Hacking Trouble updating A9LH to B9S

[bjaxx87]

Hi there,

first of all, yes, I'm using THE guide (https://3ds.guide/a9lh-to-b9s).

Unfortunately I'm having some weird trouble... I completely followed "Section I" and I double-, triple- and quadruple-checked that I got all my files right. Still the chainloader just won't work causing me to get stuck at the very first step of "Section II".

My Luma version is 6.6 and despite having "start_SafeB9SInstaller.bin" in "/luma/payloads/" it will simply boot straightforward into my SysNAND.

I tried different buttons like "x_..." but it didn't change anything. I downloaded a A9LH compatible .bin version of Godmode9 but even that wouldn't boot.

I even renamed "start_SafeB9SInstaller.bin" into "arm9loaderhax.bin" and placed it on root but my 3DS still booted the home menu like it didn't care.

I updated Luma 6.6 to 7.05 (manually swapping "arm9loaderhax.bin") and held Select while booting... it still showed version 6.6! (And would still boot the home menu without caring for payloads)

So, I'm wondering... Back in the day I used 3ds.guide to install A9LH. Didn't the guide tell us to copy the Luma files into NAND? Does that mean that I have to place the SafeB9SInstaller payload in NAND as well? Or that I have to delete Luma from NAND?

I tried to boot GodMode9 v1.2.1 via Homebrew Launcher (1.2.1 was the last HBL compatible version) but instead of booting GodMode it just reloaded the Homebrew Launcher. Maybe I should try an even older version...

However, before I continue I decided to post my progress and ask if anyone else has an idea what I got wrong? I followed the guide very carefully but it seems my Luma installation is acting weird and preventing any progress.

(Phew..., it was easier to update my other 3DS from MenuHax to B9S!)

 

[Quantumcat]

Update to Luma 7.0.5 https://github.com/AuroraWright/Luma3DS/releases

 

[KunoichiZ]

Update to Luma 7.0.5 https://github.com/AuroraWright/Luma3DS/releases

They said that they did that already. It seems like the system is reading from CTRNAND and not from the SD card because it still says their Luma version is v6.6 even after updating to v7.0.5.

@bjaxx87 Try a different SD card.

 

[Quantumcat]

They said that they did that already. I seems like the system is reading from CTRNAND and not from the SD card it still says their Luma version is v6.6.

@bjaxx87 Try a different SD card.

Sorry I skimmed over the question :-(

 

[bjaxx87]

Try a different SD card.

This is such a simple idea that I didn't even bother to try it but it seems you are spot on! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

The thing is that all my installed games showed up/loaded just fine and apps added to my "/3ds" folder appeared in the Homebrew Launcher. So why should there be something wrong with my mSD card?

I still had my old 4 GB mSD card which I used to set up A9LH. All files from the time before I switched to the bigger 64 GB card (and started installing games) were still present. So I just inserted it, held Start and finally managed to boot into GodMode9!

In GodMode9 I checked the ctrnand luma folder and it didn't contain any payloads. So I copied GodMode9 into ctrnand and switched back to my 64 GB card.

Holding Start now booted GodMode9 (despite still having SafeB9SInstaller as my "start_..." payload) and this is where things got interesting: GodMode9 doesn't recognize my 64 GB mSD card!

Reinserting it just got me an error: "Failed initializing SD card" (I rebooted into SysNAND to make sure the 3DS recognizes my SD card: It does. All my games show up and the Homebrew Launcher loads apps from the "/3ds" folder without problems.)

tl;dr:
- GodMode9 won't mount my 64 GB mSD card
- When booting my 3DS it won't recognize arm9loaderhax.bin on my 64 GB mSD card and instead load it from ctrnand
- When booting my 3DS it won't chainload any payloads from my 64 GB mSD card (again ctrnand payloads works fine)
- Otherwise my 64 GB mSD card works fine (loading games, installing CIAs, loading apps via Homebrew Launcher etc.)

