Homebrew make a custom Wii U forwarder to launch a homebrew app from wii u menu?

nazoparadox · Jan 28, 2023

Ok I've been spending my entire day trying to figure this out.

first off im not asking how to make a vwii forwader

everywhere i looked just lead to a dead end

trying to figure out how to make a custom Wii U forwarder (with tiramisu installed) to launch a wii u homebrew app from the Wii U menu (in my case each retroarch core (ex. snes9x_libretro) so my menu looks nice (yes i know its dumb))

tried Trudes "How to create a custom Wii U forwarder for ANY vWii Homebrew + gamepad support" but it seems its only for vwii wont work with .rpx

tried hbl2hbc but im already using it for usbloadergx, so installing it again would overwrite my setup.
I looked into "cloning the hbl2hbc" and having the .txt file redirect to wiiu/apps/(app i want to launch)/ .rpx but cant find anything about how to do that or if it would work

tried looking for another possible solution and found mikadubbz post "How to make .rpx homebrew forwarder channels?" and found tehtemp post about using the base of V10lator's Ship of Harkinian forwarder. I went ahead and edit the sd card path from the base but cant find anything else about compiling the base at all, just the same old "use docker to compile" and thats it, no instructions or anything else past that. (also im on windows 8 so i have to use docker toolbox if that makes a difference)

tried nuspacker to see if i could get it to launch a forwarder but another dead end, unable to find anything about using .rpx file with it

I cant find a definitive answer anywhere and i honestly don't know what else to do or what im doing wrong its driving me crazy, any help would be much appreciated

Sypherone · Jan 28, 2023

I searched ones to create a custom Wiiflow forwarder for WiiU menu to launch a specific app in vWii mode. This are some sources for research, but without final solution.

Basicaly you need a modification of hbl2hbc thats launches the channel on vWii site, that finally launches the dol.
Sources for research to create a WiiU to vWii forwarder :

other:

Forwarder converter - Wii to vWii

Launching Wiiflow at boot:
For Coldboot haxchi exist a mod to launch Wiiflow at boot by holding a Button. On Tiramisu/Aroma in the boot menu exist for sure the same possibility.

nazoparadox · Jan 28, 2023

thank you for the reply, unfortunately these are for launching vwii homebrew not for wii u homebrew. I did look into the threads listed to see if i could manage to change the path to boot the rpx but I get a error on mod mii, as for the others use haxchi (which i believe isnt compatible with tiramisu?) or a different setup to boot up the dol. It is possible to create a forwarder for the wii u homebrew app (rpx file) as @MikaDubbz created one for ntrview but seems like hes unable to do it again.

MikaDubbz · Jan 28, 2023

nazoparadox said:
thank you for the reply, unfortunately these are for launching vwii homebrew not for wii u homebrew. I did look into the threads listed to see if i could manage to change the path to boot the rpx but I get a error on mod mii, as for the others use haxchi (which i believe isnt compatible with tiramisu?) or a different setup to boot up the dol. It is possible to create a forwarder for the wii u homebrew app (rpx file) as @MikaDubbz created one for ntrview but seems like hes unable to do it again. View attachment 349786 View attachment 349789 View attachment 349788

Not sure where you heard I can't make such fowarders anymore for any Wii U homebrew, when I certainly can, it's not hard (don't take that the wrong way, I'm not here to make fowarders for others). The method for .elf Wii U homebrew used the Haxchi method (its super easy and don't let its name fool you, you can still use this method in the likes of a Tiramisu environment). And for .rpx homebrew, it's a little trickier (and technically a standalone channel, not a forwarder, but you can use FTP to replace the .rpx homebrew when it does update, without having to rebuild the channel every time), but can be accomplished all the same with Nuspacker. The info to do all of this is readily available on these gbatemp forums, look around and you'll figure it out, I mean that's how I did, years ago at this point.

