Installing HiyaCFW

If you need help, ask the NDS(i)Brew Scene or the Nintendo Homebrew Discord servers.

You will need Unlaunch installed before proceeding.

Do not system update after installing HiyaCFW. This will remove HiyaCFW’s SD patches.

If your SD card is larger than 2 GB, keep in mind that HiyaCFW may not boot in to the System Menu. You will need to install TWiLight Menu++ as a System Menu replacement when the option is given.

If you do not see TWiLight Menu++ on the System Menu, or if you see the “An error has occured” screen after installing TWiLight Menu++ as a System Menu replacement, then the HiyaCFW Helper isn’t applying the CFW’s patches properly. Please wait for a fix in the helper.

HiyaCFW has several advantages that only having Unlaunch on your system will not allow for. These include:

  • Booting the system from the SD card
  • Installing homebrew applications to the System Menu with ease
  • Including a custom splash screen on boot
  • Automatically booting into another application, such as TWiLight Menu++

Requirements

  • A NAND backup taken from your device, with the NO$GBA Footer
    • fwTool 2.0 will create this footer automatically when it makes a backup
    • You should already have this backup from the previous section
  • HiyaCFW Helper
    • Windows users may use the .EXE
    • Users of other operating systems may use the .py (requires Python 3)
    • Windows users will additionally need the latest version of 7-Zip

Instructions

  1. Insert your SD card into your PC
  2. Copy the contents of the HiyaCFW Helper .zip file to a folder on your PC
  3. Navigate to the extracted folder
  4. Open HiyaCFW Helper as admin
    • This can be done on Windows by right-clicking -> Run as administrator
  5. Click the ... button in the NAND file with No$GBA footer box
  6. Navigate to your NAND backup, and click Open
  7. If you wish to install TWiLight Menu++ as a DSi Menu replacement, check the Install latest TWiLight Menu++ on latest firmware box
  8. Press Start
  9. In the new pop-up window, navigate to your SD card, and press OK
    • The process may take several minutes
    • When the HiyaCFW Helper window says Done!, the process is complete
  10. Close HiyaCFW Helper
  11. Unplug your SD card, and insert it in your DSi
  12. Power on your console
    • Unlaunch’s GUI should appear
  13. Navigate to OPTIONS, and press (A)
  14. Press (A) to configure a default software to boot in to when no button is held
  15. Navigate to HIYACFW, and press (A)
  16. Navigate to SAVE & EXIT, and press (A)
  17. Power off your console, and turn it back on
    • HiyaCFW’s settings screen should appear
  18. Change the settings to your liking, and press (START) to continue

Your system will now boot from the SD card instead of the internal NAND.

If you want to boot in to the internal storage, you may configure LAUNCHER to a hotkey in a similar manner to the one you just did for HiyaCFW.