Please follow this guide step by step. If you do that, using this guide is safer than an update by Nintendo.
However modding a Wii always carries a small risk. I'm just providing the tools here. You do the modding and human error is always a possibility, even though I took every precaution.
I am not responsible should following this guide make your Wii inoperable!
Introduction:
Welcome to my guide, on how to mod any Wii.
Now, why would I make a new guide with a thousand others already out there?
Well imho all the other guides out there are either illegal (packed with wads from Nintendo) or hard to understand for beginners. For example I love ModMii and it is certainly 100% legal, but imo it is a little hard to understand, if you are just starting out. So I decided to make a new guide, that is legal and easy to use.
Ofcourse this guide can't work without copyrighted Wii homebrew. But I trust that the homebrew devs won't have anything against the bundeling of their software in a good guide. I credit each one of them at the bottom of this post. If you are one of the creators of the bundeled software and wish it to be removed, just drop me a PM and I will do so.
Any Nintendo code used in this guide will be downloaded, directly from the Nintendo Update Server (NUS), and thus be legaly obtained.
What will this guide do with your Wii?
It will update your Wii to 4.3 (including Mii-, Shop-, Weather- and News channel), install a full IOS set (so games don't need updates), prepare it for USB/DVD loaders and make it a lot more secure.
All this is done without your Wii having to be connected to the internet. You will however need an internet connection on your PC. But since you are reading this guide, I strongly assume you have one.
What equipment do you need?
1. An SD card that has a capacity of at least 128MB. If your Wiis System Menu version is 4.0 - 4.3 you can use an SDHC card. If your menu version is lower, you will only be able to use normal SD cards up to 2GB.
2. An SD card reader on your PC
3. If you are on a System Menu lower than 3.0, you will have to update your Wii, through a game or the Wifi Connection.
4. automod.7z from here: http://filetrip.net/dl?799GRfgZ7L
5. A program that can extract the automod.7z like 7zip or WinRAR
6. A charged Wiimote
Preperation
To learn what you are using / installing when using this guide, you may want to read the first post of this thread: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=173713
However it's not necessary to know these things to proceed. So do what you want with that.
If your Wiis language setting isn't english already, it might help to change it, for the duration of this guide. Since I'll be using the english names of settings and buttons.
1. Find out what System Menu version your Wii has installed and write it down somewhere. You will need it a few times in this guide.
This information can be found on the first page of the Wii settings menu "(Wii) --> Settings" in the upper right corner.
2. If your Wii has System Menu version 4.3 installed, please look up your Wii's MAC-adress and write it down. It can be found at "(Wii) --> Settings --> Internet Information".
3. Now make sure that you have about 1000 blocks of free space on your Wiis NAND. (You can see how many you have in the Wiis data managemant)
If you have less, back up a few of your VC games / Wiiware to SD card.
4. Backup the contents of your SD card to a folder on your hard drive.
Your SD card will be formated during this guide and any data you don't back up will be lost.
5. You have to have .net frameworks 2 installed on your computer. It's included in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Even on XP it's installed most of the time already, since many programs need it. So only worry about it if something doesn't work.
Let's get started
1. Prepare your SD card.
Insert an SD card into your computer and look up what it's drive letter is.
Now unpack the automod.7z somewhere other than your SD card and run the automod.bat. Just follow the instructions in the window that pops up.
After a few inputs the program will tell you that no further user input is required and it will begin downloading all the required files for this guide.
I have to stress again, that this program will format your SD card and all data will be lost if you haven't backed it up.
Wait until the program proclaims "Success!". Then proceed with the next step in this guide.
2. Get homebrew running.
Insert the SD card into your Wii.
The rest of this step is different, depending on your System Menu version:
3.0 - 4.1
- Navigate to (Wii) -> Data Management -> Channels -> SD.
- A Dialouge will pop up asking you if you want to boot .dol/.elf. Press yes.
4.2
- Click the SD card symbol in the lower left corner of the System Menu. A Dialouge will pop up asking you if you want to boot .dol/.elf. Press yes.
4.3
- Navigate to the Wiis Message board (the envelope on the bottom right of the screen)
- Find a green letter with a red Bob-omb on it. It should be on yesterdays wall. If not try two days ago.
- Click on it.
3. Hackmii Installer
Now the hackmii installer should have started. If it hasn't go back and try again.
You will be greeted with a scam warning. You haven't payed for this program, so just ignore it.
But you still have to wait a while. Once (1) pops up on your screen press it on your Wiimote.
Now you are in the main installer.
Install:
1. The Homebrew Channel (HBC): This channel will appear in your System Menu, like every other channel and will make it easy to start homebrew from now on.
