You breathe a sigh of relief. But then: Nothing.
Use a plain text editor (Notepad++, VS Code, or even Windows Notepad). Do not use Word or rich text editors. check that bootloader/hekate_ipl.ini has boot entries
No "Launch" menu. No "Atmosphere" icon. No "Stock" option. Just a blank payload menu or a direct reboot to Horizon. This is the silent failure of a missing configuration. This is what happens when you forget to check that bootloader/hekate_ipl.ini has boot entries. In the world of Switch custom firmware (CFW), hekate is the gatekeeper. It doesn’t boot your operating system directly; instead, it reads a simple text file called hekate_ipl.ini to know what to boot. You breathe a sigh of relief
The file lives at: /bootloader/hekate_ipl.ini A healthy hekate_ipl.ini contains at least one boot entry . Each entry is a block of text describing a bootable configuration. A minimal entry looks like this: Do not use Word or rich text editors
Open bootloader/hekate_ipl.ini . Count the brackets. If you see zero, you’ve found your problem.
Scan the file for any line that starts with [ and ends with ] . Each one is a boot entry.