Home Menu

The Home Menu is the heart of the Nintendo 3DS. From there one can start games, applications, and access various processes including the friends list. It is launched by NS, and is always running in the background in 3DS-mode except when other programID-high 00040030 applications like Internet Browser, Friend-List, etc are running. Home Menu is still running while System Settings is running, however the System Settings application does not allow directly returning to home-menu. The system will normally re-launch Home Menu when the Home Menu process crashes/terminates. When this re-launch occurs while Home Menu is active, Home Menu displays an error message which says to manually reboot the system.

System Versions

Nintendo devised a system, whereby updates would be delivered via two channels:

• Card Updates (CUP) - The Nintendo 3DS is updated with data from an update partition on retail gamecard title.
• Network Updates (NUP) - The Nintendo 3DS is updated by downloading data from Nintendo's CDN.

CUPs will only deliver updates to core features, such as the Home Menu, Nintendo 3DS Camera etc. CUPs will not deliver updates to Network features, such as System Transfer, Internet Browser, StreetPass Mii Plaza or eShop.

NUPs can deliver updates to core features as well as (updated) Network Features.

Because Nintendo decided to make a distinction between what content could be updated and how. The system version displayed by System Settings is made up of two parts: CVer (Console Version) and NVer (Network Update Version). Represented as:

<CVer Major>.<CVer Minor>.<CVer Micro>-<NUP Version><NUP Region>

The Console Version represents the version of the collectively installed core features. And the NUP Version represents the version of the collectively installed network features.

So if a 3DS' System Firmware read 2.1.0-2U, it would indicate a console version of 2.1.0 and a NUP version of 2U.

NOTES:

• CUPs can only update core content, so NVer is never updated with CUPs.
• NUPs will not update NVer if network features are not updated. (Best seen with the USA vs JPN/EUR 6.0.0 NUP)

CUPs are implemented by adding a System Update CFA to retail NCSD gamecard images. Nintendo generally creates CUPs after NUPs are released.

