Hacking Luma3DS - Noob-proof 3DS Custom Firmware

[4gionz]

Can someone help me, I basically went through the entire A9LH installation then LUMA install awhile back (extensive but worked like a charm with a few hiccups) then I stopped using my OD3XL. Now Im trying to go back and cant remember how the hell this works? I dont want to screw something up being too impatient. What I mean is,

1. How do I know if I am on CFW EMUNAND or SYSNAND? From what I remember with A9LH it boots straight into EMUNAND - I am on 11.X but can someone confirm?
2. If the above is true since it has been awhile I want to update LUMA to the latest, I heard I can easily do this with Luma updater. HOw do I do this? LUMA is obviously installed on my BIG SD card but how do I do this?
3. Once I do the above I want to upgrade to the latest EMUNAND that it supports ( I assume the latest?) Then I can get my Pokemon Moon
4. Any real reason to get a N3DSXL and go through all this madness again? If so can I do a system transfer from O3DXL to N3dXL?
5. What is max version of N3dXL that at this can A9LH and LUMA can be installed?

Sorry for all the questions but hopefully some can be answered. Thanks for your time.

1. Download the latest luma from the op and place arm9loaderhax.bin on your sd (overwriting your current one)
2. Now that luma has been updated hold select while booting to get to luma settings, if you want emunand leave *boot directly to sysnand* unchecked.
3. make sure to turn on show Nand or user string in system setting.(now when checking settings it will say *sys* if in sysnand and *emu* if in emunand). Either way since you have arm9loaderhax you can update to the latest on each
4. Install freeshop and download Pokemon moon/sun
5.install luma updater so as to not worry about this next time.
6.my own personal suggestion is to download the amazing app homebr3w which will let you download freeshop/ciangel/luma updater and every other home brew released for 3ds directly installing to home screen it's amazing and will let you update all home brew apps in the future without fuss


Ps: once arm9loaderhax is installed you can always update to the latest firmware with luma but a9lh itself can only be installed on 9.2 systems, not sure if this answered your last question but I tried my best

 

[doesntmatterz]

1. Download the latest luma from the op and place arm9loaderhax.bin on your sd (overwriting your current one)
2. Now that luma has been updated hold select while booting to get to luma settings, if you want emunand leave *boot directly to sysnand* unchecked.
3. make sure to turn on show Nand or user string in system setting.(now when checking settings it will say *sys* if in sysnand and *emu* if in emunand). Either way since you have arm9loaderhax you can update to the latest on each
4. Install freeshop and download Pokemon moon/sun
5.install luma updater so as to not worry about this next time.
6.my own personal suggestion is to download the amazing app homebr3w which will let you download freeshop/ciangel/luma updater and every other home brew released for 3ds directly installing to home screen it's amazing and will let you update all home brew apps in the future without fuss


Ps: once arm9loaderhax is installed you can always update to the latest firmware with luma but a9lh itself can only be installed on 9.2 systems, not sure if this answered your last question but I tried my best

You my friend are a god send, thank you that makes sense. 1 new question. What is "freeshop"? I see this new terminology that spawned since the announcement of Pokemon Moon. WHy get Pokemon from there as opposed to a "source" with CIA?

 

[4gionz]

You my friend are a god send, thank you that makes sense. 1 new question. What is "freeshop"? I see this new terminology that spawned since the announcement of Pokemon Moon. WHy get Pokemon from there as opposed to a "source" with CIA?

Freeshop is an app for your 3ds that downloads and installs games directly from your 3ds!! It installs them from nintnedos servers so it's super easy and really fast. Much faster than downloading from the Internet then transferring to sd then installing.

The only thing you'll have to do after installing freeshop is manually add the "titlekeywebsite" in the options so as to update the game list every time a new game comes out. But that's as simple as clicking the qr code option from withthin freeshop settings and then scanning the qr code on the actual website. If you can find the website just google 3ds titlekey website and the qr code for the enctitlekey will be on there.

Once you've done that every time you open freeshop it will update the app itself along with the database so everything will ALWAYS be up to date. It really is the most fantastic tool in the 3ds scene. It also allows for downloads of dlc

Ps: ciangel is a non gui (text based) version that does the same, I suggest installing them both and seeing which one is your favourite

 

[Ailuros27]

I just updated to Luma 6.6 via the latest StarUpdater CIA and now Luma won't load at all via menuhax. It just freezes at the boot manager when it tries to load luma. So I removed my N3DS SD Card and manually updated, and it still does the same thing. What's going on?
It also doesn't load through the homebrew launcher.
I deleted the config and now it loads via the 3dsx. But it still won't load through the boot manager. Whatever it is, it's some sort of incompatibility between arm9loaderhax.bin and my boot manager or something.
I just went back to my last known good version (6.2.3 dev) and it works through the boot manager now. But before it just froze or gave a black screen.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

Just wanna thank everyone involved in this project.

