3DS:RTC black screen bug: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:01, 14 December 2022

Lumabug is a simplified term for an issue that often occurs after following our CFW installation guide. Despite its name, it is not caused by Luma3DS, and could occur even on a stock system.

Instead, the reason for its name is because having Luma3DS installed makes it far easier to cause it.

What is lumabug

This issue is due to the 3DS having two clocks, as follows:

Real-time clock (RTC): The RTC is embedded into the system's hardware. It starts at 2000-01-01, and begins ticking upward when the console is powered on for the first time, after which it works even while the 3DS is powered off. This clock cannot be changed without CFW (unless the battery is removed, but that only resets it).
HOME Menu clock: A software value, set as a constant offset from the RTC. Most applications use this to determine the time, and use the offset to determine when the time is changed.

During our guide's Finalizing Setup, we set the real time clock to the actual time, and set the offset to 0 - this helps homebrew apps that use the time, as they cannot access the HOME Menu clock but would be using extremely old dates if the RTC were not changed.
This RTC fix has the side effect of causing lumabug.

The database for playcoins, gamecoin.dat, stores the date of your last earned playcoin as an RTC date. When you earn a playcoin for the first time after fixing the RTC, a gap of (usually) ~22 years is created when the 3DS stores the new playcoin's date. When the system is next powered on after this, it detects the gap and starts listing every single date up to the new playcoin's date.

This causes the system to need several minutes to boot.

If you leave your 3DS idle for multiple years, then get a playcoin, this same issue can happen on stock firmware. However, it will take less time to boot, as there are fewer dates to list than the full 22 years caused by an RTC fix.

Is my issue lumabug?

While experiencing this bug, you cannot boot into the HOME menu normally, but you should still be able to access the Rosalina Menu (L + D-PAD DOWN + SELECT) on the black screen, and be able to hold buttons while powering on to boot to GodMode9 (START) and the Luma3DS configuration menu (SELECT).

If your issue has any of the following, it is not lumabug:

If the power LED does not stay on when powering on the console, you are most likely missing boot.firm from the SD root.
If you cannot access the Rosalina menu from the black screen, this is not lumabug but may be one of these related issues.
If you cannot boot into GodMode9 or the Luma configuration menu, you may have missing CFW files or issues with SD integrity. If not, then you likely have a serious issue that will require guided assistance and should ask the Nintendo Homebrew Discord for help.

Fixing lumabug

If you have verified that your issue is specifically lumabug, the steps for fixing lumabug are as follows:

Power off the console
Take out any game cartridge, but leave the SD card in
- The cartridge is unrelated to lumabug, but could also cause issues with booting if it's not being read correctly
Power on the console
Leave the console open and powered on for 10-15 minutes. Do not touch the console during this time

If the console boots successfully in that time, the bug is now fixed and is unlikely to happen again. If the console still fails to boot to home menu, ask the Nintendo Homebrew Discord for more help. Mention that you have already tried the luma black screen process.

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-==Lumabug==
+Lumabug is a simplified term for an issue that often occurs after following our CFW installation guide. Despite its name, it is not caused by Luma3DS, and could occur even on a stock system.
-'''What is the lumabug?'''
-Lumabug is a poor term for an issue that occurs due to the fact that we change the real time clock during the modding process.
+Instead, the reason for its name is because having Luma3DS installed makes it far easier to cause it.
-The 3DS has two clocks - the real time clock(RTC), starting at 01-01-2000 and ticking up, normally never set, and the HOME menu clock, set as a constant offset from the real time clock. During the hacking process, we set the real time clock to the real time, and set the offset to 0. However, some parts of the system use the real time clock. One of these is the date of your last earned gamecoin. When you earn a gamecoin for the first time after hacking your system, the system thinks that it is the first time you've earned one in 22 years. For some reason, when it has to go through such a large date range, it takes several minutes to do it.
+==What is lumabug==
+This issue is due to the 3DS having two clocks, as follows:
+*Real-time clock (RTC): The RTC is embedded into the system's hardware. It starts at 2000-01-01, and begins ticking upward when the console is powered on for the first time, after which it works even while the 3DS is powered off. This clock cannot be changed without CFW (unless the battery is removed, but that only resets it).
+*HOME Menu clock: A software value, set as a constant offset from the RTC. Most applications use this to determine the time, and use the offset to determine when the time is changed.
+During our guide's Finalizing Setup, we set the real time clock to the actual time, and set the offset to 0 - this helps homebrew apps that use the time, as they cannot access the HOME Menu clock but would be using extremely old dates if the RTC were not changed.<br>
+This RTC fix has the side effect of causing lumabug.
+The database for playcoins, <code>gamecoin.dat</code>, stores the date of your last earned playcoin as an RTC date. When you earn a playcoin for the first time after fixing the RTC, a gap of (usually) ~22 years is created when the 3DS stores the new playcoin's date. When the system is next powered on after this, it detects the gap and starts listing every single date up to the new playcoin's date.
 This causes the system to need several minutes to boot.
-'''How do I know if my console is currently experiencing the lumabug?'''
+If you leave your 3DS idle for multiple years, then get a playcoin, this same issue can happen on stock firmware. However, it will take less time to boot, as there are fewer dates to list than the full 22 years caused by an RTC fix.
-While experiencing this bug, you cannot boot into the HOME menu normally, but you should still be able to access the Rosalina Menu (L + D-PAD Down + SELECT in the black screen), as well as GodMode9 and the Luma3DS configuration menu.
+==Is my issue lumabug?==
+While experiencing this bug, you cannot boot into the HOME menu normally, but you should still be able to access the Rosalina Menu (L + D-PAD DOWN + SELECT) on the black screen, and be able to hold buttons while powering on to boot to GodMode9 (START) and the Luma3DS configuration menu (SELECT).
-'''How can I fix the issue?'''
+If your issue has any of the following, it is not lumabug:
+*If the power LED does not stay on when powering on the console, you are most likely missing <code>boot.firm</code> from the SD root.
+*If you cannot access the Rosalina menu from the black screen, this is not lumabug but may be [[3dsguide:troubleshooting#my-device-gets-stuck-on-a-black-screen-with-a-static-blue-light|one of these related issues]].
+*If you cannot boot into GodMode9 or the Luma configuration menu, you may have missing CFW files or [[Checking SD card integrity|issues with SD integrity]]. If not, then you likely have a serious issue that will require guided assistance and should ask [https://discord.com/invite/nintendohomebrew the Nintendo Homebrew Discord] for help.
+==Fixing lumabug==
+If you have verified that your issue is specifically lumabug, the steps for fixing lumabug are as follows:
 # Power off the console
 # Take out any game cartridge, but leave the SD card in
-#* the cartridge is unrelated but when it's not being read correctly it can prevent the system from booting up as well
+#* The cartridge is unrelated to lumabug, but could also cause issues with booting if it's not being read correctly
 # Power on the console
 # Leave the console open and powered on for 10-15 minutes. Do not touch the console during this time
-#* If the console boots successfully in that time, the bug is now fixed and is unlikely to happen again. If the console still fails to boot to home menu, ask [https://discord.com/invite/nintendohomebrew here] for more help. Mention that you have already tried the Luma black screen process.
+If the console boots successfully in that time, the bug is now fixed and is unlikely to happen again. If the console still fails to boot to home menu, ask [https://discord.com/invite/nintendohomebrew the Nintendo Homebrew Discord] for more help. Mention that you have already tried the luma black screen process.