Hacking LF Quick Recommendation on Hack Setup for Our Use Case

[Mrs_Glenn_Coco]

Hey all!

We are on a bit of a hacking craze in our family and we (I should really say I, lol) are on to the Switch. We now have 3, 2 hackable. Plan is to hack 1. I've recently rehacked the wii and vita (the Raspberry Pi dock is amazing) and bf did his vita. So, we're not complete idiots but we ARE new to the Switch hack scene. In doing my research on this new venture I'm having a hard time figuring out what would be best for our needs so figured I'd ask for some quick recommendations here. The main issue is that the scene evolves so fast that I'm unsure that I can rely on information posted even earlier in the year, so would like recommendations based on current offerings. =)

Needs/Notes:

1. I already bought the SXOS pro, it's on the way. Liked what it offered vs atmosphere but feel free to change my mind. Can you run both, and why would you?

2. I don't plan to let the 7 year old touch it but -- you never know, shit happens. Best way to keep it offline permanently? Incognito? We don't even play games online and the one's that do I assume we'd just play on the normal switch (mario maker, etc).

3. I've read that you can use multiple sd cards. I wanted to do this as 2 256gb cards will cost me less than 1 512gb and we can expand. However, it sounded confusing, maybe needed more maintenance -- I didn't find a lot of info on it. If you think it's ok, can someone link a good guide on actually implementing it?

4. If not, 512 ok to use? I'm reading different experiences and would love a solid yes or no. I assume Fat32? What cluster size?

5. Where can I find the most comprehensive, step-by-step holding your noob hand full hack guide? For the vita I had to spend hours looking outside the guide for answers, and you never know a guide isn't comprehensive until you get to a step and find that you're lost, lol.

6. Emunand. Do I need it, and why? I've read it's amazing, but this adds another step that I could get lost on/add maintenance. Also, does running on Emunand pose any issues with anything else?

7. We'd like to be as low maintenance as possible. I work 80+ hours per week often and have a kid, so a low maintenance hack would be helpful (I'd like to spend my free time PLAYING the games instead of maintaining the system, lol). I keep reading a slew of questions every time there's an update out. What can we do to keep this as low maintenance as possible? What is the solution to, for instance, playing newer games without having to keep fiddling with it every time? The vita is able to just version spoof, do we have that yet, or are we constantly getting FW updates and waiting for SXOS to say it's safe? If there is no spoofing-without-updating solution for this yet, what's the BEST solution?

8. If we HAVE to update to play new games, I'd like to be able to roll back to older firmwares if ever needed. What's the whole "not burning fuses" thing all about, and is there a good guide on this? I'm also seeing mentions of master keys, lockpick, choidujour, and I'm just totally lost on all of this and the best method (FYI, this takes precedence over low maintenance -- I'll spend the time to keep our older FW version).


Thanks so much for your help and suggestions!!!

 

[Kubas_inko]

1. You can run both and the only reason to use sx os is if you need xci or usb support.
2. The best way is to enable airplane mode. Probably even better way is to setup EmuMMC and keep it in airplane mode and never boot into cfw on your sysnand.
3. Some stuff is saved on 1st sd, the other on the 2nd one. Easy as that. You need to have cfw files on both SDs. But, do you really plan on filling the 256gb sd? How many games do you plan on playing at the same time?
4. Any sd size should work. Fat32 is is safer (but I personally never had any problems with exfat)
5. https://switch.homebrew.guide/
https://nh-server.github.io/switch-guide/
6. You might want it to stay extra safe and especially to keep online capability without getting banned (as you can use your clean sysnand to play legit online and be offline on your EmuMMC).
7. Don't update until you know it's safe. And always update your cfw files first before your fw. Also, create a backup of your NAND before doing anything.
8. People don't burn fuses in order to be able to downgrade later (for coldboot and warmboot) and still be able to boot stock fw without anything extra after restore. And to even gain anything from it, your switch has to be 7.0.1 and lower.
Lockpick is homebrew that can give you all the important keys for decryption and stuff. Choidujournx is homebrew for fw updates/downgrades. Choidujour (non-nx) is pc software to rebuild your NAND from pretty much scratch.
So for low maintenance, just use the latest stuff and always wait for updates to be safe.

 

[Mrs_Glenn_Coco]

Ok, Got it. So:

3. I've read some things that made it seem a lot more complicated. Also I think with SXOS it needs to have the license files, etc as well? To answer your question: I'm just not someone that deletes games, if they're on there I'd rather just keep them there as I'll prob come back to them later.

5. I perused both of these guides and the github guide says I need to have an eshop game or app on the switch before I begin. I don't -- and that would require me to update the FW again (which I want to avoid.) The other guides I've seen don't mention that I need anything like that on there. But, it's classified as an "important" note before you begin:

"Before setting up the console for homebrew, it is important to have at least one eShop game (such as Onigiri, application (such as Youtube or Hulu), or a game demo... A game cartridge will also work, but note that the cartridge will have to be inserted in order to run homebrew if you wish to go this route. Once you have a game or application, you are prepared to continue on with the guide."
​

What's this about, and do I really need an eshop game or app (I wouldn't want to go the cart route).

8. F it, I'll use the latest FW's. We need to wait until sxos says it's ok, right? Can we update fw for sxos with Choidujournx or do we wait for sxos to put something out? This is something that's a bit confusing to me (different things work with different OS's and I haven't deciphered what's what yet).

 

[Kubas_inko]

3. Yes all the cfw files has to be on both SDs.
5. What FW are you currently on and what is you S/N. You dont need any ganes at all, unless you plan on doing warmboot via pegascape (and even than you shouldn't need any games).
8. TX makes a lot of mistakes (look at their last few updates), so you want to wait until people say that it works ok. You can use choidujorunx or their SX installer. Choidujournx is better.

