Hacking [Updated 11.3] Lost A9lh ?

[shadowofdarkness]

I have the same problem. My son booted into gateway AND updated the firmware. Both things he was not supposed to do. But he "forgot". I have old firmware backups and OTP. Basically all artifacts produced following the guide a few months ago. I tried to run SafeA9lhInstall, Luma, etc from HBL but they all hang. How can I restore a9lh preferably without hard modding?

Sorry the only way to fix is with a hardmod

To fix with a hardmod you would backup your current sysnand using a hex editor take a 8 megabyte chunk (the firm partitions) starting at offset 0x0B130000 to end offset 0x0B930000 from a old backup with a9lh already installed and overwrite it in your new backup at the same offset then flash it back to the system and you will have a fixed system that lost nothing.

After making the new backup keep a clean copy before hex editing the firm partitions in case you screw up.

 

[soaresden]

The main problem I see is one that a lot of people don't seem to grasp. Is that a9lh is just a entry point not a cfw. Luma and Gateway are the cfw.
a9lh is not protected on its own in any way but has to be protected by whatever is loaded by it. Be it cfw or some other payload like decrypt9 etc

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I just realized, you're not totally lost if you have a hardmod and either a backup of your sysnand that already had a9lh installed or just your OTP it could be fixed.

With a backup of sysnand that already had it installed you could take the firm partitions and inject just them into your current system restoring the hack without losing anything you would even still be on 11.3

If you only had the otp you could do a very old school a9lh setup by compiling everything on a computer then flashing the firm partitions only using a hardmod.

That is not the same as a hardmod downgrade which was blocked in 11.3

Hi Again,

I just saw that soundhax can be launched now. I have access to homebrew menu now.
What should I do to get back to my configuration ?

(Maybe i'm waiting for the guide : https://3ds.guide/get-started-(old-3ds) ?)

 

[Cuphat]

Yeah, Gateway on A9LH SysNAND is a good way to lose A9LH due to Gateway being bad.

If you have a second CFW'd 3DS and a NAND backup to your now 11.3 3DS, you can restore the old backup using a DSiWare app + save injection system transfer. Otherwise, you might be waiting a long while.

 

[Crackerboy]

Nevermind...

 

[Pokem]

RIP.

 

[rikumax25!]

Hi Again,

I just saw that soundhax can be launched now. I have access to homebrew menu now.
What should I do to get back to my configuration ?

(Maybe i'm waiting for the guide : https://3ds.guide/get-started-(old-3ds) ?)

You need another console or a hardmod

 

[jaysea]

I had the exact same thing. Updating with luma3ds on so the firm protection was on. I also saw sys 11.3.0-36EUR so it means I still had the a9lh+luma, but after using the Gateway chain loading (pushing down when booting) I got a black screen and the a9lh was gone.

I do not know if it was runing sysnand after the update or the payload for gateway. Either way the a9lh was removed AFTER the update.
I managed to get my system back though with the following link which squall14716 gave me: http://web.archive.org/web/20161214...ware-downgrade-(app-injection-and-second-3ds)
For this you will need a second 3ds/2ds with cfw and a nand backup for the current one which you should already have.

 

[gamemasteru03]

he didn't... if people learnt to read our problems it would save time


and for op : https://www.reddit.com/r/3dshacks/c...luma_payload_kills_your_a9hl_on_113/?sort=new


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it's not the same at all. op did the same thing as i did but your son updated with GATEWAY

Someone really needs to make a thread on this. Because I have seen like 5 posts of people saying they updated to 11.3 with luma then launched gateway on 11.3 and then it forced there 3ds back to 11.3 stock. All those posts had old 3ds's though what happens with a new 3ds?

 

[keyra]

The Reddit Link i posted goes to a thread i made here like a week ago about that...

 

[goldensun87]

People should've stopped using Gateway, once safehax on 11.2 was a thing. Never rely on inactive software, always switch to the active ones.

 

[gamemasteru03]

The Reddit Link i posted goes to a thread i made here like a week ago about that...

Oops. Somebody should sticky that to stop gateway people from bricking.