2. Bootmii IOS: This is needed to make a backup of your Wiis internal flash memory and provides some level of protection against bricks.
3. Bootmii boot2: This is like bootmii IOS, but provides a lot more brick protection, as it starts before anything else on your Wii. Sadly only old Wiis can install it, due to hardware revisions. If you can install it, do so.
Once you are done click exit. The installer will exit to the homebrew channel.
4. Make a Nand Backup (Optional but highly recommended) (requires ~512MB of free space on your SD card)
Hit the home button on your Wiimote. A menu will pop up. Select "launch Bootmii".
Sadly bootmii can't be navigated with a Wiimote. You either need a GC controller or control it with the power and reset button on your Wii.
With power you cyle through the options and with reset you select them.
- Select the gear symbol all the way to the right.
- Now select the symbol with the green arrow.
Bootmii will automatically start to back up your Wiis Nand. This can come in handy, should you do anything wrong and screw up your Wii. In that case you can just restore the Nand Backup and your Wii is in exactly that state, that it was when you made the backup.
After the Backup is done, navigate to the HBC icon and select it.
5. Update your Wii and open it up with Sciifii
- Load Sciifii through the HBC.
- Click on "Mod your Wii" (it's the only option there ) and let it do it's thing. This may take a while.
After it is done press A and then select "Exit". You will end up back in the HBC.
What does Sciifi do?
- Updates your Wii (including System Menu, IOSs and channels)
- Installs cIOS d2x v9, base 56, 57 and 58 (needed for Backup loaders)
- Installs hermes cIOS v5, base 37, 38 and 57 (needed for Backup loaders)
- Installs Priiloader (Priiloader makes your Wii safer and enables you to apply a few hacks to the System Menu)
- Cleans up your Wiis flash memory to free up space
6. Reinstall the Homebrew Channel
Now select the hackmii installer in the HBC menu.
It's the same as before. The only difference is, that you don't have to mess with bootmii again.
Don't uninstall the Homebrew Channel, just install it again.
After you are done exit the installer, back to the HBC
Why?
Because in step 5 you installed software that will make the HBC run better, but only if you reinstall it. You might not notice it, but trust me on this one.
7. Configurate Priiloader
- Turn your Wii off
- Hold down the reset button and turn your Wii back on.
- Keep holding down reset until a menu pops up
- Select "System Menu Hacks" and press A
Here you can select hacks for your System Menu.
Enable all of them. They are needed for a smooth operation of your Wii.
Now save the settings, press B on your Wiimote and go back to the System Menu
Congratulations! You are done!
What else should you know?
- WAD installation:
Sooner or later you'll probably want to install WADs. Channels and other things come as such.
For that purpose place the wad in the "wad"-folder on your SD card and use YAWMM (already included in this package).
Don't use any other wad-manager, as those don't check if the thing, you are trying to install, might be dangerous.
Also never install any wad that is from a source you don't trust!
You can experiment with the included LoadMii channel wad. A LoadMii channel is a nice backup to have, in case the HBC gets deleted for some reason.
- Using USB Loaders:
I included Wiiflow (the backup loader I use) in this package.
Simply use the Wii Backup Manager to transfare your Wii games to a USB stick or USB hard drive. Then plug that USB drive into the lower of the two USB slots on your Wii and start Wiiflow from the homebrew channel.
- WiiMC:
Also included in this package is WiiMC, a powerfull media player that can play videos up to 720P from SD, USB and (if your Wii is older than mid 2009) DVD.
Just pack some media files on your SD card or USB storage device and enjoy.
Credits
Bannerbomb by Comex
Hackmii Installer, Homebrew Channel, Bootmii by Team Twiizers
Sciifii by TeamWiigen (Source)
Priiloader by DacoTaco (Source [GPLv3])
cIOS222 by hermes
cIOS d2x by davebaol (Source)
NUSD by WB3000 (Source [GPLv3])
NUSD command line mod by WiiNinja
englisch YAWMM-de: original wad manager by Waninkoko - YAWMM by cwstjdenobs and giantpune - YAWMM-de by hamachi-mp - english translation by Slowking (Source)
WiiMC by Tantric and rodries (Source [GPL])
Wget for Windows by Micah Cowan, Hrvoje Nikšic (Source [GPLv3])
7zip by Igor Pavlov (Source [LGPLv2.1])
JojoDiff by Joris Heirbaut (Source [GPL])
PHP (Source)
Wiiflow by OverjoY and FIX94 (Source)
Wilbrand by giantpune
Thanks to XFlak for creating ModMii. It has been a great inspiration and help. I also want to thank him for bringing to my attention, that I could not legally include the hackmii installer in the automod.7z. (it is now automatically downloaded from TT's website.)
