Homebrew The SD Card slot of my Wii U stopped working. Is there another way to access Homebrew?

Skyleft

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First of all, yes the SD Card slot is completely broken. I accidentally spilled water over my Wii U and now it doesn't detect any SD Card. I have Haxchi, but obviously now I can't boot it up since it needs the SD Card.
This is a big problem for me since the only way I had to play my legit copy of Smash 4 was through Mocha. A long time ago I installed the Smash 4 DLC through Homebrew and I have no way to delete them, meaning my Wii U says that "there is an error in the add-on content" when I try to start up the game from the main menu.

Is there anything I can do? Either start up Mocha somehow without an SD Card, or start up Smash 4? For the record, a long time ago I tried factory resetting my Wii U to see if it would remove the Smash 4 DLC causing this problem, but it didn't work.
 

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only solution would be to have a browser exploit serving Mocha with SD redirection to USB.
the "browser serving homebrew" was the first way discovered to launch homebrew, before HBL was created. The browser exploit had the homebrew embeded into the webpage and the WiiU downloaded it in memory before launching it, but it was limited in file size.

I don't remember anyone doing a Mocha web serving page, and I don't even know if it would be possible due to size and memory requirement for mocha.

Sorry, you don't have access to homebrew anymore until someone release a browser served device redirection.
You can only use existing browser served homebrew, like debugger and cheatcode engine.
 
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If there's anyone who remembers the Lite version of the Homebrew App Store, it was entirely possible to launch it over the internet (it would even work without an SD card inserted).

I believe that it is entirely possible to create a program to download and launch Mocha over the internet, but it would take some effort to create.
 

dibas

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Do you have the homebrew channel installed? Haxchi signature patches work without an sd card, so you should be able to start the homebrew launcher afterwards because the installed channel comes with everything it needs. You can use wiisend/WiiTCPLoad or any other elf loader to send homebrew of any size from pc to the console, it will automatically run.
 

Skyleft

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Do you have the homebrew channel installed? Haxchi signature patches work without an sd card, so you should be able to start the homebrew launcher afterwards because the installed channel comes with everything it needs. You can use wiisend/WiiTCPLoad or any other elf loader to send homebrew of any size from pc to the console, it will automatically run.
Sorry, I don't think I understand what you mean. I do have the homebrew channel installed, but without the SD Card, when I try to boot it up it shows an error 199-9999 that says Please turn the power off and try again.
 

Tri-Z

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Sorry, I don't think I understand what you mean. I do have the homebrew channel installed, but without the SD Card, when I try to boot it up it shows an error 199-9999 that says Please turn the power off and try again.


I’m not sure about the pc apps the other user mentioned but the hombrew channel is not the same as pressing haxchi icon and hombrew launcher loading.
Hombrew channel would have been installed with wup installer
Where haxchi has a config and when installed points to the hombrew launcher on sd card ether as default or when hold button when start haxchi that was installed over ds game
 

Skyleft

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I’m not sure about the pc apps the other user mentioned but the hombrew channel is not the same as pressing haxchi icon and hombrew launcher loading.
Hombrew channel would have been installed with wup installer
Where haxchi has a config and when installed points to the hombrew launcher on sd card ether as default or when hold button when start haxchi that was installed over ds game
But that doesn't help me does it? I didn't install haxchi with a DS game. It would send me to the homebrew channel by default, and now it gives me the -3 no SD Card error.
 

dibas

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I'm sorry if I didn't explain myself properly. It's exactly as @cruplezone says.

The standard haxchi config returns the user to the system menu with signature patches installed, allowing you to launch the homebrew channel if installed separately before. If launching haxchi directly redirects you the homebrew launcher (not the channel!), you use a custom config and need to find out which hotkey you need to press while launching haxchi to get back to the system menu with sigpatches.

The homebrew channel (installed separately from haxchi!) will start without an SD card mounted because it is installed either on NAND or a USB device. You won't see any homebrew listed for obvious reasons, but the homebrew launcher will start a tcp listener in the background, which receives and executes homebrew elf's over the network.

The main purpose of this feature is for rapid development of homebrew(well, as rapid as you can develop for a console like the Wii U), but you can basically use this feature to launch homebrew elf's of any size, including mocha, sent from your pc, which should allow you to redirect SD card access to USB in theory.

Of course, all this depends on you having the homebrew channel installed and knowing the haxchi hotkey that returns to the system menu with sigpatches if you use a custom config, which it sounds like you do if it usually redirects to the homebrew launcher (note, not the channel).
 
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Tri-Z

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But that doesn't help me does it? I didn't install haxchi with a DS game. It would send me to the homebrew channel by default, and now it gives me the -3 no SD Card error.


Then you wouldn’t have haxchi. Because haxchi has to be installed over a ds game. Cold boot haxchi is also installed over ds game. And has to be a legit ds game. Unless u did web exploit and loaded mocha once in hb launcher to get sig patched
Well haxchi is ran from hb launcher but installed over a ds game
 
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Skyleft

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I'm sorry if I didn't explain myself properly. It's exactly as @cruplezone says.

The standard haxchi config returns the user to the system menu with signature patches installed, allowing you to launch the homebrew channel if installed separately before. If launching haxchi directly redirects you the homebrew launcher (not the channel!), you use a custom config and need to find out which hotkey you need to press while launching haxchi to get back to the system menu with sigpatches.

