Hacking SSBB Working without Dual channels or 15% trick

[Prophet]

First and foremost big thanks to bailli for his patcher, which started me to working at this and big thanks to FoxMcClaud for all his help along the way. Oh and the trucha signer authors, couldn't have done it without them.

By changing some lines in the SSBB .inf it is now possible to avoid dual channels and skip the 15% trick. Not sure if it's allowed here to post the modified .INF or not, so I'm going to have to wait for some sort of OK from the mods before I do. My system did update, however the update bar filled right to the middle then right to the end. It seems that my firmware has remained 3.1U. Seems this happens anyway.

Sorry for the bad quality pics, but I was rushing and frankly suprised that a good 5 hours of work actually produced something.

A bit of a helping hand.

Firstly, here's a great Tutorial for getting everything set to replace the nesseray file. Props to IBNobody

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?act=ST&f=...=76657&st=0

Here's my modified .INF http://www.filefactory.com/file/6672f5
(Mirrors, thanks Phil :: CSF) http://rapidshare.com/files/98553240/ProphSSBB.inf or http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ANRG9386


The file that you are replacing resides on the first partition /root

Edit: after trying to recreate my results on a clean .iso I ran into a error code 6 in the signer. Not sure if this is happening for anyone else but just incase I have found a fix. Read on.

Quick Tutorial:

1. Open your SSBB iso in the trucha signer

2. navigate to the /root folder in located on the first partition.

3. Right click the __update.inf then choose EXTRACT TO FILE. No idea why this step is needed but it avoids an error 6 in the next step so just save this .inf anywhere; you won't be needing it again.

4. Now Right click the __update.inf again and choose REPLACE. Within the prompt, navigate to where you saved ProphSSBB.inf and select it.

5. Should go through and give a success message. Now right click the partition icon and click Trucha sign it! I Signed both partitions for the heck of it, you should too.

6. Don't forget to region frii.

7. Burn.

8. Go boot her up, when prompted let it update FULLY.

9. Enjoy SSBB without the Dual channels or risk of bricking your wii.


Edit: Works for the Ntsc realease on Pal systems, Great little guide by Rodak http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=77946&st=0

 

[Tomobobo]

I'm wondering about the update.inf. I see it links to files on the sys dir, so what did you end up doing? Did you just blank the update.inf file?

 

[ProdigySim]

Very nice job!

Did you remove the update.inf's contents entirely, copy it over from another game, or just edit it to remove the files that would be problematic?

That's really cool. Wish I didn't semi-brick my wii!

 

[Prophet]

Not completely, I blanked everything after line 00001ed0h. The blanks continued from there and ended on line 00003c10h. I used UltraEdit, to do this. Trying to accomplish this in Notepad would be very hard.

edit - The problem with replacing files in via the Trucha Signer is that if the file replacement file is smaller then the original than lines from the original file fill-out the replacement file.

Example:

Original file: aaa123456789bbb

New File: ZZZ123XXX

Since new file is shorter results in : ZZZ123XXX789bbb

 

[JPH]

That's kickass, man.
I wouldn't think the mods would be angry if you posted the .INF file, I'm pretty sure they'd be alright with it

 

[jimmyhoffa]

Great job! If you're worried about posting the INF, could you just post instructions on what needs to be changed, or is it too complicated? An alternative would be to post an XOR file of your modified INF with the original, thus allowing people to generate the modified INF but only if they have access to the disc (thus precluding any copyright violation).

 

[Prophet]

Ok, I'll just got out on a limb here and post it. If mods want to take it down then so be it. I'm sure Bilial or a more capable individual will be able to make a patcher soon anyway. Let me upload it somewhere and i'll get you guys the link.

 

[jergens]

My system did update, however the update bar filled right to the middle then right to the end. It seems that my firmware has remained 3.1U.

Cool, but everyone's firmware still displays as 3.1U, even after applying the update, so that doesn't really tell much.
Also, I did a full update without trying to do any brick blocking or 15% trick and my update bar filled half way, then jumped to the end, so that isn't anything new either.

BUT if you really have avoided dual channels then that is pretty awesome

Because everyone still got those unfortunately...

 

[Prophet]

Here's the .INF http://www.filefactory.com/file/6672f5

Here's a great Tutorial for putting the .INF to use Props to IBNobody

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?act=ST&f=108&t=76657&st=0

I'll be on a bit longer so any problems, just let me know.

Also, I know people are naturally a bit cautious about trusting people on things like this and d/ling files as we all should be, however I've been hanging around gbatemp for 5 years I'm not a big poster but I think we can all agree I haven't been laying dormant waiting for a chance to brick your Wii.

That being said, this worked for me, it should work for you, BUT AS ALWAYS YOU TAKE FULL RESPONSIBLITY FOR WHAT EVER HAPPENS.

Thanks and hopefully someone else will be able to enjoy this.

