Hi, I just logged in with a new account because support for this is actually terrible, and this is gonna be a long post because I'm going to need to explain my entire setup including the reasons I chose x y and z because I'm normally quite wary of this stuff.
For years I stuck out my Wii U on version 5.5.1. I live in Australia, my Wii U is European in software I understand, and thus I understand I'm not beholden to the same restrictions as others. Multiple pieces of software have failed to run on my Wii U, such as that one program that would allow you to run cheat codes. Could never run. Multiple versions of TCPGecko wouldn't run either, whether I used ones with codehandlers or not, until I found one very specific version.
My old setup on 5.5.1 until about a week ago was downloading Brain Age and then hijacking it to run the Homebrew Launcher using Haxchi. For years this worked without issue until people were talking about updating the environment. I didn't do so until this recent scare where people were having their Wii U's bricked due to internal flash memory and not having the console plugged in. Fun fact about this Wii U, it's actually the second one I own because the first one from 2012 to mid 2014 broke and I had to send it to Nintendo to repair (MK8 on release date was the first game I bought for the new Wii U, so I got the new one some small point prior to that game), I always have it plugged in, and all my save files are actually attached to a harddrive attached to the console at the recommendation of Nintendo after all my saves from the previous Wii U got fried because I will paraphrase but they basically said "the motherboard fried itself after an update." So I have auto-updates turned off as well, by this metric (although I haven't blocked DNS because they've never worked for me). And yes, the old one was bricked.
I updated because this thing you can use to check which of the 3 manufacturers didn't work on 5.5.1 so I reluctantly upgraded my setup and launched the application. My Wii U's a Toshiba by the way, in case anyone's curious, so apparently I'm fine (or at least close to fine, anyways, my saves are on the harddrive anyway because I don't trust nintendo flash memory anymore after that scare).
But in upgrading I had to change haxchi up, according to the guide everywhere links to (wiiu.hacks), I installed Tiramisu. Or supposedly anyway, a bit of a half-setup. For context, I used haxchi prior as an application in the Wii U menu, I refused to use CBHC just because of prior wariness and because I don't just like using my console as a modding machine unless the console is truly dead (like the wii)
So I suppose it would help to list the steps I installed tiramisu with since the people at pretendo are under the impression that it wasn't installed correctly despite following the guide.
SD Setup - Legacy setup (I had this)
I uninstalled haxchi like it says. Not that I particularly want to play brain age, I wasn't much of a puzzle person, but it's there I guess. Brain age being a haxchi entry point prior to this was a no-brainer for me; if I wanted to play it I'll sail those hearty seas. I don't have morals.
SD Preparation
Then I installed the modules like it tells you to. Correct locations and all. The SD card I'm using for the Wii U is a leftover... it's only 2GB big I believe. It's purely enough to run some homebrew applications, which is all I need it for in the end.
Browser Exploit
Then I ran the browser exploit at wiiuexploit.xyz. Really easy to remember. Yes I held B.
Making a NAND backup
Everything but MLC was dumped. Yes yes I know that contains save data or something, all that's in my harddrive. As I said before, my prior Wii U I used internal memory to store my save files and then all of them got smashed when the auto-update bricked the motherboard. I don't store it in the internal memory anymore. Besides, if it does have anything, it would be too big for the card in question to store; the more heavy cards are on other consoles (switch, ds flashcard, 3ds) and it's not such a big deal for the Wii U because my only instances are for running the Splatoon mods that came from this website that run off TCPGecko.
PayloadLoader Installation
At first, I skipped this step. But then I went back to it, so it is still relevant. I followed this fully. The expected intended result was that Tiramisu launches through the H&S application similar to how Haxchi loaded the Homebrew Launcher.
I skipped autobooting Tiramisu because I don't want to do this. I didn't use CBHC, I used haxchi as a program on the menu. Nintendo technically still intends to run the servers even if I'm of the opinion they won't for too much longer, so there's no point in ripping out the internals and jumping straight to the homebrew because the servers for Splatoon are down now. I don't feel comfortable with doing that.
So when I got to the finalizing setup page, I followed all that, including setting Tiramisu to be the default environment, but if I hold X, the Wii U doesn't boot with Tiramisu. I have to either run the Browser Exploit while holding X, or launch the H&S application to launch it. The then expected behaviour, as it says before the Blocking Updates section, is that launching the Mii Maker launches the Homebrew Launcher. This works perfectly fine and I'm perfectly fine using it this way. Backing out of the Homebrew launcher using the Home button jumps me to Mii maker, and I can exit to the normal menu this way with no hiccups. Provided Splatoon wasn't down, everything still worked.
