Tutorial Felek's redNAND-free Wii U Hacking

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Just use ftpiiu everywhere and download to computer, or use the Saviine server and Saviine, at least until a future app that may be released for backing up saves to SD card.
SysConfigTool dumps saves to SDCard apparently.
 

brienj

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SysConfigTool dumps saves to SDCard apparently.
Yeah, I don't like recommending that, because it has functions that are dangerous, and I've been working on making apps that replace the safer functions like that one, just so people won't use SCT, or install the wrong version of it. I only have so much free time though.
 

pwsincd

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i think the main failing of most guides is they start to add too much and become over complicated , if you endeavour to keep the guide clear / clean concise and simplified , then it would become the goto guide... a good guide should start by asking the user what they want to acheive.... @XFlak 's tool for the wii was perfect .. ok it was a batch script , but it hand held the user through the process step by step and generated a guide that catered to the users needs and more importantly omitted things they didnt want. i think a tool like this would be the simplest way .. i may think to do this webside..
 
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Updated and included Brazilian method and CBHC!
I also need help with vWii, i already know wuphax and how to use it to install HBC but i need more information on it.
 

brunormalmeida

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It's a very nice guide you made so far.

vWii part seems right to me, but it lacks important steps to follow after installing Homebrew Channel, like dumping vWii's NAND. This way if you do something wrong, there's still hope.
Then you'll have to install some cIOS and you're done hacking vWii. Just install emulators and stuff.
 
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It's a very nice guide you made so far.

vWii part seems right to me, but it lacks important steps to follow after installing Homebrew Channel, like dumping vWii's NAND. This way if you do something wrong, there's still hope.
Then you'll have to install some cIOS and you're done hacking vWii. Just install emulators and stuff.

For vWii, use https://sites.google.com/site/completesg/backup-launchers/installation for cIOS - I personally reccomend, however, 250 using slot 80 since then you have all drivers for things like USB mics, USB keyboard, Wii Speak, etc...
I will probably include vWiii's NAND Dumping. Unsure if i would continue with USB Loader GX or any other app out there.
 

SomeGamer

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Great guide, much better than fiddling with redNAND! A few suggestions for making it even better:
  • Set Primary DNS to 81.4.127.20
  • Set Second DNS to 168.235.92.108
You could add the location of these DNS servers, then instruct the reader to set the closest server to their locaton as primary and the other one as secondary. It can make a difference.
2.Block your Wii U's MAC Address
1. Go to System Settings then Internet then View MAC Address
2. Type the string in your MAC Address Filter (example: e3-ef-5a-32-96-gh)
At this point, I'd recommend entirely deleting the connection from the Wii U. Why? Because the end result would be essentially the same, because the Wii U can't connect anyway. With removing the connection it wouldn't retry the connection over and over.
 
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Great guide, much better than fiddling with redNAND! A few suggestions for making it even better:

You could add the location of these DNS servers, then instruct the reader to set the closest server to their locaton as primary and the other one as secondary. It can make a difference.

At this point, I'd recommend entirely deleting the connection from the Wii U. Why? Because the end result would be essentially the same, because the Wii U can't connect anyway. With removing the connection it wouldn't retry the connection over and over.
That's why i put Unrecommended tag there.
I didn't put locations? Man, i though i did that, thanks for pointing out
 
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Cyan

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Felek, you asked for my opinion, too bad for you :lol:
Be prepared for lot of reading.

I'll list things I noticed.
don't take it bad, I guess what's important is to make things easier to understand and follow for everyone.
I prefer guide where users understand why they are doing something, instead of just clicking random buttons without even knowing why.

I don't want to enforce users to write guide "my way", it's only suggestion that I (strongly ;)) feel necessary or obvious, but again if you are against it, that's your guide. As long as it's not dangerous for the users, I'm okay with it. I just try to make it easier to follow for someone who never ever hacked a console or followed the scene before, which means removing abbreviation (HBAS ? CFW?) or common hacking names that YOU know but others might not (Brazilian method).

I still think most guides are bad, because everybody feel obliged to make its own thinking it will be better than the others and the others are bad or missing things.
I would better see a single, complete and good guide instead of hundreds of contradicting guides the users will have to pick and decide to follow.
I still think your guide is bad (in that sense that someone else will feel the need to write YET another one in few days). But maybe all my comments below could help you improve your current guide and make it a reference ;)
(think like flimflam or wiiu.guide became well known in few days)
I like mattkimura's guide, it's short and easy to follow, and in chronological order. it's missing info, but it's short and goes directly to the point.


Ohhh, another thing :
you should follow the guide yourself too !
be sure all steps are doable :)
I can see few steps which are vaguely explaining what the user has to do and skipping steps. that's not very noob friendly.
"Press A ... Maybe" is not professional.


