Hacking [IDEA]arm9loaderhax boot without SD

[Salamencizer]

So I was thinking, can we just use a SaltFW (SaltLite) payload to load arm9loaderhax without SD? Its size is super small, And it doesn't require any folder/firmware/etc for sigcheckpatching.
Is this possible?

 

[cavolo]

Personnaly I think its not really usefull, because all my games are on my sd card so....
Only usefull if you sell your 3ds, but who sell his 3ds ? :'(

 

[hobbledehoy899]

but who sell his 3ds ? :'(

purr son who strap in for cash

 

[Salamencizer]

Personnaly I think its not really usefull, because all my games are on my sd card so....
Only usefull if you sell your 3ds, but who sell his 3ds ? :'(

Yeah, that is true. But people get annoyed bout thier 3DS not booting without an SD Card, a possible excuse which they make to not install a9lh.

 

[hobbledehoy899]

But people get annoyed bout thier SD not booting without an SD Card

What the fuck? Of course you can't boot an SD-Card without having the SD-Card, it's called not having an SD-Card.

 

[Olmectron]

Not having an SD card into your 3DS is simply nonsense. Specially since it comes with one included.

It could be good for some people, though. Altough, what's the use of a CFW in a 3DS without an SD card? Homebrew loaded through the browser? Are there that many of those?

 

[Hayleia]

This can also be useful in case the SD port breaks (because you're a brute ), so the 3DS is still usable. Well, obviously you can't really do a lot of stuff with a broken SD port but at least you can do stuff...

 

[Salamencizer]

What the fuck? Of course you can't boot an SD-Card without having the SD-Card, it's called not having an SD-Card.

Oops, my badd. Its 3DS not booting wihout SD Card.

 

[Olmectron]

This can also be useful in case the SD port breaks (because you're a brute ), so the 3DS is still usable. Well, obviously you can't really do a lot of stuff with a broken SD port but at least you can do stuff...

It seems so.

Altough, it would still be unusable for some people. Like me. I have all my 3DS games bought from the eShop (not a single 3DS game card).

 

[The Real Jdbye]

So I was thinking, can we just use a SaltFW (SaltLite) payload to load arm9loaderhax without SD? Its size is super small, And it doesn't require any folder/firmware/etc for sigcheckpatching.
Is this possible?

Unlike most other people in this thread I would really like for this to happen. Although there is not much reason not to have a SD card in the 3DS it just irks me that the console cannot function normally without specific hack files. At the very least the console should be able to boot like a regular unmodded 3DS when no SD card is inserted. Such a thing would be simple to do by simply triggering a FIRM launch using the FIRM binary from CTRNAND when no file is found on SD. Shouldn't take more than a few lines of extra code in the FIRM payload.

 

[astronautlevel]

This is entirely possible, but it's somewhat of a pain.

First of all you need a way to read files off the NAND via arm9 - this definitely possible, but difficult when you consider the space limit of k9lh payloads.

You'd then need a payload that's small enough to fit in the NAND (smaller the better, mainly for DSiWare and stuff). In addition, it would need patches for FIRM write protection at the very least, and would need to be able to load firmware.bin from NAND. SaltFW works perfectly for this, as it is relatively lightweight and contains necessary patches. Another option would be Mizuki.

Like I said, it's possible but a pain. Most developers aren't going to be working on it given that it's relatively low priority as few people boot without an SD card. I would be looking into it if I had a hardmod, but since I don't I'm too afraid to brick

 

[Shadowhand]

I'm already working on a CFW that's on your NAND.

yes im the person who made saltfw

 

[The Catboy]

From what I understand, A9LH actually works by booting part of the exploitable code from the SD card. Basically disabling part of the code the FIRM0/1 from booting from the 3DS and having them boot through the SD card instead to allow exploitable code to work. So could be possible to install that code directly to the 3DS, but may run a higher chance of bricking.
I could be wrong, but that's what it looks like it functions.

 

[Halvorsen]

I have arm9loaderhax, and it's still idiotic that the system is useless without a 2 centimeter SD Card. If I'm copying files to my computer or phone my 3DS is literally useless unless I happen to have it on.
And even then I can't access the Settings or hope the system doesn't reboot from a crash.
At this very moment I'm copying 64 gigs to my computer and haven't used my n3DS in a few hours.

 

[Shadowhand]

You'll have to wait a week because I'm contracted irl for the next week and then a bit. After that, I'll start working on ShadowNAND full speed and we'll see how it goes. I'm hopeful.

 

[VIERcntHOLZ]

Actually - if you "hardcode" the CFW into the initial payload, the FIRMpatch would have to be reapplied whenever a new update/commit appears, nor?

 

[Shadowhand]

Actually - if you "hardcode" the CFW into the initial payload, the FIRMpatch would have to be reapplied whenever a new update/commit appears, nor?

Yes, but there won't be a release that won't do good stuff, so it'll be far in between I think. I'm not promising anything, but the initial usable version would be after 14-19 days.

 

[Wolfvak]

So I was thinking, can we just use a SaltFW (SaltLite) payload to load arm9loaderhax without SD? Its size is super small, And it doesn't require any folder/firmware/etc for sigcheckpatching.
Is this possible?

Let me clarify something first; you all appear to be a little wrong on thinking how arm9loaderhax works. The exploit itself already lives in you FIRM partitions, the fact that there's no SD card just doesn't allow you to run custom code, but it doesn't mean that the exploit is dead or something like that.

With that out of the way, yes it's not only "possible" but perfectly doable. However, you appear to want a CFW, not just any payload. That introduces certain issues, especially with O3DS and the requirement of reboot patches. But it's still perfectly doable, the only issue would be that you'd need it as a "secondary" a9lh payload living somewhere in your NAND, which the stage1 calls upon booting. In case no SD card is detected, or no arm9loaderhax.bin file exists, then load that secondary payload which is somewhere in your NAND. AFAIK there's been some work done, and not just PoCs, but actual projects.

SaltFW for example, was thought as a base to expand upon and introduce this SD-less boot.

 

[Shadowhand]

I forgot to mention, there will be safety nets all over the place, so chance of bricking will be slim.

 

[migles]

From what I understand, A9LH actually works by booting part of the exploitable code from the SD card. Basically disabling part of the code the FIRM0/1 from booting from the 3DS and having them boot through the SD card instead to allow exploitable code to work. So could be possible to install that code directly to the 3DS, but may run a higher chance of bricking.
I could be wrong, but that's what it looks like it functions.

couldn't they do something "if file is not found, boot from firmware" ?

the hability to not using a sd card would be great, so you could use the console with a broken sd card reader
and it would be helpfull to noobs, currently there is a change of blackscreen that a simple fix is ejecting and putting back the sd card, some noobs start the console without the card and think its broken..
and plus it doesn't make sence that you require something to boot the console...