I didn't block updates because the last time everyone said to block updates (the 5.5.1 days of the late 2010s) was when everyone changed their minds once Tiramisu and Aroma came out. Even if I could get it to work, which I wasn't going to do without blowing my whole internet (the DNS links and such did not work or I couldn't set them up right).
Now I can finally get to the pretendo part of this because in attempting to find support in their channel, they say they've opened splatoon servers for until Nintendo brings them back, so I actually wasn't looking to get into a game, I was looking into getting into recon for a project of mine using the GeckoMapTester linked on this website.
First, I put in this "nimble" patch that they tell you to put in with all the tiramisu patches. Then, they have two extremely unclear and vague paragraphs that don't take into account how people homebrewed their console. They tell you to set up a new user, the deviations occur depending on whether you say no or yes to having an NNID. I signed up to their website with a PNID beforehand (you apparently can't delete your data either.... I don't like the sound of that and I'm not even in one of those countries that cares)
If you select no, I do get pretendo's little agreement that talks about their christmas beta like it says on their website. I got up to a point where it told me to "create a Nintendo Network ID between six and 16 characters." But then someone in support said this wasn't the way to go, and instead to follow the other paragraph that I skipped.
If you select yes, they tell you to skip the email section, but this is impossible to do on the console. After going through support, they just said "put the email you signed up to pretendo with in there." I used the same details (username and email, password was different) as my NNID, since they're different servers I didn't believe this would be an issue. Then it comes back saying it's already linked to the console (the NNID) and that's the end of that.
But what makes it curious is that I did get Pretendo's little legal thing about the Christmas beta with the agreement when I selected no. But this suggests according to the support that you're registering an account on the console... which I don't need to do?
Furthermore, when I boot Tiramisu using either browser exploit + X or H&S (they function identically), then I go to the Homebrew Launcher, then I go to Mii Maker, when I exit Mii Maker, I get error code 102-2402. Looking it up on Nintendo's website doesn't give any clues, looking it up on a search engine brings up the idea that "the router is receiving interference" which is pure nonsense, since there's nothing significant about my setup in the past week that would've given the router any reason to freak out, and a similar post in this forum explains that it's because of the nimble patch that the error comes up, which is the thing they wanted you to install to get pretendo to work! I suspected that this was the case pointing it out multiple times ("this error only came up after I installed the patch like I was told...") and they didn't believe me!
The guy who I was talking to suggested I hadn't installed tiramisu properly because I skipped the autobooting section despite the fact that it's a thing you can do right after the PayloadLoader section, suggesting they didn't even read the guide and somehow expect everyone to homebrew it the exact same way????
Guy wants me to install Aroma to get pretendo to work, but THAT doesn't have support for elf files. You know what is an elf file? TCPGecko. The only working version of which I could find anyways.
and TCPGecko is what I need to run the Splatoon mods linked on this site in this forum which this whole endeavour was to attempt to load the lobby so I can load in recon different maps that I want for something I'm not disclosing here. I can't use the Battle Dojo hack because I don't have a Wii U Pro Controller, and I've never been able to play it because of it (because I've never had a problem with the gamepad and I only have wii remotes for the wii....) and because the servers are down for now, I can't do this for a significant period of time since nintendo is supposedly fixing that enlbufferpwn exploit or whatever it was called.
another thing, when I signed up for pretendo, in confirming the email i used they sent me a 6 digit code? Could this be used on the wii U anywhere?
another part of the website with my account had "account details" which I'm not sure for what console it's for incase those are for the 3DS (which I don't want to do yet). I don't think these are relevant to the sign-up process, but I figured I'd point it out.
I'll post a summarised version so then this can hopefully make sense.
I upgraded from Haxchi to a soft Tiramisu. Tiramisu does not launch upon boot. Tiramisu is installed into H&S application and I can also use the Browser Exploit + the X button. Both lead to the same conclusion of HBL and all the various apps there. This is a servicable and supposedly expected conclusion.
Installed Pretendo patch, expected to register so I can play Splatoon. Patch may have worked because of a new error on the console, and the legal agreement when I said no to having an NNID. But also might not have worked because PNID having the same name as NNID is unacceptable despite thinking they'd be separate accounts. No way to delete information.
Support doesn't understand the method I used installing Tiramisu, wants me to install Aroma, but Aroma can't run the mods I want, so that's a bad solution.
Splatoon's locked but someday it'll return?