However modding a Wii always carries a small risk. I'm just providing the tools here. You do the modding and human error is always a possibility, even though I took every precaution.
I am not responsible should following this guide make your Wii inoperable!
Introduction:
Welcome to my guide, on how to mod any Wii.
Now, why would I make a new guide with a thousand others already out there?
Well imho all the other guides out there are either illegal (packed with wads from Nintendo) or hard to understand for beginners. For example I love ModMii and it is certainly 100% legal, but imo it is a little hard to understand, if you are just starting out. So I decided to make a new guide, that is legal and easy to use.
Ofcourse this guide can't work without copyrighted Wii homebrew. But I trust that the homebrew devs won't have anything against the bundeling of their software in a good guide. I credit each one of them at the bottom of this post. If you are one of the creators of the bundeled software and wish it to be removed, just drop me a PM and I will do so.
Any Nintendo code used in this guide will be downloaded, directly from the Nintendo Update Server (NUS), and thus be legaly obtained.
What will this guide do with your Wii?
It will update your Wii to 4.3 (including Mii-, Shop-, Weather- and News channel), install a full IOS set (so games don't need updates), prepare it for USB/DVD loaders and make it a lot more secure.
All this is done without your Wii having to be connected to the internet. You will however need an internet connection on your PC. But since you are reading this guide, I strongly assume you have one.
What equipment do you need?
1. An SD card that has a capacity of at least 128MB. If your Wiis System Menu version is 4.0 - 4.3 you can use an SDHC card. If your menu version is lower, you will only be able to use normal SD cards up to 2GB.
2. An SD card reader on your PC
3. If you are on a System Menu lower than 3.0, you will have to update your Wii, through a game or the Wifi Connection.
4. automod.7z from here: http://filetrip.net/dl?799GRfgZ7L
5. A program that can extract the automod.7z like 7zip or WinRAR
6. A charged Wiimote
Preperation
To learn what you are using / installing when using this guide, you may want to read the first post of this thread: http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=173713
However it's not necessary to know these things to proceed. So do what you want with that.
If your Wiis language setting isn't english already, it might help to change it, for the duration of this guide. Since I'll be using the english names of settings and buttons.
1. Find out what System Menu version your Wii has installed and write it down somewhere. You will need it a few times in this guide.
This information can be found on the first page of the Wii settings menu "(Wii) --> Settings" in the upper right corner.
2. If your Wii has System Menu version 4.3 installed, please look up your Wii's MAC-adress and write it down. It can be found at "(Wii) --> Settings --> Internet Information".
3. Now make sure that you have about 1000 blocks of free space on your Wiis NAND. (You can see how many you have in the Wiis data managemant)
If you have less, back up a few of your VC games / Wiiware to SD card.
4. Backup the contents of your SD card to a folder on your hard drive.
Your SD card will be formated during this guide and any data you don't back up will be lost.
5. You have to have .net frameworks 2 installed on your computer. It's included in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Even on XP it's installed most of the time already, since many programs need it. So only worry about it if something doesn't work.
Let's get started
1. Prepare your SD card.
Insert an SD card into your computer and look up what it's drive letter is.
Now unpack the automod.7z somewhere other than your SD card and run the automod.bat. Just follow the instructions in the window that pops up.
After a few inputs the program will tell you that no further user input is required and it will begin downloading all the required files for this guide.
I have to stress again, that this program will format your SD card and all data will be lost if you haven't backed it up.
Wait until the program proclaims "Success!". Then proceed with the next step in this guide.
2. Get homebrew running.
Insert the SD card into your Wii.
The rest of this step is different, depending on your System Menu version:
3.0 - 4.1
- Navigate to (Wii) -> Data Management -> Channels -> SD.
- A Dialouge will pop up asking you if you want to boot .dol/.elf. Press yes.
4.2
- Click the SD card symbol in the lower left corner of the System Menu. A Dialouge will pop up asking you if you want to boot .dol/.elf. Press yes.
4.3
- Navigate to the Wiis Message board (the envelope on the bottom right of the screen)
- Find a green letter with a red Bob-omb on it. It should be on yesterdays wall. If not try two days ago.
- Click on it.
3. Hackmii Installer
Now the hackmii installer should have started. If it hasn't go back and try again.
You will be greeted with a scam warning. You haven't payed for this program, so just ignore it.
But you still have to wait a while. Once (1) pops up on your screen press it on your Wiimote.
Now you are in the main installer.
Install:
1. The Homebrew Channel (HBC): This channel will appear in your System Menu, like every other channel and will make it easy to start homebrew from now on.
