custom-install is a Python 3.6+ tool that will install CIA files to a Nintendo 3DS SD card entirely on a PC. This completely bypasses the slow wireless and I/O speeds of the hardware.

It was initially created late June 2019 as an experimental script to automate the process of a manual title install for Nintendo 3DS.

Requirements

Setup for Linux

• Linux users must build wwylele/save3ds and place save3ds_fuse in bin/linux.
• Install rust using rustup, then compile with: cargo build. The compiled binary is located in target/debug/save3ds_fuse, copy it to bin/linux.
• (Optional) GUI setup.

Building standalone

• Using a 32-bit version of Python is recommended to build a version to be distributed. Please refer to the readme from repo.

Usage summary

• Use custom-install on your laptop/pc and install titles onto the micro SD (with boot9+movable).
• After it's finished, re-insert to 3DS and run custom-install-finalize at the end to insert the ticket and seed for it to show on the Home Menu.
• You can use the Windows standalone with GUI for simpler process, or setup your own enviroment (for Windows 32/Linux/macOS).

Windows standalone

• Extract custom-install and copy over custom-install-finalize.3dsx to the 3ds folder on your SD card.
• Run ci-gui to bring up the custom-install GUI.
• Select your SD card root, boot9, seeddb, and movable.sed files (in some cases these will be automatically selected for you).
• Add the CIA files and click Start install.
• Once it's finished, start up the Homebrew Launcher and run custom-install-finalize to finish the process.

With installed Python

• Download the repo (or git clone) and extract custom-install.
• Download custom-install-finalize.3dsx and copy over to the 3ds folder of your SD card.
• Put boot9.bin, seeddb.bin and movable.sed to the root of the custom-install folder (see also Additional notes).
• Paste the .cia files you want to install to the root of the custom-install folder.
• Install the packages:
  • For Windows, double-click windows-install-dependencies.py
  • Alternate manual method py -3 -m pip install --user -r requirements-win32.txt
  • For macOS/Linux, python3 -m pip install --user -r requirements.txt
• Run custominstall.py with boot9.bin, movable.sed, path to the SD root, and CIA files to install:
  • Use -h to view arguments. Insert the following code (with some examples below).
  • py -3 custom-install.py -b boot9.bin -m movable.sed --sd *yoursdcarddiskletter:\* *yourgamename*.cia *yourgamename*.cia
  • py -3 custominstall.py -b boot9.bin -m movable.sed --sd E:\ file.cia file2.cia
  • python3 custominstall.py -b boot9.bin -m movable.sed --sd /Volumes/GM9SD file.cia file2.cia
  • python3 custominstall.py -b boot9.bin -m movable.sed --sd /media/GM9SD file.cia file2.cia
• Wait for install. Once it's finished, start up the Homebrew Launcher and run custom-install-finalize to finish the process.

Note: For Windows users, enabling Add Python 3.X to PATH is not required. Python is installed with the py launcher by default.

Additional notes

movable.sed can be provided with -m or --movable.

boot9 can be placed in one of the following places:

• -b or --boot9 argument (if set)
• BOOT9_PATH environment variable (if set)
• %APPDATA%\3ds\boot9.bin (Windows-specific)
• ~/Library/Application Support/3ds/boot9.bin (macOS-specific)
• ~/.3ds/boot9.bin
• ~/3ds/boot9.bin

SeedDB is checked in order of:

• -s or --seeddb argument (if set)
• SEEDDB_PATH environment variable (if set)
• %APPDATA%\3ds\seeddb.bin (Windows-specific)
• ~/Library/Application Support/3ds/seeddb.bin (macOS-specific)
• ~/.3ds/seeddb.bin
• ~/3ds/seeddb.bin

If you get an error during installation, you'll have to manually delete the partially installed title from the SD card (Nintendo 3DS -> {id0} -> {id1} -> title -> {first half of Title ID} -> {second half of Title ID}), or delete other things to make enough space, then try again.