Hacking Wii U Hacking & Homebrew Discussion

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Is that possible? Also, is the external hdd encryption/decryption thing coming along?

Please stop asking the same questions repeatedly. It will be possible with the common key which is not publicly available at this time.

It wont be possible without that key...

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Random thought, now that i have a second wii u coming (for dirt cheaps) and my original one is currently a paperweight at this point.

I can start playing around with my old U's eMMC as that is still perfectly in tact .

Have keys ever been obtained for it? A simple yes or no will suffice as i can google how to get it if it has been .

Id love to see what (if anything) can be done with it

 

[NWPlayer123]

My answer to most hardware related questions is "I don't know". I don't know what/how anything's encrypted (if at all) unless I can access it myself. I'd assume the eMMC needs the common key just like any external hard drives do. Looking at the documentation from the SDK I have, both the internal NAND and external hard drives use WFS (which I assume is what was used on the Wii's NAND ???), and I have no idea how the eMMC will look like since it has a proper filesystem this time

http://wiiubrew.org/wiki/EMMC_NAND

 

[Ray Lewis]

New browser exploit and likely a new kernel exploit once Nintendo patches is. So we'll have offline home brew and possibly a way to decrypt files that is not patchable; common key.

 

[uyjulian]

Yeah.
And we could play Wii and Gamecube games rendered in 1080P... if someone would be nice to port Dolphin's graphics code to the Wii U (The GX can't do 1080P natively, so the GX2 has to do that)

 

[the_randomizer]

Yeah.
And we could play Wii and Gamecube games rendered in 1080P... if someone would be nice to port Dolphin's graphics code to the Wii U (The GX can't do 1080P natively, so the GX2 has to do that)

What would be the point though? Dolphin doesn't even have perfect compatibility, maybe 93-94% of games work perfectly, and the sheer amount of raw CPU power needed is tremendous.

 

[uyjulian]

What would be the point though? Dolphin doesn't even have perfect compatibility, maybe 93-94% of games work perfectly, and the sheer amount of raw CPU power needed is tremendous.

I said the graphics stuff, not the rest of the code (why would you try to emulate on a CPU of the same architecture?)

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

My answer to most hardware related questions is "I don't know". I don't know what/how anything's encrypted (if at all) unless I can access it myself. I'd assume the eMMC needs the common key just like any external hard drives do. Looking at the documentation from the SDK I have, both the internal NAND and external hard drives use WFS (which I assume is what was used on the Wii's NAND ???), and I have no idea how the eMMC will look like since it has a proper filesystem this time

http://wiiubrew.org/wiki/EMMC_NAND

Well what im thinking is maybe, just maybe we could dump the nand image (sd card method), decrypt it (if necessary) setup some type if xell like linux loader (like the original xbox 360 JTAG hack). Rebuild the image and resign it (again, if needed) and reflash it to the nand/emmc.

Of course, the console would be rendered useless for playing retail games unless you reflash the original image back, but my console is junk now anyways so it cant hurt.

Also if somebody ever manages to pull off a dual nand setup or emunand (even better ) then it would be an awesome setup for the general public to use . Hey you gotta start somewhere and i have nothing to loose . My fully functional console is on its way. I might as well wreak havoc on the dead wii u.

 

[TheLoneWolfe]

I said the graphics stuff, not the rest of the code (why would you try to emulate on a CPU of the same architecture?)

If that's even possible, I can't imagine the amount of work needed to get it working being anything less than tremendous. Even if someone did attempt it though, it wouldn't do as good a job as a moderate to powerful PC. Which begs the question, why?

 

[uyjulian]

If that's even possible, I can't imagine the amount of work needed to get it working being anything less than tremendous. Even if someone did attempt it though, it wouldn't do as good a job as a moderate to powerful PC. Which begs the question, why?

You don't have to emulate most of the Gamecube, Wii hardware, because it's already in the Wii U.
You don't even need to emulate the GX!
However, because of GX limits, if you want high resolution, you have to use the GX2.
However GX2 does not have identical interface as GX.
So that's where Dolphin's graphics stack comes in.
GX2 is like OpenGL.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

If that's even possible, I can't imagine the amount of work needed to get it working being anything less than tremendous. Even if someone did attempt it though, it wouldn't do as good a job as a moderate to powerful PC. Which begs the question, why?

