Homebrew How do i install Emunand and Nintendont? + Question about nintendont

[Duncan Idaho]

Hello, good day, I am curious to know how one goes around installing an emunand? i found a vague set of instructions on the wiiflow wiki, same goes for nintendont, how do i install it?.

Finally i have a question regarding nintendont, my uncle own one of those wii's that lack the MIOS and possibility of reading backup games, if i were to install to his system nintendont would he be able to use the Classic Controller/Classic Controller Pro to play the GC games? or does he needs a special adapter.

 

[Charco]

I am interested in installing an emunand to play backup WiiWare and Virtual Console games but find the instructions a bit daunting aswell. Any help would be appreciated. I have a softmodded Wii with 4.3E and CFG Loader installed.

 

[daxtsu]

Concerning Nintendont, it has some caveats:

• No Bluetooth support yet, so no, you can't use Wiimotes and corresponding accessories, yet. However, you can use USB controllers, provided that it's compatible with HID_test. You could alternatively check to see if https://code.google.com/p/nintendon-t/source/browse/#svn/trunk/controllerconfigs has any existing controller configs for whatever USB controller you want to use.
• Storage device (USB or SD) must have 512 bytes per sector (right? Someone please correct me if I'm mistaken), and be formatted with 32K or 64K clusters, if I recall correctly, be the first primary partition, and be formatted as FAT32. The active flag does not matter.
• ISOs go in /games on your USB or SD device. Each game can have its own folder, but must be named game.iso. If the game has a second disk, name it disc2.iso. If the ISOs are not named in such a fashion, Nintendont will not see them.
• If you're using a USB controller, you must have a controller.ini file on the root (/) of your SD or USB device, otherwise Nintendont will refuse to start, since how else would it know how to use your controller?
• It's still a new project (the source was released in December 2013, iirc), so it's still got a way to go before its compatibility matches DIOS MIOS and Devolution. That said, the games it does play well, do indeed play very well. Smash Bros Melee, Super Mario Sunshine, Zelda TWW and TP, MK Double Dash, etc., all seem to work well, at least for me.

At any rate, to install Nintendont, just get the latest loader.dol (rename to boot.dol) and the icon.png & meta.xmlfiles. Then drop them in a folder under /apps on your SD or USB device. If you like using USB Loader GX, postLoader, or Wiiflow, I believe they all search for /apps/nintendont/boot.dol when launching Gamecube games under Nintendont, so you may just want to keep it there. Along with the boot.dol, make sure you have games under /games as I stated above, as well as a controller.ini since you're going to need to be using a USB controller on a Wii without backwards compatibility.

If you absolutely need wireless controllers, investigate purchasing one of those Mayflash adapters, or using Devolution instead (but this requires verifying real game disks due to its anti-piracy measures, so you'd need temporary access to a Wii with MIOS and such, since they can read such disks), as wireless support in Nintendont isn't a large priority right now, due to its lack of compatibility (check my signature to see which games work well in Nintendont, if you like).

If I've stated any incorrect info, I apologise, it's not easy to remember every detail. Someone can fill in the gaps I left, if any.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

*groan* My own wii could run devolution and all it implies, not sure if my uncle wii can, since it's a 2012 black wii.

*sigh* I was really hoping that nintendont had wii controller compatibility, i'll see if i can use devolution to authenticate the Zelda games i own (the only thing my uncle will want to play of GC is Zelda, OOT/MQ, WW and TP) and copy whatever files tell it that the stuff is authentic.

You know that information about disc2.iso should been put on big bold letters for DIOS MIOS and all USB loaders, i spent a good couple of weeks tinkering before google gave me the answer.

Thanks for the help.

Now i am waiting for some one to elaborate on the Emunand, really tutorials are scarce.

 

[Cyan]

EmuNAND is a copy of your NAND.
Instead of accessing your internal Wii memory, you redirect access to SD or USB as if it was your internal Wii.

It can be used to save savegames to SD/USB, or launch channels installed on SD/USB, so you have 2TB of space instead of 512MB.

EmuNAND limits: 512bytes/sector, so no drive bigger than 2TB. (I don't know if neek2o is compatible with 4k drive).


How to setup:
You can use FSToolBox to make a copy of your NAND to the root of your SD card, or use an USBLoader to dump your NAND, or use ModMii to create a new empty NAND.
Once you have a copy of NAND on your device, you have different possibilities:

- Run it with neek: It will emulate the Wii entirely as if it was your real Wii. You need to use NeekInstaller to add required files and place your EmuNAND path on the root of your device.
- Run it with cIOS: While you are in an USBLoader, you can launch channels by redirecting access in realtime from NAND to EmuNAND. this method doesn't work with all games (90% works).

