It's here!

​

Info

@Normmatt has created a way to run B9S .firm files from bootrom via a DSi Flashcard and a magnet! This works on every 3DS on any firmware version.

For installation without a PC, user @TheCyberQuake has created a pack which will automatically install B9S and copy over essential starter homebrew from the flashcard's SD to the 3DS's. This will mainly be used for PC-less B9S installations. If you have a PC with you, use 3ds.guide. Read more here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/481141/

How does this work?

This works because of a flaw in the bootrom. Before the bootrom boots the NAND, it checks to see if Start+Select+X is held down, and if the shell is closed. If these requirements are met, it will boot an NDS cartridge from the bootrom. This give that cartridge bootrom access. You might be wondering how you'd hold down buttons while the shell is closed, and why you need a magnet. If you put a magnet in a specific spot on the 3DS, it will go into sleep mode. Using this, you can boot the NDS cartridge with the buttons held down while in sleep mode! Using a reflashable flashcard, you can boot B9SInstaller using the flashcard, and easily install it on your 3DS.

The 2DS doesn't need a magnet since a switch puts it to sleep instead of a magnet.

What does this mean?

1. Any 3DS model on any firmware can be hacked with minimal effort
2. You can unbrick any 3DS model from any type of brick.
   - Remember, you don't need a NAND backup for this. Just do a CTRTransfer.
   - This does not apply to MCU bricks.
3. Even consoles with fried NAND, or even the NAND chip physically removed, can use this

This is incredibly impressive stuff, and will most likely be released soon! edit: now!

FAQ

Q: Can Nintendo patch this?
A: Nope! Not without a new hardware revision.

Q: My flashcard is blocked by my firmware! Can I still use this?
A: Yes! The flashcard blacklist is not enabled on the bootrom.

Q: Why can't this work with my flashcard?
A: The installation requires you to flash NTRBoot to the flashcard's nand. Most DS flashcards, such as the original R4, have a ROM, which is not flashable.

Q: Can I install NTRBoot on my flashcard without another 3DS system?
A: If you can run NDS roms on your 3DS with it, then yes. If it's blocked on your 3DS version, then you'll need another 3DS system to use it.

Q: Will my 3DS flashcard work?
A: No, only the NDSi flashcards listed above.

Q: Will any other flash cards work?
A: Only the ones listed in the OP. However keep in mind that flashcards such as the DSTT, Supercard DS2 and R4 SDHC Dualcore are planned to be supported in the future.

Q: I tried to do this with my cartridge and it didn't work?
A: It doesn't work with regular DS cards.

Q: Can I unbrick from a ____ brick?
A: Considering the card has access to the bootrom, yes! This can unbrick any brick (except MCU), unless you've taken a knife to the motherboard.

Q: Can I install B9S on the latest firmware with this?
A: Again, since the card has access to the bootrom, you can do this easily! Just plug in your flashcard, boot up using the magnet and button combination, and install.

Q: Does this work on the New Nintendo 2DS XL?
A: Yes!

Release
Guide
Free NTRBoot Flashing
Free B9S Installations

Here is SciresM's post about this

Please see SciresM's presentation on bootromhax.​

 

[DarkFlare69]

I'm trying to unbrick my 3DS but am having a problem.

I know the firmware is flashed right because my friend sent me the card he used to unbrick his 3DS. However mine isn't succeeding:


It will never show anything on screen. The blue light turns off after releasing power button

 

[gamesquest1]

I'm trying to unbrick my 3DS but am having a problem.

I know the firmware is flashed right because my friend sent me the card he used to unbrick his 3DS. However mine isn't succeeding:


It will never show anything on screen. The blue light turns off after releasing power button

try having both boot.firm and ntrboot.firm on the SD card, as they may have used a different build of b9s on the nds card

 

[MrJason005]

I'm trying to unbrick my 3DS but am having a problem.