Sorry for the essay but I really needed to get this out there so I can look for a solution
For years I stuck out my Wii U on version 5.5.1. I live in Australia, my Wii U is European in software I understand, and thus I understand I'm not beholden to the same restrictions as others. Multiple pieces of software have failed to run on my Wii U, such as that one program that would allow you to run cheat codes. Could never run. Multiple versions of TCPGecko wouldn't run either, whether I used ones with codehandlers or not, until I found one very specific version.
My old setup on 5.5.1 until about a week ago was downloading Brain Age and then hijacking it to run the Homebrew Launcher using Haxchi. For years this worked without issue until people were talking about updating the environment. I didn't do so until this recent scare where people were having their Wii U's bricked due to internal flash memory and not having the console plugged in. Fun fact about this Wii U, it's actually the second one I own because the first one from 2012 to mid 2014 broke and I had to send it to Nintendo to repair (MK8 on release date was the first game I bought for the new Wii U, so I got the new one some small point prior to that game), I always have it plugged in, and all my save files are actually attached to a harddrive attached to the console at the recommendation of Nintendo after all my saves from the previous Wii U got fried because I will paraphrase but they basically said "the motherboard fried itself after an update." So I have auto-updates turned off as well, by this metric (although I haven't blocked DNS because they've never worked for me). And yes, the old one was bricked.
I updated because this thing you can use to check which of the 3 manufacturers didn't work on 5.5.1 so I reluctantly upgraded my setup and launched the application. My Wii U's a Toshiba by the way, in case anyone's curious, so apparently I'm fine (or at least close to fine, anyways, my saves are on the harddrive anyway because I don't trust nintendo flash memory anymore after that scare).
But in upgrading I had to change haxchi up, according to the guide everywhere links to (wiiu.hacks), I installed Tiramisu. Or supposedly anyway, a bit of a half-setup. For context, I used haxchi prior as an application in the Wii U menu, I refused to use CBHC just because of prior wariness and because I don't just like using my console as a modding machine unless the console is truly dead (like the wii)
So I suppose it would help to list the steps I installed tiramisu with since the people at pretendo are under the impression that it wasn't installed correctly despite following the guide.
SD Setup - Legacy setup (I had this)
I uninstalled haxchi like it says. Not that I particularly want to play brain age, I wasn't much of a puzzle person, but it's there I guess. Brain age being a haxchi entry point prior to this was a no-brainer for me; if I wanted to play it I'll sail those hearty seas. I don't have morals.
SD Preparation
Then I installed the modules like it tells you to. Correct locations and all. The SD card I'm using for the Wii U is a leftover... it's only 2GB big I believe. It's purely enough to run some homebrew applications, which is all I need it for in the end.
Browser Exploit
Then I ran the browser exploit at wiiuexploit.xyz. Really easy to remember. Yes I held B.
Making a NAND backup
Everything but MLC was dumped. Yes yes I know that contains save data or something, all that's in my harddrive. As I said before, my prior Wii U I used internal memory to store my save files and then all of them got smashed when the auto-update bricked the motherboard. I don't store it in the internal memory anymore. Besides, if it does have anything, it would be too big for the card in question to store; the more heavy cards are on other consoles (switch, ds flashcard, 3ds) and it's not such a big deal for the Wii U because my only instances are for running the Splatoon mods that came from this website that run off TCPGecko.
PayloadLoader Installation
At first, I skipped this step. But then I went back to it, so it is still relevant. I followed this fully. The expected intended result was that Tiramisu launches through the H&S application similar to how Haxchi loaded the Homebrew Launcher.
I skipped autobooting Tiramisu because I don't want to do this. I didn't use CBHC, I used haxchi as a program on the menu. Nintendo technically still intends to run the servers even if I'm of the opinion they won't for too much longer, so there's no point in ripping out the internals and jumping straight to the homebrew because the servers for Splatoon are down now. I don't feel comfortable with doing that.
So when I got to the finalizing setup page, I followed all that, including setting Tiramisu to be the default environment, but if I hold X, the Wii U doesn't boot with Tiramisu. I have to either run the Browser Exploit while holding X, or launch the H&S application to launch it. The then expected behaviour, as it says before the Blocking Updates section, is that launching the Mii Maker launches the Homebrew Launcher. This works perfectly fine and I'm perfectly fine using it this way. Backing out of the Homebrew launcher using the Home button jumps me to Mii maker, and I can exit to the normal menu this way with no hiccups. Provided Splatoon wasn't down, everything still worked.
