Hacking Updating the software on a Wii untouched for years

[Cyber Akuma]

Hello. So, I have been meaning to play on my Wii system again recently, and am kind of out of the loop on what has been going on in regards to homebrew... as well as if there is anything I can do with official services like the shopping channel as well.

Ok, so it has been years since I last messed with it, judging by the versions of some of my homebrew (e.g. the Homebrew Channel being at version 1.1.0 and the BootMii app having a copyright date of 2010) it seems I last updated it around 2010-2011.

Any official updates were last performed even longer ago, it's still at System Menu version 4.1, mainly because of the rather nasty little issue with 4.2 updating the bootloader... and having a bug that could corrupt it. And also because from what I remember, pretty much any updates past 4.1 were only some rather weak attempts at removing homebrew. (Did they even add any features after 4.1 whatsoever, or were they all anti-homebrew attempts after that?)

I do know though that on August 27, 2010 (I had dated the backup...) I had used the IOS History page at Wii Brew ( http://wiibrew.org/wiki/IOS_History ) to update all my IOS files. I installed any missing ones that were not there from skipping on updates from 4.1, updated any existing ones that were older versions than the ones on NUS, and deleted any IOS files listed as mothballed (Except of course, IOS 60 for my 4.1 Sysmenu and any CIOS slots). Were there any official IOS files released or updated after that date?

So here I am now, on System Menu 4.1 and homebrew/hacks from around 2010-2011 and my IOS setup up to date as of 8-27-10, and I want to bring it up to date... for anything that is still updated at least.

First thing I did was use Hack Mii 1.2 to update the Homebrew Channel to 1.1.2 and update BootMii as well. But now I am stuck on what to do next... or even determine what is my Wii's current state to know what to do next.

Ok, first of all, I want to know if I can still access the store channel with all these hacks installed. Is it still safe to purchase and re-download past purchased games? And if so, is there any way I can get the store and all the other still-running channels working without updating the entire Wii itself? As I said, I am worried about going past 4.2, due to the fact that not only will it remove BootMii, my only way to restore from a backup if something goes wrong with the official update, but the update Nintendo installs in it's place has a chance to corrupt the bootloader, bricking my Wii! Yes, I know I can just reinstall BootMii IF everything goes smoothly with the official update, but the issue is with something going wrong before I can reinstall it. On top of that, I recall it attempts to remove other homebrew applications such as the Homebrew Channel as well (though version I installed now should be immune due to changing it's internal channel name, right?). Is there any way I can just install the updated SysMenu, the shopping channel, and the IOS files needed for them (that should be IOS 80 for the latest SysMenu of 4.3, right?), instead of running an entire update? I REALLY want to avoid touching that boot sector. Or can I just update the Shopping Channel alone and not the Sysmenu?

Second, the SD card I had in my Wii sadly got utterly corrupted and useless. I attempted as much recovery on it as I could... but while it was able to save random folders and files created by easily re-downloadable homebrew apps... the "private" folder that channels installed to the SD card get put in was lost. Is there any way I can look through the logs or key/install list or whatever the Wii has to know what channels were installed on it to know what was installed on my SDcard?

Another question is that, while updating my IOS files with DOP-MII shouldn't be an issue, I am not sure what to do about my CIOS files. Wii Brew was pretty helpful when it comes to any homebrew apps and official IOS files, but they are pretty against CIOS files and everything they entail. So how can I tell what versions of CIOS files I have, and if they are out of date? Or even if they have been replaced by another person making a CIOS for that slot/base IOS?

A little confused by by MIOS as well. I know that there is only one mios and it was used for GameCube backwards compatibility, but how can I tell which one I have? I know I installed a custom MIOS at one point, but I don't remember what version. And it seems like the old one I installed might have been taken over and replaced by a new kind called dios or nintendon't or something like that?

And while we are on the subject, can someone explain to me what this "d2x" cios is? Is it another CIOS that is taking up a new slot, or a replacement of an existing cios? I saw the readme mention that it's for homebrew only, so if it does replace an existing cios, does that mean I should not install it if I use usb loaders? Or if I even already have it (though I doubt it) is there any way to tell? It seems to have last been updated a while ago (2012) but then again, my Wii was very likely last updated before that.

