Hacking Paranoid, How to avoid Gateway/ DS Two Conflicts

[rad3ds]

I have a DSTwo card, labelled as a 2-in-1, but it was from that odd batch that revealed itself to be a mislabeled DSTwo+ after firmware upgrade, came out around the time the DSTwo+ first launched. I also have a Gateway from way back before CFW was a thing, and I still use it intermittently, and have gateway software installed on my 3ds. (I also happen to have luma cfw installed, I didn't use gateway fastboot, just normal a9lh)

I only want the the DSTwo for DS mode games, I don't care to ever use it as a fake gateway, especially because I actually have a Gateway. I do want to be sure I don't accidentally do anything that pisses off my Gateway Launcher.dat and makes it brick my console, lol.

I worry about doing something like accidentally holding the gateway button combination while booting my console with the DSTwo in my console. Would that surely brick me if I am only using the DSTwo for DS roms? Basically, I don't know how and when the Gateway software performs it's check/ retaliation brick, and I want to play it safe without testing it myself because I'm not currently hard modded so it would be inconvenient to brick.

 

[Mikemk]

The gateway mode is an extra firmware flashed to the ds2, and it has to be activated before launching the exploit. If you never flash the extra firmware (or flash but don't activate), you won't have an issue.
That said, I don't have a gateway, so can't say for certain.

 

[rad3ds]

I may have flashed something, but I'm not sure. I messed about with the fake gateway mode like right when it was brand new then set it aside and haven't touched it in months. If there's a way to check for/ possibly remove the gateway related files from the DSTwo that would be good to know. I'm pretty unfamiliar with the DSTwo in general.

 

[Mikemk]

You can remove the plugin that activates gateway mode by deleting it from the microSD. You cannot (AFAIK) unflash the gateway firmware, but w/o the gateway plugin, it'll never activate.

 

[rad3ds]

That's great! And just to be sure, do we know for sure that gateway's bricker only goes off in the presence of that file? It seems like depending on how aggressive the check is they could code it to go off any time it sees anything remotely resembling an "alex rider stormbreaker" cartridge, or something like that lol.

 

[Mikemk]

That's great! And just to be sure, do we know for sure that gateway's bricker only goes off in the presence of that file? It seems like depending on how aggressive the check is they could code it to go off any time it sees anything remotely resembling an "alex rider stormbreaker" cartridge, or something like that lol.

I believe it bricks whenever it sees a gateway clone, which the DS2 is not unless you activate the gateway firmware. It changes the DS2's FPGA, so it technically is different hardware when you activate the GW firmware. The DS2 should not register as a clone any more than a retail cartridge would, but again, I don't have a gateway.

 

[rad3ds]

Either way I'll avoid having the DSTwo plugged in while doing anything gateway mode related. I just worry about user error. Maybe I'll test different usage scenarios out if I ever get around to hard modding.