Hacking Softmod Advice Request from a born-again N00b

[Deleted User]

Thanks for reading my thread.

I've been disconnected from the Wii-brew scene for a good few months and a lot of developments have happened, some of which I understand and some of which I don't. The following is my current Wii softmod setup. If you would not mind, please check out what I have installed below and then please give some advise insofar as some utilities/programs that you think I should have (and what benefits that those utilities/programs would provide). I don't mind being pointed to other threads; But, I would really appreciate a few nudges in the right direction.

- Original launch Wii OS 3.2U
- Installed HBC w/ Twilight Hack
- Installed IOS51 & Wiishop with Tona Installer (in Nov 08)
- Added Backup Loader Gamma R2 Wii Gator
- Used Waninkoko's CIOS Rev_10 installer (in May 09)
- Used Waninkoko's Firmware Upgrader to go to 4.0U
- Used Firmware-Updater_4.1 on (In July 09)
- Used Waninkoko's Rev_14 installer (Aug 09)
- Installed IOS61 & Wii Shop in (March '10)
- installed Waninkoko's cIOS rev 20 with 12411-cIOSX_rev20b-Installer on 11/14/10
- Manually updated the Homebrew Browser to 0.3.9b (Nov '10)
- Updated to Wad Manager 1.5 (Nov '10)

Today I tried to install a wiiware .wad for the first time and got the "-1029" error. So that prompts this whole "Maybe I am missing something" mindset.

So that's everything. I'm on 4.1U. I have had zero problems playing games from Configurable USB Loader, but I would like to be able to do the following:
- Access the Wii Shop channel again
- Update to the latest firmware version, if I should do that?
- Be able to install .wads for Wiiware games, etc.
- Also, I've never messed around with BootMii (I don't have it installed), should I?

Any help is SUPER appreciated. Thanks a lot, people!!

 

[Taleweaver]

I can't answer everything, but I guess modmii might fill out some blanks (that proggie is like the swiss army knife of softmodding).

-the shop channel: I don't know.
-update to the latest firmware: I strongly suggest that you don't. Anything above 4.1 is just extra anti piracy measures. Even if you don't pirate anything, it just doesn't add anything. Well...aside from IOS56. But it's better to just install that one IOS and be done with it than a whole tedious process of updating firmware and end up losing work you already did.
-there are more than one wad manager out (MMM, dop-mii or wad manager 1.7, to name a few). However, I guess you tried to use a cIOS (I think wad manager 1.5 is only able to use 249) that isn't able to install wads. You need to install and use one with a base of 37 or 38 (perhaps other base IOS'es work as well...dunno for sure).
-an easy answer: YES. It is VERY required (as well as installing priiloader). And also get to know it good enough to make a backup of your nand before actually doing things like installing wads. The reason is simple: if you accidentally install a wad with a bad banner, you will brick your wii. Without bootmii (or priiloader), there is no way to recover from it (okay, not ENTIRELY true...but with those things installed it's easy and requires no other purchases).

 

[mauifrog]

error 1029 is caused by base 57 on older wadmanagers. Use wm 1.7 or MMM, or YAWMM to install wads.

 

[qwertymodo]

Install a clean IOS58 without any patches (yes, the redundancy was intentional). You can use Tantric's IOS58 Installer, or DOP-Mii, but with DOP-Mii be sure to say no to all patches. After you install IOS58, update HBC. If you've already updated HBC before installing IOS58, reinstall it after installing IOS58. Beyond that, you can update your cIOS and Gamma Loader is superceded by NeoGamma (I believe v9 is the latest). If you feel like getting into USB loading, WiiFlow is hands-down the nicest one out there. I would also suggest NOT formatting your HD to WBFS, as you can run games from FAT32/NTFS perfectly fine. For FAT32, you would need to convert your .iso's to .wbfs files using Wii Game Manager (I suggest the subdirectories option when converting). Also check out the current state of emulation on the Wii. NES/SNES/GB(C/A) emulation is nearly perfect via Tantric's emulators (FCEUgx, SNES9Xgx, and VBAgx). N64 emulation is coming along nicely as well with Wii64, and some PSX games are quite playable via WiiSX.

 

[Deleted User]

Thanks very much, folks. I'll play around with your suggestions.