Hacking Your CFW experience

[Seriel]

I first found about homebrew when downgrading wasnt a thing and if you were higher than 9.2 you were screwed.
At that point I didn't know what my 3ds FW was so I checked... and it was 9.5.
Past Jackus: "Awww shit!"

Then I waited... and waited... until ironhax was teased, and then announced, and then released. I joined GBAtemp when ironhax came out. (i used tubehax to install it) I loved it, it was amazing. That was my main entrypoint for ages. At that point I was on 9.9 and I stayed there for ages.
Then memchunkhax was teased. And announced. And an early version was released (unofficially).
Past Jackus: "Yayayayayay!! <3 <3 <3 <3"

Rememberr the early sysUpdater thing? The whole DEADCAFE thing? I was following that the whole way, until eventually I got legit CIAs working. I initally didn't want to risk the early sysUpdater, but I cracked under the lure of piracy and tried it. But it failed. I got softbricked. Begrudgingly I updated to 10.3 with recovery mode and tried again, a little half-heartedly. And it also failed. I then tried again for a whole day, while panicking and exchanging information with GBAtemp. It turns out I was part of very few people that gets a softbrick when downgrading for some (still?) unknown reason. We got together and tried to work out what was going on, but we didn't get anywhere. Near the end of that day (I spent a whole day trying to downgrade) I decided to give up and backup all my saves before formatting the system. I then with tried downgrading again with a strange mix of doubt, anticipation and determination (Undertale reference intended :^) ) and then... it worked! Filled with excitement I went back to the people having trouble and reported that a format does indeed fix the problem, before downloading loads of cia games and recklessly installing to my sysnand with PastaCFW (not exactly a good move, I was high from excitement. Thank goodness it didnt backfire), before finally calling it a night and going to sleep, with thoughts of all the fun I was going to have the next day :3

I then spent a whole day getting rxTools to work properly until eventually I had my own emunand! <3 This then became my primary nand. I still use it today (But as a sysnand). I then managed to settle down into CFW life with rxTools and Menuhax (A9LH didn't exist back then)

Then I left GBAtemp, and when I came back a few weeks later, everyone was talking about this Arm9LoaderHax thing.
Past Jackus: "wtf is this and why did no one tell me about it "

I didn't rush straight into A9LH, I waited a bit and weighed up the pros and cons before diving into Plailects guide (Updated sysnand wasn't on the guide then) and before I knew it I had my own otp.bin and A9LH, which was magical. Just amazing. At this point I switched to AuReiNand.
Then updated sysnand became "The thing" everyone was obsessed with, so one day, without a computer (My laptop plug had died), I quite recklessly used my Android Phone as an ftp client and set up an updated sysnand. (At like 4am lol). I now realise that was really risky, who knows how unstable ftp is, but like with before, nothing bad happened, in fact 3ds hacking seems to be the only thing I don't seem to be able to fuck up.
Then when I switched my emunand to sysnand, I settled back into life with AuReiNand, not much seemed to change...

And then the title keys came, (luv u @cearp ) and I pirated like crazy. No more messing with random iso and chaos sites, now I can do everything much simpler.

And today I go onto GBAtemp and apparently AuReiNand is called Luma3DS. So apparently now i'm using Luma3DS instead of AuReiNand :3


And wow shit, that was huge. Congratz to @rikumax25! for giving me a prompt to make a bloody huge post. This is probably the biggest post i've made ever.
I think I might put this on my blog~

 

[Vappy]

