Hacking WiiKey v1 (Ouch, I know)

[deathtech]

Hello All !

I have been out of the Wii scene for a very, very long time. My how things have evolved and grown ! I have an original WiiKey installed, and everything seems to be working great as far as playing backup discs. However, In lieu of the fact that my drive will likely give out soon, I am looking to attempt to run a Usb backup loader.

However, since I have been gone so long, and so much has changed, I was hoping I could reach out to someone here whom has kept up a bit better than I , and may be able to point me in the right direction as to where I need to go to find out what I am capable of doing / should avoid at all costs.

The dust on this thing is quite atrocious , to say the least

The wiikey is running the last firmware that was released for it. Do I still need to softmod my system ? There was a time there where I had played a bit with some cIOS , and beleive I am on rev.249 . I would like to get the lil guy current with the latest mods, Can someone help a lost (but knowledgeable) soul into updating this thing so i can be proper once again ? I would simply like to mess with a bit of homebrew, as well as boot my backups from an external HDD.

I know there is a bit of info about this already here, but having scanned through, most of it seems almost as outdated as my modchip :/

Help, please ?

Thankfully yours,

.oO(DT)Oo.

 

[Coto]

Don't even try gettin rid of that precious modchip. Because it means you either have a DMS/D2A Drive (the first Wii drives) which are unique these days. Besides this chip has really great Gamecube functions such audiostreaming and forcing NTSC/PAL games. Tempers here will tell you how to re-softmod your wii through a softmod method, but hear my advice. Keep that Wii!! Also it may have bootmii @ boot2 (in case of brick this could save your Wiis life)

ps: upgrade your modchip through a DVD update. Once I find the files i'll send them to you.

 

[deathtech]

Thanks Coto ! I have the latest from the vendor 1.9 (s) I believe. Unless there has been an unofficial update I don't know about I want to simply play backups cia usb. Is there anything special I need to do other than use a loader?

Also, yes I have boot2 backed up and modded via bootmii

 

[Anon10W1z]

Thanks Coto ! I have the latest from the vendor 1.9 (s) I believe. Unless there has been an unofficial update I don't know about I want to simply play backups cia usb. Is there anything special I need to do other than use a loader?

Also, yes I have boot2 backed up and modded via bootmii

Use the ModMii program, at modmii.zzl.org. Download it, install it, and launch "ModMiiSkin.exe" follow the prompts for usb-loading.

 

[Slowking]

Yeah use modmii or the guide in my sig.
If you use modmii be sure to also install the neweset homebrew channel and bootmii. (not sure if it's included in the modmii guide) The hackmii installer can be found at http://bootmii.org

 

[deathtech]

Excellent, thank you all for the helpful advice on It now, if I hit any snags I will post back, and if successful will do the same. Thank you once again

 

[wiismodrome]

I have the latest from the vendor 1.9 (s) I believe. Unless there has been an unofficial update I don't know about.

1.99 Beta is the latest firmware for Wiikey v1.

For use with USB loaders, I'd also recommend using ModMii as well as installing d2x cIOS v8 final.

 

[Cyan]

As said, the last wiikey1 firmware is 1.99, but 1.9(s) worked fine for me (even with Gamecube streaming games, so I never updated).
You don't need to remove the modchip to use a softmod, they are not conflicting.


Old Wii have ability to install a program (Bootmii) on the boot sector, which is run before everything else. It allows you to launch a program located on your SD card instead of the system menu on the console. It's used to fix your Wii if it ever brick (99% protection) by dumping NAND and re-rewriting NAND dump back to the wii.
Bootmii can also be used to auto-boot the System menu or the Homebrew channel (edit the created .ini file in SD:/bootmii/ to set delay to 0 to not see the bootmii menu on each boot).


ModMii will create you all the needed files and latest cIOS to install.


Just a thing about Wiikey:
If you update to 4.3 you won't be able to play imported games on DVD. (no problem if you are using USB Loaders)
But I think ModMii is fixing this issue by installing the IOS used by 4.1, so you can update to 4.3 without problem.

 

[Naugh]

You can use Wiiflow, cfg usbloader or USB Loader GX

Wiiflow (+Dios Mios lite integration):
http://code.google.c.../downloads/list

cfg usbloader (+Dios Mios lite integration):
http://code.google.c.../downloads/list

older: http://code.google.com/p/cfg-loader/

USB Loader GX (Probably got DML integration too, but i've never tried it ):

http://code.google.c.../usbloader-gui/

Dios mios lite (To play gamecube games from sd (If you want gamecube)):
http://gbatemp.net/t...te-and-use-dml/

But yeah install bootmii on boot 2 before messing with you Wii ^^ (Create a NAND backup too)

 

[deathtech]

Thank you all for the help. I have hit a wall, and am about to research it, but wanted to document in this thread in case anyone else follows it. I get the error "Cios 249 is a Stub". I also dual partitioned a HDD. One is NTFS, other side is WBFS. USB Loader GX shows the one game I have on the ntfs part only, even after setting it to "Multiple Partition" mode. Config gives me the aforementioned error. I assume this is a custom Ios I need to install as previously mentioned, but once again I wanted to document my error.

