Hacking Basic Do's and Do NOT's of vWii modding

[TotalInsanity4]

I've been browsing the tuts and some of the stickies, but still a little confused where to begin after installing the starter homebrew files.
Is there a current vwii homebrew setup that is the "preferred/defacto" way to go now? You still need to use an external hdd drive and such to have old wii games on rather than through the SD card port correct?
I have a new old stock WiiU on FW 2.x something I think. (Skylander swap force 8gb bundle) I have wii lego batman disc for running bathax, but I just didn't want to start running defunct/outdated wii homebrew managers/files and such.
I plan on using wii games about 95% of the time, but gamecube support would be nice too, just in case.
Thanks for the help!

For vWii, you're going to want to do everything listed in this tutorial. To play GameCube games on vWii, follow everything in the "Nintendont" OP

 

[Bonovox40]

For vWii, you're going to want to do everything listed in this tutorial. To play GameCube games on vWii, follow everything in the "Nintendont" OP

Thanks! One more thing I forgot to ask, I was familiar with this using the original Wii, (stuff put on an SD card) but no i'm using an external HDD for the Wii U's vwii portion. So in that case, where do you put Wii eshop-only games? (like the WAD games that never had a physical disc/ISO release?)

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Thanks! One more thing I forgot to ask, I was familiar with this using the original Wii, (stuff put on an SD card) but no i'm using an external HDD for the Wii U's vwii portion. So in that case, where do you put Wii eshop-only games? (like the WAD games that never had a physical disc/ISO release?)

Either inside of an emuNAND or directly on an SD card or thumb drive, supposing you don't want to install them to the console

 

[Bonovox40]

Oh, so just the same as before basically, but it won't run if placed on an external hdd alongside regular wii ISO files?

And how/where does a wii emuNAND come into being? I don't see any references on the main tut page and haven't heard of it existing outside of the 3DS scene?

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Oh, so just the same as before basically, but it won't run if placed on an external hdd alongside regular wii ISO files?

And how/where does a wii emuNAND come into being? I don't see any references on the main tut page and haven't heard of it existing outside of the 3DS scene?

I THINK it will, if your USB loader is capable of loading WADs from external media. I've never personally tried it though

Use the search bar and look up "vWii SNEEK"

 

[Bonovox40]

I only think I have like 5 wads I want to play, so those can just be tossed a the 2gb SD card i'm using, and installed as a channel in the vwii side without having to mess with emunand, right?

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I only think I have like 5 wads I want to play, so those can just be tossed a the 2gb SD card i'm using, and installed as a channel in the vwii side without having to mess with emunand, right?

Yes, that should work. If you have an original Wii, I'd try installing them on that first, though, as there is absolutely no brick protection on vWii

 

[Bonovox40]

Yes, that should work. If you have an original Wii, I'd try installing them on that first, though, as there is absolutely no brick protection on vWii

Oh, so wait a second... should we NOT run wads on vwii? On the softmod link u mentioned for the vwii on Wii U, it has wad managers at the end like wiiflow. These apps aren't safe to run? Is vwii hax only safe for running wii ISO's at this point?

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Oh, so wait a second... should we NOT run wads on vwii? On the softmod link u mentioned for the vwii on Wii U, it has wad managers at the end like wiiflow. These apps aren't safe to run? Is vwii hax only safe for running wii ISO's at this point?

Yes, you CAN, but if there's anything wrong with the WAD there's the potential that it could brick the console you try to install it to. Having a Wii with brick protection (BootMii as boot2 or Priiloader) greatly reduces this risk as you can immediately tell if the WAD is corrupted or has a bad banner. If it will safely install to a Wii it should safely install to vWii (with the exception of IOSs and forwarders)

 

[MegAmi24]

Is it safe to just install HBC? I have no intentions on doing much via Homebrew, probably get Gecko but nothing too much.

Also, probably a stupid (and off-topic) question but speaking of Gecko can you add codes from Gecko itself (no PC)?

 

[Bonovox40]

Yes, you CAN, but if there's anything wrong with the WAD there's the potential that it could brick the console you try to install it to. Having a Wii with brick protection (BootMii as boot2 or Priiloader) greatly reduces this risk as you can immediately tell if the WAD is corrupted or has a bad banner. If it will safely install to a Wii it should safely install to vWii (with the exception of IOSs and forwarders)

So everything seems fine. The hard drive enclosure seems a bit finicky about the usb plug being seated properly. (what I get for buying a 2nd hand external drive) but when it's connected good, USB loader GX will see the games. (though I refresh with the 'wii' games checkbox selected, every damn time I start USB loader...)

My only issue now is WHY don't the covers show up in the game list? I downloaded all cover images from that one site, and put it on the external hdd AND in a covers folder on the SD card just for good measure.

When I run the wii file manager utility on the PC (when adding a new game to the HDD) it finds the covers just fine, but USB loader gx isn't. Is there a special folder path/cover image naming convention/usb loader setting i'm missing here?

 

[TotalInsanity4]

So everything seems fine. The hard drive enclosure seems a bit finicky about the usb plug being seated properly. (what I get for buying a 2nd hand external drive) but when it's connected good, USB loader GX will see the games. (though I refresh with the 'wii' games checkbox selected, every damn time I start USB loader...)

My only issue now is WHY don't the covers show up in the game list? I downloaded all cover images from that one site, and put it on the external hdd AND in a covers folder on the SD card just for good measure.

When I run the wii file manager utility on the PC (when adding a new game to the HDD) it finds the covers just fine, but USB loader gx isn't. Is there a special folder path/cover image naming convention/usb loader setting i'm missing here?

Hm... I don't know. I guess what I would say is delete all the covers you downloaded and try to let USB Loader GX download them directly from GameTDB

 

[Bonovox40]

Hm... I don't know. I guess what I would say is delete all the covers you downloaded and try to let USB Loader GX download them directly from GameTDB

I can't use that method, even though it's probably fool proof. I purposely have the Wii U not setup/connected to Internet, to avoid unwanted updates. (until the IOSU/CFW/similar hack is found/released....someday)

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I can't use that method, even though it's probably fool proof. I purposely have the Wii U not setup/connected to Internet, to avoid unwanted updates. (until the IOSU/CFW/similar hack is found/released....someday)

Do you have a Wii or a friend that has a hacked Wii/vWii? You could just plug your thumb drive and SD card into the other one and it would be the same as setting it up on yours, since the files are all stored on the removable media

 

[Deleted member 42501]

How does one go about installing WADs virtually on the vWii? So that they run off the USB instead of being flashed to the NAND.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

How does one go about installing WADs virtually on the vWii? So that they run off the USB instead of being flashed to the NAND.

Google "vWii SNEEK"

 

[Deleted member 42501]

Google "vWii SNEEK"

Many thanks

 

[Bonovox40]

How does one go about installing WADs virtually on the vWii? So that they run off the USB instead of being flashed to the NAND.

What's wrong with running them off the NAND? Just saving space on the internal hdd?

 

[TotalInsanity4]

What's wrong with running them off the NAND? Just saving space on the internal hdd?

Considering that the vWii NAND only has 512MB of free space, probably that

 

[Deleted member 42501]

That's correct plus I read that its safer all round to not install things to the NAND.