Hacking Homebrew Help - how to identify legacy CFW to install Tiramisu?

[Lock_Key_Doctor]

Happy new year everyone!

I recent got a used Wii U to mod with Tiramisu. When I turned it on, I found out it was previously modded. It has "the homebrew launcher" and "WUP installer GX2" channels . Both give me a 199-999 error, so I'm not sure what to do next? Is there a way to find out what CFW mod was installed previously? I would like to have a clean install based on the instructions from https://wiiu.hacks.guide/

If you have an existing legacy CFW setup:

• For CBHC users: go to the Uninstall CBHC page to uninstall CBHC.
• For Haxchi users: uninstall the Haxchi app from Data Management in the System Settings app.
• For Mocha CFW (Indexiine) users: go to the Uninstall Indexiine page to uninstall Indexiine.
• For Mocha CFW (Online Exploit) users: you do not need to do anything before following this guide

Some information:

• System settings shows 5.5.6 U
• Currently not connected to the internet
• It does not have the "DO NOT USE" channel
• Mii maker doesn't do anything special
• Health and Safety (holding X or Y) doesn't prompt anything
• Brower last tab was "u.wiidb.de"
• Settings>Data Management:
  • Homebrew launcher 5376KB
  • WUP Installer GX2 5376KB
• Daily Logs (software records)
  • Webhax 1.0 first used May 2020
  • WUP Installer GX2 first used November 2020

Googled "Webhax" as I wasn't familiar with this method and found this youtube video

Interesting enough they use some browser exploit (screenshot 1) and IOSUHAX based on the image at the beginning of the video (a guess as I don't speak Spanish).

I'm concerned about bricking the Wii U by uninstalling the Homebrew launcher/WUP Installer GX2, or installing Tiramisu if it causes conflicts with a legacy CFW.
I don't think I have Tiramisu and would like to have a proper install with Bloopair and Homebrew Appstore. What's the best next steps?

Much appreciated!

 

[CMDreamer]

Watching this thread as I'm also interested on this matter.

Sorry I can't be of help, but my WiiU wasn't modded when I got it, so I just followed the instructions on your given link long ago.

Hope someone enlighten us on this.

 

[godreborn]

Happy new year everyone!

I recent got a used Wii U to mod with Tiramisu. When I turned it on, I found out it was previously modded. It has "the homebrew launcher" and "WUP installer GX2" channels . Both give me a 199-999 error, so I'm not sure what to do next? Is there a way to find out what CFW mod was installed previously? I would like to have a clean install based on the instructions from https://wiiu.hacks.guide/

If you have an existing legacy CFW setup:

• For CBHC users: go to the Uninstall CBHC page to uninstall CBHC.
• For Haxchi users: uninstall the Haxchi app from Data Management in the System Settings app.
• For Mocha CFW (Indexiine) users: go to the Uninstall Indexiine page to uninstall Indexiine.
• For Mocha CFW (Online Exploit) users: you do not need to do anything before following this guide

Some information:

• System settings shows 5.5.6 U
• Currently not connected to the internet
• It does not have the "DO NOT USE" channel
• Mii maker doesn't do anything special
• Health and Safety (holding X or Y) doesn't prompt anything
• Brower last tab was "u.wiidb.de"
• Settings>Data Management:
  • Homebrew launcher 5376KB
  • WUP Installer GX2 5376KB
• Daily Logs (software records)
  • Webhax 1.0 first used May 2020
  • WUP Installer GX2 first used November 2020

Googled "Webhax" as I wasn't familiar with this method and found this youtube video

Interesting enough they use some browser exploit (screenshot 1) and IOSUHAX based on the image at the beginning of the video (a guess as I don't speak Spanish).

I'm concerned about bricking the Wii U by uninstalling the Homebrew launcher/WUP Installer GX2, or installing Tiramisu if it causes conflicts with a legacy CFW.
I don't think I

Is there a fw.img on the sd card?

 

[V10lator]

The 199-9999 error suggests that no CFW is running. Is the Wii U saying "Autobooting..." while booting and/or does it have an app called "DO NOT TOUCH" installed to NAND? In case the answer to both questions is no go ahead and install Tiramisu.

 

[Deleted member 571007]

No I haven't see the words "Autobooting" - When I push the power button the screen turns white with the "Wii U" logo then goes to the main menu. It's my first time using a Wii but it looks like a normal boot sequence.