Edit-- Don't forget to region frii.

 

[Supertag]

By comparing what was changed , I noticed part of what was zeroed was text saying "RVL-Weather-v3.wad.out.wad" and "RVL-News_JP-v7.wad.out.wad"

I believe that removing that from the file results in those duplicate channels in not being installed

 

[Prophet]

Bingo, mate.

I'm heading to bed for now, I've edited the first post with all the info and help I can supply. Hopefully I'll log on tommorow and find others are having similar sucess with this. Night folks.

 

[Dylaan]

That's awesome! Thanks a bunch! Do we still need to have the latest firmware before we run the update? If so, is it possible to modify it further so it won't brick anything? Thanks again!

 

[Dirtie]

Was it really necessary to blank out the 'non-Japanese console specific' updates

? It's only minor, but it's probably cleaner/nicer to leave those intact since they're the same in any update from any region game.

 

[jimmyhoffa]

Dirtie, do you have any evidence suggesting that any of the updates are indeed not Japanese-specific? If I had a US image file for comparison, I would look myself.

 

[Dirtie]

Dirtie, do you have any evidence suggesting that any of the updates are indeed not Japanese-specific?  If I had a US image file for comparison, I would look myself.

Comparing between Brawl (Jap) and Guitar Hero 3 (PAL).

RVL-bc-v2.wad.out.wad - identical, MD5 for both: 7AA6157D753E7A9C32C7B2361A634883
RVL-mios-v5.wad.out.wad - identical, MD5: 73197F5FB5365E5C64B2B97B968EDF28
RVL-News-v3.wad.out.wad - identical: EEB085D03661D95F87D0A3D23D12C540
RVL-NigaoeNR-v4.wad.out.wad - identical: 8D573CDD9F9B36BDCDC2A9489E8A820C
RVL-Shopping-v7.wad.out.wad - identical: 37514811F6AE318701EC789B4FA023BB
RVL-Weather-v3.wad.out.wad - identical: D8CB9E9C241FAE34FE91E5501937B273

Couldn't find another ISO with RVL-WiiSystemmenu-v256 sorry

(but it's already established these are the same as well, through the whole key retrieval thing)

As you can see, some channels have a base update, then a region-specific update on top of that. Those region-specific updates are easy to identify since they have "JP" or "EU" etc. in their names.

 

[Scorpei]

In case you guys are wondering, this is similar to the 15% trick only neater

. The 15% (probably as I don't think anyone ever really checked) trick runs the installer on the files still in your modified .inf. When you turn off the power after 15% the installer is then working / starting the install of the system files. A little explanation:

RVL-bc-v2.wad.out.wad - identical, MD5 for both: 7AA6157D753E7A9C32C7B2361A634883
RVL-mios-v5.wad.out.wad - identical, MD5: 73197F5FB5365E5C64B2B97B968EDF28
RVL-News-v3.wad.out.wad - identical: EEB085D03661D95F87D0A3D23D12C540
RVL-NigaoeNR-v4.wad.out.wad - identical: 8D573CDD9F9B36BDCDC2A9489E8A820C
RVL-Shopping-v7.wad.out.wad - identical: 37514811F6AE318701EC789B4FA023BB
RVL-Weather-v3.wad.out.wad - identical: D8CB9E9C241FAE34FE91E5501937B273

These are all 'firmware' files made for updating the Wii menu and so forth.

IOS***.wad*

These are files that are for the starlet. There are many different versions of the IOS. Games use different versions. When you only keep those IOS files in your inf file the update from SMB doesn't update your Wii's 'firmware' but only the IOS codes are added that weren';t there already. By keeping all the IOS files in there (you could probably even remove all of them except the latest one) SMB will fine as the IOS for the game is installed.

AFAIK

.

 

[FoxMcClaud]

Great man, thanks again! As this method will probably be the same with the US Version, all PAL Users can rejoice, we found a method to regionfree brawl, without 15% trick or dual channels!! Thanks again for bailli for the idea and prophet for his time and efford!

 

[Incoming]

This is very exciting indeed. I wonder does it work for wiifit as well?

 

[bailli]

Hey that's the kind of news you want to read when you get up ^^

I will upload a modified version of the patcher that leaves the file size
but overwrites the unneeded part with 0x00.

EDIT: So here it is: WiiUpdatePatcher 0.2

Just extract the __update.inf, patch it with my program reinsert into the ISO, and let the update run through completely.

Here's a link to my initial thoughts about the __update.inf file: Post

And here is the Borland C++ Builder 6 Source Code (if somebody gets suspicious

): Source

 

[FoxMcClaud]

This is very exciting indeed. I wonder does it work for wiifit as well?

With a bit Digging, it should work with ANY Game! Real RegionFree is here! But as this a really simple patch, it just works with games that gave you Dual Channels. And you should make every patch from ground up to the original _update.inf, just to be sure!