Tutorial  Updated

How to use LayeredFS for Backup Loading + What Games Work/Don't

This thread is outdated
A lot of information in this thread is heavilly out of date.
If you have time, and have Staff permission, feel free to edit this thread and remove this statement once necessary.

Some information that needs to be addressed:
  • SX OS and Atmosphere now supports proper LayeredFS, instructions for using it has changed since this tutorial was made
  • Supported Firmware information is out of date
  • LFSKit needs to be updated to properly support non 5.x.x firmware
  • Compatability chart needs to be re-made
-PRAGMA


WARNING
  • DO NOT GO ONLINE WHEN DOING THIS (YOU WILL BE BANNED)


How to use LayeredFS for Backup Loading

Firmware Supported: ONLY 5.x.x
Use the PRAGMA LFS Kit below.

PRAGMA's LFS Kit

DOWNLOAD
SOURCE

  • Go from NOTHING in your SD Card to playing a game backup in a few clicks!
  • Decrypt .XCI -> romfs/exefs folder with main.nmpd auto edited aswell as folder's name auto renamed to donor titleid
  • Download NOTHING except LFSKit!
ENJOY!

yyTJ8rr.gif


Picking a Donor Title and getting Donor TitleIDRunning Game Backups!


    1. A donor title is the application we will run to open the backup.
      Pick a game you don't care about (Download a Demo or a free game from eShop, for example Octopath Demo)
      saves are something no one knows much about, we don't fully know where or how they are stored.
      They might overwrite the donor titles save, so seriously pick a game you DONT care about, not a game you rarely play.

    2. I also recommend picking a donor title/game combo that has been tested and reported working just so you know if YOU did something wrong or not.
    3. Find the TitleID of the donor title you chose from http://nswdb.com or http://switchbrew.org/index.php?title=Title_list/Games
      Region must be the same, choose the TitleID for the base-game NOT for the update title, even if your updated.

    1. Once again, boot into Hekate-IPL (Step 1).
    2. Enter "Launch firmware" and select "RomFS".
    3. Your now in your system's home menu.
    4. Open the Donor Title you set the TitleID of on that folder and .npmd file earlier.
    5. The game will load up flawlessly.
      If you opened the Title lets say, Fortnite, and Fortnite booted, the titleid of the folder in sd:/atmosphere/titles/{fortnitetitleid} doesnt exist, or doesnt start with 0100.
      If it gives you an error screen, either you didnt edit the main.npmd properly, or its an incompatible title/donor combo.
    To see which games work and which dont using which donor titles, look below.
    If you notice that you used a combination of Game and Donor title that isnt in the list below, post in the thread and I will add it. (look under to see what I need to add to chart).


Troubleshooting

  • Black Screen/Infinitely Loading
    Leave it for around 5 minutes then press the home button and go back into the game without closing it. Often this can do the job.
  • Freeze when Loading
    Close the game and try again, its a common occurence, you may have to try up to 4-5 times before getting it to work, sometimes you may even have to reboot between retries.
 
Last edited by PRAGMA,

Leozairus

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Jun 15, 2018
Messages
71
Trophies
0
Age
33
XP
290
Country
Brazil
Yeah got the .nca file but when I use hactoolgui it pops up a cmd box and quickly disappears and leaves the folder blank.... grr

Got it to work by manually using hactool. Was able to execute the following command. hactool.exe --romfs=romfs.bin (DIR\nameof.nca -k (filenameofkeys) then I did hactool.exe --exefsdir=exefs (DIR\nameof.nca -k (filenameofkeys). Now i just got to put the files in the folder for the the title ID I want and also had to patch the main.npdm with the Title id using http://carlus.altervista.org/nx/title_id_patcher.html and now it works.