Well, for one I have a dead wii U to experiment with so I literally have nothing to lose here. People did this on the 360, so why not have it as an option on the Wii U. I just think it would be really fun to play around with and see if I can come up with anything. Like I said, this would just be a starting point. If an emuNAND ever gets developed down the road, one could have their real NAND flashed with some Xell like loader (or Xell ported over) and have a clean NAND on their external drive for retail games without fear of being locked out of homebrew via system updates etc. You could use the real NAND to launch the emuNAND from a menu when you fire the console on if you want, or you can proceed into the homebrew only mode. The fear of being locked out of homebrew becomes completely irrelevant IF such a setup is possible.

You gotta start small, if I can start experimenting with the Wii U emmc/NAND now, possibly somebody with better coding skills than me could write an emuNAND program to launch from whatever loader we use. Just an idea and I'm willing to play around with it. Honestly I have nothing to lose here, the console is useless in its current state and I have a replacement on the way lol.

Marionumber1 thoughts on this idea?

UPDATE: Here's an example of the original JTAG Xell setup

 

[TheLoneWolfe]

Well, for one I have a dead wii U to experiment with so I literally have nothing to lose here. People did this on the 360, so why not have it as an option on the Wii U. I just think it would be really fun to play around with and see if I can come up with anything. Like I said, this would just be a starting point. If an emuNAND ever gets developed down the road, one could have their real NAND flashed with some Xell like loader (or Xell ported over) and have a clean NAND on their external drive for retail games without fear of being locked out of homebrew via system updates etc. You could use the real NAND to launch the emuNAND from a menu when you fire the console on if you want, or you can proceed into the homebrew only mode. The fear of being locked out of homebrew becomes completely irrelevant IF such a setup is possible.

You gotta start small, if I can start experimenting with the Wii U emmc/NAND now, possibly somebody with better coding skills than me could write an emuNAND program to launch from whatever loader we use. Just an idea and I'm willing to play around with it. Honestly I have nothing to lose here, the console is useless in its current state and I have a replacement on the way lol.

Marionumber1 thoughts on this idea?

UPDATE: Here's an example of the original JTAG Xell setup

I was responding to the idea of Dolphin on the Wii U, go to town man.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Okay, so I have an old Xbox 360 USB spi NAND flasher/dumper lying around and looking at the pinouts on both the nand flasher the toshiba emmc nand chip found in my wii U, it looks like they match up . I might be able to use this to at least dump my NAND. From there I could inspect the contents of it and see if it is in fact encrypted. If it is, we will need a private key to go any further with this. If not......SCORE! Let's just wait and see......

I still gotta eat dinner and chillax from a night after work, but I just wanted to take a quick look at this. I won't be going any further with this tonight. But I got a brand new super thin soldering iron tip with "Wii U" written all over it for sometime later this week .

Interesting indeed

UPDATE: I also have some blank original Matrix Glitchers (for RGH on the Xbox 360) just waiting to be flashed, so perhaps if there are some failsafes in place to prevent from writing to the eMMC (once I'm ready to do some actual testing) I could write some custom code to run on one to get around it, maybe.....

 

[VinsCool]

Okay, so I have an old Xbox 360 USB spi NAND flasher/dumper lying around and looking at the pinouts on both the nand flasher the toshiba emmc nand chip found in my wii U, it looks like they match up . I might be able to use this to at least dump my NAND. From there I could inspect the contents of it and see if it is in fact encrypted. If it is, we will need a private key to go any further with this. If not......SCORE! Let's just wait and see......View attachment 13159View attachment 13160

I still gotta eat dinner and chillax from a night after work, but I just wanted to take a quick look at this. I won't be going any further with this tonight. But I got a brand new super thin soldering iron tip with "Wii U" written all over it for sometime later this week .

Interesting indeed

Try to not break it this time.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Try to not break it this time.

LOL its already a paperweight as it is. I'm going to bypass the power/eject ribbon altogether and see if I can just wire in my own power switch. If I can pull that off then I'll be able to do some trial and error and play around with some different stuff (ie flashing different stuff to the NAND/eMMC to see if I can execute anything at all. Of course, first things first, I NEED TO DUMP THE CURRENT NAND FIRST. Because it will likely take loads of testing before I get anything to execute at all and I'll need to be able to recover it. Not too mention, I need to know if the contents of the NAND/eMMC are encrypted at all as well.

