Hacking RIP TWL-Firm

[PrintHello]

-- RESOLVED --

Howdy beautiful people of GBATemp,

So I installed Luma3ds using Plailects guide, smooth sailing except when I first tried it I didn't have enough space on my sd card for the NANDmin.bin backup. Simple, I just did the 9.2.0 ctrtransfer, got a bigger sd card and continued from there. (So as I understand, the only 'clean' backup I have is on 2.1.0)

Then i read somewhere that to run my Acekard 2i I needed to install a patched twl_firm.cia and a whitelist file. Ok no problem I found them, installed them, and upon running my flashcard (, all my other ds cartridges and any dsiware games,) i get a black backlit screen w/ the 3D light still on, 3DS games still work fine though.

I do not have a bootloader

I have tried

• deleting/deleting w/ ticket and reinstalling the unpatched twl_firm file from the NUS
• Restoring from the 2.1.0 backup then performing the 9.2.0 ctrtransfer
• Updating to the latest (6.1.1) Luma
• Downgrading to AuReiNand 4.1.7 which was before the auto twl patching because I read somewhere that that can interfere if you have a patched twl_firm
• Installing these (link) on the Luma3ds Wiki
• etc.

I am running 9.2.0-20E (the ctrnand transfer version) on an O3DS

I would be grateful for any and all help.
Thanks


##### RESOLUTION #####

So after many hours of upgrades, downgrades, dumping working nands etc. Installing this whitelist cia

https://github.com/Plailect/Guide/issues/438#issuecomment-243877899

fixed the problem.

Hope this helps anyone else with this problem.

Thanks to everyone in this thread for being so helpful and supportive.

 

[zoogie]

luma3ds should take care of all the patching so you don't need to alter any titles.

Get your pre-a9lh 9.2 nand backup (I hope you have one somewhere?) and restore it, making sure to 'keep a9lh".

 

[TheCyberQuake]

Luma3DS does on-the-fly patching, and so does pretty much all current CFW. Anything that says you need to install anything patched is pretty much old (usually for rxTools, which needed it)

luma3ds should take care of all the patching so you don't need to alter any titles.

Get your pre-a9lh 9.2 nand backup (I hope you have one somewhere?) and restore it, making sure to 'keep a9lh".

With the current guide, the only pre-a9lh backup that is made now is NANDmin.bin, which OP says they didn't have space for.

And this, OP, is why you should always dump NAND before making any modifications to it, in case something goes wrong you have a backup. The only thing I can think of is the modified whitelist cia could be the culprit, so you will have to figure out what the original file was so you can obtain it from 3DNUS. That's the only thing I can think of that can be causing you problems.
If that doesn't work, then there may be another more complicated solution. The auto ctrnand transfer afaik doesn't really transfer the whole ctrnand. From what I understand you can instead in Decrypt9 use SysNAND Options->Partition Inject->Inject CTRNAND Partition using the 9.2 ctrnand, and then use SysNAND Options->CTRNAND transfer->Autofix CTRNAND to fix the CTRNAND injected to work with your system. If both those don't work, then I've spent all my current knowledge on how to fix it

 

[PrintHello]

luma3ds should take care of all the patching so you don't need to alter any titles.

Get your pre-a9lh 9.2 nand backup (I hope you have one somewhere?) and restore it, making sure to 'keep a9lh".

Thanks zoogie, I have about 4 backups between beginning the cfw install and installing the patched twl file and I have tried restoring to each of them, none of which have decided to let me load a ds card.

Luma3DS does on-the-fly patching, and so does pretty much all current CFW. Anything that says you need to install anything patched is pretty much old (usually for rxTools, which needed it)


With the current guide, the only pre-a9lh backup that is made now is NANDmin.bin, which OP says they didn't have space for.

And this, OP, is why you should always dump NAND before making any modifications to it, in case something goes wrong you have a backup. The only thing I can think of is the modified whitelist cia could be the culprit, so you will have to figure out what the original file was so you can obtain it from 3DNUS. That's the only thing I can think of that can be causing you problems.
If that doesn't work, then there may be another more complicated solution. The auto ctrnand transfer afaik doesn't really transfer the whole ctrnand. From what I understand you can instead in Decrypt9 use SysNAND Options->Partition Inject->Inject CTRNAND Partition using the 9.2 ctrnand, and then use SysNAND Options->CTRNAND transfer->Autofix CTRNAND to fix the CTRNAND injected to work with your system. If both those don't work, then I've spent all my current knowledge on how to fix it

Thanks also for your ideas TheCyberQuake, in hindsight I would have started with a bigger sd in the first place which may have made this problem trivial, but alas I cannot change the past...

