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GAF Wii Homebrew thread: Homebrew, emulators, USB disc installs! Easy tutorial!

You don't need Hermes IOSes in order to try the alternative .dol loading methods. Considering that there are 3 games on the disc, I suspect that there'll be at least 4 .dol (executable) files on the disc:

main.dol for the main frontend, what is usually loaded by default
mp1.dol for Metroid Prime (just guessing on the name)
mp2.dol for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (just guessing on the name)
mp3.dol for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (just guessing on the name)

I'll have my game tomorrow!
 
The problem is you select your profile before you chose which Metroid you want to play. I'm not sure if starting off with an alternate dol will work out so well.
 
TheExodu5 said:
The problem is you select your profile before you chose which Metroid you want to play. I'm not sure if starting off with an alternate dol will work out so well.
Click to expand...
This happened in the Japanese releases too. Supposedly the file select saves the file it wants to use as default by the dol that you load, so you run it with main.dol, select your file, reset after the crash, then alternative .dol to MP1 and it might just work.
 
Yeah, that the new frontend is supposedly tightly woven into all 3 games is something that concerns me as well. I'll find out first hand tomorrow, I guess!
 
Clipper said:
Boot Camp? :P
Click to expand...

Still on Tiger. :(

Clipper said:
For those that don't know, I just discovered my Configurator almost fully works in OSX and Linux! You need to install Mono and then just use it to run my app.

It doesn't draw the box borders in the overlay Wizard quite right and it will break if you try to drag something outside the window boundaries, but otherwise it seems to work just fine. I'll try to fix those other bugs soon
Click to expand...

YAY! You're the best!!!oneone
 
Metal Gear?! said:
Hopefully at worst it will be like Wii Sports Resort where you run it once from disc and then it works fine from HD after that.
Click to expand...
Nope, we already know it won't be like that, given the Japanese versions.

YAY! You're the best!!!oneone
Click to expand...
I've only tested the Windows port of Mono so far to see if it works, so it may not actually work for you. However, it should according to the Mono website.
 
Mejilan said:
You don't need Hermes IOSes in order to try the alternative .dol loading methods. Considering that there are 3 games on the disc, I suspect that there'll be at least 4 .dol (executable) files on the disc:

main.dol for the main frontend, what is usually loaded by default
mp1.dol for Metroid Prime (just guessing on the name)
mp2.dol for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (just guessing on the name)
mp3.dol for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (just guessing on the name)

I'll have my game tomorrow!
Click to expand...

I wonder if that's how the demos on Brawl work. I was playing Brawl a short ways back and I had the sudden urge to try out the Kid Icarus demo and it would simply reset and return me to the Wii Menu. I was using Hermes 222.
 
Clipper said:
Nope, we already know it won't be like that, given the Japanese versions.


I've only tested the Windows port of Mono so far to see if it works, so it may not actually work for you. However, it should according to the Mono website.
Click to expand...
so you're saying we'll have to do this alternate dol method each time we want to play a game out of the trilogy?
 
Choppasmith said:
I wonder if that's how the demos on Brawl work. I was playing Brawl a short ways back and I had the sudden urge to try out the Kid Icarus demo and it would simply reset and return me to the Wii Menu. I was using Hermes 222.
Click to expand...
It's a possibility.

DanteFox said:
so you're saying we'll have to do this alternate dol method each time we want to play a game out of the trilogy?
Click to expand...
You can save the alternate .dol option as "disc", so each time you start the game in Configurable, it will just ask which .dol to load, you select it and that game will start. Think of it as a menu bypass. I don't know what happens to the tokens, though.

And keep in mind this is all guesswork right now.
 
hey clipper, can i force a gui style through theme.txt rather than config.txt? also, is it possible to choose which mp3/mod file i'd like to play through the theme file? it would be cool to have different songs for different themes (but not really necessary).
 
Nabs said:
hey clipper, can i force a gui style through theme.txt rather than config.txt? also, is it possible to choose which mp3/mod file i'd like to play through the theme file? it would be cool to have different songs for different themes (but not really necessary).
Click to expand...
No and no. They're both global options.

Dash Kappei said:
This.
Doesn't work so well with Mono :(
Click to expand...
What doesn't work? The Moma thing tells me the only things it doesn't do right are some cursor clipping stuff for dragging the boxes around in the wizard, and I'm nearly done removing the necessity for that. It also seems to work perfectly in the Windows port of Mono, except for the clipping.
 
2 builds later, we are in-game :)

who can guess which game this is?

25082009130m.jpg
 
Clipper said:
No and no. They're both global options.


What doesn't work? The Moma thing tells me the only things it doesn't do right are some cursor clipping stuff for dragging the boxes around in the wizard, and I'm nearly done removing the necessity for that. It also seems to work perfectly in the Windows port of Mono, except for the clipping.
Click to expand...

