If I was at the system menu your on now, I'd do this from WiiPower:
Requirements:
- Wii with system menu 4.0 or earlier(earlier recommend)
- sd or sdhc card, but non sdhc is recommend. All cards with >2GB are sdhc, the others are normal sd cards.
- ability to write to sd card on your pc
Step 1: Get bannerbomb working
Bannerbomb is an exploit that allows you to run any code on the Wii. You need to use an exploit, because nintendo does not want homebrew on the Wii and puts a lot of effort into blocking homebrew. This guide will not claim if homebrew in general is legal or not, it depends on the laws in your country anyways.
* a) Download bannerbomb from:
<a href="http://bannerbomb.qoid.us/" target="_blank">http://bannerbomb.qoid.us/</a>
(it moved to this page:
<a href="http://wiisixtyfour.webs.com/bannerbomb/bannerbomb.htm" target="_blank">http://wiisixtyfour.webs.com/bannerbomb/bannerbomb.htm</a> ???)
As long as it's still in development, there will be different versions and you have to find out which version works on your Wii.
* b) If you have a "private" folder on your sd card, rename it to "privateold". You will only have this folder on your sd card, if you ever stored a channel or save to your sd card.
* b) Copy a boot.dol to your sd card, you could use any boot.dol. But i have written a small test program that you should use for testing:
<a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=5918" target="_blank">http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=5918</a>
* c) Disable WiiConnect24, for some unkown reason bannerbomb does not work properly if it's enabled
* d) Copy the the "private" folder from bannerbomb to your sd card. The private folder from bannerbomb has to be in the root of your sd card.
* e) Do not insert the sd card into the Wii yet. Start the Wii and go to the settings menu, change to Data Management, then change to Channels, then SD.
* f) Insert your sd card, when you are asked to "Load boot.dol/elf", select yes.
* g) If you were not asked to launch the boot.dol/elf or after you selected yes, the screen did not turn black and tell you: "Bannerbomb test passed"(only with my test boot.dol), go back to d) and try another bannerbomb folder.
* h) Let the test run its 5 minutes to be absolutely sure everything is working as it should and WiiConnect24 is really turned off. Then press any button to reboot the Wii.
Congratulations! You are now able to run homebrew on your Wii. If you want to use your backed up saves and channels again(now or somewhen in the future), then
* i) rename the "private" folder to "privatebannerbomb", for later use of bannerbomb.
* j) rename the "privateold folder to "private"
If you are told to run xy with bannerbomb in the future:
* Make sure you your working bannerbomb folder is the private folder on your Wii. A private folder from saves or channels MUST NOT be on the sd card at the same time.
* Rename the .dol/.elf from xy to boot.dol/boot.elf
* Copy it to the root of your sd card
* Do steps 1c),1e) and 1f)
Step 2: Install the Homebrew Channel[HBC]
(optional, but recommend for everybody)
The Homebrew Channel is a very nice piece of software that can be installed as channel onto your Wii. It allows to run homebrew applications in a faster and nicer way than bannerbomb. Which is why it's recommend to install it, even if it's not required for most(all?) homebrew software.
Requirements:
- System menu 4.0 or lower
- Ability to run homebrew, for example with bannerbomb. But the Homebrew channel itself or the outdated twilight hack will work too.
* a) Download the HackMii Installer from:
<a href="http://bootmii.org/download/" target="_blank">http://bootmii.org/download/</a>
* b) Run the installer with your method to run homebrew. For example with bannerbomb.
* c) Install the homebrew channel. How to do it is pretty self-explanatory.
* d) If it didn't show any error then reboot your Wii and check if you see the homebrew channel.
* e) (optional) Since you have the HBC now to launch applications you don't need bannermbomb anymore. Now you can delete the "private" folder on sd card and rename the "privateold" folder(you only have this if you had to rename the "private" folder earlier) to "private".
How to meet the requirements for the homebrew channel:
You only need to do this if you got an error during the installation about the install or the homebrew channel requiring a new IOS. This is to be expected on lower system menu versions 1.x and 2.x. There are different methods how to achieve these requirements, these are are only examples, starting with the recommend method, but describing others as well. If your drive is dead, try method 2 first.
* Method 1: Update with game disc
Get a game disc from your region with an update and start it from the disc channel. Make sure it's not too old(Red Steel or Zelda for example) and not one of the latest games(released in 2009 or later). Mario Kart, Mario Galaxy or Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be fine. You need the game only for a few minutes, so you could rent it too if you don't have any.
* Method 2: Install IOS36v1042 manualy
a) Get a IOS36-64-v1042.wad. Note that it can't be uploaded or linked here, because that would be illegal. You can extract it form many game .isos, or you can download it from nintendo's servers with the NUS Downloader:
<a href="http://wiibrew.org/wiki/NUS_Downloader" target="_blank">http://wiibrew.org/wiki/NUS_Downloader</a>
Could someone help me with this. I think the file from the downloader does not match the file used everywhere, but there's a patch available somewhere.
Don't worry about the name of the file, it does not matter, it does not have to be IOS36-64-v1042.wad. And don't worry about the region of IOS, IOS are region free, while almost everything else is region locked and dangerous if the wrong region version is installed.
b) Create a "wad" folder on your sd card
c) Copy the .wad to this "wad" folder
d) Get WAD Manager 1.4 or later
e) Run it(with bannerbomb) and install the wad.
* Method 3: Do an online update (requires wifi)
Do an online update. This is not recommend, but it will work as long as the latest system menu is 4.0.
