Homebrew [RELEASE] Aroma Environment for Wii U

[Marc_LFD]

It's nice to see some Wii U news as the console is really good, but with a very small catalog.

How do you reach 300 installed titles on Wii U? As much as i love the console, it doesn't have so many play worthy games.

You probably could with all the WiiU and VC games. I've played most retail games it has so if I bought a Wii U I'd only install a small amount again.

Watch Dogs despite its issues with the Wii U port, I really liked it. And it'd be one of those I'd install.

 

[NinStar]

You probably could with all the WiiU and VC games. I've played most retail games it has so if I bought a Wii U I'd only install a small amount again.

This is a real issue to this day, with old cfws we could at least use Loadiine to play Virtual Console and injects, but it simply doesn't work with Aroma so we are all forced to install them directly into the Wii U Menu alongside other homebrews taking up games slots (because there is no homebrew launcher under Aroma)

 

[V10lator]

@NinStar is ignoring vWii, RetroArch, stanalone emulators, Launchiine, ... And the fact that _nobody_ on this planet plays more than 300 games in parallel.

I'm wrong? So please state me just 50 games you played in the last 48 hours... Is this still a "real" issue?

 

[NinStar]

@NinStar is ignoring vWii, RetroArch, stanalone emulators, Launchiine, ... And the fact that _nobody_ on this planet plays more than 300 games in parallel.

I'm wrong? So please state me just 50 games you played in the last 48 hours... Is this still a "real" issue?

Good luck playing N64 and DS on RetroArch Wii U.

Also, last time I checked RetroArch didn't work under Aroma either.

 

[Ettino]

This is why you dual boot Tiramisu & Aroma. Aroma for everyday use and Tiramsu for when you're feeling retro.

 

[CrazySquid]

It has been a while that we don't have any Aroma and RetroArch updates... I wonder if those were cancelled on the Wii U...

 

[V10lator]

It has been a while that we don't have any Aroma and RetroArch updates...

They probably don't have any small bugs left to fix and also no new features on their TODO list, so no need for an update. Also last update is just around 3 weeks old...

For RetroArch: What you see is just legacy support. This is pretty much frozen as they work full-stream on Aroma support. See https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/14429 for more informations (IIRC there are even links to Aroma testbuilds). It will get published when it's done but AFAIK this needed a big rewrite of the whole Wii U port, hence it looked frozen for years while they coded like crazy behind the scenes.

 

[MikaDubbz]

As the clock ticks down and the Nintendo servers near ending their support of Wii U (and 3DS), I will finally have to consider setting up dual-boot of Tiramisu and Aroma (still love Tiramisu for the Homebrew Launcher and the ability to launch my MK8 plugin modpack: MK8 Ultimate, both of which Aroma can't utilize (at least at this time)). But Pretendo doesn't play nice with Tiramisu at all anymore, certain homebrew apps like PPSSPP and Retroarch will not launch if you have the Pretendo module in the Tiramisu's module folder, so I'll have to start utilizing Pretendo in Aroma when the time comes, I know that's not an issue as their are separate folders for the Tiramisu modules and the Aroma modules.

My question is, and forgive me if its really obvious, I wouldn't know as I haven't touched Aroma yet: but how do you hide all the homebrew apps from populating your Wii U menu in Aroma, I know homebrew apps filling the home screen is a feature, but it's one I don't want at all. I've read that you can indeed hide your homebrew in Aroma, but what exactly is the procedure for that, do you get a list of options or something when you first install Aroma that you can toggle, or is there something else to it?

Edit: found the answer here:

I have found out how this works now so I wanted to post my findings. So what you need to do is create a blank text file and name it ".ignore" Then on the first line in that file, your gonna wanna type out the path and file name that you want to hide. So let's say you want to hide Nusspli for example. You would type "Nusspli/nusspli.rpx" as your first line of text. Then line after line after line. Once it's done, save it, and place the .ignore file in "SD:/wiiu/apps" And by then, the apps you want hidden should be gone. Thanks to Marshell for explaining it out to me.

Cheers!

 

[ber71]

You can always create a folder, name it HomebrewFolder and drag every homebrew icon there.

 

[MikaDubbz]

You can always create a folder, name it HomebrewFolder and drag every homebrew icon there.