Well, I dunno, but I've tried using it three times and two of them it freezed just after starting, the one time it worked as soon as I went out of the boxes with the cursor to select a png from a folder I couldn't go back in with an active cursor and had to ctrl/del the app. I use Leopard.
 
Dash Kappei said:
Well, I dunno, but I've tried using it three times and two of them it freezed just after starting, the one time it worked as soon as I went out of the boxes with the cursor to select a png from a folder I couldn't go back in with an active cursor and had to ctrl/del the app. I use Leopard.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's the clipping problem. I'm nearly done fixing that. Also, I believe you need a pretty recent installation of Mono as the .NET2.0 support is pretty recent.

Edit: And here's the apparently Mono compatible version. Those with Macs, please let me know if you have any problems using this with the latest version of Mono, and what those problems are.

Edit 2: And yet another even more Mono compatible version. I've done a lot of work to try to make this work as much as possible with the Windows and Linux ports of Mono, but I don't have a Mac to test with, so it would be nice to get feedback from someone.
 
Hmm, I've spent so much of my spare time on the Configurator lately, that I totally missed the release of a new version of BootMii!

Here's the info for it, from the post I linked to above:
HackMii installer (v0.3):

  • Saner selection of IOSs for the installer itself and the installed HBC
  • BootMii will now install on Wiis with bad blocks in the boot2 area
  • Fixed some hangs when rebooting Starlet

BootMii beta 3 (v1.0):
  • Improved the SD card compability
  • Increased the backup/restore speed for some SD cards, but decreased it for others :P
  • Fix GPIO input for all Wiis
  • Wavebird support
  • Fixed a silly bug where NAND backups were left as 0 byte files
  • Keys are now saved to SD as /bootmii/keys.bin too

Most people would likely be interested in the SD compatibility and Wavebird support. Also, if you had a relatively old Wii, but couldn't get it to install BootMii as boot2, then you might just be lucky enough to get it working now.
 
Clipper said:
Hmm, I've spent so much of my spare time on the Configurator lately, that I totally missed the release of a new version of BootMii!

Here's the info for it, from the post I linked to above:
HackMii installer (v0.3):

  • Saner selection of IOSs for the installer itself and the installed HBC
  • BootMii will now install on Wiis with bad blocks in the boot2 area
  • Fixed some hangs when rebooting Starlet

BootMii beta 3 (v1.0):
  • Improved the SD card compability
  • Increased the backup/restore speed for some SD cards, but decreased it for others :P
  • Fix GPIO input for all Wiis
  • Wavebird support
  • Fixed a silly bug where NAND backups were left as 0 byte files
  • Keys are now saved to SD as /bootmii/keys.bin too

Most people would likely be interested in the SD compatibility and Wavebird support. Also, if you had a relatively old Wii, but couldn't get it to install BootMii as boot2, then you might just be lucky enough to get it working now.
Click to expand...
I saw it a while ago and should have posted it. I totally forgot about it until today haha. Gonna update it.
 
upandaway said:
How does a bootmii update work? Can I do it online from the Wii?
Click to expand...
You get the file from the net and save it in a subdirectory of your apps folder like any other homebrew app. Instructions are also on their site and my tutorial.
 
To those interested, I put out v41.7 of my app. Includes translation support to other languages as well as a bunch more Mono improvements. Details are here.

storl026 said:
Is there any homebrew to use cheats while playing GameCube games?
Click to expand...
Not that I know of. However, if you own an Action Replay, you can use Gecko OS to boot it.
 
Clipper said:
Not that I know of. However, if you own an Action Replay, you can use Gecko OS to boot it.
Click to expand...
When I tried that the action replay booted...immediately into a disc read error :( and I couldn't find any way to avoid it, ejecting and reinserting before the error (I found this prevented disc read errors with Naruto:GNT4) was impossible.

Admitingly I did this with a fairly old version of Gecko OS and a newer version could work out better (due to the gamecube game and Wii game dectection being improved*) so its best to try.

*-In older versions it though Zelda:CE was a Wii game meaning it wouldn't boot, it also thought the Monster Hunter 3 demo was a Gamecube game again meaning it wouldn't boot, it was from that they noticed the problem
 
Does anyone in here know anything about replacing/reflashing the NAND? If I send my Wii to Nintendo I'm pretty sure they're going to charge me full price to replace it so I figure trying to repair it myself can't hurt anything anyway.
 
Ysiadmihi said:
Does anyone in here know anything about replacing/reflashing the NAND? If I send my Wii to Nintendo I'm pretty sure they're going to charge me full price to replace it so I figure trying to repair it myself can't hurt anything anyway.
Click to expand...
If the NAND is 100% dead as suspected Nintendo will be unable to retrieve anything from it thus they can't work out the cause.

