f f f f fck you you irish cunt! (inbred twats)kimikal27 said:swf3 said:afif95 said:No it isn't. Probably it is known to kill wiis to retards like you.
Stop flaming Softmii and stop trolling the GBATemp.net Forums.
---------------------------------------------------------------
To Topic Creator, you've create triple/double threads. I answered in one of them and I shall repeat it again:
Read the Homebrew Starter's Guide. Good Luck!
EDIT: To be frank, having both would be the best combo. Reasons:
1)Certain games needs IOSes to run. And if you're one of those who got their Wii chipped from a retailer, you are told to NOT update your Wii, hence, you are not able to run certain games and result to sending your Wii back to the retailer and pay them for something that is supposed to be FREE.
2)Old games like Red Steel can't be run on Softmod alone (Correct me if I'm wrong).
3)6x speed on backups. Probably not major but if you play Wario Land or some other games, they will stutter/slow-down due to the 3x speed of backup running (If you're heading for Softmod only that is).
4)Chip = Almost 100% Compatibility (Due to games that need certain IOSes)
Softmod = Almost 100% Compatibility (Due to old games which cannot be run)
Both = 100% Compatibility (Old games will run and you can easily run games that need certain IOSes)
wow your a bully! calling me a retard its a fact what i said as for you keep on bullying like a big man you are
man ...
he is right
you ARE a retard
just funking stop blaming softmii for your incompetence you dumb ass, I'm sick and tired of you troll posts
go eat some potatoes or shot a cop
you fuck whit!
softmii kills wiis
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swf3 said:f f f f fck you you irish cunt! (inbred twats)kimikal27 said:swf3 said:afif95 said:No it isn't. Probably it is known to kill wiis to retards like you.
Stop flaming Softmii and stop trolling the GBATemp.net Forums.
---------------------------------------------------------------
To Topic Creator, you've create triple/double threads. I answered in one of them and I shall repeat it again:
Read the Homebrew Starter's Guide. Good Luck!
EDIT: To be frank, having both would be the best combo. Reasons:
1)Certain games needs IOSes to run. And if you're one of those who got their Wii chipped from a retailer, you are told to NOT update your Wii, hence, you are not able to run certain games and result to sending your Wii back to the retailer and pay them for something that is supposed to be FREE.
2)Old games like Red Steel can't be run on Softmod alone (Correct me if I'm wrong).
3)6x speed on backups. Probably not major but if you play Wario Land or some other games, they will stutter/slow-down due to the 3x speed of backup running (If you're heading for Softmod only that is).
4)Chip = Almost 100% Compatibility (Due to games that need certain IOSes)
Softmod = Almost 100% Compatibility (Due to old games which cannot be run)
Both = 100% Compatibility (Old games will run and you can easily run games that need certain IOSes)
wow your a bully! calling me a retard its a fact what i said as for you keep on bullying like a big man you are
man ...
he is right
you ARE a retard
just funking stop blaming softmii for your incompetence you dumb ass, I'm sick and tired of you troll posts
go eat some potatoes or shot a cop
you fuck whit!
I'm not Irish man, i just live here, and all the Irish that i know have learned how to properly mod there wii and to type as well...
STOP BEING A TROLL CUZ YOU KNOW IT WAS YOUR FAULT AND NOT SOFTMII
ps: look at those fingers in the left, they are for you , and stop sending me PM's calling me names, you will get a ban for that
kimikal27 said:swf3 said:f f f f fck you you irish cunt! (inbred twats)kimikal27 said:swf3 said:afif95 said:No it isn't. Probably it is known to kill wiis to retards like you.
Stop flaming Softmii and stop trolling the GBATemp.net Forums.
---------------------------------------------------------------
To Topic Creator, you've create triple/double threads. I answered in one of them and I shall repeat it again:
Read the Homebrew Starter's Guide. Good Luck!
EDIT: To be frank, having both would be the best combo. Reasons:
1)Certain games needs IOSes to run. And if you're one of those who got their Wii chipped from a retailer, you are told to NOT update your Wii, hence, you are not able to run certain games and result to sending your Wii back to the retailer and pay them for something that is supposed to be FREE.
