Hacking GATEWAY 4.1 PRIVATE BETA RELEASE

[exdeath255]

Gateway was king for along time. Sky3ds is better now for exploit games to get CFW. I loved GW, i could play games on one 3ds and then take the card out and play on another one.
CFW is better in general now though...

 

[andre104623]

Gateway was king for along time. Sky3ds is better now for exploit games to get CFW. I loved GW, i could play games on one 3ds and then take the card out and play on another one.
CFW is better in general now though...

Depends on who you ask. Maybe some people don't want to wait an hour to install a game or have to go though homebrew just to backup my save. Drag and drop that's why gateway is still loved by many

 

[Azel]

lol, no, just no.
He's right when he says a9lh sounds tricky whenn you're a GW user.
pailec guide is easy and ppl answer? proof is even here in this thread : "you should end up with everything you had"... yeah well that's sounds reassuring.

i'll just c&p a post for last GW beta threads nobody ever answer, to prove you that ppl don't answer/help gw users with a9lh because their situation is simply often too tricky tp be sure/to wrap your mind around.

did read the Pailect guide a few times before but never bit the bullet and went ahead and do it. (I have good soldering knowledge, could do a hard mod (not sure I have a fat SD I could spare though) but would rather not go that route)
It still seems kinda complicated to me, since I have unlinked nands on my AUS new3DS (9.0 sys 10.3 emuGW) and did mess with AGB/TWL firm before.
(I do have a sysnand and a linked emunand backup, but my GW saves were created with for an unlinked emunand (which I have a backup of too ))

1) sounds like I should just backup my saves (I have no knowledge about switching the use of GW saves from one nand to another) and format sys/emunands a couple of times (should clear any AGB/TWL Firm stuff, right ?) (I don't use 3ds games as cia, just .3ds/.3dz)

2) I don't even know which NNID works on my 3DS, I can just backup that with decrypt9 or something ? which option is that ?

any help would be greatly appreciated "
TL;DR, Pailect's guide let's you keep your sysnand. I want to use my emunand as sysnand, also I messed around with agb 1nd twl firm and might brick and don't know how to restore them, same with my nnid, I don't even know if I still have it or if it's still attached to my sysnand or emunand.

In short, I feel like Pailect's guide holds your hand so much and teaches you nothing that there's just NO WAY to adapt it to one's particular situation.
well I guess that's what a foolproof guide is for, but stop acting like gw users are retards for not switching over to a9lh.

(sorry for ranting, but a9lh masterrace gratuitous bullying towards gw users has to stop)

 

[Quantumcat]

Depends on who you ask. Maybe some people don't want to wait an hour to install a game or have to go though homebrew just to backup my save. Drag and drop that's why gateway is still loved by many

It is actually faster using freeShop - don't forget about the time spent trawling through that iso site, putting up with millions of ads and malware, and often ending up with a bad link, or a link that requires you to sign up to something you don't want to, or a link that only downloads at 1kb/sec unless you pay money to register, or a link that puts you through multiple adf.ly links that make you wait, or a link that actually contains something different than advertised. Plus time spent copying over the file and troubleshooting when it won't work because of fragmentation or whatever. On freeShop, takes 2 seconds to find the game you want: open the app, type the name, click download, done.

 

[Aroth]

Depends on who you ask. Maybe some people don't want to wait an hour to install a game or have to go though homebrew just to backup my save. Drag and drop that's why gateway is still loved by many

I honestly don't know where this business about "wait an hour to install a game" is coming from. The longest single cia install I can remember was like 30-40 minutes for a 3.5 GB game (specifically Xenoblade Chronicles) There are not very many games that are actually that large, most are closer to 2GB in my experience.

Don't get me wrong, anyone who says installing a CIA is easier than dragging and dropping a .3ds file is out of their mind... but at the end of the day cia installs are no where near as tedious as they were in the past. Plus all of the fringe benefits of .cia files tend to outweigh any potential tedium in my mind (icon on the home menu, no weird save encryption fuckery, no headers). Also, and this could be wrong or outdated, but I seem to remember there being some limitation with .3ds files in regards to DLC?

