Hacking Wii Plugin System?

[loco365]

I was thinking on this the other day, but I thought that since we have System Menu hooks, that use a rebooter to apply themselves to the operational Wii, couldn't we make a plugin system similar to the PSP? That way, it'd allow NeoGamma to work from a cold boot (Not having to start the app and select "Rebooter"), and many more things (Like custom music on the main menu, draw debug info to the screen in realtime, screenshot via a key combination, etc etc), that users could easily set up, and settings could easily be modified via an app.

Is it feasible or am I oversimplifying the system as a whole?

 

[Taleweaver]

Wow...welcome to 3 years ago, man. preloader allows for exactly that (priiloader expanded on that). I haven't seen the original system menu in months, and haven't used it as a main source in...about 2,5 years now. What I did use instead kinda varied (GX, then CFG, then wiiflow, switched to uneek and finally neek2o + postloader), but I think you'll find it hard to come up with something that's not already possible. The only reason I ever used the system menu in that time was because of the game options, and most of the important ones are now possible via settings editor GUI.

It's certainly feasible and not oversimplifying at all. If you know how to write a GUI that runs things, you can make it an autoboot on your wii (in more than one way, postloader is exactly that: a launcher of wii games, gamecube games, channels and homebrew).

 

[loco365]

Wow...welcome to 3 years ago, man. preloader allows for exactly that (priiloader expanded on that). I haven't seen the original system menu in months, and haven't used it as a main source in...about 2,5 years now. What I did use instead kinda varied (GX, then CFG, then wiiflow, switched to uneek and finally neek2o + postloader), but I think you'll find it hard to come up with something that's not already possible. The only reason I ever used the system menu in that time was because of the game options, and most of the important ones are now possible via settings editor GUI.

It's certainly feasible and not oversimplifying at all. If you know how to write a GUI that runs things, you can make it an autoboot on your wii (in more than one way, postloader is exactly that: a launcher of wii games, gamecube games, channels and homebrew).

It can do that, but it can't launch backups from a cold boot (Not the system menu or PostLoader). You have to run NeoGamma to do that, whereas what I had in mind, you wouldn't even have to touch the app at all (Just start up the system and insert your disc, go to the disc channel and start it from there). But if it seems that people can make system menu hooks that can run from a cold boot, then I have to wonder why there isn't a whole lot of support for them.

 

[Coto]

priiloader + cfg usb loader autoboot allows to run games on the fly (if HDD is present), or SD.

Or dios-mios on a 8GB+ card!

 

[Taleweaver]

Wow...welcome to 3 years ago, man. preloader allows for exactly that (priiloader expanded on that). I haven't seen the original system menu in months, and haven't used it as a main source in...about 2,5 years now. What I did use instead kinda varied (GX, then CFG, then wiiflow, switched to uneek and finally neek2o + postloader), but I think you'll find it hard to come up with something that's not already possible. The only reason I ever used the system menu in that time was because of the game options, and most of the important ones are now possible via settings editor GUI.

It's certainly feasible and not oversimplifying at all. If you know how to write a GUI that runs things, you can make it an autoboot on your wii (in more than one way, postloader is exactly that: a launcher of wii games, gamecube games, channels and homebrew).

It can do that, but it can't launch backups from a cold boot (Not the system menu or PostLoader). You have to run NeoGamma to do that, whereas what I had in mind, you wouldn't even have to touch the app at all (Just start up the system and insert your disc, go to the disc channel and start it from there). But if it seems that people can make system menu hooks that can run from a cold boot, then I have to wonder why there isn't a whole lot of support for them.

Yes you can. With postloader, I can start a backup wii game with 2 clicks of my wiimote. Including one to activate said wiimote.

For backup discs, it's pretty much the same thing, though I don't think postloader supports it yet. CFG, GX and neogamma do, so you can just cold boot into those programs.