So, let's see what I found and my suggestions:
Before we start [You need]:
SDCard [m.in. 4GB, for Brazillian Method you need 16GB minimum]
PC/Laptop with SDCard reader
Wiimote if you plan on hacking vWii
Brain. I don't take responsiblity for your brick
1)
- min. (instead of m.in.)
- Brazillian method : that's really a bad name. it's not really a "brazillian" method. it's a WUP installer method, or a "title installation using nintendo's official tools" method. Some guide named it "ticket trick method" as it's tricking the console by making it think the ticket is from an installable title while it's a legit ticket from a disc. (and then, later we could of course install non legit tickets thanks to signature patching hacks). But the name "brazillian", even if it was largely spread when it was discovered is only due to the country of the user finding that the ticket needed a fix. It's like if we referred to haxchi or CBHC as German's method because Fix94 is in germany.... it would conflict with "WUP Installer" because Crediar who is the one providing that game install method is from germany too? the country is not a method, the process how to do it is. The game install method is originally from Crediar, not the random brazilian guy.

I would better see it renamed, but not everybody agreed yet on a proper name. I would just name it "title installation" or "game installation".
"for game install you need 16GB minimum", right? it's more clear what the noob will do, he might not even know what "brazilian method" is, and you tell them that "you need 16GB to do something you don't know what it is" !! (see ?)
telling user "16GB to install a game" is more clear and proper to define what the user will do following your guide : he will install game! that's what he wants. he doesn't care the country of a user who found that tickets were incorrectly extracted from wud.


2)
PC/Laptop are not even required.
it's maybe easier, if you provide a full pack of homebrew to prevent the user from downloading them one by one from HBAS. (I tried, and it's VERY VERY Slow; not sure it's just me or not)
But wiiubru.com/go + SD card is all a user need to hack his wiiu
Then, to get pirated games, of course he will need a computer, but if they want only to dump their legit disc to console, they don't even need a computer.

They would still need one for Haxchi and CBHC, as HBAS can't extract to SD root.
So, it's fine to tell they need one, but make it optional maybe?

3)
Wiimote : I would remove that. see last part of my post.



In this guide we'll cover:

Blocking Updates [Using TitleDNS!]
Browserhax [Homebrew Launcher+Files]
Mocha CFW set up [redNAND free!]
Haxchi Installation [Offline Homebrew and CFW Solution!]
Brazillian Method [DLC, Updates, Games]
ColdBootHaxChi Installation [Optional, CFW on boot!]
Hacking vWii [Optional, Homebrew Channel in vWii!]
4)
Mocha step.... Why mocha already?
I don't have anything against it, it works and is a fine CFW, but there are easier and faster alternatives :)

I still don't understand why guides are telling users to use a slow CFW full of options that they have to disable, while they could use a simple, faster, single homebrew without option achieving the same result : Simple Signature Patcher. There are even two version, one which returns to HBL to launch another homebrew right away (for example WUP Installer), one which returns to Sysmenu to launch a game requiring signature patch. Simple signature patcher even has region free, so Mocha is not required.

You even tell the user to disable "relaunch OS" option, so it works EXACTLY like simple signature patcher.
if the user enter the console settings, the patches will be disabled as they are not reloaded on OS relaunch.
Unless I'm mistaking, and the "relaunch OS" is not about the setting's title, but about the "reload fw.img for coldboot feature instead of patching memory" but I doubt it, I think there's a Mocha's coldboot option for that.


Maybe explaining what these options are for could be helpful to the user?
Like I said at the top, I like when a user understand what he is doing and why.
following direction without understanding is very "noob friendly" but then the user will stay a noob all his life.
telling user what "relaunch OS" is doing will let him choose if he really need or want to disable that option. why would he want to lose CFW patches when accessing console settings?

If you tell the user to disable that option, you should inform the user that if he ever enter the settings he will lose Mocha and will have to do all these steps again !
that's if you still keep Mocha as enter point. I wouldn't recommend Mocha if it's only for signature patch. use Mocha only for redNAND.


5)
telling users they need CFW before game installation is not really chronological, as you can install game WITHOUT any CFW.
I would explain how game install is working, that some games will require additional console patching to work, then detail the different patching methods (simple signature patcher, haxchi, CBHC, mocha last or even omit Mocha at all as it's useful only for RedNAND or WUPServer)



Now, let's read the actual guide :

1. Blocking Updates using DNS

6)
DNS Blocking, Nothing to say. You choose which DNS you want to use.
URL and Mac filtering might be obscure to a noob, but it's nice to add it for users who know what it is and were to put that info.
I wrote a guide to filter URL using a proxy (windows only). maybe they can find it useful. That's still what I'm using with my WiiU.
though, it's more complicated and has lot of steps compared to simply using DNS.