At this point the only real reasons to stick with Gateway are cheat support (NTR is great and all, but Gateway cheat support is FAR easier to work with), and/or being used to using gateway and unwilling to made the necessary changes to adapt to CFW. Nothing wrong with that either in my opinion. If you already have Gateway set up, it does "just work" and the prospect of setting up CFW and messing with files by downgrading and such can be a daunting prospect.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

lol, no, just no.
He's right when he says a9lh sounds tricky whenn you're a GW user.
pailec guide is easy and ppl answer? proof is even here in this thread : "you should end up with everything you had"... yeah well that's sounds reassuring.

i'll just c&p a post for last GW beta threads nobody ever answer, to prove you that ppl don't answer/help gw users with a9lh because their situation is simply often too tricky tp be sure/to wrap your mind around.



any help would be greatly appreciated "
TL;DR, Pailect's guide let's you keep your sysnand. I want to use my emunand as sysnand, also I messed around with agb 1nd twl firm and might brick and don't know how to restore them, same with my nnid, I don't even know if I still have it or if it's still attached to my sysnand or emunand.

In short, I feel like Pailect's guide holds your hand so much and teaches you nothing that there's just NO WAY to adapt it to one's particular situation.
well I guess that's what a foolproof guide is for, but stop acting like gw users are retards for not switching over to a9lh.

(sorry for ranting, but a9lh masterrace gratuitous bully towards gw users has to stop)

In regards to the saves, if you are just using .3ds/3dz files, then the saves are on the micro sd card in the flashcart and no changes should need to be made to them. Afaik they will work the same regardless of the console/nand/nnid. On the off chance that is wrong, you can easily use something like SaveDataFiler to back up the decrypted save and reinject it after the fact. Tbh I personally think that should be done as a precaution regardless of your choice of CFW before doing the A9LH guide. Plailect even suggests it himself iirc.

The only real issue with Plailect's guide in regards to GW is the fact that Gateway (even with their "FASTBOOT" wants you to use an emunand, and Plailect's guide ends with you on an updated sysnand. In reality this is a minor annoyance that just takes a little bit of personal research to solve. Admittedly it would be nice to have the info added to the guide, but *shrug*.

 

[Azel]

Thanks you for your help, I appreciate it

I also read that if I messed with agb/twl_firm, I have to format my sysnand twice or I'll brick..

 

[enarky]

I honestly don't know where this business about "wait an hour to install a game" is coming from. The longest single cia install I can remember was like 30-40 minutes for a 3.5 GB game (specifically Xenoblade Chronicles) There are not very many games that are actually that large, most are closer to 2GB in my experience.

And you don't think a 30-40 minute installation is completely unacceptable? Apologies if I didn't catch the sarcasm. In my opinion even having to wait ten minutes is quite a bit too long when there's an alternative that works instantly. From my experience 90% of the stuff I pirate is stuff I try once or twice to see if I like it or not, that whole CIA install process is just completely and utterly too long for that.

 

[Azel]

It is actually faster using freeShop - don't forget about the time spent trawling through that iso site, putting up with millions of ads and malware, and often ending up with a bad link, or a link that requires you to sign up to something you don't want to, or a link that only downloads at 1kb/sec unless you pay money to register, or a link that puts you through multiple adf.ly links that make you wait, or a link that actually contains something different than advertised. Plus time spent copying over the file and troubleshooting when it won't work because of fragmentation or whatever. On freeShop, takes 2 seconds to find the game you want: open the app, type the name, click download, done.

lol putting yourself through the use of that site is your own damn fault though. there are site more scene/release oriented, torrents or better yet, usenet.

