Hacking [RCM Payload] Hekate - CTCaer mod

[Pacote]

I just didnt want to mess with my router, network config when soldering the pins was just way easier.

Im dumping the RAW eMMC but its saying Total Dump Size 29830MiB

Should be correct aye?

 

[CTCaer]

So for those of us out of the loop, what are the main differences between 3.0 & 3.0.2 that make it only viable for the former? So intrigued by the process and what this has evolved into!

If you are talking about CFW launching support, it's because the keyslots got moved around.
If you are talking about homebrew point of view, it's because 3.0.0 has full access to Siwtch services, because of a bug. And that helps a lot.
But with the final Atmosphere, this will not matter a lot, because it can change these permissions. Kernel "access" in 5.X is a no though, for now.

Do I need to rebackup my Raw eMMC because I loaded back to my Switch os after it was done before backing up the Boot eMMC part...

No, because the BOOT0/BOOT1 partitions do not change with a Switch OS boot.

Im dumping the RAW eMMC but its saying Total Dump Size 29830MiB

Should be correct aye?

Yeah, it's correct.
The real size of General Purpose partition, or in other words RAW eMMC, is actually 29.13GiB (29,830 MiB or 31,268,536,320 B)

 

[Keksus]

I have found the tool gptrestore.
Can someone tell me what you are doing with it? or better why you should need it?

is it possible to flash back the original backup i did it?

let's say you damage something in the Boot or Boot1 ... or in the System.
And the Switch dont Boot or have a Black Screen.

 

[CTCaer]

I have found the tool gptrestore.
Can someone tell me what you are doing with it? or better why you should need it?

is it possible to flash back the original backup i did it?

let's say you damage something in the Boot or Boot1 ... or in the System.
And the Switch dont Boot or have a Black Screen.

This tool flashes back the standard switch partition table (the first Kbytes of rawnand.bin), in case you overwritten them.

It is possible to flash back your backup, but we intentionally don't support it, until everything is ready.

 

[coned_miro]

If you are talking about CFW launching support, it's because the keyslots got moved around.
If you are talking about homebrew point of view, it's because 3.0.0 has full access to Siwtch services, because of a bug. And that helps a lot.
But with the final Atmosphere, this will not matter a lot, because it can change these permissions. Kernel "access" in 5.X is a no though, for now.


No, because the BOOT0/BOOT1 partitions do not change with a Switch OS boot.


Yeah, it's correct.
The real size of General Purpose partition, or in other words RAW eMMC, is actually 29.13GiB (29,830 MiB or 31,268,536,320 B)

Very cool! Thanks for covering all those bases. You're doing awesome work and it's much appreciated.

 

[hippy dave]

Hey @CTCaer hope you don't mind the random question - when these ipls started booting into Horizon, someone said that they didn't reset the "boot reason" or some such flag, so the OS could potentially tell that RCM had been used. Do you know if that's been corrected yet in recent versions? Thanks!

 

[CTCaer]

Hey @CTCaer hope you don't mind the random question - when these ipls started booting into Horizon, someone said that they didn't reset the "boot reason" or some such flag, so the OS could potentially tell that RCM had been used. Do you know if that's been corrected yet in recent versions? Thanks!

Well, the only ones that cleared the boot reason, since the first releases, were mine and rajkosto's.
The 4x only and 5x only variants still do not clear the boot reason. Actually they never got updated to any newer commit.

EDIT:
If they have a public repo,
which they should because it's a GPL2 code and the binary must always come with the source,
you can check it by these lines:
https://github.com/nwert/hekate/blob/master/ipl/main.c#L268

 

[hippy dave]

Well, the only ones that cleared the boot reason, since the first releases, were mine and rajkosto's.
The 4x only and 5x only variants still do not clear the boot reason. Actually they never got updated to any newer commit.