 

[jaysea]

Someone really needs to make a thread on this. Because I have seen like 5 posts of people saying they updated to 11.3 with luma then launched gateway on 11.3 and then it forced there 3ds back to 11.3 stock. All those posts had old 3ds's though what happens with a new 3ds?

Seems that 2ds and old3ds have this problem resulting in having ofw without a9lh after black screen. New3ds it has been tested on and after the black screen the a9lh is still there and the cfw is still intact.

 

[Cuphat]

Someone really needs to make a thread on this. Because I have seen like 5 posts of people saying they updated to 11.3 with luma then launched gateway on 11.3 and then it forced there 3ds back to 11.3 stock. All those posts had old 3ds's though what happens with a new 3ds?

A N3DS that loses A9LH in this way bricks, requiring a hardmod and a NAND backup. O3DS users are a bit luckier in that it results in a working, but stock, console.

No idea if the issue with Gateway in this instance affects N3DS or if most Gateway users still have an O3DS, though.

 

[bissli]

Sorry the only way to fix is with a hardmod

To fix with a hardmod you would backup your current sysnand using a hex editor take a 8 megabyte chunk (the firm partitions) starting at offset 0x0B130000 to end offset 0x0B930000 from a old backup with a9lh already installed and overwrite it in your new backup at the same offset then flash it back to the system and you will have a fixed system that lost nothing.

After making the new backup keep a clean copy before hex editing the firm partitions in case you screw up.

Thanks for the information.

It will probably take me a while to do a hardmod as I don't really solder. When / if I do it flashing an old backup is not an option because new FW does not allow downgrades? Any suggestions for a hex editor that will make this process easy? Windows or Linux.

Any chances for a new arm9 exploit in the next few months?

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he didn't... if people learnt to read our problems it would save time


and for op : https://www.reddit.com/r/3dshacks/c...luma_payload_kills_your_a9hl_on_113/?sort=new


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


it's not the same at all. op did the same thing as i did but your son updated with GATEWAY

I suspect that he updated with Gateway, don't know for sure, I actually had a hard time getting into the gateway loader. I asked him if he saw the dragon screen and he was unsure so anything is possible. For me the end result is the same.

 

[Quantumcat]

When / if I do it flashing an old backup is not an option because new FW does not allow downgrades?

You have it around the wrong way, 11.3 doesn't allow hardmod downgrades so restoring an older backup is the only option now. Hardmod downgrades involved modifying your NAND to use an older NATIVE_FIRM, meaning it was susceptible to the exploits of the older firmware that the NATIVE_FIRM was from. But, with 11.3, the console will not boot at all with an older NATIVE_FIRM so this is no longer possible. You can, however, restore a complete NAND with the older firmware, and it will boot. Because there's no mismatch between the NATIVE_FIRM and the rest of the firmware.

 

[shadowofdarkness]

Thanks for the information.

It will probably take me a while to do a hardmod as I don't really solder. When / if I do it flashing an old backup is not an option because new FW does not allow downgrades? Any suggestions for a hex editor that will make this process easy? Windows or Linux.

Any chances for a new arm9 exploit in the next few months?

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I suspect that he updated with Gateway, don't know for sure, I actually had a hard time getting into the gateway loader. I asked him if he saw the dragon screen and he was unsure so anything is possible. For me the end result is the same.

I don't know Windows really but for Linux you can use dd if you are fluent with it and avoid hex editors or for hex editors something like bless or ghex.

Another option that would restore a9lh with no loss would be to backup what you have now with a hardmod then restore a complete old image to restore a9lh then lastly on the now working system use hourglass9 to restore the 11.3 backup you made giving you your most current data but with a9lh intact.

 

[kamesenin888]

I do not understand how there is still Gateway users that use gateway on sysnand, when they tell you NOT to use the gateway in sysnand, you could say to me that Gateway is bad because it does not have firm protection, but they warn their users to not use it in sysnand and use Emunand, if you lose a9lh because of it its your own fault, for saving 1-2 gb of space in the sd card you get a paperweight or a functional paperweight that needs a hard mod