Hacking Quick Question About Gateway A9LH

[MDashK]

(hope i'm posting in right section)
I've been "away" from the 3DS scene for a while now and I've been thinking about doing a little "update" to my 3DS.

I have a 3DSXL running firmware v4.5, using MSET exploit with Gateway.
I'm aware of the A9LH and some of the CFW that use this exploit to run, and I'm also aware that Gateway has released their version of the A9LH exploit. And I'm thinking about "updating" my 3DS to use this A9LH Gateway method.

Right now, in my setup, I have 3 SD cards in use:
1) With emuNAND, some games and using it with Gateway RED card;
2) With emuNAND, updated to access the eShop without issues (most not be updated to the lates firm. anymore ... haven't used it in quite a while...)
3) PastaCFW card to run GBA_FIRM mode games (mostly).

So, my question is: If I update my 3DSXL to use the A9LH Gateway method, will I be able to use the GBA_FIRM mode games in this exploit?
I ask this because, as everyone knows, you can't use th GBA_FIRM mode in v4.5 MSET Gateway exploit mode...

Thanks!
BR,

 

[Quantumcat]

TL;DNR version: don't use the gateway method, you still won't be able to use GBA. Use the community method then re-enable use of your red card with it.

Long version:
Do not use the Gateway method.

1. It's dangerous, and you stand a good chance of bricking your console (it leaves out important safety steps)
2. You can't use any of the good features of a9lh which include:
a) being able to unbrick without hardmod
b) being able to use updated sysNAND and be able to update without brick
c) being able to play GBA and DSiWare games
d) thanks to Luma, being able to play them without patches
e) access to useful payloads on boot like decrypt9 and hourglass9
3. If you use Gateway's method, your console will never boot without the red card. If your red card breaks or you lose it, your console is effectively a brick. Not to mention it now has $0 sell value.

Community method: https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki

 

[MDashK]

Nice. Thanks for the reply.
So, when you mention "re-enable use of your red card with it.": does it mean there is a community way to have all those methods and functions available, but also use the Gateway menu for use with Red card (meaning: enabling that menu to select the ROM in the red card)?

 

[kamesenin888]

TL;DNR version: don't use the gateway method, you still won't be able to use GBA. Use the community method then re-enable use of your red card with it.

Long version:
Do not use the Gateway method.

1. It's dangerous, and you stand a good chance of bricking your console (it leaves out important safety steps)
2. You can't use any of the good features of a9lh which include:
a) being able to unbrick without hardmod
b) being able to use updated sysNAND and be able to update without brick
c) being able to play GBA and DSiWare games
d) thanks to Luma, being able to play them without patches
e) access to useful payloads on boot like decrypt9 and hourglass9
3. If you use Gateway's method, your console will never boot without the red card. If your red card breaks or you lose it, your console is effectively a brick. Not to mention it now has $0 sell value.

Community method: https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/wiki

1 its true as of right now
2 a false you can use the gateway menu to restore a nand file
2 b partially false( you can use the updated sysnand but you cannot update sysnand with gateway)
2 c true
2 d true
2 e true
3 super false, the gateway menu can recover without the use of the red card, you even have the otp.bin to use a9lh and can use cfw easily with that file

But as of right now its better to use the a9lh from the community and gateway a9lh implementation to be able to use updated sysnand with gateway and update the sysnand with luma, use luma for gba and dsi and gateway for cheats and .3ds files, you have all the perks without too much hastle

 

[evandixon]

Not to mention even Gateway says not to use it without a hard mod. "DISCLAIMER: Files on this page should be treated with extreme care and only used by advanced users who have access to a way to restore their 3DS NAND. Users should have a valid/known good copy of their NAND before proceeding! Use at your own risk!"

 

[Quantumcat]

Nice. Thanks for the reply.
So, when you mention "re-enable use of your red card with it.": does it mean there is a community way to have all those methods and functions available, but also use the Gateway menu for use with Red card (meaning: enabling that menu to select the ROM in the red card)?

Yes. There's a thread called using Gateway with v2 a9lh or similar that tells you what to do after installing a9lh using Plailect's guide.

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2 b partially false( you can use the updated sysnand but you cannot update sysnand with gateway)

Actually, nothing is stopping you from doing so - and you'll get a nice big BRICK for your troubles!

2 a false you can use the gateway menu to restore a nand file

And if you're bricked, how are you going to use the Gateway menu?
And you can't use Decrypt9, EmuNAND9 etc.

3 super false, the gateway menu can recover without the use of the red card, you even have the otp.bin to use a9lh and cfw from the process

Only if you keep a backup of your NAND prior to the install, which AFAIK Gateway does not advise you to do.

 

[kamesenin888]

Yes. There's a thread called using Gateway with v2 a9lh or similar that tells you what to do after installing a9lh using Plailect's guide.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Actually, nothing is stopping you from doing so - and you'll get a nice big BRICK for your troubles!


And if you're bricked, how are you going to use the Gateway menu?
And you can't use Decrypt9, EmuNAND9 etc.




Only if you keep a backup of your NAND prior to the install, which AFAIK Gateway does not advise you to do.

If you are bricked the console will boot the launcher to the gateway menu, except if you tried updating sysnand in gateway mode(they warn the users to not use this particular scenario), you lose arm9 in that particular scenario in other scenarios your 3ds should be able to be restored, you should have a backup of the sysnand if you followed the gateway guide(please read their instructions to know i am right)

 

[MDashK]

Thanks for the info everyone. =)

 

[TheCyberQuake]

I'm not going to throw Gateway hate, but I do think you should just use the community a9lh and then use the gateway arm9loaderhax.bin file to launch gateway. The community method is much safer.

 

[kamesenin888]

I'm not going to throw Gateway hate, but I do think you should just use the community a9lh and then use the gateway arm9loaderhax.bin file to launch gateway. The community method is much safer.

thats not hate, hate is saying that the gw is shit and that you suck for using it, you are giving advice, i gave the same advice as you did, its safer

 

[Swiftloke]

For anyone who wants to give GateHate, I made a thread for that.
But yeah, OP, don't use GW a9lh. Using the community a9lh is far far superior (and it always will be)

 

[evandixon]

Since no one else has linked to it, I recommend this guide for using Gateway with A9LH:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/tutorial-using-luma3ds-with-gateway-on-v2-a9lh.431691/

 

[Atro]

Yes. There's a thread called using Gateway with v2 a9lh or similar that tells you what to do after installing a9lh using Plailect's guide.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Actually, nothing is stopping you from doing so - and you'll get a nice big BRICK for your troubles!


And if you're bricked, how are you going to use the Gateway menu?
And you can't use Decrypt9, EmuNAND9 etc.




Only if you keep a backup of your NAND prior to the install, which AFAIK Gateway does not advise you to do.

Gateway's menu boots before the corrupted NAND does. It has backup and restore features, and yes, the guide tells you to make a NAND backup.

And it's inherently hard to tell whether their method has gotten safer or not because no one wants to test it, but rather advise against it. Though, I understand why this is done, it just doesn't help the case much.

 

[TheCyberQuake]

thats not hate, hate is saying that the gw is shit and that you suck for using it, you are giving advice, i gave the same advice as you did, its safer

I wasn't saying what I said was hate, but rather I wasn't going to spread hate like people further up in this thread, but at the same time still suggest what they suggest and not use the GW-A9LH installer.