Fun fact, the Xbox 360's CPU is a PPC just like the Wii U's Espresso . With some tweakage, Xell might even be runnable on the Wii U . Meaning, it might be portable in other words. That would be ideal, rather than writing a loader from scratch

 

[VinsCool]

LOL its already a paperweight as it is. I'm going to bypass the power/eject ribbon altogether and see if I can just wire in my own power switch. If I can pull that off then I'll be able to do some trial and error and play around with some different stuff (ie flashing different stuff to the NAND/eMMC to see if I can execute anything at all. Of course, first things first, I NEED TO DUMP THE CURRENT NAND FIRST. Because it will likely take loads of testing before I get anything to execute at all and I'll need to be able to recover it. Not too mention, I need to know if the contents of the NAND/eMMC are encrypted at all as well.

Try to not burn the nand chip with a wrong voltage. also, be cautious with soldering, on error and your wiiU is good for garbage Also, not sure about xell, you haven't have way to launch anything on boot.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Try to not burn the nand chip with a wrong voltage. also, be cautious with soldering, on error and your wiiU is good for garbage Also, not sure about xell, you haven't have way to launch anything on boot.

Xell or whatever else is used instead, would literally replace CafeOS entirely. At least until someone figures out a dual nand setup or codes a program for an emuNAND (way beyond my level of programming skills).

Whatever loader is used would execute immediately upon launch as a "mini OS" per se. Not to be confused with MINI by Team Twizzers/f0f, I mean mini as in super lightweight/nothing to it. When the JTAG hack was originally released/discovered for the 360, Xell was a replacement for the official M$ dashboard altogether. Once flashed, you could no longer boot retail games or anything, just homebrew. Unless you reflashed your original NAND image back. That was true until people developed dual NAND pcb's to add a second NAND to your console. You could choose which one you wanted to use by pressing certain buttons when turning on the console to activate whichever NAND you wanted to use. With this it was possible to have both a clean (retail) NAND and a Xell NAND. Later on came custom dashboards but that's a whole different thing altogether....

 

[VinsCool]

Xell or whatever else is used instead, would literally replace CafeOS entirely. At least until someone figures out a dual nand setup or codes a program for an emuNAND (way beyond my level of programming skills).

Whatever loader is used would execute immediately upon launch as a "mini OS" per se. Not to be confused with MINI by Team Twizzers/f0f, I mean mini as in super lightweight/nothing to it. When the JTAG hack was originally released/discovered for the 360, Xell was a replacement for the official M$ dashboard altogether. Once flashed, you could no longer boot retail games or anything, just homebrew. Unless you reflashed your original NAND image back. That was true until people developed dual NAND pcb's to add a second NAND to your console. You could choose which one you wanted to use by pressing certain buttons when turning on the console to activate whichever NAND you wanted to use. With this it was possible to have both a clean (retail) NAND and a Xell NAND. Later on came custom dashboards but that's a whole different thing altogether....

So you say you are willing to do that? Not I doubt about your skills, but...

how could you be that sure? Hardware mod should have been already possible if it even is a workable idea, don't you think?

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

So you say you are willing to do that? Not I doubt about your skills, but...

how could you be that sure? Hardware mod should have been already possible if it even is a workable idea, don't you think?

As I said before, this console is useless to me anyways in its current state. I have nothing to lose. I have a replacement Wii U on its way from a seller on ebay that I got for dirt cheap. I'm not worried about it . There's always the possibility that the Starbuck could prevent anything unofficial that's flashed to the NAND/eMMC from executing, but there's only one way to find out. But even if that's the case, not all is lost, because it may be possible to attack the starbuck as well with some sort of hardware mod to manipulate it and allow the code to run.

As for hardware mods for running homebrew, the 360 was out for fours years BEFORE the JTAG hack was discovered. The 360 came out in 2005 (here in the USA) and the JTAG hack came out in 2009. The Wii U isn't even four years old yet, so you never know. While the 360 did have a short lived software based exploit google "King Kong Hack" for more info on that, it was very quickly stamped out by M$. The JTAG hack replaced it a few years later. Eventually the JTAG was eliminated, but it was replaced with three other hardware mods that followed, RGH, RGH 2 and RJTAG .

We won't know if something like this is possible unless we actually try it out. While I already have a useless Wii U, I'd love to give it a shot. I might be able to resurrect it this way (at least for homebrew), but if not, no harm done, nothing lost

 

[Ray Lewis]

The emmc is read like an sd card. Google the ps3 and latter 360 models being read (emmc) The 360 flasher won't work.