2)Old games like Red Steel can't be run on Softmod alone (Correct me if I'm wrong).
3)6x speed on backups. Probably not major but if you play Wario Land or some other games, they will stutter/slow-down due to the 3x speed of backup running (If you're heading for Softmod only that is).
4)Chip = Almost 100% Compatibility (Due to games that need certain IOSes)
Softmod = Almost 100% Compatibility (Due to old games which cannot be run)
Both = 100% Compatibility (Old games will run and you can easily run games that need certain IOSes)
wow your a bully! calling me a retard its a fact what i said as for you keep on bullying like a big man you are
man ...
he is right
you ARE a retard
just funking stop blaming softmii for your incompetence you dumb ass, I'm sick and tired of you troll posts
go eat some potatoes or shot a cop
you fuck whit!
I'm not Irish man, i just live here, and all the Irish that i know have learned how to properly mod there wii and to type as well...
STOP BEING A TROLL CUZ YOU KNOW IT WAS YOUR FAULT AND NOT SOFTMII
ps: look at those fingers in the left, they are for you , and stop sending me PM's calling me names, you will get a ban for that
have never once said it wasn`t my fualt have i? no
stop picking on pepole (with Dyslexia) that bullying when you say im a retard
swf3 said:
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=134...p;#entry1762828
My problem is why are you Spamming in all the threads?? Why can't you just let it go? Have you ever fixed your Wii yet? i dont think you've let anyone try to help you fix your wii read the thread people does it look like he even tried to unbrick his wii NO i dont think it does, So how did you brick your Wii?? Why doesn't your wii have preloader installed if you installed Softmii?? I'm wondering if you bricked your Wii at all???
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Everyone back on topic. If you do not like a post, report it, don't respond to it.
Responding only increases crap I have to remove and further derails the topic.
Responding only increases crap I have to remove and further derails the topic.
Which modchips require the least soldering?
I don't mind dismantling my Wii, but I'm not that good at soldering and I don't want a bricked Wii.
A semi-noobish question:
After installing the Homebrew Channel, will I ever need the Twilight Princess disk again? I only want to rent it since I don't have the game and don't know anyone who does.
I don't mind dismantling my Wii, but I'm not that good at soldering and I don't want a bricked Wii.
A semi-noobish question:
After installing the Homebrew Channel, will I ever need the Twilight Princess disk again? I only want to rent it since I don't have the game and don't know anyone who does.
Zowayix said:
well the new flatcable chips are very easy to install, no soldering at all. You just plug a cable and that's it. But these chips are limited to 3x reading, just like softmods.
D
Deleted User
Guest
i did both soft and hard mod, i get the wonderfulness of the softmod at 6x speed. can't beat it!
Going for the summary of the thread by triggering:
<b>Wii piracy masterclass.</b>
First if money, time and effort is no object it is the hardmod every time.
So you want to play wii games and not use official discs, if not close this and have some flash games to pass the time ( <a href="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/bloxorz" target="_blank">http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/bloxorz</a> ).
You will need to know a few things, I omit serious detail on subjects if I only need to make a point.
The wii, a console by Nintendo largely based on gamecube architecture. It has some fairly serious security but Nintendo borked it hard and we can more or less do what we like to the system.
Games come on discs which are read by a drive.
This drive also does authentication so by hacking the drive we can run discs that are not made for the wii.
Know that you can swap drives at will as they are not tied to a console.
<b>Hardmod</b>
We can not reprogram the drive directly so we need to attach a chip to the drive, the original drives have a nice debugging serial port inbuilt so we hook onto that using simple electronics to tell the drive everything is official when it is not. This would be the DMS, d2a and d2b drives.
Later drives removed this in various ways but we can still hook into various things using slightly more complex chips. This is the d2c and various subtypes and some of the following types.
Even later drives blocked these either by blocking access with epoxy (see unpotting <a href="http://kevtris.org/Projects/votraxpss/unpot.html" target="_blank">http://kevtris.org/Projects/votraxpss/unpot.html</a> ) or by integrating the various chips into one leaving no input method (you probably could uncover the chip and go in that way but thus far nobody has and it is not a simple technique but any means) but there are still methods in the form of cable chips if you do not want to unpot the device or it is an internal chip.