Finally, USBLoaderGX mentioned something about a Hermes CIOS, that name sounds familiar, but I know it's not an old upload that is just lingering there because their new site was created recently and USBLoaderGX was last updated only about a month ago. It mentioned "Hermes cIOS Installer v5.1 MOD by Rodries", so is this still the same old Hermes 5.1 CIOS that has been around long before 2010.... or does the "MOD by Redries" part mean it's a newer CIOS that is an updated version of the original 5.1 by Hermes? I also noticed a file called "wbfsGUI.v14.2.mod" which confuses me. A GUI for exploring WBFS partitions? The readme states it's for reading compressed IOS files, but I thought USBLoaderGX could already do that a long time ago? Is this a separate application, or some kind of update to some homebrew applications or library that USBLoaderGX itself uses? I don't recall ever having to install any sort of WBFS tools before to use USBLoaderGX, I thought loading WBFS partitions was coded into the USB Loaders themselves?

So.... can anyone give me some advice or help me with any of this? I have tried Googling around and reading FAQs, but I am so lost, especially since most of them are for people hacking their Wii for the first time, not updating an outdated but already heavily hacked one.

 

[magus2k]

The first thing you need to to is to do is to run an app called syscheck, it will tell you what is currently installed on your wii, then remod again using modmii.

d2x is the best cIOS avaliable atm and can run anything on 2 slots(249 base 56 and 250 base 57), this is the only cIOS you will need at all along with cIOS 202 hermes if you ever use it.

also is better to use FAT32 on your sd/usb to run everything there(wii, gc, emunand, homebrew,etc.), to add wii backups you will need wii backup manager.

as for gamecube there is a better "emulator" called nintendont which have almost 100% compatibility on all games.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

The first thing you need to to is to do is to run an app called syscheck, it will tell you what is currently installed on your wii, then remod again using modmii.

Here is the report generated by SysCheck HDE

Region: NTSC-U               
System Menu 4.1U (v449)               
Priiloader installed               
Drive date: 05.26.2006               
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58               
               
Hollywood v0x11               
Console ID: ********               
Console Type: Wii               
Shop Channel Country: United States (49)               
Boot2 v2               
Found 170 titles.               
Found 36 IOS on this console. 1 of them are stub.               
               
IOS4 (rev 3): Stub               
IOS9 (rev 1034): No Patches               
IOS12 (rev 526): No Patches               
IOS13 (rev 1032): No Patches               
IOS14 (rev 1032): No Patches               
IOS15 (rev 1032): No Patches               
IOS17 (rev 1032): No Patches               
IOS21 (rev 1039): No Patches               
IOS22 (rev 1294): No Patches               
IOS28 (rev 1807): No Patches               
IOS31 (rev 3608): No Patches               
IOS33 (rev 3608): No Patches               
IOS34 (rev 3608): No Patches               
IOS35 (rev 3608): No Patches               
IOS36 (rev 3608): No Patches               
IOS37 (rev 5663): No Patches               
IOS38 (rev 4124): No Patches               
IOS41 (rev 3607): No Patches               
IOS43 (rev 3607): No Patches               
IOS45 (rev 3607): No Patches               
IOS46 (rev 3607): No Patches               
IOS48 (rev 4124): No Patches               
IOS53 (rev 5663): No Patches               
IOS55 (rev 5663): No Patches               
IOS56 (rev 5662): No Patches               
IOS57 (rev 5919): No Patches               
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0               
IOS60 (rev 6174): Trucha Bug               
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches               
IOS202[60] (rev 65535     Info: hermes-v5.1): Trucha Bug     NAND Access     USB 2.0   
IOS222[38] (rev 65535     Info: hermes-v5.1): Trucha Bug     ES Identify     NAND Access     USB 2.0
IOS223[37] (rev 65535     Info: hermes-v5.1): Trucha Bug     NAND Access     USB 2.0   
IOS224[57] (rev 65535     Info: hermes-5.1): Trucha Bug     NAND Access     USB 2.0   
IOS249[58] (rev 21     Info: rev 21): Trucha Bug     NAND Access     USB 2.0   
IOS250 (rev 65535): Trucha Bug     NAND Access     USB 2.0       
IOS254 (rev 65281): BootMii               
BC v6               
MIOS v4               
Report generated on 09/17/2015.

I would really like to avoid using automated hack-everything scripts however, if something goes wrong I would have no idea where and why. Plus I have already extensively modified my Wii manually and would have no idea what an automated script would overwrite or if it would work properly with what I have done. Just looking to update any IOS, CIOS, and MIOS files that were added or updated since I last hacked this system about 3-4 years ago.

d2x is the best cIOS avaliable atm and can run anything on 2 slots(249 base 56 and 250 base 57), this is the only cIOS you will need at all along with cIOS 202 hermes if you ever use it.

