Installing boot9strap (Soundhax)

For support in English, ask for help at Nintendo Homebrew on Discord.
If you appreciate this guide, we accept Donations.
Technical Details (optional)

For technical details on the exploits that you will be using on this page, see here (Soundhax) and here (universal-otherapp).

Compatibility Notes

This Soundhax method (when combined with universal-otherapp) is compatible with versions 1.0.0-0 through 11.10.0-36 in all regions. If the two numbers before the region in the system version string is equal to or more than 37, Soundhax is patched and won’t work.

What You Need

  • The latest release of Soundhax (for your region and device)
    • for the version, use:
    • 1.x - 2.1 if the two numbers before the region in the system version string are between 0 and 2
    • 2.1 - 2.2 if they are between 3 and 4
    • 3.x - 4.x if they are between 5 and 10
    • 5.x - 11.3 if they are between 11 and 36
    • If Soundhax appears in your browser as an unplayable video, press Ctrl+S or Cmd+S to save it to your computer
  • The latest release of SafeB9SInstaller (direct download)
  • The latest release of boot9strap (direct download)
  • The latest release of Luma3DS (the Luma3DS .zip file)
  • The latest release of universal-otherapp (otherapp.bin)

Instructions

Section I - Prep Work

In this section, you will copy the files needed to trigger both Soundhax and universal-otherapp.

  1. Power off your device
  2. Insert your SD card into your computer
  3. Copy the Soundhax .m4a to the root of your SD card
    • The root of the SD card refers to the initial directory on your SD card where you can see the Nintendo 3DS folder, but are not inside of it
  4. Copy otherapp.bin to the root of your SD card
  5. Copy boot.firm and boot.3dsx from the Luma3DS .zip to the root of your SD card
  6. Create a folder named boot9strap on the root of your SD card
  7. Copy boot9strap.firm and boot9strap.firm.sha from the boot9strap .zip to the /boot9strap/ folder on your SD card
  8. Copy SafeB9SInstaller.bin from the SafeB9SInstaller .zip to the root of your SD card
  9. Reinsert your SD card into your device
  10. Power on your device

Section II - Launching SafeB9SInstaller

In this section, you will launch Soundhax through the Nintendo 3DS Sound app, which will use universal-otherapp to launch the boot9strap (custom firmware) installer.

  1. Reinsert your SD card into your device
  2. Power on your device

  3. Launch Nintendo 3DS Sound

  4. If you’ve never opened Nintendo 3DS Sound before and get tips on how to use it from a bird icon, go through all of the bird tips, then close the app normally and relaunch it
    • In this situation, launching Soundhax immediately would cause these tips to appear on every launch of the Nintendo 3DS Sound until this is done
  5. Go to /SDCARD, then play “<3 nedwill 2016”
    • This may take many tries
    • If it freezes, force the console to power off by holding the power button, then try again

  6. If the exploit was successful, you will have booted into SafeB9SInstaller

Section III - Installing boot9strap

In this section, you will install custom firmware onto your device.

  1. When prompted, input the key combo given on the top screen to install boot9strap
  2. Once it is complete, press (A) to reboot your device
  3. Your device should have rebooted into the Luma3DS configuration menu
    • Luma3DS configuration menu are settings for the Luma3DS custom firmware. Many of these settings may be useful for customization or debugging
    • For the purpose of this guide, leave these options on the default settings (do not check or uncheck anything)
    • If your device shuts down when you try to power it on, ensure that you have copied boot.firm from the Luma3DS .zip to the root of your SD card
  4. Press (Start) to save and reboot

At this point, your console will boot to Luma3DS by default.

  • Luma3DS does not look any different from the normal HOME Menu. If your console has booted into the HOME Menu, it is running custom firmware.
  • On the next page, you will install useful homebrew applications to complete your setup.

Continue to Finalizing Setup