I have downloaded the latest TWL_FIRM again, and the latest whitelist file, and installing them on each of the firmware backups as above and none have heeded any results.

As for the second suggestion when i try to run the Partition Inject option in decrypt9wip it says No usable file found, even though I have the ctrnand 9.2.0 file in the files9 folder. I think that i need to rename it to something else, but I don't know what...

I should also note that I do have access to another O3DS but it is untouched, I was wondering if it would be possible to dump the TWL partition or whatever is needed from that 3ds and load it into mine, without installing cfw onto it as it is not mine. (I might be able to convince him to let me at it but I would need a clean way to remove it afterwards)

Cheers

 

[TheCyberQuake]

Thanks zoogie, I have about 4 backups between beginning the cfw install and installing the patched twl file and I have tried restoring to each of them, none of which have decided to let me load a ds card.



Thanks also for your ideas TheCyberQuake, in hindsight I would have started with a bigger sd in the first place which may have made this problem trivial, but alas I cannot change the past...

I have downloaded the latest TWL_FIRM again, and the latest whitelist file, and installing them on each of the firmware backups as above and none have heeded any results.

As for the second suggestion when i try to run the Partition Inject option in decrypt9wip it says No usable file found, even though I have the ctrnand 9.2.0 file in the files9 folder. I think that i need to rename it to something else, but I don't know what...

I should also note that I do have access to another O3DS but it is untouched, I was wondering if it would be possible to dump the TWL partition or whatever is needed from that 3ds and load it into mine, without installing cfw onto it as it is not mine. (I might be able to convince him to let me at it but I would need a clean way to remove it afterwards)

Cheers

The answer might be to use the Forced CTRNAND Transfer option in SysNAND Options->CTRNAND transfer, but I would wait until someone smarter than me can verify that option will do what I think it does. Maybe @d0k3 can help shed some light on how what the differences are between the Auto and Forced CTRNAND Transfer Options.

 

[orochi115]

You can get original TWL_FIRM from NAND FIRMs package.

 

[PrintHello]

You can get original TWL_FIRM from NAND FIRMs package.

Thanks but I have already tried that one as well. I wish it were that simple

 

[paulttt]

Thanks but I have already tried that one as well. I wish it were that simple

https://gbatemp.net/threads/booting...-in-blank-screen-luma3ds.425819/#post-6336278

Sorry not read the entire postings. Maybe this could help?

Also I found versions 6+ of luma broke my GBA installs, and reverting to 5.5? Fixed my issues.

https://github.com/AuroraWright/Luma3DS/releases/tag/v5.5

 

[PrintHello]

https://gbatemp.net/threads/booting...-in-blank-screen-luma3ds.425819/#post-6336278

Sorry not read the entire postings. Maybe this could help?

Also I found versions 6+ of luma broke my GBA installs, and reverting to 5.5? Fixed my issues.

https://github.com/AuroraWright/Luma3DS/releases/tag/v5.5

Yeah that links back to the link that orochi115 sent sorry
Thanks anyway

And I tried rolling back to v5.5 and no dice, however my flashcard now says that an error has occurred, whereas retail cartridges just show the black screen. I guess that means the updated whitelist file installed properly?

 

[orochi115]

Do you test on SysNAND? (It doesn't matter with Luma)
Could you install a DSiWare and see if it runs? (To see TWL_FIRM is broken or not.)
If DSiWare works, could you try TWL Launcher or NTR Launcher?

 

[PrintHello]

Do you test on SysNAND? (It doesn't matter with Luma)
Could you install a DSiWare and see if it runs? (To see TWL_FIRM is broken or not.)
If DSiWare works, could you try TWL Launcher or NTR Launcher?

Yes all of this is on sysnand, and from what I've read the TWL Launcher is a DSi mode app, which does the same thing, black screen w/ 3d light still on.

Not sure if this means anything, but one thing I did try in the meantime was going into FBI, finding the TWL_FIRM title, and just running it directly rather than using it to run a game or w/e, and doing this pops up the "An error has occurred" window taking me back to the main menu.

Edit: Would downgrading to a 2.1.0 backup, then running PlaiSysUpdater to do a full update to 9.2.0 (Using the full 9.2.0 update rather than the ctrtransfer file of course), rather than using hourglass9 to restore the nand backup possibly result in anything? (If it wont brick it then i can certainly try just to see) or rather just update my sysnand to the latest firmware from the settings app?

