Gentoo Forums

Was doing a quick check for game release updates and noticed this...

Nintendo Switch Firmware 7.0.0 Already Hacked Just Four Hours After Going Live

The news has spread across the likes of Twitter and Reddit, with those interested in hacking the console both mocking Nintendo's efforts and praising the work of ‘elmirorac’, the person behind this latest hacking breakthrough. Naturally, this new development will only cause more concern for legitimate users of the console; if hackers are able to work around Nintendo's coding so easily, it's safe to presume that more and more hacked consoles could eventually find themselves being sold on to innocent buyers.

I play around gentoo on the switch, if I find time, since it is possible to start Linux from SD-Card trough RCM "live" without touching the original operating system.
My starting point is the L4T Ubuntu as working installation environment and the aarch64 stage3.
Chroot is possible, so I am able to follow the usual gentoo installation path, but I do not like to compile directly on switch, so I try the embedded way with qemu-chroot crosscompiling.
My next goal is to setup an binhost and optimized stage3 with gcc-8.3.0 and

Great. Can't wait for results. :)

Started new thread in "ARM" forum: viewtopic-p-8343548.html
Stage and binhost done, next milestone is own booteable kernel

Hm. Maybe this topic is then "done". :)

For what it's worth, 1st generation Switches have a vulnerability in the hardware (Nvidia Tegra X1) that bypasses the e-fuse system and allows for arbitrary code execution. These machines are far less likely to be banned since the alternative OS is essentially a dual-boot arrangement. So unless you try to login to your Nintendo account from the Linux side (or modify the onboard NAND in a noticeable way), Ninty won't have a clue. For this reason, first gen Switches often sell for more.

I've thought about doing this to my first gen Switch but I haven't done enough reading to be comfortable risking my $300 piece of hardware and hundreds of hours of gaming. Hopefully a libre device will be released in the future that is compatible with Joy-Con rails. I'd buy that in a heartbeat.

Sources:

• https://nh-server.github.io/switch-guide/
• https://www.gsmarena.com/critical_vulne ... -30698.php