2. Bootmii IOS: This is needed to make a backup of your Wiis internal flash memory and provides some level of protection against bricks.
3. Bootmii boot2: This is like bootmii IOS, but provides a lot more brick protection, as it starts before anything else on your Wii. Sadly only old Wiis can install it, due to hardware revisions. If you can install it, do so.
Once you are done click exit. The installer will exit to the homebrew channel.
4. Make a Nand Backup (Optional but highly recommended) (requires ~512MB of free space on your SD card)
Hit the home button on your Wiimote. A menu will pop up. Select "launch Bootmii".
Sadly bootmii can't be navigated with a Wiimote. You either need a GC controller or control it with the power and reset button on your Wii.
With power you cyle through the options and with reset you select them.
- Select the gear symbol all the way to the right.
- Now select the symbol with the green arrow.
Bootmii will automatically start to back up your Wiis Nand. This can come in handy, should you do anything wrong and screw up your Wii. In that case you can just restore the Nand Backup and your Wii is in exactly that state, that it was when you made the backup.
After the Backup is done, navigate to the HBC icon and select it.
5. Update your Wii and open it up with Sciifii
- Load Sciifii through the HBC.
- Click on "Mod your Wii" (it's the only option there
) and let it do it's thing. This may take a while.After it is done press A and then select "Exit". You will end up back in the HBC.
What does Sciifi do?
- Updates your Wii (including System Menu, IOSs and channels)
- Installs cIOS d2x v9, base 56, 57 and 58 (needed for Backup loaders)
- Installs hermes cIOS v5, base 37, 38 and 57 (needed for Backup loaders)
- Installs Priiloader (Priiloader makes your Wii safer and enables you to apply a few hacks to the System Menu)
- Cleans up your Wiis flash memory to free up space
6. Reinstall the Homebrew Channel
Now select the hackmii installer in the HBC menu.
It's the same as before. The only difference is, that you don't have to mess with bootmii again.
Don't uninstall the Homebrew Channel, just install it again.
After you are done exit the installer, back to the HBC
Why?
Because in step 5 you installed software that will make the HBC run better, but only if you reinstall it. You might not notice it, but trust me on this one.
7. Configurate Priiloader
- Turn your Wii off
- Hold down the reset button and turn your Wii back on.
- Keep holding down reset until a menu pops up
- Select "System Menu Hacks" and press A
Here you can select hacks for your System Menu.
Enable all of them. They are needed for a smooth operation of your Wii.
Now save the settings, press B on your Wiimote and go back to the System Menu
Congratulations! You are done!
What else should you know?
- WAD installation:
Sooner or later you'll probably want to install WADs. Channels and other things come as such.
For that purpose place the wad in the "wad"-folder on your SD card and use YAWMM (already included in this package).
Don't use any other wad-manager, as those don't check if the thing, you are trying to install, might be dangerous.
Also never install any wad that is from a source you don't trust!
You can experiment with the included LoadMii channel wad. A LoadMii channel is a nice backup to have, in case the HBC gets deleted for some reason.
- Using USB Loaders:
I included Wiiflow (the backup loader I use) in this package.
Simply use the Wii Backup Manager to transfare your Wii games to a USB stick or USB hard drive. Then plug that USB drive into the lower of the two USB slots on your Wii and start Wiiflow from the homebrew channel.
- WiiMC:
Also included in this package is WiiMC, a powerfull media player that can play videos up to 720P from SD, USB and (if your Wii is older than mid 2009) DVD.
Just pack some media files on your SD card or USB storage device and enjoy.
Credits
Bannerbomb by Comex
Hackmii Installer, Homebrew Channel, Bootmii by Team Twiizers
Sciifii by TeamWiigen (Source)
Priiloader by DacoTaco (Source [GPLv3])
cIOS222 by hermes
cIOS d2x by davebaol (Source)
NUSD by WB3000 (Source [GPLv3])
NUSD command line mod by WiiNinja
englisch YAWMM-de: original wad manager by Waninkoko - YAWMM by cwstjdenobs and giantpune - YAWMM-de by hamachi-mp - english translation by Slowking (Source)
WiiMC by Tantric and rodries (Source [GPL])
Wget for Windows by Micah Cowan, Hrvoje Nikšic (Source [GPLv3])
7zip by Igor Pavlov (Source [LGPLv2.1])
JojoDiff by Joris Heirbaut (Source [GPL])
PHP (Source)
Wiiflow by OverjoY and FIX94 (Source)
Wilbrand by giantpune
Thanks to XFlak for creating ModMii. It has been a great inspiration and help. I also want to thank him for bringing to my attention, that I could not legally include the hackmii installer in the automod.7z. (it is now automatically downloaded from TT's website.)