The chips that attach directly to the drive are known as drivechips, those that attach to the cable are known as cable chips.
The flatcable chips are the exception here, aside from flatmii (more on that in a second) they are essentially softmod on a chip (and so do not have the update pitfalls of the softmod but are otherwise the same).
Flatmii is a drive emulator, it acts exactly like an official drive in all respects (not sure about GC audio streaming) but uses your computer and the internal hardware to do the emulation. At this time flatmii does not work like the other cable chips above and while it has the option to allow you to leave an official drive in there the official drive will be untouched (you need a chip/softmod to use it to run copied games).
Re soldering: we have to ask what version you have ( <a href="http://www.wiidrives.com/list" target="_blank">http://www.wiidrives.com/list</a> is a start), the first three (dms, d2a and d2b*) are trivial to solder.
*d2b chips have a phase of using cut pins but the newer chips use alternative points for cut pin d2b.
I do not think there are any commercially available "clip on" chips for earlier drives but they are incredibly simple to do.
The first d2c chips were 20 odd wire messes but this was cut down and clip on devices were made. You may have to solder or otherwise join wires together but if you can not do that then you probably lack the coordination to play games.
The wii also included a hidden ability to tell the drive to read the disc regardless of what the inbuilt authentication said. It is however limited in a place that can not be reached by software (adding some hardware to bypass it would kind of defeat the object) to 3x read speed (the stock drive runs at 6x which causes some games which need to load rapidly or are coded to think that the game is loading at 6x to mess up, slow down or stutter on video/audio). This is the principle used by the cable chips that are not flatmii and softmods.
<b>Softmod:</b> softmods stem from homebrew so you only need twilight princess only once (well one sitting anyway), if you have a flatmii or access to a chipped drive you can use that and you do not even need to source a disc.
In general softmods are better than nothing and can play most games with ease and nearly all games with a bit of effort. Nintendo can and does block homebrew (which means the softmod) with updates so you need to be on your toes.
Softmods require you to update your IOS versions to hacked ones or install hacked ones. You can get versions that launch from the homebrew channel, another channel or the official disc channel.
Also worth mentioning at this time is the other channels, several different channels have been made that can do different things like cheats, patches, launching, multiple wii games per disc launching and various other things. There is nothing stopping you from using these channels with official discs even.
To further understand softmods read the rest of this and then <b>softmods part 2</b> below.
<b>Updates</b>
Officially updates come in disc form and they come in online form, you can probably also do it offline with homebrew if you really want but you would only want to do such things when initially messing with stuff.
You can block disc updates in two main ways.
1. As well as telling if a disc is official there are also provisions on the wii to tell if code is too (signing the code).
Not all the disc is signed and this includes the header which has limited region information and more importantly here info on whether an update is contained. Changing this tricks the wii into thinking there is no update. You can do this by
1) Changing the bit on the iso before you burn it. This is the principle behind the early brickblocker.
2) Using a drive chip to send the "wrong" data to the wii. Same idea as the brickblocker.
3) Launching from a channel that pays no attention to the update bit or modding your wii to ignore it entirely (starfall amongst other things can do this). Several of these exist.
2. Removing the update from the disc entirely. You can use wiiscrubber for this, naturally this messes up the signing on the disc requiring your wii to be able to dodge it.
Updates are a tricky thing for another reason in that different regions use the same signing and so will run but will install new channels and can mess things up (in a stock wii other regions will not run). The original way was to wait for an update from your region, today we can use homebrew to fix it.
Online updates, your wii has a feature called connect24 that tells you when a new update is available but it does NOT push it on your wii. We suggest you turn this off as it has no advantages for hackers and although you do not have to update someone might anyway (the little brother scenario).
You can also update manually by going into the menu and choosing to check for updates, we can not block this (we might be able to but nobody has bothered to go hunting for it yet).
Sometimes using the shop channels and the like can ask you to update, we also suggest you do not do this.
<b>Wii layout.</b>
The wii is a fairly complex device but it works as follows:
IOS modules: there are mini operating systems of sorts used by games and the wii in general to access the hardware and there are many of them. Different games use different IOS versions. These IOS modules can also be upgraded and indeed some have been to block bugs we use.
