Hacking Mocha CFW Hangs on Boot. Any Way to Restore? Help!

[Hardgrapes]

Greetings. I'm having a situation with modding my Wii U that I hope someone with greater knowledge can help me with. Let me just admit up front that I performed some hasty actions in attempting to mod my system. So, I understand, and have come to terms with, the fact that my system may already be effectively bricked.

While modding my Wii U, I started off by following this guide: https://wiiu.guide/get-started
I followed it, to the letter up, through the end of Section I of https://wiiu.guide/mocha-cfw-(haxchi)
(I used a legit copy of Phantom Hourglass, if that matters.)

At this point, launching the Haxchi DS virtual console game created a state in which the Mocha splash appears on the game pad, and the Wii U menu splash on the TV. However, the system would just hang at this point, the Wii U menu music would fade. The Wii U's motor started to rev up, but then stop.

This hanging happens every time and is indefinite (I think I at one attempted launch waited as long as 20 minutes). I have seen a few reports of this sort of Mocha hang online, but never during first install. I have no idea what could be causing it (which led to my reckless actions described below).

Despite Mocha apparently not working properly, I went ahead with the CBHC install process in the same guide. This caused the Wii U to boot into the hanging Mocha, which led me to experience some distress...
Fortunately, Some folks in the Discord channel associated with the above guide advised me that I could change the boot settings by holding "home" at system boot, so I did and changed autoboot to sysnand boot.

At this point I think I should have just re-rolled, so to speak. Instead, I became even more foolish:
I reinstalled Haxchi OVER the same DS rom as the old install.
(I have since been advised that this is one of the ways you can brick your system, too late for that lecture now though)

This ultimately led to the system still booting up to the hanging Mocha. However, in addition, I can no longer hold home to access the boot menu (presumably, CBHC is looking for a trigger that isn't there due to the reinstall of Haxchi?)...

The only potential glimmer of hope for me is that, by holding the X button during boot, I can access disk2app and then quit out of that to get to the Homebrew channel. I can also boot Wii by holding B but I doubt that is germane to fixing my issues. From HBC, I can access the various apps on the SD card. I also tried (re)DL-ing Mocha off the homebrew store to the same hanging boot issue, but then I felt it was time to halt my fumbling efforts for the day.

At this point, my main goal here is to restore my system to non-modded usability. I will consider if I want to attempt modding again after that point. I can only guess as to the cause of the initial Mocha hang but perhaps there is an issue with the SD card itself. I got it for cheap, though functionally it should be more than up to the task. It is a 128 GB model of http://www.iodata.jp/product/memory-card/sd/ (sorry for the Japanese link.)

At any rate, since my immediate issue is the CBHC autoboot getting me caught in the hanging Mocha, I feel I have two immediate actions that I could easily take:
1. Uninstall CBHC
2. Reinstall CBHC

I feel uninstalling is a lot less risky, since I know the system access to CBHC comes before the attempt to boot Mocha. Without CBHC, my system should in theory boot normally. Reinstalling, by contrast, is something of a hail Mary play, much more likely to simply brick my system completely, unlikely to really help except maybe allowing me to use the boot menu again (not that there's much of a point to that). Either way I know either option may worsen the situation... but do I have any other options I'm unaware of?

If I can get back into the system menu, I intend to undo the RedNand setup, and format the Wii U itself if necessary (I recently acquired it, and am not particularly attached to anything on it.) If I can do that while still being unable to get to the system menu, that's also fine but, again, seems riskier.
Before I attempt anything though, I wanted to seek the advice of this board.

Many thanks to those of you who just took the time to read this post the whole way through!
If you are able to help me, as a token of my thanks, I will dedicate some time to try to translate a Japanese version of the above hacking guide, or a better one should one exist, in the near future!
(I am a technical translator by profession, as much as it pains me to say so right now!)

 

[icw35]

Get to homebrew and uninstall CBHC. And remove Mocha.

If you did all this following that guide, the guide is SHITE. If you have Haxchi, installing mocha is completely stupid and pointless. REDnand is completely pointless too.

EDIT

I started to read the guide. Yep, it's bullshit. Whoever wrote it should be shot. Bit extreme maybe, drawn and quartered only. If you have haxchi DO NOT use REDnand and DO NOT use MOCHA.

Mocha is for people that don't buy a DS game. REDnad is for developers (mainly) and in other threads on here, has been proven to be pointless (not even the backup is useful because its not a full dump and does not contain ECC data EDIT it is now as EyeKey released a tool to make it useful). So yeah. What bullshit recommendations. You should have used Kafluke's guide on here.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/guide-noob-guide-to-wii-u-hacking.451297/

 

[nexusmtz]

Get to homebrew and uninstall CBHC. And remove Mocha.

