Hacking Modding a Wii in 2017

[xopitaking]

57 has been required for few games, such as Call of duty, just dance, (and I never remember the other ones)
56 is only needed for Spiro (and not for the game, but for the USB Portal accessory detection only, the game works fine without it if you use base57), I don't know any other games requiring IOS56 but I don't play them, I don't know all games.

base58 is special, as it already contains USB2.0 driver from nintendo, it's not using cIOS open source USB driver (which is not that good in fact), and keep using the USB2.0 from nintendo.
having the official USB driver from nintendo, it has more compatibility with hardware, but IOS58's other features are less compatible with games not requiring that IOS.

a lot of games officially require IOS 36 or 38. rarely they require IOS58.
some games officially require IOS57, which probably has some specific feature, and that's why they don't work on other base.


Just install base57 in slot249, and 56 in 250
or
install 56 in 249, 57 in 250, and in the loader tell it to use slot250 to use base57 by default.
only set a game to base56 if it doesn't work with base57


base 58 is probably never really needed. it can be used as rescue, if nothing else works.

Alright, so when you said a "lot of games officially require IOS 36 or 38" . rarely they require IOS58, I have to assume that those games requering IOS 36 or 38 should work fine with IOS 56? Is this correct?

Thanks

 

[Cyan]

that's random info, might not add anything new to that conversation. it could even be confusing because I wrote it as I thought, sorry

from all the life of the console, all games required a different official IOS to work "from the disc channel".
For example, Zelda twilight princess required IOS9 (yeah, there are still few games using slot 9)

most games requiring an old IOS are working fine with a newer IOS.
instead of updating the IOS, nintendo chose to release the new version in a new slot, and keep the old slot "as is" (old) to prevent any compatibility issue they would have create, any bug old games could encounter using an updated IOS and nintendo would have had issue fixing them "quickly" (they are slow to release updates, see WiiU, it required 1.5 year to get a browser fix haha)

So, even if nintendo feared newer IOS could be incompatible with old games, most of them are working fine with newer IOS.
cIOS started with mandatory IOS36, then 37, then 38, then waninkoko allowed users to choose the base from existing IOS slots.
when IOS36 was forced, games requiring IOS9 worked fine, and they still work fine with base56 and 57.

but it's not always the case, as IOS58 even if newer than IOS38, is not compatible with all games requiring IOS 38.
IOS59 is only for one game (Dragon Quest IX)

so like you assumed "those games requiring IOS 36 or 38 should work fine with IOS 56" but not necessarily.
IOS56 had the same game compatibility than IOS57, but IOS56 has been chosen to be the default (in slot249) because of the slight USB speed access over IOS57. at that time, all games had the same compatibility and none required IOS57.
now that IOS57 is required by few games, it's best to choose compatibility over (unnoticeable) speed difference.

 

[xopitaking]

that's random info, might not add anything new to that conversation. it could even be confusing because I wrote it as I thought, sorry

from all the life of the console, all games required a different official IOS to work "from the disc channel".
For example, Zelda twilight princess required IOS9 (yeah, there are still few games using slot 9)

most games requiring an old IOS are working fine with a newer IOS.
instead of updating the IOS, nintendo chose to release the new version in a new slot, and keep the old slot "as is" (old) to prevent any compatibility issue they would have create, any bug old games could encounter using an updated IOS and nintendo would have had issue fixing them "quickly" (they are slow to release updates, see WiiU, it required 1.5 year to get a browser fix haha)

So, even if nintendo feared newer IOS could be incompatible with old games, most of them are working fine with newer IOS.
cIOS started with mandatory IOS36, then 37, then 38, then waninkoko allowed users to choose the base from existing IOS slots.
when IOS36 was forced, games requiring IOS9 worked fine, and they still work fine with base56 and 57.

but it's not always the case, as IOS58 even if newer than IOS38, is not compatible with all games requiring IOS 38.
IOS59 is only for one game (Dragon Quest IX)

so like you assumed "those games requiring IOS 36 or 38 should work fine with IOS 56" but not necessarily.
IOS56 had the same game compatibility than IOS57, but IOS56 has been chosen to be the default (in slot249) because of the slight USB speed access over IOS57. at that time, all games had the same compatibility and none required IOS57.
now that IOS57 is required by few games, it's best to choose compatibility over (unnoticeable) speed difference.

