It's here!

​

Info

@Normmatt has created a way to run B9S .firm files from bootrom via a DSi Flashcard and a magnet! This works on every 3DS on any firmware version.

For installation without a PC, user @TheCyberQuake has created a pack which will automatically install B9S and copy over essential starter homebrew from the flashcard's SD to the 3DS's. This will mainly be used for PC-less B9S installations. If you have a PC with you, use 3ds.guide. Read more here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/481141/

How does this work?

This works because of a flaw in the bootrom. Before the bootrom boots the NAND, it checks to see if Start+Select+X is held down, and if the shell is closed. If these requirements are met, it will boot an NDS cartridge from the bootrom. This give that cartridge bootrom access. You might be wondering how you'd hold down buttons while the shell is closed, and why you need a magnet. If you put a magnet in a specific spot on the 3DS, it will go into sleep mode. Using this, you can boot the NDS cartridge with the buttons held down while in sleep mode! Using a reflashable flashcard, you can boot B9SInstaller using the flashcard, and easily install it on your 3DS.

The 2DS doesn't need a magnet since a switch puts it to sleep instead of a magnet.

What does this mean?

1. Any 3DS model on any firmware can be hacked with minimal effort
2. You can unbrick any 3DS model from any type of brick.
   - Remember, you don't need a NAND backup for this. Just do a CTRTransfer.
   - This does not apply to MCU bricks.
3. Even consoles with fried NAND, or even the NAND chip physically removed, can use this

This is incredibly impressive stuff, and will most likely be released soon! edit: now!

FAQ

Q: Can Nintendo patch this?
A: Nope! Not without a new hardware revision.

Q: My flashcard is blocked by my firmware! Can I still use this?
A: Yes! The flashcard blacklist is not enabled on the bootrom.

Q: Why can't this work with my flashcard?
A: The installation requires you to flash NTRBoot to the flashcard's nand. Most DS flashcards, such as the original R4, have a ROM, which is not flashable.

Q: Can I install NTRBoot on my flashcard without another 3DS system?
A: If you can run NDS roms on your 3DS with it, then yes. If it's blocked on your 3DS version, then you'll need another 3DS system to use it.

Q: Will my 3DS flashcard work?
A: No, only the NDSi flashcards listed above.

Q: Will any other flash cards work?
A: Only the ones listed in the OP. However keep in mind that flashcards such as the DSTT, Supercard DS2 and R4 SDHC Dualcore are planned to be supported in the future.

Q: I tried to do this with my cartridge and it didn't work?
A: It doesn't work with regular DS cards.

Q: Can I unbrick from a ____ brick?
A: Considering the card has access to the bootrom, yes! This can unbrick any brick (except MCU), unless you've taken a knife to the motherboard.

Q: Can I install B9S on the latest firmware with this?
A: Again, since the card has access to the bootrom, you can do this easily! Just plug in your flashcard, boot up using the magnet and button combination, and install.

Q: Does this work on the New Nintendo 2DS XL?
A: Yes!

Release
Guide
Free NTRBoot Flashing
Free B9S Installations

Here is SciresM's post about this

Please see SciresM's presentation on bootromhax.​

 

[linuxares]

so turns out my successful dump and flash was a failure, luckily no brick.

the dump was all FFFFFFs but the card still works as normal.

i can't get it to dump again, tried another dozen or so times. updated to 0.1.1 release as well.

What does the icon look like? Your file should NOT include a loads of FFFFFFF
If you wanna make sure, you can do a double backup by using Decrypt9WIP and the NDS Cart part to do a backup. They're the same.

 

[slipzz]

Hey guys my r4i gold card says "V6.1"

Is this a problem or is it still supported?

 

[Redferne]

Well then they should've worked on that more before release. People were excited due to infinite Homebrew (since it works on all versions) and unbricks, but what's so exciting about a release of a program that basically does the same thing as the DSIware exploit? We could've just done that while waiting.

Yeah except you don't need a dsiware game, to hack and transfer a save and to use system transfer.
Once the card is done you don't need the second 3DS anymore, you can use it whenever you want.

So still not as convenient as 11.3 and soundhax but it's a lot better than the DSiware method.

 

[VashTS]

What does the icon look like? Your file should NOT include a loads of FFFFFFF
If you wanna make sure, you can do a double backup by using Decrypt9WIP and the NDS Cart part to do a backup. They're the same.

I've already did the backup with decrypt 9 and it looks good. for some reason this program just does not like my cart. i think it may be contact related so i'm going to try to tinker with it. i had to put a little piece of plastic in it a long time ago to get it to read properly.

currently the ak2i logo is showing when i load the 3ds and the cart is inserted. it previously was pippel funnel or w/e the game name was. the cart still works like normal and akaio boots just fine.

want to add that i get differing chipid and hw rev all the time, even without touching the cart in the slot at all. one time it can read:

ChipID: B80A70FF
HW Rev: B80A70FF

and when "successful" it read the HW rev as 81818181

 

[linuxares]

I've already did the backup with decrypt 9 and it looks good. for some reason this program just does not like my cart. i think it may be contact related so i'm going to try to tinker with it. i had to put a little piece of plastic in it a long time ago to get it to read properly.

currently the ak2i logo is showing when i load the 3ds and the cart is inserted. it previously was pippel funnel or w/e the game name was. the cart still works like normal and akaio boots just fine.

want to add that i get differing chipid and hw rev all the time, even without touching the cart in the slot at all. one time it can read:

ChipID: B80A70FF
HW Rev: B80A70FF

and when successful it read the HW rev as 81818181

Then it should be NTR flashed. If you feel it's not, try to restore and try again with version 0.1.1. As you can see it worked for me. I also scraped my contacts with a clean tshirt. If that now did anything I don't know.