That's a standard boot, so there's no CBHC, further enforced by the fact that the "Don't Touch Me!" app isn't there. My guess? The Wii U either had standard Haxchi, but it was deleted later down the line, or they only used the Web Browser exploit. So it's (most likely) safe to just proceed with Tiramisu as there's no active CFW upon boot, or anything else.

Should I uninstall/delete the homebrew launcher before trying Tiramisu?

Lack of an SD Card also means that if they did use the Web Browser exploit, then there's no remnants of the exploit left except for the apps installed on the main menu. So you can either leave, or delete them. Either way, no real harm.

Edit :

Brower last tab was "u.wiidb.de"

Didn't see this part before. This basically just confirms that they only used a Web Exploit. This doesn't cause any conflicts with installing Tiramisu as it installs literally nothing to the Wii U and is done almost exclusively off of the contents of the SD Card. You're most likely safe to proceed. Without an SD Card, a Wii U that used the Web Exploit is essentially just a stock Wii U.

 

[V10lator]

Should I uninstall/delete the homebrew launcher before trying Tiramisu?

I would even do a complete factory reset to remove any leftovers from the previous owner / start with a fresh and clean system but as Korozin said: Choice is yours.

 

[V10lator]

Would there be a possibility that they used the Mocha CFW?

Yea, a high chance that they launched Mocha via the browser exploit as Korozin explained earlier:

This basically just confirms that they only used a Web Exploit. This doesn't cause any conflicts with installing Tiramisu as it installs literally nothing to the Wii U and is done almost exclusively off of the contents of the SD Card. You're most likely safe to proceed. Without an SD Card, a Wii U that used the Web Exploit is essentially just a stock Wii U.

//EDIT: To quote yourself:

• For Mocha CFW (Online Exploit) users: you do not need to do anything before following this guide

 

[Deleted member 571007]

but when it go to MLC (I know it's optional but thought it would be nice to backup the games), i think the process got stuck half way because the Wii U restarted

First off, if you don't wanna bother backing up the actual games themselves, you can just use SaveMii to back up your SAVES which you can then re-inject into titles you re-download at a later date. Imo it's easier if you don't want a MLC Backup headache.

Secondly, backing up the MLC depending on how much data there is can be extremely resource demanding. One such problem that can occur when handling large amounts of data and writes like that is either it gets written to the memory device wrong, or the Wii U fills it's RAM with the current data - which iirc would cause a restart in the situation you were in; this would likely result in what you stated below.

When I took out the SD card to copy on to my computer, I noticed it was full and got an error on mlc.bin.part14. I assume the file SD card became full and it stopped the process?

You mentioned that you had a 128gb SD Card, correct? If so, then that should be enough for your SLC and MLC (dependent on how much data you have installed), otherwise it's just possible that the card was damaged during the process. May I ask, what brand is it? Is it reputable? Because sometimes random cards will purposely mislabel the size, and in addition to that - they aren't very durable.

I found a 128gb microSD card, used GUIformatter to format it as FAT32. Copied the basic files over to try to do another NAND backup. This time when entering the payloader, I got an error saying the SD card wasn't formatted correctly.

In my experience, Micro SD Cards cause nothing but a headache with formatting and using through an adapter. That might not be the issue; but it's what I assume as many of my other friends had the same issue only for it to be resolved by using a normal SD Card. You could also try formatting it again using a different program to see if it yields any other results. Your choice.

I wasn't able to power off the Wii using the gamepad, so I used the power button on the machine.

When a payload / data stack fails to process, it hard-crashes the Wii U. It can only be reset by the power button on the console itself. What you experienced was normal.

Would there be another option to format the 128gb? is the NAND just to big for a 32gb?

Not sure what you mean here. 128gb should suffice, but my memory is always fuzzy when it comes down to the exact size of SLC and average MLC data.

Anyways formatting a card to FAT32 doesn't restrict it to 32gb if that's what you were thinking. Simply put, it's just a different type of data structure. Example being EXFAT or FAT32, etc. So in short a FAT32 128gb SD Card is still 128gb. Same with EXFAT and so on.

 

[V10lator]

MLC (what we normally call NAND to simplify) alone is 32 GB, the SD card is a bit smaller cause of the SDs firmware and formatting overhead... With SLC, OTP and stuff it is too small for sure.

