Softmod your Nintendo DSi in 2024 and play all the games – CFW, Unlaunch and TWiLight Menu ++

The Nintendo DS range was, until recently, the best selling handheld console of all time. It went through a number of iterations between the initial launch in 2004 and the final sales in 2015 with this model, the DSi, arriving in 2008.

The DSi added WiFi connectivity to the system along with an internal SD card slot for downloaded games and extra storage. It’s these two features that we’re going to take advantage of in this video.

Hacking With an R4 Card

If you’ve watched my video on hacking a DS or DS Lite you’ll know that those systems needed a special game cartridge to hold and run our custom software so that we can run homebrew games and apps. This method still works with the DSi, and indeed most of the cards you’d use for a DS hack simply plug into the DSi and work without any modification.

Custom Firmware

But the DSi’s SD card slot removes the need for the R4 cartridge. We can simply add our hack code to that and run it directly on the console. This lets us install a custom firmware upgrade so we can run DS games, GameBoy Advanced games and a whole range of other software from backup files saved to the internal card.

So that’s exactly what we’re going to do in this video.

What You’ll Need

So to install this hack all you’re going to need is an SD card and a computer to transfer files to it.

You can use almost any standard SD card or micro SD card with an adapter, but you’ll need to make sure it’s formatted as an FAT32 drive. In Windows the formatting software will only cope with cards up to 32GB. For cards larger than that you’ll need some extra software. I like to use Minitools Partition Wizard’s free version. With that you get very fine control over the card setup and can format any size drive to FAT32, Most importantly, we can also control the cluster size which must be set to 32KB for all SD cards.

Preparing the SD Card

Before we start playing around with the homebrew apps it’s worth getting the SD card set up in the console. If you’ve already got a memory card in your unit you should take that out and save a copy of the photos from it. You’ll find those in the DCIM folder.

If you’re using a freshly formatted SD card pop it into the DSi and go into the camera app. Make sure you select the SD card and you should see the console go through the card initialisation process. It’s basically making sure it can read the card and then sets up the standard folder structure.

Once that’s complete click on the Album button. There should be a box with some icons above it. The Facebook icon tells us which version of the camera app you’re using so make a mental note of whether you can see it or not.

That’s your SD card all ready to go. Power off the console, take out the SD card and put it back into your PC.

My Camera App Doesn’t Work

If you find your camera isn’t working, don’t worry, we can still hack the DSi but you’ll have to use the DSi browser app. So, make sure that’s all set up and you’re connected to your WiFi.

My WiFi Doesn’t Work

If your WiFi doesn’t work there is one last hack you can use but you have to have the FlipNote Studio app installed on your device. On the main menu screen scroll across until you see the frog icon. That’s the app we’ll need.

Downloading the Code and Preparing the SD Card

Whichever exploit you intend to use will need a few homebrew apps to work. All off the information and download links I’ll be using is detailed in the DSi Guide at https://dsi.cfw.guide/ but I’ll also put links in the description below.

One final note before we start. In the second stage of our hack we will be modifying the firmware on your DSi console. There is a very small risk that if something goes wrong you can brick your device. So please make sure that you watch the video in full before starting, go through the guide and only proceed if you’re happy to do so.

The first bit of software we need is TWiLight Menu ++. This is a menu system that will let us browse our SD card and launch games and homebrew apps. Just go to the GitHub repository and download the latest DSi release version.

https://github.com/DS-Homebrew/TWiLightMenu/releases

This will download as a 7z archive so you’ll need something like the 7-zip app to be able to open and extract the files. Extract the files to a folder on your PC. You now need to copy the _nds folder, the roms folder and the BOOT.nds file to the root of your DSi SD card.

Next we need a copy of dumpTool. This is an app that will let us make a copy of your system Nand data so we can restore the DSi back to its original state if anything goes wrong.

Go to https://www.dsibrew.org/wiki/DumpTool and click the download button.

This will download the actual .nds file we need so you can just save that directly onto the root of your SD card.

We’re now going to need some games to test our setup. The roms folder we copied across from the TWiLight Menu download contains a number of sub folders, one for each of the systems that it’s going to install an emulator for. If you look inside each folder you’ll see a file that tells you what console that particular folder is for.

So we simply need to get hold of some game roms and copy the actual rom files to the relevant directory. Make sure that you extract any files from their zip or 7z files before copying them as the emulators can’t work with archive files.

So I’ve already got a set of roms in the correct folders on my PC so I can just copy the whole set across in one go. Most importantly for testing I’ve got some DS games in the nds folder and some GameBoy Advance games in the gba folder.

One last file we need is a BIOS file for GBA emulation. TWiLight menu uses the GBARunner2 emulator to play GameBoy Advance games but that comes with an open source BIOS file that’s not fully compatible. We need an actual BIOS rom dump. The best place to find this is in a Batocera BIOS pack, just search online. Inside that you’ll find a BIOS folder with a gba_bios.bin file. That needs to be copied across to a _gba folder in the root of our SD card, but it also needs to be renamed to bios.bin so that GBARunner2 can find it.

Once that’s all copied over we’re ready to go!