 

[pcwizard7]

1. I already bought the SXOS pro, it's on the way. Liked what it offered vs atmosphere but feel free to change my mind. Can you run both, and why would you?

A) the things that sxos pro offers that not in atmos atm is XCI loader (being able to load your backup games without installing them), load games from USB HDD (like when its in a dock or usb c to a adapter) and stealth mode, ftp access and lan play (there is other ways of doing this in atmos but its builtin by default)

B) you can use both, u just choose which one to boot when starting the device

C) there are features still missing in sxos that are in atmos

2. I don't plan to let the 7 year old touch it but -- you never know, shit happens. Best way to keep it offline permanently? Incognito? We don't even play games online and the one's that do I assume we'd just play on the normal switch (mario maker, etc).

A) Incognito what this does is backup first then zeros out your consoles serial number so to nintendo it won't know your serial or recognize it so u lose nintendo service access

B) in sxos you have stealth mode and can also use Incognito with too. in atmos you can use DNS90 which is a open dns server for switch that works in similar way to stealth mode

3. I've read that you can use multiple sd cards. I wanted to do this as 2 256gb cards will cost me less than 1 512gb and we can expand. However, it sounded confusing, maybe needed more maintenance -- I didn't find a lot of info on it. If you think it's ok, can someone link a good guide on actually implementing it?

A) you can use multi sd cards of couse but you have to consider that the digital game data is on the sd card so u either have different games on different cards or copy the nintendo folder to multi copy cards

B) the 512GB cards are at the sweet spot for affordable cards, DO NOT go for 1TB they are ripoff atm, either samsung or scandisk cards at least there 90Mbs read speed cards so ur games perform correctly.

4. If not, 512 ok to use? I'm reading different experiences and would love a solid yes or no. I assume Fat32? What cluster size?

A) its important to use FAT32 (guiformat32 can format large cards to fat32) because exfat is subject to file corruption on sd cards, 32kb cluster size

B) external USB HDD can still use exfat or ntfs

5. Where can I find the most comprehensive, step-by-step holding your noob hand full hack guide? For the vita I had to spend hours looking outside the guide for answers, and you never know a guide isn't comprehensive until you get to a step and find that you're lost, lol.

A) whatever u do the first thing u d do is do a full backup of your sysnand. i can suggest a guide i would here but theres no one for a sxos and atmos setup and upload a starter zip for sd card so u can copy and paste it and give u an idea what it should look like

6. Emunand. Do I need it, and why? I've read it's amazing, but this adds another step that I could get lost on/add maintenance. Also, does running on Emunand pose any issues with anything else?

A) if you plan to ever go online with switch then it good to have emunand as what it is having another OS on sd card so u have your online stuff leave clean on the sysnand and emunand for your homebrew activity stuff. u setup once and thats it there no real maintenance

7. I keep reading a slew of questions every time there's an update out. What can we do to keep this as low maintenance as possible? What is the solution to, for instance, playing newer games without having to keep fiddling with it every time? The vita is able to just version spoof, do we have that yet, or are we constantly getting FW updates and waiting for SXOS to say it's safe? If there is no spoofing-without-updating solution for this yet, what's the BEST solution?

A) atm after 9.0 an update now may require u to be on certain fw to launch the game and the homebrew may not support that fw yet at the time. but if u update and not know the requirement before updating (which there are way to know before updating) you can just delete the game and manual install the last update

B) if u wanted to make sure before updating then u can download the nsp update file from third party and use file infor tool like nsc builder which has file infor tool in it and shows the firmware requirement for the file
8. If we HAVE to update to play new games, I'd like to be able to roll back to older firmwares if ever needed. What's the whole "not burning fuses" thing all about, and is there a good guide on this? I'm also seeing mentions of master keys, lockpick, choidujour, and I'm just totally lost on all of this and the best method (FYI, this takes precedence over low maintenance -- I'll spend the time to keep our older FW version).

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

1. I've read some things that made it seem a lot more complicated. Also I think with SXOS it needs to have the license files, etc as well? To answer your question: I'm just not someone that deletes games, if they're on there I'd rather just keep them there as I'll prob come back to them later.

A) sxos does require license file that sits on root of sd card. sxos pro comes with this and also don't loose it as u need to buy a new license

5. I perused both of these guides and the github guide says I need to have an eshop game or app on the switch before I begin. I don't -- and that would require me to update the FW again (which I want to avoid.) The other guides I've seen don't mention that I need anything like that on there. But, it's classified as an "important" note before you begin:

"Before setting up the console for homebrew, it is important to have at least one eShop game (such as Onigiri, application (such as Youtube or Hulu), or a game demo... A game cartridge will also work, but note that the cartridge will have to be inserted in order to run homebrew if you wish to go this route. Once you have a game or application, you are prepared to continue on with the guide."
​

What's this about, and do I really need an eshop game or app (I wouldn't want to go the cart route).

A) can you link this as i ve never heard of this

8. F it, I'll use the latest FW's. We need to wait until sxos says it's ok, right? Can we update fw for sxos with Choidujournx or do we wait for sxos to put something out? This is something that's a bit confusing to me (different things work with different OS's and I haven't deciphered what's what yet)

Choidujournx allows you to update the fw offline without burning your fuses and should be the only way u update the fw

avoid burning fuses is important so u can downgrade at any time if you ever need too. and also a better hack may come out that require a certain fw that better like for example not needing dongle or payload loader anymore for example

you stay on a lower fw until everthing is updated for it and u being a busy guy might want to update slowly as all inital bugs that might come from inital release of an update of atmos and sxos and its ok too if ur games don't require it. as games firmware requrie move up really slowing so chances are new games will run on older fw than the current