I didn't block updates because the last time everyone said to block updates (the 5.5.1 days of the late 2010s) was when everyone changed their minds once Tiramisu and Aroma came out. Even if I could get it to work, which I wasn't going to do without blowing my whole internet (the DNS links and such did not work or I couldn't set them up right).
Now I can finally get to the pretendo part of this because in attempting to find support in their channel, they say they've opened splatoon servers for until Nintendo brings them back, so I actually wasn't looking to get into a game, I was looking into getting into recon for a project of mine using the GeckoMapTester linked on this website.
First, I put in this "nimble" patch that they tell you to put in with all the tiramisu patches. Then, they have two extremely unclear and vague paragraphs that don't take into account how people homebrewed their console. They tell you to set up a new user, the deviations occur depending on whether you say no or yes to having an NNID. I signed up to their website with a PNID beforehand (you apparently can't delete your data either.... I don't like the sound of that and I'm not even in one of those countries that cares)
If you select no, I do get pretendo's little agreement that talks about their christmas beta like it says on their website. I got up to a point where it told me to "create a Nintendo Network ID between six and 16 characters." But then someone in support said this wasn't the way to go, and instead to follow the other paragraph that I skipped.
If you select yes, they tell you to skip the email section, but this is impossible to do on the console. After going through support, they just said "put the email you signed up to pretendo with in there." I used the same details (username and email, password was different) as my NNID, since they're different servers I didn't believe this would be an issue. Then it comes back saying it's already linked to the console (the NNID) and that's the end of that.
But what makes it curious is that I did get Pretendo's little legal thing about the Christmas beta with the agreement when I selected no. But this suggests according to the support that you're registering an account on the console... which I don't need to do?
Furthermore, when I boot Tiramisu using either browser exploit + X or H&S (they function identically), then I go to the Homebrew Launcher, then I go to Mii Maker, when I exit Mii Maker, I get error code 102-2402. Looking it up on Nintendo's website doesn't give any clues, looking it up on a search engine brings up the idea that "the router is receiving interference" which is pure nonsense, since there's nothing significant about my setup in the past week that would've given the router any reason to freak out, and a similar post in this forum explains that it's because of the nimble patch that the error comes up, which is the thing they wanted you to install to get pretendo to work! I suspected that this was the case pointing it out multiple times ("this error only came up after I installed the patch like I was told...") and they didn't believe me!
The guy who I was talking to suggested I hadn't installed tiramisu properly because I skipped the autobooting section despite the fact that it's a thing you can do right after the PayloadLoader section, suggesting they didn't even read the guide and somehow expect everyone to homebrew it the exact same way????
Guy wants me to install Aroma to get pretendo to work, but THAT doesn't have support for elf files. You know what is an elf file? TCPGecko. The only working version of which I could find anyways.
and TCPGecko is what I need to run the Splatoon mods linked on this site in this forum which this whole endeavour was to attempt to load the lobby so I can load in recon different maps that I want for something I'm not disclosing here. I can't use the Battle Dojo hack because I don't have a Wii U Pro Controller, and I've never been able to play it because of it (because I've never had a problem with the gamepad and I only have wii remotes for the wii....) and because the servers are down for now, I can't do this for a significant period of time since nintendo is supposedly fixing that enlbufferpwn exploit or whatever it was called.
another thing, when I signed up for pretendo, in confirming the email i used they sent me a 6 digit code? Could this be used on the wii U anywhere?
another part of the website with my account had "account details" which I'm not sure for what console it's for incase those are for the 3DS (which I don't want to do yet). I don't think these are relevant to the sign-up process, but I figured I'd point it out.
I'll post a summarised version so then this can hopefully make sense.
I upgraded from Haxchi to a soft Tiramisu. Tiramisu does not launch upon boot. Tiramisu is installed into H&S application and I can also use the Browser Exploit + the X button. Both lead to the same conclusion of HBL and all the various apps there. This is a servicable and supposedly expected conclusion.
Installed Pretendo patch, expected to register so I can play Splatoon. Patch may have worked because of a new error on the console, and the legal agreement when I said no to having an NNID. But also might not have worked because PNID having the same name as NNID is unacceptable despite thinking they'd be separate accounts. No way to delete information.
Support doesn't understand the method I used installing Tiramisu, wants me to install Aroma, but Aroma can't run the mods I want, so that's a bad solution.
Splatoon's locked but someday it'll return?
Sorry for the essay but I really needed to get this out there so I can look for a solution
Last edited by Pinkolol16,
