Tutorial Auto-boot in dark mode with Haxchi shortcuts !!! <3

[OneMarvelousNugget]

BEFORE START PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PLUGIN CAUSES SOME GAMES OR HOMEBREW APPS TO BE (a bit) BUGGY and that I really don't know how to apply it with CBHC and don't have time to edit everything (there's a lot of useless talking).

This is a tutorial to apply the Dark Mode revived plugin automatically at Haxchi (OR CBHC = ColdBoot HaxChi) startup, assuming you have Haxchi or CBHC installed.
Please note that I won't help you install Haxchi or CBHC on a clean Wii U, I think there is way too much tutorials about this online, and I won't do better. Just remember that CBHC is far more dangerous than normal Haxchi, but it's a little more convenient because you don't have to run Haxchi every time you launch your Wii U menu.
However, because this is my first tuto I'll teach you how to make Haxchi almost as convenient as the ColdBoot option : just enable Quick Start option in your Wii U settings and you can boot into Haxchi as your system boots by selecting the DS game you installed Haxchi onto.
With the black theme, you can also know if you're in your custom firmware by looking at the color of the menu background ; if it's white, you have to boot Haxchi again (in case the plugin works for you !!).

Installing the plugin loader
Because the black theme is a plugin, you need to launch it.
Slow old version (require some button inputs) :
To acquire this loader, just grab it on the App Store! If you're on your computer, you can download it and extract the .zip file you got right on your SD card root via an SD card adapter (remember to turn off your Wii U before removing its SD card, and a yellow light means it's still on !) or using FTPiiU and some ftp client like FileZilla (so you don't have to turn off your console). If you have the App Store homebrew app, use it to install the loader.
New auto-boot loader :
Download the slow version but replace the .elf file (look for it in the 'wii u/apps...' folder) with this new one (get the latest version in the post), but keep its old name ("wiiupluginloader.elf") just for compatibility with the next instructions. It's a new loader designed to load every plugin you have unless you give it a config file, read the post for details.

Downloading your plugin
You have the loader, now grab the plugin.
The plugin is also in the App Store, download it right here or use your homebrew app. (see above)
You can then test your setup by turning on your Wii U with its SD card and launching your Homebrew Launcher under custom firmware (ether let CBHC boot itself or launch Haxchi). Now launch the loader and then tick your Black Mode plugin and then hit +. If everything is working, you should have your menu rebooting into Black Mode ! Incredible !
If anything goes wrong, it's over. Ask for help, the next steps are useless.

Fun part : updating Haxchi
We will now use one wonderful Haxchi feature : shortcuts.
Get the last update online, via the App Store or somewhere else and extract, but be sure to have both the installer ([root of the sd card]/wiiu/apps/haxchi) and its ressources folder ([root]/haxchi) because you will modify its settings before reinstalling it, updating in other words.
To modify it, open your [root]/haxchi/config.txt and you'll see shortcuts : letters (buttons) or anagrams like default are assigned to .elf files (these are homebrew apps) or other anagrams like sysmenu (the system menu but in a custom firmware). That means you can launch these shortcuts by pressing these buttons while Haxchi loads. Very usefull ! So how do you auto-boot your plugin launcher ?
Just set it as default by editing the 'default=blabla' line or adding another one that says 'default=wiiu/apps/wiiupluginloader/wiiupluginloader.elf' ; alternatively, you can assign it to a button like B for Black, replace 'default=' by 'b='. You can find a list of usable shortcuts online. You can also do this with other homebrew apps or shortcuts (like vwii menu) by adding lines. Once you're done, save your config.txt to update changes and you're ready to update Haxchi / CBHC.
On your Wii U just run your Haxchi installer via a forwarder or your Homebrew Launcher and overwrite it no problem.
Your settings are applied.

With your new Haxchi / CBHC custom firmware loader, you're good to go ! <3
I hope this tuto wasn't too useless, time to sleep now.
Just please ask for help if you need some.

 

[Darkshadow1997]

I do have a few questions:
1) Why does CBHC needs to be uninstalled?
2) If I do uninstall CBHC then do I need to reinstall the DS Game?
3) If everything works well then I no longer need to reapply the dark theme right?

 

[OneMarvelousNugget]

I do have a few questions:
1) Why does CBHC needs to be uninstalled?
2) If I do uninstall CBHC then do I need to reinstall the DS Game?
3) If everything works well then I no longer need to reapply the dark theme right?

1) Sorry, I don't really know CBHC so I just followed this 4yo guide, but I just found this one that says you don't need to uninstall, you can just reinstall Haxchi over it without any problem.
I will update my tutorial in 15 minutes, sorry for the confusion.

useless 2) uninstalling CBHC just gives you back your normal Haxchi (as I understand it), it's just an extra layer.

3) this plugin patches the RAM and its changes are not hard patched, that means you need to launch it every time you turn on the Wii U part of your console (by turning the console on or launching it on vwii mode), just like Haxchi ; however, CBHC launches itself so you can launch both your plugin and the custom firmware together with my guide.

 

[godreborn]

no need to uninstall cbhc. I have mine working without that. I just replaced the homebrew launcher, since I rarely use it. I backed up the homebrew launcher by renaming the folder with a (bk) at the end. I have forwarders for everything I need like wup installer gx. the only thing I use the homebrew launcher for is saviine or savemii mod. I have all saves backed up atm, so I don't need to use it.

 

[godreborn]

I've been testing dark mode for a few days. it takes a bit longer to boot the system, because I think it's trying to load the homebrew channel after initial startup. usb loader gx forwarder on wii u no longer works, because it's hbl to hbc, I now get a black screen. weird bug with dkc tropical freeze, the a button to start the game doesn't work unless you press home, then resume the game. I thought it was a fluke, but the issue continued the next day. 3d world (the other game I played) did not have this problem.

 

[OneMarvelousNugget]

That's very interesting, does that means these games use the Wii u menu wallpaper data or at least need the RAM address to work ?
This would mean that patching the hardware may result to some issues on games, we should continue to test the plugin before starting to think about a hard patcher.

 

[godreborn]

yeah, I don't understand, so it must use the wii u menu in some way when starting the game.

 

[WiiU_user]

Very good tutorial!