I know the firmware is flashed right because my friend sent me the card he used to unbrick his 3DS. However mine isn't succeeding:


It will never show anything on screen. The blue light turns off after releasing power button

Your sd card isn't setup properly. Led ON and OFF means that it failed to find a boot.firm on the 3DS' SD card

 

[DarkFlare69]

Your sd card isn't setup properly. Led ON and OFF means that it failed to find a boot.firm on the 3DS' SD card

try having both boot.firm and ntrboot.firm on the SD card, as they may have used a different build of b9s on the nds card

ok, i only have ntrboot.firm right now. I'll try putting boot.firm and seeing if it works

 

[vilator]

I have same question

I've got the answer finally. This is all if you have a stock 3ds with latest firmware.

If you have latest 11.5 stock and no old DS's laying around, you need either
R4i Gold 3DS (RTS) : <= 11.5.0
Infinity 3 R4i

the other flashcarts work but you must have earlier firmware to use them, the < 4.5 , so I think they are useless if you buy a new 3ds.

If you have a DS Lite laying around, you can use the dstt. dstt needs the DSL to set up the flash cart, then you can use the flash cart to install cfw on the 3ds.

And you can use the dsi with the list of supported carts, but need to be on firmware < 1.4.5. dstt might work here, not sure.

 

[Nomelas]

New R4I Card with NtrBootHax Preflashed!!!

http://www.r4i-sdhc.com/B9SSector.asp

lol what? Funny they would release this, BEFORE there's support for it.

 

[The Catboy]

And still no support for Supercard DSTWO cards... which are the most sold DS cards

The DSTWO is actually extremely complicated due to how it loads the header.
The DSTWO seems to load the header from the SD or at least the SD as the information in order make the header work. It's not as simple as every other cart and the people making NTRBoot having a hard time figuring the cart out.

 

[pixelmasher]

The DSTWO is actually extremely complicated due to how it loads the header.
The DSTWO seems to load the header from the SD or at least the SD as the information in order make the header work. It's not as simple as every other cart and the people making NTRBoot having a hard time figuring the cart out.

Hopefully DSTWO team makes it themselves like the SDHC team.

 

[The Catboy]

Oh! I forgot to mention that I actually did get the DSTWO to show without the SD card

I am pretty sure I may have accidentally half loaded the header from the SD card, but I have been unable to replicate this to test further.

 

[Geezerdorf]

Oh! I forgot to mention that I actually did get the DSTWO to show without the SD card
View attachment 98859
I am pretty sure I may have accidentally half loaded the header from the SD card, but I have been unable to replicate this to test further.

If my NTR knowledge is correct, what happened there is that the cart was recognized by the system; the header wasn't, though. Supposedly, there's a failsafe command that should prevent the recognition of a cart altogether if the header cannot be read. I have seen that happen with just one cart of mine as well, and it was Advance Wars. Really weird to see this uncommon situations, lucky you!

Now, on topic. I've been wondering about the video of the R4 SDHC. Is that from someone that managed to flash it with NTR-bootflasher, or is the flashcart team (but there's a TON of different flashcarts and configs they used!) behind that? I'm intrigued
ADDENDUM: So it seems that they SPI flashed the cart. That's a bummer.

 

[The Catboy]

If my NTR knowledge is correct, what happened there is that the cart was recognized by the system; the header wasn't, though. Supposedly, there's a failsafe command that should prevent the recognition of a cart altogether if the header cannot be read. I have seen that happen with just one cart of mine as well, and it was Advance Wars. Really weird to see this uncommon situations, lucky you!

Now, on topic. I've been wondering about the video of the R4 SDHC. Is that from someone that managed to flash it with NTR-bootflasher, or is the flashcart team (but there's a TON of different flashcarts and configs they used!) behind that? I'm intrigued
ADDENDUM: So it seems that they SPI flashed the cart. That's a bummer.

I forgot to shoehorn the point of that post. I was doing research on trying to figure out where the actual header it stored on the DSTWO.
I know a few things
1: There are external firmware updates that flash to the DSTWO. So there's a firmware on the cart and a kernel (EOS) for the cart
2: The SD card appears to be needed to execute the header, but this also means something is stored on the cart itself in order to make this all happen
3: That's all I know
I bring this up because it does show the DSTWO is a lot more complicated compared to other carts. As it needs both a firmware and a kernel for the cart to work, compared to other carts that store a small rom header on the cart itself. This makes it far more difficult to work with as the devs need to both modify the header on the cart and whatever is used in EOS to make that header work.

