Hacking How do I find out which kind of hack my console is running?

[Larkas]

I’ve just fulfilled my dream of buying a Wii U, and got my hands on a pretty well preserved second-hand console. However, it supposedly came pre-hacked, and I have no idea which solution it is running. I wanted to undo whichever hack it sports to, eventually, run Tiramisu in it.

So, my question is: how do I find out which hack my pre-owned console is running?

 

[Lostbhoy]

There is a few methods....
Did it come with an sd card? If so what are the contents?
Does it say "autobooting" with a title id before the menu loads?
Does it have an icon on the menu anywhere titled "don't touch me" or even a homebrew launcher channel there at all?
What is the system firmware listed as in system settings?

 

[Larkas]

Thanks you very much for taking the time to help me! So, answering you step-by-step:

1) It did indeed come with an SD card. These are the contents (with the "Date modified" year in case that helps with anything):

​

/haxchi - 2017​

/install - 2018​

/licenses - 2016​

/retroarch - 2013​

/wiiload - 2016​

/wiiu - 2016​

boot.elf - 2012​

bootex.log - 2018​

bootmini.elf - 2012​

credits.txt - 2012​

fw.img - 2016​

license.txt - 2012​

readme.txt - 2012​

readme-bootmii.txt - 2012​

readme-hbc.txt - 2012​

This would seem to indicate it would be running haxchi, right? Now, I have no idea how haxchi is supposed to look, but there's no Homebrew Channel anywhere, nor any retroarch. Could this perhaps be an intended hack that never was installed?

2) It does not.

3) As alluded before, no Homebrew Channel here. I can't seem to find anything named "don't touch me" either.

4) 5.5.5 U

Ehm... Could it be the case that this console is not, in fact, hacked at all?

 

[NinStar]

That BootMii is kinda scary, vWii doesn't support it. But based on that I believe that maybe the previous owner used it to hack the vWii. I would recommend you to check it to see if Mii Channel (on vWii) is working.

 

[Larkas]

That BootMii is kinda scary, vWii doesn't support it. But based on that I believe that maybe the previous owner used it to hack the vWii. I would recommend you to check it to see if Mii Channel (on vWii) is working.

If by vWii you mean Wii Mode (sorry, noob here ), its Mii Channel seems to be working fine. It's pretty much the same as a Wii's, IIRC (been years since last I fiddled with that!)

 

[Lostbhoy]

It looks like just Haxchi was used and i'll assume that possibly mocha will be located inside the wiiu folder as this folder holds all apps visible in homebrew launcher when loaded.

To remove Haxchi I believe you just delete the title used however that should have changed into the "don't touch me" icon i mentioned. (its been a while, maybe someone can confirm or elaborate further) The previous owner may have already taken these steps to remove the title. Are there any games installed at all?

 

[Larkas]

It looks like just Haxchi was used and i'll assume that possibly mocha will be located inside the wiiu folder as this folder holds all apps visible in homebrew launcher when loaded.

To remove Haxchi I believe you just delete the title used however that should have changed into the "don't touch me" icon i mentioned. (its been a while, maybe someone can confirm or elaborate further) The previous owner may have already taken these steps to remove the title. Are there any games installed at all?

There are a few games, yes. I don't know if they're pirated, though, there IS an account bound to the console, they just might be legitimate. They are: Mario Kart 8, New Super Mario Bros. U, Super Mario Maker, Pac-Man Ghostly Adventures 2, Penguins of Madagascar and DuckTales: Remastered. All of them boot into those actual games, as far as I could ascertain.

 

[NinStar]

There are a few games, yes. I don't know if they're pirated, though, there IS an account bound to the console, they just might be legitimate. They are: Mario Kart 8, New Super Mario Bros. U, Super Mario Maker, Pac-Man Ghostly Adventures 2, Penguins of Madagascar and DuckTales: Remastered. All of them boot into those actual games, as far as I could ascertain.

You can confirm that by going to the eShop purchase history, if the previous owner account is still there, but you should be able to see the history from any account from the same region if you are unable to access their account.

 

[Larkas]

You can confirm that by going to the eShop purchase history, if the previous owner account is still there, but you should be able to see the history from any account from the same region if you are unable to access their account.

