Guide_3DS/_pages/Installing-arm9loaderhax.md

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Installing arm9loaderhax /installing-arm9loaderhax.html

The final Step of this guide is to install arm9loaderhax and setup Luma3DS to run just milliseconds into the boot. This is accomplished by using SafeA9LHInstaller by AuroraWright. {: .notice}

This will install AuroraWright's Fork of arm9loaderhax. {: .notice--info}

We will also setup the ability to launch payloads from arm9loaderhax, giving us the ability to unbrick our SysNAND from situations that would normally brick us by restoring from backup. {: .notice--info}

You cannot use another console's OTP or you will brick GUARANTEED. {: .notice--danger}

Overview of steps

In this section, we will go through the process that all the other steps have led up to: actually installing arm9loaderhax.

This is nearly the best possible kind of device exploit because it is permanently installable into the NAND firm partitions, and runs before most of the OS loads, allowing it to not only work on all versions once installed, but also protect itself and recover from most situations that would brick a non-A9LH 3DS such as a nonfunctional home menu or bad title install.

The file arm9loaderhax.bin is what is launched by arm9loaderhax itself after it finishes loading off of NAND, and can be any valid arm9 payload. This file can be replaced at any time, although Luma3DS allows for the launch of other arm9 payloads by holding buttons on boot.

In this case, we use Luma3DS by AuroraWright to boot a patched SysNAND directly, allowing us to completely bypass the need for any kind of EmuNAND, vastly simplifying the usage of a hacked 3DS in addition to saving SD card space.

Once arm9loaderhax is installed and Luma3DS is setup with the correct options, we then restore our previous backup.

During this process, we also setup programs such as the following:

  • FBI (installs CIA formatted games and applications)
  • Luma3DS Updater (updates our CFW installation easily)
  • Hourglass9 (multipurpose tool which can do NAND and cartridge functions)

What you need

Instructions

Section I - Prep work

{% capture notice-5 %} Ensure you are using an SD card that is not corrupted!

If you use a corrupted SD card without fixing it, you may BRICK!

If you think your SD card may be corrupted, backup every file on your SD card to a folder on your computer, format it, then copy your files back to the SD card. {% endcapture %}