If they are able to prove homebrew did this/you have homebrew by somehow ressurecting the NAND they will quote you for the $220 before starting repairs. You are allowed to decline and they'll send the Wii back (or throw it away if you want but its best to keep it for spare parts). From what I understand in Europe the shipping is free both ways so you literilly lose nothing (but a little bit of time) by sending it in.
 
Starwolf_UK said:
If the NAND is 100% dead as suspected Nintendo will be unable to retrieve anything from it thus they can't work out the cause.

If they are able to prove homebrew did this/you have homebrew by somehow ressurecting the NAND they will quote you for the $220 before starting repairs. You are allowed to decline and they'll send the Wii back (or throw it away if you want but its best to keep it for spare parts). From what I understand in Europe the shipping is free both ways so you literilly lose nothing (but a little bit of time) by sending it in.
Click to expand...

It's not the homebrew I'm worried about. I got a modchip so I could import Brawl when it came out in Japan but I had to solder one of the wires to the chip on the drive. The plastic around the leg I soldered to is pretty scuffed up so I can't imagine they'd overlook that. I just want to try anything since I'm fairly sure I'm going to get charged full/near full price to get it replaced.
 
Rev14 doesn't let you play MP3: Corruption with USB Loader (something about it not reading the second layer), only the first two. So I downgraded to 13a and all three work fine. My question, though, is isn't 13a like half the speed of 14 as far as loading goes? Would 12 be better to use?
 
scitek said:
Rev14 doesn't let you play MP3: Corruption with USB Loader (something about it not reading the second layer), only the first two. So I downgraded to 13a and all three work fine. My question, though, is isn't 13a like half the speed of 14 as far as loading goes? Would 12 be better to use?
Click to expand...
12's speed is even worse. What you probably want to do is use rev14, but use Hermes' IOS222/223 for Brawl and MPT.

Starwolf_UK said:
When I tried that the action replay booted...immediately into a disc read error :( and I couldn't find any way to avoid it, ejecting and reinserting before the error (I found this prevented disc read errors with Naruto:GNT4) was impossible.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, I forgot this is a 3.2/modchip only thing. I remember finding a way to boot it using the old Gamecube Gecko OS, but you need to be able to play burnt discs for that to work. I can't even test that any more as I broke my Wiikey switch back when FreeLoader Wii came out (and because I only used my Wiikey for imports and Homebrew, there has been no need for me to fix it).
 
MPT, having multiple .dol (executable) files, requires a relatively modern USB loader which has implemented the alternative .dol loading feature. Preferably loading the alt .dols straight from the disc image.

Regarding Wanin's cIOS38 rev14, it specifically has an issue reading the second layer of any dual layer game, and the very last sector of any single layer game that uses the entire DVD. It's a bug, and I would imagine that it'll be fixed in rev15. At least, that's what I've read on the glitch.
 
Any Wii game that reloads/launches another .dol will crash, unless you launch that alternate .dol yourself from the get-go.

This is called the alternate .dol loading method, and is basically required for any game that has more than one .dol. Compilation games, such as MPT, almost always have multiple .dols, typically one per game in the compilation.

But even some stand-alone games (such as Red Steel, for example) have multiple .dols, for whatever reason.

MPT runs with the alternate .dol loading method, but it's flawed.
a) Multiplayer won't run at all, for some bizarre reason.
b) Apparently you can only use save slot 1.
c) But it seems that certain settings aren't honored, in that the game forces you to play on Veteran (same as GCN's Normal difficulty as far as MP1 and MP2 are concerned) and also forces 480i.

The specific mechanics for implementing the alternate .dol loading method varies from loader to loader, and I'm pretty sure Clipper's tutorial deals with CFG USB Loader's method. However, the basic gist of this for MPT is as follows:

1) Load the game using the default .dol (main.dol) and start your save game on slot 1. You may change your control/audio/visual/etc. settings here, and most of them persist and apply to all 3 games. Attempting to load any of the single player campaigns, or the multiplayer mode, will crash the game and reboot the Wii.

2) Reboot the Wii or exit the loader, then elect to run the game using the alternate .dol method (loading from the disc itself, not from the SD card or whatever). See Clipper's tutorial for more details on HOW.

3) Select the alternate .dol for the MP game you'd like to play. MPT has four .dols beyond the standard main.dol. Three of them pertain to MP1, MP2, and MP3 and which .dol belongs to which game can easily be inferred from the file names of the .dols themselves.

Edit - I don't know if Rev13 works with MPT, but I do know that Rev14 has a critical flaw that breaks dual layer games, such as SSBB and MPT. I'd suggest taking the time to install the alternate cIOSes by Hermes, as they're overall fantastic. I recommend setting up the v3 cIOSes as follows:
cIOS202 = 36 default
cIOS222 = 37 merged with 36
cIOS223 = 38 merged with 36

And then setting MPT to run with either cIOS222 or cIOS223.
The 36/37/38/merge blah blah blah will make sense once you run the Hermes cIOS installer.
 
