Hacking Questions from an old returning member

[tripellex]

Howdy guys and gals. TripEllex here, returning to the fold after about a year's absence. For those of you who don't know me, I'm an old salt from these forums, returning after a long bout of shore leave. During that time, I can see the scene's changed quite a bit. New tools, new firmware, new strategies. So, I'm requesting a bit of assistance to help me get my sea legs, as it were. Now, before I jump into the questions, let me be clear on a few things:

1) Be aware that any questions I ask aren't asked lightly. If I ask it, it's because I have thoroughly exhausted the search functions here, on WiiHacks and Wiisos and have yet to find a definitive answer.

2) I humbly request that if you can answer my question(s) maturely, please do so, and if you instead plan on trolling or flaming, to not waste neither your time nor mine, as it will be promptly ignored.

and lastly

3) I assure you I'm not asking for download links to anything, nor am I asking for tutorials or instructions on how to do anything. My questions are merely basic knowledge, should I/shouldn't I questions, nothing more.


And so, a brief rundown on my system: it's an original launch RVL-001, Twilight Hacked system. Firmware's still on 4.1U, cIOS rev 10, cIOSCorp 3.1 (I believe) and HBC 1.0.1. BootMii's installed on Boot2, and Preloader is also installed. Not sure of the version of the last two. Early versions, that much I'm sure of. USBLoader GX (updated) and Wad Manager 1.4 are also installed as redirect channels.


Now for my questions (finally):

A) Is there any benefit to updating the system firmware to 4.3 with Wani's latest system updater, or am I still safe on 4.1?

B) Have there been any major cIOS releases and/or patches I should be aware of in the past year?

C) I'm still using Herme's original WBFS format with CISOs on my 320gb WD drive. Should I switch over to another FS now?

D) Same for cIOSCorp. Any reason to still use it or update it, aside from the benefit of playing backups?

E) Any other tips/suggestions on bringing my system up to date?

F) Any software/homebrew I should be researching and using that's been release in the past year?


That's all. I appreciate any help any of you can sincerely offer, and your patience while I get caught back up.

 

[LocoRoco]

1.No 4.1 is good..4.3 offers nothing
2.Up to rev20 with wanin and 5.1 with hermes cIOS
3.Your choice you can load of fat32 and ntfs now...
4.Corp is usless if you usb load and disc loading is hardly used anymore


dop-mii

 

[dmonkey21]

A) No. 4.2 AND 4.3 have only been released in an attempt to stop homebrew. If you still wanna use the shop channel on 4.1, you can just use DOP-MII.

B) Yep, I'm not sure if Herme's released his cIOS's in the past year, but since you haven't posted that you have them, they are an alternative to Waninkoko's and install as 222/223/224, not really a bad idea to have both of them. As for Wanin's, rev20 was just released and offers fairly major improvements, including the ability to install as any slot and with many different base IOS's.

Personally I use Herme's as well as r20 base 56, which works for all games I've tested. Something to mention is that r20 doesn't work with TriiForce nand emu, so its not a bad idea to keep IOS 249 at r17 or r14.

C) There are benefits to using a FAT32 FS instead of WBFS, such as the convenience of needing only one partition and the fact that FAT32 drives are readable in nearly any OS, but there isn't any real need to go back from WBFS. I have been using the same WBFS drive since USB Loader 1.5, if it ain't broke don't fix it. NTFS partitions are good as well, but I believe the Wii can't write to NTFS. Also, the fact that FAT cannot handle 4GB+ files could also be an issue if you have DL games.

D) Not really, but the newest version is DARKCORP 1.1 if you're interested. I don't think there should be any problem keeping 3.1 though. If you do wanna get rid of it entirely, the DARKCORP installer can do that. The only real reason you'd need DARKCORP/CIOSCORP nowadays is to play GC backups.

E) I think you're pretty much set, but update HBC and PriiLoader. Also you could look into some newer USB Loaders. GX is pretty good, but I would recommend switching to either WiiFlow or CFGLoader. Also, look up TriiForce MRC it is a homebrew that lets you play VC/WiiWare off a NAND emulation from SD or USB.

F) Kind of answered this for E), but you could also look up CRAP which is a simple software that lets you install forwarder channels for Wii games on your HDD.

Hope this is helpful, and sorry if any info I've provided was already available when you left the scene lol. Good luck hacking

 

[tj_cool]

Now for my questions (finally):

A) Is there any benefit to updating the system firmware to 4.3 with Wani's latest system updater, or am I still safe on 4.1?
The only thing you could gain from updating is having updated IOSs/Channels, but those can be updated manually. There are too many disadvantages to update completely IMO.

B) Have there been any major cIOS releases and/or patches I should be aware of in the past year?
cIOS Waninkoko is at rev20(b), though it won't work with Triiforce if you want that (use rev17 in that case)
cIOS Hermes is at 5.1

C) I'm still using Herme's original WBFS format with CISOs on my 320gb WD drive. Should I switch over to another FS now?
That's up to you. Many people prefer FAT32 these days.

D) Same for cIOSCorp. Any reason to still use it or update it, aside from the benefit of playing backups?
If you want to play backups from disc channel, install DARKCORP (updated version of cIOSCORP). If not don't install it...

E) Any other tips/suggestions on bringing my system up to date?
You can use DOP-Mii to update IOSs/Channels. Also Install latest HBC/BootMii (I'd update to the latest version of the Homebrew in general)

F) Any software/homebrew I should be researching and using that's been release in the past year?
DOP-Mii
Riivolution
WiiMC
Triiforce
SNEEK/UNEEK

That's all. I appreciate any help any of you can sincerely offer, and your patience while I get caught back up.

 

[Slowking]

A lot of loaders can also read NTFS by now. Here is a chart: http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/USB_Loader_Releases

And yeah either remove cioscorp, or update it to darkcorp.

You should probably also update the HBC and bootmii and switch from preloader to priiloader...

 

[tripellex]

Thanks to all of you gents who answered, and caught me up to speed! A few final questions: Have there been any major updates regarding NAND emulation? Before I left, I was using an early beta of TriiForce, but the whole NAND emu was still in its infancy. Have they made any major strides, such as running NAND from a USB drive, RB/GH DLC from NAND emu, etc?

EDIT: Nevermind about that last question. A quick look at the link Slowking provided answered that one.

 

[Slowking]

Take a look at SNEEK. http://gbatemp.net/t205511-sneek-v2