GodMode9 Explorer - A full access file browser for the Nintendo 3DS console :godmode:
Is it really that time of the year again? Six years ago, on March 22nd of the faraway year of 2016, GodMode9 was first released to the public. It has come a long way, reaching high stability and amassing features. Right now, there's not much left that GodMode9 can't do, and there's only the odd bug coming in from time to time. As such, this release is a rather small one, with only bugfixes and maintenance stuff.
I still wanted to celebrate the day with a release, so here is GodMode9 v2.1.1 with these changes:
How do I update GodMode9?
(This may be the last time I tell you how to in the release notes, so please remember) You wouldn't believe how often we get that question when we do a new release. It's actually very simple: Just replace GodMode9.firm on your SD card with the file found in the release ZIP. You may also want to update scripts, which are found in the ./gm9 folder inside the archive and go to the same folder on your SD card.
Special thanks I'll be honest, I've long given up mentioning everyone here. The sheer number of contributors (developers, people who report bugs or suggest features, people who help with advice or web hosting...) after 6 years of development is just too big. Just know, each and every contribution, no matter how big or small is highly appreciated. For this release, special thanks go to @Wolfvak, who's been a main dev with me for almost all of the lifetime of GodMode9, to @aspargas2 who did maintenance and fixed bugs, to @Epicpkmn11, who improved the save game generation and thus the installation for DSiWare CIAs and dumps and to @giiutfff who catched a really nasty bug happening when trimming certain DS cart dumps in GodMode9 (great catch!).
We're early for christmas this year with a new release: GodMode9 v2.1.0 comes with several new features and a truckload of bugfixes and smaller improvements.
This is new since the last release:
certs.db, including improvement of certs handling (@luigoalma)SDSIZE, SDFREE and NANDFREE global variablescartdump commandKiller Feature: Unicode support GodMode9 is no longer limited to just displaying English, it now has proper support for Unicode text. To facilitate this change there's also a new font format, a simple RIFF-based format called FRF, which you can easily convert to using the ´fontriff.py´ conversion script. The default font has been updated to include the common accented Latin letters, Cyrillic for Russian, and Hiragana/Katakana for Japanese and there's also a font with complete JIS X 0208 support in the resources folder. You can also now type any character (up to U+FFFF) in the keyboard by switching to the number input mode, typing the codepoint, and pressing the U+ key. (ex. 0411 is Б and 3042 is あ).
How do I update GodMode9?
(Do I really need to add that paragraph everytime?) You wouldn't believe how often we get that question when we do a new release. It's actually very simple: Just replace GodMode9.firm on your SD card with the file found in the release ZIP. You may also want to update scripts, which are found in the ./gm9 folder inside the archive and go to the same folder on your SD card.
Special thanks
With the project now being over 5 years old, and all of us working on other stuff, additionally to also having a real life(tm), the main devs (@aspargas2, @Wolfvak and me) sometimes take the backseat, only doing smaller features, bug fixes and general project maintenance. Gladly the void was filled by other developers. Special thanks go to @Epicpkmn11 for Unicode support,@dratini0 for his continued work on supporting flash chips in the cart dumper and @luigoalma who added support for mounting certs.db in this release. It's not only the devs who we have to thank, though, it's also the numerous people who point out problems and ask for features, as well as everyone who's patient enough to help us out with testing. More special thanks go to @TimmSkiller and @mariomadproductions, who both helped us a lot to improve GodMode9. In fact, the people who helped make this release a possibility are too numerous to list - thanks, all of you!
Today marks the 5th anniversary of the first public GodMode9 release. With this being a special day, a proper release is in order. The conjoined changelog is long, it includes 189 commits, 437 days of development work and two prereleases. The two killer features in this one, for most users, will be the new title manager and the ability to install basically anything (read below), but there are countless other goodies in there, such as the revamped title info, better support for carts and lots of under-the-hood improvements
This is new since the last prerelease:
In addition, this is new since the last proper release:
Killer Feature 1: Title manager
The title manager may be the one feature most relevant to our users in this release. It enables you to get an overview of your installed titles, build CIAs and even (batch-) uninstall stuff from your system. To enter the title manager, press <HOME> and select Title manager. SD installed titles are found on the A:/ drive, system titles and DSiWare titles are found on the 1:/ drive.
