Hacking Hack my virgin WII in clear steps

[saratis]

Wonderful forum. I've been reading for some time now, but even with all the noob guides and such, i still find the process of going from a virgin wii to a usb-load enabled wii not quite clear. This is due to the fact that there are loads of different options an all kinds of confusing tutorials around, that don't explain what they are talking about.

I read quite a lot. So I would like to sum what I've learned so far, and hope you guys care to comment and expand.

First off, a few terms I saw flying around.
IOS = Something like firmware? Correct?
CIOS = Custom Firmware?
NAND = Something you need to back to prevent bricking? Man I sound like a noob (which I am in terms of WiiHacking)
HBC = Home Brew Channel
BootMii = Meant to protect you from bricking your Wii? You use this to backup your NAND? And then there's something about boot2?
DVDx = Enables your wii to read Dvds'
HackMii = Installer for the above three things
USB Loader = Used to load iso from an external drive
WAD file = Files you can run from your HBC

From what I've gathered, I should do the following to hack my Wii.
- Download bannerbomb and put it the 'private' folder on an SD card, with the test boot.dol and see if it works
- If it works, nice, if not, try another version of bannerbomb.
- When you have a working version, follow the steps to install Hackmii , which means putting a different boot.dol on the SD card and what's this *meta* stuff?
- Once you've installed hackmii, you should have a HBC.
- You can use the HBC to install/run (?) an USB loader, (which version? that one by waninkoko? USB Loader CFG35-a5?)
>>Whats this CIOS7 stuff? Is that to run backups from Dvd's? I think this is where it gets confusing, with the usb and normal backup loaders
- Can you now use the USB loader to load backupped ISO from you external drive?

I think if you guys could fill in the blanks here, and add what i've missed (especially the CIOS## stuff) this could be the base for a real noob proof tutorial.

Thx in advance for all the info.

 

[WiiPower]

NAND = Something you need to back to prevent bricking? Man I sound like a noob (which I am in terms of WiiHacking)
NAND = the 512 MB flash memory

BootMii = Meant to protect you from bricking your Wii? You use this to backup your NAND? And then there's something about boot2?
only when installed as boot2, as IOS it's only to run mini projects(but there aren't that many for now)

DVDx = Enables your wii to read Dvds'
ONLY FOR MEDIAPLAYERS!!!!!!!

WAD file = Files you can run from your HBC
.dol and .elf = Files you can run from your HBC
.wad = Files you can install, IOS and channels for example, always a brick risk


Also to be able to use an usb loader you need a cIOS installed.

 

[tj_cool]

Wonderful forum. I've been reading for some time now, but even with all the noob guides and such, i still find the process of going from a virgin wii to a usb-load enabled wii not quite clear. This is due to the fact that there are loads of different options an all kinds of confusing tutorials around, that don't explain what they are talking about.

I read quite a lot. So I would like to sum what I've learned so far, and hope you guys care to comment and expand.

First off, a few terms I saw flying around.
IOS = Input Output system. Used for many things. IOS2 = the system menu
CIOS = Custom IOS
NAND = Internal memory of the wii
HBC = Homebrew Channel
BootMii = Bootmii is a replacement for the original boot2. If you know the order of booting (Boot0->Boot1->Boot2->Sys menu), you see that bootmii boots before the sys menu and like that it gives brick protection (Brick = unusable sys menu). There is also an IOS version of bootmii which has no brick protection at all.
DVDx = Enables your wii to read Dvd's for media players or ROMs
HackMii = Installer for the above three things
USB Loader = Used to load iso from an external drive
WAD file = Wad files are containers of data. The have to be installed on the wii NAND using the wad manager. They can contain VC/WW/IOS/...

From what I've gathered, I should do the following to hack my Wii.
- Download bannerbomb and put it the 'private' folder on an SD card, with the test boot.dol and see if it works
- If it works, nice, if not, try another version of bannerbomb.
- When you have a working version, follow the steps to install HBC
- You can use the HBC to install OR run an USB loader, (One of the many in Wii - Backup loaders)
>>cIOS are used to run backups from DVD/USB, so install one
- Can you now use the USB loader to load back-upped ISO from you external drive?

