Homebrew When do I update? OLD10.1+browser nag

[Fenrikaz]

Hey all, I am one of many 3ds homebrew noobs trying not to get ran over with all that is going on recently in hopes of getting into the homebrew development scene. And if it isn't obvious enough... I need a little bit of guidance... heh. Considering I have no problem writing or documenting a little bit of the recent 3ds homebrew history, this will be told like a story. Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Chapter 1: The dilemma
Currently I am trapped in 10.1.0-27U on my old 3ds with a cluttered sd card. When ironhax was first starting to be talked about, I had no access to another entry point to install the *hax into ironfall. Therefore,I eventually backed up the folders for ironfall and other 3ds things on my desktop for later use and deleted it off of my card. Fast forward down the road... Although browserhax becomes easily available to the public through a webkit vuln, it will soon get soft patched with an update nag in the browser.

For most, this drama between the 3ds hackers and nintendo could be considered "bad", but for me it is what really started to drive the fire in me to want to join the scene.

Chapter 2: The homebrew revolt
Update nags. They're being reported everywhere. Old and new 3ds'. Tons of worried 'brewers wondering if "this is the end", even though at this point it is known we should assume smealum, yellow8, or anyone else has something up there sleeves.

Nintendo, being known for being smart, sneaky, and silly all at the same time, somehow slipped a dummy browser update into some gamecards and into the 9.9 update without going noticed. This dummy browser includes an update nag which stops you from being able to use the systems internet browser until you update to the newest firmware. The way this nag works is the browser does a check to see if you are on the newest firmware at some point after the browser is opened and starts to load a page. No one saw something like this coming.

Within the first hour of this chaos, someone starts mentioning the use of the tubehax DNS. This DNS was previously used with a now patched entrypoint named tubehax. Although, this DNS could be used for more than tubehax. It also blocked ninty's update servers and some other servers of their. Shortly after, someone using a new 3ds finds out that, thanks to the new 3ds' 4 cpus, it has a faster loading time in the internet browser than the old 3ds. Assuming that ninty was lazy and set up the update nag with an average time it would take to load on the old 3ds, the new 3ds' faster speeds would let them load up the had before the nag goes through again, effectively barely touching the new 3ds' homebrew usage.

Chapter 3: I demand new hax!!1!
Backing up a bit to before browserhax gets patched, I try out browserhax and everything else that was on smealum's hax starter pack. Shortly before browserhax got soft patched via a update nah keeping us from progressing forwards with browserhax alone, I decided I should play around with the ironfall files I had kept on my computer and see if I can install ironhax. Shortly to find out that my 3ds would not treat the files as if they were my own, athough they obviously were. That is until I had wiped the card and did some things on the system that had created files and folders that could be merged with my previous set of files, this somehow putting ironfall back on my homemenu. (I will someday remember what I did...)

Back to the browerhax just getting patched.... Alike many others on 10.1.0-27 on a OLD 3ds, I was left with 2 choices: Be happy with what I got and stay on 10.1.0-27 until further notice, or continue onwards and update to 10.2. Obviously I chose to stay with my first option hoping that more would come in the future. And now is time.

Chapter 4: 32c3, and new entrypoints
32c3, usually CCC, is a famous hacking convention where many new and awesome ideas are released and brought up. Smealum, as well as his talented friends travel to Hamburg, Germany to unveil some sick new 3ds tech. Unlike the previous chapters, I will not being going as in-depth this time.

Three new entrypoints to use were released right after the talk as well as thrwe new concepts. Updated ironhax payloads, new browserhax thanks to web kit once again, and menuhax is back! With the concepts of ntrcardhax, snshax, and lastly but certainly not least... Memchunkhax2. Ntrcardhax allows piracy but requires special hardware. Snshax kernal-less way to update a new 3ds to 9.2 + kernal access. And memchunkhax2 is the gold mine. A arm11 kernal that allows downgrading on ALL 3DS' including and up to 10.3.0-28!

Chapter 5: What do I do?
Considering all that is being released, I am currently perplexed on what I should do. With being stuck on 10.1.0-27 on an OLD 3ds after already getting the nag and having no installed payloads on any of my entrypoint-able games and wanting to play the games I have previously bought from the eshop... I only have a few current routes that I could take. I have listed them below as well as some questions hoping someone could help!

Route A: OLD 10.1.0-27 --> 9.2 via memchunkhax2 (when available) + emunand on eshop spoof-able firmware / latest / cfw
OR
Route B: OLD 10.1.0-27 --> 10.3 via update for temp eshop access + browserhax (to install +entrypoints) --> 9.2 via memchunkhax2 (when available) + emunand on eshop spoof-able firmware / latest / cfw

Q: What exactly can I do on latest firmware that I can't do on emunand?
Q: Can I use eshop on emunand?
Q: Can I do online activities on emunand?
Q: If I screw up my emunand does it affect my sysnand?
Q: What route should I take? I'd like to start getting into the homebrew development scene asap while still leaving my 3ds at its most stable and usefulness.