I took an interest when I saw the first "We hacked it!" pic from yellows8 and neimod, 3dbrew was starting to be slowly populated. Saw the news on its front page one day recommend not updating past 4.5, and listened to it. No homebrew releases, but Gateway came out a while later, I bought one when it was still one game per SD card and nothing else (not fun to manage ) and the first ARM9 homebrews started coming after fiercewaffle's RAM dumper. I think it was somewhere around here that the first decryption tools were released. Gateway made some progress to get past the newly introduced 7.x crypto, then the 7.x keyx was leaked, then a little while later profi200, derrek and yellows8's CFW is also leaked. Me and a few other users here try to get .CCI to .CIA conversion working using makerom, taking probably longer than it should've because none of us were particularly knowledgeable about it. Got it working, but manually editing an .rsf file for each game was a hassle, so I wrote rsfgen.py, that got bundled with some other easy conversion packs. CFW was still stuck though, even with the 7.x keyx, because decryption and spoofing couldn't account for new SDK functions introduced with higher firmwares. At least, until Pasta, rxTools and Cakes happened. Then some other stuff happened, now we're here.

 

[MageToLight]

Originally Tubehax then Ironhax.
Switched to Menuhax for downgrading to 9.2.
From there it was sliderhax to install OOT3Dhax(forgot to do it before downgrading).
Went from there into Menuhax+Rxtools with EmuNAND.
Finally on a9lh with Luma3DS.

 

[Februarysn0w]

ninjhax1.0 - 2.7
tubehax
menuhax 1.0- 2.1 or 2.2
browserhax
pastacfw for ninjhax 2.x
a9lh

 

[codeluca]

Bought a Gateway Card on day one, never cared initially how the Emunand works, I did not even know that I had an Emunand actually.

A few years later someone updated my console to 10.3 (probably a friend or a parent) and I thought I fucked up totally so I did some researches and I found this community and I started anonymously to understand the whole *hax thing.
After a week or two I found the downgrade-exploit and I downgraded successfully my device from 10.3 to 9.2 and installed the gateway Emunand again with browserhax.

In the end I bought a N3DS and installed A9LH on it with AuReiNand (Just Updated Sysnand).

 

[Ricken]

I didn't really know about 3ds hacking 'til late December, when 10.3 was still the latest (got my first computer in August 2015, and i quickly became obsessed with Wii hacking)
When i did learn about it, that was roughly when Browserhax and Menuhax were around, and SysUpdater was the big deal. I decided to just stay on 10.3, Since i was fine with just legit .cias, but soon i couldn't play online, and had to make a choice; my options were
1. Wait til i could get a Gateway (this would've been stupid. i was a noob then)
2. Wait til i could get OoT3D(already had Powersaves)/Cubic Ninja/Sky3DS
3. Just Downgrade and set up EmuNand

I went with option 3, and checked my downgrade files with SafeSysUpdater (no PlaiSysUpdater yet) then tried numerous times to downgrade with Safe, but the process never initialized. Then i tried SysUpdater and that successfully downgraded me first try (Hacks are the only things i have good luck with. I died laughing [no offense people] when i learned most bricks were caused by User Error/SafeSysUpdater)

From there i followed a recently released Youtube guide (Channel is dead, videos are gone. rip UltimateTechFreak) to set up rxTools. Worked nicely with my menuhax and my 16GB SD.

Then i kept hearing about A9LH. I slowly warmed up to the idea, as I just wanted to press my luck once more. Following Plailect's guide, I successfully got my OTP, and backed it up in possibly too many places (even in an email to myself, containing not only OTP.bin, but all the Hex that made it up so i could just rebuild one myself)

Now today I use AuReiNand+A9LH+Updated SysNand (I'm aware of the name change, i just haven't updated yet )

 

[zhdarkstar]

I started with an used O3DSXL that came with FW 2.something and a copy of OoT3D for Christmas 2012. I immediately stopped updating beyond 4.5 once the day came with the message of "We hacked it!" Struggled through many months of not being able to play anything new until I got my GW for Christmas 2013, running via MSET exploit. I wouldn't decide to add any other CFW to my unit until rxTools had sig checks patched out and could be used to run DSiWare/GBA VC. I would later add Sudokuhax to the mix so that I could reset the MSET exploit without need for a DS flashcard. However, it would remain on 4.5 SysNAND until only recently.