I see, so I should install the d2x version over slots 249 and 250 shown in my SysCheck report there. What about CIOS 222, 223, and 224 shown in the SysReport there? Are there updated versions of them? Is there even a way to check which version of a CIOS I have installed since they all come up as rev 65535?

also is better to use FAT32 on your sd/usb to run everything there(wii, gc, emunand, homebrew,etc.), to add wii backups you will need wii backup manager.

I use WBFS on my HDD to avoid the 4GB filesize limit of FAT32, plus that drive was setup a while ago when NTFS support was spotty to non-existant. My SD card is FAT32.

as for gamecube there is a better "emulator" called nintendont which have almost 100% compatibility on all games.

Do you mean a replacement MIOS file? Or is it something else?

 

[magus2k]

You only need d2x because 99% of the games will run with 249, and the others with 250. you dont need hermes cios anymore since d2x does better things, but leave them alone since uninstalling stuff fron the nand can break stuff.

Nintendont doesnt use the mios at all, is just a homebrew app but still as a mios, so nintendont and diosmios can coexist, unless you want to run your retail gamecube games since as far i know some versions of Diosmios block that feature.

also as a advice stay on firmware 4.1 so this way you wont lose the bannerbomb exploit in case you need it, you just need to update your ios and install priiloader to block automatic updates and also can act as a brick protection. you can use this guide to update, it will cover all the above.

Guide: Softmod ANY Wii

Just update your loader of choice after that.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

You only need d2x because 99% of the games will run with 249, and the others with 250. you dont need hermes cios anymore since d2x does better things, but leave them alone since uninstalling stuff fron the nand can break stuff.

I wasn't going to remove them in case of older homebrew that still uses 202, 222, 223, and 224, but how can I tell if I have the latest versions of those?

Nintendont doesnt use the mios at all, is just a homebrew app but still as a mios, so nintendont and diosmios can coexist, unless you want to run your retail gamecube games since as far i know some versions of Diosmios block that feature.

Wait.... what? You can no longer run retail purchased disks of GC games with Dios Mios?

 

[magus2k]

Seeing your syscheck your versions of hermes 5.1 is the lastest i know, so you are ok with those cIOS in that regard, and yeah the older versions of Diosmios block your retail gc game disks, the only way to fix that is to reinstall the official mIOS, after all nintendont is the superior choice to run your gc backups now and is insanely easy to setup.

Nintendont

If you are into Virtual console and wiiware games you can also check neek2o.

Neek2o Emunand Setup for Noobs

 

[Cyber Akuma]

I did a little more digging in regards to Dios Mios, and found out that they fixed that issue with version 2.10 apparently, the latest appears to be version 2.11.

But I also have some additional questions about DM now...
On their page, it mentions the three things it can't do are:
Allow use of the Nintendo GameCube Microphone
Play backups from writable DVD media
Play audio via disc audio streaming

I could have sworn the one I have right now could ONLY load GC games through a burned DVD, before Dios Mios existed. Kinda odd how this feature is missing in newer modifications to the MIOS, looking through the old installer files I have on my previous SD card backup, apparently I had Waninkoko cMIOS v5 installed (or rather, still have installed, for now).

But what I am really interested in is that mention that it can't play music that is streamed off the disk, does that only apply to disk images loaded off of USB/SD, or even to retail disks?

I know that my CIOS files are actually out of date, at least, 249 and 250 are, because they have been replaced with a completely new type called d2x, just wasn't sure how to go about updating them.

I am apparently also missing a large amount of CIOS files that apparently were added between now since I last updated my hacks, majority of them also d2x based. Most of these seem to have happened in 2012.

Others have said that the recommend CIOS files I should have is:

IOS202
IOS222
IOS223
IOS224
IOS236
IOS245
IOS246
IOS247
IOS248
IOS249
IOS250
IOS251

Though IOS 245-251 appear to come from the d2x installer, first time I have heard of 236 though.

Also, I noticed another IOS I am missing: IOS59

It's listed as active in IOS History page, but not present on my system nor in DOP-Mii or the NUS Downloader. It appears to have only come with some Dragon Quest game, a Japan-only MMORPG. But the IOS is present on the vWii mode of the WiiU. I figured just to be safe I would install it as well... but would buying the game be the only way to get that IOS?