If you have made it this far thanks for reading! Can't wait to start my first project!

 

[DKB]

A: *Removed* got confused lol
A:Your Sysnand needs to be on the latest thing, so..yes? No? Not sure.
A: Yes.
A: That's the whole point of a emunand, so you won't screw up your sysnand.
A: Just wait for the memchuckhax2, downgrade to 9.2, and bam, exploitable 9.2, and look for guides from there. You could also wait for the SNSHax since, you're under 10.2, which where it was patched. But, SNSHax should be coming after memchuckhax2, since..it's of less importance. It's pretty redundant, actually, compared to memchuckhax2.

But, those are just my answers..I may be wrong or right, I don't know.

 

[Jwiz33]

Q: What exactly can I do on latest firmware that I can't do on emunand? Install CIAs and use CFWs like NTR-CFW.
Q: Can I use eshop on emunand? Yes.
Q: Can I do online activities on emunand? Yes.
Q: If I screw up my emunand does it affect my sysnand? If they are k=linked you might have minor issues, so unlink them.
Q: What route should I take? I'd like to start getting into the homebrew development scene asap while still leaving my 3ds at its most stable and usefulness. Your choice.

 

[Fenrikaz]

A: Just wait for the memchuckhax2, downgrade to 9.2, and bam, exploitable 9.2, and look for guides from there. You could also wait for the SNSHax since, you're under 10.2, which where it was patched. But, SNSHax should be coming after memchuckhax2, since..it's of less importance. It's pretty redundant, actually, compared to memchuckhax2.

The thing with SNShax is that it is new 3ds only asides from sneaky saying it is 'possibly' doable on the old 3ds

 

[The Real Jdbye]

@Fenrikaz
Even when memchunkhax2 is released, you'll still need a working entrypoint for homebrew, which you don't currently have. So the way I see it, Route A isn't an option, but since all you really need right now is a working entrypoint, route B can be divided into two routes, either:
- Update, install browserhax (and possibly ironhax/menuhax), and wait.
- Get one of the exploitable games, use it to get homebrew access (and possibly install menuhax/ironhax). You don't need to own the game, you can borrow it from someone, since you only need it to install menuhax/ironhax. CN is the best option here but OoT will work provided you have a DS phat/lite with a flashcart, a savedongle, a powersaves, or another hacked 3DS (or know someone nearby with one)

 

[Fenrikaz]

@Fenrikaz
Even when memchunkhax2 is released, you'll still need a working entrypoint for homebrew, which you don't currently have. So the way I see it, Route A isn't an option, but since all you really need right now is a working entrypoint, route B can be divided into two routes, either:
- Update, install browserhax (and possibly ironhax/menuhax), and wait.
- Get one of the exploitable games, use it to get homebrew access (and possibly install menuhax/ironhax). You don't need to own the game, you can borrow it from someone, since you only need it to install menuhax/ironhax. CN is the best option here but OoT will work provided you have a DS phat/lite with a flashcart, a savedongle, a powersaves, or another hacked 3DS (or know someone nearby with one)

Suprise suprise. I actually have a cart for OoT3d. And I have no money for CN sadly so that most likely won't happen for a while. Although oot3d still doesn't help because I don't have an entrypoint to install oothax in oot with.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Suprise suprise. I actually have a cart for OoT3d. And I have no money for CN sadly so that most likely won't happen for a while. Although oot3d still doesn't help because I don't have an entrypoint to install oothax in oot with.

As I said there are multiple options for installing oothax, any one of them will work. A savedongle won't cost much (certainly much less than a copy of CN) if none of the other options are possible.

 

[Fenrikaz]

As I said there are multiple options for installing oothax, any one of them will work. A savedongle won't cost much (certainly much less than a copy of CN) if none of the other options are possible.

I'm off to find someone with a hacked 3ds in New Jersey/ delaware! Lol

If I was to update to 10.3 and later goto 9.2, would I lose anything? Syscalls? Anything? Or is that what we still have to wait and see

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I'm off to find someone with a hacked 3ds in New Jersey/ delaware! Lol

If I was to update to 10.3 and later goto 9.2, would I lose anything? Syscalls? Anything? Or is that what we still have to wait and see

Whether you update now and downgrade later, or you stay on the current firmware and downgrade later, the end result would be the same. It's best to stay on the firmware you are on now if you can though. There are still too many unknowns about the new exploits.