 

[Aroth]

@Azel, @codezer0

If you are interested in setting up A9LH but wish to continue using Gateway, I would suggest following Plailect's guide. Possibly starting at Part 4, but you may need to set up a secondary CFW such as Luma3DS to use with running PlaiSysUpdater to downgrade your emunand. Gateway is... problematic... when it comes to downgrading things. It may work just fine boot Gateway to downgrade from 11.0 to 2.1, including NATIVE_FIRM, but tbh it is not something I would personally be willing to try or recommend. Setting up something like Luma3DS is as simple as copying the necessary files (and Plailect does tell you which ones in Part 3, I think) to your SD card and simply loading it instead of Gateway once you are in the homebrew launcher menu.

Once you have something like Luma3DS set up, just follow the guide step by step starting with Part 4 (2.1.0-Downgrade). Once you finish you will have a fully working A9LH setup, updated sysnand, and will be set to load Luma3DS on boot (with payload chaining set up to launch several utilities). At this point, you should open up https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutorial-using-luma3ds-with-gateway-on-v2-a9lh.431691/ and follow the directions there to set up a payload chaining key for Gateway.

I am personally unsure of how you would go about setting the gateway payload as the default, though if memory serves you CAN tell it to load a payload other than Luma3DS as the default and set a key to load Luma3DS instead.

You might say you want to keep a clean sysnand and stay on emunand and wish to know how to do that. All I can really say at this point is that if that is the case, A9LH is not for you. The only accepted and support setup (afaik) for A9LH is an updated sysnand. It is easier to maintain, less likely to cause confusions, and with tools like Hourglass9 and Decrypt9 being loadable at boot from A9LH it is easier than ever to fix a problem if you encounter one. Just make regular backups of the nand with hourglass9 (which is recommended practice regardless of what CFW you use).

 

[retrofan_k]

Why do I always see butthurt when Gateway pushes out a new firmware release?

 

[Aroth]

lol putting yourself through the use of that site is your own damn fault though. there are site more scene/release oriented, torrents or better yet, usenet.

I actually maintain accounts on a few "private" sites that focus solely on games, and none of them have a cia library. Only .3ds files. The only time I actually bother to use that iso site is if I need to find a cia of a dlc or demo.

And you don't think a 30-40 minute installation is completely unacceptable? Apologies if I didn't catch the sarcasm. In my opinion even having to wait ten minutes is quite a bit too long when there's an alternative that works instantly. From my experience 90% of the stuff I pirate is stuff I try once or twice to see if I like it or not, that whole CIA install process is just completely and utterly too long for that.

I'd rather tell my system to install and go finish some other task I was working on (lots of errands, chores, jobs, etc to do) and then come back to it to see the game ready on my home menu than be married to the redcart which drains the battery, and have to use that horrid rom selection menu.

Not to mention that with the release of tools like CIAngel and freeShop, i can simply tell it to download and walk away. Download isnt any slower than if I got it from a torrent or that iso site, and the install is much faster.

 

[retrofan_k]

Depends on who you ask. Maybe some people don't want to wait an hour to install a game or have to go though homebrew just to backup my save. Drag and drop that's why gateway is still loved by many

Or you can have GW and still use the proper a9lh and have best of both worlds.

 

[OrGoN3]

All this bitching and whinging about Gateway this and Gateway that, but literally nobody can bother to make this A9 thing any easier to actually use. Or a CFW that doesn't crap all over itself, for that matter.

And don't bother just linking to plailect's guide like it's some Holy Bible or something. 1. Its very first steps are literally to slash and burn everything you'd already have on your #DS, including the ability to go back to the Gateway method if you realize it doesn't work for you. 2. If not completely brick it with the mandatory downgrade and upgrade that are part of the process. That guide is confusing as hell, and literally its first steps are to break what I already have successfully and reliably going, with the Gateway cart. But seems nobody here wants to even comprehend that this easy to use nature, and the reliability of this method, are valuable to at least some people.

3. Last thing I want to be doing is worrying that suddenly the CFW I'm using doesn't want to boot up anymore or load anything. 4. And no CFW group or dev is even attempting to access the GW red card for .3ds/z/sx files. Just like how they had this patronizing hatred when the Cobra devs made their payload open source on the PS3, you had some CFW devs parroting on on how they hated it so much and weren't going to bother to implement it in their CFW. Just two months later and updated versions of the payload were in every single self-respecting CFW if they wanted to be relevant, because even they had to recognize it added functionality that couldn't be had easily otherwise.

