vWii - No Disc Drive Build - Questions

[dazzaXx]

Hello, apologies if this has been asked before.

Basically, I am wanting to completely remove the disc drive from my Wii U, as I am trying to do a "No Disc Drive" build, I've successfully removed and patched out the drive using the "Set SATA device" option in minute_minute so the Wii U Menu boots without it being present at all, but the vWii simply refuses to boot at all with it not in, just giving me a generic "An error has occured" screen.

Is there any vWii specific bypass that is doable? Or will I simply not be able to use the vWii with no drive at all and have to put the drive back in?

Thank You.

Post automatically merged: Sep 16, 2024

I read on this thread here that using Wii VC's work as they emulate a disc drive. Could we possibly inject the Wii System Menu into a Wii VC and boot it via that way?

 

[core2lee91]

Unfortunately I don’t think you can, I’ve certainly not seen a workaround for this. In the guide written by @SDIO he specifically mentions:

The obvious disadvantage is that you can’t use your disc drive anymore. Without the Disc Drive vWii System Menu doesn't work. vWii Injectes / Wii VC from the eShop can still be used, but only when installed to USB.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hello, apologies if this has been asked before.

Basically, I am wanting to completely remove the disc drive from my Wii U, as I am trying to do a "No Disc Drive" build, I've successfully removed and patched out the drive using the "Set SATA device" option in minute_minute so the Wii U Menu boots without it being present at all, but the vWii simply refuses to boot at all with it not in, just giving me a generic "An error has occured" screen.

Is there any vWii specific bypass that is doable? Or will I simply not be able to use the vWii with no drive at all and have to put the drive back in?

Thank You.

Post automatically merged: Sep 16, 2024

I read on this thread here that using Wii VC's work as they emulate a disc drive. Could we possibly inject the Wii System Menu into a Wii VC and boot it via that way?

Neek should work as it has drive emulation. IIRC it's a pain to install on vWii as you need to compile from source. Maybe there are easier methods now.

 

[dazzaXx]

Unfortunately I don’t think you can, I’ve certainly not seen a workaround for this. In the guide written by @SDIO he specifically mentions:

I had a bit of luck using a Wii VC injector and injecting postLoader into it, seemed to boot it in vWii mode without crashing.

Post automatically merged: Sep 16, 2024

Neek should work as it has drive emulation. IIRC it's a pain to install on vWii as you need to compile from source. Maybe there are easier methods now.

Do you have a link? I've noticed there is different versions of NEEK xD

 

[Xyphoseos]

Hi, maybe a dumb idea, im not a specialist, but, can you boot the vwii homebrew channel using things like, hbc loader installed in the wii u menu or boot it directly with mmmh... aroma/payload launcher i believed? I mean boot it by avoiding the vwii menu? If yes you may at least be able to play game on your drive isn't it?

 

[dazzaXx]

Hi, maybe a dumb idea, im not a specialist, but, can you boot the vwii homebrew channel using things like, hbc loader installed in the wii u menu or boot it directly with mmmh... aroma/payload launcher i believed? I mean boot it by avoiding the vwii menu? If yes you may at least be able to play game on your drive isn't it?

This does work yeah, as long as you don't boot the Wii Menu it won't crash.

 

[core2lee91]

I have around 10 Wii games and 35 GameCube games installed, and every single one of them is a Wii U forwarder, mainly because:

• It just looks so much nicer being able to use the one menu/OS to chose any game. Wii U, GameCube, VC.etc all just on the Wii U menu
• I have zero reason to go into the vWii. Other than the nostalgia in the first 10 seconds of looking at the menu, and maybe having a listen to the awesome Wii shop Channel music

So personally I wouldn't see this as a huge dealbreaker (and I also guess this is why not a lot of work has been done on this), unless you really wanted to use the actual Wii Menu.

 

[dazzaXx]

I have zero reason to go into the vWii. Other than the nostalgia in the first 10 seconds of looking at the menu, and maybe having a listen to the awesome Wii shop Channel music

True, as long as the vWii in itself is still functional, I'm not fussed about not seeing the Main Menu, I was planning on using USB Loader GX as the "Wii Menu" of sorts, since that also can list installed channels, including the return to wii u one, which I still need to fix as well.

Post automatically merged: Sep 16, 2024

In the end I gave up as more problems without the drive were occuring and was becoming more effort that reward, so I put the drive back in.

 

[SDIO]

The problem is the NAND Loader. That is the Piece of code launched on the PPC after it was reset to set it into Wii Mode and launch an unencrypted executable. Because the bootrom in PPC only allows the execution of encrypted and signed executables. So there also isn't a real way around that. The only other vWii ancast which can be launched by the PPC is the vWii Menu, which should even launch without the Disc drive, but you just can't do anything from there, because everything would involve the nand loader.
But there is a way to bypass the check: the NANDLoader uses the IOS to check the Disc drive, so it can be spoofed inside the IOS. But as you know the Wii has many IOS and all of them would then need patching. There is a patched IOS80, which can be used to launch an USB loader through priiloader, but it isn't public (also for leagel reasons, since it is the whole IOS and not just the patch). It also is slow, if nothing is connected, it will wait for some timeout, if a SSD or something like that is connected it's faster. I think I was even able to launch WiiWare through the USB Loader, but leaving it or straying a little from the golden path will make it error. Also I don't think anyone works on this at the moment. Also you don't even need to try to search for the patched IOS80 on internet, it isn't there.