Q: How can I uninstall CBHC?
A: Unplug USB (HDD, Pendrive) device, load CBHC Installer, press B.

@Hardgrapes, you're lucky. You should be back to normal quickly.

 

[Hardgrapes]

Get to homebrew and uninstall CBHC. And remove Mocha.

If you did all this following that guide, the guide is SHITE. If you have Haxchi, installing mocha is completely stupid and pointless. REDnand is completely pointless too.

EDIT

I started to read the guide. Yep, it's bullshit. Whoever wrote it should be shot. Bit extreme maybe, drawn and quartered only. If you have haxchi DO NOT use REDnand and DO NOT use MOCHA.

Mocha is for people that don't buy a DS game. REDnad is for developers (mainly) and in other threads on here, has been proven to be pointless (not even the backup is useful because its not a full dump and does not contain ECC data EDIT it is now as EyeKey released a tool to make it useful). So yeah. What bullshit recommendations. You should have used Kafluke's guide on here.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/guide-noob-guide-to-wii-u-hacking.451297/

@icw35 Thank you for the reassurances and for blaming the guide and not me.
I'm super busy with some other stuff for the next week or so, and I want to learn a bit more about the different methods for hacking before trying anything.
I will start by reading this guide.
At any rate, I'm glad to know I'm not completely screwed.

Could you link me some of this "proof" that REDnand is pointless?

@Hardgrapes, you're lucky. You should be back to normal quickly.

@nexusmtz Thanks. If this is "lucky" I'd hate to be unlucky!

As for the posts you quoted:
I don't have a USB device, I just am using an SD card so far. Will that affect anything?
Also, uninstalling CBHC seems fairly clear, but how do I "remove Mocha"?

 

[icw35]

@icw35

Could you link me some of this "proof" that REDnand is pointless?

It's all in this thread. https://gbatemp.net/threads/successfully-dumped-wiiu-emmc-nand-with-hardmod.457165/

BUT (as I edited above) EyeKey has released a tool that can make a rednad dump "useful" in case of brick recovery. So while in itself the backup is "useful", rednand is not. It's prone to corruption (think you have to install games to it AGAIN) and to date there is no proof that it actually helps any (since there has been no update past 5.5.1 so we don't know what will happen). Regardless, you can do everything in sysNAND far easier than in rednand. And of course you can't use vWii in rednand.

 

[nexusmtz]

but how do I "remove Mocha"

After you remove CBHC, you can either just not execute Mocha, or extract your redNAND/otp on your PC, copy the fat32 partition's files to your PC, re-partition/format your SD, and copy the files back.

If you don't have a USB drive, you can't remove it. The point is to not have a USB drive connected when you run a Haxchi/CBHC installer so you're positive that you're dealing with a title on sysnand.

 

[Kafluke]

If you can get to HBL somehow and then uninstall CBHC you should be fine. Try to do that and report back and I'll give you next steps.

You are indeed lucky. If you installed HaxChi at the point that your Wii U says "don't touch me" on the HaxChi icon and you can still somehow get to a wii u menu then you'll be fine. Most people full on brick at that point!

Edit: yeah, that guide needs to die a firey death! We spend a lot of time correcting people who use that guide every day.

 

[Hardgrapes]

I had a couple hours today so I went and uninstalled CBHC. It popped out of the uninstall into the good ol' boot loop at first (and I vomited in my mouth a little), but thankfully manually turning off the console made it boot into the system manual as normal. Phew!

Now my next step would be to just format the SD card I used for RedNand?
What will happen to the DS rom I modded?
I assume I can't ever play it again. Should/Can I uninstall it to be on the safe side?

If I do decide to mod again I will follow the Kafluke guide linked above.

I have also grown resentful of the guide I used for being so reassuring that it was a "safe process" while instructing me to do things that blatantly can and do brick consoles.
I will be sure to preach the gospel of hate against in the place I was linked to it from.

For now, thanks for the help, guys!

 

[icw35]

I had a couple hours today so I went and uninstalled CBHC. It popped out of the uninstall into the good ol' boot loop at first (and I vomited in my mouth a little), but thankfully manually turning off the console made it boot into the system manual as normal. Phew!

Now my next step would be to just format the SD card I used for RedNand?
What will happen to the DS rom I modded?
I assume I can't ever play it again. Should/Can I uninstall it to be on the safe side?

If I do decide to mod again I will follow the Kafluke guide linked above.