Thank you very much for clearing all the doubts about CIOs.....

I got another question: I have no problem on loading about 98% of all my games on Wii....the only ones conflicting are some games modded (aka Mario Mart Wii Mods), What could be the reason for that? Modders use differents IOS? o they modiffy some of them?

Thanks

 

[Cyan]

I don't know why.
maybe they changed too much and it works only on emulators?

did you try another loader? or another IOS base? or check the patch is correctly done (any checksum after applying the patch?)

 

[xopitaking]

I don't know why.
maybe they changed too much and it works only on emulators?

did you try another loader? or another IOS base? or check the patch is correctly done (any checksum after applying the patch?)

Did all that........with no results...

A specific question......for example, if the modder say it worked on his loader CFG using IOS 246 base 56 d2xV8 final, but I have the same configuration but in another slot IOS 245 base 56 d2xV8final, does the slot matter? Does I necesary have the base 56 d2xV8 final in that specific slot (246) in order to get the modded game working?

 

[Cyan]

the slot number is irrelevent (it's just a folder named 246).
what's important is what's inside : base 56 d2xV8 final

you can install that base 56 d2xV8 final in any slot you want, it will always have the same compatibility.... (well, almost. Please, don't install below 230 or USBLoaderGX will tread it as Hermes IOS type and will load different functions)
by convention, Hermes IOS were installed in the 220 range, and Waninkoko in the 240 range. (d2x is a modded version, continuation of Waninkoko cIOS rev21, that's why d2x is version is 21008 = rev21 mod d2x v8 )

 

[xopitaking]

the slot number is irrelevent (it's just a folder named 246).
what's important is what's inside : base 56 d2xV8 final

you can install that base 56 d2xV8 final in any slot you want, it will always have the same compatibility.... (well, almost. Please, don't install below 230 or USBLoaderGX will tread it as Hermes IOS type and will load different functions)
by convention, Hermes IOS were installed in the 220 range, and Waninkoko in the 240 range. (d2x is a modded version, continuation of Waninkoko cIOS rev21, that's why d2x is version is 21008 = rev21 mod d2x v8 )

But in the case of the loaders (CFG, USBLOADER, WIIFLOW), they will always look for the slot 249 ? So, my question is, the wii game by itself will look at a specific slot determined by the loader, and the loader uses another slot (249) for loading itself? Am I right?

Thank you master Cyan, always having the an answer to our noob questions!!!

 

[Cyan]

you choose which slot you want to use.

all homebrew (and anything running on Wii) is using a slot which contains a system file (you can consider it as a Driver) to access hardward devices such as wiimote, hdd, NAND, etc.
by default, loaders are using slot249, but you can set any other slot such as IOS58 (it has USB 2.0 driver from nintendo, and better HDD compatibility) or any other cIOS.

when playing a game, you need a cIOS because it require the "disc to USB" redirection patch added to official (base) IOS.
IOS56 (as base) as the disc access patched to read from USB instead, and installed to another slot, it's what a custom IOS is. (actually, the real word is patched IOS, not custom)


both loader and games can use the same slot to get its hardware functionality and access, or different slots. it's up to you to select the slots you want.

in USBLoaderGX there are actually 3 IOS you can use :

Boot's IOS : set in the meta.xml, it's the IOS used to init the SD card and HDD at launch and access the config file.
Loader's IOS : set in the loader's setting. it's the IOS used while inside the loader. it's used to access NAND and speak with the hardware (wiimote, hdd, etc.). if you set this, it also automatically change the one inside the meta.xml "for consistency and noob access to meta file".
Game's IOS : set in the loader's setting and individual game settings. it's the slot used by the game. it is also responsible for the HDD compatibility (obviously) as it contains the USB driver and disc redirection to USB, it also contains all the game's needed function. that's why some games work only on specific base. IOS56 is missing a function that call of duty needs. IOS59 has function for HDD encryption, etc.

