Hacking Homebrew Switch gets stuck on Switch logo screen when booting/ no mandatory pkg1 files provided

[cherrynoble]

Hi everyone,


This might be a bit of a long one — I’ve already tried getting help on Reddit and in a few Discords, but I’m still stuck.


Two days ago, I started modding my Switch. I backed up my NAND first thing (this will be important later). Everything went smoothly — Hekate worked fine, Atmosphere booted fine, I installed RetroArch and a couple ROMs, and called it a day. No issues at all.


The problem started today.
I was using the USB file transfer app that comes with Atmosphere to add more ROMs to my RetroArch folder. When I was done, I pressed the + button on my Switch to close the connection (I’m pretty sure that’s how the app recommends you do it), but then I got a blue Atmosphere crash screen that I couldn’t get a photo of.


After that crash:

• I could still boot into Hekate,
• but selecting sysMMC gave me a red error screen saying:
  
  

  “No mandatory pkg1 files provided – failed to launch HOS!”

• Selecting CFW sysMMC or emuMMC just got stuck on the Switch logo.

People suggested all kinds of things related to my SD card — updating Atmosphere/Hekate, downloading the latest HATS pack, etc. None of that worked.


A lot of people are still saying it must be an SD card config issue, but here’s what’s confusing:
My Switch is soft-modded (no modchip), so it should be able to boot into the regular stock system without the SD card — but it doesn’t. With the SD card completely removed, it still gets stuck on the Switch logo.


A few people agreed with me and suggested I do a full restore from the NAND backup I made at the very beginning. I did that… still no luck.


Now some are saying it must be a hardware issue, but I don’t understand how they can be so sure.

• How would I know for certain if it’s hardware?
• Is there anything we might be missing when troubleshooting?
• And if it is hardware, is there a way to tell which component is failing?

I’m seriously stumped. I’ll CashApp $20 to anyone who can help me get my Switch back to working condition so I can get back to emulating games.


Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this and help out.

 

[Xjackio]

found this old post

Post in thread 'No mandatorypkg1 files provided/failed to launch HOS/'

Oct 15, 2024

You're trying to boot into Atmosphere using fusee.bin using Hekate, is this correct?

Try edit your hekate_ipl.ini it's in bootloader folder and copy/paste this.

[Atmosphere CFW]
payload=bootloader/payloads/fusee.bin

Now take the fusee.bin you use on your computer make a copy of it and rename it reboot_payload.bin, put it in atmosphere main folder. (overwriting the one there currently)

Retry

You may also put a copy of your fusee.bin (not renamed) to bootloader/payloads. Don't remember if it's necessary but it won't hurt anything.

• Jayinem

maybe your switch its updated to latest version, so you must wait for an new atmoshpere release, bc the latest update broke the OS

 

[cherrynoble]

found this old post

Post in thread 'No mandatorypkg1 files provided/failed to launch HOS/'

Oct 15, 2024

You're trying to boot into Atmosphere using fusee.bin using Hekate, is this correct?

Try edit your hekate_ipl.ini it's in bootloader folder and copy/paste this.

[Atmosphere CFW]
payload=bootloader/payloads/fusee.bin

Now take the fusee.bin you use on your computer make a copy of it and rename it reboot_payload.bin, put it in atmosphere main folder. (overwriting the one there currently)

Retry

You may also put a copy of your fusee.bin (not renamed) to bootloader/payloads. Don't remember if it's necessary but it won't hurt anything.

• Jayinem

maybe your switch its updated to latest version, so you must wait for an new atmoshpere release, bc the latest update broke the OS

I did check in hekate to make sure, but my firmware is still old af, i only use my switch to emulate gameboy romhacks so it hasnt been updated in forever