Seedminer (Mii)

For support in English, ask for help at Nintendo Homebrew on Discord.
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This method requires a reasonably powerful GPU (any dedicated graphics card made in the last few years) and the ability to use a command line. If you don’t know what those are or do not have the hardware necessary, join Nintendo Homebrew on Discord, open the “#mii-mining-assistance” channel and provide the following:

  • Your Mii QR code, uploaded directly to Discord (do not take a screenshot or a photo of the image, just send the HNI_XXXX.JPG image itself)
  • Your console’s ID0 (the name of the 32-character folder directly inside of Nintendo 3DS - see this troubleshooting section if you have multiple)
  • Your console model (e.g. 3DS, 3DS XL, 2DS, New3DS, New3DS XL, New2DS XL)
  • Your console’s approximate year of manufacturing (it may be present behind the frontplate or backplate; if you don’t know, just guess - it’s not super important)
Technical Details (optional)

To install boot9strap on your console, we derive your console’s unique encryption key. To accomplish this, we use a tool called Seedminer to calculate the data encryption key (movable.sed) for your console.

Because we do not have access to the Friends List, we are deriving the first part of movable.sed using a Mii QR code instead of by performing a two-way friend exchange.

For information on how Seedminer works, see this presentation.

Instructions

If you are on Linux or macOS, replace py -3 with python3 in all commands.

What you need

  • The latest release of Seedminer (the Seedminer .zip)
  • Any 3.x version of Python installed
    • If you are on Linux, you likely already have Python 3. Check by opening a terminal and entering python3 -V. If this returns a version number, it will work for this guide.

Section I - Prep Work

In this section, you will set up Seedminer and obtain your console’s files that are needed for mining.

  1. Extract the contents of the Seedminer .zip and move the folder with your operating systeem’s name to anywhere on your PC
    • Keep this location handy, as this Seedminer folder will be where multiple other files are placed
  2. In the Seedminer folder, hold SHIFT and right-click anywhere in the folder’s empty space, then click the option that opens Terminal, PowerShell, or Command Prompt
  3. In the command line window, type py -3 -m pip install pycryptodomex, hit ENTER, and allow it to install
    • If this command fails with the error No module named pip, you must manually install pip. The methods to do this can be found on this page.
  4. Power on your console while the SD card is inserted
  5. Open the Mii Maker app
  6. Tap the “QR Code/Image Options” button
  7. Tap “Save Mii as QR Code”
  8. Select any Mii Character (make a new one first if you don’t have any), and press “OK”
  9. Power off your console
  10. Insert your SD card into your computer
  11. Navigate to the Nintendo 3DS folder on your SD card
  12. Copy the name of the 32-letter folder you see directly inside Nintendo 3DS
    • This 32-letter name is system-specific and will be different for each console
    • If you see multiple 32-letter folders, follow these instructions
    • You can ignore the private folder if you have it

  13. Paste your 32-letter folder name into a document you can reference later
    • This folder is known as your “ID0”. Take note of this as this guide will refer to it as such later
  14. Navigate to the DCIM folder on the SD card
  15. Look for the QR Code, which will be a .JPG file starting with HNI
    • You may have many other files in here already if you use the Nintendo 3DS Camera app
  16. Copy this file to the Seedminer folder on your PC

Section II - Processing Mii QR and Mining

In this section, you will turn the Mii QR code into a usable file and mine movable.sed with it.

  1. Open the editMii website on your computer
  2. Click on “Import from…”, then select “QR Code” and upload the Mii QR code from earlier
  3. Click on “Export to…”, then select “encrypted (.bin)”
    • This will download a file named input.bin
  4. Copy this input.bin to the Seedminer folder
  5. Open the terminal/PowerShell/Command Prompt window from earlier
  6. Inside this window, enter the command py -3 seedminer_launcher3.py id0 <id0>
    • Replace <id0> with the ID0 you copied into a document
    • Do not include the angle brackets
    • Do not attempt to enter the ID0 manually, as it is easy to make a mistake. Ensure the ID0 is entered correctly by copying and pasting it from where you saved it in the previous section
  7. Once it completes, enter the command py -3 seedminer_launcher3.py mii <model> <year>
    • Replace <model> with the model of your console (new or old) - if you aren’t sure, only models with the ZL/ZR buttons and C-Stick are “new”
    • Replace <year> with the year the 3DS was made (you often find this behind the backplate) - leave this empty if you aren’t sure, in which case it will start from the middle
    • The mining process will usually take up to 90 minutes, depending on luck and your GPU’s strength
    • The first stage will likely max out at roughly offset 1500, depending on console model
    • If the second stage (after seeing movable_part2.sed generation success) gets past offset 100, verify that you input the correct ID0. If your ID0 is correct, you cannot use this method and will have to update to the latest version and see if a non-Seedminer method is available for you here
    • If you see the message input.bin is invalid size, remake the input.bin using your QR Code. If it still fails, open a different browser and remake the input.bin there
    • If you see the message LFCS has been left blank, use the opposite console model (e.g. mii old instead of mii new)
  8. When it finishes, a file called movable.sed will appear in the Seedminer folder

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