 

[tranfeer]

It would be very nice if r4igold.cn cards started shipping pre-flashed with ntrboot while having still working nds mode.

maybe

 

[MagicKnight]

Hopefully DSTWO team makes it themselves like the SDHC team.

I really doubt they will (or they would already have done it, they have sourcecodes and technical specifications ) and if they will ever release a compatible card they will try to sell it as a new card.
I hope someone someday will figure out how to use a custom header with that card

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

2: The SD card appears to be needed to execute the header, but this also means something is stored on the cart itself in order to make this all happen

I don't think so... when that card was still supported and Nintendo blocked it every new firmware the Supercard team forced a FIRMWARE update every time, if headers were stored on SD card a simple EOS update would have been enough.
I simply think that at boot (as soon as the card is powered) the internal firmware checks if required files on the SD card are present and on failure simply stops without even showing the header (just like and empty card).

 

[The Catboy]

I don't think so... when that card was still supported and Nintendo blocked it every new firmware the Supercard team forced a FIRMWARE update every time, if headers were stored on SD card a simple EOS update would have been enough.
I simply think that at boot (as soon as the card is powered) the internal firmware checks if required files on the SD card are present and on failure simply stops without even showing the header (just like and empty card).

That could be possible to. I am no expert and my studies has only revealed one thing, the DSTWO is an enigma and I don't blame them if they can't figure it out.

 

[Geezerdorf]

I forgot to shoehorn the point of that post. I was doing research on trying to figure out where the actual header it stored on the DSTWO.
I know a few things
1: There are external firmware updates that flash to the DSTWO. So there's a firmware on the cart and a kernel (EOS) for the cart
2: The SD card appears to be needed to execute the header, but this also means something is stored on the cart itself in order to make this all happen
3: That's all I know
I bring this up because it does show the DSTWO is a lot more complicated compared to other carts. As it needs both a firmware and a kernel for the cart to work, compared to other carts that store a small rom header on the cart itself. This makes it far more difficult to work with as the devs need to both modify the header on the cart and whatever is used in EOS to make that header work.

Right. I do remember that DSTWO was one of the first to do flashing for firmwares/kernel internally. Prior to those days, you needed to use something like an API flasher, which were rare in the beginning, or in the M3i Zero's case, flash the Kernel/firmware of the flashcart by the use of a "dongle", ribbon cable, and an usb port.
I'm trying to remember exactly where it was documented; DSTWO was more oriented to do the firmware update by the cart, but the ROM header was contained on one of the files you needed to put on the SD. Can't remember which one it was since it's been a while. I Think it was on the .dat of the menu... I used to have one, but gave it away to a friend as a gift, and discarded the info since i didn't need it. Terrible Idea.

The way the cart was structured, it makes a call to that specific info, to get the correct header for the flashcart, and then, allow the cart to run, and bypass the DSi's lock. Supposedly, that would also bypass the 3DS lock, but i don't have a DSTWO anymore so i'm still not 100% sure if i explained correctly how it works.
Maybe some other person can share some more light about it? But yeah.
Thing is, DSTWO support is possible, but it'd require a specific build for it, due to the flashcart's "unique" features. How long would it take? Well, depends on how much of the info is available to transcript the flasher to DSTWO i suppose.

 

[PolskiWisnia]

These are insides of my R4 SDHC Dualcore. If NTRBootHax will be released would it work?

 

[enes eyibil]

hi i bought ds lite but i have error black screen for loading

what do ı do ?

i have r4 ultra flashcar4d

 

[RedBlueGreen]

These are insides of my R4 SDHC Dualcore. If NTRBootHax will be released would it work?

It should when there's compatibility for it. The video on YouTube has a card that was flashed with actual hardware though.

 

[MrJason005]

The video on YouTube has a card that was flashed with actual hardware though.

Was this proven?

 

[jDSX]

Is R4i wifi (blue) flashable?