Gone are the days of rotating your Switch when loading a free CFW. Hekate (CTCaer Mod) 5.0 is here complete with a whole new user interface for you to…um…interface with. But that is far from all that this new release has to offer. Let’s discuss!
So, what is Hekate anyhow:
For those of you who have been living under a rock or are like me and use a SX Pro device, here’s the skinny. Hekate is a custom firmware for the Switch that is free. But that’s not all, the github more accurately lists it as a “Custom Nintendo Switch bootloader, firmware patcher, and more.” If you have been following it and you want to know what’s new or if you’re new and you want to know what Hekate 5.0 will get you, we have you covered.
Features:
- This version supports booting ALL current OS/CS CFW, Linux chainloading and payload tools. No more SD card removals
- Latest OFW supported: 8.1.0
- Introducing Nyx v0.8.0 Nyx is hekate’s GUI.
- 8.1.0 support
- emuMMC support
It supports disabling it by boot entry (emummc_force_disable=1), stock (not all fw ver support it) and many more.
Works with SD raw partition and SD file based. (SD file based is extremely slow. Wait for FastFS 4 emuMMC).
This version can sanely shutdown and also supports more SD cards than before.
Thanks to a collab with @m4xw , @SciresM, @hexkyz. - Supercharged boot times
Even with emuMMC or kip1 patching, it’s faster than before. - Supercharged Backup/Restore with FastFS (Nyx only)
Backup and Restore is now orders of magnitudes faster.
Some examples (measured on a U3 SD): No verif: 9min, Sparse: 15min, etc. Even Full with hashes is extremely faster. - External KIP1 patching support
Now non-important patches reside outside of hekate binary. For now this can only patch KIPs defined in hekate’s code, with whatever new patches. Next versions will support other KIPs. - Many bugfixes
NYX Features:
- Snappy and fluid GUI w/ touch support
Yes! This runs on BPMP! - All classic launch options are there
- emuMMC manage
Change between raw partition emuMMCs and SD file based ones easily.
Create file based or raw partition based from eMMC via the Create button.
You can also restore a backup directly to sd partition via the Restore option in tools (outside of emuMMC), AFTER you turned ONSD emuMMC Raw Partition.
Migrate other types of emunand (raw partition or sd file), repair existing raw partition configurations, or migrate a backup (outside of restore folder), to sd file based.
Everything is currently made to protect Linux partitions.
Additionally, the raw partition based is done in 16MB offset, so it can protected from quick formats. - All Info and Tools are now supercharged
Dump individual kips from eMMC, see detailed info about fuses, do backups and restores way faster, etc. - Customization support
Custom icons for boot entries and also a background is supported. (Check readme for how to use them). - Many additions in automation. For example, Nyx will automatically dump pkg1/2 after a sept run.
- Screenshot support. Touch the screen with 3 fingers (no need for swipe).
- FastFS and many many more smaller and bigger features.
Where to Download:
If you’re needing to get your hands on this now, you can download it from here!
