Team-Xecuter has been quiet since v6.0.0 officially rolled out for the Nintendo Switch last week, but they are back with this time an amazing revolutionary update to their SX OS

And you may ask why is it 'revolutionary', well because for first time a CFW for the Switch contains 'EmuNAND', just like back in the days of the 3DS scene, so check out their official PR announcement below:

Hello friends! Team Xecuter is happy to bring you the official 2.0 release of your beloved SX OS.

A lot has happened since the initial release of SX OS a few months ago. This is far from a simple proof of concept custom firmware anymore. With this major update we bring some exciting new functionality to the table. We suggest you grab a beverage of your choice and read on to learn more!

• EmuNAND

Lets start with the major new feature in 2.0: EmuNAND.

Those who have a background in the Nintendo 3DS hacking scene know what this is, but let's quickly elaborate for those of you who are new to the game:

The Switch uses a NAND Flash storage chip to store all of the system software, as well as your save games and other assets. With EmuNAND we create a shadow copy of this storage from which you can run SX OS. The benefits from doing this are that you keep your SX OS "world" separated from your original firmware. This also means you can keep your switch on an older firmware, while running the latest and greatest firmware inside of your EmuNAND. As we all know, older is better.. when it comes to defeating system security at least. And newer is better when it comes to enjoying the latest content!

Another upside of consolidating your SX OS usage from your original firmware usage is vastly reducing the risk of a network ban. You can run SX OS in EmuNAND, of course with our Stealth Mode enabled, and anything that is littered on the EmuNAND's filesystem is not visible to the switch in Original Firmware mode.

One thing to note is that SX OS EmuNAND works a bit differently compared to what some of you might think of as "traditional" EmuNAND where the entire NAND is copied to a separate partition on the MicroSD card. With SX OS EmuNAND your EmuNAND partition lives inside of your regular NAND. The primary reason for this is that occupying 32GB of a MicroSD card is a bit wasteful. The secondary reason is by utilizing the existing flash storage we can guarantee performance and reliability.

You can set up EmuNAND by booting into the SX OS boot menu (hold Volume + during boot) and going into the revamped "Options" menu. There you will find a section called EmuNAND which will guide you through the setup. By default SX OS will allocate 15GB for your EmuNAND partition. If you want to use a different size hit the "advanced" button before creating your EmuNAND.

SX OS will boot into EmuNAND by default if it finds a valid EmuNAND partition. If you don't want to boot into EmuNAND, there's a button in the SX OS Boot menu which will allow you to continue booting with EmuNAND disabled.

• NAND Dumping, Restoring, GPT Repair

As mentioned in the previous section we have revamped our SX OS boot menu's option screen quite a bit. For the tinkerers and advanced users we introduced an easy method of dumping/restoring your NAND flash storage. Another neat addition for people who had an unhappy accident while playing with their NAND is the "GPT Repair" option. This will repair your NAND's partition table if you ever need to. Again, this functionality is for advanced users who know what they're doing only. Please be cautious when using this functionality.

• LayeredFS working on 6.0

With our (early) support for 6.0 we introduced a regression where "LayeredFS" would no longer work. This has been corrected and you can now enjoy your game modifications/hacks again on the latest official firmware.

• Homebrew NSP Compatibility

We got word that the community has started distributing homebrew titles as NSP files recently. These NSP files cut some corners in the way they are crafted, but we decided to introduce support to make them usable with SX OS anyway. So you can now enjoy your favorite homebrew titles that comes as installable NSP files and launch them directly from the home screen!

• Closing Words

Whew, we're sorry for the wall of text. We tried to keep things as concise and easy to understand as possible. SX OS 2.0 is a big and important update, but certainly won't be the last. We know you're all waiting for even more functionality that is in high demand. Rest assured, we work as fast as we can to scrap these items off of the bucket list and bring them to you, the loyal end user, as fast as we can!

Enough chit-chat, you can update to SX OS 2.0 right *now* by using the built-in updater if you are running SX OS 1.9 or higher. Otherwise head to our website and grab a copy! Enjoy!

--< Team-Xecuter - Rocking the Switch in 2018 and beyond! >--​

Source: MaxConsole

 

[V-Temp]

I get you, but for your average user, they wont get the difference between USER and the actual NAND, so saying it's the NAND size being fucked will probably be the most accurate definition for your average user without going into what USER is.

Oh no disagreeing, just pointing out *what* is screwy specifically.

Like I said, I am actually more concerned about what happens when Horizon tries to install past 16GB in this arrangement, or vise-versa if you're not being careful on the clone (which is bound to happen).

 

[mrdude]

Well I've just wiped my switch clean, in Original Firmware - set up internet and a white theme.

