hekate - Nyx

Custom Graphical Nintendo Switch bootloader, firmware patcher, tools, and many more.

• Features
• Bootloader folders and files
• Bootloader configuration
  • hekate global Configuration keys/values
  • Boot entry key/value combinations
  • Boot entry key/value combinations for Exosphère
  • Payload storage
  • Nyx Configuration keys/values

Features

• Fully Configurable and Graphical with Touchscreen and Joycon input support
• Launcher Style, Background and Color Themes
• HOS (Switch OS) Bootloader -- For CFW Sys/Emu, OFW Sys and Stock Sys
• Android & Linux Bootloader
• Payload Launcher
• eMMC/emuMMC Backup/Restore Tools
• SD Card Partition Manager -- Prepares and formats SD Card for any combo of HOS (Sys/emuMMC), Android and Linux
• emuMMC Creation & Manager -- Can also migrate and fix existing emuMMC
• Switch Android & Linux flasher
• USB Mass Storage (UMS) for SD/eMMC/emuMMC -- Converts Switch into a SD Card Reader
• USB Gamepad -- Converts Switch with Joycon into a USB HID Gamepad
• Hardware and Peripherals info (SoC, Fuses, RAM, Display, Touch, eMMC, SD, Battery, PSU, Charger)
• Many other tools like Archive Bit Fixer, Touch Calibration, SD/eMMC Benchmark, AutoRCM enabler and more

Bootloader folders and files

Folder/File	Description
bootloader	Main folder.
|__ bootlogo.bmp	It is used if no logopath key is found. User provided. Can be skipped.
|__ hekate_ipl.ini	Main bootloader configuration and boot entries in Launch menu.
|__ nyx.ini	Nyx GUI configuration
|__ patches.ini	Add external patches. Can be skipped. A template can be found here
|__ update.bin	If newer, it is loaded at boot. Normally for modchips. Auto updated and created at first boot.
bootloader/ini/	For individual inis. More configs menu. Autoboot is supported.
bootloader/res/	Nyx user resources. Icons and more.
|__ background.bmp	Nyx - Custom background. User provided.
|__ icon_switch.bmp	Nyx - Default icon for CFWs.
|__ icon_payload.bmp	Nyx - Default icon for Payloads.
bootloader/sys/	hekate and Nyx system modules folder. !Important!
|__ emummc.kipm	emuMMC KIP1 module.
|__ libsys_lp0.bso	LP0 (sleep mode) module.
|__ libsys_minerva.bso	Minerva Training Cell. Used for DRAM Frequency training.
|__ nyx.bin	Nyx - hekate's GUI.
|__ res.pak	Nyx resources package.
|__ thk.bin	Atmosphère Tsec Hovi Keygen.
|__ /l4t/	Folder with firmware relevant to L4T (Linux/Android).
bootloader/screenshots/	Folder where Nyx screenshots are saved
bootloader/payloads/	For the Payloads menu. All CFW bootloaders, tools, Linux payloads are supported. Autoboot only supported by including them into an ini.
bootloader/libtools/	Reserved

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

hekate Global Configuration keys/values (when 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. Max: 20s.
noticker=0	0: Animated line is drawn during custom bootlogo, signifying time left to skip to menu. 1: Disable.
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.
bootprotect=0	0: Disable, 1: Protect bootloader folder from being corrupted by disallowing reading or editing in HOS.
updater2p=0	0: Disable, 1: Force updates (if needed) the reboot2payload binary to be hekate.
backlight=100	Screen backlight level. 0-255.

Boot entry key/value combinations:

Config option	Description
warmboot={FILE path}	Replaces the warmboot binary
secmon={FILE path}	Replaces the security monitor binary
kernel={FILE path}	Replaces the kernel binary
kip1={FILE path}	Replaces/Adds kernel initial process. Multiple can be set.
kip1={FOLDER path}/*	Loads every .kip/.kip1 inside a folder. Compatible with single kip1 keys.
pkg3={FILE path}	Takes an Atmosphere package3 binary and extracts all needed parts from it. kips, exosphere, warmboot and mesophere.
fss0={FILE path}	Same as above. !Deprecated!
pkg3ex=1	Enables loading of experimental content from a PKG3/FSS0 storage
pkg3kip1skip={KIP name}	Skips loading a kip from pkg3/fss0. Allows multiple and , as separator. The name must exactly match the name in PKG3.
exofatal={FILE path}	Replaces the exosphere fatal binary for Mariko
----------------------	----------------------------------------------------------
kip1patch=patchname	Enables a kip1 patch. Allows multiple and , as separator. If actual patch is not found, a warning will show up.
emupath={FOLDER path}	Forces emuMMC to use the selected one. (=emuMMC/RAW1, =emuMMC/SD00, etc). emuMMC must be created by hekate because it uses the raw_based/file_based files.
emummcforce=1	Forces the use of emuMMC. If emummc.ini is disabled or not found, then it causes an error.
emummc_force_disable=1	Disables emuMMC, if it's enabled.
stock=1	OFW via hekate bootloader. Disables unneeded kernel patching and CFW kips when running stock. If emuMMC is enabled, emummc_force_disable=1 is required. emuMMC is not supported on stock. If additional KIPs are needed other than OFW's, you can define them with kip1 key. No kip should be used that relies on Atmosphère patching, because it will hang. If NOGC is needed, use kip1patch=nogc.
fullsvcperm=1	Disables SVC verification (full services permission). Doesn't work with Mesosphere as kernel.
debugmode=1	Enables Debug mode. Obsolete when used with exosphere as secmon.
kernelprocid=1	Enables stock kernel process id send/recv patching. Not needed when pkg3/fss0 is used.
----------------------	----------------------------------------------------------
payload={FILE path}	Payload launching. Tools, Android/Linux, CFW bootloaders, etc. Any key above when used with that, doesn't get into account.
----------------------	----------------------------------------------------------
l4t=1	L4T Linux/Android native launching.
boot_prefixes={FOLDER path}	L4T bootstack directory.
ram_oc=0	L4T RAM Overclocking. Check README_CONFIG.txt for more info.
ram_oc_vdd2=1100	L4T RAM VDD2 Voltage. Set VDD2 (T210B01) or VDD2/VDDQ (T210) voltage. 1050-1175.
ram_oc_vddq=600	L4T RAM VDDQ Voltage. Set VDDQ (T210B01). 550-650.
uart_port=0	Enables logging on serial port for L4T uboot/kernel.
sld_type=0x31444C53	Controls the type of seamless display support. 0x0: Disable, 0x31444C53: L4T seamless display.
Additional keys	Each distro supports more keys. Check README_CONFIG.txt for more info.
----------------------	----------------------------------------------------------
bootwait=3	Overrides global bootwait from [config].
id=IDNAME	Identifies boot entry for forced boot via id. Max 7 chars.
logopath={FILE path}	If it exists, it will load the specified bitmap. Otherwise bootloader/bootlogo.bmp will be used if exists
icon={FILE 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 defaults 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 PKG3/FSS0 it parses exosphere, warmboot and all core kips. You can override the first 2 by using secmon/warmboot after defining pkg3/fss0. You can define kip1 to load an extra kip or many via the wildcard (/*) usage.