1. Incorrect. I kept everything that my 3DS had prior to finishing the guide, and the beauty of A9LH is that you can easily go back to the pre-A9LH environment if you want to.

2. Again, no. The chances of bricking are ever so slight, and most of the time, it will be a soft brick that is fully recoverable without needing to hardmod.

It seems like you have not used Plailect's guide at all. I used it a very long time ago and it has just gotten easier, and less risky, since then. However, even back then, the chances of bricking were very small. Plailect's guide is not confusing at all and details every single step, including most of the possible errors that my occur during the process.

3. Huh? The main reason somebody's CFW won't boot is because their SD card has gone bad. I have had 0 problems with AuReiNand, now Luma3DS, on A9LH. The 100% boot rate makes it more stable.

4. Why would they? The whole point of the softmod scene is to not require an expensive, DRM device. Why bother loading from the GW red card when loading from the SD card works just fine?

What you're not pointing out is that Gateway simple used already existing code to complete their process. Sure, emuNAND is stolen from Gateway to begin with. The difference being the community didn't profit off of Gateway's work.

Gateway's first implementation of A9LH was god awful, and mostly broken. How that is any better than a CFW not booting up once in a blue moon is beyond comprehension. Sure Gateway has many updates, but they are always to fix what they broke in the previous update.

So, if you think breaking a system is Gateway making A9LH easier, then sure. Gateway can certainly make installing A9LH easier. But you don't need to use their tools for the ease of it. The only time consuming aspect of Plailect's guide are the many NAND backups. All of them can be used as fallbacks. Gateway doesn't provide the nand backups to revert back to. Forcing you to keep on using their device if you want to go back to your old method.

As for bricking, I'm pretty sure Gateway's automated method has the highest risk of bricking. You do not minimize risk by simply having it automated. It is still using the same tools programmed by the same community members, without permission, and for profit.

 

[Aroth]

Or you can have GW and still use the proper a9lh and have best of both worlds.

Yep. Just have to get past the brainwashing we instilled about how dangerous it is to mess with sysnand and how you should ONLY use emunand.

Honestly with the latest iteration of A9LH and tools like hourglass9, its probably more dangerous to stick with an emunand and risk causing a problem that the more experienced folks cant fix cuz they dont use that setup anymore.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Btw, since this seem to get off of the topic that was asked at the start of the second page, what with all the cia vs rom and cfw vs gw arguements...

Does anyone know yet if they actually changed/updated the arm9loaderhax.bin file? Did they update to v2? Did they implement firm protection?

Or was this basically a "we're still here" update with some minor changes to the "time machine" software?

 

[Arck]

"We have something very exciting coming"

A forum maybe ?

 

[Quantumcat]

"We have something very exciting coming"

A forum maybe ?

Maxconsole is basically the Gateway official forum.

 

[codezer0]

1. Incorrect. I kept everything that my 3DS had prior to finishing the guide, and the beauty of A9LH is that you can easily go back to the pre-A9LH environment if you want to.

2. Again, no. The chances of bricking are ever so slight, and most of the time, it will be a soft brick that is fully recoverable without needing to hardmod.

It seems like you have not used Plailect's guide at all. I used it a very long time ago and it has just gotten easier, and less risky, since then. However, even back then, the chances of bricking were very small. Plailect's guide is not confusing at all and details every single step, including most of the possible errors that my occur during the process.

3. Huh? The main reason somebody's CFW won't boot is because their SD card has gone bad. I have had 0 problems with AuReiNand, now Luma3DS, on A9LH. The 100% boot rate makes it more stable.

4. Why would they? The whole point of the softmod scene is to not require an expensive, DRM device. Why bother loading from the GW red card when loading from the SD card works just fine?

What you're not pointing out is that Gateway simple used already existing code to complete their process. Sure, emuNAND is stolen from Gateway to begin with. The difference being the community didn't profit off of Gateway's work.

