Hacking What exactly is Boot9Strap?

[szymon170]

Hi. I've kind of forgot about 3DS homebrew since I've been playing on my Nintendo Switch. I've checked GBATemp recently, and I've found a thread about badges for people who have installed Boot9Strap. What is it exactly? What is it used for? I've currently got A9LH installed, and everything seems to be working fine. What's the benefit of using it? Also, why will Luma3DS switch to Boot9Strap? Is Boot9Strap replacing A9LH? How does it work?

I've checked 3ds.guide, but it isn't explained there. There's only a guide on how to update A9LH installation to a Boot9Strap one.

 

[kagami]

In simple terms, B9S works in an earlier step on the "boot time" than A9LH, it's "the" key, that's why everyone on homebrew development is jumping to it

Its something that will make your system banned from Wireless Connection services.



"Hey we now can do literally anything we want"
Pff... haha.

Which is not true at all, ban is related to software and friendlist usage, not B9S usage

I mean, tons of people banned haven't touched B9S at all, nor have even updated their systems in months

 

[Pyra]

Its something that will make your system banned from Wireless Connection services.



"Hey we now can do literally anything we want"
Pff... haha.

kek

Hi. I've kind of forgot about 3DS homebrew since I've been playing on my Nintendo Switch. I've checked GBATemp recently, and I've found a thread about badges for people who have installed Boot9Strap. What is it exactly? What is it used for? I've currently got A9LH installed, and everything seems to be working fine. What's the benefit of using it? Also, why will Luma3DS switch to Boot9Strap? Is Boot9Strap replacing A9LH? How does it work?

I've checked 3ds.guide, but it isn't explained there. There's only a guide on how to update A9LH installation to a Boot9Strap one.

Boot9Strap is a bootrom exploit that runs a lot earlier in the boot process than A9LH, allowing access to new system files that A9LH didn't, as well as adding better brick protection, and update protection, because it's unpatchable without a hardware revision. It also may be more useful for devs, but idk where that reasoning comes from in all honesty.

Oh also it uses ".firm" files instead of ".bin" files for payloads. Not really a benefit, but it's worth noting.

Those are the benefits of using it, and Luma3DS will be switching to Boot9Strap because A9LH is outdated now, so yes, B9S is effectively replacing A9LH. If you use Luma3DS and would like to still be supported with updates, you have to switch to B9S.

Hope that helps any, tried my best to explain it.



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[The Real Jdbye]

Hi. I've kind of forgot about 3DS homebrew since I've been playing on my Nintendo Switch. I've checked GBATemp recently, and I've found a thread about badges for people who have installed Boot9Strap. What is it exactly? What is it used for? I've currently got A9LH installed, and everything seems to be working fine. What's the benefit of using it? Also, why will Luma3DS switch to Boot9Strap? Is Boot9Strap replacing A9LH? How does it work?

I've checked 3ds.guide, but it isn't explained there. There's only a guide on how to update A9LH installation to a Boot9Strap one.

Honestly, there aren't many benefits to switching to B9S for the average user. But if you want to keep using Luma you will be forced to upgrade sooner or later, since 7.1 already dropped A9LH support.

The reasoning behind 7.1 dropping A9LH support was that adding full B9S support (including stuff like .firm loading) while keeping A9LH support would have taken a lot more time and they wanted to get the Luma update released as soon as possible. I don't really understand how keeping A9LH support could take that much effort but it's reasonable enough I guess.

Upgrading to B9S is a breeze though. It's as easy as updating A9LH to a newer version.

 

[Real.96]

Its something that will make your system banned from Wireless Connection services.



"Hey we now can do literally anything we want"
Pff... haha.

Oh yes, that's why people got banned without it. So much misinformation...

 

[Gizametalman]

Oh yes, that's why people got banned without it. So much misinformation...

Oh no, I'm not blaming Boot9Strap. I'm just mocking about how everyone thought that this Hax could solve all their problems, and, it didn't.

 

[szymon170]

But A9LH was already starting really early when booting. So what does Boot9Strap give to a normal user? How does it work? Is it even harder to remove by Nintendo? A9LH was already impossible to remove by Nintendo (if you had a proper CFW which protected it, like Luma3DS).

 

[Gizametalman]

But A9LH was already starting really early when booting. So what does Boot9Strap give to a normal user? How does it work? Is it even harder to remove by Nintendo? A9LH was already impossible to remove by Nintendo (if you had a proper CFW which protected it, like Luma3DS).

That you can "literally" do anything you want.
Like... bypassing the 60 DSi title limit.

Yay!!

 

[fedehda]

Yeah, but Luma wouldn't work anymore with A9LH.

Maybe bans came with b9s release (or just a coincidence) but who knows? And who cares?

So, you need to update to b9s if you want to keep Luma updated (and you need to). That's what matters

 

[The Real Jdbye]

But A9LH was already starting really early when booting. So what does Boot9Strap give to a normal user? How does it work? Is it even harder to remove by Nintendo? A9LH was already impossible to remove by Nintendo (if you had a proper CFW which protected it, like Luma3DS).