Hope there is a way to load 3ds files without gateway don't have to rely on gateway for anything anymore if that happens.

 

[Arkansaw]

6.6 has some issue with mset-spider entry point install. Switched to 6.3 then install works, and able to upgrade to 6.6. This is on 4.x sysnand

 

[Ailuros27]

What do you mean by "install"? Nothing is installed. The config format might be changed. Is that what you mean? I'm on 9.2 using menuhax.

 

[cravas]

Just wanna thank everyone involved in this project.

Hope there is a way to load 3ds files without gateway don't have to rely on gateway for anything anymore if that happens.

No, there is not.
Only way to run 3ds files is with a flashcard (Gateway, Sky3DS, DSTwo+, etc).

On A9LH, you can install ALL the games you want (or fit in your SD or to the 300 limit of the Home Menu) in CIA version.
No other way around it.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

No, there is not.
Only way to run 3ds files is with a flashcard (Gateway, Sky3DS, DSTwo+, etc).

On A9LH, you can install ALL the games you want (or fit in your SD or to the 300 limit of the Home Menu) in CIA version.
No other way around it.

Thought 3DS can only ready 32GB max

 

[Ailuros27]

Okay. I think it was the "offset option" in the boot manager. That, or the boot manager just doesn't like loading arm9loaderhax.bin. Either way, I changed my boot.config to load the 3dsx from the /3ds folder and removed the "offset" line from that entry in the boot manager. Now it works.

 

[Joom]

Thought 3DS can only ready 32GB max

No, it can go up to 128 GB.

 

[cravas]

Thought 3DS can only ready 32GB max

No, it can go up to 128 GB.

Only thing you have to do is format the SD card with FAT32 (32Kb or 64Kb Cluster size).

Windows won't do this (above 64Gb, it will always format in exFAT or NTFS) so you have to use a 3rd party formatter or the Emunand9 payload from A9LH console.

 

[ihaveahax]

No, it can go up to 128 GB.

the 3DS in theory seems to support sizes up to 2.19 terabytes, though nobody has tested cards that large. I think someone has tried a 200/256gb card before though.

the Emunand9 payload from A9LH console

one note: EmuNAND9 now always uses 32k clusters. if you want 64k, use GodMode9 or some other PC tool.

 

[cravas]

the 3DS in theory seems to support sizes up to 2.19 terabytes, though nobody has tested cards that large. I think someone has tried a 200/256gb card before though.

one note: EmuNAND9 now always uses 32k clusters. if you want 64k, use GodMode9 or some other PC tool.

Yeah, I remembre seeing it mentioned by d0k3 but forgot to write above.

Thank you for correction.

 

[IceyGamer]

So I I've been using ARM9 and Luma for a week now and everything I needed from it has been going flawless. Recently I wanted to mess with Decrypt9 and the way for me to do that is to run it using the payload chaining method. My issue however, no matter what I do it ignores the payload commands and launches straight into my home menu. Anyone know how to fix that?

 

[LongLiveTheKing]

I'm using menuhax do how do i update to the current luma? It has been awhile for me.

 

[cravas]

So I I've been using ARM9 and Luma for a week now and everything I needed from it has been going flawless. Recently I wanted to mess with Decrypt9 and the way for me to do that is to run it using the payload chaining method. My issue however, no matter what I do it ignores the payload commands and launches straight into my home menu. Anyone know how to fix that?

You have to rename the Decrypt9WIP.bin to (for eg.) x_D9.bin and put it inside the /luma/payloads folder (on SD where your start_hourglass9.bin is).
Then you launch it by pressing X before you boot the console (you have to keep it pressed while booting).
Decrypt9 will launch.

If you use it to restore SysNAND backups, make sure to ALWAYS use the "keep A9LH" funtion or you might loose A9LH if you install a pre-A9LH NAND backup.

 

[IceyGamer]

You have to rename the Decrypt9WIP.bin to (for eg.) x_D9.bin and put it inside the /luma/payloads folder (on SD where your start_hourglass9.bin is).
Then you launch it by pressing X before you boot the console (you have to keep it pressed while booting).
Decrypt9 will launch.

If you use it to restore SysNAND backups, make sure to ALWAYS use the "keep A9LH" funtion or you might loose A9LH if you install a pre-A9LH NAND backup.

I tried just that! And still it just ignores it completely. Even hourglass won't open using it now. I don't get what happened because I used this method when installing arm9, yet it won't work now.

 

[cravas]

I tried just that! And still it just ignores it completely. Even hourglass won't open using it now. I don't get what happened because I used this method when installing arm9, yet it won't work now.

Do you have a files9 folder on SD root? And inside it, do you have a aeskeydb.bin file?

If not, you have to get it from the guide.

 

[IceyGamer]

Do you have a files9 folder on SD root? And inside it, do you have a aeskeydb.bin file?

If not, you have to get it from the guide.

Yup thats there. Here is a photo just so you can see what the folders are looking like and what they have.