Hacking N3DS XL lose DS ability?

[lidolinn]

Hi everyone, recently I stumple upon a problem with my N3DS XL Hyrule Edition. I am pretty competent with research, reading and following instruction, but it's been 3 days and I don't know what to do anymore, so I turn to you for help. I thank you and appreciate anyone looking into this issue, thank you in advance.

Upon unboxing, I successfully downgraded this system from 9.9 to 9.2. Setting up emunand with no hiccup using Gateway. I ran the bluecardfix.cia to get the DS mode up and running to use the Gateway Blue card, it work perfectly. Install Mset.cia for the DS Exploit and it work perfectly too.

However, it is annoying to keep unwrapping app between Emunand and Sysnand, I decided to separate the 2 nand. Moving on, I did the system reset, reinstall browser hack and DS Profile. My Sysnand and Emunand are now separated and everything works fine, At this point, after reinstall bluecardfix and launching the Gateway Blue R4 card, the screen just turn completely black, no response at all. I can't get the blue card card to boot DS games anymore.

Just to make it clear, I install bluecardfix.cia and Mset.cia in Gateway Sysnand Mode, and launching blue card in sysnand, that's how I did before and I am actually able to play DS games with it. I have tried formatting/changing SD card. I put the Gateway Blue card into my O3DS XL and it works just fine, where it will just give me a non-responsive black screen in my N3DS.

So I am now at my wit's end, I really don't know if I messed up anything while trying to unlink the 2 nands? Thank you again for reading.

 

[driverdis]

I would follow the OTP guide by @Plailect https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki
This will allow cold-boot CFW (real cold boot, not menuhax)
Grab your OTP then you can setup a real SysNAND CFW that has no issues with gift wrapping or anything like that. if you do not want to dump Gateway for CFW, that can be done also without losing sysNAND CFW.
this will allow you to use the patched TWL_Firm on sysnand and will fix your DS cart booting issues, even older carts like the Acekard and even the original R4 will work, same with the blue card.

 

[Gray_Jack]

I would follow the OTP guide by @Plailect https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki
This will allow cold-boot CFW (real cold boot, not menuhax)
Grab your OTP then you can setup a real SysNAND CFW that has no issues with gift wrapping or anything like that. if you do not want to dump Gateway for CFW, that can be done also without losing sysNAND CFW.
this will allow you to use the patched TWL_Firm on sysnand and will fix your DS cart booting issues, even older carts like the Acekard and even the original R4 will work, same with the blue card.

ALMOST real CFW, real CFW don't need files on SD or any external source, but I think and hope we're close to real CFW

Hi everyone, recently I stumple upon a problem with my N3DS XL Hyrule Edition. I am pretty competent with research, reading and following instruction, but it's been 3 days and I don't know what to do anymore, so I turn to you for help. I thank you and appreciate anyone looking into this issue, thank you in advance.

Upon unboxing, I successfully downgraded this system from 9.9 to 9.2. Setting up emunand with no hiccup using Gateway. I ran the bluecardfix.cia to get the DS mode up and running to use the Gateway Blue card, it work perfectly. Install Mset.cia for the DS Exploit and it work perfectly too.

However, it is annoying to keep unwrapping app between Emunand and Sysnand, I decided to separate the 2 nand. Moving on, I did the system reset, reinstall browser hack and DS Profile. My Sysnand and Emunand are now separated and everything works fine, At this point, after reinstall bluecardfix and launching the Gateway Blue R4 card, the screen just turn completely black, no response at all. I can't get the blue card card to boot DS games anymore.

Just to make it clear, I install bluecardfix.cia and Mset.cia in Gateway Sysnand Mode, and launching blue card in sysnand, that's how I did before and I am actually able to play DS games with it. I have tried formatting/changing SD card. I put the Gateway Blue card into my O3DS XL and it works just fine, where it will just give me a non-responsive black screen in my N3DS.

So I am now at my wit's end, I really don't know if I messed up anything while trying to unlink the 2 nands? Thank you again for reading.

You sure stopped follow the 3DS scene a long time, today we have CFWs, the only thing superior on Gateway is the cheat engine and .3ds/.3dz ROMs.
With CFW you can have Region-Free for 3DS games, DSiWare games, GBA games and Virtual Console games and have Custom (Injection) GBA and VC games
With Arm9LoaderHax (A9LH) you can have a real cold boot with 100% boot rate, and better homebrews for NAND dumps and restore like Decrypt9, Emunand9 and GodMode9 (you can have these 3 with *hax, but you'll need to be on 9.2 sysNAND) and you can have a sysNAND CFW even on 10.7 (and the 7~10 sec boot time makes you have an orgasm the first time you see it)

The MSET exploit is really outdated, I thought you could boot the Gateway with a modified Homebrew Launcher in 9.0~9.2 or use the .3dsx with some *hax (Correct me if I'm wrong about it, cause I never had a Gateway flashcard)

If you want to know, Gateway will bring A9LH support, so just sit and wait if you don't want to use CFW (I think CFWs are better, but each one thinks what they want, so choose what you think is better for you)

 

[driverdis]

@Gray_Jack Real CFW can have files put on an SD Card also. by your logic, the AuReiNAND CFW would be real if arm9loaderhax.bin and the aurei folder were copied to the NAND and read there instead. I see no big reason aureinand or a9lh needs files on the SD card other than to make it easier as people will not need to mess with files on NAND as much. The fact that A9LH installs to FIRM (on the NAND BTW) makes it a real CFW loader by your logic.