Warning: Careful when you override pkg3/fss core kips with kip1. That's in case the kips are incompatible between them. If compatible, you can override pkg3/fss0 kips with no issues (useful for testing with intermediate kip changes). In such cases, the kip1 line must be after pkg3/fss0 line.

Boot entry key/value combinations for Exosphère:

Config option	Description
nouserexceptions=1	Disables usermode exception handlers when paired with Exosphère.
userpmu=1	Enables user access to PMU when paired with Exosphère.
cal0blank=1	Overrides Exosphère config blank_prodinfo_{sys/emu}mmc. If that key doesn't exist, exosphere.ini will be used.
cal0writesys=1	Overrides Exosphère config allow_writing_to_cal_sysmmc. If that key doesn't exist, exosphere.ini will be used.
usb3force=1	Overrides system settings mitm config usb30_force_enabled. If that key doesn't exist, system_settings.ini will be used.

Note: cal0blank, cal0writesys, usb3force, as stated override the exosphere.ini or system_settings.ini. 0: Disable, 1: Enable, Key Missing: Use original value.

Note2: blank_prodinfo_{sys/emu}mmc, allow_writing_to_cal_sysmmc and usb30_force_enabled in exosphere.ini and system_settings.ini respectively, are the only atmosphere config keys that can affect hekate booting configuration externally, if the equivalent keys in hekate config are missing.

Payload storage:

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

Offset / Name	Description
'0x94' boot_cfg	bit0: Force AutoBoot, bit1: Show launch log, bit2: Boot from ID, bit3: Boot to emuMMC.
'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	When menu is forced: bit5: Run UMS.
'0x98' xt_str[128]	Depends on the set cfg bits.
'0x98' ums[1]	When Run UMS is set, it will launch the selected UMS. 0: SD, 1: eMMC BOOT0, 2: eMMC BOOT1, 3: eMMC GPP, 4: emuMMC BOOT0, 5: emuMMC BOOT1, 6: emuMMC GPP,
'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.
'0xA0' emummc_path[120]	When Boot to emuMMC is set, it will override the current emuMMC (boot entry or emummc.ini). Must be NULL terminated.

Nyx Configuration keys/values (nyx.ini):

Config option	Description
themebg=2d2d2d	Sets Nyx background color in HEX. EXPERIMENTAL.
themecolor=167	Sets Nyx color of text highlights.
entries5col=0	1: Sets Launch entry columns from 4 to 5 per line. For a total of 10 entries.
timeoff=100	Sets time offset in HEX. Must be in HOS epoch format
homescreen=0	Sets home screen. 0: Home menu, 1: All configs (merges Launch and More configs), 2: Launch, 3: More Configs.
verification=1	0: Disable Backup/Restore verification, 1: Sparse (block based, fast and mostly reliable), 2: Full (sha256 based, slow and 100% reliable).
------------------	------- The following options can only be edited in nyx.ini -------
umsemmcrw=0	1: eMMC/emuMMC UMS will be mounted as writable by default.
jcdisable=0	1: Disables Joycon driver completely.
jcforceright=0	1: Forces right joycon to be used as main mouse control.
bpmpclock=1	0: Auto, 1: Fastest, 2: Faster, 3: Fast. Use 2 or 3 if Nyx hangs or some functions like UMS/Backup Verification fail.

hekate  (c) 2018,      naehrwert, st4rk.
        (c) 2018-2025, CTCaer.

Nyx GUI (c) 2019-2025, CTCaer.

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

Open source and free packages used:
 - Littlev Graphics Library,
   Copyright (c) 2016-2018 Gabor Kiss-Vamosi
 - FatFs R0.13c,
   Copyright (c) 2006-2018, ChaN
   Copyright (c) 2018-2022, CTCaer
 - bcl-1.2.0,
   Copyright (c) 2003-2006, Marcus Geelnard
 - blz,
   Copyright (c) 2018, SciresM
 - elfload,
   Copyright (c) 2014 Owen Shepherd,
   Copyright (c) 2018 M4xw

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