V10lator · Jan 28, 2023

MikaDubbz said:
you can still use this method in the likes of a Tiramisu environment

We had this talk multiple times already, hadn't we? One more time: You can but you should not as it causes undefined behaviour. So it might work 999 out of 1000 times or, depending on various variables, just 1 out oft 1000 times.

MikaDubbz said:
technically a standalone channel, not a forwarder

Which is where my SOH forwarder comes into play: A real forwarder and no undefined behaviour!

nazoparadox said:
but cant find anything else about compiling the base at all, just the same old "use docker to compile" and thats it,

So when one tells you to use a spoon to eat a soup you still can't eat the soup cause not enough information? GitHub is able to use Docker for you (GitHub actions, so basically there's even a robot spoon feeding you the soup available) or you just do like 5 seconds of googling for things like "how to use Docker".
See, Docker is there to make things easy. Can't really make it more simple than that.

MikaDubbz · Jan 28, 2023

V10lator said:
We had this talk multiple times already, hadn't we? One more time: You can but you should not as it causes undefined behaviour. So it might work 999 out of 1000 times or, depending on various variables, just 1 out oft 1000 times.

You claim that this can cause the Wii U to very rarily crash. Hasn't happened for me once yet, and if it does, oh well, just turn the Wii U off and on again, the convenience is worth a theortetical crash that might occur once every 5 years or whatever. I would not at all qualify this by saying you 'shouldn't do it.' It's not actually dangerous.

V10lator said:
Which is where my SOH forwarder comes into play: A real forwarder and no undefined behaviour!

So NUSPacked channels can cause this theoretical undefined behavior as well? Well I'll have to continue to take your word on that, still haven't experienced it.

godreborn · Jan 28, 2023

indeed. with docker, no need for certain versions of things or dependencies. the repo must contain a docker file though, which I guess this one does. it's very simple to use once installed.

V10lator · Jan 28, 2023

A NUSPacked channel won't have this undefined behaviour but then again it is no forwarder.

Undefined behaviour doesn't mean crash. A crash is just the most obvipus thing that could happen caused by it. Beside that each single crash has the risk to brick your Wii U (this is one of the main reason stock consoles brick!) a crash isn't the only thing which could happen. Now this is purely theoretical but it could corrupt the filesystem I/O stack, for example, which could sloooowly corrupt your NAND beyond repair.
So saying undefined behaviour is not dangerous is wrong. Maybe let's try to make an analogy here: Let's pretend we are in a future where each citisen has its own robot. You get a call from government that something in your robot is causing undefined behaviour and you should bring it to maintainance ASAP. Would you ignore that and continue to use this robot even when it could kill you at any time just because it seems to work normal on first glance?

MikaDubbz · Jan 28, 2023

V10lator said:
A NUSPacked channel won't have this undefined behaviour but then again it is no forwarder.

Yeah, not technically, but it's nearly as quick to swap out an .rpx in my SD card as it is to do so through FTP as a nuspacked channel, so that'll just come down to preference in my opinion.

V10lator said:
Undefined behaviour doesn't mean crash. A crash is just the most obvipus thing that could happen caused by it. Beside that each single crash has the risk to brick your Wii U (this is one of the main reason stock consoles brick!) a crash isn't the only thing which could happen. Now this is purely theoretical but it could corrupt the filesystem I/O stack, for example, which could sloooowly corrupt your NAND beyond repair.

