Hacking Noob Starter Guide

[nabster92]

I have read your guide a few times.. but I'm not really good at English, so there are stuffs I still don't understand and still need a lot of reading at other guides

anyway, I just got a wii, and it's modded by the store owner, it's 4.0U, with neo gamma loader 6 and usb loader gx, so after I read your guide, I thought I'm gonna need bootmii, preloader and wad manager, I installed bootmii, then I install preloader, and then my system menu (IOS60) is corrupt, I read that I have to re-install preloader to fix the IOS60, but I got this problem as soon as I install preloader, does it help if I reinstall preloader? I tried and no luck, IOS60 still corrupt? any idea what is the cause? thanks in advance

Did you check the settings for preloader to see if PRELOADER itself is running off IOS60 as it should? And you are using preloader 0.29 right?

First I would check the settings though, and if it says something like it's loading the system menu from IOS30, then that would be why it says that and you should change it to IOS60.

 

[_Zephyr]

I have read your guide a few times.. but I'm not really good at English, so there are stuffs I still don't understand and still need a lot of reading at other guides

anyway, I just got a wii, and it's modded by the store owner, it's 4.0U, with neo gamma loader 6 and usb loader gx, so after I read your guide, I thought I'm gonna need bootmii, preloader and wad manager, I installed bootmii, then I install preloader, and then my system menu (IOS60) is corrupt, I read that I have to re-install preloader to fix the IOS60, but I got this problem as soon as I install preloader, does it help if I reinstall preloader? I tried and no luck, IOS60 still corrupt? any idea what is the cause? thanks in advance

Did you check the settings for preloader to see if PRELOADER itself is running off IOS60 as it should? And you are using preloader 0.29 right?

First I would check the settings though, and if it says something like it's loading the system menu from IOS30, then that would be why it says that and you should change it to IOS60.

Preloader is running off IOS60 v417, system menu is set to IOS60, and I'm using preloader 0.29

I've tried
- re-install IOS30, and make it Trucha Bugged
- Install cIOS60 (got it from cioscorp 3.4)
- Install cIOS60 and then install preloader 0.29 -> when I'm installing preloader, there's a message "can not find ES_DIVerfiy module check"
- Install IOS60Patched
- Install IOS60Patched and then install preloader 0.29 -> it says "IOS60 patched successfully"

but every time I set system menu IOS to IOS60, it still says system menu is corrupt

 

[pp12345]

I read thru the whole thread and I still have a small question. I apologize if I missed it somewhere. Most of the guides start of with an unhacked wii and give a good road map to get to the promised land (which is really, really helpful. Could'nt thank you guys enough) I had already customized

my WII couple of months back and I dont remember what or how I did it. If I had found this then , it would have really explained me a lot of things. What I was looking for is this. On my WII, I have HBC 1.0.3 which I can run without the SD card. I can run WADManager 1.0.4 and a USBLoader(CoverFLoarder) from SD card. Does that mean I also installed BootMii in boot2? If yes how do I get to the configuration menu or upgrade it to beta 0.3 ? If not how do I install it and also cios38B ? If this has already been asked and replied can somebody point me to the link or Is there a guide that I can go to? I just bought Sports Resort and would like to play that without loosing all my customizations and all the guides I came across assume that you already have BootMii & cIOS38 or assume that you have not done anything.

 

[nabster92]

I have read your guide a few times.. but I'm not really good at English, so there are stuffs I still don't understand and still need a lot of reading at other guides

anyway, I just got a wii, and it's modded by the store owner, it's 4.0U, with neo gamma loader 6 and usb loader gx, so after I read your guide, I thought I'm gonna need bootmii, preloader and wad manager, I installed bootmii, then I install preloader, and then my system menu (IOS60) is corrupt, I read that I have to re-install preloader to fix the IOS60, but I got this problem as soon as I install preloader, does it help if I reinstall preloader? I tried and no luck, IOS60 still corrupt? any idea what is the cause? thanks in advance

Did you check the settings for preloader to see if PRELOADER itself is running off IOS60 as it should? And you are using preloader 0.29 right?

First I would check the settings though, and if it says something like it's loading the system menu from IOS30, then that would be why it says that and you should change it to IOS60.