Perhaps you don't really understand how priiloader works: it doesn't use "hooks" to change the system menu. It totally replaces the system menu. The real system menu gets moved to another spot in the memory, and all priiloader "really" is, is a very simple GUI that is generally designed to only show up if you hold reset while booting your wii. In all other cases, you will set it to load something else immediately. Something like the real system menu, bootmii, the homebrew channel or a fowarder dol. And that last thing is exactly what you need: a forwarder dol to your favorite piece of homebrew.

As such, I don't really get what you mean with "there isn't a whole lot of support for them"? Postloader has 127 pages of development, and that's just for version 3. The other loaders usually have over a thousand.

Maybe it's more correct that it doesn't need support: it is already working flawlessly. All that was missing was someone who wrote a GUI that could load homebrew, channels and wii games*. And then stfour came along and built exactly that.


So...I don't really understand what you're asking for. Why mod the system menu to look different if you can already write something completely different that can do everything the system menu can and more?




*I should give props to GX for already doing that...however, it never quite worked that well for me.

 

[pepxl]

mmmmm.

 

[SifJar]

PSP style plugins will never work on the Wii because that's not how the Wii System Menu is coded. With the PSP, the firmware is quite modular, with seperate modules being loaded for different tasks. This means you can load extra modules or replacements for existing modules, and that is what plugins are. With the Wii, (almost) all the System Menu code is in the System Menu. To edit any of it, you need to disassemble the SM, write an ASM patch, compile the patch and then either apply the patch to the SM (e.g. StartPatch) or apply it on the fly (e.g. priiloader). While in theory more complex things could be achieved than what has already been done, it would be a whole lot of effort. It's probably actually easier to just use a SM replacement (e.g. postLoader) if you really want to change things that much.

 

[obcd]

+1 on that

let's not forget that all wii's manufactured after mid 2008 are unable to read backup disks. The articles here describing ways to alter the disc channel so that it launches backups right away are just misleading for noobs who will think it's the ideal way to mod your wii, while in fact it's just a fancy gadget to impress your friends. usb loading is far more practice and user friendly. I also feel that all the recent posts about changing the disc channel should clearly state that it will only work on older wii's. I even miss the part in some that you need a newer revision of priiloader for it. It might me slightly off topic here, altough I have the impression Team Fail is inspired by those articles.

 

[SifJar]

+1 on that

let's not forget that all wii's manufactured after mid 2008 are unable to read backup disks. The articles here describing ways to alter the disc channel so that it launches backups right away are just misleading for noobs who will think it's the ideal way to mod your wii, while in fact it's just a fancy gadget to impress your friends. usb loading is far more practice and user friendly. I also feel that all the recent posts about changing the disc channel should clearly state that it will only work on older wii's. I even miss the part in some that you need a newer revision of priiloader for it. It might me slightly off topic here, altough I have the impression Team Fail is inspired by those articles.

Those modifications will work perfectly fine on any Wii. All the mod does is make a channel autoboot instead of launching a disc. Of course, you can't load disc backups on newer Wii's, but that is not what the mod is. That is probably what most people use it for, but that is not what it is. It could also be also be used for, for example, booting a game with Gecko OS, to get cheats and proper region free (including video mode patching) for retail discs from the disc channel. (It would be a better experience if Gecko OS is modded for autoboot, but that is besides the point).

 

[obcd]

I wasn't saying the mod's won't work on newer wii's, I was saying that using this mod to play backup discs won't work on newer wii's.
I was also trying to warn people about the fact that it might cause issues with the priiloader most people have on their system.
I was also wondering if it's worth the risk of switching your priiloader.
The title of the topics I was referring 2 is not exactly "How to make your disc channel launch a channel of your choice upon insertion of a disc, instead of launching the disc itself"

 

[SifJar]

You also only need to install the SVN beta version of priiloader if you want backups. For the stuff I described, current "stable" (i use that word lightly) priiloader works fine.