Gateway's first implementation of A9LH was god awful, and mostly broken. How that is any better than a CFW not booting up once in a blue moon is beyond comprehension. Sure Gateway has many updates, but they are always to fix what they broke in the previous update.

So, if you think breaking a system is Gateway making A9LH easier, then sure. Gateway can certainly make installing A9LH easier. But you don't need to use their tools for the ease of it. The only time consuming aspect of Plailect's guide are the many NAND backups. All of them can be used as fallbacks. Gateway doesn't provide the nand backups to revert back to. Forcing you to keep on using their device if you want to go back to your old method.

As for bricking, I'm pretty sure Gateway's automated method has the highest risk of bricking. You do not minimize risk by simply having it automated. It is still using the same tools programmed by the same community members, without permission, and for profit.

RxTools refused to boot for several attempts before it would load. and when it did load, it refused to load up any of the GBA or DSiWare when I tried using it. And exactly two reboots later, rxtools refused to launch at all, even when reinstalling its purported DS Profile exploit installer. Yet nobody here would help me on the matter, and nobody had an answer for me then, either. I only even started considering CFW so I could finally launch and run my Ambassador GBA ware, my legit DSiWare, and in part because of seeing some already porting some of the better GBA games in .cia format, that I recognize I can't currently launch at all on Gateway. But Gateway does let me run out-of-region games, and has a thorough and powerful cheat support. So I would need to retain that functionality. As good as CIAngel is, it doesn't even attempt to load half the games available on the real eShop, and I've been unsuccessful in finding a download for this supposed "freeshop" anywhere, even though I've even encountered a few streetpass Mii's that have been using it.

PLailect's guide would require me to kill the DS profile exploit that I've been using since the first day I got the GW. Its instructions have me update to 9.2, then downgrade to 2.1, before I even get to where I would install its so-called "glorious master race" exploit that it's supposed to be for. So an upgrade that automatically kills the 'sploit that has kept me safe in emuNAND, and then a downgrade to a firmware that is older than what the system first shipped with, and you don't see a problem with that? It's well known on the PS3 side of things that if you didn't keep on 3.55 OFW, you were boned for anything CFW related, and that you couldn't even downgrade at all without some extra hardware nobody wants to make anymore. I might have some soldering skills, but I'm nowhere near the level of soldering in a hard mod set of parts to restore this system from a brick.

 

[Quantumcat]

RxTools

refused to load up any of the GBA or DSiWare when I tried using it

You shouldn't be using rxTools to play games. RxTools is now outdated, and is only used for updating old firmwares to 9.2. If you follow the guide for updating to 9.2 you shouldn't have problems with rxTools now, as it gives you exact steps.

nd I've been unsuccessful in finding a download for this supposed "freeshop" anywhere

Go here for releases in .cia form: https://github.com/Cruel/freeShop/releases
Or scan this QR code with a version of FBI with QR scan feature:

PLailect's guide would require me to kill the DS profile exploit

For temporary access you can use the browser exploit (go to go.gateway-3ds.com on your browser). This is for when you have upgraded to 9.2 but have not yet installed a9lh.
When you're finished, you'll have something way better than the DS profile exploit. You will be able to turn on your 3DS and have it ALREADY be in Gateway mode. No more will you have to:

1. navigate through a few menus each time you turn off your console, or
2. have to reinstall the exploit whenever you play a DS game (forget your DS flashcart? unlucky for you)
3. remember your Gateway cartridge when you want to play games (with a9lh, if you forget your cartridge just boot Luma instead and at least play your installed games. With classic Gateway, you would have to have your cartridge to get to your installed games even if you didn't want to play any of the games on the cartridge).

