Hacking Talk to me like I'm brand new. (GW emuNAND to Luma)

[alpha_noj]

The guide you are mentioning is for setting up arm9loaderhax, not just switching to Luma3DS. arm9loaderhax is not tied to one custom firmware, you could even have a setup to load Luma as a default custom firmware and load Gateway's custom firmware when a specific button is pressed if you wanted.

As @cvskid said, you can already use Luma3DS with your EmuNAND to make sure that everything works (spoiler: it should work). Of course, you won't be able to use the Gateway mode from Luma3DS.

As for following the guide to set A9LH up, you can keep your EmuNAND and everything that goes with it. To keep it simple, here's what would happen:
Updating the EmuNAND to 11.0 -> Making a backup of it before formatting it -> Downgrading it to 2.1 before it is copied to SysNAND -> Getting necessary files and installing arm9loaderhax -> Restoring your original backup to SysNAND -> Deleting the EmuNAND (if you want).

Might sound scary, but the point is that at the end, you will be using your current EmuNAND as a main system.

Sorry to keep sounding like a noob, but this makes the most sense to me so I'll be going with this. I'm on step 3 currently, where it is making a new redNAND overwriting my GW emuNAND (I backed it up at FW 11.0.0-33, or whatever the recent one is). Am I supposed to follow the instructions to make a redNAND, or should I just skip these steps, put GW emu back on my SD card, and downgrade that? I've definitely been away far too long and haven't kept up around here

 

[Kyojin]

Sorry to keep sounding like a noob, but this makes the most sense to me so I'll be going with this. I'm on step 3 currently, where it is making a new redNAND overwriting my GW emuNAND (I backed it up at FW 11.0.0-33, or whatever the recent one is). Am I supposed to follow the instructions to make a redNAND, or should I just skip these steps, put GW emu back on my SD card, and downgrade that? I've definitely been away far too long and haven't kept up around here

I'm maybe answering a bit late here, but you can keep your EmuNAND. Though most people would recommend getting rid of everything GW related.

 

[alpha_noj]

I'm maybe answering a bit late here, but you can keep your EmuNAND. Though most people would recommend getting rid of everything GW related.

I just want to make sure I've done everything correctly. Currently, I have a backup of my GW EmuNAND on my PC like I said and a fresh emuNAND created by emunand9 on the actual system, which is updating now. I assume this way I can continue with steps 4 and 5 as they are written, except inject my GW emuNAND at the proper point to make that my new CFW sysNAND correct? Mainly to keep my NNID and information. When I injected my GW emuNAND and tried to launch Luma3DS from menuhax, it just hung on a black screen.

 

[Kyojin]

I just want to make sure I've done everything correctly. Currently, I have a backup of my GW EmuNAND on my PC like I said and a fresh emuNAND created by emunand9 on the actual system, which is updating now. I assume this way I can continue with steps 4 and 5 as they are written, except inject my GW emuNAND at the proper point to make that my new CFW sysNAND correct? Mainly to keep my NNID and information.

Yes, you'll have to restore it at the very end instead of restoring your new EmuNAND.

When I injected my GW emuNAND and tried to launch Luma3DS from menuhax, it just hung on a black screen.

If you were using Luma 5.5, for some reason it has a very low boot rare (from the feedback I've been getting lately from people hacking their consoles). Trying with earlier versions helps.

 

[alpha_noj]

Yes, you'll have to restore it at the very end instead of restoring your new EmuNAND.



If you were using Luma 5.5, for some reason it has a very low boot rare (from the feedback I've been getting lately from people hacking their consoles). Trying with earlier versions helps.

So Luma should actually be able to boot into an emuNAND created by GW? If so, I should just inject my GW emunand now and use that for the downgrade process, correct? Sorry, I'm super cautious and will avoid a brick at all cost =)

 

[Kyojin]

So Luma should actually be able to boot into an emuNAND created by GW? If so, I should just inject my GW emunand now and use that for the downgrade process, correct? Sorry, I'm super cautious and will avoid a brick at all cost =)

You could, but doesn't mean you should. Since you already created a new EmuNAND (or RedNAND I guess) just keep that and carry on IMHO. It won't affect the fact the you can restore your GW EmuNAND at the end.

 

[alpha_noj]

I am up and running! Thanks a ton everyone, went through with no problems. Only thing I have to do now is chainload GW so I can still use my gateway card (I don't like CIA clutter for games I may only play here and there, but ones I play a lot will be installed). Tons of stress and time, but worth it

 

[Kyojin]

I am up and running! Thanks a ton everyone, went through with no problems. Only thing I have to do now is chainload GW so I can still use my gateway card (I don't like CIA clutter for games I may only play here and there, but ones I play a lot will be installed). Tons of stress and time, but worth it

Congrats! For Gateway, check this great tutorial for an overview of the options you have.

 

[alpha_noj]

Congrats! For Gateway, check this great tutorial for an overview of the options you have.

That's exactly the one I found and used even before you posted! Wasn't working at first, but I had swapped to a larger SD after all of the CFW stuff and realized I formatted it as exfat instead of FAT32, which fixed my problem. Now everything works like a charm

 

[apoptygma]

I currently have my sysNAND at 9.2.0-20U, and GW at 3.7.1 with emuNAND at 10.4.0-29U

My emuNAND currently has my NNID and all of my games on it. I know I would lose saves from Gateway potentially, but I have all of my cartridges backed up using powersaves and am not too worried about the .3ds saves. I'm more worried about the NNID and all of my DLC and games, and even MORE importantly, my actual cartridge games.

I've seen the guide, but it doesn't really address how well things carry over from GW to Luma. Would my cartridge games (MH4U being the most important) be safe and useable on Luma? Could I keep my GW emuNAND on it's current SD card and just get another for Luma, or even use them both at on the same card?

I understand CFW is the way we're moving toward, so I don't mind getting rid of GW somewhat, but I still have some hesitation in moving over without questioning first, and just want to make sure I still have the option to retain my actual purchases/account--and honestly, I'd like to keep GW for the rom support too. Installing CIAs all the time has taken a lot of time in my experience.

Thanks for any help!

I just did the exact same thing - All I did was use svdt https://github.com/meladroit/svdt/releases to backup my saves, then I just blew away the whole gateway thing and started fresh, once I was up and running on sysNAND CFW (Luma) I just imported the saves back. I thought I'd messed up not un-linking my NNID from the gateway enuNAND but it turns out I didn't have to, It just let me register the NNID to the CFW without complaining. So just make sure you backup your saves and put them somewhere safe on your computer and you're good to go! The whole process took me around 5 hours btw, plus an hour or two of reading to make sure I didn't mess up!