If a custom keyboard is installed and custom firmware is removed from the console, System Settings will be inaccessible and you will not be able to launch the keyboard. This is obviously detrimental to the overall functioning of your 3DS and should be fixed as soon as possible.
There are multiple ways to reinstall custom firmware on such a console, but they may require additional hardware. This guide aims to reinstall custom firmware without any additional hardware, but if you have the means, the following methods are probably going to be less of a pain:
- If you have a second 3DS and a digital or physical copy of Mario Kart 7, the kartdlphax method should work as normal.
- If you have a compatible DS flashcart, the ntrboot method will always work.
Unbricking a 3DS with a custom keyboard installed
If you have a copy of any of the following:
- Your NAND backup
- essentials.exefs
- movable.sed
Then you should only follow Section I (or else you're going to be wasting a lot of time, since any of these files should already have your encryption key embedded). Otherwise, follow the whole guide.
Section I: Installing Pokémon Picross
If you can't install Pokémon Picross, there's no point following the rest of this guide. If Internet access isn't currently set up, you can set up an Internet connection from Safe Mode as the keyboard will still work there (hold Left Shoulder + Right Shoulder + D-Pad Up + A on boot, then follow the prompts).
- Power on your device
- Press Left Shoulder + Right Shoulder to open the camera applet
- Tap the QR code icon on the bottom left hand corner
- Scan this QR code
- Follow the prompts to download and install Pokémon Picross
If at any point you're prompted to open the keyboard in the eShop, sorry -- there's nothing we can do.
Section II: Mii QR Code
Because you can't enter a friend code due to the broken keyboard, you'll need to get your console's encryption key a different way. We can accomplish this by exporting a Mii QR code.
- Open the Mii Maker application
- Tap the "QR Code/Image Options" button
- Tap "Save Mii as QR Code"
- Make sure to select a Mii that was created on this 3DS
- Tap whatever button it is that lets you save the Mii QR code image to the SD card
Section III: Bruteforcing
Now that you have a Mii QR code, you'll have to force your computer to do a bunch of math to derive the same data that is normally transmitted in a friend exchange.
You'll need a reasonably powerful graphics card to do this, or else this may take literal years. If you don't have one, skip this section and ask someone at Nintendo Homebrew on Discord for assistance. Make sure to provide:
- Your Mii QR code (from the previous step)
- Your console model (3DS, 3DSXL, 2DS, New3DS, New3DSXL, or New2DSXL)
- Your console's ID0
Still here? Great! Get ready for a long ride.
- If you haven't already, install the latest version of Python.
- When given the option, you should add Python to PATH. You may need to restart your computer.
- Download and extract the latest release of Seedminer.
- Open a Command Prompt / Terminal window and "cd" to where you extracted Seedminer.
- For example, if everything is in a "seedminer" folder on your desktop and you're currently at "C:\Users\OPERATIONiDROID", you'll want to run "cd Desktop/seedminer".
- Run the command "py -3 seedminer_launcher3.py mii <device model> <year of manufacturing>".
- If you don't know the year of manufacturing, just guess. It just might go faster if you guess correctly.
- Sit back and relax. This could take several hours, depending on the power of your graphics card.
- If you get to offset 2500-ish, you may have entered the wrong device model (or you system transferred at some point, which messes this up). Try again with the other device model.
- Once the program is done, run "py -3 seedminer_launcher3.py id0 <your id0>".
- Run the command "py -3 seedminer_launcher3.py gpu".
- Wait a bit. This shouldn't take any longer than 10 minutes on a decent GPU.
- If you get to offset 100, you might have an unminable seed or you may have provided the wrong ID0. It would suck if you had an unminable seed so let's just hope it's not that.
- If the stars aligned, you should get a movable.sed!
Section IV: PicHaxx
Follow Installing boot9strap (PicHaxx).
If everything went well, you should now have boot9strap installed and the keyboard / System Settings should work again. DON'T UNINSTALL CUSTOM FIRMWARE AGAIN! You've seen firsthand how it can go wrong.