Hacking Casper by giantpune

[SifJar]

OK, so what is it? If this tool works with armboot.bin instead, what is the difference between bootmii_ios.bin and the armboot.bin that the hackmii installer places on the SD card?

There is no difference.

bootmii_ios.bin IS armboot.bin, just renamed.

I am talking about the one that is installed as part of BootMii/IOS - clearly there has to be some difference, otherwise why would the HackMii Installer put it on both SD card and on NAND?

I'm pretty sure Casper is an alternative to BootMii. You don't have to do anything (or even install if you are using another armboot.bin file) BootMii to use Casper.

I know that. I am not an idiot. My question was directed at @[member='XFlak'], who was talking about extracting a file from a BootMii/IOS installation before someone pointed out to him you can just rename armboot.bin. I was asking him what the file extracted from BootMii was, and what the difference was between it and armboot.bin, seeing as apparently HackMii Installer puts the bootmii_ios.bin on NAND and armboot.bin on SD, so I figured there must be some difference between them.

EDIT: Looks like he answered while I was typing. Thanks XFlak. And yes it was definitely worth you posting, Joostin didn't answer my question at all or indeed tell me anything I didn't know already

EDIT: And if title\00000001\000000fe\content\00000000.app just loads armboot.bin anyway, I see no reason it should cause problems to just load armboot.bin directly.

 

[obcd]

BootMii @ boot2 and bootmii @ ios both load armboot.bin from the sd card bootmii folder.
So, now you are saying that the bootmii_ios.bin == armboot.bin.
I don't get it either.

 

[JoostinOnline]

I was asking him what the file extracted from BootMii was, and what the difference was between it and armboot.bin, seeing as apparently HackMii Installer puts the bootmii_ios.bin on NAND and armboot.bin on SD, so I figured there must be some difference between them.

You are mixing this up.
Casper is the equivalent of "title\00000001\000000fe\content\00000000.app".
bootmii_ios.bin is any armboot.bin file.

bootmii_ios.bin is NOT stored on the nand.

 

[SifJar]

BootMii @ boot2 and bootmii @ ios both load armboot.bin from the sd card bootmii folder.
So, now you are saying that the bootmii_ios.bin == armboot.bin.
I don't get it either.

From XFlak's post, I understand it that bootmii_ios.bin is installed as part of BootMii/IOS and when you load BootMii/IOS, it gets run. And basically all it does is run armboot.bin. They're not the same thing, but you can bypass bootmii_ios.bin and directly load armboot.bin by renaming armboot.bin to bootmii_ios.bin (obviously that's just for Casper, not BootMii, which would ignore a file called bootmii_ios.bin).

 

[OverjoY]

armboot.bin = mini. BootMii has access to the hw through mini. Casper is using the app in BootMii IOS (bootmii_ios.bin) to launch Mini. Check out the source of nswitch. It simply does the same. We use a modified armboot.bin (mini tree mod) to launch neek

 

[SifJar]

I was asking him what the file extracted from BootMii was, and what the difference was between it and armboot.bin, seeing as apparently HackMii Installer puts the bootmii_ios.bin on NAND and armboot.bin on SD, so I figured there must be some difference between them.

You are mixing this up.
Casper is the equivalent of "title\00000001\000000fe\content\00000000.app".
bootmii_ios.bin is any armboot.bin file.

bootmii_ios.bin is NOT stored on the nand.

bootmii_ios.bin, according to XFlak, is a dump of that 00000000.app. It can be replaced by a renamed armboot.bin, but it is "meant" to be the dumped 00000000.app as I understand it. I now understand everything just fine.

 

[JoostinOnline]

I was asking him what the file extracted from BootMii was, and what the difference was between it and armboot.bin, seeing as apparently HackMii Installer puts the bootmii_ios.bin on NAND and armboot.bin on SD, so I figured there must be some difference between them.

You are mixing this up.
Casper is the equivalent of "title\00000001\000000fe\content\00000000.app".
bootmii_ios.bin is any armboot.bin file.

bootmii_ios.bin is NOT stored on the nand.

bootmii_ios.bin, according to XFlak, is a dump of that 00000000.app. It can be replaced by a renamed armboot.bin, but it is "meant" to be the dumped 00000000.app as I understand it. I now understand everything just fine.

XFlak is wrong, which is my point.

 

[OverjoY]

XFlak is right..

Check out my other post

 

[XFlak]

@[member='JoostinOnline'],
You think I'm making this shit up? Casper may work with an armboot.bin renamed to bootmii_ios.bin, but giantpune's original instructions to his beta testers were to use "the main executable of bootmii IOS" as bootmii_ios.bin. It's great that bootmii@IOS is not required and we can just use armboot.bin renamed, but it was a legitimate question.

