem and that the system will be restarted.

Then it boots into SysNAND.

Any thoughts?

 

[MadButch]

I'm on 4.5.0-1.0E official firmware with GW 3DS EmuNand on GW3D 10.5.0-30E.

If I follow A9LH hax with Plailect's guide, will I still be able to use the roms on the gateway card and the saves?
Or do I have to keep GW emunand to be able to use those?

 

[Thunder Hawk]

So im having trouble updating my RedNAND. I get to the system settings and when I try and update it connects to the internet fine, then starts to update. It immediately says there is a problem and that the system will be restarted.

Then it boots into SysNAND.

Any thoughts?

Get rid of TubeHax DNS (Auto-Obtain DNS)

 

[Nava]

Get rid of TubeHax DNS (Auto-Obtain DNS)

That did the trick! I dont even remember setting it up that way, lol

 

[Quantumcat]

I'm on 4.5.0-1.0E official firmware with GW 3DS EmuNand on GW3D 10.5.0-30E.

If I follow A9LH hax with Plailect's guide, will I still be able to use the roms on the gateway card and the saves?
Or do I have to keep GW emunand to be able to use those?

There is a small amount extra to do at the end but you will be able to boot into Gateway by holding a key at boot up

 

[MadButch]

That must be these steps: https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutorial-using-luma3ds-with-gateway-on-v2-a9lh.431691/
Correct?

 

[Temptress Cerise]

That must be these steps: https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutorial-using-luma3ds-with-gateway-on-v2-a9lh.431691/
Correct?

If you haven't figured it out by now. The answer is, yes. With that you'll be able to hold a button at boot time to launch GW mode.

 

[MadButch]

So im having trouble updating my RedNAND. I get to the system settings and when I try and update it connects to the internet fine, then starts to update. It immediately says there is a problem and that the system will be restarted.

Then it boots into SysNAND.

Any thoughts?

I had the same problem, and decided to skip the steps where it says to update RedNAND to the latest version.
You can always do this once you've finished the whole guide.

 

[Reecey]

I was thinking about doing this as well but I'm not convinced!. I have red the "Plailects" guide thoroughly but I thought to myself, after some hard thinking that is, well I use my Gateway card all the time, its constantly in my 3ds's slot, nothing else goes in there so I might as well wait for GW to release there new update properly, publicly that is and go with the Gateway guide, it looks and sounds a lot easier to me than Plailect's Guide and is it such a problem having a Gateway set up all the time???, if you use your GW card all the time anyway then why the big issue at least using GW you can use .3ds files on systemnand as well as .cia files alongside and not have to rely on .cia's all the time also your £60.00p GW card, you spent good hard money on will just be gathering dust on your shelf, what a waste I think and whats the point! I think to myself, people that don't own Gateways cards will always say, yes go with that Plailect Guide because they have no other option but people that own and use Gateway cards all the time anyway, would they suggest it?, I'm not sure they would

Edit: I would actually like to see a pole on this subject, who uses Gateway alongside A9LH and who does not? now that be very interesting to see the results. I mean by the way, Gateways full option, not Plailects get around it option.

 

[Quantumcat]

@Reecey following Plailect's guide doesn't mean not using Gateway anymore. You get best of both worlds, can autoboot Gateway and still get into Luma, Decrypt9, etc etc. Plus it is safe to install. If you use Gateways method your chances of brick are dozens of times higher, plus you don't get the benefit of a9lh which is being able to restore your NAND without a hardmod. You go through buckets of risk JUST to be faster at booting, no other benefit. Plus, Gateway might stop updating at some point, leaving you in the uncomfortable situation of not being able to upgrade your emuNAND, but not being able to go back to a legit setup either. And not to mention if your Gateway card dies in the future (it's only fragile electronics), your 3DS becomes completely unusable, you won't even be able to turn it on.

 

[Rob Blou]

@Reecey following Plailect's guide doesn't mean not using Gateway anymore. You get best of both worlds, can autoboot Gateway and still get into Luma, Decrypt9, etc etc. Plus it is safe to install. If you use Gateways method your chances of brick are dozens of times higher, plus you don't get the benefit of a9lh which is being able to restore your NAND without a hardmod. You go through buckets of risk JUST to be faster at booting, no other benefit. Plus, Gateway might stop updating at some point, leaving you in the uncomfortable situation of not being able to upgrade your emuNAND, but not being able to go back to a legit setup either. And not to mention if your Gateway card dies in the future (it's only fragile electronics), your 3DS becomes completely unusable, you won't even be able to turn it on.

If I already have GW with emunand unlinked and I want to keep my gateway emunand, do I need to do everything in the guide or just downgrade my emunand to 9.2 and start from there?