I think if you guys could fill in the blanks here, and add what i've missed (especially the CIOS## stuff) this could be the base for a real noob proof tutorial.

Thx in advance for all the info.

There are stickies that will help you

 

[Deleted-119707]

whats your version is your wii and whats you first 4 digits of the serial of your wii?

 

[WiiPower]

whats your version is your wii and whats you first 4 digits of the serial of your wii?

If you use the right tools this does not matter anymore.

 

[saratis]

Ok. Thanks for the info so far.

So my plan so far:
- Use WBFSManager3.0.1-RTW-x86.zip to format my drive and put isos on
- Use bannerbomb to install hackmii_installer_beta2.zip
- Install cIOS38_rev13b-Installer.dol using this guide: http://fathertom.net/hardwii/?p=488
>> This talks about downgrading, is that still neccesary?
- Install Cios_usb2_beta3.tar.bz2 using the HBC
>> I read about meta files, what are these and how do i create them?
>> Secondly, where do i put the cios_usb2_install.dol file? In the SD root, or a different dir?
- Use any USB loader to load games and stuff of your USB Drive
>> What usb loader is recommended? Is it just looks that differ? Or do some work better than others?

Questions:
- Where does the NAND backup come in
- Am I missing anything?

 

[BillandAlisha]

Wiipower, was nice...to an noob question ?!

Also: Where does the NAND backup come in. That comes in, hopefully never. But it's always smart to keep a backup of your NAND on to your computer. Just in case you do Brick up your Wii and you need to restore it.

I would recommend you to run and install BootMii and make a NAND backup, before messing with your Wii. That way if you mess up, no worries.

 

[WiiPower]

Wiipower, was nice...to an noob question ?!

Don't be so surprised. If a newbie takes the time to explain his thoughts/problems in an understandable way without leaving out the most important infos, i'm willing to help. or at least point into the right direction.

 

[nabster92]

Ok. Thanks for the info so far.

So my plan so far:
- Use WBFSManager3.0.1-RTW-x86.zip to format my drive and put isos on
- Use bannerbomb to install hackmii_installer_beta2.zip
- Install cIOS38_rev13b-Installer.dol using this guide: http://fathertom.net/hardwii/?p=488
>> This talks about downgrading, is that still neccesary?
It's not necessary now and won't work on boot2v4 Wii's (bought like this year or so.) You can use the Trucha Bug Restorer from WiiPower to get the Trucha Bug back on your Wii and use that to install your cIOS. Also rev13b is kinda buggy and I think it doesn't work well with a lot of other loaders so I would suggest rev 13a instead (Though rev14 will probably replace it in like a week or so anyways)
- Install Cios_usb2_beta3.tar.bz2 using the HBC
Not needed, rev13 should already have the usb2 support you need built in.
>> I read about meta files, what are these and how do i create them?
meta.xml files are basically just to have the HBC show more information about an application in the channel and go with the boot.dol of the app in the folder for said app within the apps folder.
>> Secondly, where do i put the cios_usb2_install.dol file? In the SD root, or a different dir?
Any .dol file should be renamed to boot.dol and placed in a folder with the apps name or whatever you want to call it inside an "apps" folder on the root. EX.) root:\apps\name\boot.dol, If the app comes with a meta.xml and icon.png file you put those along with the boot.dol in that folder as well to make it look nice in the HBC. Once again that usb2 installer isn't needed though.
- Use any USB loader to load games and stuff of your USB Drive
>> What usb loader is recommended? Is it just looks that differ? Or do some work better than others?
It basically is just looks, but some have more features and what not. I think good ones are USB Loader GX and Beardface's Coverfloader.

Questions:
- Where does the NAND backup come in
- Am I missing anything?