 

[xopitaking]

you choose which slot you want to use.

all homebrew (and anything running on Wii) is using a slot which contains a system file (you can consider it as a Driver) to access hardward devices such as wiimote, hdd, NAND, etc.
by default, loaders are using slot249, but you can set any other slot such as IOS58 (it has USB 2.0 driver from nintendo, and better HDD compatibility) or any other cIOS.

when playing a game, you need a cIOS because it require the "disc to USB" redirection patch added to official (base) IOS.
IOS56 (as base) as the disc access patched to read from USB instead, and installed to another slot, it's what a custom IOS is. (actually, the real word is patched IOS, not custom)


both loader and games can use the same slot to get its hardware functionality and access, or different slots. it's up to you to select the slots you want.

in USBLoaderGX there are actually 3 IOS you can use :

Boot's IOS : set in the meta.xml, it's the IOS used to init the SD card and HDD at launch and access the config file.
Loader's IOS : set in the loader's setting. it's the IOS used while inside the loader. it's used to access NAND and speak with the hardware (wiimote, hdd, etc.). if you set this, it also automatically change the one inside the meta.xml "for consistency and noob access to meta file".
Game's IOS : set in the loader's setting and individual game settings. it's the slot used by the game. it is also responsible for the HDD compatibility (obviously) as it contains the USB driver and disc redirection to USB, it also contains all the game's needed function. that's why some games work only on specific base. IOS56 is missing a function that call of duty needs. IOS59 has function for HDD encryption, etc.

Thank you master Cyan, always having the an answer to our noob questions!!! I will try on CFG config loader to use 249 slot with base 56 and configure to play games on slot 250 with base 57. But in the CFG config loader config , if I set slot in automatic, how could I know which slot the loader will choose?

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

As maybe an answer for 4.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/retroarch-on-wii-most-mame-roms-arent-working.418618/

He answers Final Burn and some other questions too.

 

[Cyan]

There's no real interest to use 2 different cIOS in loader and games.
you will have the same hardware compatibility in the loader and game, you will only lost time when launching a game because it will require a IOS reload. (3-5 second wait time for nothing)
you should set the same IOS than the game's IOS. that way you get the "IOS you will use for your game" already loaded from the start, at loader's launch. it will boot the game faster as you don't need to reload IOS at game launch.

The interest to have a different IOS in loader and game is only the fact you can use IOS58 for homebrew.
IOS58 has its own and official (from nintendo) USB Driver. It has more compatibility, it has better compatibility for the "drive initialization".
a lot of users have issues initializing their HDD when using cIOS as "boot IOS".

using IOS58 as bootIOS (and/or inside the loader) has few purpose :
- better HDD init
- Multi USB Port initialized at the same time (no need of r53 or hermes IOS to access USB Port1-3)


@ Psionic :
thanks for your help here, I never used retroarch or modded game, having other users helping is refreshing

 

[xopitaking]

As maybe an answer for 4.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/retroarch-on-wii-most-mame-roms-arent-working.418618/

He answers Final Burn and some other questions too.

Thank you too Psionic, but I never used Retroarch neither, but thank you for your contribution.

And Cyan, thank you, I have no more doubt right now (for today )

 

[portugeek]

IOS 60 and 80 are System Menu IOSes. You could use those as a cIOS base.

Interesting. Do you know of any positives/negatives of using these System Menu IOS's as a base? I ask because ModMii actually has cIOS downloads, of "d2x v8 Final", available using these two particular bases.

