Hacking [PoC] 3DS Region Changing + proof

[kiryu1]

Alright.

the CFW launcher only works with 4.X emuNANDs. Any higher will not work with it. However, it DOES patch out the 3ds's checks for improperly signed games. This means devmenu and the things it installs works.
The MT launcher (classic mode) works with all 4.X+ emuNANDs. It does NOT patch out the 3ds's checks for unsigned games, and thus devMenu won't run, nor the games it installed. Basically, if you want to use devmenu and install games (without gateway), you have to stay on 4.5 and use CFW. If you want a 9.4 emuNAND, you will need a second SD card somewhere. There is a guide on the forums right now.

Thanks, I just wanna use classic mode for playing newer games and imports without losing my 4.5 fw..

 

[Sonicx64]

It would be pretty bad ass if you could take a Japanese New regular 3DS and inject American New 3DS SYSNAND into it. It'd be one of a kind now that the regular system is not scheduled to be released in North America for the time being.

 

[mvmiranda]

How to NAND mod:

1. Take apart
2. Solder wires to all points
3. ???
4. Brick your New 3ds
5. Buy a new one.
...

AhAHhAhAHhA!
I'll leave it to the pros

 

[tony_2018]

It would be pretty bad ass if you could take a Japanese New regular 3DS and inject American New 3DS SYSNAND into it. It'd be one of a kind now that the regular system is not scheduled to be released in North America for the time being.

I thought it was scheduled for release in the month of Feb, Feb 11th.

 

[Sonicx64]

I thought it was scheduled for release in the month of Feb, Feb 11th.

The New 3DS XL is scheduled for February 13th. But the regular sized New 3DS is not releasing in the Americas.

 

[tony_2018]

The New 3DS XL is scheduled for February 13th. But the regular sized New 3DS is not releasing in the Americas.

Got it.

 

[SpongeFreak52]

Oh man, this is great news! All that's holding me to my current XL rather than my AUS N3DS is StreetPass data, so this is definitely something I'll be keeping my eye on. Awesome work!

 

[ubergeek77]

I'm interested in why a 4.x 3DS is required. The result of this region change is a region changed emuNAND, which, as we know, can be installed on a 9.2 3DS. OP mentions having this prepared before the newer Gateway exploit, but hasn't yet indicated it's possible on a 9.2 3DS. Perhaps the reason this requires 4.x is because a 9.2 NAND image can't be properly decrypted yet, and in order to apply the region change, you'd need to decrypt your NAND, apply the region change, and re-encrypt it for your specific hardware. And in order to modify the NAND image and still have it working on your specific hardware (as NANDs are hardware-sepcific), we need a 4.x image as it is the only firmware that can be properly modified. But after the region has been changed, you can just update it and it will work. This is all my speculation, of course.

A lot of people (myself included) are specifically interested in this because we've imported our New3DSes. We did this for Gateway, yes, however I'm more glad I imported mine after finding out the US won't be getting the normal-sized New3DS (not at launch, at least). I'd be very happy if I could do an emuNAND to emuNAND system transfer (which we've recently learned is possible), but that would require both emuNANDs to be of the same region and up to date.

So here's what I want to know: when Gateway support for the New3DS comes out, what would need to be done in order to change the region of the emuNAND partition? We of course can't downgrade the New3DS all the way to 4.5, reason being the newer updates have provided support for the super-stable 3D and other hardware-related things. But still, how could it be done? Purely hypothetical, of course. Which is to say, even if it isn't possible, what would the process be (within reason) if we could do everything?

Thinking about this, I came up with a completely ludicrous solution that won't work out of the bounds of my imagination, but I'd like to share it. Assuming you can't downgrade the sysNAND of the New3DS to 4.5, let's hypothetically try the following:

• Dump your NAND image on your New3DS
• Create your emuNAND partition
• Copy the NAND image to a computer
• Using a program, attempt to "downgrade" the NAND image in a similar fashion to Gateway's downgrade method
• (This probably won't run on the New3DS, even if you inject it into the emuNAND, but we've "downgraded" this image so that it retains compatibility for our hardware)
• Now that you have a "4.5" New3DS NAND image, make whichever modifications necessary to it to change the region.
• Using black magic, update that newly region-changed NAND image. Yes, from the computer. Using a program. That doesn't exist.
• Use Hex Workshop to inject that NAND image to the MicroSD card's emuNAND partition
• ???
• You now have a "working" region-changed emuNAND partition /s

You guys I promise I'm not insane.

 

[einstein95]

So, judging by what Cearp has said earlier in the thread, I take it that even though the 3DS is region-changed, it still can't access the eShop due to needing the serial from that region 3DS. eg. If I were to have a JP emuNAND on my EU 3DS, I'd need a serial from a JP 3DS.

 

[michyprima]

So, judging by what Cearp has said earlier in the thread, I take it that even though the 3DS is region-changed, it still can't access the eShop due to needing the serial from that region 3DS. eg. If I were to have a JP emuNAND on my EU 3DS, I'd need a serial from a JP 3DS.

Wouldn't be an issue for me as I have an EU 3DS XL to take the serial from

 

[codychaosx]

Really hope this can be made to work on n3ds!!! Thanks again for all your work for the scene. I truly enjoy seeing the different things you've figured out and discovered.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I asked this in the noob thread yesterday but didn't get a response, perhaps this would be a more appropriate place? I'm sure this is something I should be able to find the answer to myself, but I can't—I'm just learning all of this now and everything is a bit hard to break into.

I'm a North American 3DS user who buys all his games from the eShop and has no interest in piracy. I want to buy a normal-sized New 3DS, but Nintendo is only releasing the "XL" sized N3DS in my region.

