Hacking "You don't need to remove B9S" The guide to proper troubleshooting

The Catboy

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There seems to be rather large number of threads popping up with the misconception that B9S is the cause of their problems and that removing it will somehow fix their issues. In this thread I will attempt to tackle these issues and give examples of proper troubleshooting. This is not a technical support nor help thread, this is just a guide to proper troubleshooting.

Problem: "My system boots to a black screen/boots for a second then turns after installing B9S! How do I remove B9S!?!"
Troubleshooting: Make sure you have "boot.firm" in the root of your SD card.

Problem: "I am still having black screen issue! I wanna remove B9S?!"
Troubleshooting: Chances are you just need to to either update B9S to the latest version or update your CFW to the latest version.

Problem: "But I am still having problems with *stuff*!"
Troubleshooting: 90% of every problem is in the Troubleshooting guide. If you are still unable to solve your problem and done everything to troubleshoot it, then you should create a thread. When making a thread make sure you include every detail. Simply making a thread like, "I need help!?!?! my 3ds boots to black screen after installing Bs9!!" isn't enough information to do a proper troubleshooting. Your thread should include a minimal of the following:
Model of 3DS
Current OFW
At what point did this error occurred? And if there is an error message, what does the message say?
Last method of troubleshooting used?
Can you still boot into B9S payloads, such as GodMode9?
Did you have any previous patches to your NAND, such as region-free, TWL, or AGB patches?
Did you follow a youtube guide or 3ds.guide?
Did you google search or search the forums before creating this thread?

These are all basic troubleshooting questions that help the community greatly when they are properly used. Using this basic guideline and any additional information will allow the community to get a better understanding of your issue and get you on the right road to properly setting up B9S.

Now for other other issue that continue to popup.
Problem: "My system boots an error code!"
Troubleshooting: What actually is the error code? Depending on the code itself, will determine the method to fix it. If the code is anything related to the ARM11, then it is not a B9S issue. B9S does not handle the ARM11 and thus would not spit out an error related to the ARM11. The biggest contributor to this is a corrupt or broken TWLNAND. This is commonly caused by issues when installing a corrupted CIA to the TWLNAND. Best method to fix this is to either install a clean NAND backup or CTRNAND transfer.
If the error code is ARM9, chances are you going to have to go into detail as to how you caused this. There are no recorded cases of B9S actually bricking systems, thus these kinds of errors are user errors. Just being upfront and honest will get you the help you need.

Problem: "Luma3DS sometimes crashes when launching games!"
Troubleshooting: This is actually due to Luma3DS using an experimental feature known as "Rosalina." This feature is still in the beta stages and has some bugs that need to be worked out. So crashing just comes with the territory. Just give the Luma3DS team time to iron out the bugs. If you don't like this, you can scrap some features in favor of ReiNAND, which officially supports B9S 1.2. There really aren't many options anymore.

Problem: "My 3DS has started freezing! I think removing B9S will fix this!"
Troubleshooting: B9S does not cause random freezes. Removing B9S to test this will only add unneeded risk of bricking. Random freezes can be caused by a number issues such as, but not limited to: Corrupt data on the SD card, theme, or NAND, installing a corrupt CIA, or hardware issues. Properly troubleshooting these issues do come with their own hassles, but can actually be made easier with B9S.
If for say, you have a corrupt NAND, simply restoring a previous NAND before the corruption will fix the issue. If you have a corrupt SD card, backing it up and formatting with GodMode9, will fix this issue. Hardware troubleshooting often requires a deep understanding of 3DS hardware and may require the system to be sent out to a specialist. This is not the thread to get that information from. Nor is this the thread to troubleshooting hardware issues because it's hard to pinpoint what is directly causing the issue without knowing all the details or opening the system.

Problem: "I don't want to get banned! Should I remove B9S?"
Troubleshooting: B9S was NOT the cause of the Banwave. Nintendo can not get that kind of information from your system, without you sending them your system for them to find B9S. The current cause for the banwave is unknown, but it is known that neither B9S nor CFW were the direct cause for people to getting banned.

Problem: "I was banned, will removing B9S lift my ban?"
Troubleshooting: No, you will continue be banned. In fact if you did anything to lift the ban yourself, you will actually brick your system if you remove B9S. You can both avoid being banned and remove the ban by referring to this thread, here.

Problem: "Some of my CIAs won't install, I should remove B9S to see if that fixes it!"
Troubleshooting: B9S has not effect your CIA installations, in fact B9S really has very little effect on your homemenu. B9S boots long before the homemenu and is basically done effecting your system long before the homemenu starts. You most likely are experiencing one of two errors
1: Your SD card isn't ready to setup games. Simple fix, access the eShop and let it prepare your SD card. CIAs should install from there.
2: You got some bad CIAs. Simply delete them and try another CIA.


Problem: "I can't install cia files even though i have enough space."
Troubleshooting: Refer to above troubleshooting.

Problem: My SD/MicroSD card isn't be detected! I want to remove B9S!"
Troubleshooting: Your SD/MicroSD card is either corrupt, not properly formatted, or fake.
To test if your SD/Micro card is corrupt, refer to these part of the guide
For Windows: H2testw
For Linux: F3
For Mac: F3X
If your SD card isn't properly format it. You need to format your SD/MicroSD card to FAT32. There are several guides to doing that with the PC. I also suggest if you are using anything above 32GB+ to then also format using GodMode9.