Then the following:
1: Made a 6.0 nand backup.
2: Installed emu nand.
3: Tested emu nand and set a black them - also enabled stealth mode, tried getting game updates - not working (so all good).
4: Switched back to O/F - able to get game updates :-) and access online features.
5: Went back to emunand - so all good with game updates.
6: Next to try installing nsp in emunand as these should be playable without being banned - due to not being on the original nand.

7: Happy days!

 

[Ev1l0rd]

So your proof that installing shit on this emunand will get you banned is that "people have been like banned before and stuff".

Lol ok. Those people were banned because they didn't have a feature like THIS in the first place.

...okay let me break it down for you.

• Telemetry = Data the Nintendo Switch collects on you. This contains information about your system, your playtime, your progress in games and many more things. The Switch has a lot of telemetry.
• Part of telemetry is the size of the NAND/size of USER (technically they are different things, but this is a technical distinction on the whole).
• There is known proof of "strange telemetry data" (basically anything that doesn't belong on the system in the first place, such as titles you don't own according to Nintendo) causing users to be banned.
• If you use TXs' "emuNAND" implementation, the size of the NAND that is in the telemetry logs will be inaccurate on what Nintendo would expect on any of their systems. A proper NAND size is 32GB. Nintendo does not have any smaller or bigger systems for sale at the moment, all Nintendo Switch consoles have 32GB of NAND/internal memory.
• This counts as "strange telemetry data".
• Telemetry data can be traced back to the console it came from.
• Nintendo sees your device is not accurate to what it expects to be reported back (and since they already have reports on your console, they can easily see that this data suddenly changed as well).
• Nintendo takes action accordingly.

Ergo, if you use SX OS 2.0, you will end up being banned, no matter wether you use emuNAND or sysNAND.

I think this is the closest you can get to explaining the issue with it, but please let me know if something specific is unclear here, and I'll gladly expand on it.

 

[Flying Scotsman]

So your saying make a nand backup, Update to 6.0 OFW then create emunand?

Ideally hold off on making an Emunand until the bugs are worked out (whenever that'll be). If you must make an Emunand - I'd personally do a before creating and after. That way if something goes wrong - you've got a fallback backup or a post-emunand one to restore with.

 

[JJTapia19]

Well I've just wiped my switch clean, in Original Firmware - set up internet and a white theme.

Then the following:
1: Made a 6.0 nand backup.
2: Installed emu nand.
3: Tested emu nand and set a black them - also enabled stealth mode, tried getting game updates - not working (so all good).
4: Switched back to O/F - able to get game updates :-) and access online features.
5: Went back to emunand - so all good with game updates.
6: Next to try installing nsp in emunand as these should be playable without being banned - due to not being on the original nand.

7: Happy days!

After you installed a nsp game on "emunand" does it shows up on official firmware?

 

[bkifft]

Been somewhat out of the loop, but did Xecuter release any further info regarding "unhackable" switches besides claiming they still got their own private recovery boot exploit?

 

[mrdude]

After you installed a nsp game on "emunand" does it shows up on official firmware?

How can it - it's a separate O/S? nothing gets written to your O/F bit of the nand, only to emunand and microsd card.

 

[Dissaor]

I use SX OS since 1.4, having played online in OFW and OFFline in CFW, updated to 6.0, currently on the 7 day period trial, playing MK8 online normally; even if they ban me I dont really care, just will sell MK8 cartridge and keep playing locally XC2 M.O., etc. Now, even if they relaease a true emunand, if one doesn't give a s**** about online is there any purpose on using it?

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

...okay let me break it down for you.

• Telemetry = Data the Nintendo Switch collects on you. This contains information about your system, your playtime, your progress in games and many more things. The Switch has a lot of telemetry.
• Part of telemetry is the size of the NAND/size of USER (technically they are different things, but this is a technical distinction on the whole).
• There is known proof of "strange telemetry data" (basically anything that doesn't belong on the system in the first place, such as titles you don't own according to Nintendo) causing users to be banned.
• If you use TXs' "emuNAND" implementation, the size of the NAND that is in the telemetry logs will be inaccurate on what Nintendo would expect on any of their systems. A proper NAND size is 32GB. Nintendo does not have any smaller or bigger systems for sale at the moment, all Nintendo Switch consoles have 32GB of NAND/internal memory.
• This counts as "strange telemetry data".
• Telemetry data can be traced back to the console it came from.
• Nintendo sees your device is not accurate to what it expects to be reported back (and since they already have reports on your console, they can easily see that this data suddenly changed as well).
• Nintendo takes action accordingly.

Ergo, if you use SX OS 2.0, you will end up being banned, no matter wether you use emuNAND or sysNAND.

I think this is the closest you can get to explaining the issue with it, but please let me know if something specific is unclear here, and I'll gladly expand on it.