 

[OrGoN3]

RxTools refused to boot for several attempts before it would load. and when it did load, it refused to load up any of the GBA or DSiWare when I tried using it. And exactly two reboots later, rxtools refused to launch at all, even when reinstalling its purported DS Profile exploit installer. Yet nobody here would help me on the matter, and nobody had an answer for me then, either. I only even started considering CFW so I could finally launch and run my Ambassador GBA ware, my legit DSiWare, and in part because of seeing some already porting some of the better GBA games in .cia format, that I recognize I can't currently launch at all on Gateway. But Gateway does let me run out-of-region games, and has a thorough and powerful cheat support. So I would need to retain that functionality. As good as CIAngel is, it doesn't even attempt to load half the games available on the real eShop, and I've been unsuccessful in finding a download for this supposed "freeshop" anywhere, even though I've even encountered a few streetpass Mii's that have been using it.

PLailect's guide would require me to kill the DS profile exploit that I've been using since the first day I got the GW. Its instructions have me update to 9.2, then downgrade to 2.1, before I even get to where I would install its so-called "glorious master race" exploit that it's supposed to be for. So an upgrade that automatically kills the 'sploit that has kept me safe in emuNAND, and then a downgrade to a firmware that is older than what the system first shipped with, and you don't see a problem with that? It's well known on the PS3 side of things that if you didn't keep on 3.55 OFW, you were boned for anything CFW related, and that you couldn't even downgrade at all without some extra hardware nobody wants to make anymore. I might have some soldering skills, but I'm nowhere near the level of soldering in a hard mod set of parts to restore this system from a brick.

So all of your CFW experience and talk is from non-A9LH, and from a CFW that doesn't even get updated anymore. So none of that is currently relevant.

A9LH allows me to run out of region games. I also still have my Ambassador certificate as well as my originally installed games.

Yes, Plailect's guide would require you to stop using your obsolete and imperfect exploit in order to install what is essentially the equivalent of BootMii, just on the 3DS. This would allow you to use the latest version sysnand and still maintain your CFW. This allows you to access the eshop without spoofing, online play without spoofing, etc, etc. You can still have emunand if you don't want to update sysnand. The difference is that emunand would then boot up right away (no having to load up the system, then go to the settings to activate the exploit) and it would be a 100% boot rate. If you keep the 9.2 environment you can still use your Gateway card. Nobody is saying you have to give that up. Granted there is no feature that your Gateway card offers that I do not natively have via CFW.

No, I do not see a problem with you upgrading your firmware and then downgrading it. You clearly are missing the point of why the system is downgraded to 2.1. With all of the hard work that the community has volunteered, the tools are engineered to work. As long as you follow the guide, it'll work. You even gave an equivalence to the PS3 scene. Here that magic firmware is 9.2. At the end of the guide you will have an updated system with a 9.2 system image that you can restore back to and keep A9LH. So you are keeping with that magic firmware. If anything that is more of a reason to do this! Again, what is the problem with upgrading and downgrading and then upgrading? Why do you think there's a problem with that? You downgrade to 2.1 as the OTP registers were locked after that, so it would be impossible to grab your key without hardmodding it. I will reiterate that I followed his guide a long time ago. It took longer, greater risk of bricking etc. Everything went fine on all 4 3DS/N3DS that I did this to. 0 bricks. 0 problems that weren't in the guide or that common sense couldn't fix. Now it's even easier and more automated. I could understand not wanting to earlier, but nowadays? Installing an exploit (not really an exploit, but basically boot loader) that Nintendo can never remove via an update? Keeping your system up to date with a CFW? Or keeping your emuNAND up to date with a CFW? Region-free, etc, etc, etc.

I already mentioned that it is rare for a system to brick following Plailect's guide, and if it does, it is most likely going to be a softbrick, that does not require a hardmod to fix. Yet you continue to go on about having to hardmod your system. No. Just no.