Considering I'm constantly messing with my Mario Kart 8 mod that causes many crashes as I work out bugs, I'm not about to run away scared because the next crash might maybe possibly be the one that destroys my Wii U. No offense but being afraid of such undefined behavior really feels like being afraid of the boogeyman, you say it could destroy my Wii U, well after years of regular use and messing with even NAND files like the wara wara plaza and themes, I'm simply not about to cower in a corner now. I will continue to recommend to OP to try the Haxchi method for .elf forwarders, as I believe you're wrong about such undefined behavior possibly causing a brick. And even if it one day somehow did, we now have a working non-hardmod method to unbrick any kind of Wii U brick anyway, so oh well, UDPIH can ease away any brick worries anyway.

nazoparadox · Jan 28, 2023

MikaDubbz said:
Not sure where you heard I can't make such fowarders anymore for any Wii U homebrew, when I certainly can, it's not hard (don't take that the wrong way, I'm not here to make fowarders for others). The method for .elf Wii U homebrew used the Haxchi method (its super easy and don't let its name fool you, you can still use this method in the likes of a Tiramisu environment). And for .rpx homebrew, it's a little trickier (and technically a standalone channel, not a forwarder, but you can use FTP to replace the .rpx homebrew when it does update, without having to rebuild the channel every time), but can be accomplished all the same with Nuspacker. The info to do all of this is readily available on these gbatemp forums, look around and you'll figure it out, I mean that's how I did, years ago at this point.

it was in the same thread "How to make .rpx homebrew forwarder channels?" where you said "You're asking me way too late, I genuinely don't remember what I did. I can tell you I just followed the directions for NUSPacker and it all worked just fine. Is there a particular .rpx file you're trying to make a channel for? If its something I've already made maybe I could just share the install files if I still have them laying around." so that made me assume that you didnt know the exact details of going about it, since with nuspacker i believe you need a code, content and meta folder to make one but im not sure where the stand alone .rpx comes into play. ill look into the forums again, it gives me hope that it is indeed possible.

Post automatically merged: Jan 28, 2023

V10lator said:
We had this talk multiple times already, hadn't we? One more time: You can but you should not as it causes undefined behaviour. So it might work 999 out of 1000 times or, depending on various variables, just 1 out oft 1000 times.

Which is where my SOH forwarder comes into play: A real forwarder and no undefined behaviour!

So when one tells you to use a spoon to eat a soup you still can't eat the soup cause not enough information? GitHub is able to use Docker for you (GitHub actions, so basically there's even a robot spoon feeding you the soup available) or you just do like 5 seconds of googling for things like "how to use Docker".
See, Docker is there to make things easy. Can't really make it more simple than that.

Im not really familiar with docker so i was under the impression you had to use a specific command line to compile it or do something specific with it to compile the Wii u app, i didnt know github actions could be used for that. :wacko:

MikaDubbz · Jan 28, 2023

nazoparadox said:
it was in the same thread "How to make .rpx homebrew forwarder channels?" where you said "You're asking me way too late, I genuinely don't remember what I did. I can tell you I just followed the directions for NUSPacker and it all worked just fine. Is there a particular .rpx file you're trying to make a channel for? If its something I've already made maybe I could just share the install files if I still have them laying around." so that made me assume that you didnt know the exact details of going about it, since with nuspacker i believe you need a code, content and meta folder to make one but im not sure where the stand alone .rpx comes into play. ill look into the forums again, it gives me hope that it is indeed possible.

Yeah I know that it just takes NUSpacker, it's a trickier process than the Haxchi method for .elf files which I can do in my sleep lol, but all you have to do is read into it a little bit and you'll get it. I don't remember offhand how to do it without re-reading over it, but I know I could easily do it again if I had to as the info is all here on these boards. Thing is, requests from others to make a channel for them is not something I have to do which is why I'm not going out and making more, and I'm not preaching how to do it because plenty of other have explained how to use NUSpacker before me.

V10lator · Jan 29, 2023

MikaDubbz said:
we now have a working non-hardmod method to unbrick any kind of Wii U brick anyway, so oh well, UDPIH can ease away any brick worries anyway.

UDPIH can not fix any kind of brick. I know users who thought the same and learned the truth the hard way.

Basically you're f*cked when IOSU bricks cause when IOSU can't boot it won't even load the USB driver.

Anyway, my point is: Do whatever you want with your own console but don't advise potentialy dangerous things to others. In case you don't believe me about the risks in undefined behaviour ask the CFW devs maybe - or read this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undefined_behavior

This can result in bugs that are exposed when ... different settings, are used.

