Recent Wii U Hacking News Roundup
USB Loading
October 20th: User BurningDesire posts a thread on how to load Wii U games from a WiiU USB via a Brazilian team method that uses a WUP installer. You need to have a ticket in order to do this, which can be extracted from a WUD disc image. The tickets extracted from WUD was incorrect and required a fixing tool before using them. This version of backup loading is incompatible with loadiine format, as the USB method requires encrypted files. This method is often called "USB method" but the games can be installed on the internal console's memory too. Only games from the same region than the console can be installed.
SOURCEFirmware Loading
October 22nd: User pwsincd shows off a CFW booter for the Wii U. You can now load Wii U firmwares which lets you dump system files with IOSU access. You cannot use this to dump your NAND or get it to boot redNand, however. At the time, this seems to be targeted at developers to test things with rather than end-user usage.
SOURCECrediar's WUD Extraction Tool
October 27th: With this DiscU update to v4.1b, users can now extract tickets from their WUD files in the correct format and don't need to fix them anymore. Additionally, WUD game content can also be extracted as encrypted format needed by WUP installer.
SOURCERedNAND Gets Released
October 30th: Once again, thanks to the hard work of pwsincd, Dimok, and their team, the CFW booter combined with this can dump your Wii U's NAND to an SD card. By using this, eShop titles can be installed on your redirected NAND copy regardless of origin, aka, it bypasses the system's signature check. At the time of writing, there is still no way to install homebrew to your RedNAND, though. Of course, this does have potential to brick systems if you are not careful, so be sure to read up and know what you're doing before you use it.
SOURCEWUPHAX
October 30th: Thanks to Fix94 work, vWii can now be hacked from the Wii U side via iosuhax in order to install the homebrew channel. This means you no longer require a specific game in order to softmod the Wii mode of your WiiU. You'll need a Wii U with iosuhax and wupserver in order to do this.
SOURCERegion Free Loading
October 30th: Nintendo's region lock antics getting you down? Fear not! As installed backups can be repacked to run out of region titles on your system. A tutorial will guide you through the required file edition and tools, but with it comes easy region free loading. This method will work only on RedNAND, repacked games can't be installed on SysNAND! Check out the specifics in the 8th spoiler tag at the link below.
SOURCEHaxchi
November 6th: The latest exploit, Haxchi, is a userland exploit that's usable directly on system boot. Right now, it has no use to the average Wii U owner, but in time, it can lead to important things like cold booting a CFW. This can cause easy bricking of consoles, so please be wary, and wait for more developments.
SOURCERetroarch Gets An Initial Release
The well-known Retroarch finally comes to Wii U! This is a very early build, and currently is only in a pre-release form, but will be receiving updates soon. SNES emulation seems to be working well, although currently, not all cores function correctly.
SOURCEAnd there we have it! Thank you to all the talented people who are working to advance the Wii U homebrew scene. From the looks of it, things are getting very interesting for Wii U owners.
