Hardware Set up Wi-Fi without gamepad ?

[oli.exe]

Hey guys,

So I strike a amazing deal (Really ridiculous deal - cheaper that old Wii ) for a Wii U but without the gamepad. But for that price I just jumped on it. Plus I have a old semi-broken Wii so I already got couple of wiimotes and classic controllers and sensor bar and I grabbed really cheap Wii U pro controler clone on ebay that works just great for my casual use Console was already set-up so great - no need for gamepad there. I do not really want to play a lot of games on Wii U since I got PS4 for that but I am interested in couple exclusives that works without the gamepad plus finally catch up with the old Wii Library of games and use the homebrew emulators.
So here is what I did: Installed Homebrew Channel on vWii using smash bros exploit - works great, got my loader and filled the huge 1TB HDD with number of Wii games and all emulators and roms = super happy, cant complain.

But to my question: I cant access the Wii U settings without gamepad - all I want to do is set-up the wifi connection and enable the software update - I dont need anything else. Is there any possible "work-around" to set up the connection without the gamepad ? Maybe using some homebrew on vWii or possibility to import my wifi setting from my old wii ?
Cant really even borrow the gamepad from anybody i know since literally nobody have wii u here It would be great if somebody knows any way. If not i am still happy, but i would love to connect the console to internet )

 

[migles]

can't you buy a gamepad with a broken screen and replace it?
not sure about the wii u gamepad, but lots of people do this on purchasing phones.. they buy broken ones for cheap and replace the screen...

 

[oli.exe]

can't you buy a gamepad with a broken screen and replace it?
not sure about the wii u gamepad, but lots of people do this on purchasing phones.. they buy broken ones for cheap and replace the screen...

I checked out the prices but they are ridiculous for a gamepad. I dont want to spend that much money for the controler that I am not going to use that much

 

[migles]

I checked out the prices but they are ridiculous for a gamepad. I dont want to spend that much money for the controler that I am not going to use that much

thats why i am saying to get one with broken screen from ebay, still expensive?

so far i know there is no way to access system settings without gamepad...

 

[shinkodachi]

You need a Wii U GamePad to change any system settings. It's stupid and archaic of Nintendo to force use of the Wii U GamePad here, but these are the facts.

The best you can hope for is finding someone who's willing to borrow their Wii U GamePad for as long as you need to just change the settings, or wait for this to become reality:

 

[oli.exe]

You need a Wii U GamePad to change any system settings. It's stupid and archaic of Nintendo to force use of the Wii U GamePad here, but these are the facts.

The best you can hope for is finding someone who's willing to borrow their Wii U GamePad for as long as you need to just change the settings, or wait for this to become reality:

Thanks for claryfying it Guess I will be offline until someone with gamepad or cheap one will come up. Thanks.
Thread can be closed for now.

 

[Deleted User]

This is my NUMBER 1 pet peeve about the Wii U let me change the damn settings without the Gamepad dammit!

 

[oli.exe]

Dont really see the point of need of gamepad in the settings at all. I probably love the pro controller even more than my beloved dualshocks. I would be all over this platform if the requirement of tablet looking gamepad would be dropped


EDIT:
Also if I buy the LAN adapter ? Is there still any settings needed or it will automatically connect using the ethernet ?

 

[migles]

Dont really see the point of need of gamepad in the settings at all. I probably love the pro controller even more than my beloved dualshocks. I would be all over this platform if the requirement of tablet looking gamepad would be dropped

in what world you would need a gamepad with is own screen for settings
its just nintendo way to DRM it, making sure you have a gamepad...
i am surprised the console starts without one...

 

[shinkodachi]

EDIT:
Also if I buy the LAN adapter ? Is there still any settings needed or it will automatically connect using the ethernet ?

This is actually a good workaround to your current situation, didn't think of it. Yes, it's plug and play. No settings.

 

[oli.exe]

This is actually a good workaround to your current situation, didn't think of it. Yes, it's plug and play. No settings.

Really, did you tried it ? I can get them for pretty cheap on ebay. That is some good news

 

[shinkodachi]

Really, did you tried it ? I can get them for pretty cheep on ebay. That is some good news

Yes, I have it. Keep in mind the cheap ones tend to suck and not work properly. Just cough up a bit more for the official, it's rather well built.

 

[oli.exe]

Yes, I have it. Keep in mind the cheap ones tend to suck and not work properly. Just cough up a bit more for the official, it's rather well built.

Great, thanks for all the help ! Going to get official one in store tomorrow

 

[Pippin666]

You could also have rented a Wii U unit at your nearest video rental store.

Pip'

 

[shinkodachi]

You could also have rented a Wii U unit at your nearest video rental store.

Pip'

Not necessarily an option especially if OP is in the Czech Republic. Not even sure they have that concept of renting a console. We don't have that here.

 

[thorasgar]

This may not apply to your country.

In the US most retailers have 14-30 day return policies. So you just buy a full system, setup what you need and then return it the next day and tell the store you hated the gameplay.

 

[shinkodachi]

He's in the Czech Republic so the best is to order online as there's EU wide consumer law that gives him a 14 day return window. The exception is that the Wi U may not be activated but that's not a problem here.

 

[ReeceMus]

Did the lan adapter work without settings? I have the same feeling problem

 

[V10lator]

Did the lan adapter work without settings? I have the same feeling problem

It does work and there's also a way to access the settings without a gamepad... @jacobsson come here and tell about your DRC-SIM magic...

 

[jacobsson]

Hi guys. There is actually not much magic to it

I use DRC-SIM server and client on one of my old laptops, this acts both server and gamepad client (planning to migrate over to a raspberry pi Zero for the server and run the android client on my phone).

First of all, you need a linux system (at least for the server side), preferably Debian-based such as Ubuntu.

NOTE: I have not tried a virtual machine for this, could be a possibility!
I've tested WSL (aka Ubuntu bash in windows), I had no control over my WLAN card there so it was a no go.

DRC-SIM server: Install
Prerequisites:

• Linux computer with 5GHz wlan
• curl: sudo apt-get install curl

1. Checkout the DRC-SIM repo on github
2. Run the curl install script targeting the dev branch listed here (note: use the dev branch!):
   curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rolandoislas/drc-sim/develop/install.sh | sudo bash -s develop

If all is good you can now start the application and give it permission to mess up your WLAN settings to eventually make it ad-hoc against your WiiU (you will no longer have internet access with this method).

Settings
For setting up the newly installed DRC-SIM this exellent reddit post is pretty much spot on:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WiiUHacks/comments/6krkrs/guide_wireless_screen_streaming_no_cfw_required/

The post explains what interface to choose and how to pair the device (paring is the first step of course).

NOTE: if you want internet connectivity back you can always edit your networkmanager config

• sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf
• Comment out the "unmanaged-device" row,
• Reboot the service
  sudo service network-manager restart

DRC-SIM Client: Run and connect
Prerequisites:

• java 8 (not 11), check it
  java –version (Otherwise: sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk (if java 11 pre-installed you might need to set java 8 as default JRE, google it)
• A paired and connected DRC-SIM server

1. Simply download the client java executable (.jar) from the client repo like so:
   wget https://github.com/rolandoislas/drc-sim-client/releases/download/v2.0/drc-sim-client-2.0.jar
2. Run the client: java -jar Downloads/drc-sim-client-2.0.jar
3. While the DRC-SIM server is running use the search button to find your server and connect.

NOTE: again the reddit post above is pretty spot on!

That's pretty much it guys, it might have missed some minor detail. But hey, if I managed to figure it out you will too!