Once I got my N3DSXL with FW 9.0 for Christmas 2014, I used my copy of OoT3D to get GW all set up. As I had my O3DS to handle playing DS/DSi software without needing a flashcard to reset the MSET, I opted for the route of installing 4.5 System Settings on the N3DSXL to use the N3DS NVRAM/MSET exploit. I hadn't really bothered with NTR at this point, so I simply swapped the GW card between the two units based on what game I was playing. Games that required the 6.x save encryption but were initially played on the O3DS would still be played there, while the rest would have their saves moved to the N3DS and would be played on the same unit as all newer releases.

Fast forward to the time of the 10.3 downgrade, and that's the next time I do any major changes to the setups on my units. While modding my brother's and sister-in-law's vanilla O3DSes from stock to rxTools, I learned about MenuHax. That's when I decided to adjust my N3DSXL to have the proper System Settings and use MenuHax as my means of booting into GW Mode. Since there were still a couple of 6.x-save-encryption games on my O3DS that I hadn't completed yet, I left it on 4.5 as it was.

About a few weeks ago, I see that the a9lh installation process has become standardized and relatively safe. That's when I decided to take the plunge with Plailect's guide and test it out on my brother's old O3DSXL, which was once his GW unit but was replaced by his N3DSXL. After a successful installation, I installed it on both my O3DSXL and my sister-in-law's JAP O3DS, that they had randomly found on their honeymoon. I was even able to successfully region change the JAP O3DS to USA. Once the proof was in the pudding, I went ahead and installed it on every 3DS in the house and for a couple friends.

My a9lh installation stats so far:
3 O3DS (1 region changed)
4 O3DSXL
1 2DS
1 N3DS
2 N3DSXL (opting for an autoboot sequence that starts in 9.0 SysNAND and ends in 10.7 GW EmuNAND)

 

[MassExplosion213]

Ok. Here's my experience. I started out right after NH1 was released. My main 3DS was on 9.3, but I remembered I had a second one on 6.1. Shortly after Pasta was released, I used it and sysUpdater to try and update my 3DS to 9.2. I used UpdateCDN to get the CIAs, and due to this, ended up using both N3DS and O3DS CIAs. This 3DS is actually off with Hund right now to be fixed. Anyway, time went on, I got a few more 3DSes. However, in an attempt to get my main 3DS downgraded, I started looking for an ARM11 exploit. One of which was similar to SNShax. After that whole fiasco, I started work on memchunkhax2. My main 3DS was bricked in this endeavor. After completion of that, I got some old NAND dumps to make the CIAs for 1.0/2.1 downgrade. We then got the N3DS keysector and began work on a9lh. Fast forward some, and here we are.

 

[Blue]

My experience began when "my 3ds touched me weirdly".
It ended with me on 10.7 waiting for freehax.

 

[Deleted member 371943]

My CFW experience:
First, I downgraded my O3DSXL from 10.3 to 9.2 with Cubic Ninja (Sky3ds + Cubic Ninja rom), then I procceded to install rxtools (had to buy a bigger sd card later ) and later I discovered the rom-hacks and some cool homebrew apps :3.

BTW: I'm from CRC too .

 

[nero99]

Sticking with my menuhax/lesshax with reinand 4.0.

 

[Shajk00]

first joined 3ds scene when gateway came out ,i donno why it broke up but i am pretty sure gateway messed up my nand, i got it repeared and it broke up again so i decided to sell that freaking gateway and get cubic ninja with a new 3ds , i got my copy of cubic ninja for 20 eur , then installed ninjhax on it , and then i followed the scene as it evolved , i installed menuhax afterwards , rxtools and cakesfw, and now i have my trusty new 3ds with a9lh and aureinand/cakesfw cfw on it and a great boot animation thanks to bootanim9.

 

[YugamiSekai]

Got a red N3DSXL with 9.6. Waited about a few months, Memchunkhax and SNSHax came out, updated to 10.3 then downgraded to 9.6. Installed Cakes and Reinand. Pirating and modding to this day.