Preloader is running off IOS60 v417, system menu is set to IOS60, and I'm using preloader 0.29

I've tried
- re-install IOS30, and make it Trucha Bugged
- Install cIOS60 (got it from cioscorp 3.4)
- Install cIOS60 and then install preloader 0.29 -> when I'm installing preloader, there's a message "can not find ES_DIVerfiy module check"
- Install IOS60Patched
- Install IOS60Patched and then install preloader 0.29 -> it says "IOS60 patched successfully"

but every time I set system menu IOS to IOS60, it still says system menu is corrupt

Try using the Trucha Bug Restorer to patch everything into IOS36? That should take care of that error at least I think.


QUOTE(pp12345 @ Sep 23 2009, 06:00 PM)

I read thru the whole thread and I still have a small question. I apologize if I missed it somewhere. Most of the guides start of with an unhacked wii and give a good road map to get to the promised land (which is really, really helpful. Could'nt thank you guys enough) I had already customized

my WII couple of months back and I dont remember what or how I did it. If I had found this then , it would have really explained me a lot of things. What I was looking for is this. On my WII, I have HBC 1.0.3 which I can run without the SD card. I can run WADManager 1.0.4 and a USBLoader(CoverFLoarder) from SD card. Does that mean I also installed BootMii in boot2? If yes how do I get to the configuration menu or upgrade it to beta 0.3 ? If not how do I install it and also cios38B ? If this has already been asked and replied can somebody point me to the link or Is there a guide that I can go to? I just bought Sports Resort and would like to play that without loosing all my customizations and all the guides I came across assume that you already have BootMii & cIOS38 or assume that you have not done anything.

If you're not sure you have bootmii, you probably don't or at least didn't do anything useful with it. You can just run the hackmii installer from the HBC instead of with bannerbomb and just install it through that if it isn't already. If you have the bootmii folder on your SD card and it is configured not to autoboot directly (isn't by default so you would have had to physically do that yourself) and bootmii doesn't come up when you boot your Wii everytime, then you didn't install to boot2 at least. If you can't go to the HBC, press home and click launch bootmii to go to it, then you didn't install as an IOS.

Also, as I said in the big red note, you might not want to upgrade to 0.3 because of the major flaw with the backups made by it. So try the beat 0.4 test linked in that red note instead or find the beta 0.2 version.

cIOS's can always just be installed over eachother as I said in that section. If you have a previous cIOS, just run the latest cIOS installer or whatever one you want to change to, and have it use IOS249 if it prompts (again just if you have an older cIOS installed, only rev13+ will prompt for that and older ones will use IOS249 automatically.)

As far as updating your system, the section on that pretty much does take into account whatever you are already on to begin with. The only thing you may need to get rid of beforehand if you have it is stuff like cIOSCORP or starfall or stuff like that.

 

[_Zephyr]

Try using the Trucha Bug Restorer to patch everything into IOS36? That should take care of that error at least I think.

the message only show when I install cios60 which I get from cioscorp 3.4, but when I install cios60 from cioscorp 3.2 or 3.3 or when I install IOS60Patched, there's no such message, it says signature found, ios60 patched successfully, but I still can't get system menu to work with IOS60

 

[BedtimeGuy]

- realized the post was stupid -

 

[bobdigi84]

how do i actually run the 4.0 installer?

 

[Ssseth]

Fantastic guide. I have been away from the scene for a bit and was looking to upgrade from 3.2U. This guide has a wealth of information that is well put together and easy to understand. I love how you include the back history on things for people like me who may get confused between old stuff and new. Thanks for all the hard work!


Just a suggestion in the dop-IOS section. Where you say: "So the first thing to do with dop-IOS v7 is to use it to install the most recent version of IOS60 with the sig hash check"

I was already on the latest version (v6174 as of now). So there was no option to install the latest version... it took me awhile to figure out I had to press the - key to select the "Install old v6174 of IOS60" to reinstall it over top and select the sig hash check. Perhaps letting folks know to do that might save idiots like me some time anyway.

That and the latest version is now v8, but that is brand spanking new so I can't fault you for not having it up to date. At least you ahve the important info about staying away from the official 4.2 update for now.

Cheers & thanks again!