For the 128 GB card: Format it to FAT32 with 32kb cluster size (as described on the Tiramisu guide. They even suggest a formatting tool for this). SD card bigger than 64 GB are formatted with exFAT by the manufacturer. I even tried a 1 TB card on the Wii U and it worked, so trust me: The ploblem isn't the size of the card but the filesystem.

//EDIT: @Korozin aren't around 7 GB of MLC occupied by firmware? So you want to back it up for more reasons than just games.

 

[Deleted member 571007]

//EDIT: @Korozin aren't around 7 GB of MLC occupied by firmware? So you want to back it up for more reasons than just games.

True, but I assumed they took the option of backing up full MLC rather than just essentials. Either way, thanks for the correction; it's been literal years since I last did a NAND dump.

 

[godreborn]

True, but I assumed they took the option of backing up full MLC rather than just essentials. Either way, thanks for the correction; it's been literal years since I last did a NAND dump.

It backed up around 30gb iirc, when I dumped the mlc. I decrypted it to find I had only used 1gb somehow. No errors during decryption, but the mlc for 32gb will be either 29.1 or 29.7gb iirc, depending on which chip was used.

 

[Lock_Key_Doctor]

Is there a fw.img on the sd card?

Unfortunately it didn't come with an SD card, so no fw.img available

Post automatically merged: Jan 2, 2023

The 199-9999 error suggests that no CFW is running. Is the Wii U saying "Autobooting..." while booting and/or does it have an app called "DO NOT TOUCH" installed to NAND? In case the answer to both questions is no go ahead and install Tiramisu.

No I haven't see the words "Autobooting" - When I push the power button the screen turns white with the "Wii U" logo then goes to the main menu. It's my first time using a Wii but it looks like a normal boot sequence.

No apps called "Do not touch" (I checked all the screens). It just has some preloaded games plus Homebrew launcher + WUP installer.

Should I uninstall/delete the homebrew launcher before trying Tiramisu?

 

[Lock_Key_Doctor]

That's a standard boot, so there's no CBHC, further enforced by the fact that the "Don't Touch Me!" app isn't there. My guess? The Wii U either had standard Haxchi, but it was deleted later down the line, or they only used the Web Browser exploit. So it's (most likely) safe to just proceed with Tiramisu as there's no active CFW upon boot, or anything else.



Lack of an SD Card also means that if they did use the Web Browser exploit, then there's no remnants of the exploit left except for the apps installed on the main menu. So you can either leave, or delete them. Either way, no real harm.

Edit :



Didn't see this part before. This basically just confirms that they only used a Web Exploit. This doesn't cause any conflicts with installing Tiramisu as it installs literally nothing to the Wii U and is done almost exclusively off of the contents of the SD Card. You're most likely safe to proceed. Without an SD Card, a Wii U that used the Web Exploit is essentially just a stock Wii U.

Really good to know about the boot. Thanks for confirming. I read a lot about Tiramisu but its harder to find relevant information on legacy methods (e.g. 5 year old youtube videos etc). Would there be a possibility that they used the Mocha CFW?

I'm going through this list and crossing each one off to double check:

• For CBHC users: go to the Uninstall CBHC page to uninstall CBHC. No autoboot screen
• For Haxchi users: uninstall the Haxchi app from Data Management in the System Settings app. No Haxchi app, but can remove Homebrew Channel and WUP installer GX
• For Mocha CFW (Indexiine) users: go to the Uninstall Indexiine page to uninstall Indexiine.
• For Mocha CFW (Online Exploit) users: you do not need to do anything before following this guide

I watched this video and it looks like they used something called "payload.elf" is this housed on the (non-existant) SD card and doesn't get installed on the NAND? I know we use "Payload" to get into an Environment loader but didn't want to confuse the two.

 

[godreborn]

I guess it's possible the person used the browser to exploit the system. the iosu screen is a known boot screen. I had it on my haxchi. I don't remember too much about the browser exploit, except we originally had to use a race attack, like it with the ps4 and probably 5, which was like 75% reliable, but now it's near 100%, and you don't even need to do that anymore.

 

[Lock_Key_Doctor]

I would even do a complete factory reset to remove any leftovers from the previous owner / start with a fresh and clean system but as Korozin said: Choice is yours.

I would love to do that! I think it's always a good idea to start with a clean system Would that mean I lose all the games installed on the hard drive (I assume so). I have Mario Bros, Mario Kart, and Pikmin. I'm not sure how the previous owner got these on - maybe eshop or other means? Is there a way to do a backup of the games?