[snip...] and you need to have a copy of bootmii IOS on your SD card - just the main executable, not a wad or anything. it is reading from "SD:/bootmii_ios.bin". then run casper, and it will read that file [snip...] youll probably want to have the armboot.bin and ppcboot.bin on your sd card, too or else it wont really do anything cool.

 

[Taleweaver]

I can't really follow the techno talk being slinged around, but I like the idea to say the least...

Btw, I played with this last night and got it to load uneek+di and load games via the di menu and joyflow without any issues. GiantPune in the man, I think this is the probably the biggest thing the Wii Scene will ever see happen before the scene itself is history. This is an achievement of epic proportions!

I was thinking this as well. So basically (correct me if I'm wrong)...
you can put a prepared SD card and USB drive in any given virgin wii, run an exploit that uses caspar to load bootmii, which loads your uneek+DI nand. You play your games from either your USB drive or emulated nand, and after you turned off the wii, all is back to normal without even leaving a trace on the wii itself.

Correct?

If so, the credit is indeed an achievement of epic proportions.


(but erm...GiantPune in the man? What kind of compliment is that, XFlak? )

 

[SifJar]

Yes @[member='Wever'], that is correct. All you need to do to get an existing setup "ready for Casper" is copy "armboot.bin" from the "BootMii" folder to the root of your SD card and rename it "bootmii-ios.bin", then rename casper.elf to boot.elf and put it on the root of your SD card and add an exploit. Probably easiest to use SmashStack, that way no need to move saves and stuff.

 

[JoostinOnline]

@[member='JoostinOnline'],
You think I'm making this shit up? Casper may work with an armboot.bin renamed to bootmii_ios.bin, but giantpune's original instructions to his beta testers were to use "the main executable of bootmii IOS" as bootmii_ios.bin. It's great that bootmii@IOS is not required and we can just use armboot.bin renamed, but it was a legitimate question.

[snip...] and you need to have a copy of bootmii IOS on your SD card - just the main executable, not a wad or anything. it is reading from "SD:/bootmii_ios.bin". then run casper, and it will read that file [snip...] youll probably want to have the armboot.bin and ppcboot.bin on your sd card, too or else it wont really do anything cool.

It sounded to me like you were guessing. I didn't say you were making anything up. I wish that info was listed on the Casper page. Could someone add it to the first post please?

Anyway, I stand corrected and back down.

 

[SifJar]

I wish that info was listed on the Casper page.

It is:

grab the executable from bootmii-IOS

 

[JoostinOnline]

I wish that info was listed on the Casper page.

It is:

grab the executable from bootmii-IOS

It's still vague enough to mean armboot.bin. Anyway, I admit I was wrong and I've applied for a public flogging (this Saturday, tell your friends!), so let's move on.

 

[obcd]

So, basically, if we have it boot the bootmii armboot.bin, we should be able to take a backup of our untouched nand.
This solves the risk of an unfixable wii, in case something would go wrong during the install of bootmii. I know it doesn't happen,
but it was an unavoidable risk, since you needed hbc and bootmii before you could take the backup.

It would also mean that a restore of such a backup with bootmii @ ios would return the wii to an unmodded state. I know this is more risky.

I guess you could create such a nand with OhneSwanzenegger and modmii as well.

 

[pwsincd]

So am i reading this right i could load a wii purely from SD , and therefore take a NAND backup of a kinda bricked wii? possible noob Q , but maybe not lol.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

You might be able to. I wish I had your wii right now to test this with.

 

[pwsincd]

likewise , but with simple instruction i can be your hands lol

 

[XFlak]

@obcd,
not with modmii. ModMii can create a clean emulated nand, but not a nand.bin

a Q that occurs to me is... do people that are using casper to run neek really even need a nand backup? In theory isn't it totally risk free?

Another Q is do we care to change the current softmod process to incorporate making a virgin nand backup before running the hackmii installer (ie. installing bootmii@IOS)

 

[obcd]

People using Casper to run neek won't need a nand backup. I was more thinking about people that are going to mod their wii, the way things are done now.

It's difficult to answer question 2. I have no statistics about how many people bricked their wii during running the hackmii installer. It's not like it's easy to use such a backup in case of problems. Still, it would be an extra step forward in the fail safe direction. I have just tested it, and the bootmii armboot.bin run's fine with Casper, and loads the ppcboot.bin as expected. I am using wiixplorer to launch the casper elf, but I don't think that should make a difference.