Hmmmm, it says the eShop isn't available in my region. So, a little background: I'm in Brazil. We used to have a local eShop, but Nintendo closed it off sometime in the past. I think they actually reversed that decision recently for the Switch, but that might've not carried over to the Wii U.

 

[V10lator]

Ehm... Could it be the case that this console is not, in fact, hacked at all?

It looks like that to me, too. To confirm it a bit further: When you click the Mii Maker icon it opens the Mii Maker and not HBL, right? Also knowing the contents of the wiiu folder (as well as its subfolders) on your SD card might give more hints.

 

[Larkas]

It looks like that to me, too. To confirm it a bit further: When you click the Mii Maker icon it opens the Mii Maker and not HBL, right? Also knowing the contents of the wiiu folder (as well as its subfolders) on your SD card might give more hints.

The Mii Maker icon opens Mii Maker itself, yes!

Regarding the wiiu folder, here are its contents:

/wiiu

/apps​

/appstore​

/cache​

(several .png files)​

hbas.elf​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

/bluemsx_libretro​

bluemsx_libretro.rpx​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

/cfwbooter​

cfwboot.elf​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

/ddd​

ddd.elf​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

/ftpiiu​

ftpiiu.elf​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

/genesis_plus_gx_libretro​

genesis_plus_gx_libretro.rpx​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

/haxchi​

haxchi.elf​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

/hidtovpad​

hidtovpad.elf​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

/homebrew_launcher​

homebrew_launcher.elf​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

/loadiine_gx2​

/languages​

english.lang​

french.lang​

pt_BR.lang​

spanish.lang​

icon.png​

loadiine_gx2.cfg​

loadiine_gx2.elf​

meta.xml​

/mame2003_midway_libretro​

icon.png​

mame2003_midway_libretro.elf​

meta.xml​

/mrboom_libretro​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

mrboom_libretro.rpx​

/nnupatcher​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

nnupatcher.elf​

/prosystem_libretro​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

prosystem_libretro.rpx​

/quicknes_libretro​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

quicknes_libretro.rpx​

/saviine​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

saviine.elf​

/snes9x2010_libretro​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

snes9x2010_libretro.rpx​

/stella_libretro​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

stella_libretro.rpx​

/wupinstaller​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

wupinstaller.elf​

/wupinstaller mod y​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

wupinstaller.elf​

/cfwbooter​

cfwboot.elf​

icon.png​

meta.xml​

 

[V10lator]

Wow, the previous owner used some really old hacking method. This method needs another HBL entry point but whatever it is: It's probably not coldbooted. So it should be save to remove /wiiu/cfwbooter as well as /wiiu/apps/cfwbooter. Should also be save to install Tiramisu.

 

[Larkas]

Whew! Thank you very much for the help, everyone, I was feeling like that dog in a suit thinking "I have no idea what I'm doing" for a moment there

 

[godreborn]

it sounds like he was using rednand with the fw.img and haxchi being present, but it's hard to say considering I still have all my old exploit stuff on my sd card. he may have been like me and never deleted old stuff, just moved on. haxchi requires a ds game on the nand, so if you have a ds game there, you can check the configuration as the config file. it should be in the ds title's 10 folder iirc. I remember moving that using wup server a long time ago, when there was no haxchi installer. the config.txt will be in this folder. I don't have one since I uninstalled haxchi. the rom.zip is haxchi, but in this case, it's the original brain age game.

 

[Larkas]

There was no DS game! The console wasn't hacked after all. I followed https://wiiu.hacks.guide/ and it worked just fine!

 

[godreborn]

There was no DS game! The console wasn't hacked after all. I followed https://wiiu.hacks.guide/ and it worked just fine!

might've been system formatted or something before being sold, which would've been the smart thing to do.

 

[V10lator]

@godreborn No. There never was Haxchi or Mocha on this Wii U. As outlined before the previous owner uses some homebrew entry point (probaby browserhax), then startet https://github.com/dimok789/cfw_booter which loaded a complete fw.img ... This is a really, really old method of loading a CFW - basically what was used before Haxchi and Mocha existed.