Sure, if I wasn't up against the 300 title limit lol. Plus I have a lot of .elf homebrew, I dunno if those populates or not in Aroma, but regardless, I intend to use Tiramisu as my homebrew environment, and Aroma as my Pretendo environment (and some of the unique modules that I've never strongly needed, but been mildly curious about that Tiramisu can't handle). And I mean the feature to hide them is there, so I can have it behave as close to how I want as it can get. Obviously ideally everything would work peacefully in the same single environment and all the homebrew would just stay in a separate homebrew channel, but whatever, this will work fine enough.

 

[buddy]

Sure, if I wasn't up against the 300 title limit lol. Plus I have a lot of .elf homebrew, I dunno if those populates or not in Aroma, but regardless, I intend to use Tiramisu as my homebrew environment, and Aroma as my Pretendo environment (and some of the unique modules that I've never strongly needed, but been mildly curious about that Tiramisu can't handle). And I mean the feature to hide them is there, so I can have it behave as close to how I want as it can get. Obviously ideally everything would work peacefully in the same single environment and all the homebrew would just stay in a separate homebrew channel, but whatever, this will work fine enough.

Here are your options from the Homebrew on menu readme from Aroma GitHub. Think is is what you're looking for...

Usage​

Place your homebrew (.rpx or .wuhb) in sd:/wiiu/apps or any subdirectory inside sd:/wiiu/apps.

Via the plugin config menu (press L, DPAD Down and Minus on the gamepad) you can configure the plugin. The available options are the following:

• Features:
  • Hide all homebrew [except Homebrew Launcher]: (Default is false)
    • Hides all homebrew from the Wii U Menu except the sd:/wiiu/apps/homebrew_launcher.wuhb and sd:/wiiu/apps/homebrew_launcher/homebrew_launcher.wuhb
    • This config item is called "Hide all homebrew" when no homebrew_launcher.wuhb is present.
  • Prefer .wuhb over .rpx (Default is true)
    • Hides a .rpx from the Wii U Menu if a .wuhb with the same name exists in the same directory.
  • Hide all .rpx (Default is false)
    • Hides all .rpx from the Wii U Menu.

Hide specific apps​

A list of executables to hide can be provided via sd:/wiiu/apps/.ignore. This file is a text file, each line contains a file/pattern to exclude. Every line is considered case-insensitive and relative to sd:/wiiu/apps/. Lines starting with "#" will be ignored and can be used for comments. * is supported as a wildcard.

Example:

# Ignore any .rpx in the my_game sub directory
my_game/*.rpx
# Ignore any executable in the other_game sub directory
other_game/*
# Ignore any executable that starts with "retroarch"
retroarch*
*/retroarch*
# Ignore sd:/wiiu/apps/CoolGame.wuhb
CoolGame.wuhb

 

[MikaDubbz]

Here are your options from the Homebrew on menu readme from Aroma GitHub. Think is is what you're looking for...

Usage​

Place your homebrew (.rpx or .wuhb) in sd:/wiiu/apps or any subdirectory inside sd:/wiiu/apps.

Via the plugin config menu (press L, DPAD Down and Minus on the gamepad) you can configure the plugin. The available options are the following:

• Features:
  • Hide all homebrew [except Homebrew Launcher]: (Default is false)
    • Hides all homebrew from the Wii U Menu except the sd:/wiiu/apps/homebrew_launcher.wuhb and sd:/wiiu/apps/homebrew_launcher/homebrew_launcher.wuhb
    • This config item is called "Hide all homebrew" when no homebrew_launcher.wuhb is present.
  • Prefer .wuhb over .rpx (Default is true)
    • Hides a .rpx from the Wii U Menu if a .wuhb with the same name exists in the same directory.
  • Hide all .rpx (Default is false)
    • Hides all .rpx from the Wii U Menu.

Hide specific apps​

A list of executables to hide can be provided via sd:/wiiu/apps/.ignore. This file is a text file, each line contains a file/pattern to exclude. Every line is considered case-insensitive and relative to sd:/wiiu/apps/. Lines starting with "#" will be ignored and can be used for comments. * is supported as a wildcard.

