Hekate - Nyx Switch

hekate
hekate
General
Author	CTCaer
Type	System Tools
Version	6.1.0_1.6.0
License	GPL-2.0
Last Updated	2024/02/23
Links
	Download
	Website
	Source

Hekate is a powerful and user-friendly bootloader for the Nintendo Switch that allows users to customize and control their device's boot process.

One of the key benefits of Hekate is its graphical user interface (GUI), which makes it easy for even novice users to navigate and understand. The interface provides a variety of customization options, including the ability to change the device's boot logo and select the default boot configuration.

Another notable feature of Hekate is its support for emuMMC (Emulated NAND). It allows you to allocate a section of your SD card as internal storage (NAND) for your Switch while it's running custom firmware. This means you can keep your stock OS for online use in games you own; It also protects the system from potential bricks since all the software is run from the SD card and any modifications can be reversed or recovered from.

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.

Note: For maximum performance of UMS in Windows, you need to run nyx_usb_max_rate__run_only_once_per_windows_pc.reg, only once per PC you have. It only affects hekate's usb device. You can also view that file with text editor and see what it does. Linux/Mac OS users do not need that.

Installation

How to update:

Drag n drop bootloader folder into sd card root and hit merge/replace.
No need to delete that folder first, especially if you want your configs and payloads.
You can choose to update your RCM injection device or PC with the new hekate_ctcaer_x.x.x.bin or not.
In any case, bootloader/update.bin, will be checked and if newer it will get loaded.
update.bin is hekate and it is already copied with the bootloader folder drag n drop update process.

Notice about Atmosphere 1.0.0 and up:

The fss0=atmosphere/fusee-secondary.bin in hekate_ipl.ini must be changed to fss0=atmosphere/package3.
And make sure that atmosphere/contents folder does not have old Atmosphere components.

Notice about resized emuMMC:

Resized emuMMC does not have the slow bug anymore.
You can create a new one or recreate it via Nyx and the issue will be gone.

User guide

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.
\|__ 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 - hekate's GUI. !Important!
\|__ res.pak	Nyx resources package. !Important!
\|__ thk.bin	Atmosphère Tsec Hovi Keygen. !Important!
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

Compatibility

Supports booting all current CFWs, Android/Linux booting and payload tools. No more SD card removals.

Supports: Erista (T210) and Mariko (T210B01) units.

Latest HOS supported: 17.0.1.

Changelog

hekate v6.1.0 changes:
- Fixed an issue where emuMMC sector offset parsing was failing if SD card was bigger than 1TB.
- L4T and ARC changes:
- Allow boot partition to be exFAT.
- This will need an update of the bootstack of various L4T releases. Mostly important for Lakka and for users that do not want to format.
- Significant changes were done to Arachne for RAM OC to increase performance and stability.
- Several timings were improved and corrected for both T210/LPDDR4 and T210B01/LPDDR4X.
- Stability was improved for higher frequencies for T210/LPDDR4.
- It also significantly affects high density ram modules like in 8GB configurations.
- Additionally, they can be improved extra with the ram_oc_opt ac mode also..
- Fixed an issue where sometimes timing reduction was not allowed on 1600 MHz.
- A new ram_oc_opt= parameter was added to support advanced ram oc configuration for both T210 and T210B01..
- Mostly for users with T210/LPDDR4 because of low frequencies and others that like to optimize (T210B01/LPDDR4X)..
- Read more in wiki.
- ram_oc_vdd2 max voltage limit was raised to 1237mV for T210. T210B01 remains at Jedec max of 1175mV.
- Fixed an issue for DDR200 on T210 when RAM frequency was oc one.
Nyx v1.6.0 changes:
- Support was added for Android 13+ dynamic partition scheme and also raised system partition size to 3GB for legacy (Android 10-11).
- Fixed an issue where emuMMC sector offset parsing was failing if SD card is bigger than 1TB.
- Fixed an issue with some sd cards showing incomplete info (e.g. ADATA).
- Improved fuses info (corrected major/minor and added parsed iddq info).
- 3rd-gen RAM modules model name from Hynix and Micron are now shown properly.
- Hw info will now show per chip ram info instead of single chip and 2 channels.
- Joycon auto calibration on init was relaxed to fix an issue with drifting with HAL effect based joystick mods..
- Additionally, that fix was also incorporated in the Switch to PC gamepad USB mode.
- Added built-in 6axis calibration dumping for all the rest Switch SKUs and stick type for Lite for use in L4T.
- Added info for sd card max supported bus speed and consolidate all UHS classes into one field.
- Added info about some LCD panel clones and new official revisions.
- Fan is now controlled in a finer way.
BDK Changes:
- DRAM: Hynix 3rd gen ram was renamed to the proper model name.
- DRAM: Added extra info about Micron 3rd gen ram.
- DRAM: Added per chip MRR info.
- HWINIT: reordered sdmmc1 power disable.
- INPUT: Samsung touch panel was renamed to just TSP. BH2109 is manufacture date.
- SE: Added se_aes_cmac_128, se_aes_crypt_hash and se_aes_iv_updated_clear functions.
- ACTMON: changed to average sampling.
- MINERVA: Change pll input divider for 2200-2266 mhz and some other fixes.
- UTILS: sprintf will now reject NULL terminated characters for %c.
- UTILS: allow strtol to parse unsigned integers if base is 16 and number is positive.

Credits

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

Open source and free packages used:

Atmosphère (Exosphere types/panic, prc id kernel patches), Copyright (c) 2018-2019, Atmosphère-NX.

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External links

GitHub - https://github.com/CTCaer/hekate
GBAtemp - https://gbatemp.net/threads/hekate-6-0-0-and-nix-1-5-0-released.623498/