I have also grown resentful of the guide I used for being so reassuring that it was a "safe process" while instructing me to do things that blatantly can and do brick consoles.
I will be sure to preach the gospel of hate against in the place I was linked to it from.

For now, thanks for the help, guys!

Lol. That's funny. Glad it worked out for you. And I hope you washed your mouth out afterwards.

Extract the rednand and keep it safe somewhere (hey, maybe you might need it one day??). Also, get the OTP using otp2sd and keep it safe. You should never need these unless you do something REAL stupid. But always good to have just in case. Once you have extracted the rednand you can format the SD card and use it normally for WiiU homebrew apps.

The DS rom you can delete from sys memory and redownload from eshop if you want to play the game or redownload it ready to use again for haxchi if you wish. Nobody has bricked EVER using just haxchi.

 

[Hardgrapes]

Thanks, how do I extract the RedNand? I don't know why I would need these but I can at least keep them around unless I need more HDD space.

As for the DS rom, I recently purchased this Wii U second hand from a friend, and it was on the console from his Nintendo account, so I can't reDL it without buying, at which case I may go for a cheaper rom or just use the browser method each time. (I played Phantom Hourglass way back).

At any rate, I am once bitten twice shy (maybe more like thrice bitten with my track record) regarding modding, and still want to do more research before attempting modding again, just need to secure more time to do said research.

Incidentally, the rom still shows up as Haxchi on the Wii U menu, which is why I wonder if it's safe to delete. I'd certainly rather avoid touching it...

 

[icw35]

Thanks, how do I extract the RedNand? I don't know why I would need these but I can at least keep them around unless I need more HDD space.

As for the DS rom, I recently purchased this Wii U second hand from a friend, and it was on the console from his Nintendo account, so I can't reDL it without buying, at which case I may go for a cheaper rom or just use the browser method each time. (I played Phantom Hourglass way back).

At any rate, I am once bitten twice shy (maybe more like thrice bitten with my track record) regarding modding, and still want to do more research before attempting modding again, just need to secure more time to do said research.

Incidentally, the rom still shows up as Haxchi on the Wii U menu, which is why I wonder if it's safe to delete. I'd certainly rather avoid touching it...

https://github.com/dimok789/sdio_nand_manager/releases

If you are sure you have removed CBHC, then there is no problem removing haxchi. Haxchi doesn't make any permanent changes to your wiiu system. If you had made a backup of the rom beforehand then you could restore. You still have the ticket installed though (until you delete from sys memory), so you could download it and re-up the rom file using FTPeverywhere or WUPclient, but these are more advanced and you don't see too hot on these topics (yet). If you research more about IOSUhax, FTPeverywhere, WUPclient (using python), then you could restore the original game....

Actually, don't remove it. Just re-install haxchi over the existing haxchi and keep haxchi. Haxchi is fine.

 

[nexusmtz]

As for the DS rom, I recently purchased this Wii U second hand from a friend, and it was on the console from his Nintendo account,

As long as the friend left their ID on your console or you didn't create a new NNID, you'd be ok. Instead of using eShop, just get the files from NUS and install that title using WUPInstaller, but delete the title.tik from the game under sd:/install first. If he deleted his ID and you create a new linked one, you'll lose his titles when you go into your eShop.

Do yourself a favor though, and run Tik2SD before you go into your own eShop account so you'll have copies of his tickets in case they get deleted.

Incidentally, the rom still shows up as Haxchi on the Wii U menu, which is why I wonder if it's safe to delete. I'd certainly rather avoid touching it...

Icon and splash info is cached, and removing the cold boot doesn't remove that info (nor does it restore the rom). You can reinstall the title since you've confirmed that you're not cold booting it.

 

[Deleted User]

Lol. That's funny. Glad it worked out for you. And I hope you washed your mouth out afterwards.

Extract the rednand and keep it safe somewhere (hey, maybe you might need it one day??). Also, get the OTP using otp2sd and keep it safe. You should never need these unless you do something REAL stupid. But always good to have just in case. Once you have extracted the rednand you can format the SD card and use it normally for WiiU homebrew apps.

The DS rom you can delete from sys memory and redownload from eshop if you want to play the game or redownload it ready to use again for haxchi if you wish. Nobody has bricked EVER using just haxchi.

redNAND is useless because we have NAND Dumper which can dump SLC, SLCMTTP and MLC+SEEPROM and something else i forgot. [Which can be flashed instantly, unlike redNAND dump]

 

[Hardgrapes]

Thanks again, everyone. I just worked on my situation for a few minutes, thought I would say thanks again, give an update/reply.

https://github.com/dimok789/sdio_nand_manager/releases

If you are sure you have removed CBHC, then there is no problem removing haxchi. Haxchi doesn't make any permanent changes to your wiiu system. If you had made a backup of the rom beforehand then you could restore. You still have the ticket installed though (until you delete from sys memory), so you could download it and re-up the rom file using FTPeverywhere or WUPclient, but these are more advanced and you don't see too hot on these topics (yet). If you research more about IOSUhax, FTPeverywhere, WUPclient (using python), then you could restore the original game....

