Hacking 【Tutorial】How to run Loadiine 4.0 offline using a iPhone and a Mac/PC

[jebediah]

Dear loadiine users and cravers,

I was one of the newbies who unexpectedly updated their Wii U trying to run Loadiine, and who painstakingly searched for an outdated replacement console. At the time I couldn't connect to my router using manual DNS settings, so I thought I could make the Wii U go online just for a few minutes and turn it off should a message confirming the start of the update process come up. I don't know how things happened but I ended up with an updated Wii U anyway, and I don't want to experience this feeling ever again

Given the somewhat strong but somewhat not perfectly tight reliability of the DNS method to prevent future updates, I took upon myself to find a way to serve the Loadiine hack locally while keeping all devices involved offline, which is the only way to be absolutely sure the console will not update.

I have 2 ways available I'd like to share, one is by using your jailbroken iPhone, the other is using your Mac. I like the iPhone setup because it's very portable and complimentary to what Android users can do.

The 3 challenges were (1) get the Wii U to validate local hotspot connection that is meant to get offline after initial setup, (2) keep the iPhone's hotspot alive even after we turn the 3G connection off to avoid any update downloading (solved by PDANet and MyWi, don't know about TetherMe), and (3) keep the iPhone hosted web server alive even with 3G off (solved by iFile's Web Server functionality)

Choose your method according to what you have available:

Spoiler: Using just an iPhone (jailbroken only)

Note: Just beware that the iFile server can only be started with the iPhone's 3G connection on, although it keeps running after turning the connection off. Also, a brief 3G connection is required in order to allow the Wii U to verify the hotspot. This is only required the first time you setup the connection, and is very brief anyway.

1. Download an exploit “definitive package” copy its content to a "www" folder on your iPhone over USB (you can use iFunbox for instance). For demonstration purposes, I will place mine in /var/www/loadiine/kexploit/ and /var/www/loadine/

2. Turn your iPhone's wifi on but ensure it isn't connected to any network

3. Turn your iPhone's 3G connection on

4. Using PDANet (free) or MyWi (paid for), create a wifi hotspot

5. Open iFile and tap the globe icon at the bottom bar. This will start a server based on the iPhone's current IP address within the hotspot network. If the icon is greyed out, you have to force close iFile, make sure you have a 3G connection, and open iFile again

6. When you see "Accepting connections at http://YouriPhoneName.local:10000 or http://<invalid>", take not of the port being used (10000 in this example) and go to your Wii U

7. On the Wii U, go to your System Settings and setup a new connection to connect to the hotspot. The quick validation process needs the phone to have a live connection

8. As soon as this is done, turn the 3G off (thanks to our setup, the hotspot, the iFile web server, and the wifi connection between the iPhone and the Wii U are kept alive, while safely disconnected from the internet, making any update unable to be downloaded)

9. Go back to PDANet or MyWi, make sure the Wii U is connected, and write down its IP address, leaving the last bit out. Mine shows as 192.168.19.X, but yours may be different.

10. You can now access the exploits hosted on the iPhone from the Wii U's Internet Browser. Simply use the IP address noted from your hotspot app, and replace the last bit by "1", which will point to the iPhone device. You will also need the port mentioned by iFile (10000) So if like me you had 192.168.19.X as your Wii U's IP address and 1000 as connection port, then use 192.168.19.1:10000. To use the exploits using my setup, I will browse to the following URL:

http://192.168.19.1:10000/var/www/loadiine/kexploit/index.html

and then

http://192.168.19.1:10000/var/www/loadiine/index.html

Please note the Wii U won't be able to browse the server by using iFile's suggested shortcut name instead of its actual IP address on the hotspot network.

11. My personal advice is to create 2 dummy bookmarks on the Wii U's Internet Browser, which you will then edit with the URLs pointing to the exploits. This way you won't have to type it every time. Don't worry as the iPhone's IP address within the hotspot network will remain the same every time you start it and run the iFile server.

Spoiler: Using just a Mac

Note: The first time you set this up, you will need you Mac to have connection coming from anything else than wifi. This is due to the Wii U briefly needing an online connection through the hotspot that we'll create here in order to verify it once and for all as a valid connection. You can connect your Mac to a wired connection from your home router, or to a hotspot connection over USB or Bluetooth coming from any smart device, just leave the wifi available to broadcast a connection to the Wii U.