 

[bbking67]

I would recommend Modmii and and definitely a FAT32-formatted hard disk (with FAT32 you can install both GC and Wii games). You don't need a huge hard disk to store a lot of games... 500GB USB 2.0 drive is massive for this purpose. You may want to use USB Loader GX, though I still use a modified version of CFG loader on one of my Wiis. You'll want to install and configure Nintendon't for use with Gamecube games... this is an amazing piece of work and makes life easy (you can use Gamecube games with various controllers, etc.). Sometimes you need a small SD card for the early part of the process, but when you are done you can use a 32GB (or maybe bigger I'm not sure) SDHC card.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

There's no real interest to use 2 different cIOS in loader and games.
you will have the same hardware compatibility in the loader and game, you will only lost time when launching a game because it will require a IOS reload. (3-5 second wait time for nothing)
you should set the same IOS than the game's IOS. that way you get the "IOS you will use for your game" already loaded from the start, at loader's launch. it will boot the game faster as you don't need to reload IOS at game launch.

The interest to have a different IOS in loader and game is only the fact you can use IOS58 for homebrew.
IOS58 has its own and official (from nintendo) USB Driver. It has more compatibility, it has better compatibility for the "drive initialization".
a lot of users have issues initializing their HDD when using cIOS as "boot IOS".

using IOS58 as bootIOS (and/or inside the loader) has few purpose :
- better HDD init
- Multi USB Port initialized at the same time (no need of r53 or hermes IOS to access USB Port1-3)


@ Psionic :
thanks for your help here, I never used retroarch or modded game, having other users helping is refreshing

I would love to help more but sadly my knowledge of this stuff is slight at best lol

 

[Sumea]

57 has been required for few games, such as Call of duty, just dance, (and I never remember the other ones)
56 is only needed for Spiro (and not for the game, but for the USB Portal accessory detection only, the game works fine without it if you use base57), I don't know any other games requiring IOS56 but I don't play them, I don't know all games.

base58 is special, as it already contains USB2.0 driver from nintendo, it's not using cIOS open source USB driver (which is not that good in fact), and keep using the USB2.0 from nintendo.
having the official USB driver from nintendo, it has more compatibility with hardware, but IOS58's other features are less compatible with games not requiring that IOS.

a lot of games officially require IOS 36 or 38. rarely they require IOS58.
some games officially require IOS57, which probably has some specific feature, and that's why they don't work on other base.


Just install base57 in slot249, and 56 in 250
or
install 56 in 249, 57 in 250, and in the loader tell it to use slot250 to use base57 by default.
only set a game to base56 if it doesn't work with base57


base 58 is probably never really needed. it can be used as rescue, if nothing else works.

This rises one question from me. I got a Wii in 2011 and went through a rather easy guide to mod it up, and possibly even some legacy stuff that I did not need to install but did anyway.

One thing after learning how CIOS is needed for USB loading and so on, what they are, what the BIOS chip of Wii is like, etc. - and seeing how things like USBloader CFG work, there is a slight confusion; How do (USB/SD) Game Loaders know what slot the CIOS they want is in? I think I used to have a problem with no CIOS installed and the loader told me it was searching for what it needed specifically in slot 249. So in my understanding: We use slots everyone else tells us to use because loaders and other homebrew that needs special IOS search for the special one from a specific slot. But that seems like it could be wrong, and instead they can search for CIOS by other descriptor?

Also thank you for replying this thread and making it alive. I searched it up yesterday because I had been given one wii to mod and obtained another untouched Wii console and wanted to use as least time as possible, and that is indeed the case, "Letterbomb -> Homebrew Channel -> 2 CIOS (I installed 2 as precaution)" - is MUCH faster than a load of things I did to my first wii in 2011

 

[Cyan]

this is different for each homebrew.