Version	Title version	Release date	Changelog	CUP Released	CDN Availability	CDN Post Date
1.0.0-0	0	February 26, 2011	Shipped with 3DS on launch	No	Available	February 18, 2011
1.1.0-1	0	February ?, 2011	General bug fixes Added 3D Video title to menu. ("For a Limited Time Only")	Yes	Available	March 1, 2011
2.0.0-2	1029	June 6/7, 2011	eShop added, web browser available, System Transfer added. Full DSiWare data management available. Automatic downloading for system updates added.	No	Available	June 6, 2011
2.1.0-3	2049	June 15, 2011	Fixes the Ridge Racer freeze.	Yes	Available	June 15, 2011
2.1.0-4	2049	July 25, 2011	System stability improvements and other adjustments.	No	Available	July 25, 2011
2.2.0	?	November 6, 2011	CUP Only Release. Improved the arrangement of Friend List. Update from some game cards such as Super Mario 3D Land.	Yes	Unavailable	?
3.0.0-5	4111	December 7, 2011	Added 3D video recording to the camera title, updated Mii Streetpass Plaza, System Transfer between 3DS systems available, improved eShop, home menu QR code scanning with QR codes containing URLs. Nintendo Zone is now always accessible, 3D video streaming support was added to NZone. This added support for running GBA VC titles via AGB_FIRM as well, support for GBA VC titles was also added to NATIVE_FIRM.	Yes	Available	December 7, 2011
3.0.0-6	4111	December 21, 2011	Only StreetPass Mii Plaza and the NVer title were updated. From Nintendo's release notes: "System stability improvements and other adjustments".	No	Available	December 21, 2011
4.0.0-7	5131	April 24, 2012	Add folders to Home Menu, game patching added, buy more expensive games than 1000 yen in JPN. System titles for CHN, TWN, and KOR became available.	Yes	Available	April 24, 2012
4.1.0-8	5131	May 14, 2012	From changelog: "improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments". Once updated to 4.1.0-8, the parental-controls PIN is no longer required for future system updates.	Yes	Available	May 14, 2012
4.2.0-9	6146	June 26, 2012	Improved eShop safety for entering credit-card info, and behind the scenes improvements. Stored CC info will be deleted by this updated eShop, and can be re-entered again.	Yes	Available	June 26, 2012
4.3.0-10	6146	July 24, 2012	Updated eShop, bad word list and NZone hotspot list updated.	Yes	Available	July 24, 2012
4.4.0-10	6146	September 19, 2012	NZone hotspot list updated and TWL_FIRM updated for blocking flash cards.	Yes	Available	September 19, 2012
4.4.0-10	6146	October 17, 2012	China-only, the *only* updated title was System Settings. This title was updated to a version already available in TWN/KOR.	?	Available	October 17, 2012
4.5.0-10	6146	December 4, 2012	Flash-card block via updated TWL_FIRM and whitelist. NZone hotspot list updated as well.	Yes	Available	December 4, 2012
5.0.0-11	7172	March 25, 2013	Many system titles including NATIVE_FIRM were updated, multiple vulnerabilities were fixed as well.	Yes	Available	March 25, 2013
5.1.0-11	7172	April 4, 2013	NATIVE_FIRM and NS were updated. According to the official change-log: "Resolves an issue that may prevent access to the System Settings or other features."	Yes	Available	April 4, 2013
6.0.0-11	8198	June 17, 2013	Official change-log: "Users can now back up save data for downloadable versions of Nintendo 3DS software and most Virtual Console games". For EUR/JPN, the StreetPass Mii Plaza application and the Nintendo 3DS Camera application were updated. Other titles for all regions were updated as well.	No	Available	June 17, 2013
6.1.0-11	8198	June 27, 2013	Official change-log: "Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience."	Yes	Available	June 27, 2013
6.1.0-12U	8198	July 11, 2013	This USA-only update added the updated applications which were first released with the non-USA 6.0.0-11 update.	No	Available	July 11, 2013
6.2.0-12	8198	August 6, 2013	This update added support for the StreetPass relay feature, updated TWL_FIRM, and updated the Nintendo Zone hotspots list.	Yes	Available	August 6, 2013
6.3.0-12	8198	September 13, 2013	See this.	Not observed yet	Available	September 13, 2013

Auto-Boot Function

When the Home Menu is initially loaded by NS, it checks the gamecard ExeFS:/icon for the auto-boot flag. If the auto-boot flag is set, it will load the application on the cartridge and the home menu will not remain running in the background, or at least not in an operational state. Using software cues to return to the home menu, or sleep menu while in this state, causes a shutdown.

Notable features of demo titles:

• Auto-boot demos generally disable the functionality of the home button.
• The New Super Mario Bros 2 demo, retained the functionality of the home button, and had an timer which triggered the demo to quit after a period of inactivity.

Auto-boot cartridges, can bypass some of the functions of the Home Menu. Auto Booted software:

• Doesn't show usage history in the Activity Log
• Bypasses Parental controls
• Bypasses Forced Game Card Updates
• Bypasses Initial 3DS Setup
• The console does not have a friends list presence.
• Is still subject to region lock(see below).

Region lock is still active, so the home menu will refuse to launch demos with incorrect region lock will not load, displaying "An Error has Occurred". However, game card update partition checks do not appear to be done, which may allow launching demos that have region free encoding, but have an alternate region update partition.

The following auto-boot paths can be used by Home Menu, checked in the same order listed below(the above gamecard auto-boot is checked before this):

Key-combo / requirements for this path	Description
R, L, and X	This launches System Settings for touchscreen calibration.
R, L, and Y	This launches System Settings for circlepad calibration.

The following is only checked when the low u16 from config block 0x00110000 is value zero(normally this is non-zero).

Key-combo / requirements for this path	Description
R, X, Y, A, and B, a 3DS gamecard must be inserted as well.	This launches the gamecard application.
This is used when the above path isn't used.	This launches System Settings(unknown what this is used for).

Region Lockout

One of the Home Menu's functions, is to regulate region lockout. The region lockout data for any given title is held in the ICN data. There are 6 regions of which have their own region lockout, Japan, USA, Europe(including Nintendo Australia), China, Taiwan and Korea. There is also a value which makes a title exempt from region lockout, and consequently accessible from any region of 3DS.