Selecting the Hack

There are a few ways to install our custom firmware onto the DSi. The best way to think of it is as a two step process. We first need a route into the DSi that allows us to start loading our own code and firmware. Next we can install a package called Unlaunch which will replace the boot code in the console and give us full control of the DSi. Once Unlaunch is installed we don’t need the initial hack.

For stage one we have 3 choices.

The memory pit exploit uses a vulnerability in the camera system and is compatible with all DSi models including the XL versions. As a standalone hack it’s the least useful as it won’t run all DS games and doesn’t allow you access to the game cartridge slot or sound processor. But it is a reliable and easy exploit to install. If you intend to install Unlaunch this is probably the best route.

The stylehax exploit uses the browser app to get access to the console. You simply visit a web address and the exploit is triggered within a few seconds. This exploit gives you better game compatibility than memory pit and is probably the best route if you plan not to use Unlaunch or if your camera isn’t working.

The Flipnote Studio exploit uses a vulnerability in that application. You download some software to your SD card and then use the app to run it by opening and editing some notes. It a bit more fiddly to activate but if you haven’t got a working camera or Internet connection this is the way to go.

Stage two is optional. Unlaunch is the true custom firmware hack but needs one of the first stage exploits before you can install it. This will give you full control of the DSi and allow you to run all the DS, DSi and homebrew software.

But there is a very slight chance that installing the hack will brick your console. This seems to be a random failure but it is recoverable. The fix does need a bit of soldering to make a modification to the motherboard to rebuild your operating system. If you’re really not keen on this risk use the stylehax or Flipnote studio exploit first. You can always install Unlaunch at a later date.

For this video I’ll first show you the stylehax method as its quick and easy and doesn’t require any modifications to the console. Then we’ll install the memory pit exploit and then use that to install Unlaunch. You can use either hack or the Flipnote exploit to get Unlaunch set up. Once Unlaunch is installed you don’t need the initial hack any more.

Stylehax

To get the stylehax exploit working you first have to connect your DSi to the Internet.

First you need to make sure that your WiFi router is using the 2.4GHz band. This is the older system and some routers might have this turned off. The easiest way to find out is to go through the DSi setup and scan for your access point. If it can’t see your WiFi network the chances are it’s not sending out a signal on that frequency. You’ll then need to enable this in your router settings. Make sure you add the 2.4GHz band to whatever you’re using and make sure that you turn on the WPA2 Personal security. You’ll need to hunt out the router manual if you’re not sure how to do this.

Next, on the DSi, go to your System Settings and then scroll across until you get to the Internet option. Select this and go to Connection Settings. You should see a list of No Connection buttons. If you’ve got some connection details in place that don’t work, you can click on them and then clear the details.

From the Connection Details page we actually need to select Advanced Settings. The DSi’s auto setup feature probably won’t work with your modern router security settings so we need to do it manually.

Again you should see a list of No Connection buttons. Again if there are some set up that don’t work clear them.

In the Advanced Settings page click one of the No Connection buttons. This will start the connection wizard. Try searching for your access point and select your WiFi network when it pops up. I’ve found the best way to set up is manually, so just click the button and enter your WiFi password.

The system should then run a connection test and hopefully you’ll be connected.

With that up and running you now need to put the prepared SD card into the DSi and then go to the Internet Browser app.

Click the Enter Web Address button and type opera:about, then click go. This will bring up some information about the browser. Ignore that and press the home button at the bottom of the screen. Now click the Enter Web Address button again and type

stylehax.net

Followed by the go button. This will trigger the hack. It should take just over 20 seconds to run. If you’re waiting for over 30 seconds just reboot the DSi and try again.

If all’s gone well you should drop into the TWiLight Menu setup screens.

If you get a green screen this means that your SD  card isn’t set up correctly. Just got back, reformat it and copy over the software again.

Your DSi is now able to run homebrew software, but each time you power on you’ll need to activate the hack by visiting the web pages above. If you find this a pain you need Unlaunch.

Memory Pit

If you went through the camera app setup with your SD card it should all be ready. If not make sure you do and make sure you check if the Facebook icon is shown.

You now need a new camera software file. The one you use depends on whether you have a Facebook icon showing or not.

If you have a Facebook icon use this link.

If not, use this link.

These links will download a pit.bin file. Just save that somewhere sensible.

On the SD card use your computer to navigate to the private/ds/app/484E494A folder. If you haven’t got that put the SD card back in the DSi and run the camera app as before.

Inside the folder you should find a pit.bin file. We need to rename this to something else so that we can keep it safe while we copy in the new version. The name doesn’t matter so I’m just renaming mine to pit_org.bin.

You now need to copy over the downloaded pit.bin file and put it into this folder.

You now need to go to the root of the SD card. If you have a DCIM folder we need to delete it. If you’ve got any photos in there that you need to keep just make sure you make a copy of those on your PC first.

We’re now ready to run the exploit so pop the SD card back into the DSi. Power on the console and open the camera app. Next make sure the SD card is selected and open the Album.

The screen should flash magenta to indicate memory pit has worked.