Removing internet access completely will prevent accessing Homebrew appStore, not very smart to follow your guide :(
it will also prevent accessing eShop or online game.



2. Browserhax

7)
You are providing two choices :
- With a computer + Files !
- without a computer

I thought you would provide the users with a way to run the browser hax directly from its computer, but no. In both cases you tell users to use a remote website to run the browser hax.
it's not bad, maybe just incomplete.
Someone told me once (this week) that he didn't want to rely on a remote website because it can be closed, offline, etc.
I told him about hosting the files on his computer, these remote websites are open source and can be hosted locally.
But, that would add too much information to your guide. That's countering the goal to make it "newb friendly"

Personally, When I tell someone he can hack his wiiu, I tell him he only needs an SD card. that's all.
no computer, just browsing to wiiubru.com/go and EVERYTHING is provided.
easier, one single step in a guide, and faster (except for HBAS? it's so slow on me, but even when loading HBAS from normal method and not from /go URL)


8)
Type in address bar "wiiubru.com/go"
Press A button [If there's a dialog that appears]
I think it's missing steps here.
when you launch wiiubru.com/go, a webpage will be displayed asking you if you want to auto download+launch : HBAS or HBL.
the user will have to pick HBAS as picking the homebrew launcher will not be helpful, it will list its empty SD card without homebrew.
selecting homebrew appstore will let the user install homebrew to SD.

9)
Download Appstore, Homebrew Launcher and Haxchi Installer from there
I thought haxchi required SD root folder, which Appstore was not providing.
that's where a computer or any SD access method is required.

Also, haxchi is not even mentioned at this part of the guide, you shouldn't ask the user to get it now. He will get it if he want it later. at the CFW section of your guide, not now.

If someone who already has HBL setup wants to install haxchi starts reading your guide at CFW part, he will miss this download step you did in a previous unrelated section.
Keep each section complete as itself, don't mix steps in them. one section for one purpose. Allow a user to start reading at any position of your guide and getting full information from there.

10)
SDCard://wiiu/apps/homebrew_launcher/hbl.elf
I think "hbl.elf" is not the default name, right?
Maybe rename it to a more common name if you want to explain generally how it should look :
SDCard://wiiu/apps/homebrew_name/homebrew_executable_file.elf

or give the proper filename that browser hax will run:
SDCard://wiiu/apps/homebrew_launcher/homebrew_launcher.elf


11)
Click on address bar and type "loadiine.ovh"
Select "Homebrew Launcher v1.4" from there
I understand people have choices.
You either prefer loadiine.ovh or wiiubru.
Personnaly I prefer "wiiubru.com" as it's launching HBL right away without any user action. No need to pick which HBL version to run, it just runs.
run the browser, and it launches HBL.

What would be even better for the guide is explaining how to memorize "wiiubru.com" as default URL.
then, launching the internet Browser would be like launching HBL, all transparently.
one click --> boom, you're inside HBL.

that's of course only after the user added HBL to its SD card, so if you do the /go tutorial, tell users to install HBL from HBAS first.
- load Go/
- install HBAS
- Install HBL
- install WUP Installer (y mod or GUI)

That's ALL users need to play games. NO CFW, as long as they install same region and no eshop games, if not, user will need :
- simple sig patch, (both version)

but let's keep these CFW requirements for the next steps, so users will understand better what they are doing, and why. "I want this, I need this", instead of "I have everything I don't know when I'll use them".
Allowing the user to choose is a better choice than forcing him to use YOUR tool.
Maybe he doesn't care about Mocha, he doesn't WANT to install CBHC or haxchi.
maybe all he wants is install Zelda .. from his region, no DLC, no eshop, really no CFW required to install and play. Not all users want 296 games they will never play installed at the same time.



12)
With this method, you can skip Mocha CFW if you own DS VC game. If you don't, then you can download Mocha CFW also. (Or purchase/download Brain Age DS VC and proceed to Step 4!)
I'm not sure to understand what "with this method" has to do with Mocha or even with DS games. to me, this sentense is making the user lost in the comprehension of the hacking steps. You might even be lost in your own understanding of how the exploit and apps are working together.

Mocha is not required to launch homebrew launcher.
it also has no link to the fact the user owns or not a DS VC game.
you are telling :
if you own a DS vc game, you don't need Mocha because you can use this HBL launching method? using wiiubru/x is unrelated to mocha or DS game.

your "you can skip mocha" should apply to ALL your guide. you really don't need Mocha at all. All can be done without it.
I don't know where you got the impression mocha was required to install haxchi or cbhc.


