Hacking Hardware Homebrew AX88772B/C/D USB Ethernet Patcher for vWii

doworian · Mar 10, 2026

If you bought an ethernet adapter for your Wii and it doesn't work, this is probably why:

The Wii and Wii U only supports the original AX88772 chip, and most ASIX adapters sold today use newer versions (AX88772B, 772C, or 772D) that aren't supported.

This app fixes that by patching the system modules on your vWii so they work with the newer chips.

Download: https://github.com/doworian/vWii-Ethernet-Patcher/releases

Before you start:
- You need to have HBC and Priiloader installed on vWii.
- Have an SD card ready.
- back up your NAND if you haven't already!

How to use:
1. Extract the zip to your SD card so you have sd:/apps/vwii_ethernet_patcher/boot.dol & 'meta.xml'
2. Open HBC and launch the patcher
3. Plug in your ethernet adapter, wait for the app to detect it
4. Press [+] to dump your stock IOS to the SD card (do this first!)
5. Press [A] to patch (this only works once a supported adapter is plugged in!)
6. Press [HOME] when you're done!

What adapters does this work with?
- AX88772B - confirmed working
- AX88772C - untested
- AX88772D - untested, would need to work with someone to really get this tested (or someone can toss me this version of the adapter, kek)

Register analysis from https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/drivers/net/usb and the work of @SDIO https://github.com/StroopwafelCFW/wafel_ax88772b - thanks a ton!

doworian · Mar 10, 2026

● v1.0.0

Patches all 20 vWii IOS titles that use ethernet so AX88772B/C/D USB ethernet adapters actually work!

Features:
- Dumps stock IOS to SD before patching
- Auto-detects your adapter and applies the right patches
- Network test to verify the connection after patching

Supported adapters:
- AX88772B [working]
- AX88772C [untested]
- AX88772D [untested]

sweetmoon · Mar 11, 2026

So grateful for your kindness and all the help you provide. Legend!

Powerful · Mar 12, 2026

I ran the patcher, I have an Ethernet adapter that’s always worked. I already installed the version for Wii U and my internet was fine so figured I’d see if this patched and worked. For the vWii I have no internet now. Shows it runs and applied the patches but no internet. If possible add an option to remove the patches in an update. As far as I am aware wouldn’t this patch just allow for more compatibility?

SDIO · Mar 12, 2026

No, these patches just replace some values the old one needed to the ones the new one needs.
You would need to reinstall the vIOS you modified. You could use the decaffeinator for that

doworian · Mar 12, 2026

Powerful said:
I ran the patcher, I have an Ethernet adapter that’s always worked. I already installed the version for Wii U and my internet was fine so figured I’d see if this patched and worked. For the vWii I have no internet now. Shows it runs and applied the patches but no internet. If possible add an option to remove the patches in an update. As far as I am aware wouldn’t this patch just allow for more compatibility?

This patch OVERWRITES the existing AX88772 instructions to be compatible with the B/C variant of the AX88772. This is not for multi-adapter compatibility.

Use vWii Decaffeinator to uninstall the patched IOS's, and then do a system update to get the stock IOS's back.

Powerful · Mar 14, 2026

I have found that I have an extra AX88772D Ethernet port, will this work on my Wii U, or is it just b/c?

doworian · Mar 14, 2026

Powerful said:
I have found that I have an extra AX88772D Ethernet port, will this work on my Wii U, or is it just b/c?

The patcher only works for the B/C version currently. I wouldn't mind looking into the D variant, but I don't have my own adapter to test myself.

SDIO · Mar 14, 2026

If I remember correctly the AX88772D and E is in reality based on the ax88179 and vastly different from the 88772. I bought one of them and gave it a shot at copying the init sequence from the linux driver. But it didn't work (not even LED lighting up) and then I got distracted by something else. This is the non working state I left it in: https://github.com/StroopwafelCFW/wafel_ax88772b/tree/ax88179

doworian · Mar 14, 2026

SDIO said:
If I remember correctly the AX88772D and E is in reality based on the ax88179 and vastly different from the 88772. I bought one of them and gave it a shot at copying the init sequence from the linux driver. But it didn't work (not even LED lighting up) and then I got distracted by something else. This is the non working state I left it in: https://github.com/StroopwafelCFW/wafel_ax88772b/tree/ax88179

I'll look into both today! I'm always down for a challenge

The worst scenario I can see right now is the USB not reacting as USB 2.0 when plugging it in.

