Hacking The Definitive vWii Hacking Guide!

[Cyan]

patching IOS80 is useful only to play installed pirated WAD on the official SD menu.

there is another, safest way to play eShop games : EmuNAND.
EmuNAND is a copy of your NAND (your Wii limited 512MB memory size) to a HDD or SD card to expand the available free space to the HDD or SD size (up to few TB instead of 512MB!)

The author of this guide always said "nobody wants to play eShop games because I don't, and everybody is doing what I am doing", so there's no written emuNAND section in his guide.
I asked him few time to write one but he always refused. that's his choice.

Edit;
Now I have time to write a quick guide.

- launch USB loader GX and go to settings > user paths > EmuNAND channel folder : by default it's sd:/nand/ you have to set it to usb1:/nand/ if you want it to USB, or choose another folder. Be sure the path is not too long or it will not work. (like .. 10 letters max?)
- go to Settings > features > Dump NAND > full > if asked select "emuNAND channel folder".
- after the dump is done, you can see your NAND copy's data by doing this : go to main screen, top menu, 4th icon, select "EmuNAND Channel". it will list the channels installed on emuNAND (the same one installed on your vWii, as you just made a copy, except it's now loaded from SD or USB, instead of your console's internal memory).

- to install a wad to emuNAND :
Settings> Features > EmuNAND WAD Manager > install > select the file or folder to install


Note that there is not 100% game compatibility. (more around 80%)
Note that d2x v10 alt is not the best for emuNAND, you should pick v10 (non alt, the r52)
Note that d2x v10 r52 doesn't work with Ustealth drives, but there exist a d2x v10 r52 Ustealth compatible version.

I accidentally updated to 5.5.2 but have xachi and HBL installed. It is secure to hack vWii now or i risk brick?

It's exactly the same procedure, except that if you want to hack vWii using WUPHax method you will use Haxchi* instead of the browser+website URL to launch the homebrew launcher.
if you hack vWii using a Wii game disc, then nothing is different.


* I'm the one who wrote the WUPHax guide on the first post, I guess I should update it to tell users they can use Haxchi if they already have it installed instead of relying on the buggy browser exploit.

Edit:
Done !
I added v5.5.2 warning to WUPhax method
I added Haxchi method to launch the homebrew launcher
I added the installed Homebrew channel method to launch itself.

 

[lafleche]

The non alt cios also works good for Wiiware and WiiVC when having emunand on SD card
The alt version has very bad compatibility

 

[Cyan]

in reality the alt version doesn't have issue with emuNAND, but with the drive itself when using emuNAND (not sure you see the difference).
if your drive works with emuNAND + r53, then all games are fine.
if your drive doesn't work, then no game will work.

You have to try, it's not definitive that r53 is not compatible with emuNAND. but r52 works better, and has a mod for UStealths that r53 doesn't have.

but it's became common to just tell user to use r52 instead. easier to fix the issue, and they don't really require r53. guides are just messing their setup for no reasons.

PS:
I'll update first post again.
I said you can't use WUPHax with 5.5.2 but that's only if you use browserhax to run homebrew launcher.
it's still fine with haxchi/CBHC.

 

[Badziew]

I'd add a warning to avoid Chinese CC/CCPro with vWii. I have Chinese CCPro and it works ok in Wii U games, but in vWii things get REALLY hairy once you launch any homebrew. In HBC, Wiimote pointer freezes in place randomly. CFG USB Loader can crash at every button press. Only Nintendont worked fine, maybe because it has custom input handling code.

 

[Cyan]

I added it in the FAQ.
(I copy/pasted some of your sentence)

 

[lafleche]

in reality the alt version doesn't have issue with emuNAND, but with the drive itself when using emuNAND (not sure you see the difference).
if your drive works with emuNAND + r53, then all games are fine.
if your drive doesn't work, then no game will work.

You have to try, it's not definitive that r53 is not compatible with emuNAND. but r52 works better, and has a mod for UStealths that r53 doesn't have.

but it's became common to just tell user to use r52 instead. easier to fix the issue, and they don't really require r53. guides are just messing their setup for no reasons.

Are you sure that r53 has no issue?
I have emunand on usb and all almost all games I tried with r53 gave me black screen. After changing to r52 they worked... so the disk drive didn't come into play at all.

But you are right. whatever works for you is fine.

 

[Cyan]

then you are in the situation where r53 doesn't work with emuNAND + your drive.

it's not emuNAND+r53 which is the issue, because it works for some users. it's really the combo r53+emuNAND+your drive.
but r52 is always the better solution. Port1 is rarely needed, unless you try to make a setup with multiple HDDs at the same time.

 

[Badziew]

I added it in the FAQ.
(I copy/pasted some of your sentence)

I'm 100% fine with this

 

[rianrev]

So i followed this guide to hack vWii on my wii u but the only thing work is nintendont if i launch wii games or gc games on usb loader gx it give me black screen i tried other backup launcher and its the same thing so basically i cant launch games from any backup loader

anyone can help me?