 

[Ssseth]

Okay, perhaps I spoke too soon. Everything seemed to be working peachy until I went to load a backup from the disc channel (Little Kings Story). I haven't had an issue running a game since way back in the SMG days. I have a mod chip (Wiinja Deluxe). I get a "error #001, unauthorized device has been detected" and have to hard boot the Wii to get it going again. Before I go willy nilly updating IOS files with dop-IOS. Any suggestions?...

To make it clear, everything was working fine before I updated so my modchip is working fine. All backup discs were running fine. Doing some Google searches just leads me to year+ old posts with people saying to update the modchip firmware but I did that a long time ago and like I said, before updating to 4.1 it was all good.

My Wii was already modded, I just was trying to update. Per the instructions on the first page of this thread what I did is went from 3.2U to 4.0 using Waninkoko's 4.0 updater. Then I went to 4.1 using Waninkoko's 4.1 updater. I used the links provided. All went well during the installs. HBC, BootMii, Preloader, SD Card Loader and all other channels are working fine. It's just launching new games from the disc channel.

Edit: I decided to try updating IOS files. I've updating the following (every single ios except ones only used by old system menu's) and applied the Sig Hash Check to all of them. Still not working. I tried a really old game (Carnival Games) and it worked. Seems like it's newer ones not working.

ios9
ios12
ios13
ios14
ios15
ios17
ios21
ios22
ios28
ios31
ios33
ios34
ios35
ios36
ios37
ios38
ios53
ios55
ios56
ios57
ios60
ios61

I'm out of ideas... Help!

 

[Ssseth]

Thanks for your help earlier nabs, I appreciate it.

Well I feel like an idiot. I figured out the problem. So I decided to go back to 3.2U with BootMii using a NAND backup, to retrace my steps. When I got back, I was still getting the same error. I forgot that the Wiinja Deluxe can be reset back to factory defaults (or even disabled) with the right command. Well it just happens to be the command to reset back to factory defaults is holding down power+reset for a few seconds. I did this when starting up preloader without thinking about it and that must have done it.

So I downloaded the 001 error firmware update for my modchip and installed it. Games started loading fine again from the disc channel. Then I flashed back up to 4.1U with BooMii (I made a NAND backup before going back to 3.2U earlier) and games are working fine. All is well in 4.1 Wiinja Deluxe land.

Ya so it had nothing to do with updating. It just happened to be I reset my modchip to factory defaults by mistake when updating things. Hehe ooops! Funny thing is, it was one of the reasons I picked this chip over Wiikey in the first place, more options. Ohhh, well it all ended up fine and I learned a lot more about my Wii in the process.

Cheers.

 

[rodreyes]

Is wanikoko's firmware updater 4.2 safe?

 

[john1010_ma]

Is wanikoko's firmware updater 4.2 safe?

From what I have read, it introduces problems you might need to fix later on. I would suggest you follow Zektor's guide. More power to you the user.

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=183384&st=0

 

[jarapablo]

This is a great guide!!! I've been looking for something like this for a lot of time because I'm very afraid of bricking my wii...

I just have one question and I think is something that you can add somewhere to our understand (

Thanks by the way)... I've found many ways to do this hack to the wii, but the other manuals (ex. wii softmodding for dummies) don't downgrade the IOS15, they downgrade to the IOS35 (maybe I'm confused but I dont understand what they really do)... and I see that they downgrade but don't "upgrade" again... could you please explain that in a simple way (as you've done so far)... Is it needed to upgrade the IOS15 and IOS35 again?

I have another doubt, in all the manuals they ask to downgrade, install an cIOS, then another one, etc... but, to read backups.... what's the step by step (a summary) of what I have to do...

As far as I understand these are the steps:
1) Install the HB channel using Bannerbomb and hackmii
2) Optional but recommended: install bootmii and create a nand backup
3) Option 1: Downgrade the IOS15 (Trucha bug restorer) to be able to install the cIOS36. Then upgrade again the IOS15
3) Option 2: Downgrade to IOS35 (like in the dummies manual) to be able to install the cIOS36. But don't upgrade again.
4) Install backup launcher or neogamma (are these the same?)

Thank you very much for your effort on doing this easier for us...

Bye,

Pablo

 

[nabster92]

This is a great guide!!! I've been looking for something like this for a lot of time because I'm very afraid of bricking my wii...