You can add channels to your emuNAND by using a Windows program (ShowMiiWads), or directly on wii using homebrew (Wad managers, USBLoaders, etc.)


Full example with USBLoaderGX (using cIOS redirection method):
- Settings > User path > EmuNAND Path Save : sd:/nand/ <-- this is the one used to store savegames to emuNAND instead of Wii.
- Settings > User path > EmuNAND Path channel : sd:/nand/ <---- this is the one used to launch channels from emulated NAND
Both can share the same path without problem.
- Settings > Features > NAND dump > All <--- It will make a copy of your Wii to sd:/nand/
- Main screen > 4th icon in the top menu > Enable EmuNAND (remove everything else for easy browsing)
- Launch the game
- To add more games to emuNAND : Settings > Features > Wad installer > Select the Wad > Select Install

N64 games have issues with d2x
Some games don't work with d2x, you need neek or neek2o method to play all games.

 

[Charco]

Can I do this with CFG Loader?

Edit: I see no dump nand option in the interface.

Still not sure of what to do.
Copy nand to SD card, install neek?
Where can I get latest version?
Do I install neek as a channel and access an emunand from there?
Can I just get the Wii to boot to the emunand instead so that all my VC and WiiWare games are on the home menu?
If I want cover support, do I need WiiFlow?

 

[Cyan]

I don't know if CFG loader has EmuNAND support, nor if you can dump NAND with it, etc.
I now only USBLoaderGX and that's why I used it as example.

There's no "easy tutorial" if you want to understand everything.
Either you click a button and don't understand (that's what most users want I suppose, but they end doing stupid things and break everything!), or you should read and learn correctly before using it.
I'm only giving steps, not guide to actually do it. It's up to you to learn how to achieve each steps (if I write a "wiiflow step" it's up to you to learn how to use wiiflow).


1. Create emuNAND folders:
Copy NAND to external device (SD or USB)
or
create a clean/new NAND from scratch using modmii.

2. Complete folders with optional files
- If you want sneek (SD card) or uneek (USB), you need to go to sneek website and download the required programs to generate the required files to your EmuNAND based on what you want (sneek/uneek/disc interface)
- If you want neek2o I think you need additional files too (I never used neek2o so I can't help/guide you with it).

3. If you want to boot into neek (neek method)
- If you have bootmii installed as Boot2, you can boot directly into neek by replacing bootmii apps on your SD card with neek launcher apps.
- If you don't have bootmii or don't want to boot into need at console boot, you need a homebrew (Nswitch)
- If you don't want neek/neek2o but prefer using the cIOS redirection method, just skip Step3-5

4. clarification
Sneek is not a channel or visually something you can select (except if you consider nswitch as "launching neek")
It's an environment, emulating your Wii using the EmuNAND content.
Last version is on sneek website.

While in sneek/uneek, The wii will act as if it's a real Wii with a real system menu.
You can launch channels from there as if they were normal channels installed on your wii. There's no "cover support".

If you want cover support, you need another application. Wiiflow is a good one.

5. If you want a loader to boot into neek for you (neek2o method)
This method is a mix of RealNAND and emuNAND.
You are using the USBLoader in realNAND and it lists the games you have on your EmuNAND path.
when you launch a game, the USBLoader take care of booting into neek environment itself and launch the selected game from neek automatically. When you exit the game, it also exit from neek and you return to the USBLoader in RealNAND environment.
Compatible loaders : Wiiflow and postloader Edit: and now USBLoaderGX too since r1250.

6. If you want a loader to redirect access to emuNAND (cIOS method)
The other method which doesn't involve neek is to run everything from RealNAND (90% game compatibility).
you install a cIOS on real NAND
You install a Loader which runs using cIOS on real NAND
The loader tells the cIOS to redirect all Real NAND access (read/write) to a specific emuNAND path (SD or USB).
The wii never run in "emulated state". it's only a path redirection method in real time.
Compatible loaders : USBLoaderGX, Triiforce, Mightychannel, Wiiflow, (maybe CFG Loader and Postloader).

The guide for USBLoaderGX:

• install d2x cIOS v8 or v10 or v10-alt with base56 in slot 249
• Run USBLoaderGX
• Settings > User path > EmuNAND Path Save : sd:/nand/
  this is the one used to store savegames to emuNAND instead of Wii.
• Settings > User path > EmuNAND Path channel : sd:/nand/
  this is the one used to launch channels from emulated NAND
  Both can share the same path without problem.
• Settings > Features > NAND dump > All
  It will make a copy of your Wii to sd:/nand/
• Main screen > 4th icon in the top menu > Enable EmuNAND (remove everything else for easy browsing)
• Launch the game
• To add more games to emuNAND : Settings > Features > Wad installer > Select the Wad > Select Install