 

[Pokéidiot]

I got a 3DS then I broke the R button. Sent back and I got other with firmware on 6.0. I installed a RxTools before even using it!
Then I got tired of having to launch MSET everytime, so I updated to 9.2 and installed Menuhax to autoboot into CFW.
Afterall I got tired of seeing that flashing colors during the boot and having to wait 30 seconds for the home menu show up, so I set up A9LH and switched to AuReiNand. However I'm still in emuNAND, and I may switch to Updated sysNAND mode once 10.8 is launched and confirmed working.

 

[Ante0]

Started by having a 4.2 o3ds, bought gateway when it was released, used it for quite a while. Updated it to 9.2 when menuhax came.
Bought a 9.0 n3ds XL majoras mask edition not too long ago, used menuhax for a while then installed a9lh. Amazingly a9lh installed on first try.
I've yet to update my o3ds to a9lh. The only retail game I have to this date is OoT xD

 

[Bullseye]

Bought O3DS almost on launch date (2011). Bought OoT and SFIV and some months later a couple of games.

When first DS cards were released I bought an Acekard 2i to play DS games as I had not played any and did not own a DS console. In between I screwed up with updates and my original Acekard 2i bricked and I bought a second one to keep playing DS games.

Went through University with little time to keep playing games (and my free time was used playing PC MasterRace games); was there when Gateway cards were released but never got to buying one.

6 months ago (2015) I decided to get back to my O3DS and buy some games for it (Majora's Mask, Star Fox 64), and try out the Gateway cards or similar. Found out CFW were a major thing and I only needed an SD card and not a new 3DS card worth $80.
3 months ago I was free from studies and decided to install Menuhax + rxtools following @samiam144 guide. I also got some money back from Uni for some subjects I passed and as I always felt O3DS was too small for my hands and 3D effect wasn't as good as it should be I tried a N3DS XL and end up buying one.

Installed rxtools & Reinand on N3DS after screwing up and recovering from FrankenFW, following @wurstpistole guide and like +1 month ago I decided to go the A9LH route. I used @Plailect guide with both.

Now I have my O3DS Ambassador edition and my N3DS XL both on A9LH and I couldn't be happier.

 

[MushGuy]

Back when I owned an O3DS and Cubic Ninja, I used this tutorial to install EmuNAND with rxTools, back when it had awesome tools to use. Then. I decided to buy the Pokemon Anniversary N3DS after learning that it is downgradable, and I followed this tutorial to install new EmuNAND, first with rxTools, and then with ReiNAND now that the former stopped having the tools and Decrypt9WIP already covered most of them. Transferring my data from O3DS to N3DS took like forever. Than I learned about arm9loaderhax and AuReiNAND, and I had my doubts because of a possible risk of bricking. After making sure I had everything set up, including unpatching TWL_firm and GBA_firm, I finally decided to upgrade to a9lh following this tutorial from step 4 onward (thank you OTPHelper!). Everything went successfully, and now I love my new SysNAND CFW!

 

[dark_samus3]

Time for my entry!