To function and communicate with hardware, a program (any, being official game or homebrew) needs to use the IOS's commands as intermediate layer (it's like the driver. The IOS is the one communicating with the hardware while the software only get information from the IOS).
Nintendo decided to install new revision of this driver as a new file in a different folder, and keep old revisions unupdated to prevent conflict or problem with old games (an example: if a game is designed to invoc a command with 2 arguments, and the new IOS has been updated to accept 3 arguments, it could create problem if you don't provide the 3rd one).
so, games have "requested IOS" information which is used by the console to reload to that IOS before launching a game from the system menu.


All program have access to a command to check which IOS folder/slot is currently in use, and if it's not the expected one there's another command to reload a different specific IOS.

Each different IOS are stored in folders with a number (which we call slot, but they are just plain folders with a hexadecimal number as folder's name).
So, like I said above, this is different for each homebrew :

USBLoaderGX is loading, by default, IOS slot 249 and expect the user to have installed a IOS there.
it doesn't check what is really installed there (it could be anything : d2x, hermes, nintendo's stub, nintendo's IOS36, etc.).
The only check done by USBLoaderGX is if there's something in that folder/slot. It expect the user to have done its job properly and softmod his console with a cIOS installed in slot249.

USBLoaderGX has a user option to use any other slot > 200 if needed.
the user setting is how the loader knows which IOS slot it should use. it's user's driven.
You can install different (c)IOS in different slot, and just tell the loader which one you want to use while inside the loader (to communicate with the hardware, SD, usb, internal memory, etc.) or for a specific game (to communicate with USB and WBFS).


Wiiflow works a little differently :
it's scanning few slots, and memorize which slot contains something and what's installed there.
based on this "database" of the slot, it automatically determines which slot to use based on the game's official requested IOS.
if the game requests IOS38, it will check if there's a cIOS based on IOS38 and reload to that slot before launching that game.
if the game requests IOS57, it will use cIOS based on IOS57, etc.
The problem i that it only checks the base, not the version. if you launch a game requesting IOS57 and have d2x v4 base57 and d2x v8 base56, it will not use v8 because it's newer but v4 because it has the correct base. so this system is good only if the user has a complete set of different base from the same cIOS version and keep his softmod updated. again, it expect the users to have modded his console correctly.


Now, you could wonder why "249".
When Waninkoko released his first modded version of a IOS, he had to pick a slot where to install it.
he decided based on its location : nintendo used to release new version of the IOS, and install them in new slot by incremental order (slot9, slot30, slot36, slot38, etc.)
to prevent any conflict with the official nintendo's slots, he picked 249 AND made a copy to 250, (both slot were always identical, as backup if 249 was bad, or deleted), and released the very first USB Loader by loading his modded IOS located in slot249.
that slot number has, since then, been the reference and common practice for all USB Loaders.

Of course, with time, new cIOS were released by other developers : Hermes release her own, and decided to install them to slot 222-223-224 to not conflict with Waninkoko's slot.
Another choice has been made to install a patched version of IOS36 into slot 236 (easy to remember -> modded 36 + installed above 200 where we used to put modded IOS)
There were also slot 202, used for DVD video playback, which became useless when AHB access has been released and IOS58 could do the same directly from HBC.

 

[Budsixz]

this is different for each homebrew.

To function and communicate with hardware, a program (any, being official game or homebrew) needs to use the IOS's commands as intermediate layer (it's like the driver. The IOS is the one communicating with the hardware while the software only get information from the IOS).
Nintendo decided to install new revision of this driver as a new file in a different folder, and keep old revisions unupdated to prevent conflict or problem with old games (an example: if a game is designed to invoc a command with 2 arguments, and the new IOS has been updated to accept 3 arguments, it could create problem if you don't provide the 3rd one).
so, games have "requested IOS" information which is used by the console to reload to that IOS before launching a game from the system menu.


All program have access to a command to check which IOS folder/slot is currently in use, and if it's not the expected one there's another command to reload a different specific IOS.