I just have one question and I think is something that you can add somewhere to our understand (

Thanks by the way)... I've found many ways to do this hack to the wii, but the other manuals (ex. wii softmodding for dummies) don't downgrade the IOS15, they downgrade to the IOS35 (maybe I'm confused but I dont understand what they really do)... and I see that they downgrade but don't "upgrade" again... could you please explain that in a simple way (as you've done so far)... Is it needed to upgrade the IOS15 and IOS35 again?

I have another doubt, in all the manuals they ask to downgrade, install an cIOS, then another one, etc... but, to read backups.... what's the step by step (a summary) of what I have to do...

As far as I understand these are the steps:
1) Install the HB channel using Bannerbomb and hackmii
2) Optional but recommended: install bootmii and create a nand backup
3) Option 1: Downgrade the IOS15 (Trucha bug restorer) to be able to install the cIOS36. Then upgrade again the IOS15
3) Option 2: Downgrade to IOS35 (like in the dummies manual) to be able to install the cIOS36. But don't upgrade again.
4) Install backup launcher or neogamma (are these the same?)

Thank you very much for your effort on doing this easier for us...

Bye,

Pablo

I already did talk about that in detail. Read the Trucha Bug section. There were older methods of getting the Trucha Bug back before the Trucha Bug Restorer. Installing IOS16 directly was an old method that didn't work anymore when 4.0 came out. Downgrading IOS35 was a method after that that worked on 4.0, but then when boot2v4 Wii's came out it killed IOS35 completely if you tried to downgrade it. Then cboot2 came around that worked on any Wii's as well using bootmii, then the Trucha Bug Restorer came out with a method of downgrading IOS15 in a boot2v4 safe way so it can install an IOS36 with the trucha bug and then you can restore IOS15 back to normal because you already used it.

So basically you can't use the IOS35 downgrade method if your Wii is relatively new or it will break the IOS and the Trucha Bug Restorer works for everything (except maybe 4.2). So yea just use the Trucha Bug Restorer. Also the most recent cIOS is based off off IOS38 (cIOS38 rev14) and generally when referring to a cIOS you refer to it by the version number, not by that IOS number so you would call it cIOS rev 14.

 

[rodreyes]

Hello. Newbie here. I have read your guide twice already. Best guide i have read so far. However. as a newbie, there are still some questions left in my mind. I was hoping you can provide some answers to them. Here it goes:

1. Is my understanding of cIOS 38 Rev14 correct?: cIOS38 rev14 installs the latest IOS249. so IOS249 is basically a custom ios 38 which is just placed is slot 249?

2. If i am playing purely from my USB, i should only worry about the following: Latest version of any usb loader (i.e. USB Loader GX rev 778), IOS249 and version 4 of hermes 222 and 223? I was kinda confused because i also read in another thread that each game requires a different ios to run and not just ios249.

3. How do i check the version of my existing 222 and 223? Is there an offline method of patching them?

4. I was using IOS Dop program yesterday to check the version of my IOS. I updated my IOS 38, 53 to 55 to v3610, 5149 and 5149 respectively and thought that i was installing the latest version. However, when i checked this site: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/IOS_History i discovered that it has newer versions. How do i get the newer versions, what do these new versions do? Are these safe?

5. I also found out that IOS60 has a new version. I know that this IOS is used by system menu so its difficult to mess around with this. Will patching it hurt me? If i remember it correctly, my version is 6174 and the latest version according to wiibrew is v6400.

6. I currently dont have an internet connection. When using DOP-IOS, will it still give you an updated recommendation of what IOS i am supposed to install? Will the latest version of DOP IOS give me an updated recommendation?

 

[tj_cool]

Hello. Newbie here. I have read your guide twice already. Best guide i have read so far. However. as a newbie, there are still some questions left in my mind. I was hoping you can provide some answers to them. Here it goes:

1. Is my understanding of cIOS 38 Rev14 correct?: cIOS38 rev14 installs the latest IOS249. so IOS249 is basically a custom ios 38 which is just placed is slot 249?
Yes, cIOS38 installs in slot 249

2. If i am playing purely from my USB, i should only worry about the following: Latest version of any usb loader (i.e. USB Loader GX rev 778), IOS249 and version 4 of hermes 222 and 223? I was kinda confused because i also read in another thread that each game requires a different ios to run and not just ios249.
all USB loaders force every game to use the same IOS