 

[Dracari]

i doubt but just incase are you using a Bootmanager to load Luma ? if so This is teh whole reason TWL_FIRM appears "Broken" and if you are you just need to use the pathchanger from any modern release and set luma's bath back at itself (aka run "pathchanger.exe LumaBinFileHere.bin" and when it asks you just retype that .bin file and try to run an GBA VC/DS Cart)

 

[PrintHello]

i doubt but just incase are you using a Bootmanager to load Luma ? if so This is teh whole reason TWL_FIRM appears "Broken" and if you are you just need to use the pathchanger from any modern release and set luma's bath back at itself (aka run "pathchanger.exe LumaBinFileHere.bin" and when it asks you just retype that .bin file and try to run an GBA VC/DS Cart)

Thanks but I don't have a bootloader, but i still used the path changer and it didn't change anything, still black screen when loading a ds game. When i get some time I'm going to try this https://gbatemp.net/threads/a-few-questions-about-twln-twlp-partitions.421575/ and see if that changes anything

 

[orochi115]

Yes all of this is on sysnand, and from what I've read the TWL Launcher is a DSi mode app, which does the same thing, black screen w/ 3d light still on.

Not sure if this means anything, but one thing I did try in the meantime was going into FBI, finding the TWL_FIRM title, and just running it directly rather than using it to run a game or w/e, and doing this pops up the "An error has occurred" window taking me back to the main menu.

Edit: Would downgrading to a 2.1.0 backup, then running PlaiSysUpdater to do a full update to 9.2.0 (Using the full 9.2.0 update rather than the ctrtransfer file of course), rather than using hourglass9 to restore the nand backup possibly result in anything? (If it wont brick it then i can certainly try just to see) or rather just update my sysnand to the latest firmware from the settings app?

If you downgrade to 2.1.0, I think you won't be able to boot the system to do any upgrade? Unless you temporarily drop A9 which is very risky.

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

Since most of us are using 11.0.0 with Luma, you may perform an online update and try?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Yes all of this is on sysnand, and from what I've read the TWL Launcher is a DSi mode app, which does the same thing, black screen w/ 3d light still on.

Not sure if this means anything, but one thing I did try in the meantime was going into FBI, finding the TWL_FIRM title, and just running it directly rather than using it to run a game or w/e, and doing this pops up the "An error has occurred" window taking me back to the main menu.

Edit: Would downgrading to a 2.1.0 backup, then running PlaiSysUpdater to do a full update to 9.2.0 (Using the full 9.2.0 update rather than the ctrtransfer file of course), rather than using hourglass9 to restore the nand backup possibly result in anything? (If it wont brick it then i can certainly try just to see) or rather just update my sysnand to the latest firmware from the settings app?

You wouldn't be able to run PlaiSysUpdater on 2.1.0, as no CFW is able to load a 2.1.0 firmware.
What you could do is restore to 2.1.0 with Decrypt9 (removing A9LH in the process), updating to 4.x-6.x with a cart and then using the mset exploit to load a CFW and install the 9.2 update. You'll need a DS flashcart for the mset exploit though.

 

[TheCyberQuake]

You wouldn't be able to run PlaiSysUpdater on 2.1.0, as no CFW is able to load a 2.1.0 firmware.
What you could do is restore to 2.1.0 with Decrypt9 (removing A9LH in the process), updating to 4.x-6.x with a cart and then using the mset exploit to load a CFW and install the 9.2 update. You'll need a DS flashcart for the mset exploit though.

From what I've heard you can boot 2.1 with corbenik if you set it up properly. I'll try seeing if I can figure out how to, and then if I can I'll make a new thread for how to do it if I can get it to work

Sent from my SM-G386T using Tapatalk

 

[Ningamer]

I've done the exact same things and have the exact same problem... If you find a solution, please let me know!

 

[orochi115]

I guess the public 9.2.0 ctrtransfer image is already corrupt?

 

[PrintHello]

I guess the public 9.2.0 ctrtransfer image is already corrupt?

I doubt it, I think the problem I am having is because the ctrnand transfer doesn't touch the TWLN (i think thats what its called) partition as TheCyberQuake said. So even if i restore to a nand backup, it isn't going to touch (or restore) the TWLN partition.

 

[Urbanshadow]

I doubt it, I think the problem I am having is because the ctrnand transfer doesn't touch the TWLN (i think thats what its called) partition as TheCyberQuake said. So even if i restore to a nand backup, it isn't going to touch (or restore) the TWLN partition.

Yep you are right. With CTRNAND transfer you are not touching either TWLN or AGB partitions.