The homebrew channel (installed separately from haxchi!) will start without an SD card mounted because it is installed either on NAND or a USB device. You won't see any homebrew listed for obvious reasons, but the homebrew launcher will start a tcp listener in the background, which receives and executes homebrew elf's over the network.

The main purpose of this feature is for rapid development of homebrew(well, as rapid as you can develop for a console like the Wii U), but you can basically use this feature to launch homebrew elf's of any size, including mocha, sent from your pc, which should allow you to redirect SD card access to USB in theory.

Of course, all this depends on you having the homebrew channel installed and knowing the haxchi hotkey that returns to the system menu with sigpatches if you use a custom config, which it sounds like you do if it usually redirects to the homebrew launcher (note, not the channel).
All right, thank you, I'm pretty sure I understand what you mean. However I don't think I have a starting point here. I do remember setting up a configuration for when I boot up Haxchi, but the config file isn't on the SD Card nor the USB device I have, so I have no way to know how to make it send me back to the system menu. I did try every button, and there's certainly a difference. By default, it sends me to the -3 error, which would be the homebrew launcher. When I press A, it instead shows me the Wii U Menu screen, which seems to indicate it's trying to send me back to the menu, but it never loads it. I imagine that's what I want, but it doesn't work either and here it doesn't show any error message.

Also, right, I forgot I did actually use Brain Age.
 
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dibas

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All right, thank you, I'm pretty sure I understand what you mean. However I don't think I have a starting point here. I do remember setting up a configuration for when I boot up Haxchi, but the config file isn't on the SD Card nor the USB device I have, so I have no way to know how to make it send me back to the system menu. I did try every button, and there's certainly a difference. By default, it sends me to the -3 error, which would be the homebrew launcher. When I press A, it instead shows me the Wii U Menu screen, which seems to indicate it's trying to send me back to the menu, but it never loads it. I imagine that's what I want, but it doesn't work either and here it doesn't show any error message.

Also, right, I forgot I did actually use Brain Age.

Yeah the configuration is installed inside the DS title. Maybe there is a copy of the config you used on your PC or you recognise the tutorial you used somewhere online? If not, I'm afraid you'll have to try every single button on the gamepad because afaik all of them can be mapped, and hope you did map the signature patch to a key. It should be possible to load a light homebrew payload over the web that outputs the content of the configuration (Haxchi copies it to the content folder of the DS title and saves it as config.txt). What region does your console have?
 

Skyleft

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Yeah the configuration is installed inside the DS title. Maybe there is a copy of the config you used on your PC or you recognise the tutorial you used somewhere online? If not, I'm afraid you'll have to try every single button on the gamepad because afaik all of them can be mapped, and hope you did map the signature patch to a key. It should be possible to load a light homebrew payload over the web that outputs the content of the configuration (Haxchi copies it to the content folder of the DS title and saves it as config.txt). What region does your console have?
It's a PAL console. I'm pretty sure I found the tutorial I used, and if I'm right this is the config I should have: http://prntscr.com/j7i3d3
Pressing A and B are the only commands that do something else. They attempt to bring me back to the main menu, but it gets stuck on the loading screen.
 

dibas

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Wow, I'm sorry mate. That config downright sucks. A and B try to load an IOSU image from the SD card, that's why they get stuck on the loading screen (it's basically a please wait while IOSU is loading screen).

So I'm actually not sure where to go from here. It's possible to overwrite the haxchi config, but you need IOSU code execution to do that, you would need to basically run the haxchi installer again over the web, which I'm not sure is possible because of its size.

I'd say the best chance you have is trying to make a web payload out of dimok's simple signature patcher here. It's meant to be run from the homebrew launcher though, and it might be a PITA to port it to libwiiu.
 

Skyleft

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Wow, I'm sorry mate. That config downright sucks. A and B try to load an IOSU image from the SD card, that's why they get stuck on the loading screen (it's basically a please wait while IOSU is loading screen).

So I'm actually not sure where to go from here. It's possible to overwrite the haxchi config, but you need IOSU code execution to do that, you would need to basically run the haxchi installer again over the web, which I'm not sure is possible because of its size.

I'd say the best chance you have is trying to make a web payload out of dimok's simple signature patcher here. It's meant to be run from the homebrew launcher though, and it might be a PITA to port it to libwiiu.
Damn, that really sucks. I really appreciate your help but I don't understand much about this and if you aren't sure if this is solvable I very much doubt I'll be able to get anywhere. It does suck since I played Smash 4 semi-competitively and buying a new Wii U right now sounds incredibly depressing, so I think I'll assume I can't play anymore. Again though, thank you for the assistance and I'll try to keep in touch in case something that helps is done/found.
 

dibas

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You're welcome. I don't want to promise anything, but I might have a look at it in the next few days. Will post here if I manage to get something done.
 
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Tri-Z

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Damn, that really sucks. I really appreciate your help but I don't understand much about this and if you aren't sure if this is solvable I very much doubt I'll be able to get anywhere. It does suck since I played Smash 4 semi-competitively and buying a new Wii U right now sounds incredibly depressing, so I think I'll assume I can't play anymore. Again though, thank you for the assistance and I'll try to keep in touch in case something that helps is done/found.


Maybe you could buy a bricked Wii U for cheap that’s garbage and repurpose the sd card reader into yours. Not sure how tough a swap would be. But it’s a cheaper solution buying a broken Wii U then a new or usedbone that works. Maybe u can find one that was a bad cbhc fatality cheap and go from there.
 
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