Hacking marcan gets USB Gecko to work on Wii U

[SifJar]

As I understand it, the USB Gecko was essentially a serial to USB adapter. In the case of the GC, and the Wii, the GC card slot could be used as a serial port. The USB Gecko allowed that serial connection to be used via USB.

What marcan has done here (unless I'm mistaken) is found some serial port on the WiiU and soldered the USB Gecko to it, something which could also be achieved using another serial to USB converter I believe. He presumably just happened to have a USB Gecko handy that he didn't need, so used it. I don't think there is much significance to the fact that it is a USB Gecko that he is using.

 

[Ray Lewis]

Lessons learned, re-refocus. Cannot delete so forgive the edit:-)

 

[Ray Lewis]

Lessons learned, re-refocus. Cannot delete so forgive the edit:-)

 

[SifJar]

Thanks for that, so what exactly is he doing if they have all the keys that would matter to us?

Who ever said that?

 

[Ray Lewis]

Who ever said that?

From their diagram, only one question mark remained and it was rumored that it was unlocked completely; hence the picture on the remote screen that was released. You seem informed, what do you know?

 

[SifJar]

From their diagram, only one question mark remained and it was rumored that it was unlocked completely; hence the picture on the remote screen that was released. You seem informed, what do you know?

I know little more than what has been posted publicly, but there has never been any statement to say anyone has found any keys. Running custom code does not require any keys, so the picture on the Gamepad proves nothing. Their diagram referred to how the various SHA-1 checksums they released related to each other, again, no proof of anyone having any keys. (I'm not saying they don't have them, but there's nothing public that I know to say they do).

 

[Ray Lewis]

Lessons learned, re-refocus. Cannot delete so forgive the edit:-)

 

[OncleJulien]

Pointless really, rather read nothing than what was posted.

now you know how the rest of us feel, ray.

 

[Ray Lewis]

Lessons learned, re-refocus. Cannot delete so forgive the edit:-)

 

[mike333]

Lol, you mocking me?

My dear friend Ray. Please don't take this personally.
Your 8yo attitude is somewhat disturbing.
Yes, we are all waiting for some great news, so please be patient.

Best Regards,
Mike

 

[Ray Lewis]

Lessons learned, re-refocus. Cannot delete so forgive the edit:-)

 

[Nurio]

Only people with attitude are those who cannot read. I asked a guy if he was mocking me when I mentioned the GameCube stuff somebody else posted. Cool if they want GameCube and it excites them;-) Did not know if that person was agreeing with me OR mocking me with their comment. What is 8 years old in any of that?

This had nothing to do about the "Gamecube stuff". Look at the post OncleJulien quoted.
Yes, he was mocking you, but I have to be honest, it's justified.
Then mike333 explained it to you somewhat and you don't really listen.
OncleJulien's mockery implied that a lot of your posts are "Pointless really, rather read nothing than what was posted."

 

[obcd]

The USB Gecko wasn't an usb2serial but was an exi 2 serial device. The exi bus is the one that the gamecube used to connect it's controllers and memory devices. It's mostly used as a debugging tool. It allows a running program to send information to a terminal session. It might even be possible to use the gdb debugger with it. As the picture shows that the connection uses the original signals from the memory slot connection, it looks like the exi bus is still existing in the wiiu. The 2 wires that are separatly connected could be the supply wires for the usb gecko. It's obvious that having such a device should speedup all hacking experiments. The usb gecko uses an fpga to interface to the exi bus. The 8 bit data from that fpga is fed into an ftdi chip that shows up on the usb host as a serial port.

 

[SifJar]

Jan 11 23:45:28 <gruetzkop>    [19:19:20] how much of the EXI infrastucture is still there?
Jan 11 23:45:28 <gruetzkop>    [19:19:37] and how much of SI
Jan 11 23:45:28 <sven>    [19:19:47] exi is all gone

 

[Cyan]

That's enough with the fight between members.
This is an informative thread, not a place to bash at each others.

 

[Ray Lewis]

Lessons learned, re-refocus. Cannot delete so forgive the edit:-)

 

[obcd]

@SifJar

As the main component of the usb gecko is an fpga (or epld), it could be reprogrammed to do something different than it's initial function (being the EXI bus interface). In that case, it could be anything like an SPI or IIC sniffer. I doubt he would use this approach
to connect a serial port to the pc.

 

[Ray Lewis]

Lessons learned, re-refocus. Cannot delete so forgive the edit:-)

 

[Ray Lewis]

Lessons learned, re-refocus. Cannot delete so forgive the edit:-)

 

[obcd]

I don't have a WiiU yet.
If it's wii U nand is a standard component, you might be able to find it's datasheets to see what flashing methods exist.
It's all just speculation from my site at the moment.
FTDI has cables with the usb connector on one site and the serial signals on the other, either on 3V3 or on 5V level.
To connect a normal serial port, that would be the devices 2 use.
I hear some chips already use 1V8 as signal level. Those would need another approach.
Let's hope nintendo has provided an easy way to reflash the nand in case of problems. Maybe they learned something from the many bricked wii's they got 4 repair.