* Method 4: Update to 3.2 using AnyRegion Changer (requires wifi) *brick danger!*
a) Get AnyRegion Changer:
<a href="http://wiibrew.org/wiki/AnyRegion_Changer" target="_blank">http://wiibrew.org/wiki/AnyRegion_Changer</a>
b) Run it(with bannerbomb)
c) Change your system menu version with it to 3.2. Do not change anything else! Be sure you select the correct region! If you ignore this, your Wii WILL be bricked.
Howto run applications with the Homebrew channel
Howto run applications from sd card or usb storage(FAT formatted!)
Prepare your storage device by creating a "apps" folder on it. Basically everything needed to run applications is a sub folder of this "apps" folder with a boot.dol or boot.elf in it.
* If got got an application with a folder that contains a boot.dol or a boot.elf, it's best to just copy that whole folder to the "apps" folder. Some applications require some of the files in the folder they came with. Sadly some applications require you to copy other files to other folders on sd card too, but if that's the case, it's stated in the readme or the release notes.
* If you only got a .elf or a .dol, create a new folder inside the "apps" folder , rename the .elf/.dol to boot.elf/boot.dol and put it inside the new folder.
You can use icon.png and meta.xml files to configure how the applications are dispayed in the homebrew channel. For more information about this, go to:
<a href="http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_Channel#C...ng_Applications" target="_blank">http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_Channel#C...ng_Applications</a>
Howto send applications via wifi to the homebrew channel
Go to WiiBrew's WiiLoad site:
<a href="http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Wiiload" target="_blank">http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Wiiload</a>
everything needed should be explained there
Step 3: Install BootMii(optional)
This section will be written when homebrew using BootMii mini is available. Until then BootMii is "only" usable for brick prevention with nand backups and a quicker way to boot the homebrew channel. Note that a BootMii IOS installation is only usable for homebrew using mini and to create a nand backup. But it's not recommend to rely on the backup/restore function with only the BootMii IOS installation, because you can't execute this in case of a brick and if something unexpected happens during the restore, your Wii be be bricked by this.
FAQ
Q: What can i do on new Wiis(so-called "LU64+" or "unsoftmoddable")?
A: There's a lot of stuff you can't do on new Wiis. If you buy a Wii now you get a so-called "LU64+" Wii, your region does not matter for the name. Another name for the new Wiis is "unsoftmoddable", which came from the fact that an old cIOS can be installed on them, but can't be used. If you know that your Wii is one of these ALWAYS mention it when asking for help or you put your Wii in danger!
Important: There's a lot of stuff you can't do on LU64+ Wiis, and lots of this stuff will brick your Wii if you ignore it and try. You can: Use bannerbomb, install HBC, install BootMii as IOS, use cBoot2, install a cIOS rev11 and up, and install wads. Most wads are dangerous and can brick your Wii, only install wads for cIOS, channels, VC/WiiWare from trusted sources and step away from IOS, system menu wads, cioscorp and softmii. There are more wads you can install safely, but you have to know what you are doing. And of course you can launch apps from Bannerbomb, HBC or installed channels. For everything else follow this rule: If not at least 3 people who REALLY know what they are talking about, confirm you can do this or that on LU64+ Wiis, you can't and it would most likely brick your Wii. Oh and of course everything that can be done on LU64+ Wiis works on the old ones too, so it's 100% safe to treat your Wii as if it's a LU64+ if you don't know.
PS: This topic does not really belong here, but it's better to spread this as far as possible to avoid as much bricks as possible.
Q: How do i know which version of the system menu i have?
A: Go to the settings menu and then to system settings. The system menu version is displayed there in the upper right corner. For exaple 3.2E. The letter defines the region E for europe, U for USA and J for japan for example.
Q: What is this "brick", what does that mean?
A: The term to brick your Wii means, to damage the system, so it does not work anymore and your Wii is as useless as a brick afterwards. From some bricks you can recover, but the best idea is to avoid everything that could cause a brick, especially when you are warned.
Q: I have a SDHC card(a sd card bigger than 2 GB), will i be able to use it?
A: SDHC cards cause some trouble for homebrew. Some SDHC cards work fine to backup saves and channels(4.0 system menu), but can't be used with bannerbomb and the homebrew channel. You can try to do everything with a SDHC card, but it's not guaranteed it will work. But don't worry, the worst that is known to happen that the card does not get recognised and you simply can't use it. Some homebrew channel users reported that pressing home and selecting update helps for some sdhc cards.
Q: I get an error trying to start an application in the homebrew channel, it's a .elf. Help!?
A: There were non standard .elfs around for quite a while and a certain homebrew channel update added a check if the .elf is correct. Short: Get a new version of the application as .dol. If that's not possible, search for a .elf to .dol converter.
Q: I can't install BootMii as boot2, will i ever be able to do it?
A: Short answer: no. The bootprocess of the Wii is the following: Boot boot1, that starts boot2 and that starts the system menu. You can consider the boot1 read-only(that's technically wrong, but has the same attributes as the truth). The new boot1 has the trucha bug fixed and BootMii boot2 is trucha signed. If BootMii boot2 would be installed on a Wii with fixed boot1, boot1 would simply refuse to start the boot2(BootMii) because of the wrong signature. This would be the worst possible brick you can get via software. If there was another signing bug, or if team twizzers had nintendo's private key, then BootMii boot2 installation would be possible on all Wiis. Don't expect a bug to be found, boot1's code is very small and a lot of people already looked for bugs in it. And nintendo is not stupid, there are very very few people knowing the private key, so nobody will ever be able to get his hands on it.
Q: What are these .dol and .elf files?
A: These are executable binary files for Wii(and lots of other platforms). Just consider them to be the ".exe files for Wii".
This post has been edited by WiiPower: Jul 29 2009, 11:20 AM
like a 250 dollar kit back when DDR4 was Intel only
