Homebrew GBA games on O3DSXL with Gateway and R4 Gold Pro

[cll]

Here's my setup:

• Old 3DS XL;
• SysNAND 4.5.0-8E running R4 Gold Pro card for DS software;
• EmuNAND GW3D 11.0.0-33E accessed via DS profile exploit, running white Gateway card, and with access to the homebrew launcher 1.1.1 via 3DS Sound exploit.

I'm trying to find a way to run GBA games without installing different CFW or otherwise tinkering with SysNAND (which I'm not going to do at this point).
Here's what I've tried:

• Gambatte emu: Retroarch CIA version freezes after launching, 3DSX Retroarch freezes after launching (by which I mean whole Retroarch environment, I was somehow able to launch it just the first time though);
  
• MGBA emu: tried both Retroarch and standalone, 3DSX and CIA versions; CIA Retroarch one runs slow as hell, all the others freeze after launching;
• VC injections: can be installed but freeze shortly after launching;
• OpenAGBLauncher: both 3DSX and CIA versions print "found custom software on SD", then return to SysNAND;
• GBARunner2: run via R4 allows me to choose a game, then freezes, both ARM7 and ARM9 versions; tried installing Twilight Menu for launching it from EmuNAND, but Twilight Menu freezes afer launching.

Are there any other ways I haven't tried yet, or maybe I possibly screwed something up while trying one of the above?

 

[8-Bit-Giraffe]

TWiLight Menu++ works fine for me on my o3DS, but I've only tested it with one game. Installation Guide that I used

 

[AmandaRose]

TWiLight Menu++ works fine for me on my o3DS, but I've only tested it with one game. Installation Guide that I used

Edit please ignore I read the question wrong sorry.

 

[boots_n_cats]

Your Gateway emunand setup is extremely out of date. I would bet money that migrating to B9S and Luma CFW will solve all of your issues. I know "lol Gateway sux" isn't what you want to hear, but it is really awful by modern standards and completely unsupported by the community.

Edit: As far as I can tell Gateway CFW doesn't patch AGB_FIRM so VC injects won't work. Open_agb_firm requires B9S. And finally an old 3DS is too slow to run any existing GBA emulators. Basically your only option to get GBA working is modern CFW.

 

[emmanu888]

You're better off migrating to a B9S setup like boots_n_cats suggested.

Nobody uses Gateway anymore, i used to use it and when i migrated to CFW it was just less of a hassle to deal with.

 

[cll]

TWiLight Menu++ works fine for me on my o3DS, but I've only tested it with one game.

The installation guide linked by you is out of date - Twilight Menu Updater has since been replaced by more potent installation system and doesn't work anymore. I assume that you installed TM++ on the exact same setup as mine, when TMU was still supported?
Also, is there actually a possibility of TM++ running GBArunner2 well, if R4 on SysNAND couldn't do it?

 

[boots_n_cats]

Also, is there actually a possibility of TM++ running GBArunner2 well, if R4 on SysNAND couldn't do it?

It will run better from the 3DS’s SD card than it will from a flashcart thanks to the higher clockspeed and greater amount of RAM available but it’s still not great.