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Installation and upgrade

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Noëlle Mercer edited this page Aug 6, 2022 · 19 revisions

Installation

  1. As of Luma3DS v8.0, boot9strap v1.2 or higher is required for usage and all previous entrypoints are no longer supported. Refer to this for information on how to update from arm9loaderhax, or start from here if you do not yet have arm9loaderhax or boot9strap.
  2. Download the latest version of Luma3DS from here. The file you want to download is Luma3DSvX.X(.X).7z, not Source code (zip) or Source code (tar.gz)!
  3. Extract boot.firm from the Luma3DSvX.X(.X).7z archive with a tool like 7-zip (Windows/Linux) or Unarchiver (macOS) to the root of your 3DS' SD card. If your 3DS will not power on after this step or you get an "Unsupported loader" error, please try updating boot9strap.
  4. Optional: Follow "Section VI - CTRNAND Luma3DS" here. This will allow you to boot your 3DS without having an SD card inserted.

Upgrading

Simply download the latest release from the releases page and replace boot.firm on the SD card. Auto-updaters are not supported.

The release archive also ships the latest release of the Homebrew Menu; you might want to replace boot.3dsx if it is outdated.

Troubleshooting

"My 3DS shows a blue light for a second or two and then turns off/shows "unsupported loader" on the screen! What do I do?!"

Versions of Luma v8.0 and above require boot9strap v1.2 or higher. Please try updating your boot9strap installation here. Additionally, while third party bootloaders exist, we cannot guarantee compatibility with them; boot9strap is the only officially supported and recommended entrypoint.

"I got a network error installing LumaUpdate or updating Luma!"

Make sure your 3DS is connected to the internet.

"Some features that Luma3DS claims to have don't work for me!"

Are you on a firmware lower than 4.0.0? Many patches done by Luma are unsupported on firmwares below 4.0.0. With boot9strap and Luma3DS, there are no consequences when updating to the latest firmware, so we highly recommend doing so. If you are on the latest firmware, please try following the documentation detailing the feature you're having issues with more closely. This documentation can be found on thr pages listed in the wiki sidebar.

If you have an issue not listed here, it may be listed in Plailect's troubleshooting guide.

Take a look at the FAQ and troubleshooting page for the most common issues you might run into.
For other issues or general support with using Luma3DS, ask for help at Nintendo Homebrew on Discord.
To report issues, create a Github issue. Check to see if it was reported already before creating a new one.

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