Each different IOS are stored in folders with a number (which we call slot, but they are just plain folders with a hexadecimal number as folder's name).
So, like I said above, this is different for each homebrew :

USBLoaderGX is loading, by default, IOS slot 249 and expect the user to have installed a IOS there.
it doesn't check what is really installed there (it could be anything : d2x, hermes, nintendo's stub, nintendo's IOS36, etc.).
The only check done by USBLoaderGX is if there's something in that folder/slot. It expect the user to have done its job properly and softmod his console with a cIOS installed in slot249.

USBLoaderGX has a user option to use any other slot > 200 if needed.
the user setting is how the loader knows which IOS slot it should use. it's user's driven.
You can install different (c)IOS in different slot, and just tell the loader which one you want to use while inside the loader (to communicate with the hardware, SD, usb, internal memory, etc.) or for a specific game (to communicate with USB and WBFS).


Wiiflow works a little differently :
it's scanning few slots, and memorize which slot contains something and what's installed there.
based on this "database" of the slot, it automatically determines which slot to use based on the game's official requested IOS.
if the game requests IOS38, it will check if there's a cIOS based on IOS38 and reload to that slot before launching that game.
if the game requests IOS57, it will use cIOS based on IOS57, etc.
The problem i that it only checks the base, not the version. if you launch a game requesting IOS57 and have d2x v4 base57 and d2x v8 base56, it will not use v8 because it's newer but v4 because it has the correct base. so this system is good only if the user has a complete set of different base from the same cIOS version and keep his softmod updated. again, it expect the users to have modded his console correctly.


Now, you could wonder why "249".
When Waninkoko released his first modded version of a IOS, he had to pick a slot where to install it.
he decided based on its location : nintendo used to release new version of the IOS, and install them in new slot by incremental order (slot9, slot30, slot36, slot38, etc.)
to prevent any conflict with the official nintendo's slots, he picked 249 AND made a copy to 250, (both slot were always identical, as backup if 249 was bad, or deleted), and released the very first USB Loader by loading his modded IOS located in slot249.
that slot number has, since then, been the reference and common practice for all USB Loaders.

Of course, with time, new cIOS were released by other developers : Hermes release her own, and decided to install them to slot 222-223-224 to not conflict with Waninkoko's slot.
Another choice has been made to install a patched version of IOS36 into slot 236 (easy to remember -> modded 36 + installed above 200 where we used to put modded IOS)
There were also slot 202, used for DVD video playback, which became useless when AHB access has been released and IOS58 could do the same directly from HBC.

Hi sir I just have a few questions of my own regarding ios
I want to install nintendont for playing gc games but the installer says I need ios 58
In the homebrew channel on the top right it says ios 61 so shouldn't the installer work?
What do i need to do to get it working?

 

[Cyan]

if you are on 4.3, you already have IOS58.
if you are not on 4.3, use modmii to update your Wii.

if you are on 4.3, but your homebrew channel still says IOS61, you only need to reinstall HBC.
get the hackmii installer homebrew, put the boot.elf in /apps/hackmii/ instead of SD card's root.
launch it from HBC, and select install HBC (maybe you need to uninstall first and reinstall right away, from the same menu. don't exit the installer if you uninstalled HBC)

 

[Budsixz]

if you are on 4.3, you already have IOS58.
if you are not on 4.3, use modmii to update your Wii.

if you are on 4.3, but your homebrew channel still says IOS61, you only need to reinstall HBC.
get the hackmii installer homebrew, put the boot.elf in /apps/hackmii/ instead of SD card's root.
launch it from HBC, and select install HBC (maybe you need to uninstall first and reinstall right away, from the same menu. don't exit the installer if you uninstalled HBC)

Sorry for the vague information. I bought this wii 2nd hand. It already homebrew channel when I got it.
It says its 4.3u.
For now it has something called neogamma that I use to play backups via a pendrive formatted in wbfs format.
It says on the hbc that it's 1.1.0 followed by ios61 v21.29
Also has something called loadmii but I don't know what it's for so I left it alone for now. Its v0. 3 if you want to know.
So do I have to go through the process of installing homebrew again ?