 

[tjhooker73]

@Gray_Jack Real CFW can have files put on an SD Card also. by your logic, the AuReiNAND CFW would be real if arm9loaderhax.bin and the aurei folder were copied to the NAND and read there instead. I see no big reason aureinand or a9lh needs files on the SD card other than to make it easier as people will not need to mess with files on NAND as much. The fact that A9LH installs to FIRM (on the NAND BTW) makes it a real CFW loader by your logic.

No. To make it a Custom FirmWare. It would 1 have to be "Custom" little to no code from Nintendo. (Same things were said in the PS3 scene with CFW)
2 it would have to replace the Original Firmware or OS on the system.

 

[Gray_Jack]

@Gray_Jack Real CFW can have files put on an SD Card also. by your logic, the AuReiNAND CFW would be real if arm9loaderhax.bin and the aurei folder were copied to the NAND and read there instead. I see no big reason aureinand or a9lh needs files on the SD card other than to make it easier as people will not need to mess with files on NAND as much. The fact that A9LH installs to FIRM (on the NAND BTW) makes it a real CFW loader by your logic.

No. To make it a Custom FirmWare. It would 1 have to be "Custom" little to no code from Nintendo. (Same things were said in the PS3 scene with CFW)
2 it would have to replace the Original Firmware or OS on the system.

@driverdis, what @tjhooker73 said is the definition of real CFW that I know, like the PSP and PS3 nowadays
By my understanding, that is not much, we only do patches in the reboot (.3dsx/.dat *hax payloads) or on boot (A9LH), but we do not actually change the code of the OS or the Firmware inside the OS

 

[wormdood]

Hi everyone, recently I stumple upon a problem with my N3DS XL Hyrule Edition. I am pretty competent with research, reading and following instruction, but it's been 3 days and I don't know what to do anymore, so I turn to you for help. I thank you and appreciate anyone looking into this issue, thank you in advance.

Upon unboxing, I successfully downgraded this system from 9.9 to 9.2. Setting up emunand with no hiccup using Gateway. I ran the bluecardfix.cia to get the DS mode up and running to use the Gateway Blue card, it work perfectly. Install Mset.cia for the DS Exploit and it work perfectly too.

However, it is annoying to keep unwrapping app between Emunand and Sysnand, I decided to separate the 2 nand. Moving on, I did the system reset, reinstall browser hack and DS Profile. My Sysnand and Emunand are now separated and everything works fine, At this point, after reinstall bluecardfix and launching the Gateway Blue R4 card, the screen just turn completely black, no response at all. I can't get the blue card card to boot DS games anymore.

Just to make it clear, I install bluecardfix.cia and Mset.cia in Gateway Sysnand Mode, and launching blue card in sysnand, that's how I did before and I am actually able to play DS games with it. I have tried formatting/changing SD card. I put the Gateway Blue card into my O3DS XL and it works just fine, where it will just give me a non-responsive black screen in my N3DS.

So I am now at my wit's end, I really don't know if I messed up anything while trying to unlink the 2 nands? Thank you again for reading.

wow i cant believe the al9h hype train is so strong you cant get any real help . . . its a shame. . . as far as i can see your only mistake was installing bluecardfix before unlinking nands
here is a possible solution for you . . . put bluecardfix.cia on your sd card and load emunand then boot fbi highlight bluecardfix and take note of the title id press "L" 1x and "R" 2x and (carefully) select and delete that title then you may install the official whitelist (you can use 3dnus to get it) or try installing the bluecardfix again
this . . . should . . . . work if you still cant play your flashcard look into patched twl firm you can find it on that iso site . . . posted by @Aurora Wright

 

[Deleted-236924]

wow i cant believe the al9h hype train is so strong you cant get any real help . . . its a shame. . . as far as i can see your only mistake was installing bluecardfix before unlinking nands
here is a possible solution for you . . . put bluecardfix.cia on your sd card and load emunand then boot fbi highlight bluecardfix and take note of the title id exit fbi (still in emunand) boot devmenu2x and delete that title
this . . . should . . . . work if you still cant play your flashcard look into patched twl firm you can find it on that iso site . . . posted by @Aurora Wright

I don't think that would work, because devmenu doesn't allow you to uninstall nand titles, and bluecardfix is, to my knowledge, just a low version ds whitelist where the blue card isn't blocked yet.

That, and deleting it would remove the ds whitelist entirely, and I'm not sure but it could cause problems because it very well may be required.

Telling them to use patched twl_firm would only make things worse, because you -must- be running cfw on your system in order for it to work. Install patched twl_firm, it'll automatically brick ds mode when running vanilla sysnand, which is what OP is trying to do right now to run the GW blue card.