Killer Feature 2: Universal installer
The other killer feature in this release is the ability to install basically anything to your system. You can install CIA (obvious), NCSD (also called .3DS files), NCCH, DSiWare .NDS dumps, 3DS CDN/ NUS contents and DSi CDN contents. It's even possible to install a title directly from one of your gamecarts. For DSi CDN contents, the Nintendo DSi (Digital) (CDN) dat-file over on No-Intro may help you get your CDN files in order. You will also need to provide a decTitlekeys.bin file (with DSi titlekeys included) inside the 0:/GM9/support/ folder.
How do I update GodMode9?
You wouldn't believe how often we get that question when we do a new release. It's actually very simple: Just replace GodMode9.firm on your SD card with the file found in the release ZIP. You may also want to update scripts, which are found in gm9 folder inside the archive and go to the same folder on your SD card.
Did you know? We actually missed last years' anniversary release by a solid 5 months, and all you got back then was a prerelease. GodMode9 is a side project for all of our main developers (that's @Wolfvak, @aspargas2 and myself), so it has to take second place to real life(tm) at times. Gladly, we're able to get this release out in time. Thanks go out to the numerous people who helped make this possible, including contributing developers, people who submitted bug reports & feature requests and least but not last, you, the users, who motivate us to keep on improving GodMode9.
Has it really been half a year since the last prerelease and more than one year since the last proper release? Obviously it has, so a new one is overdue. This is another prerelease, with a lot of new stuff:
G:/ now includes an info text file (thanks @GerbilSoft)install command for installing game images\") in variablesA prerelease again? I know what you're thinking: you want a proper release, with no strings attached. In fact, this will be coming, too, and very soon. We're doing a prerelease now so the testing can start. This might be a little rough around the edges, and we're hoping the community will help us get rid of any quirks left. Everything in GM9 needs testing, but especially the new stuff mentioned in the changelog above. Looking forward to your bug reports!
Title manager
The title manager may be the one feature most relevant to our users in this release. It enables you to get an overview of your installed titles, build CIAs and even (batch-) uninstall stuff from your system. To enter the title manager, press <HOME> and select Title manager. SD installed titles are found on the A:/ drive, system titles and DSiWare titles are found on the 1:/ drive.
Handling DSi CDN content
The other killer feature in this release is the ability to handle contents from the DSi CDN. That means you are now able to install, build a CIA from, verify or identify any title that was in the DSi eShop. You're on your own providing these files, of course. The Nintendo DSi (Digital) (CDN) dat-file over on No-Intro may help you get your CDN files in order. You will also need to provide a decTitlekeys.bin file (with DSi titlekeys included) inside the 0:/GM9/support/ folder.
Yup, we're pretty late for this. Real life(tm) got in the way, and we didn't make the anniversary release on time this year. With the recent influx of screeninit relate bug reports we got another very good reason to finally give you this. Here's the new GodMode9 release and this is what you get:
Did you know? The actual first public release of GodMode9 was GodMode9 v0.2.0, which was released on March 22nd, 2016. A lot has happened since then, and a lot of people contributed to this with code, bug reports and testing. GodMode9 transitioned from early entrypoints (Brahma anyone?) to the modern FIRM sighax entrypoint and gained more and more functionality, leading it to be what it is today - one of the most important swiss army knife utilities for the Nintendo 3DS console.
A prerelease? While this has undergone basic testing, and we made sure nothing bad will happen, it is still considered beta state. New stuff may still be a little rough around the edges. Your feedback will help us to improve on what's left to do. We already know, turning off the backlight on a closed lid does no more work (a fix is in the works). We also included a preview of what we're currently working on - installing game images (directly from game cartridges works, too) to your system. This feature should still be used with caution (not marked as preview for no reason, maybe have a NAND backup ready?). Game installing will be improved and extended upon in the coming release.
