Hacking gw 9.6

[legofan623]

legofan623 I think he was talking about those downgrade pack dg files. And the downgrade procedure might be very much similar to the 3ds updater app (which palantine had already explained in short answer).

It is only possible to downgrade if you have full system access (that requires an exploitable firmware version which we know so far is up to 9.2). At the moment anything on 9.3 or above cannot be downgraded so your only option is to NAND mod to downgrade using your console's own NAND.bin that was 9.2 or below.

Oh

 

[tony_2018]

If you're familiar with how Android recovery works, I believe that that's how Gateway downgrader works. The Gateway downgrader sits between the system and the nand (probably the ram or SD card) and basically erases all files from the nand (which is fine because the gateway downgrader isn't running from the nand). It then copies the older firmware byte for bye to the nand, thus making the nand into a 1:1 copy of an older firmware installation. The whole process is very similar to nand dumping and restoring, so no signing trickery involved.

Makes sense when you put it like that.

 

[palantine]

If you're familiar with how Android recovery works, I believe that that's how Gateway downgrader works. The Gateway downgrader sits between the system and the nand (probably the ram or SD card) and basically erases all files from the nand (which is fine because the gateway downgrader isn't running from the nand). It then copies the older firmware byte for bye to the nand, thus making the nand into a 1:1 copy of an older firmware installation. The whole process is very similar to nand dumping and restoring, so no signing trickery involved.

You're close, but I believe you are somewhat mistaken. The Gateway downgrade process does not simply act as a software Nand flasher. Recall that it requires 2 files to work: gateway.dg (for your region) as well as a Nand dump. However the dump is not going to be an "older firmware" as you mentioned but will most likely be the same as the firmware you are starting on.

My educated guess is that the downgrade utility uses the Nand dump as a source for all the console specific files that are necessary, but gateway.dg contains all the data necessary to install firmware 4.5. The tool merges both these data sources and produces/flashes a 4.5 nand image that is compatible with your specific console.

-palantine

 

[legofan623]

You're close, but I believe you are somewhat mistaken. The Gateway downgrade process does not simply act as a software Nand flasher. Recall that it requires 2 files to work: gateway.dg (for your region) as well as a Nand dump. However the dump is not going to be an "older firmware" as you mentioned but will most likely be the same as the firmware you are starting on.

My educated guess is that the downgrade utility uses the Nand dump as a source for all the console specific files that are necessary, but gateway.dg contains all the data necessary to install firmware 4.5. The tool merges both these data sources and produces/flashes a 4.5 nand image that is compatible with your specific console.

-palantine

Yeah, you're probably right. I haven't done enough research into it.

 

[Just3DS]

And most importantly, it doesn't break the signature of the NAND. Remember that every console NAND is unique.