(that's what I always mean with "what works for you might not work for others")

Undefined behavior can lead to security vulnerabilities in software. For example, buffer overflows and other security vulnerabilities in the major web browsers are due to undefined behavior. The Year 2038 problem is another example

In general, any instance of undefined behavior leaves the abstract execution machine in an unknown state, and causes the behavior of the entire program to be undefined.

Here "the program" would be IOSU, so the heart of the Wii U.

MikaDubbz · Jan 29, 2023

V10lator said:
UDPIH can not fix any kind of brick. I know users who thought the same and learned the truth the hard way.

Basically you're f*cked when IOSU bricks cause when IOSU can't boot it won't even load the USB driver.

Anyway, my point is: Do whatever you want with your own console but don't advise potentialy dangerous things to others. In case you don't believe me about the risks in undefined behaviour ask the CFW devs maybe - or read this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undefined_behavior

(that's what I always mean with "what works for you might not work for others")

Here "the program" would be IOSU, so the heart of the Wii U.

Well you sure know a lot about this hypothetical corruption and brick that not a single person has experienced. I feel like I honestly should be more worried about a cosmic ray affecting my Wii U than what you claim currently puts my Wii U in danger lol.

V10lator · Jan 29, 2023

There are documented cases of IOSU bricks and Gary (author of UDPIH) even made this:

But yea, all you didn't hear about is hyporhetical and you can continue spreading dangerous advises just because...

I'm out of this now. Go keep living in your bubble.

MikaDubbz · Jan 29, 2023

V10lator said:
There are documented cases of IOSU bricks and Gary (author of UDPIH) even made this:
View attachment 350010

But yea, all you didn't hear about is hyporhetical and you can continue spreading dangerous advises just because...

I'm out of this now. Go keep living in your bubble.

Let me put it this way, if this 'undefined behavior' is really as common as 1 out of every 1000 times, then there is no way that I haven't experienced it at least a few times at this point, and spoiler alert, it does jack shit to the Wii U. But hey if you actually have any real examples of actual bricks that result from haxchi made .elf forwarders existing in a Tiramisu environment, then I'll concede that it's dangerous.

Until then, it's all smoke and mirrors and I don't believe there is anything to fear in recommending the haxchi method to make forwarders for .elf homebrew and I will continue to do so. I will however add a caveat any time I do that one user on GBAtemp believes it might maybe be able to lead to a hypothetical brick, though not a single person has experienced this specific brick yet.

nazoparadox · Jan 30, 2023

V10lator said:
We had this talk multiple times already, hadn't we? One more time: You can but you should not as it causes undefined behaviour. So it might work 999 out of 1000 times or, depending on various variables, just 1 out oft 1000 times.

Which is where my SOH forwarder comes into play: A real forwarder and no undefined behaviour!

So when one tells you to use a spoon to eat a soup you still can't eat the soup cause not enough information? GitHub is able to use Docker for you (GitHub actions, so basically there's even a robot spoon feeding you the soup available) or you just do like 5 seconds of googling for things like "how to use Docker".
See, Docker is there to make things easy. Can't really make it more simple than that.

ok i FINALLY figured out how to work github and docker and compiled the fohwf with the edited main.c but now ive ran into a new issue (i can't catch a break :hateit:

) im getting the "Verify WUP files correct & complete. DLC/Eshop require sig patch" error only on the one ive compiled. everything ive installed through WUP Installer GX2 before worked with no issue. i update Tiramisu to see if that would do anything to fix the problem but getting the same error.(also have sig_patch in wiiu\environments\tiramisu\modules\setup so it couldnt be that) perhaps i compiled it incorrectly or missed a step?

V10lator · Jan 30, 2023

nazoparadox said:
perhaps i compiled it incorrectly or missed a step?

You're probably missing the Wii U common key.