When the 3ds was first released I browsed the forums around here looking to see if there was any homebrew efforts for it, having been familiar with the Wii and all of the amazing work that was done on it, but after a lot of waiting I got discouraged, and stopped browsing, fast forward a bit and I realized I had forgotten about the 3ds (note I still hadn't purchased one yet) so I decided to look into it again, I found the pictures by neimod where he had pulled the RAM chip off and made his adapter boards, this got me pretty excited and I waited for quite awhile to see what would happen, but my interest slowly dwindled as I waited for any news, at this point my life got really busy and I didn't really have time to check up on progress much, so again the 3ds was forgotten, fast forward to early 2015 and I randomly came across @DarkFlare69's YouTube channel, namely with tutorials on how to downgrade and install CFWs all without any sort of flashcart, this sparked my interest in the 3ds, and deciding it was time to finally get one, I started browsing on eBay for a 3ds on a good FW, I found a decently priced one in good condition in a nice color, so I bought it... At this point in the scene ninjhax 1.1 was out and wasn't recieving any updates, not that I really cared as CN was way to expensive, but a lot of people had done work to make MSET installable from spider and even CFW launchable from the browser (rxTools, before the official release had sig patches) so, I did the work and started with Palentine CFW, and after a lot of work, finally got my first CIA installed (FBI) shortly after, I discovered the mod someone had done to make Pasta bootable from MSET, which was quickly installed and I finally had a CFW setup I was happy with for a bit... Shortly after I found CakesFW (which was very unpopular at the time, and few talked about) and I immediately fell in love, even if getting the firmkey was a pita, it only had to be done once so I didn't mind... Finally my setup settled down, Cakes worked great from MSET and it made me really happy with all if the config options and ease of use, finally after months *hax 2.0 was released, and even if I wasn't as interested in it as CFW I was still excited for it, it meant that more people could develop for the 3ds more easily... And my excitement proved correct, we finally got menuhax from yellows8, then shortly after we got Brahma2! This meant CFW without messing around with going into system settings! This was great, and worked awesome for o3ds, so my setup shifted around a but to accommodate this (had to update to 9.2 to use menuhax, but that's OK) and then, again, the scene and my setup settled in, then came 32c3, and my god the hype was real... Kernel exploits, new entry points and even earlier cold boot than menuhax! Wow! Well I was very interested in a9lh from the beginning, but it looked n3ds only, which discouraged me... But after discussion on the forums, and eventually on IRC, I discovered o3ds was viable too! But my refusal to get CN meant I had no way of getting my OTP, but a few people were remedying that, and soon we had the spider entrypoint on 2.1! Soon after my OTP was dumped, and we ran into another problem... Compilation on Linux... There was originally a problem with the binaries produced when compiled under Linux, however I borrowed someone else's installer, bit this bricked my device, luckily my system was hardmodded (done by me) so I simply flashed the secret sector with the changed key that was encrypted with my OTP via hardmod and viola! Arm9loaderhax on my o3ds... From their I quickly set cakes up again, though I had to navigate the menu blindly... From there work on screen init started and oh was it fun, I learned so much about not only the 3ds, but hardware in general in the time it took for screen init to happen, and finally we had a complete arm9loaderhax setup... But work still isn't done, and in fact arm9 development has kinda exploded, libraries are starting to be made, and a lot of software is being developed... Can't wait to see what comes next

 

[wurstpistole]

Long story short,

In December, prior to 10.x downgrades, I decided to sell my 9.x something and get an ambassador N3DS, sealed on 9.0. Having big troubles installing cfw with outdated guides, I wrote up my own and posted it here. I'm up to somewhat 200.000 views on that now and keep it up to date as good as I can.

Menuhax has near perfect boot rate for me so I'm still skipping out on a9lh, just doesn't seem worth the work for me for now. But maybe someday.

 

[Deleted User]

First I used TubeHax, didn't think it would work but was surprised to see the outcome!

Second I found the BrowserHax exploit (SliderHax *Shudder shudder) and it took almost a week to finally boot into the homebrew menu! RETROARCH WAS THE STUFF!

Third, I started a gridlauncher theme spree! It was so amazing! I also set up IronHax at this time (just in case) and set up the HBL on my friend's O3DS

Fourth, finally found out SysUpdater- intense stuff, felt like I was going to get a heart attack. I checked GBATemp every other hour to find out the news!

I set up CFW on my O3DS, got a New 3DS, did the same to that and then about a week later was the whole talk was about A9LH! I decided not to initially go through it until it was more documented. One day, I got sick of waiting so I decided to go install it. Thank goodness that finally a guide had been created - the one and only guide - and I then installed it on my Old and New 3DS! In all my 2 years of 3DS hacking, I've never soft or hard bricked at all! This is only the short story