 

[Creatable]

Yeah except you don't need a dsiware game, to hack and transfer a save and to use system transfer.
Once the card is done you don't need the second 3DS anymore, you can use it whenever you want.

So still not as convenient as 11.3 and soundhax but it's a lot better than the DSiware method.

The thing is though, who's gonna buy a second 3DS just for this? The only reason this was important was because it works on all versions.
Another thing is, if you have a hacked 3DS, then what's the point of hacking the other one? Seriously. Think about it. I mean, it is easy to hack the other one with this, and that might be useful in some cases, but you can just use the original one for whatever Homebrew you need, and you can keep the other to avoid being banned. I will never need this until the powersaves method is released, or if there's a method that only requires the flash cart.

 

[VashTS]

Then it should be NTR flashed. If you feel it's not, try to restore and try again with version 0.1.1. As you can see it worked for me. I also scraped my contacts with a clean tshirt. If that now did anything I don't know.

It's not flashed, the cart shouldn't function as normal if it was correctly flashed.

Oh well I have a DS2 so maybe one day if that works I'll have the 3ds master key.

 

[linuxares]

It's not flashed, the cart shouldn't function as normal if it was correctly flashed.

Oh well I have a DS2 so maybe one day if that works I'll have the 3ds master key.

Mine works normally and I can still boot boot.firm (unhacked 3DS) it fine for reasons unknown to me. Except on my launch 3DS that is butt old it shows me an error when I try to boot it (It's on a really old version as well).

 

[sansnumen]

I'm a bit curious here. If you use a powerful magnet, like those neodymium magnets they sell at Home Depot, is there a possibility to damage a 3DS? I've seen in the 3DS manual that you should not stack 2 or more systems that are both in sleep mode or the 3DS may be damaged and sleep mode will stop working. Any insight would be helpful.

 

[Redferne]

The thing is though, who's gonna buy a second 3DS just for this? The only reason this was important was because it works on all versions.
Another thing is, if you have a hacked 3DS, then what's the point of hacking the other one? Seriously. Think about it. I mean, it is easy to hack the other one with this, and that might be useful in some cases, but you can just use the original one for whatever Homebrew you need, and you can keep the other to avoid being banned. I will never need this until the powersaves method is released, or if there's a method that only requires the flash cart.

Yeah you're missing the point... I let you think about it.

 

[VashTS]

Mine works normally and I can still boot boot.firm (unhacked 3DS) it fine for reasons unknown to me. Except on my launch 3DS that is butt old it shows me an error when I try to boot it (It's on a really old version as well).

well then maybe it does work. i thought it boots whatever is flashed to the cart not what is on SD card.

So once installed, you hold select+start+X with the magnet on there and it boots boot.firm from sd card? i can put a different file there instead of luma to test i suppose. but it would prob just boot anyway since i have b9s installed on this n3dsxl

 

[Redferne]

well then maybe it does work. i thought it boots whatever is flashed to the cart not what is on SD card.

So once installed, you hold select+start+X with the magnet on there and it boots boot.firm from sd card? i can put a different file there instead of luma to test i suppose. but it would prob just boot anyway since i have b9s installed on this n3dsxl

Basically the flashed NDS card replace B9S to load a boot.firm on your SD card. So any boot.firm like godmode9.firm renamed boot.firm should work.

 

[linuxares]

well then maybe it does work. i thought it boots whatever is flashed to the cart not what is on SD card.

So once installed, you hold select+start+X with the magnet on there and it boots boot.firm from sd card? i can put a different file there instead of luma to test i suppose. but it would prob just boot anyway since i have b9s installed on this n3dsxl

Yeah should work. Put like Godmode9 instead and try.

 

[VashTS]

Yeah should work. Put like Godmode9 instead and try.

I'll grab my laptop later so if i need a pc to change the files around i have access. i was about to do it all on the 3ds but then realized if i rename Luma's boot.firm to like boot.firm.backup and then this doesn't load then i can't test any further

unless i grab my laptop

 

[Metalik]

This flasher thing is super buggy. It doesn't want to recognize my AK2i. I can run AKAIO on it, so it must be genuine.
Mine is AK2i-81

 

[RedBlueGreen]

I've already did the backup with decrypt 9 and it looks good. for some reason this program just does not like my cart. i think it may be contact related so i'm going to try to tinker with it. i had to put a little piece of plastic in it a long time ago to get it to read properly.

currently the ak2i logo is showing when i load the 3ds and the cart is inserted. it previously was pippel funnel or w/e the game name was. the cart still works like normal and akaio boots just fine.

want to add that i get differing chipid and hw rev all the time, even without touching the cart in the slot at all. one time it can read:

ChipID: B80A70FF
HW Rev: B80A70FF

and when "successful" it read the HW rev as 81818181

Does Decrypt9 back up the same way as the NTRBOOT installer?

 

[linuxares]

Does Decrypt9 back up the same way as the NTRBOOT installer?

When I compare the files, yes. It does.

 

[Redferne]

When I compare the files, yes. It does.

What's the size of your backup.bin file?

 

[Ashachu]

\\

 

[linuxares]

What's the size of your backup.bin file?

16,0 MB (16 777 216 bytes)