Effects of Region Lockout

Every 3DS title regardless of location (NAND/SD Card/Game Card) is subject to region lockout scrutiny by the Home Menu. And the home menu treats 'out-of-region' titles by simply refusing to show them on the home menu. No messages are shown on the home menu to notify the user, the title is simply ignored. However out-of-region SD Card titles, will appear and quickly disappear, while all the SD Titles are being processed. In cases where access to the home menu GUI is not needed to launch the title (like in the case of kiosk demos), the home menu states an error has occurred, and launching of the title is stopped.

Game Card Updates

Either intentionally a region lock mechanism or not, the function which checks the game card update partition returns an error when it is detected the update is for a region other than the 3DS's region (Most likely triggered by the absence of the correct CVer title). And errors returned from checking the update partition, will result in the home menu displaying "This Game Card cannnot be used", when the user attempts to launch the title.

Home-menu SpotPass usage

Home-menu uses two domains with HTTPS for SpotPass. SpotPass stores this content in Home-menu's NAND shared extdata.

• The system notifications are downloaded from: https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/248/103046/10m/npdl.c.app.nintendowifi.net/p01/nsa/<regionID>/<filename>/<langcode>/<filename> Where langcode is the two-character language codes from config, and regionID is from the below table. <filename> is bashoX/sysmsgX where X is 0-3.
• https://pls.c.shop.nintendowifi.net/pl/upload This URL is used for uploading data from the home menu NAND shared extdata, it's unknown what this is used for. This data is uploaded every 24 hours.
• https://npul.c.app.nintendowifi.net/p01/recv/<regionID>/<filename> This is used for uploading unknown data from extdata. <filename> can be "phu", "tiu", "splu", or "sendmgn".

Region	ID
JPN	gWr4JXxb2mKTG3lq
NA	uuI82221UKkqmtbp
EUR / Others	UrXSeurnxhPrq7AS

The SpotPass content payload for notifications begin with a header, followed by an icon and the UTF-16 text, and various metadata.

Automatic System Update Download

See Automatic System Update Download.

Home Menu Error Messages

Dialog Text	Description
"An error has occured. Please save your data ... then restart the system"	This dialog is displayed when a system process(including Home Menu) crashes/terminates. This dialog is also displayed for system errors as well.

SD ExtData

The SD ExtData File System for Home Menu is as follows:

root
├── icon
├── boss
└── user
    ├── SaveData.dat
    ├── Cache.dat
    └── CacheD.dat

File	Details	Size	FW Introduced	Plaintext
icon	Stubbed. Always image 00000002.	0x4 Bytes	n/a
SaveData.dat	Always image 00000003.	0x2cb0 Bytes	1.0.0-0	Download
Cache.dat	Indexes and records details for the cached icon data. Always image 00000004.	0x1688 Bytes	1.0.0-0	Download
CacheD.dat	Cached icon data for Home Menu. Always image 00000005.	0x4cfe00 Bytes	1.0.0-0	Download

Cache.dat & CacheD.dat

These two files work in tandem to allow the home menu to cache icon data for applications which are presented on the Home Menu. The size of both files suggests a maximum cache size of 360 icons. Cache.dat stores details about the cache icon data, and CacheD.dat stores the icon data. The icon cache stores icon data for *all* applications shown on the Home Menu, this includes DSi NAND Titles, and DS(i) cartridges. The format of cached DS(i) icon data is not understood, but they are the same size as 3DS icon data (0x36c0).

In Cache.dat the first 8 bytes are reserved, then follows each icon slots's entry in the format:

OFFSET	SIZE	DESCRIPTION
0x0	8	Title ID in Little Endian
0x8	4	Unknown
0xc	4	Unknown

All unused entries have the Title IDs filled with "0xff".

In CacheD.dat, the icon data is concatenated together, with the first icon at offset 0x0.

See Also

• http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/3ds/en_na/menu_update.jsp
• http://www.nintendo.co.jp/netinfo/3ds/JPN/ja.html