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Installing Lakka on your Switch
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{% include disclaimer.html %}

Step 0 : what you need

  • A first generation Switch
  • A spare SD card of at least 2Gb, formatted in FAT32
  • A way to put your Switch into RCM (see this guide)
  • A host PC to setup the SD card
  • A way to run the exploit :
    • A PC on Windows or Linux
    • A Mac
    • An Android device with USB OTG
  • An USB cable to plug the Switch in and run the exploit (USB C-to-C or C-to-A)

Step 1 : preparing the SD card

The easy way (recommended, formats your SD card)

  1. Download the latest compressed image from here (use your brain to grab the latest)
  2. Extract the image using the archiver of your choice (7-Zip wink wink)
  3. Burn the image to the SD card (everything will be erased)
    • Either by using Etcher
    • Or by using the dd command directly

The hard way (manual partitioning)

  1. Download the latest archive from here (use your brain to grab the latest)
  2. Make sure that the first partition is FAT32 formatted
  3. Add an ext4 partition to your SD card with size of your choice - this will be the storage partition
  4. Extract the right files from the archive to the root of the FAT32 partition (replace everything) :
    • KERNEL, KERNEL.md5, SYSTEM and SYSTEM.md5 (contains the read-only system partition and the kernel)
    • the content of the directory 3rdparty/bootloader (contains the boot script and device tree)
  5. (advanced) If you want to set another partition as storage, remake boot/boot.scr using mkimage and change the disk variable of the boot command

Step 2 : booting Lakka

Once your SD card is set up, put it back in your Switch.

{% include first_boot.html %}

Booting from Windows

Preparation work

You will first need to install the required driver :

  1. Get your Switch in RCM mode and plug it into your PC
    • It should appear as "APX" in Windows
  2. Download and run the Zadig Driver Installer from here : https://zadig.akeo.ie/
  3. In the list, choose the device "APX"
    • If it's not showing up, check "List all devices" in the options
  4. At the right end of the green arrow, choose "libusbK (v3.0.7.0)"
  5. Click on the big "Install driver" button

Booting

  1. Download and extract this archive
  2. Put your Switch into RCM
  3. Run windows-boot.bat (or windows-win32-boot.bat on a 32bit machine)

Booting from Linux or Mac OS

Preparation work

Install Python 3 (usually already installed). Open a terminal to install the required package : pip3 install pyusb==1.0.0. I let you deal with permissions issues.

Booting

  1. Download and extract this archive
  2. Put your Switch into RCM
  3. Run the linux-macos-boot.sh script from this repository's folder. Again, I let you deal with permissions issues (if it cannot find the module usb it means that you have insufficient permissions).

Booting from an Android device

Preparation work

  1. Download and install the latest release of this app
  2. Run it - it will tell you that some files are missing, remember the folder in the dialog, it should look like one of these :
    • /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/io.mrarm.switchlinuxlauncher.noimx/files/shofel2
    • /sdcard/Android/data/io.mrarm.switchlinuxlauncher.noimx/files/shofel2
  3. Exit the app (if you can close the task using the multitask button it's better)
  4. From the payloads folder of the repository, copy the cbfs.bin and coreboot.rom files to the shofel2 folder on your Android device (the folder of the previous step)
  5. Run the app again - if the dialog doesn't show up then you can go on, otherwise you did something wrong
  6. (Optional) Depending on your device, you might need to enable "OTG" or "OTG Storage" in the Android settings

Booting

  1. Plug your Switch in your Android device
    • If the Switch is charging from your phone, you can go on
    • If your phone is charging from the Switch, try to reverse the cabling so that your phone charges the Switch instead
    • If nothing happens, I'm afraid your phone doesn't have OTG (or it's not enabled) - the exploit might not work
  2. Put your Switch in RCM mode
  3. Done !

Now what ?

I suggest you read the FAQ, especially on how to access the storage partition and copy games. Actually, while you're here, read everything. Enjoy !