Example:

# Ignore any .rpx in the my_game sub directory
my_game/*.rpx
# Ignore any executable in the other_game sub directory
other_game/*
# Ignore any executable that starts with "retroarch"
retroarch*
*/retroarch*
# Ignore sd:/wiiu/apps/CoolGame.wuhb
CoolGame.wuhb

I think you misunderstand, I'm not looking for anything at this point, I already figured out how to use .ignore. I was just responding to someone else that was trying to tell me what I should do with homebrew in aroma.

 

[grandosegood]

for me, the automatic c2w overclocking plugin is worth it alone, it makes all the demanding wii emulators (mame, ps1, n64) run much better, coupled with the fact that most of them run from the gamepad now. another great plugin is wiivclaunch, allowing for 480p and 4:3 modes, wii/gamecube games can output at native resolution. can't wait for aroma retroarch to hit wii u, it will hopefully be as fast/faster

 

[buddy]

I think you misunderstand, I'm not looking for anything at this point, I already figured out how to use .ignore. I was just responding to someone else that was trying to tell me what I should do with homebrew in aroma.

I didn't misunderstand. You had asked how to hide all hombrew apps within Aroma. Yes, the "ignnore" is one method, but that's more if you want to do a specific app or maybe a few - but maybe that works for you. This portion below allows you to simply set an option to hide ALL homebrew from showing, with no file to edit:

Via the plugin config menu (press L, DPAD Down and Minus on the gamepad) you can configure the plugin. The available options are the following:

• Features:
  • Hide all homebrew [except Homebrew Launcher]: (Default is false)
    • Hides all homebrew from the Wii U Menu except the sd:/wiiu/apps/homebrew_launcher.wuhb and sd:/wiiu/apps/homebrew_launcher/homebrew_launcher.wuhb
    • This config item is called "Hide all homebrew" when no homebrew_launcher.wuhb is present.

​

 

[MikaDubbz]

I didn't misunderstand. You had asked how to hide all hombrew apps within Aroma. Yes, the "ignnore" is one method, but that's more if you want to do a specific app or maybe a few - but maybe that works for you. This portion below allows you to simply set an option to hide ALL homebrew from showing, with no file to edit:

Via the plugin config menu (press L, DPAD Down and Minus on the gamepad) you can configure the plugin. The available options are the following:

• Features:
  • Hide all homebrew [except Homebrew Launcher]: (Default is false)
    • Hides all homebrew from the Wii U Menu except the sd:/wiiu/apps/homebrew_launcher.wuhb and sd:/wiiu/apps/homebrew_launcher/homebrew_launcher.wuhb
    • This config item is called "Hide all homebrew" when no homebrew_launcher.wuhb is present.

​

Oh well, perhaps I wasn't more clear, I no longer needed a solution, I already applied the .ignore solution. Thanks anyway though.

 

[ganons]

I hacked my Wii U about 6 years. How do remove the hack and hack it with this?

 

[Clutz450]

I hacked my Wii U about 6 years. How do remove the hack and hack it with this?

What guide or website did you use to hack it originally? The guide over at https://wiiu.hacks.guide provide steps to remove old hacks and how to install aroma. Check it out and let me know if you need any help.

 

[ganons]

What guide or website did you use to hack it originally? The guide over at https://wiiu.hacks.guide provide steps to remove old hacks and how to install aroma. Check it out and let me know if you need any help.

I installed yesterday with that guide actually. I also used their guide for vWii and installed what was required. I tried one Wii game in wbfs and after launching it from gx loader, it exits to the vWii menu. Nintendont seems to be working.

 

[Blythe93]

I tried one Wii game in wbfs and after launching it from gx loader, it exits to the vWii menu.

Did you install your games to the external HDD using Wii Backup Manager? Sometimes, if the games aren't installed properly, USB Loader GX just returns to system menu. You can use Wii Backup Manager's tool to format the HDD to FAT32 after which it'll create a wbfs folder on it where it'll store the games you add to the install queue afterwards.

Nintendont seems to be working.

GameCube games will work if you just copy them over to the external HDD, so that's to be expected.

 

[ganons]

Did you install your games to the external HDD using Wii Backup Manager? Sometimes, if the games aren't installed properly, USB Loader GX just returns to system menu. You can use Wii Backup Manager's tool to format the HDD to FAT32 after which it'll create a wbfs folder on it where it'll store the games you add to the install queue afterwards.

GameCube games will work if you just copy them over to the external HDD, so that's to be expected.

Just transferred a backup to SD card.