Hacking How to install arm9loaderhax with boot9strap

[MrJason005]

Hello GBATemp!

So recently I had to install arm9loaderhax to my 3DS in order to run some OCS tests. During this process, I had difficulty gathering all the files and information and I realized that this hack has been neglected (rightfully so!) very much over the months. So, now that we have boot9strap and we don't need to downgrade to 2.1 for our OTP anymore, I decided to write my own version of "How to install arm9loaderhax" on your 3DS.

This guide is not intended for anyone but users who know what they are doing! Do not follow this if you want to install CFW on your 3DS for non developer/testing purposes! Go to to 3ds.guide for that!

Note however! I will not be handholding through any steps at all. If you don't know how to dump the OTP with boot9strap yourself, you shouldn't even be reading this guide.
So without any further ado, let's get straight to it!

I also do not believe I should be placing the obvious warnings here. But, to stick to procedure:

By following this guide you agree that I ( @MrJason005 ) will not be held responsible for anything wrong that happens to your 3DS. These tools always have a small chance of bricking your 3DS, and it is recommended that you have ntrboot on hand in case something goes wrong. Do not use any other otp.bin other than your own or you will have a guaranteed brick.

Section I - Downloading all the required files

First of all we need to download all the required files. Here's a list of where to download everything:

1. The otherapp file for your 3DS
2. The Soundhax file (Really any entrypoint to the homebrew launcher will do)
3. The homebrew launcher boot.3dsx file
4. UDSPloit
5. Safehax
6. SafeA9LHInstaller
7. Arm9loaderhax

You will also need your B9S dumped OTP.bin and also data_input_v4.zip. The latter I unfortunately cannot provide as it contains Nintendo copyrighted software, however you can search around for it yourself, or you can torrent it.

Section II - SD Card setup

Now that you have all the required files, you need to copy them to the SD card accordingly:

1. Put the otherapp file in root (of course renaming it first)
2. Put the soundhax file in root
3. Put the boot.3dsx file in root
4. UDSPloit goes in the 3ds folder
5. Safehax goes in the 3ds folder
6. From the SafeA9LHInstaller zip, take the arm9loaderhax.bin file and put it in root
7. Put the contents of the releases.zip file in the a9lh folder
8. Put your OTP.bin file in the a9lh folder

Now you will need to extract the data_input_v4.zip file to SD root, and merge the a9lh folder in the zip with your already existing a9lh folder.

Section III - Installing Arm9loaderhax

The next step is to actually install arm9loaderhax, so let's do just that

1. Go to soundhax and open the homebrew launcher
2. Run udsploit, and exit with START
3. Run safehax, and you should now be in SafeA9LHInstaller
4. Press SELECT to install A9LH

And now you should have installed A9LH successfully!

And that concludes this short and simple guide. Really this is more for legacy purposes (or nostalgia...?).
Thanks for coming over!

 

[The Catboy]

This is cool and all (seriously it is,) but why though?

 

[dpad_5678]

wait, what?

 

[MrJason005]

This is cool and all (seriously it is,) but why though?

Notice:

And that concludes this short and simple guide. Really this is more for legacy purposes (or nostalgia...?).

 

[The Catboy]

Notice:

Fair enough.
Now is this actually A9LH running on top of B9S or did you replace B9S with A9LH? How did go about testing these two environments to see if they are actually coexisting?

 

[MrJason005]

Fair enough.
Now is this actually A9LH running on top of B9S or did you replace B9S with A9LH? How did go about testing these two environments to see if they are actually coexisting?

No I assume that the user is running a clean environment first

 

[The Catboy]

No I assume that the user is running a clean environment first

That really didn't answer my question. The title of the thread is "How to install arm9loaderhax with boot9strap" which can either mean "Installing A9LH along side B9S" or "Using B9S to gather the files needed to install A9LH. Thus removing B9S in favor of A9LH."
So is this running B9S with A9LH or using B9S to gather the files needed to be replaced with A9LH?

 

[MrJason005]

That really didn't answer my question. The title of the thread is "How to install arm9loaderhax with boot9strap" which can either mean "Installing A9LH along side B9S" or "Using B9S to gather the files needed to install A9LH. Thus removing B9S in favor of A9LH."
So is this running B9S with A9LH or using B9S to gather the files needed to be replaced with A9LH?

Using B9S to get the files needed (OTP in this case)

 

[The Catboy]

Using B9S to get the files needed (OTP in this case)

So basically this is just a guide to downgrading from B9S to A9LH and using B9S in order to accomplish that downgrade?

 

[MrJason005]

So basically this is just a guide to downgrading from B9S to A9LH and using B9S in order to do that?

Yes sort of.

I had to do this because I needed to run some OCS tests (testing a feature that detects whether you have A9LH installed already)

 

[The Catboy]

Yes sort of.

I had to do this because I needed to run some OCS tests (testing a feature that detects whether you have A9LH installed already)

Ok, that makes much more sense. I was confused by the title because I thought this was intended to setup both B9S and A9LH environments on the same system. The guide didn't suggest that, but it was worth clearing up in case I was missing something.
And that makes sense. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get the job done.