Actually, don't remove it. Just re-install haxchi over the existing haxchi and keep haxchi. Haxchi is fine.

Thanks for the info, @icw35. I was able to dump the Nand from the SD card using sdio, NAND type SLCCMPT. The resulting image file is only 525 mb or so, was expecting more in the area of 32 GB like what is gone from the SD card. Can I be sure this worked correctly?
Also executed otp2sd and copied the resulting otp.bin from the root of the SD card (1kb) to my computer.

As long as the friend left their ID on your console or you didn't create a new NNID, you'd be ok. Instead of using eShop, just get the files from NUS and install that title using WUPInstaller, but delete the title.tik from the game under sd:/install first. If he deleted his ID and you create a new linked one, you'll lose his titles when you go into your eShop.

Do yourself a favor though, and run Tik2SD before you go into your own eShop account so you'll have copies of his tickets in case they get deleted.

Thanks, @nexusmtz. As the previous owner did not leave his ID, I will now refer to him as such. (If he had, I would continue calling him "friend", haha.), but I haven't linked mine because I suspected doing so might erase the games. I don't own any eshop software for Wii U so I don't know why I would ever link NNID, except to play a game that requires it, like Wii Sports U. I have Dled Tik2SD and will run it during my next session.

Now, I'm still a little confused as to what to do next. Should I format the SD and reroll from the beginning or just reinstall Haxchi on my current setup?
My priorities are
1. not endangering the system's usability again.
2. Not losing the not-tied-to-me software on the system (presumably solved by Tik2SD?)
3. Finishing the mod in as few steps as possible, granted conditions 1 and 2 are satisfied.

As for reading up on stuff, working on finding the time for that! I welcome any kindly offered advice in the meantime!!

 

[nexusmtz]

Now, I'm still a little confused as to what to do next. Should I format the SD and reroll from the beginning or just reinstall Haxchi on my current setup?

Run tik2sd
Copy everything (all the regular files) from your SD to your computer
Clean the SD card of all partitions (diskpart, list disk, select disk x, clean)
Create a FAT32 partition and format it using whatever you used last time
Copy the files back
Follow the Kafluke guide.
If Haxchi doesn't seem to work when you're done, we can help you reload the DS title.

Tik2sd will not keep tickets from being deleted, but you'll have backups. Don't worry about how you use those backups unless you end up needing them.

 

[Bryce304]

Why do guides even bring up CBHC? Way too much risk to new people.

 

[XC-3730C]

I was about to go down the Mocha CFW route myself, until I stumbled upon this post. I currently am using the Loadiine method, and want to have a more up to date mod, so I can play WiiU, Wii, and GameCube on my WiiU - what's the best option? Do I have to have a separate HDD for WiiU games and another for Wii/GC, or can they all be on the same drive? Also, can I still use my Loadiine WiiU games?

 

[Kafluke]

I was about to go down the Mocha CFW route myself, until I stumbled upon this post. I currently am using the Loadiine method, and want to have a more up to date mod, so I can play WiiU, Wii, and GameCube on my WiiU - what's the best option? Do I have to have a separate HDD for WiiU games and another for Wii/GC, or can they all be on the same drive? Also, can I still use my Loadiine WiiU games?

 

[Dust2dust]

I was about to go down the Mocha CFW route myself, until I stumbled upon this post. I currently am using the Loadiine method, and want to have a more up to date mod, so I can play WiiU, Wii, and GameCube on my WiiU - what's the best option? Do I have to have a separate HDD for WiiU games and another for Wii/GC, or can they all be on the same drive? Also, can I still use my Loadiine WiiU games?

Best option is just to install Haxchi, then Brazilian method to install games on hard disk. Follow Kafluke's guide linked above, which is trustworthy. You can keep Loadiine if you want, it's useful for small games and VC, it loads them fast and doesn't make your installed games count go up. You will need two seperate hard disks, if you want to also use Wii/Gamecube games.

 

[Quantumcat]

I know this is an old thread but @Hardgrapes, that's the best noob question thread I ever read. Explained everything you did really thoroughly, no blame or annoying emotionalness, well written (in terms of English), and though long, not at all painful to read (even go so far as to call it entertaining).