Also @lidolinn , it was not necessary to re-install blue card fix after you unlinked nands, because it is installed directly to nand so it isn't lost if you do a system format. Not sure why re-installing it would have messed things up, though. It should either just have replaced it with the same thing that was already working, or prevented you from installing it at all.

I assume your ds mode is bricked, but I wouldn't be able to tell you why nor how to fix it.

Do you have any genuine DS cartridges? Do they also black screen? Or is it only the blue card?

 

[wormdood]

That, and deleting it would remove the ds whitelist entirely, and I'm not sure but it could cause problems because it very well may be required.

it would cause problems . . . sorry i forgot to add reinstalling the official twl firm whitelist

Telling them to use patched twl_firm would only make things worse, because you -must- be running cfw on your system in order for it to work. Install patched twl_firm, it'll automatically brick ds mode when running vanilla sysnand, which is what OP is trying to do right now to run the GW blue card.

oh i did not get that impression the first time i read his question i thought he just wanted it to work regardless of the nand ie emunand would be good enough again my mistake if i misinterpreted . . . but he does mention actually playing games on it and if i remember correctly patched twl firm allows some nonworking dsmode flashcards to work in emunand
also i did say "look into" implying read up on the subject as a possible solution (on his own time)

I don't think that would work, because devmenu doesn't allow you to uninstall nand titles,

really? im pretty sure the version of devmenu i have shows all titles manually installed . . . i could be wrong (now i feel like i gotta check)

 

[SomeGamer]

really? im pretty sure the version of devmenu i have shows all titles manually installed . . . i could be wrong (now i feel like i gotta check)

Only if their titleid is in the App, not in the System range.

 

[wormdood]

Only if their titleid is in the App, not in the System range.

good to know . . . im currently installing .cias so i cant see for myself

so i will remove mention do devmenu from my previous post

 

[lidolinn]

@Ammako & @wormdood

Thank you to you both for your responses and insight.

A little bit more detail at my issue. Now that you two mention it, before separating the Nand and doing research to get my DS mode to work, I got both files and am confused between TWL_FIRM.cia and bluecardfix.cia. By reading the notes, to me, they both seem to do the same thing: to enable old DS flash cart to work. I have no knowledge that they TWL_FIRM is only for CFW and bluecardfix is only for sysNand. So the first time when my DS mode still works, I remember applied bluecardfix.cia in Gateway Sysnand and it worked. I even played roms on it to test it.

After separating the Nand, I thought that a system format would reset the Nand too, so I reapplied bluecardfix.cia .... AND I saw that I have TWL_FIRM next to it, thinking applying it too would not hurt, so I installed both of them. I guess now I know why my DS mode broke. And I don't have a DS cartridges to test currently.

At this point, what is your suggestion to restore the DS mode on my DS? I am open to option and will upgrade/downgrade/CFW/A9LH if it is the only way to fix it. The only reason why I still hold on to my Gateway is .3ds support and I feel that A9LH haven't fully mature yet; it didn't offer much beneficial features for an average Joe like me, who only looking to play 3DS games. Gateway is more convenient for me to just drag and drop the roms onto the microSD.

Thank you,

Edit: Since I am at this, I may as well ask one more question. So as of right now, my sysNand is considered modified due to installing the TWL_FIRM. If I am looking to upgrade/downgrade/A9LH, will it cause any issue?

 

[Deleted-236924]

0004013820000102 is TWL_FIRM for N3DS (http://3dbrew.org/wiki/Title_list), you can get it from 3DNUS.

0004013820000102 v9936

Install it with FBI or devmenu_2x

You can keep bluecardfix installed, it won't hurt. In fact, you'll need it to use the blue card anyway. All it is is a low version of DS Whitelist, official from Nintendo, so it is properly signed and will work without any CFWs to patch out signature checks.

For future reference, if you don't know what patched twl_firm is for, you don't need it. bluecardfix is ds whitelist, which dictates which DS cards are allowed to be run; most flashcards aren't in the whitelist, so you get an error when trying to run them. Patched twl_firm is only if you want to run custom DSiWare, and those are few and far between. Chances are, you'll never even have to run custom DSiWare anyway.

 

[lidolinn]

0004013820000102 is TWL_FIRM for N3DS (http://3dbrew.org/wiki/Title_list), you can get it from 3DNUS.

0004013820000102 v9936

Install it with FBI or devmenu_2x

You can keep bluecardfix installed, it won't hurt. In fact, you'll need it to use the blue card anyway. All it is is a low version of DS Whitelist, official from Nintendo, so it is properly signed and will work without any CFWs to patch out signature checks.

For future reference, if you don't know what patched twl_firm is for, you don't need it. bluecardfix is ds whitelist, which dictates which DS cards are allowed to be run; most flashcards aren't in the whitelist, so you get an error when trying to run them. Patched twl_firm is only if you want to run custom DSiWare, and those are few and far between. Chances are, you'll never even have to run custom DSiWare anyway.

OMG ......... I don't know who you are, but I looove you !!! My DS mode is back and running now, thank you to every one for suggestions and helps, especially @Ammako for going out of your way to offer help.

Thank you : )