In theory, is there anything stopping me from:

1) Buying a North American New 3DS XL, a European New 3DS (non-XL), and a Gateway
2) Dumping the NAND of the North American New 3DS XL.
3) Writing said NAND to my European New 3DS (non-XL).
4) Updating the flashed, European New 3DS to the latest firmware, doing a system transfer from my old North American 3DS (OG), and using the North American eShop normally.

I'm assuming the answer is no, or this thread wouldn't exist in the first place. But I'd like to understand why, so I have an idea of how to proceed in terms of purchases.

 

[michyprima]

I asked this in the noob thread yesterday but didn't get a response, perhaps this would be a more appropriate place? I'm sure this is something I should be able to find the answer to myself, but I can't—I'm just learning all of this now and everything is a bit hard to break into.

I'm a North American 3DS user who buys all his games from the eShop and has no interest in piracy. I want to buy a normal-sized New 3DS, but Nintendo is only releasing the "XL" sized N3DS in my region.

In theory, is there anything stopping me from:

1) Buying a North American New 3DS XL, a European New 3DS (non-XL), and a Gateway
2) Dumping the NAND of the North American New 3DS XL.
3) Writing said NAND to my European New 3DS (non-XL).
4) Updating the flashed, European New 3DS to the latest firmware, doing a system transfer from my old North American 3DS (OG), and using the North American eShop normally.

I'm assuming the answer is no, or this thread wouldn't exist in the first place. But I'd like to understand why, so I have an idea of how to proceed in terms of purchases.

your assumption is wrong. is never that easy

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I know that, but would you mind explaining why, or at least point me in the right direction? I'd like to understand what's actually going on here.

Surely, on a hardware level, different region 3DS's are the same, right?

 

[michyprima]

I know that, but would you mind explaining why, or at least point me in the right direction? I'd like to understand what's actually going on here.

Surely, on a hardware level, different region 3DS's are the same, right?

the nand is encrypted with the unique key each 3ds has. you cannot flash it as it is on another 3ds as it wouldn't know what to do with it basically.

 

[ubergeek77]

1) Buying a North American New 3DS XL, a European New 3DS (non-XL), and a Gateway
2) Dumping the NAND of the North American New 3DS XL.
3) Writing said NAND to my European New 3DS (non-XL).
4) Updating the flashed, European New 3DS to the latest firmware, doing a system transfer from my old North American 3DS (OG), and using the North American eShop normally.

I'm assuming the answer is no, or this thread wouldn't exist in the first place. But I'd like to understand why, so I have an idea of how to proceed in terms of purchases.

You can't use the NAND from one 3DS on another 3DS. Even between two systems in the same region, NAND images are hardware-specific and simply can't be used on anything other than the 3DS it came from. In addition, you're assuming the launch New3DSes will be exploitable, and that's very much possible given shipment times, the release date of 9.3, and that rumor that Gamestop got shipments in November, but still - you can't guarantee it will be exploitable.

If you're that much against piracy, but you want to import a New3DS (I have the AUS model and I highly recommend it), your only option is to buy the game cartridges from here on out, and use a <4.5 normal 3DS to dump and convert your cartridges to .cia format. You can then use those on your New 3DS' emuNAND. Alternatively, you can still import the New3DS, forget your old games, and buy EUR eShop games from now on.

However, I don't know if you can get a New3DS imported with 9.2 or below. Someone else is going to have to clarify on that, but it's been a while since 9.3 was released, so you probably waited too long to buy one.

 

[michyprima]

You can't use the NAND from one 3DS on another 3DS. Even between two systems in the same region, NAND images are hardware-specific and simply can't be used on anything other than the 3DS it came from. In addition, you're assuming the launch New3DSes will be exploitable, and that's very much possible given shipment times, the release date of 9.3, and that rumor that Gamestop got shipments in November, but still - you can't guarantee it will be exploitable.

If you're that much against piracy, but you want to import a New3DS (I have the AUS model and I highly recommend it), your only option is to buy the game cartridges from here on out, and use a <4.5 normal 3DS to dump and convert your cartridges to .cia format. You can then use those on your New 3DS' emuNAND. Alternatively, you can still import the New3DS, forget your old games, and buy EUR eShop games from now on.

However, I don't know if you can get a New3DS imported with 9.2 or below. Someone else is going to have to clarify on that, but it's been a while since 9.3 was released, so you probably waited too long to buy one.

My jap n3ds shipped a week ago. I really hope the EU 3DS will be on 9.3 or later or I'll be an idiot for what I did lol

 

[yoshi6300]

Wow dude that's amazing work. I'm really looking forward to the release

 

[Wowfunhappy]

You can't use the NAND from one 3DS on another 3DS. Even between two systems in the same region, NAND images are hardware-specific and simply can't be used on anything other than the 3DS it came from.

Thanks, this was the piece of information I was missing.

Perhaps I'm being foolhardy, but I feel quite confident N3DS's are going to come out with pre-9.2 firmware. Nintendo almost certainly began manufacturing these systems ages ago, and apparently ambassador 3DS's have been coming with Firmware 9.0 and 9.1. The issue for me is I buy almost all my titles on the eShop, so there's no cartridges for me to rip.

Anyway, thanks again. I'm watching this thread closely and I hope I didn't derail the conversation too far!

 

[boomie0123]

You can't use the NAND from one 3DS on another 3DS. Even between two systems in the same region, NAND images are hardware-specific and simply can't be used on anything other than the 3DS it came from.

So then... How hardware specific are we talking? Could you potentially open up your NA N3DS XL and take the hardware specific parts out and try and make it fit into the N3DS from a different country? ... Or something like that, because just cramming the N3DS XL into a N3DS wouldn't make much sense.