Hacking Wii U Homebrew Situation and FAQ

[Mackman]

I` new here and don`t understand much.I just got the Wii U and the only thing I did to it was try to play Mario Kart 8 which updated me to 4.1.Then I tried to use Netflix and Youtube and before I could use them for the first time it asked me to update and I was for if I should do that or not.I`m going to install Homebrew today and I guest I have to update to 5.0 in order to use those apps.Thanks.

 

[EmceeKerser]

I` new here and don`t understand much.I just got the Wii U and the only thing I did to it was try to play Mario Kart 8 which updated me to 4.1.Then I tried to use Netflix and Youtube and before I could use them for the first time it asked me to update and I was for if I should do that or not.I`m going to install Homebrew today and I guest I have to update to 5.0 in order to use those apps.Thanks.

Read the stickies, or maybe the thread you're posting in. 5.0 is fine

 

[Wii4menotU]

Sorry for being a Wiiu Noob but need a little help if someone wouldnt mind. I just bought a Wii u for my daughter last week and bought the Disney infinity game stuff. I set up the system and did what ever the screen and game asked to set up an account for my daughter. A few days later i started researching how to home brew it and cant seem to figure it out. I tried the BatHaxx with the BootMii the system wouldnt do allow it it said something to the nature of " this can NOT be done, you dont have the correct IOS..." ( i can try it again and get exactly what it says if someone needs me to) Did some more research and seems like Nintendo has a patch to block this!

Question. how do i know what update version i have?

I've read on here a few people talking about the Mario 8 4.1, Do i need to go and get Mario 8 and let it update my system before i can homebrew?

If i just bought the system last week and installed whatever updates wouldnt i have the lastest update from Nintendo? and if so is it possible to even un install the update to what ever it was when i bought it off the shelf and first plugged it up?

I have a 15 day return policy, what if i returned this updated one and bought a different one how would i get homebrew on this new one?
Any help is greatly appreciated and i know dealing with Noobs is a headache, Thanks
Edit; Running 5.0.0 U.

 

[NWPlayer123]

Yeah, it doesn't really matter if you're on the latest version, by the time we finally have a working exploit the web bug will be ported to 5.0.0 anyways, so you're fine. As for bootmii, it's giving an error because you can't install bootmii on a wii u since it's not a vanilla wii and thus there's no way to install it since the boot sequence is different, but that's perfectly fine.

 

[Wii4menotU]

Yeah, it doesn't really matter if you're on the latest version, by the time we finally have a working exploit the web bug will be ported to 5.0.0 anyways, so you're fine. As for bootmii, it's giving an error because you can't install bootmii on a wii u since it's not a vanilla wii and thus there's no way to install it since the boot sequence is different, but that's perfectly fine.

So... if it's allowed on here, what do I need to do or use instead of BootMii? If it's not allowed to be posted would someone please pm me the how to's. Thanks

 

[NWPlayer123]

You don't need bootmii at all, it's optional, on the wii it allowed you to backup and restore bricked consoles (if you installed it as boot2) but since we know next to nothing and have no access to the boot sequence on the wii u there's no way/point right now. There might be in the future but for now you're fine ignoring it.

 

[Wii4menotU]

You don't need bootmii at all, it's optional, on the wii it allowed you to backup and restore bricked consoles (if you installed it as boot2) but since we know next to nothing and have no access to the boot sequence on the wii u there's no way/point right now. There might be in the future but for now you're fine ignoring it.

Thanks for that info, new to the Nintendo scene. Do you have a tutorial on what I need to do then.

 

[Goku Junior]

You don't need bootmii at all, it's optional, on the wii it allowed you to backup and restore bricked consoles (if you installed it as boot2) but since we know next to nothing and have no access to the boot sequence on the wii u there's no way/point right now. There might be in the future but for now you're fine ignoring it.

Do you know if it will be possible to do a BootMii Wii U edition? It would be great to have a BootMii or a recovery menu for Wii U in the future, since I had first a Wii from 2006, it has BootMii as boot2 and I can boot pressing reset button, so I don't worry if I delete the System Menu, I had BootMii to save me xD, but when I had a 2009 Wii, it doesn't allow me to install as a boot2 and I bricked it because of bad install of System Menu, I don't want to go Off-topic with this, only saying what useful will be, nothing more.

 

[Marionumber1]

Do you know if it will be possible to do a BootMii Wii U edition? It would be great to have a BootMii or a recovery menu for Wii U in the future, since I had first a Wii from 2006, it has BootMii as boot2 and I can boot pressing reset button, so I don't worry if I delete the System Menu, I had BootMii to save me xD, but when I had a 2009 Wii, it doesn't allow me to install as a boot2 and I bricked it because of bad install of System Menu, I don't want to go Off-topic with this, only saying what useful will be, nothing more.

If you mean vWii Bootmii, it will never be possible to install it as boot2. This is because there is no boot2, as the System Menu IOS is launched directly by cafe2wii, the Wii U to vWii mode switcher. If you mean Wii U Bootmii, it will probably also be impossible, since the entire Wii U boot process is based on a chain of trust.