{{ notice-5 | markdownify }}
  1. If it exists, copy the /files9/ folder on your SD card to a safe location on your computer and back it up to multiple locations (such as online file storage); the files inside could save you from total data loss if you break your system
  2. Create a folder named cias on the root of your SD card if it does not already exist
  3. Delete the a9lh folder from the root of your SD card if it exists
  • If you accidentally install arm9loaderhax using another device's OTP.bin, you will BRICK!
  1. Delete the 3ds folder from the root of your SD card if it exists
  2. Copy the contents of the starter.zip to the root of your SD card
  • This will include a brand new 3ds folder to replace the one you just deleted
  1. Copy the contents of the SafeA9LHInstaller zip to the root of your SD card
  2. Copy the a9lh folder from data_input_v3.zip to the root of your SD Card
  3. Copy the contents of the arm9loaderhax release zip to a9lh folder on your SD card
  4. Copy hblauncher_loader.cia from the hblauncher_loader zip to the /cias/ folder on your SD card
  5. Copy lumaupdater.cia from the Luma3DS Updater zip to the /cias/ folder on your SD card
  6. Copy FBI.cia from the FBI zip to the /cias/ folder on your SD card
  7. Copy arm9loaderhax.bin from the Luma3DS zip to the root of your SD card, overwrite existing files
  8. Create a folder named luma on the root of your SD card
  9. Create a folder named payloads in the luma folder on your SD card
  10. Copy Hourglass9.bin from the Hourglass9 zip to the /luma/payloads/ folder on your SD card and rename Hourglass9.bin to start_Hourglass9.bin
  11. Copy aeskeydb.bin to the /files9/ folder on your SD card
  12. Copy DspDump.3dsx to the /3ds/ folder on your SD card
  13. Copy the contents of fbi-2.4.2-injectable.zip to the /files9/ folder on your SD card
  14. Clear Home Menu's extdata by navigating to the following folder on your SD card: /Nintendo 3DS/(32 Character ID)/(32 Character ID)/extdata/00000000/
    • EUR Region: Delete 00000098
    • JPN Region: Delete 00000082
    • USA Region: Delete 0000008f
    • CHN Region: Delete 000000A1
    • KOR Region: Delete 000000A9
    • TWN Region: Delete 000000B1
Section II - Installing arm9loaderhax
  1. Reinsert your SD card into your 3DS
  2. Do the steps for installing arm9loaderhax on your device:
  • Old 3DS
    • You should be on 2.1.0
    • Go to http://dukesrg.github.io/2xrsa.html?arm11.bin on your 3DS
    • Press (Select) to Full Install
    • The installer will now install arm9loaderhax on your device (this is very fast)
    • Shut down your console, hold the power button until it turns off if necessary
    • Copy your console specific OTP.bin from the /a9lh/ folder on your SD card to a safe location on your computer and back it up to multiple locations (such as online file storage), then reinsert your SD card into your 3DS
  • New 3DS
    • Get into the homebrew launcher through the entrypoint of your choice
    • Launch SafeA9LHInstaller
    • Press (Select) to Full Install
    • The installer will now install arm9loaderhax on your device (this is very fast)
    • Shut down your console, hold the power button until it turns off if necessary
Section III - Configuring Luma3DS
  1. Hold select on boot to enter the Luma3DS menu
  1. Use the (A) button and the D-Pad to turn on the following:
  • "Autoboot SysNAND"
  • "Use SysNAND FIRM if booting with R (A9LH)"
  • "Show NAND or user string in System Settings"
  • "Show GBA boot screen in patched AGB_FIRM"
    • This may cause crashes for some injected GBA Virtual Consoles
    • If some games do not work properly, disable this option and try again
  1. If you are using a New 3DS, you should also enable the following:
  • "New 3DS CPU" to "Clock+L2(x)"
    • This will increase the framerate of many games, but may cause instability in others
    • If some games do not work properly, disable this option and try again
  1. Press Start to save and reboot
  1. If, before following this guide, you already had an EmuNAND setup and would like to move the contents of your previous EmuNAND to your new SysNAND CFW, now is the time to follow Move EmuNAND.
  2. Update your 3DS again by going to System Settings, then "Other Settings", then going all the way to the right and using "System Update"
  • Yes this is safe, stop asking about it.
  • If this gives you an error, set your DNS settings to "auto"
  • If this still gives you an error, restore your NAND backup before updating
    • Copy NANDmin.bin to the /files9/ folder on your SD card
    • If your backup is of a version between 4.0.0 and 4.5.0, put firmware.bin - in /luma/ (delete this file after updating your 3DS)
    • Open Hourglass9 from arm9loaderhax by holding (Start) on boot
    • Go to "SysNAND Backup/Restore"
    • Restore from NANDmin.bin
    • Press (Start) to reboot
  • If you don't have your NAND backup or it doesn't work, follow 9.2.0 ctrtransfer before updating
Section IV - Injecting FBI
  1. Open Hourglass9 from arm9loaderhax by holding (Start) on boot
  2. Go to "SysNAND Backup/Restore", then select the "Health&Safety Dump" option to dump Health & Safety to hs.app (you can use Up and Down / Left and Right to change the name)
  3. Press (B), then select the "Health&Safety Inject" option
  4. Select the FBI injectable .app for your region
  5. Press (A) and confirm to inject
  6. Press (Start) to reboot
  7. If you still launch to the stock Health & Safety app and have downgraded with Gateway in the past, follow this troubleshooting guide
Section V - Finalizing setup
  1. Open Health and Safety (which is now FBI)
  2. Select "SD"
  3. Select "cias"
  4. Navigate to FBI.cia and press (A) to install
  5. Navigate to hblauncher_loader.cia and press (A) to install
  6. Navigate to lumaupdater.cia and press (A) to install
  7. Exit with the home button
  8. Launch the Homebrew Launcher from the home menu
  9. Select "DSP Dump"
  10. Press (Start) when prompted to exit
  11. Reboot while holding Start to launch Hourglass9
  12. Go to "SysNAND Backup/Restore", then select "Health&Safety Inject"
  13. Select hs.app (the original one that doesn't contain FBI), then press (A) and confirm to inject
  14. Press (Start) on the main menu to reboot!
  15. If DSi / DS functionality has broken (such as DS carts or DSiWare no longer working), follow this troubleshooting guide

You can now use Luma3DS Updater to update your Luma3DS to the latest version just by opening it and pressing (A). (This is not the same thing as a System Update; it just downloads and extracts the newest Luma3DS files) {: .notice--info}

{% capture notice-6 %} You will no longer be able to boot without the SD card in, that is normal.
You will now boot a Custom Firmware based SysNAND by default.
You can now hold (Select) on boot to launch the Luma3DS configuration menu.
You can now hold (Start) on boot to launch Hourglass9, an arm9loaderhax safe multipurpose NAND and cartridge tool.
{% endcapture %}

{{ notice-6 | markdownify }}

You can update your arm9loaderhax installation in the future by following the instructions on the Updating A9LH page. {: .notice--info}

To use NTR CFW, get ntr.bin from the appropriate zip on this page and copy it to the root of your SD card, then install BootNTR.cia from this page. {: .notice--info}

Keep your NANDmin.bin file, it can be restored by Hourglass9 to save you from a brick in the future. {: .notice--info}

You can remove your NAND backups from /files9/ as long as you still have them backed up to a safe location. {: .notice--info}

{% capture notice-7 %} You can remove any extra files and folders from the root of the SD card that are not in the following list:

Files and folders to keep on your SD card:
3ds
files9
hblauncherloader
luma
Nintendo 3DS
arm9loaderhax.bin
boot.3dsx
{% endcapture %}
{{ notice-7 | markdownify }}

For information on changing your device to another region, check out the Region Changing page. {: .notice--success}

For information on keeping your A9LH installation up to date, check out the Updating A9LH page. {: .notice--success}