Again... Nobody's been banned yet. You are speaking pure conjecture and speculation.

 

[RedHunter]

Well I've just wiped my switch clean, in Original Firmware - set up internet and a white theme.

Then the following:
1: Made a 6.0 nand backup.
2: Installed emu nand.
3: Tested emu nand and set a black them - also enabled stealth mode, tried getting game updates - not working (so all good).
4: Switched back to O/F - able to get game updates :-) and access online features.
5: Went back to emunand - so all good with game updates.
6: Next to try installing nsp in emunand as these should be playable without being banned - due to not being on the original nand.

7: Happy days!

Keep us updated. Really want to do this too, also with dlc.

 

[wurstpistole]

Revolutionary my ass. More like revolutionary in mental retardation if you update to this.

I use SX OS since 1.4, having played online in OFW and OFFline in CFW, updated to 6.0, currently on the 7 day period trial, playing MK8 online normally; even if they ban me I dont really care, just will sell MK8 cartridge and keep playing locally XC2 M.O., etc. Now, even if they relaease a true emunand, if one doesn't give a s**** about online is there any purpose on using it?

If you already updated to 6.0 and burnt fuses, and are banned, then no.

 

[JJTapia19]

How can it - it's a separate O/S? nothing gets written to your O/F bit of the nand, only to emunand and microsd card.

Well it's a exact copy of the nand and it uses the same files of the sd. In the 3ds scene it's called having linked nands. One need to be formated to unlink the nands and completely separate them. I asked you the question since you are already testing it and providing info. I just would like to check if it's working like it did on the 3ds or not.

 

[xXDungeon_CrawlerXx]

Nand size cant be changed, its a physicall feature. Does nintendo's telemetry check nand size or nand partition size?

YOu can change the NAND Size, by replacing the eMMC and rewriting it + resizing the USER Partition:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/switch-nand-upgrade.517923/

Did this, too

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Well I've just wiped my switch clean, in Original Firmware - set up internet and a white theme.

Then the following:
1: Made a 6.0 nand backup.
2: Installed emu nand.
3: Tested emu nand and set a black them - also enabled stealth mode, tried getting game updates - not working (so all good).
4: Switched back to O/F - able to get game updates :-) and access online features.
5: Went back to emunand - so all good with game updates.
6: Next to try installing nsp in emunand as these should be playable without being banned - due to not being on the original nand.

7: Happy days!

Keep us informed, dude.

Installing .nsp in emunand and staying unbanned is what 90% of people will be watching to see if this actually works. You're our man.

 

[Deleted User]

I suggest people read this: https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-does-sx-os-emunand-work.518936/

None of the bullshit claims.

 

[jajamundo]

I dont understand why evertytime TX releases something there are a lot of people who always have something to said. If you dont like it dont use it.

If people use a CFW and isntall Nsp playing online or playing XCI or whatever. YOU ARE GOING TO GET BAN ANYWAY. So stop complaining about this and be happy with your lifes, with whatever CFW you are using, with whatever method of playing backups

 

[Ev1l0rd]

Again... Nobody's been banned yet. You are speaking pure conjecture and speculation.

sigh. How many more times do I need to repeat it. YOU SEND INCORRECT DATA. INCORRECT DATA = PROVED TO BE BANNED FOR.

There is no "conjecture" here. Conjecture would imply that there isn't a provable history of this brand of shit leading to bans. Guess what. THERE IS FUCKING PROOF. THAT PROOF BEING EVERY SINGLE USER THAT HAS BEEN BANNED DUE TO TELEMETRY FUCKING OVER THEIR SYSTEM. THE CHEAP COPOUT YOURE TRYING TO PULL BY SAYING "oh but they havent been banned yet for emuNAND" DOESN'T HOLD UP.

The discrepancy is in telemetry data being send. With me so far? Incorrect telemetry data has been a traceable source of being banned.

By denying this will lead to bans, you are effectively saying that every single user who has been banned w/ telemetry data is lying through their teeth.

 

[Deleted User]

Please show me what telemetry is being incorrectly sent?

I can sniff the SSL data tomorrow and verify what you claim. So tell me please what parameter it is that you think is incorrect?

 

[SpaceJump]

sigh. How many more times do I need to repeat it. YOU SEND INCORRECT DATA. INCORRECT DATA = PROVED TO BE BANNED FOR.

Are you sure incorrect data is sent? What did you analyze to come to this conclusion?

Take a look here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-does-sx-os-emunand-work.518936/

 

[Ev1l0rd]

Are you sure incorrect data is sent? Take a look here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-does-sx-os-emunand-work.518936/

USER size is reported. See my conversation with @V-Temp for evidence on that.