GodMode9 bootloader When we introduced the GodMode9 bootloader, there was basically just one other alternative, which was boot9strap. We intended to provide the user with an alternative, providing more customization and possibilities. Nowadays, we got fastboot3ds (which coincidentally is also coauthored by d0k3), and, if we're honest, the GodMode9 bootloader just can't hold the candle to fastboot3DS (not as a bootloader, that is). For this reason, the GodMode9 bootloader will be removed starting with the next major release. If you feel that decision is not right, you're free to discuss with us. We're available in the GodMode9 Discord channel.
Credits
GodMode9 is not a one man project, it wouldn't have gotten anywhere near what it is today without the help of numerous people. A big thank you for this release goes to @aspargas2, who provided a ton of code, including support for ticket.db and title.db manipulation (laying the base for game image installing) and lots of other, smaller bugfixes. Another big thank you goes to @profi200, who provided the solution to our screen init issues and to @Wolfvak, for porting that solution to GodMode9, in addition to all the work he's putting into improvements of the GodMode9 code base and performance. I also thank everyone who helped us out with bug reports, testing and all members of the official GodMode9 Discord channel.
Time for a new GodMode9 release. The last major release, v1.9.0, was a pretty solid release to begin with, but as always there is room for improvement. This one focuses on bugfixes, fixing stuff that v1.9.0 did not do right. This is new:
Did you know? This marks the 40th release of GodMode9, with a whopping 1260 commits leading up to here. GodMode9 is now in it's fourth year of development and still going strong, thanks to all of my fellow developers, bug reporters and feature requesters.
Tsktsktsk We've been seeing a lot of bug reports these days with people telling us they can't convert their NCSD (".3DS") files to CIA in GodMode9. It can be assumed that all of them got their badly decrypted .3DS files from some shady source. Shady source: please at least provide proper decrypted files. @citra-emu: maybe stop supporting these files or at least give a warning to users? We, for our part, now properly detect these files and offer fixing. To use the new fixer, just verify your files.
Credits As always this wouldn't have been possible without some help. Thanks go to @Wolfvak, @aspargas2 and @TurdPooCharger for actively contributing to development. I also thank everyone submitting bug reports and feature requests. A special mention goes to @HIDE810 who finally pointed out that text viewer scrolling is awfully slow in some cases and needs some work. Thanks, all of you!
If you followed the behind the scenes progress you knew: GodMode9 development may be a bit slower than what you're used to, but it's everything but dead. Thanks to the help of numerous contributors and the tireless work of @Wolfvak (who actually did most of the hard lifting for this release), we present you a major new release today, including several long wanted features. This is new:
Did you know?
A lot (= almost all?) of the common user questions are already answered by the accompanying Readme.md file. If your question is about setting up GodMode9, for example, it may wise to give the Quick Setup Guide a quick peek. By the way: Unless you use GodMode9 as a bootloader, you don't actually need the aeskeydb.bin or any other additional support files (you may want the seeddb.bin and encTitleKeys.bin, though).
"I get a black screen when booting GodMode9" That was the most common issue with the previous version (v1.8.0), and it only happened when chainloading GodMode9 via the Luma 3DS chainloader (maybe also only on N3DS, we don't know). Both the Luma 3DS and GodMode9 development teams tried to stop this from happening. You actually may not see this happen at all in this release, but we can't guarantee it. If you turn out to be one of the unlucky ones, there's a tried and true solution: Switch to fastboot3DS and let it handle that for you. The installation is quick and painless via OpenFirmInstaller. After the transition, everything will work exactly the way you were used to (you may hold HOME at boot and delve into fastboot3DS customization if you want to).