So..., any idea what's wrong with my mSD card? I'm sure it's no fake card. (I'm almost hitting the limit, so I know it's really a 64 GB card. I also bought it directly from Amazon incl. original packaging.) I think I could just set up B9S with my 4 GB card and then switch back to the 64 GB one but it's still very strange.

 

[Greymane]

Have you already tried reformatting your SD card to see if that helps?. Do make a backup before this though.
And like you said you can always use another SD card to set B9S up, though it would be preferred if the problem can be solved.

 

[Thelonewolf88]

In GodMode9 I checked the ctrnand luma folder and it didn't contain any payloads.

I know you checked already but make sure there are no traces of arm9loaderhax.bin in the root of the CTRnand partition and check in the "rw" folder for a "luma" folder. Delete that too, if it's there.

Do everything from the SD and ignore the CTRnand section until you have a working B9S setup.

 

[bjaxx87]

Have you already tried reformatting your SD card to see if that helps?. Do make a backup before this though.
And like you said you can always use another SD card to set B9S up, though it would be preferred if the problem can be solved.

I didn't have time to try this yet, but yeah, I'm going to give it a shot this evening. Thanks! Can you recommend a tool to format my card to FAT32? Maybe the one I used caused some trouble.

I know you checked already but make sure there are no traces of arm9loaderhax.bin in the root of the CTRnand partition and check in the "rw" folder for a "luma" folder. Delete that too, if it's there.

Do everything from the SD and ignore the CTRnand section until you have a working B9S setup.

When I wrote that I checked for payloads I was talking about stuff like GodMode9 in the "rw/luma/payloads" folder. arm9loaderhax.bin actually is in the ctrnand partition but I don't think that I want to delete it (yet). It's obvious there's something wrong with my mSD card and deleting every trace of Luma right now would cause me to be unable to boot GodMode9 or CFW SysNAND (while using my 64 GB mSD card). I want to make sure my SD card works fine before deleting Luma/A9LH from ctrnand.

 

[Quantumcat]

You could update the one in your CTR-NAND to 7.0.5 and also move the luma folder there so you can boot your payloads.

 

[Thelonewolf88]

When I wrote that I checked for payloads I was talking about stuff like GodMode9 in the "rw/luma/payloads" folder. arm9loaderhax.bin actually is in the ctrnand partition but I don't think that I want to delete it (yet). It's obvious there's something wrong with my mSD card and deleting every trace of Luma right now would cause me to be unable to boot GodMode9 or CFW SysNAND (while using my 64 GB mSD card). I want to make sure my SD card works fine before deleting Luma/A9LH from ctrnand.

There is no issue deleting Luma from the CTRnand (worst case scenario, you use another SD card, if the one you have is trashed). It's only there as a backup to boot the system, if a SD fails.

I suggested removing it because it's a step to eliminate, as I had a similar problem with payloads not booting correctly from the SD and the CTRnand\rw\luma\payloads was taking priority over the SD card (even though my SD was fine at the time).

Somewhere along the way, there was a conflict, so I deleted all traces of Luma from the CTRnand, updated A9LH to B9S and formatted the SD card and installed fresh versions of files afterwards and the problem was fixed.

 

[bjaxx87]

Okay, I fixed it! Instead of more trial & error I immediately went the formatting route.

• I backed up all my SD card files
• I used SD Formatter and completely overwrote the existing format
• I used MiniTool Partition Wizard to delete the partition and created a new one (file system: FAT32, cluster size: 32kb)
• I used this method to copy the files back to my SD card

So I tried again to boot the SafeB9SInstaller payload and it worked like a charm. I was able to finish the guide, deleted all traces of A9LH (SD card and CTRNAND), updated Luma and GodMode on CTRNAND (well, actually the script "setup_ctrnand_luma3ds.gm9" did the job for me - as part of the guide) and now I'm fully up to date!

It was really just weird behavior of my SD card.