Unable to boot into Hekate

[dragon184]

Hello,

After the Atmosphere startup issue. I decided to start fresh. So i backed up my emunand and extracted all the save files. Backed up my SD card and wiped my SD card. I wiped the SDCard and followed the guide here to start recreating the emunand https://rentry.org/MarikoEmuNAND.

Towards the end of the guide it says to turn off the Switch and "Place your SD card back into your PC and move back any previously deleted files into your SD card." So i put every thing back and along side some NRO tools and Retroarch. The moment i start the switch i get the SX "boot.dat" logo. i copied the same boot.dat boot.ini and payload.bin to a different sd card and it booted straight into Hekate.

The only thing i can think of is the extra partition on the SD card that was created during the creation of the emunand. How do i get the boot.dat to be detected?

 

[spriteice]

Hello,

After the Atmosphere startup issue. I decided to start fresh. So i backed up my emunand and extracted all the save files. Backed up my SD card and wiped my SD card. I wiped the SDCard and followed the guide here to start recreating the emunand https://rentry.org/MarikoEmuNAND.

Towards the end of the guide it says to turn off the Switch and "Place your SD card back into your PC and move back any previously deleted files into your SD card." So i put every thing back and along side some NRO tools and Retroarch. The moment i start the switch i get the SX "boot.dat" logo. i copied the same boot.dat boot.ini and payload.bin to a different sd card and it booted straight into Hekate.

The only thing i can think of is the extra partition on the SD card that was created during the creation of the emunand. How do i get the boot.dat to be detected?

If I remember correctly the SX chips do not work well with particular SD cards or formatting. If it was previously working, make sure it is formatted in MBR, fat32, 64kb clusters.

If you feel like taking a little risk you can open your console, plug the chip in via USB (make sure your switch is OFF) and flash the latest hwfly-nx firmware from: https://github.com/hwfly-nx/firmware

The changelog specifically mentions improving SD card compatibility, that firmware does not need any license files on the SD card and the LED diagnostic information is far better than the stock firmware.

As usual with firware updates there is a risk of things going wrong, so if you are not comfotable with opening your console and updating the chip manually then don't do it, and simply try to get the SD card formatted in a way that will work with your chip.

 

[dragon184]

If I remember correctly the SX chips do not work well with particular SD cards or formatting. If it was previously working, make sure it is formatted in MBR, fat32, 64kb clusters.

If you feel like taking a little risk you can open your console, plug the chip in via USB (make sure your switch is OFF) and flash the latest hwfly-nx firmware from: https://github.com/hwfly-nx/firmware

The changelog specifically mentions improving SD card compatibility, that firmware does not need any license files on the SD card and the LED diagnostic information is far better than the stock firmware.

As usual with firware updates there is a risk of things going wrong, so if you are not comfotable with opening your console and updating the chip manually then don't do it, and simply try to get the SD card formatted in a way that will work with your chip.

Thanks spriteice.

I was informed to use https://switch.homebrew.guide/ from Draxzelex. I got a little impatient, since i was trying to get my Switch to boot for the whole day. Instead i used NxNandManager to extract the emunand,boot0 and boot1. Removed all the partitions and format to fat32 with 32kb cluster (i looked around and saw mentions of either is fine). Used NxNandManager to create the hidden partition and put everthing i have back to the SD card.

Definately a lot more figgity but at the end of the day. it worked.

Would like to flash Spacecraft-NX but if there is a risk that I might brick it. I'd rather not risk it.

 

[spriteice]

Thanks spriteice.

I was informed to use https://switch.homebrew.guide/ from Draxzelex. I got a little impatient, since i was trying to get my Switch to boot for the whole day. Instead i used NxNandManager to extract the emunand,boot0 and boot1. Removed all the partitions and format to fat32 with 32kb cluster (i looked around and saw mentions of either is fine). Used NxNandManager to create the hidden partition and put everthing i have back to the SD card.

Definately a lot more figgity but at the end of the day. it worked.

Would like to flash Spacecraft-NX but if there is a risk that I might brick it. I'd rather not risk it.

Good to hear, sounds like it was the SD card formatting after all