tW34k said:
Ok, so I have been away a long time from the Wii hacking scene and was wondering since I already got 3.2E version of my Wii I was wondering if I need to update to 3.4 or should I just stay? And, what is up with all these channels? Do I really need any of the custom channels to play any games? What's the advantage with them?
About the channels:
Most homebrew software is available as .dol and can be launched from the homebrew channel. If you want to use game loaders(Gecko OS, Gamma or SoftChip), the only channel you need to install is the homebrew channel. You can install channels for all the loaders, but you don't have to.
Most people recommend to stay at 3.2 as some homebrew is not working with 3.4. If you want to play backups without a modchip, 3.2 is the best firmware available.
Some pros and cons about 3.2:
+ most(all) homebrew working
+ with starfall: disc update blocking
+ with starfall: some brick prevention**
- more work to do to get new original games to work
(for now you only need to insall the IOS from the game manually*)
Some pros and cons about 3.4:
+ no need to do anything if a new game comes out
+ higher sd card speed in official software
- trucha signed stuff only working with a cIOS installed AND used by the applications
*
How install the IOS from a game manually:
0. Get to know which IOS you need
1. Get the IOS
2. Install it with the WAD Manager
about 0:
The IOS you need is specified in a file called tmd on the game disc. To get the info which IOS is requested by the game, you can either open the .iso with Waninkoko's IOS Version patcher and look what it says or you can get the info from SoftChip if no .iso is available. If you start a game with SotChip, it writes this info into its log. So you need to enable logging in SoftChip and after launching the game with any IOS(36 for originals/modchip users, 249 for softmodders), you only need to look at the logfile in /SoftChip/ on your sd card.
about 1:
If you have the origial game or a modchip, get wufe and use it:
http://wiibrew.org/wiki/WUFE
or
If you have the .iso:
Open the .iso with Trucha Signer or WiiScrubber and copy the wad directly
about 2:
I hope i don't need to explain this
**
How to get brick prevention with starfall is a little complicated, you don't get it automatically. Search a guide for this and after following it, test the zelda autoboot before relying on the brick prevention. Oh, rely is the wrong word, just don't feel too safe, until you tested it.