Security, the wii uses several keys to do various things ( <a href="http://hackmii.com/2008/04/keys-keys-keys/" target="_blank">http://hackmii.com/2008/04/keys-keys-keys/</a> ) including sign code (to check it is the same as it was when Nintendo saw it). To do anything fun like changing isos to use different models and whatnot we have to sign the code as Nintendo did.
However we can not do this owing to the signing process being "one way" (I will leave the mathematics of RSA for another day, or you can read here <a href="http://mathcircle.berkeley.edu/BMC3/rsa/node6.html" target="_blank">http://mathcircle.berkeley.edu/BMC3/rsa/node6.html</a> ), Nintendo managed to mess it up in earlier versions and so we can trick the wii into thinking it has been signed. This is the so called trucha bug.
Later versions fixed this bug and the IOS modules that we targeted by it were fixed. We can however downgrade them to earlier versions (the homebrew channel can still be installed and a fair bit of homebrew can be run still) but we need an IOS module that was unaffected.
Step in IOS16 (usually going by the name "ios16-64-v257-prod.wad"), this is a module used only in the disc Nintendo uses to fix wii consoles but as of the current update it has not been fixed (edit for 4.0 it was fixed, for earlier all previous versions you could use it. In my opinion there is absolutely no reason to update to 4.0 as everything it provided can and is provided by other methods). IOS downgrader is the app of choice to fix accidentally updated IOS modules.
Also worth mentioning are the 001 and 002 piracy detections, certain games have checks for chips in them and may not work with certain chips. There exists chip updates, software hacks and loader hacks to bypass these issues.
<b>Wii menu.</b>
The wii has a menu that loads shortly after boot (but not immediately, see bootmii and preloader later on).
This menu has so called channels that are used as a frontend to do various things. Official channels exist as do homebrew ones. The homebrew channel is the name of a channel that works as a launcher for homebrew code (you can use nework, the SD port or stuff like the USB gecko*). You do not need to install normal homebrew as a channel but some like the convenience (some homebrew like the linux ports and linux based apps can not work in channel form but there are loaders so you can have a channel).
*the USB gecko is an adapter for the gamecube memory ports that allows you to stream code from your PC to the wii as well as send data back. They are fairly cheap and quite useful but far from essential.
The shop channel and some other official channels check for updates and you often need the current version to for it to work. This would have meant updating the wii but for some talented types who pull the updated channels and their associated backend from the updates and get them working on earlier versions of the system menu.
The system menu that has been most hacked is 3.2, while you can use later versions it is very complex and has no advantages at all as well as the disadvantage of being unable to use many of the existing hacks.
bootmii and preloader.
Bootmii and preloader are two hacks that allow you to launch things before the system menu loads, bootmii is unreleased and is more extensive and low level. Preloader is a kludge (renames the system menu and initially loads a dummy menu which can be nearly anything you like instead). As far as most end users are concerned they do the same thing, when it is released though bootmii will render preloader obsolete but for anything that has not been ported over (I expect a weeks lag at most).
For giggles, save games.
These are stored on the NAND section, the menu can copy them to SD cards but some games block this. The do it by having a simple flag in the save, you can either edit this flag, the game or use an app that ignores it.
<b>VC and wiiware</b>
The wii features emulators for older systems (called virtual console) and you can buy these old games from the shopping channel.
It also features games and tools made especially for the wii called wiiware that work in the same way.
They are used from the internal NAND section which is very limited in space (the whole thing is 512 megabytes but a fair bit is taken for IOS modules and other system things).
These are gathered up into wad form (wad is a just a packaging format like a zip file or a rar file or a .tgz/tar.gz but has some extra info required for use with the wii) and used throughout the wii and end users can install them.
Wadmanager is the tool of choice here for installing and removing wads, you can use anytitle deleter for removal but it is a bit trickier unless you know what is what (or the app does).
If a VC/wiiware app resets/blackscreens then the usual cause is your wii does not have the necessary IOS module, if you find it and install it then you should be good.
