hekate - CTCaer mod

Custom Nintendo Switch bootloader, firmware patcher, and more.

Bootloader folders and files

Folder/File	Description
bootloader	Main folder.
|__ bootlogo.bmp	It is used when custom is on and no logopath found. Can be skipped.
|__ hekate_ipl.ini	Main bootloader configuration and boot entries.
|__ patches.ini	Add external patches. Can be skipped. A template can be found here
|__ update.bin	If newer, it is loaded at boot. For modchips. Auto updated. Can be skipped.
bootloader/ini/	For individual inis. 'More configs...' menu. Autoboot is supported.
bootloader/res/	Nyx user resources. Icons and more.
|__ background.bmp	Nyx - custom background.
|__ icon_switch.bmp	Nyx - Default icon for CFWs.
|__ icon_payload.bmp	Nyx - Default icon for Payloads.
|__ icon_lakka.bmp	Nyx - Default icon for Lakka.
bootloader/sys/	For system modules.
|__ emummc.kipm	emuMMC KIP1 module. Important!
|__ libsys_lp0.bso	LP0 (sleep mode) module. Important!
|__ libsys_minerva.bso	Minerva Training Cell. Used for DRAM Frequency training. Important!
|__ nyx.bin	Nyx - Our GUI. Important!
|__ res.pak	Nyx resources package. Important!
bootloader/screenshots/	Folder where Nyx screenshots are saved
bootloader/payloads/	For payloads. 'Payloads...' menu. Autoboot only supported by including them into an ini. All CFW bootloaders, tools, Linux payloads are supported.
bootloader/libtools/	Future reserved
sept	Sept folder. This must be always get updated via the Atmosphère release zip. Needed for tools and booting HOS on 7.0.0 and up. Unused for booting HOS if fss0= key is defined.

Note: Sept files for booting 7.0.0 and up are expected at /sept folder at root of sd card.

Bootloader configuration

The bootloader can be configured via 'bootloader/hekate_ipl.ini' (if it is present on the SD card). Each ini section represents a boot entry, except for the special section 'config' that controls the global configuration.

There are four possible type of entries. "[ ]": Boot entry, "{ }": Caption, "#": Comment, "newline": .ini cosmetic newline.

You can find a template Here

Global Configuration keys/values when boot entry is config:

Config option	Description
autoboot=0	0: Disable, #: Boot entry number to auto boot.
autoboot_list=0	0: Read autoboot boot entry from hekate_ipl.ini, 1: Read from ini folder (ini files are ASCII ordered).
bootwait=3	0: Disable (It also disables bootlogo. Having VOL- pressed since injection goes to menu.), #: Time to wait for VOL- to enter menu.
verification=2	0: Disable Backup/Restore verification, 1: Sparse (block based, fast and not 100% reliable), 2: Full (sha256 based, slow and 100% reliable).
autohosoff=1	0: Disable, 1: If woke up from HOS via an RTC alarm, shows logo, then powers off completely, 2: No logo, immediately powers off.
autonogc=1	0: Disable, 1: Automatically applies nogc patch if unburnt fuses found and a >= 4.0.0 HOS is booted.
updater2p=0	0: Disable, 1: Force updates (if needed) the reboot2payload binary to be hekate.
backlight=100	Screen backlight level. 0-255.

Possible boot entry key/value combinations:

Config option	Description
warmboot={SD path}	Replaces the warmboot binary
secmon={SD path}	Replaces the security monitor binary
kernel={SD path}	Replaces the kernel binary
kip1={SD path}	Replaces/Adds kernel initial process. Multiple can be set.
kip1={SD folder}/*	Loads every .kip/.kip1 inside a folder. Compatible with single kip1 keys.
fss0={SD path}	Takes a fusee-secondary binary and extracts all needed parts from it. kips, exosphere, warmboot and sept.
fss0experimental=1	Enables loading of experimental content from a FSS0 storage
kip1patch=patchname	Enables a kip1 patch. Specify with multiple lines and/or as CSV. If not found, an error will show up
fullsvcperm=1	Disables SVC verification (full services permission)
debugmode=1	Enables Debug mode. Obsolete when used with exosphere as secmon.
atmosphere=1	Enables Atmosphère patching.
nouserexceptions=1	Disables usermode exception handlers when paired with Exosphère.
userpmu=1	Allows user access to PMU when paired with Exosphère.
emummc_force_disable=1	Disabled emuMMC if it's enabled.
stock=1	Disables unneeded kernel patching when running stock or semi-stock. If emuMMC is enabled, emummc_force_disabled=1 is required to run completely stock.
id=idname	Identifies boot entry for forced boot via id. Max 7 chars.
payload={SD path}	Payload launching. Tools, Linux, CFW bootloaders, etc.
logopath={SD path}	If no logopath, bootloader/bootlogo.bmp will be used if exists. If logopath exists, it will load the specified bitmap.
icon={SD path}	Force Nyx to use the icon defined here. If this is not found, it will check for a bmp named as the boot entry ([Test 2] -> bootloader/res/Test 2.bmp). Otherwise default will be used.

Note1: When using the wildcard (/*) with kip1 you can still use the normal kip1 after that to load extra single kips.

Note2: When using FSS0 it parses exosphere, warmboot and all core kips. You can override the first 2 by using secmon/warmboot after defining fss0. You can define kip1 to load an extra kip or many via the wildcard (/*) usage.

Warning: Never define fss0 core kips when using fss0 and make sure that the folder (when using /*), does not include them. This is in case the kips are incompatible between them. If compatible, you can override fss0 kips with no issues (useful for testing with intermediate kip changes).

Payload storage:

hekate has a boot storage in the binary that helps it configure it outside of BPMP enviroment:

Offset / Name	Description
'0x94' boot_cfg	bit0: Force AutoBoot, bit1: Show launch log, bit2: Boot from ID, bit7: sept run.
'0x95' autoboot	If Force AutoBoot: 0: Force go to menu, else boot that entry.
'0x96' autoboot_list	If Force AutoBoot and autoboot then it boots from ini folder.
'0x97' extra_cfg	bit7: Force Nyx to run Dump pkg1/2.
'0x98' id[8]	When Boot from ID is set, it will search all inis automatically and find the boot entry with that id and boot it. Must be NULL terminated.
'0x98' xt_str[128]	Depends on the set cfg bits.

If the main .ini is not found, it is created on the first hekate boot.

hekate     (C) 2018 naehrwert, st4rk
CTCaer mod (C) 2018 CTCaer.

Thanks to: derrek, nedwill, plutoo, shuffle2, smea, thexyz, yellows8.
Greetings to: fincs, hexkyz, SciresM, Shiny Quagsire, WinterMute.

Open source and free packages used:
 - FatFs R0.13a, Copyright (C) 2017, ChaN
 - bcl-1.2.0, Copyright (C) 2003-2006, Marcus Geelnard
 - Atmosphère (Exosphere types/panic, prc id kernel patches),
   Copyright (C) 2018-2019, Atmosphère-NX
 - elfload, Copyright (C) 2014 Owen Shepherd, Copyright (C) 2018 M4xw

                         ___
                      .-'   `'.
                     /         \
                     |         ;
                     |         |           ___.--,
            _.._     |0) = (0) |    _.---'`__.-( (_.
     __.--'`_.. '.__.\    '--. \_.-' ,.--'`     `""`
    ( ,.--'`   ',__ /./;   ;, '.__.'`    __
    _`) )  .---.__.' / |   |\   \__..--""  """--.,_
   `---' .'.''-._.-'`_./  /\ '.  \ _.--''````'''--._`-.__.'
         | |  .' _.-' |  |  \  \  '.               `----`
          \ \/ .'     \  \   '. '-._)
           \/ /        \  \    `=.__`'-.
           / /\         `) )    / / `"".`\
     , _.-'.'\ \        / /    ( (     / /
      `--'`   ) )    .-'.'      '.'.  | (
             (/`    ( (`          ) )  '-;   [switchbrew]