Problem: "My 3DS is acting weird! I want to remove B9S!"
Troubleshooting: What exactly are the problems are you having? Chances are they are an easy fix and simply talking about the issue can help. We are a community of extremely knowledgeable members. Chances are if you are having an issue, we've seen it before. Removing B9S simply doesn't make sense when there's an easy fix.

This is a WIP thread, I will be adding more common complaints and troubleshooting solutions as they show up. If you've seen any issues you feel should be included, post them here!
 
Last edited by The Catboy,

cactusjack901

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Problem: I don't care about any of these issues, I still wanna remove B9S?
Troubleshooting: This is a snarkily worded question, I have no idea how to do this, and every time I see someone asking this, they're bombarded with "but why would you want to do that" or "that's dumb, you shouldn't do that". It doesn't matter, the information should still be out there. Whether or not I want to remove B9S is between me and me. Hell, nobody even considers the possibility that I'm not going to remove it; I just want to know how I would do it. Sorry for the mini-rant.
 

The Catboy

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Problem: I don't care about any of these issues, I still wanna remove B9S?
Troubleshooting: This is a snarkily worded question, I have no idea how to do this, and every time I see someone asking this, they're bombarded with "but why would you want to do that" or "that's dumb, you shouldn't do that". It doesn't matter, the information should still be out there. Whether or not I want to remove B9S is between me and me. Hell, nobody even considers the possibility that I'm not going to remove it; I just want to know how I would do it. Sorry for the mini-rant.
So going off this post to make a neg into a positive.
This would be a perfectly good opportunity to explain the benefits of B9S and the risks involved in removing it. The benefits being that your system is now future proof when dealing with possible banwaves. As you can easily unban a hacked system, compared to trying to unban your unhacked system. As well if a system has been marked to be ban, removing B9S only leave the system at risk of being banned without a means of lifting the ban.
Risks of course also including if someone removed the ban on their system, their system will brick without B9S. Or if they restore a pre-B9S NAND, the system will be re-banned and of course stay like that.
So you can always take the worst thread as an opportunity to help someone.
 
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Keizel

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Problem: I don't care about any of these issues, I still wanna remove B9S?
Troubleshooting: This is a snarkily worded question, I have no idea how to do this, and every time I see someone asking this, they're bombarded with "but why would you want to do that" or "that's dumb, you shouldn't do that". It doesn't matter, the information should still be out there. Whether or not I want to remove B9S is between me and me. Hell, nobody even considers the possibility that I'm not going to remove it; I just want to know how I would do it. Sorry for the mini-rant.

This is the tutorial for remove correctly B9S (I can confirm it):

0) Make sure you have a functional NAND backup before you start, in case anything goes wrong.
1) Download the .firm for your matching firmware+model on 3ds.guide's hardmod page: https://3ds.guide/installing-boot9strap-(hardmod)
**If you download and flash the wrong one, you will hardbrick.
2) Rename the .firm to firm0.bin and copy it to your SD card
3) Boot up GodMode9 and copy/paste the firm0.bin from your SD to the SysNand Virtual (S:/ ) drive. Heed all of the warnings.
**The system will warn you several times and also tell you that your super small ~300kbish file is nowhere near the entire 4mb you're replacing. This is fine: Do it anyway (as long as you're 100% sure it's the right file)
4) Reboot and perform a system update to clean your firm1.
 
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The Catboy

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We got stickied, bois!!
I got more troubleshooting to come!
I know I made this thread before, but with the changes between A9LH and B9S. It simply made more sense to start over with a clean thread that wasn't full of A9LH related posts.
 

RandomUser

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That dragon kills Rosalina, so the game is more stable from the start, however does not support the latest firmware.
 

EmperorOfCanada

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Troubleshooting: B9S was NOT the cause of the Banwave. Nintendo can not get that kind of information from your system, without you sending them your system for them to find B9S. The current cause for the banwave is unknown, but it is known that neither B9S nor CFW were the direct cause for people to getting banned.


Sauce for this?
 

PrincessLillie

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Troubleshooting: B9S was NOT the cause of the Banwave. Nintendo can not get that kind of information from your system, without you sending them your system for them to find B9S. The current cause for the banwave is unknown, but it is known that neither B9S nor CFW were the direct cause for people to getting banned.


Sauce for this?
Nintendo cannot remotely check or modify the bootrom (which B9S is stored in), so they can't detect that you have CFW.
 

Zaphod77

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You were not banned for having cfw. you were banned for nintendo detecting you doing something that you can't do without cfw. there's a difference. :)
 
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I want to test some stuff on my o3ds
when unistalling a9lh wpuld I have to decrypt my firm backups or is it safe to just restore the encrypted backups?
 

jt_1258

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Problem: I'm going to a Nintendo event and don't want them to be able to tell I'm modded
Troubleshooting: Quit the event now. If you can't, your screwed mate.
(This problem awaits an actual answer with a minimum 5% less sarcasm)
 

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