@CTCaer's Hekate mod has just reached v5.0.0, a major milestone for the homebrew Nintendo Switch bootloader & multi-tool! Aside from improvements all across the board, like much, much faster boot times and backup/restore functions (depending on your settings and microSD type, eMMC operations can take as little as 9-15 minutes!), this version also brings along two long-requested features, aka full 8.1.0 and emuMMC support!

But that's not all - another Greek goddess is ready to join the Pantheon! Nyx is here, and it's Hekate's user-friendly, touch-enabled GUI. Nyx has all your usual features and options, but it also includes some customisation options (user defined background and boot icons), a screenshot function and an emuMMC manager. Regarding that last point, thanks to it, you can now easily create both file and partition-based emuMMCs either from your console's own internal memory or a previously made backup right from Hekate! You can also migrate your already existing emuNAND made by other solutions, repair a partition-based setup and easily switch between multiple partition and file-based emuMMCs.

If you're curious, here are some screenshots:

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There are many other features and improvements too! You can read all about them in the full changelog below:

v5.0.0

• Introducing Nyx v0.8.0
  Nyx is hekate's GUI. Packs many features, like FastFS, emuMMC manage, customization, etc.
  Look below for more.
• 8.1.0 support
• emuMMC support
  It supports disabling it by boot entry (emummc_force_disable=1), stock (not all fw ver support it) and many more.
  Works with SD raw partition and SD file based. (SD file based is extremely slow. Wait for FastFS 4 emuMMC).
  This version can sanely shutdown and also supports more SD cards than before.
  Thanks to a collab with @m4xw , @SciresM, @hexkyz.
• Supercharged boot times
  Even with emuMMC or kip1 patching, it's faster than before.
• Supercharged Backup/Restore with FastFS (Nyx only)
  Backup and Restore is now orders of magnitudes faster.
  Some examples (measured on a U3 SD): No verif: 9min, Sparse: 15min, etc. Even Full with hashes is extremely faster.
• External KIP1 patching support
  Now non-important patches reside outside of hekate binary. For now this can only patch KIPs defined in hekate's code, with whatever new patches. Next versions will support other KIPs.
• Many bugfixes

Nyx v0.8.0

• Snappy and fluid GUI w/ touch support
  Yes! This runs on BPMP!
• All classic launch options are there
• emuMMC manage
  Change between raw partition emuMMCs and SD file based ones easily.
  Create file based or raw partition based from eMMC via the Create button.
  You can also restore a backup directly to sd partition via the Restore option in tools (outside of emuMMC), AFTER you turned ON SD emuMMC Raw Partition.
  Migrate other types of emunand (raw partition or sd file), repair existing raw partition configurations, or migrate a backup (outside of restore folder), to sd file based.
  Everything is currently made to protect Linux partitions.
  Additionally, the raw partition based is done in 16MB offset, so it can protected from quick formats.
• All Info and Tools are now supercharged
  Dump individual kips from eMMC, see detailed info about fuses, do backups and restores way faster, etc.
• Customization support
  Custom icons for boot entries and also a background is supported. (Check readme for how to use them).
• Many additions in automation. For example, Nyx will automatically dump pkg1/2 after a sept run.
• Screenshot support. Touch the screen with 3 fingers (no need for swipe).
• And many many more smaller and bigger features.

NOTE: The folders in emuMMC now hold nyx configurations. file_based and raw_based. The first tells it that it's a file based one and the other holds the sector of that emuMMC.
NOTE2: This changelog will be updated with missing info.

Nyx and hekate TODO
In no particular order:

• Sd raw partition backup
• Migration from raw to sd and the opposite
• Clock offset support like HOS
• Temporary emuMMC disable
• Destructive SD partitioning
• Resize based SD partitioning
• emuMMC resizing
• Sd raw emuMMC on unallocated empty space support?
• Quick launch of last chosen boot entry
• Themes support
• Joycon support

Check readme.md for more.

NOTE: You will need sept and a custom secmon and warmboot binary to boot 7.0.0-8.1.0 or stock emuMMC.

UPDATE: Hekate CTCaer v5.0.1 has been released which fixes a great number of bugs & issues, including emuMMC & GUI related ones. Additionally, the stock emuMMC option has been temporarily disabled as it was broken.

