Homebrew SigHax Updates and Discussion Thread

[GerbilSoft]

So... For the end user, what's the real benefit of this? What will this do that A9LH can't?

Once installed? Basically nothing. The only real advantages over A9LH is boot time and keeping OTP unlocked.

I'm not sure why everyone seems to think sighax somehow magically makes it possible to have a completely different Home Menu etc. when all of this was already possible with A9LH. The only difference is that you don't have to keep two copies of the original FIRM present.

For new installations, it eliminates the need to downgrade to 2.1 to get the OTP, since arm9loader isn't used.

 

[WBW]

What we call "CFW" on the 3DS scene right now — Luma3DS, for instance — are really just large-scale patches to the Nintendo 3DS operating system and ARM9/ARM11 firmware.

 

[Drakia]

So arm9loaderhax is obsolete then?
Basically Yes. But you will probably need it to install SigHax when it is released.

What are we actually doing with arm9loaderhax?
We currently patch the official firmware with A9LH and inject cfw code into it.
Then basically have "cfw".
This is done via a verification exploit of Arm9 and loads a payload AFTER arm9 is ran.

a9lh wins over this any day of the week. If everyone switched to a sighax-based CFW, any update Nintendo releases would result in waiting around for somebody to apply whatever patches to it, upload it somewhere for release, download, apply.

With a9lh it's download the official update, done.

There's no contest. This is cool and all, but a9lh is far more user friendly and useful as the end-stage CFW method.

 

[RednaxelaNnamtra]

a9lh wins over this any day of the week. If everyone switched to a sighax-based CFW, any update Nintendo releases would result in waiting around for somebody to apply whatever patches to it, upload it somewhere for release, download, apply.

With a9lh it's download the official update, done.

There's no contest. This is cool and all, but a9lh is far more user friendly and useful as the end-stage CFW method.

In the end it could also be completely the same, if the our sighax firm just loads the arm9loaderhax.bin.
It could also just include a cfw like Luma, which could be used if no armloaderhax is available, but in the end its like arm9loaderhax, but without the need to use some small unused nand areas, an unlocked otp, and without the need to modify the keystore (so a update without protection would not brick the 3DS, but still delete sighax, like it is the case with arm9loaderhax).

 

[metroid maniac]

So much disinformation in this thread it hurts.

Sighax offers little new compared to a9lh.
Installing it is easier due to no OTP, but when it's installed there's basically no difference to a9lh.

The only interesting thing that I want to toyed with is NVRAM booting.

 

[N7Kopper]

One theoretical end user advantage to SigHax is that you can run it if your FIRM0 or FIRM1 partitions are physically fried.
Whereas arm9loaderhax relies on mangling FIRM0 and using it to jump to custom code.

Dunno how easy it'll be to protect compared to a9lh, though.

 

[metroid maniac]

One theoretical end user advantage to SigHax is that you can run it if your FIRM0 or FIRM1 partitions are physically fried.
Whereas arm9loaderhax relies on mangling FIRM0 and using it to jump to custom code.

Dunno how easy it'll be to protect compared to a9lh, though.

If the NVRAM boot thing turns out to be usable, the entire NAND could be fried.

 

[Zan']

So much disinformation in this thread it hurts.

Sighax offers little new compared to a9lh.
Installing it is easier due to no OTP, but when it's installed there's basically no difference to a9lh.

The only interesting thing that I want to toyed with is NVRAM booting.

Noone claimed anything else.
For the way it's executed it changes a lot.
(Which only matters for the device I guess)
For people who know what to do with it there are some new possibilities.
But for the normal user nothing really changes. Except the install might get easier.
(Even though the maintainance depends on the implementation)

 

[dope92]

So since this is a new thing, can we split this into two avenues?

Like a tutorial for people who want to just get free videogames.

And a tutorial for people who want to turn their 3DS into a palm pilot or whatnot.

 

[metroid maniac]

So since this is a new thing, can we split this into two avenues?

Like a tutorial for people who want to just get free videogames.

And a tutorial for people who want to turn their 3DS into a palm pilot or whatnot.

If you're not even using the "backups" euphemism you're asking for a ban!

 

[Zan']

Additionally to that I don't think we'll get it anytime soon.
SigHax doesn't offer a lot more than A9LH to most Users, so it doesn't really matter and it likely requires the bootrom to be dumped to "generate" a working signature.
It could possibly be done without, but would take a lot longer.
And the bootrom dump method is documented since 2015, but noone who does release their work has exploited it successfully.
And according to Derrek (who is known to have exploited it) it's extremely unstable.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

a9lh wins over this any day of the week. If everyone switched to a sighax-based CFW, any update Nintendo releases would result in waiting around for somebody to apply whatever patches to it, upload it somewhere for release, download, apply.

With a9lh it's download the official update, done.

There's no contest. This is cool and all, but a9lh is far more user friendly and useful as the end-stage CFW method.

Not necessarily. Luma could patch the update procedure so that FIRM is automatically patched on install, therefore making it possible to update the system normally. Or Luma could be installed to firm0/firm1 directly.
It could also be used as a new downgrade-less A9LH install method. Flash SafeA9LHInstaller to firm0/firm1, then OTP can be dumped and A9LH installed, reboot and done.

 

[metroid maniac]

Flash SafeA9LHInstaller to firm0/firm1, then OTP can be dumped and A9LH installed, reboot and done.

...or just flash the stage2 payload straight to FIRM.

 

[Drakia]

Not necessarily. Luma could patch the update procedure so that FIRM is automatically patched on install, therefore making it possible to update the system normally. Or Luma could be installed to firm0/firm1 directly.
It could also be used as a new downgrade-less A9LH install method. Flash SafeA9LHInstaller to firm0/firm1, then OTP can be dumped and A9LH installed, reboot and done.

I agree on the downgrade-less part, I think it could be really useful in the actual installation of a9lh.
I'm not so sure I like the concept of CFW having to do on-the-fly patching of something being written to FIRM though, that sounds risky at best.
I suppose we're close to EoL for the 3DS, so true CFW could be useful once Nintendo stops releasing updates.

 

[Tony_93]

If you're not even using the "backups" euphemism you're asking for a ban!

Why on earth would he be banned? Because he is not sugarcoating piracy enough for your delicate eyes?

 

[BL4Z3D247]

Sweet. So will overclocking be possible with this?

 

[KevinX8]

Sweet. So will overclocking be possible with this?

It's already possible now, but what use is it anyway? 3DS games don't dynamically scale fps so you won't be running OOT3D at 60 fps anytime soon. It could lead to overheating and would only give you minor increases in performance plus kill the battery life even worse than it is now.

 

[metroid maniac]

It's already possible now, but what use is it anyway? 3DS games don't dynamically scale fps so you won't be running OOT3D at 60 fps anytime soon. It could lead to overheating and would only give you minor increases in performance plus kill the battery life even worse than it is now.

Plenty of 3DS games perform like crap and fail to reach framecaps.

 

[KevinX8]

Plenty of 3DS games perform like crap and fail to reach framecaps.

overclocking the dual core 268mhz arm11 cpu isn't confirmed to be stable, it may only be able to handle a few mhz above its stock speed and it will only have meager returns, it wouldn't make any difference in games that run like crap.

 

[metroid maniac]

overclocking the dual core 268mhz arm11 cpu isn't confirmed to be stable, it may only be able to handle a few mhz above its stock speed and it will only have meager returns, it wouldn't make any difference in games that run like crap.

True... That's why it's better to get a N3DS for that purpose instead.
Still interested if it's possible to squeeze a little extra out of my existing hardware.