Would it be recommended that I do a Nand Backup (first step in Tiramisu) before doing a factory reset? Just in case?? I read online of horror stories of someone doing a factory reset with a Wii U and bricking it (probably stuck in a CBHC boot loop) but I thought I would double check just in case.

Also I was just adding up my system memory:
13gb - Mario Bro + Luigi
4.7gb - Mario Kart
4.2gb - Pikmin
5mb - legacy homebrew/WUP
2.5gb - free
7.5 gb - Wii System OS?
32gb total

Does that roughly make sense? that the Wii system software would be about 7.5gb? I'm just wondering if there are other "bloat" or stuff that previous owner may have installed or done.

Post automatically merged: Jan 2, 2023

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to everyone. The community has been very helpful and patient helping me understand the old method and the new method

 

[godreborn]

btw, fyi, the iosu hax I remember were booting the original cfw or rednand. it used a file called fw.img, which is an important file in the system software. I don't know what it does on the actual system, but it redirects the system elsewhere. that's why I thought you had it, due to the iosu hax screen.

 

[V10lator]

Would that mean I lose all the games installed on the hard drive (I assume so). I have Mario Bros, Mario Kart, and Pikmin. I'm not sure how the previous owner got these on - maybe eshop or other means? Is there a way to do a backup of the games?

Yes, the HDD content will be lost as well as the account which purchased them (if they where purchased in the first place).
Backuping is possible but either damn slow or damn compilcated and the restore process is slow. Better to just redownload the games (with i.E. NUSspli).

Would it be recommended that I do a Nand Backup (first step in Tiramisu) before doing a factory reset? Just in case??

Yes, do that. Then do another one after installing Tiramisu.

Does that roughly make sense? that the Wii system software would be about 7.5gb?

Yes, makes sense: https://en-americas-support.nintend...wii-u-internal-storage-space-information#s1q1 ... 32 - 25 = 7. As Nintendo gives just rough Numbers + that information is old the 0.5 GB left might just be part of it.

 

[CMDreamer]

Mind to try this:

Do the browser exploit -if possible- then try to load the apps that result in an error message when launched.

Can you confirm they work correctly or not?

Thanks in advance

 

[V10lator]

@CMDreamer The previous owner kept the SD card. So the OP would have to setup anything for the exploit from scratch which would invalidate the test / prove nothing more than that the browser exploit works on a Wii U.

//EDIT: Anyway, we already checked for all possible coldboot exploits (and even slightly more). As long as no coldboot exploit it's save to install Tiramisu (and even if there's a coldboot exploit Tiramisu should just refuse to install... If you trust that protection which I don't do as I saw the installer bricking a console cause of false detection and correction one time).

//EDIT²: @Lock_Key_Doctor please ignore this post of me. It's way more technical than it sounds on first glance and nothing for a beginner. Just keep installing Tiramisu (in case you didn't do already).

//EDIT³: And yes, it's also save to factory-reset as long as there's no coldboot... In fact this will safely remove any none-coldboot hack (except Tiramisu/Aroma, these are designed to more or less survive a factory reset without bricking the console, so you can even factory reset while coldbooting one of these two). Again: Just ignore this post, it might confuse you more than it helps.

 

[CMDreamer]

@CMDreamer The previous owner kept the SD card. So the OP would have to setup anything for the exploit from scratch which would invalidate the test / prove nothing more than that the browser exploit works on a Wii U.

//EDIT: Anyway, we already checked for all possible coldboot exploits (and even slightly more). As long as no coldboot exploit it's save to install Tiramisu (and even if there's a coldboot exploit Tiramisu should just refuse to install... If you trust that protection which I don't do as I saw the installer bricking a console cause of false detection and correction one time).

//EDIT²: @Lock_Key_Doctor please ignore this post of me. It's way more technical than it sounds on first glance and nothing for a beginner. Just keep installing Tiramisu (in case you didn't do already).

//EDIT³: And yes, it's also save to factory-reset as long as there's no coldboot... In fact this will safely remove any none-coldboot hack (except Tiramisu/Aroma, these are designed to more or less survive a factory reset without bricking the console, so you can even factory reset while coldbooting one of these two). Again: Just ignore this post, it might confuse you more than it helps.

Thanks for making it clear.

I just wanted to know what would happen if done, but it's OK, I trust your point of view, but your experience even more than anything else.

Hope the OP keeps us informed about how it went.