- It starts slightly earlier in the boot process, giving us permission to dump some things we would not otherwise be able to (mostly useful for devs)
- More flexibility when it comes to payloads, they can be bigger than before, have more access (we now have access to ARM11 kernel at boot), and things like installing Luma directly to firm0/1 without Boot9Strap is possible, although not recommended. Not that any of this is directly useful to the average user right now, but they might be in the future.
- It's far, far easier to install. No more downgrades!

As for how it works, the bootrom has broken signature checking on firm0/firm1 allowing us to forge a signature and use it to sign any firm binary so that it appears legit to the console. In contrast, A9LH worked by tricking the system (specifically, arm9loader which is part of FIRM) into executing garbage code, which when carefully crafted will jump to an ARM9 payload written to the end of the FIRM binary.

 

[kagami]

Oh no, I'm not blaming Boot9Strap. I'm just mocking about how everyone thought that this Hax could solve all their problems, and, it didn't.

And what exactly it didn't do?

Both the detection and bans had nothing to do with it, and people can unban their consoles...

You're not making much sense if you were trying to mock it...

But A9LH was already starting really early when booting. So what does Boot9Strap give to a normal user? How does it work? Is it even harder to remove by Nintendo? A9LH was already impossible to remove by Nintendo (if you had a proper CFW which protected it, like Luma3DS).

Basically, can't be removed by Nintendo unless they make a hardware change, so it's pretty much the ultimate one before NTRboothax comes

 

[szymon170]

And what exactly it didn't do?

Both the detection and bans had nothing to do with it, and people can unban their consoles...

You're not making much sense if you were trying to mock it...



Basically, can't be removed by Nintendo unless they make a hardware change, so it's pretty much the ultimate one before NTRboothax comes

What's NTRBoothax?

 

[Pyra]

But A9LH was already starting really early when booting. So what does Boot9Strap give to a normal user? How does it work? Is it even harder to remove by Nintendo? A9LH was already impossible to remove by Nintendo (if you had a proper CFW which protected it, like Luma3DS).

B9S boots even earlier than A9LH.

B9S is easier for everyone to install than A9LH was, because you don't even need to downgrade anymore. All you have to do is run the Safehax exploit basically. It also makes it easier to recover from mistakes that may happen, such as not having a NAND backup when something goes wrong, but I haven't confirmed this personally.

I dunno how it works, saying "It exploits the bootrom" isn't gonna explain it in all honesty, sorry...

I should reword what I meant. B9S will never be patched on OFW systems. It requires a hardware revision to patch, so at no point will you ever not be able to reinstall it if needed, whereas A9LH needs an Arm9 exploit, which can be patched easily. Whether it's harder to remove is unknown to me.



Basically: B9S is better than A9LH when you are installing either for the first time. A9LH is outdated because you can't install it on OFW 11.4, whereas with B9S, you can. B9S is also a lot safer to install than A9LH, not requiring a CTRTransfer down to 2.1.0.

This is the reason everyone is jumping ship from A9LH to B9S. It takes like 5 minutes to upgrade to B9S, it's a lot safer to install for new people, and can be installed on more FWs, and is literally unpatchable on any existing 3DS atm. It provides no benefit to people who have A9LH, it would just be annoying for devs to have to support an outdated, inferior exploit for no other reason than "well B9S doesn't provide any benefits to the end user that A9LH doesn't already have."

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Edit: It does provide you benefit, just not a lot. That last bit was just explaining moreso why everyone is upgrading. Feel free to stay on A9LH if you want.

 

[kagami]

What's NTRBoothax?

https://gbatemp.net/threads/has-any...-using-b9s-and-a-hardmod.471517/#post-7327869

 

[Sumea]

Oh also it uses ".firm" files instead of ".bin" files for payloads. Not really a benefit, but it's worth noting.

AFAIK this is a benefit but not for users straight out - but for Developers. You can have a ARM9 and ARM11 binary in a .firm - so we get more advanced stuff and devs just have grander ol' time with B9S.

AFAIK; One thing you could do on paper with B9S is a full linux with full hardware access or other such stuff, though are we going to see this or not, I have no idea I am not a doctor.

 

[AllenHirai]

i thought that this would make the 3ds boot quicker but it doesn't

 

[Pyra]

i thought that this would make the 3ds boot quicker but it doesn't

Yea you're thinking of SigHax, which boots faster but is a lot more dangerous to install/update because it saves directly to NAND.

B9S is the safe implementation of it.

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[AllenHirai]

Yea you're thinking of SigHax, which boots faster but is a lot more dangerous to install/update because it saves directly to NAND.

B9S is the safe implementation of it.

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oh ok ill just wait for a good tutorial video about sighax

 

[Pyra]

oh ok ill just wait for a good tutorial video about sighax

lmao ok

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[Deleted User]

https://gbatemp.net/threads/sighax-for-dummies-an-faq-for-the-rest-of-us.468754/