Note that the system menu has little to no error resilience and will mess up if you install a bad wad (hence preloader and bootmii allowing you to dodge this by being able to boot) a bad wad can mess things up, see:
<a href="http://savemii.net/troubleshooting.html" target="_blank">http://savemii.net/troubleshooting.html</a>
Note you do not need a savemii dongle, you can make one (it is a GC pad pressing all four directions at once, use a dance pad or a controller and join things) or you can use starfall to change this so only the "y" button needs to be pressed on boot.
<b>Region locking.</b>
Like most consoles before it and indeed parts of the 360 the wii is region locked in that your Japanese wii can only play Japanese games, you US wii can only play.......
This applies to discs, updates (note the thing above on updates and breaking the wii) and wiiware/VC games.
Games:
Two main ways.
Earlier ways used a section of the header similar to the brickblocking above. This works perhaps 33% of the time. This is the method chips use to try and make region free happen.
Once homebrew appeared there was stuff like gecko OS (the software behind the USB gecko but it works without it)
Around the same time you could also hack region changes/languages and whatnot into the ISO.
Today most menu hacks and tools mean region free is near flawless.
Updates. I mention this only as it allows you to turn a different region wii into another region, the tool of choice is anyregion changer (which you probably used earlier to get 3.2).
VC/wiiware is often region locked, you can unlock it most of the time using the following guide and tools:
<a href="http://www.gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=86211" target="_blank">http://www.gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=86211</a>
You can also hack the menu with starfall and that works most of the time.
<b>Softmods part 2</b>
If you have read the above and understand it now comes the softmod revisited section of this.
The IOS system controls most things on the wii, this includes the DVD drive which the softmod exploits. A game may use any IOS but for various reasons it is beneficial on occasion to have an IOS geared towards softmodded games, some have hacked existing IOS modules but this causes a lot of fallout if you are not careful and a load of headaches so people use a custom IOS module installed as one of the last numbers available (usually IOS 249 or something)
Also mentioning gamecube games.
The gamecube mode is essentially a hypervisor which is also an IOS of sorts called mios. People have hacked these to allow copied GC games to work, these are definitely not as good as chips although we are presently in very early stages.
Also several GC games have audio that streams from a disc, lack of audio streaming can mess up a game or kill sound for it. Alas some of the best games the GC had use it ( <a href="http://wiki.nintendo-scene.com/Audio_Fix" target="_blank">http://wiki.nintendo-scene.com/Audio_Fix</a> ) so be forewarned.
Most chips are OK with audio streaming at some level but softmods have a bit of a problem at present.
You can fix it by hacking but it is a kludge and I would not rely upon it for much. fstfix <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=631" target="_blank">http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=631</a> is the tool.
<b>Ultimate hacked wii</b>
flatmii
drivechip
USB gecko
softmod related apps.
preloader/bootmii
Everything else is up to you or is just customisation. Check the stickied/popular threads for up to date info.
<b>Wii piracy masterclass.</b>
First if money, time and effort is no object it is the hardmod every time.
So you want to play wii games and not use official discs, if not close this and have some flash games to pass the time ( <a href="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/bloxorz" target="_blank">http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/bloxorz</a> ).
You will need to know a few things, I omit serious detail on subjects if I only need to make a point.
The wii, a console by Nintendo largely based on gamecube architecture. It has some fairly serious security but Nintendo borked it hard and we can more or less do what we like to the system.
Games come on discs which are read by a drive.
This drive also does authentication so by hacking the drive we can run discs that are not made for the wii.
Know that you can swap drives at will as they are not tied to a console.
<b>Hardmod</b>
We can not reprogram the drive directly so we need to attach a chip to the drive, the original drives have a nice debugging serial port inbuilt so we hook onto that using simple electronics to tell the drive everything is official when it is not. This would be the DMS, d2a and d2b drives.
Later drives removed this in various ways but we can still hook into various things using slightly more complex chips. This is the d2c and various subtypes and some of the following types.
Even later drives blocked these either by blocking access with epoxy (see unpotting <a href="http://kevtris.org/Projects/votraxpss/unpot.html" target="_blank">http://kevtris.org/Projects/votraxpss/unpot.html</a> ) or by integrating the various chips into one leaving no input method (you probably could uncover the chip and go in that way but thus far nobody has and it is not a simple technique but any means) but there are still methods in the form of cable chips if you do not want to unpot the device or it is an internal chip.