 

[Goku Junior]

If you mean vWii Bootmii, it will never be possible to install it as boot2. This is because there is no boot2, as the System Menu IOS is launched directly by cafe2wii, the Wii U to vWii mode switcher. If you mean Wii U Bootmii, it will probably also be impossible, since the entire Wii U boot process is based on a chain of trust.

So we don't get a recovery option in the future?, oh well... , I don't know why Nintendo don't put recovery systems like PS4 or PS3...

 

[Marionumber1]

So we don't get a recovery option in the future?, oh well... , I don't know why Nintendo don't put recovery systems like PS4 or PS3...

The Wii U boot0 has the ability to boot a signed recovery image off an SD card, so Nintendo is able to use that for brick recovery. Of course, since the images are signed, Nintendo is the only party that could do that unless we got the private key or a leaked recovery image.

 

[Wii4menotU]

Thanks to everyone who helped me I got the homebrew channel working last night. Now the question I have is I have USB loader and wiiflow saved on a 2gb SD card and inserted into the wii, what if I want to play my backup games from a larger storage device.... do I have to format that storage device to fat32 and also copy USB loader or wiiflow onto the storage device and also the backed up iso to the storage device? Or can I leave the 2gb SD card in then hook up another external hard drive and it will work? Was the non hc card just for the initial homebrewing process? Is it possible to save the USB loader or wiiflow to the wiiu and not have to have it on a storage device? If someone would like I will post what I was doing wrong and what I did to homebrew. Thanks again

 

[Oak]

Thanks to everyone who helped me I got the homebrew channel working last night. Now the question I have is I have USB loader and wiiflow saved on a 2gb SD card and inserted into the wii, what if I want to play my backup games from a larger storage device.... do I have to format that storage device to fat32 and also copy USB loader or wiiflow onto the storage device and also the backed up iso to the storage device? Or can I leave the 2gb SD card in then hook up another external hard drive and it will work? Was the non hc card just for the initial homebrewing process? Is it possible to save the USB loader or wiiflow to the wiiu and not have to have it on a storage device? If someone would like I will post what I was doing wrong and what I did to homebrew. Thanks again

Keep all of your apps on the sd card. Move all of your Wii games to USB using Wii Backup Manager.

 

[darkseekerliu]

Sorry for being a Wiiu Noob but need a little help if someone wouldnt mind. I just bought a Wii u for my daughter last week and bought the Disney infinity game stuff. I set up the system and did what ever the screen and game asked to set up an account for my daughter. A few days later i started researching how to home brew it and cant seem to figure it out. I tried the BatHaxx with the BootMii the system wouldnt do allow it it said something to the nature of " this can NOT be done, you dont have the correct IOS..." ( i can try it again and get exactly what it says if someone needs me to) Did some more research and seems like Nintendo has a patch to block this!

Question. how do i know what update version i have?

I've read on here a few people talking about the Mario 8 4.1, Do i need to go and get Mario 8 and let it update my system before i can homebrew?

If i just bought the system last week and installed whatever updates wouldnt i have the lastest update from Nintendo? and if so is it possible to even un install the update to what ever it was when i bought it off the shelf and first plugged it up?

I have a 15 day return policy, what if i returned this updated one and bought a different one how would i get homebrew on this new one?
Any help is greatly appreciated and i know dealing with Noobs is a headache, Thanks
Edit; Running 5.0.0 U.

You still can do the bathaxx to the new firmware 5.0.0 and successful install homebrew channel... I personally did myself.

 

[Goku Junior]

Marionumber1 one more question, do you know if it would be possible with the "Homebrew Channel U" restore the vWii NAND in case it is bricked?

 

[Wii4menotU]

Keep all of your apps on the sd card. Move all of your Wii games to USB using Wii Backup Manager.

Instead of using wii back up manager can u use wsfb manager?

 

[Marionumber1]

Marionumber1 one more question, do you know if it would be possible with the "Homebrew Channel U" restore the vWii NAND in case it is bricked?

It would depend on your level of access in Wii U mode. PPC userspace code almost certainly can't access the vWii NAND. PPC kernel-mode code may be able to access it, I don't know for sure since we're not there yet. ARM userspace code can probably access it, and ARM kernel-mode code almost certainly can.

Instead of using wii back up manager can u use wsfb manager?

This thread is supposed to be about Wii U hacking, not vWii hacking. Anything related to vWii hacking belongs in a separate thread.

 

[TheChield]

PPC userspace code almost certainly can't access the vWii NAND. PPC kernel-mode code may be able to access it, I don't know for sure since we're not there yet.

PPC Kernel mode to get sort of IPC access to the Starbuck ?
I thought it was the ARM who rule this world ?

 

[Marionumber1]

PPC Kernel mode to get sort of IPC access to the Starbuck ?

Yes, PPC kernel-mode will allow us to communicate with the Starbuck through IPC. Although userspace can still use calls like IOS_Open(), IOS_Read(), and IOS_Ioctl(), they appear to simply generate kernel syscalls. This means that only the Cafe OS kernel gets direct access to the IPC memory region.

I thought it was the ARM who rule this world ?

Yes, the ARM gets direct access to all hardware (in kernel-mode) and can give the PPC code to execute.

 

[ShadowOne333]

A little suggestion:

When a HBC-of-some-sort is available for Wii U, call it:
Homebrii-U Channel