Source
GBAtemp thread

 

[tabzer]

Nyx is optional. While it's progressive in development, I am not sure how I feel about fat-thumbing something by accident.

 

[chaoskagami]

Thank god, a sane UI that doesn't require rotating my console 90 degrees.

 

[Naendow]

That looks pretty cool. I'll give it a try.

 

[swabbo]

Thank god, a sane UI that doesn't require rotating my console 90 degrees.

Just rotate your eyes 90 degrees instead

 

[Kubas_inko]

inb4 TX announces new payload gui.

P.S.: Looks fucking amazing.

 

[Mthodmn101]

how do you set it up if you dont want to use the gui? just remove the nyx.bin?

 

[Meepers55]

Well that's one convenient update!

 

[hippy dave]

Looks well worth the wait, CTCaer has clearly put a lot into this - nice work!

 

[tabzer]

how do you set it up if you dont want to use the gui? just remove the nyx.bin?

Yeah, probably. The only reason I know that GUI is optional is because when I push the hekate 5.0 payload without the SD files to load, it goes to the old fashioned +/- style.

 

[Mthodmn101]

Yeah, probably. The only reason I know that GUI is optional is because when I push the hekate 5.0 payload without the SD files to load, it goes to the old fashioned +/- style.

Cool. Tested scrolling through the list of my payloads and accidental presses happened like half the time in my testing so id prefer a non-touch

 

[atypicalchaos]

I'm using the boot.dat for the SX Pro - when I copied the contents of the zip to root and it booted into the old GUI and version number was still 4.10.0. So I just deleted bootloader from SD root and copied it over from the .zip and it boots to 4.9.1 (???) same UI as before....amidoinitrite?


edit:

Answered on Discord - solution was
"CTCaerToday at 11:43 AM
You need to update the boot.dat or rename the hekate 5 bin to update.bin and put it in /bootloader/update.bin"

 

[KhenemetHeru]

"You will need sept and a custom secmon and warmboot binary to boot 7.0.0-8.1.0"

meaning what? how is this set up on the SD card (since the last time I used it was under 6.2)?

 

[pika9323]

I got the same question. According to the config template it is:
secmon=cfw/mods/exosphere.bin
warmboot=cfw/mods/lp0fw.bin

I can't find these files, they aren't included in Hekate or Atmosphere. I've read they should be inside Kosmos package but I can't find them there too.

Also Hekate screwed up my SD Card partition table. On Linux with gparted it says "unknown partition table" it still works under Windows for some reason. Seems like I need to reformat everything and never touch EmuMMC option in Hekate again.

In addition the template on Github seems to be incorrect.
emummc_force_disable=1 does not work for me. It always boots into EmuMMC.

 

[tabzer]

I got the same question. According to the config template it is:
secmon=cfw/mods/exosphere.bin
warmboot=cfw/mods/lp0fw.bin

I can't find these files, they aren't included in Hekate or Atmosphere. I've read they should be inside Kosmos package but I can't find them there too.

Also Hekate screwed up my SD Card partition table. On Linux with gparted it says "unknown partition table" it still works under Windows for some reason. Seems like I need to reformat everything and never touch EmuMMC option in Hekate again.

In addition the template on Github seems to be incorrect.
emummc_force_disable=1 does not work for me. It always boots into EmuMMC.

Update says emummc_force_disable=1 is now force_disable=1 due to emummc being a redundancy.

Anyone know how to set up the icons for NYX?

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

I might be wrong. I see what you are talking about the hekate_ipl.ini example. The lack of emummc was referenced to the emummc.ini.

 

[SilvaZoldyck]

How hard is it to use/setup emuNand? Is there a good guide somewhere?

 

[tabzer]

How hard is it to use/setup emuNand? Is there a good guide somewhere?

It should be easy with the new Hekate interface. The only think you have to do yourself is make a partition dedicated for it.

 

[pLaYeR^^]

The migrate emuMMC function allows to migrate from SX OS EmuNAND to emuMMC?

 

[Maq47]

The migrate emuMMC function allows to migrate from SX OS EmuNAND to emuMMC?

Ummmm, yes? Is that a trick question?

 

[ed58]

So I already have an emuMMC partition made and it worked fine on the previous hekate version. Now it seems I can't enable emuMMC and the 'change emuMMC' doesn't let me choose the partition i want. something I'm missing?

also, migrate emuMMC doesn't see any former partition