Donor FORTNITE
Game Mario Tennis Aces
Firmware 5.1.0
Saves Yes

My friend, I cant extract the XCI file, I'm always using the tool, can you put the command lines to extract xci? thanks
 

LoDeus

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Feb 2, 2016
Messages
95
Trophies
0
Age
25
XP
204
Country
Belgium
Don't know if that's the place but with Skyrim over Pinball FX3, black screen whenever I enter the Warmaiden in Whiterun, and language pack obviously doesn't apply.
A.O.T.2 crash at character creation over ARMS Demo and stays in english over VOEZ Demo (not a real problem since I'm good with english but would have prefered french).

Switch on 5.1.
 

skypirate123

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 30, 2015
Messages
112
Trophies
0
Age
44
XP
328
Country
Heya, are there any other sheets/site documenting what titleIDs can run what? The first post link to https://lfsdb.com/ seems to be few and far between for what works/doesn't work.

Ended up loading Zelda onto one titleID and seems to have borked everything else I had too and none of them run.

Will reload everything later today and see what happens. Anyone else run into issues where one game has messed up the others from loading?
 

EmperorX

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
153
Trophies
0
Age
28
XP
1,241
Country
Lebanon
Heya, are there any other sheets/site documenting what titleIDs can run what? The first post link to https://lfsdb.com/ seems to be few and far between for what works/doesn't work.

Ended up loading Zelda onto one titleID and seems to have borked everything else I had too and none of them run.

Will reload everything later today and see what happens. Anyone else run into issues where one game has messed up the others from loading?

https://awesome-table.com/-LFDcC2m8HJCLBPe-7e0/view
 

Soluble

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2017
Messages
609
Trophies
0
Age
39
XP
588
Country
i already downloaded xciexplorer.. what button to press.. ?
i need to make mario tennis working.
Find the biggest NCA which is 1.8gb ish I think, and extract. Then extract the NCA with hactool. On mobile at the moment, but I'm sure someone can add better instructions!
 

Arithmatics

I'll be holding on to you. ;}
Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
1,162
Trophies
1
Age
30
XP
1,052
Country
Malaysia
Went through all this crap and you can just use the dang switchblade payload and find the keys online ez... Oh well I learned some stuff along the way.

If you're just starting, the exe in OP will get you mostly setup, then you'll just abandon everything you did and use switchblade. There's problems with the fs_mitm.kip and even replacing it with another one I couldn't get hekate to boot properly. Switchblade just worked.

Basically find the keys online. Look for switch keys pastebin, and paste it into a new text file and rename to keys.ini
Use the exe provided in OP to convert your .xci to the target demo title ID
Copy it to the proper place on sd after it's converted sd:/atmosphere/titles/XXXXX
Copy the files from Switchblade SD Files onto SD https://www81.zippyshare.com/v/AdcRF1lR/file.html
Send the switchblade payload using tegrasmashrcm gui and play the game.
this worked for me on 4.1.0.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tomobobo

CyKoDeLiC

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
146
Trophies
1
XP
933
Country
Gambia, The
So I installed everything correctly. I wanted to play Lost Sphear as a backup, used Fortnite as a donor. It starts, but the game is in japanese. Is there any workaround? I used the multi language version.
 

Don Jon

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2015
Messages
1,057
Trophies
0
Age
38
XP
1,496
Country
United States
Yeah got the .nca file but when I use hactoolgui it pops up a cmd box and quickly disappears and leaves the folder blank.... grr

Got it to work by manually using hactool. Was able to execute the following command. hactool.exe --romfs=romfs.bin (DIR\nameof.nca -k (filenameofkeys) then I did hactool.exe --exefsdir=exefs (DIR\nameof.nca -k (filenameofkeys). Now i just got to put the files in the folder for the the title ID I want and also had to patch the main.npdm with the Title id using http://carlus.altervista.org/nx/title_id_patcher.html and now it works.

Donor FORTNITE
Game Mario Tennis Aces
Firmware 5.1.0
Saves Yes
What do you mean by "Now i just got to put the files in the folder for "

Do you mean putting romfs . Bin in romfs folder and exefs in Exefs folder ?
 
Last edited by Don Jon,

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: Keep current Gen consoles stock mod last gen imo