In case you're compiling localy create a file called encryptKeyWith (no file extension), open it with a text editor and put the Wii U common key inside.

In case you're compiling with GitHub go to the repositories settings and create a secret named ENC_KEY with the key.

Sadly sharing this key might be illegal in some countries, so I can neither add it to the repository on GitHub nor tell you the key but it's easy to google it.

nazoparadox · Jan 30, 2023

V10lator said:
You're probably missing the Wii U common key.

In case you're compiling localy create a file called encryptKeyWith (no file extension), open it with a text editor and put the Wii U common key inside.

In case you're compiling with GitHub go to the repositories settings and create a secret named ENC_KEY with the key.

Sadly sharing this key might be illegal in some countries, so I can neither add it to the repository on GitHub nor tell you the key but it's easy to google it.

ahhhhh, yep thats my problem! Thank you for the help (im a newbie to this, as you can tell lol) also i found out another way to make a "unofficial forwarder"instead of using nuspacker to compile, i used uwuvci aio DS and replaced the .rpx and made a dummy file in the content folder of the base rom, and then injected a game into normally and it works once installed with wup installer! im sure this isnt the ideal way to go about making a forwarder but i thought i would share.

Deleted member 571007 · Jan 30, 2023

MikaDubbz said:
Let me put it this way, if this 'undefined behavior' is really as common as 1 out of every 1000 times, then there is no way that I haven't experienced it at least a few times at this point, and spoiler alert, it does jack shit to the Wii U. But hey if you actually have any real examples of actual bricks that result from haxchi made .elf forwarders existing in a Tiramisu environment, then I'll concede that it's dangerous.

Until then, it's all smoke and mirrors and I don't believe there is anything to fear in recommending the haxchi method to make forwarders for .elf homebrew and I will continue to do so. I will however add a caveat any time I do that one user on GBAtemp believes it might maybe be able to lead to a hypothetical brick, though not a single person has experienced this specific brick yet.

It's actually wayyyy more common than you would initially think. To put it in perspective, even if nothing happens to you, people often use the HBC / HBL daily, and multiple times a day. Each time it runs its own IOSU exploits, and in addition to that, other applications that a user launches can screw up more in tandem. Put that on top of crashes, heap corruptions, data-stack errors, etc- You basically have a ton of small factors coming together to make what would by itself be a non-issue into something much more concerning.

You say it happens to no one, but I happen to know around 6 people that this happened to, as well as it happening to myself on my old console I used for dev-testing, and lemme tell you- you cannot fix it. It's like being cautious about not installing literally everything in existence to the NAND. Because yes, while the chances of something happening initially are low, it adds up pretty quickly, and in addition to that it can also be completely random; so a mint-condition console could get an IOSU or full-NAND Corruption within the day of modding it.

Just because it never happened to you, doesn't allow you the credibility to immediately dismiss the information, especially since it was being generally provided to ensure at least some sembelence of safety. But as stated earlier in the thread, what you do to your console is your choice.

MikaDubbz · Jan 30, 2023

Korozin said:
You say it happens to no one, but I happen to know around 6 people that this happened to, as well as it happening to myself on my old console I used for dev-testing, and lemme tell you- you cannot fix it. It's like being cautious about not installing literally everything in existence to the NAND. Because yes, while the chances of something happening initially are low, it adds up pretty quickly, and in addition to that it can also be completely random; so a mint-condition console could get an IOSU or full-NAND Corruption within the day of modding it.

Just to clarify, these 6 people you know that it happened to, occurred only because they have .elf homebrew forwarders in a Tiramisu environment? Because if this structure it adds up quickly, by just having and using these forwarder channels in a Tiramisu environment, then it sure as hell should have added up substantially for me considering how many I have and how often I use them, yet nothing has gone remotely wrong with my Wii U nor is anything slowing down or showing any real signs of corruption.

Homebrew make a custom Wii U forwarder to launch a homebrew app from wii u menu?

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