Just got a Wii, 2 controllers, 1 nunchuck, Star Wars Complete Saga, Paper Mario, and Wii Sports on Craigslist for $150!!!!!!!!!

Can't wait to start homebrew this week!
 
Mejilan said:
The specific mechanics for implementing the alternate .dol loading method varies from loader to loader, and I'm pretty sure Clipper's tutorial deals with CFG USB Loader's method. However, the basic gist of this for MPT is as follows:

1) Load the game using the default .dol (main.dol) and start your save game on slot 1. You may change your control/audio/visual/etc. settings here, and most of them persist and apply to all 3 games. Attempting to load any of the single player campaigns, or the multiplayer mode, will crash the game and reboot the Wii.

2) Reboot the Wii or exit the loader, then elect to run the game using the alternate .dol method (loading from the disc itself, not from the SD card or whatever). See Clipper's tutorial for more details on HOW.

3) Select the alternate .dol for the MP game you'd like to play. MPT has four .dols beyond the standard main.dol. Three of them pertain to MP1, MP2, and MP3 and which .dol belongs to which game can easily be inferred from the file names of the .dols themselves.
Click to expand...

That seems like way too much trouble. When I buy MPT, I'll just keep the disc in my Wii and play it that way. Hopefully someone finds a way to load the .dol from the game with USB loader (if it is even possible).
 
Blakero said:
Just got a Wii, 2 controllers, 1 nunchuck, Star Wars Complete Saga, Paper Mario, and Wii Sports on Craigslist for $150!!!!!!!!!

Can't wait to start homebrew this week!
Click to expand...
Was there anything wrong with it like dead optical drive or the sparklies of doom? If not, congrats. That is a damn great price!
 
Before I ask a question here, I want to make something clear. It involves the installations of WADs and how it could affect my Wii in the future whenever an update comes around. Is this type of discussion allowed or not?
 
It probably depends on the WAD in question.

Porthos said:
That seems like way too much trouble. When I buy MPT, I'll just keep the disc in my Wii and play it that way. Hopefully someone finds a way to load the .dol from the game with USB loader (if it is even possible).
Click to expand...

It's dead easy and takes all of 5 extra seconds to load a game using an alt. dol instead of the default. And this solution IS done via USB Loader, so this IS the solution. Now, admittedly, there are still issues affecting MPT specifically, but I don't think it's necessarily alt. .dol related, since I've personally done the alt. .dol method with other games and not had such issues.

The MPT issues, thus far, are as follows:
1) Can only use save slot 1.
2) No access to the multiplayer mode.
3) Can't seem to change the difficult level (defaults to Veteran?) and, depending on the specific USB Loader in use, might not be able to access 480p without forcing some extra settings.

For my part, I'll probably just play off the disc as well for MPT. But you could do worse than familiarize yourself with the alt. .dol loading method, since it's very easy to learn and more than a few games require it to run.
 
Feel the Swift said:
Before I ask a question here, I want to make something clear. It involves the installations of WADs and how it could affect my Wii in the future whenever an update comes around. Is this type of discussion allowed or not?
Click to expand...
Installation of WADs is always risky. If they have faulty banners, you have a good chance of bricking your Wii. The only types of WAD you should even consider installing are forwarders of your frequently used homebrew applications, and even then only if you are certain they are safe.
 
Clipper said:
Installation of WADs is always risky. If they have faulty banners, you have a good chance of bricking your Wii. The only types of WAD you should even consider installing are forwarders of your frequently used homebrew applications, and even then only if you are certain they are safe.
Click to expand...
I just wanted to make sure I wasn't breaking any rules. And I think I answered my own question. I've never actually used Waninkoko's uninstaller for WADs, I've only deleted them off my Wii. Anyways, I'm on 4.1 using Waninkoko's updater, which still has a trucha-signed bug if I am correct. And I never update directly through Nintendo so I can be sure I won't lose hombrew functionality. If there are still traces of those custom channels on my Wii I'll probably have to figure out how to remove those or hope Waninkoko knows what he's doing in future updates. D:
 
I only use Nintendo's updates, and my Wii is perfectly homebrew-ready. 4.1 also.
There's literally no reason to touch Waninkoko's updaters, and I'd rather not grant him that much control over/access to my Wii, personally.
 
Mejilan said:
I only use Nintendo's updates, and my Wii is perfectly homebrew-ready. 4.1 also.
There's literally no reason to touch Waninkoko's updaters, and I'd rather not grant him that much control over/access to my Wii, personally.
Click to expand...
I didn't know that was possible.

Oh wait, BaNNeRBoMB. *slaps self*
 
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