1. Connect your Mac to the internet using anything else than wifi (used to broadcast the hotspot to the Wii U instead)

2. Download an exploit “definitive package” and make it a “www” folder

3. Download mongoose for mac OS X https://backend.cesanta.com/d.shtml?9DPNR5DTT1OX9RAD

4. Place the content you have downloaded in a folder wherever you like and copy the mongoose app to that folder

5. In OS X go into System Preference > Sharing and enable File Sharing

6. Add the folder you downloaded in step 1 to your "Shared folders" by clicking on +

7. In the same window, click on "Options" and make sure you share files using both SMS and AFP. Apply and close

8. Click on your wifi icon in the top menu bar, and click Create Network...

9. Create a computer-to-computer network using any combination of password and channel

10. On the Wii U, go to your System Settings and setup a new connection to connect to that hotspot. The quick validation process needs the Mac to have a live connection

11. As soon as this is done, disconnect your Mac from the internet

12. Open the Mongoose app from the folder containing the exploits. This will open a browser window whose URL will display as the MAC's IP address accessed through the 8080 port

13. You can now access the exploits hosted on the Mac from the Wii U's Internet Browser. Simply use the same IP address provided by Mongoose, not forgetting the 8080 port. To use the exploits using my setup, I will browse to the following URL:

http://169.254.77.61:8080/var/www/loadiine/kexploit/index.html

and then

http://169.254.77.61:8080/var/www/loadiine/index.html

14. My personal advice is to create 2 dummy bookmarks on the Wii U's Internet Browser, which you will then edit with the URLs pointing to the exploits. This way you won't have to type it every time. Don't worry as the iPhone's IP address within the hotspot network will remain the same every time you start it and run the iFile server.

Contributors are welcome to improve this tutorial. I will update the tutorial as contributions are made and my testing proceeds.

Hope this helps some!

 

[Tesa]

If you're using a mac I'm assuming it's some kind of macbook, so why do you proxy everything through your phone instead of just creating the Hotspot directly on your Mac? (same goes for every other notebook)

If you're talking about desktop pcs you should have access to your router and you can just block the mac-adress of your wii u so it won't have Internet access and serve the files through your desktop pc.

Edit: just tested it on a macbook pro retina and local Hotspot works perfectly fine for me (through the settings / sharing) are you sure you're not trying to create a computer-to-computer (ad-hoc) bridge instead of setting up a Hotspot?

 

[OctopusRift]

wow. nice job!

 

[jebediah]

If you're using a mac I'm assuming it's some kind of macbook, so why do you proxy everything through your phone instead of just creating the Hotspot directly on your Mac? (same goes for every other notebook)

Good point but one reason I use the phone is because at the time of the first setup you would need a wired internet connection to your computer so it can broadcast that connection via wifi to the Wii U (can't receive and broadcast the connection with a single wifi adapter). The second reason is I assumed the computer generated hotspot wouldn't be accepted as a valid access point to connect to by the Wii U, but I only tried to do so while the computer was offline (because I lack a wired connection). However, I did go through the Create Wireless Network option on the Macbook, which I think is designed as ad-hoc. Is there another way to create a hotspot on a Mac which would broadcast in the same fashion as a router access point? You seem to have achieved that.

If you're talking about desktop pcs you should have access to your router and you can just block the mac-adress of your wii u so it won't have Internet access and serve the files through your desktop pc.

Not all routers can do that (such as mine) so this tutorial is intented for those whose router doesn't have this ability.

Edit: just tested it on a macbook pro retina and local Hotspot works perfectly fine for me (through the settings / sharing) are you sure you're not trying to create a computer-to-computer (ad-hoc) bridge instead of setting up a Hotspot?

Could you please explain what steps take you there on a Macbook? This will be useful to those with a wired connection (required at first setup only). Actually, this can also create a more simple setup where you tether a USB wired connection from the phone to the computer, while the computer takes care of broadcasting a network and serving the files, not needing the phone in the future.

Seems like I'll be updating the tutorial very soon thanks to your help.

 

[jebediah]

Tutorial updated and pretty final now. The iPhone and Mac don't have to be used simultaneously anymore, just pick your preferred device and follow through either method.

 

[Kafluke]

Any device that can host a webpage can be used for accessing entry points through Wii U browser. This is mostly for non HaxChi users (forever offline baby)

There are android apps, raspberry pi tutorials and even self contained SD wifi adapter guides on here. But you don't need a guide. Just create a php host anywhere on your network. Hell even IIS works fine.

 

[xtheman]

Any device that can host a webpage can be used for accessing entry points through Wii U browser. This is mostly for non HaxChi users (forever offline baby)

There are android apps, raspberry pi tutorials and even self contained SD wifi adapter guides on here. But you don't need a guide. Just create a php host anywhere on your network. Hell even IIS works fine.

The last post from this thread was from over a year ago...

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

There is a loadiine 4.0?

 

[Kafluke]

The last post from this thread was from over a year ago...

Crap you're right. Why did I see this in the front page? My bad