 

[Aroth]

RxTools refused to boot for several attempts before it would load. and when it did load, it refused to load up any of the GBA or DSiWare when I tried using it. And exactly two reboots later, rxtools refused to launch at all, even when reinstalling its purported DS Profile exploit installer. Yet nobody here would help me on the matter, and nobody had an answer for me then, either. I only even started considering CFW so I could finally launch and run my Ambassador GBA ware, my legit DSiWare, and in part because of seeing some already porting some of the better GBA games in .cia format, that I recognize I can't currently launch at all on Gateway. But Gateway does let me run out-of-region games, and has a thorough and powerful cheat support. So I would need to retain that functionality. As good as CIAngel is, it doesn't even attempt to load half the games available on the real eShop, and I've been unsuccessful in finding a download for this supposed "freeshop" anywhere, even though I've even encountered a few streetpass Mii's that have been using it.

How long ago where you trying to use RxTools? Its been depreciated (and quite frankly broken) for a few months now, and gba/dsi support for the n3DS on RxTools has not worked since early October of last year. If I remember correctly, that was about the time it broke AGB/TWL support for all consoles.

As for a download for freeShop, you must not of looked very hard.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=freeshop

Admittedly, google search now adapts based on browsing/search history, but the first link returned SHOULD be either the thread here, a thread on reddit, or the github page for the software itself.

PLailect's guide would require me to kill the DS profile exploit that I've been using since the first day I got the GW. Its instructions have me update to 9.2, then downgrade to 2.1, before I even get to where I would install its so-called "glorious master race" exploit that it's supposed to be for. So an upgrade that automatically kills the 'sploit that has kept me safe in emuNAND, and then a downgrade to a firmware that is older than what the system first shipped with, and you don't see a problem with that? It's well known on the PS3 side of things that if you didn't keep on 3.55 OFW, you were boned for anything CFW related, and that you couldn't even downgrade at all without some extra hardware nobody wants to make anymore. I might have some soldering skills, but I'm nowhere near the level of soldering in a hard mod set of parts to restore this system from a brick.

You just said yourself that downgrading a console is not exactly a new concept in CFW. The difference here is that you don't need hardware at ALL to downgrade. Its entirely software based.

Since you seem to be adverse to actually reading the entirety of the guide and are getting hung up on how the steps seem counter-intuitive to you, I will try and explain what happens, how it happens and WHY it HAS to happen.

In order to install A9LH at all, you need a dump of a console specific encryption key register. This is the OTP.bin file that you keep seeing/reading about. It HAS to come from your console as every console has a different set of keys. Starting in 3.x, the system locks/encrypts this file before the arm9 processor is initialized, and since the earliest we can obtain code execution IS the arm9loader, we cannot under any circumstances unlock it. However in 2.x, the file was not locked until after the firmware was loaded. Meaning we could dump and view/use the file if we could just get arm9 code execution. We have to downgrade specifically to 2.1 because this is the only firmware with a reliable arm9 exploit.

Now, the guide has you back up your emunand, sysnand and SD card (complete with any and all games, NNID info, saves, EVERYTHING) before even starting any downgrade steps. You will (over the course of several steps that are ALL necessary) downgrade your emunand to 2.1 using a downgrade that triple checks the files being installed, the files already installed, and the files AFTER being installed to ensure that everything installed properly. If at any time it errors out, all you have to do is load up a program that the guide has you put on the sd card called decrypt9 and restore one of the emunand backups it had you make at the start.

Once on 2.1, you will run a program that completes several steps at once, independently checking EACH STEP for verification before it moves on. It once again checks the state of the 2.1 emunand to make sure its not completely borked. It fixes some encryption/cleanup issues caused by downgrading. Then it copies the emunand back over to the sysnand. At this point you have a 2.1 sysnand that can be used to dump the otp.bin. The guide will have you boot the sysnand and use browserhax to load an installer for a9lh that dumps the otp.bin and installs a9lh.

Finally you flash your original backed up emunand (with all the games, saves and other goodies) to your sysnand using a new program called Hourglass9 that does not overwrite the a9lh files. You then restore your sd card backup and carry on with Luma3DS as a cfw, with a 100% boot rate (even better than gateways ever was).

EDIT:

Please do not use my "synopsis" as a template for "things you can skip". You need to read and follow the ENTIRE guide (I know, I know, reading is for plebs and sucks horrid things. Deal with it.).