When you run the hackmii installer beta v2 you can also install bootmii along with the HBC. If your Wii is old enough you can install bootmii to boot2 where it will provide brick protection, otherwise you can only install it as an IOS which can only be loaded from the HBC (so basically no brick protection in itself.) Once you install that you can reboot your Wii (if boot2 installed) and use a GC controller to navigate the menu and go to the 4th icon and then the first one to make a NAND backup of your Wii at it's current state (need at least about 540 MB left on your SD card) and let it complete the verification even though it says you can skip it. Then you can back the nand.bin file up to your pc and keep that there for safekeeping. Once you finish doing everything you need and it all works fine I would suggest making another NAND backup at that point and back that one up as well. Think of NAND backups as system restore points in Windows. It will restore your Wii to exactly how it was at the time you made the backup so you can make one before you do anything remotely dangerous to your Wii so you can fall back to that point if it messes up. Also note that it will revert save game data back to that point as well so back those up if you need to restore it.

So yea basically bannerbomb -> hackmii installer -> HBC/Bootmii -> NAND backup -> Trucha Bug Restorer -> cIOS installation -> USB loader apps on SD card -> format HDD to wbfs and put games on it (doesn't matter when you do this) -> NAND backup again if everything's working fine -> ... -> profit!

 

[saratis]

Unfortunately im stuck.

Bannerbomb and hackmii and nand backup was ez.

But i cant get rev13a installed, nor the trucha bug restorer.

The rev13 installers gives me the 2011 error. So Nabster said, use the trucha bug restorer. I ran it from HBC, chose IOS36, tried the ios36 menu, tried the install, but it told me i needed to run the iso15 downgrade. So i ran the IOS15 downgrade, installed everything from NUS (no idea what this is), said it installed fine. Tried to run the ios36 patch, same error (-2011)

What in heavens name am i doing wrong?

Its like i said in my start post, there is no GOOD CLear tutorial available that explains everything and takes it step by step. Its always "install rev13", "use truncha bug" etc, but then you get like 10 options presented in the menu's and you stuck.

Hope someone can help me?

 

[nabster92]

From WiiPower:

"You need IOS15v257, IOS15v266 and IOS36v3094 wads on root of sd card for it.
With these names: IOS15-64-v257.wad, IOS15-64-v266.wad and IOS36-64-v3094.wad.

Step 1: Downgrade IOS15
Step 2: Install IOS36 with trucha bug to IOS249
Step 3: Restore IOS15
Step 4: Use IOS249 in the cIOS installer"

 

[saratis]

Thanx for you fast reply, i tried this, but the ios36 process ends with the message (-2011) that i need to downgrade the ios15, i've tried it like 5 times. With NUS and with the wads.. Any ideas

 

[nabster92]

Well then it seems you're not actually downgrading IOS15 properly or something. I haven't tried using this program myself since my Wii already has cIOS and stuff on it so I'm not exactly sure what you need to do, but if it's still saying you need to downgrade IOS15 then I take it you still need to properly downgrade IOS15 before trying to install IOS36 more times.

Someone who has used it themselves or WiiPower should be able to answer you properly.

 

[WiiPower]

Well then it seems you're not actually downgrading IOS15 properly or something. I haven't tried using this program myself since my Wii already has cIOS and stuff on it so I'm not exactly sure what you need to do, but if it's still saying you need to downgrade IOS15 then I take it you still need to properly downgrade IOS15 before trying to install IOS36 more times.

Someone who has used it themselves or WiiPower should be able to answer you properly.

Problem was solved by using IOS15 as firmware.

 

[thc42O]

im pretty sure all u do is rub a magnet on the casing while its powered , that erases the copy protection, it also allows u to run a cappacino maker off the usb pport

 

[dogmanky]

Problem was solved by using IOS15 as firmware.

Does that mean he wasn't properly downgrading then? Can you give more details for those of us still learning?

Thanks!

 

[WiiPower]

Problem was solved by using IOS15 as firmware.

Does that mean he wasn't properly downgrading then? Can you give more details for those of us still learning?

Thanks!

He did not run IOS15 after downgrading it.