Credits Admittably, writing that section has become harder and harder with every release, simply because more and more people got involved and helped with stuff like development, bug reports, feature requests, file hosting, channel moderation, etc... So, here's a big thank you to everyone who was involved with GodMode9 over the years. You all helped make this piece of software possible. As for this release, I can't thank my codeveloper @Wolfvak enough - he wrote almost all of the new features you see above. I also thank @aspargas2 for adding DISA/DIFF write support and @dratini0 for finally giving us the long awaited gamecart save reader/writer support. Among those reporting bugs, @TurdPooCharger and @validusername16 stood out by doing thorough testing and sending in helpful and detailed bug reports - thank you, it's highly appreciated!
With more than half a year since the last GodMode9, you didn't see that coming, right? Today, exactly three years have passed since the first public release of GodMode9 (v0.2.0). A lot has happened since, and GodMode9 evolved to the almighty multi purpose tool it is today. Here's what you get in this release:
textview command for viewing text filesdumptxt command for dumping text to a fileextrcode and cmprcode commands (to extract and compress .code, thanks @Hyarion-SS )cp -p allows appending a file to another (thanks @Hyarion-SS)filesel -x and dirsel -x enable a new file selector style (thanks @windows-server-2003)Did you know? By now GodMode9 releases have been downloaded over 1,000,000 times from GitHub alone, not including external downloads from sources such as WiiDatabase.de. The most downloaded release to date is GodMode9 v1.7.1 with 276,003 downloads.
Credits Thanks for this release go to everyone who pointed out bugs, requested features, helped in development, helped with their knowledge or provided tools. This includes @Hyarion-SS, @eiiiiix, @windows-server-2003, @luigoalma, @Wolfvak, @al3x10m, @profi200, @WinterMute, @SirNapkin1334, @annson24, @RShadowhand and, last but not least, you guys, the users. The list is long and still growing, and it's almost impossible to list everyone involved. GodMode9 development will continue!
There's no major release without a hasty bugfix release following it, I guess. The last one broke the rather important NandManager.gm9 script, so I had to do a bugfix release quick. This is the very short list of what you get in this release:
NANDmanager.gm9 script working again (thanks @TheGinGear)Did you know?
GodMode9 offers building CIAs as legit or standard, and you may wonder which one to choose. For purchased titles that you intend to reinstall only to the same console they came from, choose legit. This will include your personal ticket (including identifying info in the ticket) to the CIA. Legit CIAs may not work on other consoles. CIAs that you want to install to other consoles should be build in standard mode instead, which builds a universal ticket and removes identifying info.
The exception to the above rule is system titles, cause system titles always come with a universal, non identifying, legit ticket. You should choose legit for them regardless of their purpose.
Almost 4 months have gone by since the last release, here's a new one for you. This one has a lot of improvements to scripting, but also some goodies for everyone else. This is new:
NANDmanager.gm9 script by @MadScript77 - replaces the old NAND backup / restore scriptsGM9Megascript.gm9 script by @annson24 included in the official repoapplyips, applybps, applybpm commands (thanks @Hyarion-SS!)fget and fset commands (to read / write bytes from a file)sdump command (allows dumping encTitleKeys.bin, decTitleKeys.bin, seeddb.bin
keychk command (to allow checking for user input)nextemu command and EMUBASE env var (allows checking and setting the current EmuNANDlabelsel -k allows jumping to labels via a keypressDid you know?
A very helpful feature of GodMode9 that's known by a surprisingly small number of people is the title search. Just press <R+A> on the 1:, 4:, A:, or B: drives to get a nice list of all titles installed on these drives (SysNAND SD titles are found on A:, of course).
Credits Thanks go to everyone who was involved in this release, including contributors, bug reporters, feature requesters, people who helped me with issues along the way and people who helped run the websites and servers for my tools. Special thanks (in no particular order) go to @Hyarion-SS, @windows-server-2003, @SirNapkin1334, @Steveice10, @MadScript77, @annson24, @DMSalesman, @TurdPooCharger, @profi200, @derrekr, @al3x10m, @Wolfvak, @RShadowhand and @ihaveamac. With the whole number of helpful people it's a given I forgot about someone along the way, so if you feel left out don't hesitate to contact me.