So yours always does, that's great - thanks for the quick answer

 

[VashTS]

time to make a jig for my 3.0.0, thanks for this

 

[Lacius]

time to make a jig for my 3.0.0, thanks for this

If you are on 3.0.0, you don't necessarily need a jig. You can already run the Homebrew Launcher this way. It is likely that a softmod method for booting CFW on 3.0.0 will be released around the time Atmosphere CFW is completed. Finally, you could also install AutoRCM so you can boot into RCM without the need for a jig.

 

[VashTS]

If you are on 3.0.0, you don't necessarily need a jig. You can already run the Homebrew Launcher this way. It is likely that a softmod method for booting CFW on 3.0.0 will be released around the time Atmosphere CFW is completed. Finally, you could also install AutoRCM so you can boot into RCM without the need for a jig.

i found launching from web was finicky but its been a while since i tried, maybe things are more Stable™

also the process is much easier to boot hekate with a jig.

web steps -> launch web browser -> pray HBMenu installs first try -> reboot -> run HBMenu

 

[Rune]

I'm trying to use this on 3.0 but it seems like I'm getting some kind of error.
The payload works and I can see the menu with its various options. But I try launching the firmware and I see a quick log for a brief second where I catch something in red text at the top saying "failed to load hekate" or something along those lines.
Then it loads the stock OFW as normal and the album app doesn't bring up the HBL.

What am I doing wrong here?

 

[Proto-Propski]

I'm loving the updates, keep up the good work

 

[CTCaer]

I'm trying to use this on 3.0 but it seems like I'm getting some kind of error.
The payload works and I can see the menu with its various options. But I try launching the firmware and I see a quick log for a brief second where I catch something in red text at the top saying "failed to load hekate" or something along those lines.
Then it loads the stock OFW as normal and the album app doesn't bring up the HBL.

What am I doing wrong here?

Did you extracted the sdfile.zip into your sd card?

I'm loving the updates, keep up the good work

And more are coming. As long as I have time, I'll even push the smallest optimizations.

 

[Rune]

Did you extracted the sdfile.zip into your sd card?

No.
I just assumed they were the same HBL files that I'd already had from when I was using Pegaswitch.

Thanks for the response.

 

[Ohex4455]

Can't wait to try the new version. My card is on it's way to samsung as we speak. It has 10 years warranty after all. Can't really wrap my head around how a couple months of Switch usage, generating an ISO as a backup, restoring the backup twice, formatting around 20 times and trying to dump a couple times, should have hit the write limit

 

[peteruk]

@CTCaer

I know it's the same on all payloads but thought I'd ask you this as you seem to be the most active here

Is it possible for you to increase the size of the text on the payload menu (fw, tools etc..) ?

I really struggle to read it, thanks

 

[Proto-Propski]

@CTCaer

I know it's the same on all payloads but thought I'd ask you this as you seem to be the most active here

Is it possible for you to increase the size of the text on the payload menu (fw, tools etc..) ?

I really struggle to read it, thanks

Yeah, I'd like to know that as well, I mean I know Atmosphere is on the Horizon (lol), but for the time being it would be really nice to be able to easily read the BootLoader we have now.

 

[CTCaer]

New version v1.6 released

Check OP for change log and download link and also its guide.




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Can't wait to try the new version. My card is on it's way to samsung as we speak. It has 10 years warranty after all. Can't really wrap my head around how a couple months of Switch usage, generating an ISO as a backup, restoring the backup twice, formatting around 20 times and trying to dump a couple times, should have hit the write limit

Well, happened to me in the past 3 times. All of them with Sandisks 32GB. And the funny thing is that they were Ultra (class 10), Extreme (U1) and Extreme Plus (U3). All of them used in different phones.
One thing is for sure, that Sandisk is dead for me.

@CTCaer
Is it possible for you to increase the size of the text on the payload menu (fw, tools etc..) ?
I really struggle to read it, thanks

This is a genuine concern. I am thinking of this since the first release.
It is possible and now that we don't need big debug logs, it's actually a must.

I'll check how to create a binary font and we'll see.

 

[peteruk]

This is a genuine concern. I am thinking of this since the first release.
It is possible and now that we don't need big debug logs, it's actually a must.

I'll check how to create a binary font and we'll see.

That would be great, thank you