Powerful · Mar 15, 2026

Thank you both for looking into this. As of now I am just going to swap my original to the c variant and if you get it working I’ll gladly use the new one I have.

doworian · Mar 15, 2026

Powerful said:
Thank you both for looking into this. As of now I am just going to swap my original to the c variant and if you get it working I’ll gladly use the new one I have.

I just need to document more of IOS to understand what I'm doing really... especially since this time around I'm going to try to do compatibility rather than a standalone replacement.

NestorM · Mar 19, 2026

Does this patcher mean we can play wiimmfi on Wii u with ethernet connexion ?

GABO1423 · Mar 19, 2026

You already could with a compatible adapter. This patcher just opens up your options for getting adapters that can now be compatible but weren't before.

NestorM · Mar 19, 2026

GABO1423 said:
You already could with a compatible adapter. This patcher just opens up your options for getting adapters that can now be compatible but weren't before.

I've tried many ethernet adapter but ethernet never works with wiimmfi, only wifi connexion. Do you know which adapter allow to play with ethernet ?

Powerful · Mar 25, 2026

Okay so I’ve gotten an adapter that is certified to work, but the home brew browser seems to download very slowly now? Any reason?

ML04 · Mar 30, 2026

I've ran the patcher and homebrew menu (in all its upside down glory) shows that I'm connected, but the apps I've tested it in can't seem to initialize the network. Odd. (And just to be clear, I have a AX88772C adapter, and it works in Wii U mode, so I doubt its just an incompatible hardware revision issue.)

doworian · Apr 1, 2026

ML04 said:
I've ran the patcher and homebrew menu (in all its upside down glory) shows that I'm connected, but the apps I've tested it in can't seem to initialize the network. Odd. (And just to be clear, I have a AX88772C adapter, and it works in Wii U mode, so I doubt its just an incompatible hardware revision issue.)

To be clear you CAN do the internet connection on the vWii after using the patcher, but it doesn't work in some apps/games?

If so I believe I already know the reason for this - I didn't patch every IOS's content to make it work throughout every game/app, just IOS 36 and 80 (so Mario Kart Wii/any app that uses IOS 36, and then IOS 80 is just for the system menu).

I can definitely take some time to add compatibility for EVERY IOS, but I'm currently trying to do a full overhaul which adds compatibility to the patcher rather than just overwriting things with a one-time patch.

Post automatically merged: Apr 1, 2026

Powerful said:
Okay so I’ve gotten an adapter that is certified to work, but the home brew browser seems to download very slowly now? Any reason?

Not sure? Nothing I'm doing in the patcher will make connections slower. The vWii only supports downloading up to 200kb/s or something like that natively. I forget exactly how much it is, but it's very slow to begin with.

SDIO · Apr 1, 2026

Slow performance can happen when you have the A chip and write the values for the B or C one to it.
My plugin checks the chip ID instead of the PID to determine what to write to the registers

Post automatically merged: Apr 1, 2026

On the old revision the field has this meaning

MFB [1:0]: Maximum Frame Burst transfer on USB bus.
00: 2048 Bytes
01: 4096 Bytes
10: 8192 Bytes
11: 16384 Bytes (default).

On the new one it configures the header format. For the new one we need to write 00 there. On the old one that sets the MFB to the minimum to 2k instead of the default 16k (which the stock driver configures). That impacts performance massively

Marcos328 · Apr 14, 2026

Are there any plans for the original Wii version as well?

Hacking Hardware Homebrew AX88772B/C/D USB Ethernet Patcher for vWii

Member

Member

New Member

GOD

Well-Known Member

Member

GOD

Member

Well-Known Member

Member

GOD

Member

Well-Known Member

Half the man he used to be.

Well-Known Member

GOD

New Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Similar threads

Popular threads in this forum