The chips that attach directly to the drive are known as drivechips, those that attach to the cable are known as cable chips.
The flatcable chips are the exception here, aside from flatmii (more on that in a second) they are essentially softmod on a chip (and so do not have the update pitfalls of the softmod but are otherwise the same).
Flatmii is a drive emulator, it acts exactly like an official drive in all respects (not sure about GC audio streaming) but uses your computer and the internal hardware to do the emulation. At this time flatmii does not work like the other cable chips above and while it has the option to allow you to leave an official drive in there the official drive will be untouched (you need a chip/softmod to use it to run copied games).
Re soldering: we have to ask what version you have ( <a href="http://www.wiidrives.com/list" target="_blank">http://www.wiidrives.com/list</a> is a start), the first three (dms, d2a and d2b*) are trivial to solder.
*d2b chips have a phase of using cut pins but the newer chips use alternative points for cut pin d2b.
I do not think there are any commercially available "clip on" chips for earlier drives but they are incredibly simple to do.
The first d2c chips were 20 odd wire messes but this was cut down and clip on devices were made. You may have to solder or otherwise join wires together but if you can not do that then you probably lack the coordination to play games.
The wii also included a hidden ability to tell the drive to read the disc regardless of what the inbuilt authentication said. It is however limited in a place that can not be reached by software (adding some hardware to bypass it would kind of defeat the object) to 3x read speed (the stock drive runs at 6x which causes some games which need to load rapidly or are coded to think that the game is loading at 6x to mess up, slow down or stutter on video/audio). This is the principle used by the cable chips that are not flatmii and softmods.
<b>Softmod:</b> softmods stem from homebrew so you only need twilight princess only once (well one sitting anyway), if you have a flatmii or access to a chipped drive you can use that and you do not even need to source a disc.
In general softmods are better than nothing and can play most games with ease and nearly all games with a bit of effort. Nintendo can and does block homebrew (which means the softmod) with updates so you need to be on your toes.
Softmods require you to update your IOS versions to hacked ones or install hacked ones. You can get versions that launch from the homebrew channel, another channel or the official disc channel.
Also worth mentioning at this time is the other channels, several different channels have been made that can do different things like cheats, patches, launching, multiple wii games per disc launching and various other things. There is nothing stopping you from using these channels with official discs even.
To further understand softmods read the rest of this and then <b>softmods part 2</b> below.
<b>Updates</b>
Officially updates come in disc form and they come in online form, you can probably also do it offline with homebrew if you really want but you would only want to do such things when initially messing with stuff.
You can block disc updates in two main ways.
1. As well as telling if a disc is official there are also provisions on the wii to tell if code is too (signing the code).
Not all the disc is signed and this includes the header which has limited region information and more importantly here info on whether an update is contained. Changing this tricks the wii into thinking there is no update. You can do this by
1) Changing the bit on the iso before you burn it. This is the principle behind the early brickblocker.
2) Using a drive chip to send the "wrong" data to the wii. Same idea as the brickblocker.
3) Launching from a channel that pays no attention to the update bit or modding your wii to ignore it entirely (starfall amongst other things can do this). Several of these exist.
2. Removing the update from the disc entirely. You can use wiiscrubber for this, naturally this messes up the signing on the disc requiring your wii to be able to dodge it.
Updates are a tricky thing for another reason in that different regions use the same signing and so will run but will install new channels and can mess things up (in a stock wii other regions will not run). The original way was to wait for an update from your region, today we can use homebrew to fix it.
Online updates, your wii has a feature called connect24 that tells you when a new update is available but it does NOT push it on your wii. We suggest you turn this off as it has no advantages for hackers and although you do not have to update someone might anyway (the little brother scenario).
You can also update manually by going into the menu and choosing to check for updates, we can not block this (we might be able to but nobody has bothered to go hunting for it yet).
Sometimes using the shop channels and the like can ask you to update, we also suggest you do not do this.
<b>Wii layout.</b>
The wii is a fairly complex device but it works as follows:
IOS modules: there are mini operating systems of sorts used by games and the wii in general to access the hardware and there are many of them. Different games use different IOS versions. These IOS modules can also be upgraded and indeed some have been to block bugs we use.