 

[funkyfranz]

Great post deathtech. I am in the EXACT same boat as you. "Launch Wii" on version 4.1U with a Wiikey v1 with firmware 1.9s i think (whatever was the firmware to fix Super Mario Galaxy?). I haven't touched any Wii hacking stuff in a couple of years.

My intention isn't to hijack this thread, but rather expand on it. Unlike deathtech, I don't use any HDD with images or usb loaders, i just burn them to dvd. That's it...simple disc loading.
I guess i should update the Wiikey to firmware 1.99Beta yeah? But what about the Wii firmware? Any point updating to 4.3? If so, how can i do it without breaking whatever i got?

Is having the Wiikey v1 hardmod with 1.99Beta and HBC "ideally" the best setup? I have Neogamma loader channel on here i think it was for NSMB (i can't remember). If i update to 1.99Beta, can i run all games from the Disc Channel or do i still need Neogamma to run certain games? Do i really need this modmii program?
Any advice or tips appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Naugh]

@deathtech:

Yeah Nintendo like stubbing commonly used cIOSes with firmware updates ^^

You can uninstall stubbed IOSes with dop-mii

here:
http://code.google.c.../downloads/list

IOSes 222, 223, 249 and 250 are stubs...

Look here: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Glossary

Quote from Wiibrew: "A Stub IOS is an IOS that serves no purpose other than a placeholder. They are typically released by Nintendo in order to overwrite any existing version of an IOS and render it unusable for piracy or homebrew purposes."

When uninstalled, you can install d2x cIOSes:

http://code.google.com/p/d2x-cios/

4.1 is the best version (4.2 and 4.3 are just there to prevent homebrews, nothing more) ^^

---

@funkyfranz

cIOSes are mostly for usb loading(faster than disc loading) and nand emulation... It won't harm if you install them... (d2x 249 & 250)

But still install bootmii on boot 2...

 

[deathtech]

Thank you for all the help ! I will be messing with this shortly, For now its time for green tea , a nice jog, and taking my boys fishing Once I get back I will definately report. This mahy also explain when I tried to install custom wad files it rejects most of them too.

Once I get everything squared away, I will be happy to take the knowledge I have procured (With proper thanks for those helping out, of course) and try to make a recent "WiiKey v1 - Now" How to Post, to sort of consolidate my follies and what not for future reference

One question , Do you guys have a recommendation on external filesystems ? I know WBFS was the old gold standard, but it seems with the advent of being able to read NTFS , the new game is to simply convert ISO's to a wbfs format , so that it is more manageable from a PC standpoint. Can someone who has a bit more experience comment on this per chance ? Is NTFS support buggy, (some games work, some do not) or is it fine and it really just comes down to personal preference ?

Thank you all again, you have all been very helpful !

Edit :

After going through ModMii, and realizing I had a need to install the trucha bug, remove the stubbed IOS's , and then install the correct Modded IOS's , all was well ! Also, still hung up on the best FS to use. I may go with a Mix of Fat32 / NTFS , because I do have a few games which may exceed the 4 GB softlimit imposed by Micro$oft's outdated FS.

 

[wiismodrome]

Also, still hung up on the best FS to use. I may go with a Mix of Fat32 / NTFS , because I do have a few games which may exceed the 4 GB softlimit imposed by Micro$oft's outdated FS.

FWIW, I use FAT32 for Wii applications and NTFS (which allows > 4 GB) for games and other files. IMO, NTFS is the better file system... plus I use my external drive to archive other data.

When I softmodded some time ago, I recall having some difficulty installing IOS236, IOS249, etc.... Glad you got it sorted out. IMO, I would update the Wiikey to 1.99beta, as that should provide compatibility with the greatest number of games, plus 6x read speed and GC audio streaming support. These days I only use discs for audio streaming games, while everything else is run from USB.

 

[deathtech]

Alright ! Once again, terrific community. Now, on to the fun stuffs You guys rock, and have really helped me out. I owe you all a beer !

 

[Shadow-Zero]

Sorry for hijacking this, but I'm kinda in the same situation. I soft-modded my (recently purchased second-hand) black Wii (4.3) succesfully with ModMii. Unfortunately, due to the GC2-D4 dvd-drive I cannot use my DVD backup games. Need to ponder a bit about that (replace it with an older drive, go all USB-Loader, dunno yet).

More of a (confusing) challenge was updating my launch Wii with Wiikey 1 (4.0) . Went on the ModMii road as well, which seems to work automagically as well I'm on 4.3E now and the Shopping Channel is accessible again. However, when I pop in New Super Mario Bros Wii, it still wants to perform an update. See I'll need to dive into that (I just want a situation where I don't get any updates from games, with a chance of bricking it or something)

For my info, can I just start Multi-Mod-Manager, go to Manage System Menu, and select another version there? Or do I need to go through the whole procedure from the start (download/install and all)?

EDIT:
(apparently the Priiloader block doesn't work)

EDIT2:
Ok, after fiddling with the Priiloader settings some more I got it to work! Need to test some more with the region free settings, I have the idea if one of them is enabled it gives an issue. "Remove Diagnostic Disc Check" shouldn't be enabled as somewhere suggested, then I get a disc read error.