I'll stop here for the moment.
I'll read the rest later and will comment on it, if you still want my opinion



There where this quote I already wrote :

No, Don't !
that website is still telling users to install the wrong version.
they don't do after install help, I'm the one doing it here because of that guide, so they don't even know something is wrong.


For vWii, I would suggest updating the current "ultimate vWii guide" we have in hacking stickied section, adding the WUPHax method and optionally EmuNAND part that he never wanted to add because "nobody care about emuNAND". he never used it and think everybody do same as he.

the author is not here since january 2017 and couldn't add wuphax info in it at this hacking method release time, and I didn't had time to add wuphax myself in his guide. (I'm busy replying 20 000 words messages like this one, :lol: )
ALL the useful information are ALREADY written, no need to make a new vWii guide. really, let's keep guide separated. See how much information you need to covers for vWii hacking alone, don't merge multiple guides together, too much information for users = killing the purpose of your easy guide.

You want a WiiU hack, do a WiiU side guide. don't mix WiiU and vWii.
just tell users to go to the other FAQ thread for vWii (and let me add you as thread's editor so you can add wuphax part for users without an exploitable game disc).
Oh, and you'll also have to update the cIOS part, as it's based on completesg too :( (again, I didn't have time to fix it and you can read how much users have issues with that IOS in that thread). I explained few times in details why completesg is badly choosing d2x version, all other information are good, just the d2x choice is bad from their guide.




Personal guide writing idea
This part is not me telling you what to do or change, it's what I would do if I'd wrote a guide. Which I won't do, it's just an example, an idea. Don't take this as a thing you need to do.

Personally (but I'm not the one writing a guide here), I would lead users along these steps :
Step1
optional: DNS filtering (or proxy), though I doubt nintendo will ever release an update. You'll have to deal with users having question about the red X on download queue.... ONLY IF YOU WANT NOOBS TO STOP POSTING THIS THREAD....
get a SD
go to wiiubru/go
get HBL + HBAS
set browser hax to autoboot homebrew launcher, thanks to wiiubru (not /go) (it's now /x ? wiiubru alone is not launching HBL anymore?)

Step2
From here, the wiiu is fully hacked and launching homebrew easily.
now user can launch HBL, launch HBAS, and add any homebrew he wants or requires to continue following the guide.

- explain once HBL is in memory, you DO NOT NEED TO DO BROWSER HAX AGAIN !!!!! it's like NO GUIDE IS TELLING THAT! Do not wonder why users are asking questions over and over if nobody tell them. They only need to run Miimaker to launch HBL again. it's in memory, replacing Miimaker.
Do not expect users to read each "readme" and "forum's first post" of all homebrew and apps they are using. the guide should cover these important information.
It's nice to make "easy to follow without explanation" guides, but like said few time, I like better when the user learn something from it instead of being and staying stupid.
Educating a user will prevent him posting a new thread for a simple information he could have get, and will prevent us from replying always the same question and be annoyed and see other users start flaming noobs. Search how many users asked why their console froze while trying to run browser hax a second time...


From here only, I'll let the user get choices from what he wants to do :
- launch homebrew games or apps? get said games or apps from HBAS <--- Hey, homebrew and hacking scene is not piracy. 99% of people tend to forget that and only want piracy on their console. but don't only cover piracy in a guide.
- Play games using loadiine ? why not... explain user's choice
- install/play game to console ? go to play game section. CFW not even required at this step. get wup installer, explain when CFW will be required.
- install/use cfw ? follow CFW section, explain the CFW differences and why/if user need one more than the other.
- optional guide : use local server for browser hax. (pc or android required)
- optional guide : cheats, mods, cafiine
no need to force a user to install unnecessary files he will not need or want.



Maybe my idea is not very good, as I should let the user choose if he wants temporary or persistent hack first, before making him setup browser hax as auto-boot from the browser, but browser hax is the FIRST entry point for everything else. it's the base and what user will need to use at one point or another. I would explain all these choices before starting the hacking steps. the user should know what he will decide and follow before doing things.
That's just an idea. I would always let user choose what to do, a lot like Xflak's Modmii, let the user choose what he wants and generate a personal guide, different than someone else's generated guide.

 
Last edited by Cyan,
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Deleted User

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Bruh. Cyan you wrote so much, i could release a book.
Anyways, i think it's great as it is now, all i need is give more explaination.
To that CFW part, well... Mocha CFW is great if you don't have any DS VC game or you can't afford it.
I don't have anything against it, it works and is a fine CFW, but there are easier and faster alternatives :)
Faster alternatives like Haxchi require a DS VC game, which not everyone can afford oddly enough.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

- Play games using loadiine ? why not... explain user's choice
I already said i'm not going to include this...
Time to rewrite some parts of my guide.
 

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