Security, the wii uses several keys to do various things ( <a href="http://hackmii.com/2008/04/keys-keys-keys/" target="_blank">http://hackmii.com/2008/04/keys-keys-keys/</a> ) including sign code (to check it is the same as it was when Nintendo saw it). To do anything fun like changing isos to use different models and whatnot we have to sign the code as Nintendo did.
However we can not do this owing to the signing process being "one way" (I will leave the mathematics of RSA for another day, or you can read here <a href="http://mathcircle.berkeley.edu/BMC3/rsa/node6.html" target="_blank">http://mathcircle.berkeley.edu/BMC3/rsa/node6.html</a> ), Nintendo managed to mess it up in earlier versions and so we can trick the wii into thinking it has been signed. This is the so called trucha bug.
Later versions fixed this bug and the IOS modules that we targeted by it were fixed. We can however downgrade them to earlier versions (the homebrew channel can still be installed and a fair bit of homebrew can be run still) but we need an IOS module that was unaffected.
Step in IOS16 (usually going by the name "ios16-64-v257-prod.wad"), this is a module used only in the disc Nintendo uses to fix wii consoles but as of the current update it has not been fixed (edit for 4.0 it was fixed, for earlier all previous versions you could use it. In my opinion there is absolutely no reason to update to 4.0 as everything it provided can and is provided by other methods). IOS downgrader is the app of choice to fix accidentally updated IOS modules.
Also worth mentioning are the 001 and 002 piracy detections, certain games have checks for chips in them and may not work with certain chips. There exists chip updates, software hacks and loader hacks to bypass these issues.
<b>Wii menu.</b>
The wii has a menu that loads shortly after boot (but not immediately, see bootmii and preloader later on).
This menu has so called channels that are used as a frontend to do various things. Official channels exist as do homebrew ones. The homebrew channel is the name of a channel that works as a launcher for homebrew code (you can use nework, the SD port or stuff like the USB gecko*). You do not need to install normal homebrew as a channel but some like the convenience (some homebrew like the linux ports and linux based apps can not work in channel form but there are loaders so you can have a channel).
*the USB gecko is an adapter for the gamecube memory ports that allows you to stream code from your PC to the wii as well as send data back. They are fairly cheap and quite useful but far from essential.
The shop channel and some other official channels check for updates and you often need the current version to for it to work. This would have meant updating the wii but for some talented types who pull the updated channels and their associated backend from the updates and get them working on earlier versions of the system menu.
The system menu that has been most hacked is 3.2, while you can use later versions it is very complex and has no advantages at all as well as the disadvantage of being unable to use many of the existing hacks.
bootmii and preloader.
Bootmii and preloader are two hacks that allow you to launch things before the system menu loads, bootmii is unreleased and is more extensive and low level. Preloader is a kludge (renames the system menu and initially loads a dummy menu which can be nearly anything you like instead). As far as most end users are concerned they do the same thing, when it is released though bootmii will render preloader obsolete but for anything that has not been ported over (I expect a weeks lag at most).
For giggles, save games.
These are stored on the NAND section, the menu can copy them to SD cards but some games block this. The do it by having a simple flag in the save, you can either edit this flag, the game or use an app that ignores it.
<b>VC and wiiware</b>
The wii features emulators for older systems (called virtual console) and you can buy these old games from the shopping channel.
It also features games and tools made especially for the wii called wiiware that work in the same way.
They are used from the internal NAND section which is very limited in space (the whole thing is 512 megabytes but a fair bit is taken for IOS modules and other system things).
These are gathered up into wad form (wad is a just a packaging format like a zip file or a rar file or a .tgz/tar.gz but has some extra info required for use with the wii) and used throughout the wii and end users can install them.
Wadmanager is the tool of choice here for installing and removing wads, you can use anytitle deleter for removal but it is a bit trickier unless you know what is what (or the app does).
If a VC/wiiware app resets/blackscreens then the usual cause is your wii does not have the necessary IOS module, if you find it and install it then you should be good.