 

[Badziew]

So i followed this guide to hack vWii on my wii u but the only thing work is nintendont if i launch wii games or gc games on usb loader gx it give me black screen i tried other backup launcher and its the same thing so basically i cant launch games from any backup loader

anyone can help me?

Check if you use games from the proper region, vWii is not region free, so for PAL Wii U you need PAL games, and NTSC games for NTSC Wii U. You can bypass the region lock with disc games and eg. riivolution, but backups must match your console region AFAIK.

 

[lafleche]

I can run USA and Japan games (Wii and Gamecube) on my Vwii so running games on a hacked Vwii doesn't necessarily has to be of your own region.

Don't know for sure for Wiiware and WiiVC games

 

[Cyan]

wiiware/VC are also region free from the loader.
but they are not working 100%, as some games seems to work only on the correct region, others don't seems to like cIOS.

The game that users usually want to play is not working (castlevania), and think their emuNAND is broken, while it's just the first game they try which is not compatible.
for such games, you need to use NEEK, but users prefer neek2o (for autoboot feature) but there's no official release for NEEK2o vWii.
there is only a leaked (illegal, precompiled, containing nintendo's IOS data) version floating around. the setup is the same as Wii, you copy the sneek folder on your USB root and tell USBGX to use neek mode instead of cIOS mode.

Once in neek, you can setup the region free, or make a specific NAND region for specific games. USBGX can list/launch multiple NAND folders at the same time.

 

[mingmong24]

HI @Cyan is NEEK2o working with any other loader other then USBGX as my HDD struggles to load with that loader... Is installing NEEK2o a simple set up? Thanks

 

[Cyan]

Neek and neek2o are independent to the loader.

neek is a state of the console entirely rebooted into redirected NAND.
Simple emuNAND only redirects game's accessing the NAND, while neek redirects ALL the console.

To launch neek, you need to reboot the console and load a new patched kernel. you have different methods :
- at boot (using bootmii on Wii only)
- using a channel or homebrew : Nswitch
- using a loader (lunching either bootmii/nswitch's kernel reloader method based on the console type), like Wiiflow.
- USBLoaderGX always use the Nswitch method (even on Wii), reloading the kernel without going though bootmii.

So, if you want, you can use Nswitch homebrew to reboot the vWii into vWiiNeek(2o).

to install vWii neek2o, like I said there's no legal release, you'll have to find the illegal one yourself.
copy the pre-compiled files to your USB:/sneek/ folder, and SD:/sneek/
ne sure to place your emuNAND in device:/nands/xxxx/ subfolder (neek2o look and list all subfolders, while neek require the emuNAND on the root (not even in /nands/ folder at all))
launch nswitch homebrew to reload the neek patched kernel.

by default nswitch and bootmii are loading the file from SD, if you want to use USB you neek to put the "USB version" on SD too.
While USBLoaderGX can load directly the correct partition, so you can have USB version on USB, and SD version on SD at the same time.


note:
vWii neek2o has a bug and doesn't list some (all?) the channels in the emulated displayed system menu. you have to open the hidden game menu and select it in the list to launch the game.
it's maybe due to the way sysconf and other system files are read/written on vWii. Wad install is probably not writing the game list correctly.


@mingmong24 : just set the IOS to 58 in the loader's settings to fix your HDD detection issue.

 

[mingmong24]

Thank you, i tried changing IOS to 58 but it still doesnt detect the hdd straight away, u have to wait about 10 seconds then go to setttings and choose the hdd, its not ideal for the kids. Unless there is a setting i can chamge so it auto selects hdd after its detected? thanks

 

[lafleche]

Running castlevania from sysnand (as an exception because it doesn't work on emunand).....Is that not an option?
So install the wad.... Which has to be of your own region I guess or modded by freethewads.

Seems more simple the Vwii sneek :-)

 

[Cyan]

Yes you can do it. Just be sure it's the same region, don't place the game on the SD menu and you won't need to patch IOS80.
run the game directly from system menu, as it seems launching vWii channels is buggy from inside USBLoaderGX. Or use Wiiflow.

 

[Axlfox]

So I followed the whole tutorial all the way till the part where I plug my HDD for the USB Loader, you see, I got an internally powered 1TB HGST TOURO mobile with a Y USB 3.0 Micro-B cable, but when I start up USB Loader, it either times out searching for an USB drive or crashes while inizialiting it, so Im not sure if the problem has to do with my drive or the way the Loader is configured.

So you just know, when I configure the USB port to port 0, it doesnt detect the drive at all.
When I set it to both ports whoever, the loader crashes at startup while setting up the HDD, I didnt see this case on the FAQ so I thought I'd ask.

 

[morrisonian]

Hey guys, just have this doubt: can I install DLC for Wii on the vWii? Like for example, I have my wads (dlcs) for the wii, and want to install them, is it possible? Will that brick my vWii?

 

[P403N1X]

When I'm using USBLoaderGX the cheats won't apply to the game.