3. How do i check the version of my existing 222 and 223? Is there an offline method of patching them?
I think SignCheck can show your version. Installing the newest version won't hurt though

4. I was using IOS Dop program yesterday to check the version of my IOS. I updated my IOS 38, 53 to 55 to v3610, 5149 and 5149 respectively and thought that i was installing the latest version. However, when i checked this site: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/IOS_History i discovered that it has newer versions. How do i get the newer versions, what do these new versions do? Are these safe?
You probably have an older DOP-IOS version. You can get the newest at Wiibrew (Get DOP-IOS MOD)

5. I also found out that IOS60 has a new version. I know that this IOS is used by system menu so its difficult to mess around with this. Will patching it hurt me? If i remember it correctly, my version is 6174 and the latest version according to wiibrew is v6400.
Version 6400 is an useless stub that can't be used by anything. Installing it on 4.1 or 4.0 causes a brick. Try to leave IOS60 alone

6. I currently don't have an internet connection. When using DOP-IOS, will it still give you an updated recommendation of what IOS i am supposed to install? Will the latest version of DOP IOS give me an updated recommendation?
I don't know if it will show you the newest version. But you can download any IOS with the NUS Downloader and place it on the SD card (in the correct structure). If you do, DOP-IOS installs it from there

 

[rodreyes]

thanks for the quick reply TJ Cool. Last question, i followed xxzero's offline sofmod guide. When i used DOP-IOS, i found out that i have not installed IOS38. Curiously, when i tried to install ios38, my sd card already contains an installer, which might have been part of the precompiled folder provided by xxzero. Since i am not having problems playing my back-up games, i assume that ios38 is not really necessary. But if it is not really necessary, why is it included in the precompiled folder? Is it really not supposed to be installed?

Also, is "IOS38-64v3610.wad" supposed to install ios249?

Just to clarify, if i purely play USB, i will just need ios249, hermes 222, 223 version 4 and the highest version of lets say, usb loader gx?

Also, can i go off-topic a little bit and ask if my theory is correct that if you load cISO files in your external harddrive, it can only recognize a partition of up to 500gb while if you load ISO's, a 1TB partition will not be a problem? (this is what i am experiencing with my 1 TB WD Mybook external harddrive)

Thanks in advance.

 

[tj_cool]

thanks for the quick reply TJ Cool. Last question, i followed xxzero's offline sofmod guide. When i used DOP-IOS, i found out that i have not installed IOS38. Curiously, when i tried to install ios38, my sd card already contains an installer, which might have been part of the precompiled folder provided by xxzero. Since i am not having problems playing my back-up games, i assume that ios38 is not really necessary. But if it is not really necessary, why is it included in the precompiled folder? Is it really not supposed to be installed?

Also, is "IOS38-64v3610.wad" supposed to install ios249?

Just to clarify, if i purely play USB, i will just need ios249, hermes 222, 223 version 4 and the highest version of lets say, usb loader gx?

Also, can i go off-topic a little bit and ask if my theory is correct that if you load cISO files in your external harddrive, it can only recognize a partition of up to 500gb while if you load ISO's, a 1TB partition will not be a problem? (this is what i am experiencing with my 1 TB WD Mybook external harddrive)

Thanks in advance.

The IOS38 wad is used for Offline installations of cIOS38rev14
People that have no wifi can choose for WAD installation
For the rest, I don't think it has a use

Yes those cIOS will do

WBFS partitions can become as large as you want, but it can only hold 500 games
All ISO become cISO like on WBFS

 

[john1010_ma]

When i used DOP-IOS, i found out that i have not installed IOS38.

If I may give my two cents worth, there are a few ways to see if you have IOS 38. Older versions of DOP-IOS hide that info from you. Newer ones like DOP-IOS MOD V6 can check that for you. SignCheck and AnyTitleDeleter can also show you if you have IOS 38. You most likely have IOS 38 anyway.

 

[Deleted User]

Lol. Awhile ago I installed cIOScorp and I'm kinda thinking that was a bad idea. I installed it on 4.1, where could I find the original IOS files just in case? Cause I'm really thinking of un-cIOScorping my wii. I was stupid when I did it.

EDIT:
Ok some more information, I'm not sure which version of cIOS I installed

Second, my wii is NOT lu64. I got this wii back when the wii first came out.