Note that the system menu has little to no error resilience and will mess up if you install a bad wad (hence preloader and bootmii allowing you to dodge this by being able to boot) a bad wad can mess things up, see:
<a href="http://savemii.net/troubleshooting.html" target="_blank">http://savemii.net/troubleshooting.html</a>
Note you do not need a savemii dongle, you can make one (it is a GC pad pressing all four directions at once, use a dance pad or a controller and join things) or you can use starfall to change this so only the "y" button needs to be pressed on boot.
<b>Region locking.</b>
Like most consoles before it and indeed parts of the 360 the wii is region locked in that your Japanese wii can only play Japanese games, you US wii can only play.......
This applies to discs, updates (note the thing above on updates and breaking the wii) and wiiware/VC games.
Games:
Two main ways.
Earlier ways used a section of the header similar to the brickblocking above. This works perhaps 33% of the time. This is the method chips use to try and make region free happen.
Once homebrew appeared there was stuff like gecko OS (the software behind the USB gecko but it works without it)
Around the same time you could also hack region changes/languages and whatnot into the ISO.
Today most menu hacks and tools mean region free is near flawless.
Updates. I mention this only as it allows you to turn a different region wii into another region, the tool of choice is anyregion changer (which you probably used earlier to get 3.2).
VC/wiiware is often region locked, you can unlock it most of the time using the following guide and tools:
<a href="http://www.gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=86211" target="_blank">http://www.gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=86211</a>
You can also hack the menu with starfall and that works most of the time.
<b>Softmods part 2</b>
If you have read the above and understand it now comes the softmod revisited section of this.
The IOS system controls most things on the wii, this includes the DVD drive which the softmod exploits. A game may use any IOS but for various reasons it is beneficial on occasion to have an IOS geared towards softmodded games, some have hacked existing IOS modules but this causes a lot of fallout if you are not careful and a load of headaches so people use a custom IOS module installed as one of the last numbers available (usually IOS 249 or something)
Also mentioning gamecube games.
The gamecube mode is essentially a hypervisor which is also an IOS of sorts called mios. People have hacked these to allow copied GC games to work, these are definitely not as good as chips although we are presently in very early stages.
Also several GC games have audio that streams from a disc, lack of audio streaming can mess up a game or kill sound for it. Alas some of the best games the GC had use it ( <a href="http://wiki.nintendo-scene.com/Audio_Fix" target="_blank">http://wiki.nintendo-scene.com/Audio_Fix</a> ) so be forewarned.
Most chips are OK with audio streaming at some level but softmods have a bit of a problem at present.
You can fix it by hacking but it is a kludge and I would not rely upon it for much. fstfix <a href="http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=631" target="_blank">http://gbatemp.net/index.php?download=631</a> is the tool.
<b>Ultimate hacked wii</b>
flatmii
drivechip
USB gecko
softmod related apps.
preloader/bootmii
Everything else is up to you or is just customisation. Check the stickied/popular threads for up to date info.
FenrirWolf said:
I'm not trying to troll, but I see what kind of mistake i made. Sorry if you got confused about this... *cringe*
And any way, on topic: With the new 4.0 system update, be sure to install the homebrew channel before you install the new update.
That was an amazingly helpful post fast6191. Cleared up a lot of questions I had...and I've been reading around for a week now. It should really be a sticky.
Thank you!
Thank you!
Might as well ask the question I had asked on the noob thread here (no reply there)...
I'm getting a new Wii and it'll most likely be 3.4U so is it really necessary to downgrade to 3.2U? I've learnt that 3.2 has the most functionality when it comes to hacking but is that because 3.4 is relatively newer - what I mean is will the 3.4U later on become as good as or better than 3.2 for hackers?
Also, I've heard of the auto updating possiblity on the 3.4 wii - is this the MAIN problem with 3.4 and if so, is there a way to prevent this?
I'm getting a new Wii and it'll most likely be 3.4U so is it really necessary to downgrade to 3.2U? I've learnt that 3.2 has the most functionality when it comes to hacking but is that because 3.4 is relatively newer - what I mean is will the 3.4U later on become as good as or better than 3.2 for hackers?
Also, I've heard of the auto updating possiblity on the 3.4 wii - is this the MAIN problem with 3.4 and if so, is there a way to prevent this?
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