If you get a green screen check you’ve copied over TWiLight Menu properly. If your album opens up as normal make sure you’ve deleted the DCIM folder. If you’ve not deleted this folder, or if you then take some photos it will block memory pit from running.

If all’s gone to plan you should now be in the TWiLight menu setup screen.

Setup TWiLight Menu

With any of the exploits you’ll end up in the TWiLight Menu setup page. It will first ask you what language you want to use. It will probably be set to use the console default language so you simply need to press A to accept this. Next it will ask you for a region. Once set up you can play games from any region but TWiLight Menu needs you to specify your desired base region.

Once that’s accepted TWiLight menu will do a bit of setup and then drop you into the new menu system.

At this point with whichever hack you’ve used you’ve now got a homebrew enabled DSi. With only the first stage exploit you will probably find some apps and games don’t work, and you’ll have to activate the exploit each time you reboot your console.

But once you’ve got TWiLight menu up you should be able to browse out to your roms folder, find a game, and simply select it to play.

However, for a truly modified DSi you need to install Unlaunch.

Backing Up Your NAND

Before we do anything else we need to make a backup of our system NAND. This will allow us to rebuild our console if we do something wrong and brick it in the future.

To back up the NAND we need to launch our exploit and start up TWiLight Menu. At the very beginning we downloaded a homebrew app cold dumptool. We save this to the root of our SD card so you should be able to find it in our menu and launch it.

The backup will take about 7 minutes to complete but once it’s done just hit the start button to get back to the menu. We then need to take out the SD card, pop it back into our PC and copy the NAND files Somewhere safe. Please make sure you do keep these files safe as without them you might not be able to recover your console if it ever gets bricked.

Once you’re sure that you’ve backed up these files you can delete them from your SD card.

Installing Unlaunch

As I mentioned earlier installing Unlaunch will give you the best homebrew experience. This step is totally optional but my personal advice is to install it.

Just to make it clear that there is a very small risk of off bricking your console if you install Unlaunch. This is recoverable if you make a NAND backup but does require you to solder some wires to your motherboard.

First we need to download the Unlaunch installation programme by clicking the download link in the DSi guide or video description. This will download a zip archive file and inside that you’ll find the unlaunch.dsi file that needs to be copied to the root of your SD card. You also need to make sure that TWiLight Menu is still installed so that we can run the installation programme.

Once the file has copied pop the SD card back in the DSi, boot up, run the exploit an start up TWiLight Menu. Once that’s up and running you should find the Unlaunch installation programme in the root of the SD card. Select that to run it.

You should see an option to install now. Select that and let the installation process run. Once it’s finished press A to get back to the main menu and then select power down. If you then reboot the console, when it restarts you should see Unlaunch’s Filemenu screen.

If you’ve managed to get to this point your DSi is fully modded.

If you get any black screens appearing during the Unlaunch installation process make sure you go to the guide pages and follow the troubleshooting advice there.

Configuring Unlaunch

Now that we’ve got Unlaunch installed we need to set it up so that it works the way we want. Unlaunch allows us to control how is the system boots up by holding down certain button combinations as we turn the power on. By default it will boot into its Filemenu screen if we don’t hold any buttons down. So let’s change this behaviour so that our console automatically boots into TWiLight Menu.

If you’re not already in the FileMenu screen power down your DSi, hold down the A and B buttons and power the console back on again. The A and B button combination will always take you directly to the Filemenu screen.

In the menu select Options.

You should now see a list of buttons and the applications assigned to them. These applications will be automatically started by Unlaunch if you power on whilst holding in that button combination.

We want to change the setting for the No Button option. Highlight it with the D-Pad and then press A. You’ll now see a selection of possible actions. We want TWiLight menu to start by default so simply highlight that option and press A.

If you want to set up any other buttons just follow the same process, but for now we’ll just select the save option to save those changes.

Back in the Filemenu we can power off the console, and now, when we power on again, the DSi should boot straight into TWiLight Menu.

Cleaning up the SD Card

We’ve now got our DSi fully hacked, but we’ve still got the remains of our exploit installation sitting on our SD card. If you’ve used the memory pit route you’ll not be able to use the camera app. So let’s clean this up.

With the SD card back in your PC, open up the private/ds/app/484E494A folder again. The pit.bin file is the exploit version so delete that and then rename the original camera software back to pit.bit.

If you had copied your DCIM folder onto your PC for safe keeping you can now copy it back to the root of your SD card. You’ll now be able to use the camera as normal.

Lastly we need to remove the Unlaunch installation code. So on the root of the SD card find the UNLAUNCH.dsi file and delete it.

Your DSi is now fully softmodded and ready to play!

Playing Games

TWiLight menu is a great tool for playing not only DS games, but also GameBoy Advanced, GameBoy and a whole range of other retro console titles.

Just use the file browser to find a game rom and it should automatically boot up the correct emulator.

If we browse to the roms folder and then nds you should find a list of your DS games. Select any one and it should boot up.

To get out of a game just press the power button and you should drop back into TWiLight Menu.

Next we can navigate to the gba folder inside roms. You should see a list of your GBA titles. Just select one and TWiLight Menu will boot up the GBARunner2 emulator and start the game.