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

Ecrofirt said:
Thanks.

Would you recommend continuing to use non-NTFS drives? It sounded like the most support would come from WBFS, but I like the idea of native support in Windows.
The biggest reason I use a FAT drive is so that I can keep all my homebrew on the same drive as the games. I like not having to use an SD card any more.
 
Ecrofirt said:
Thanks.

Would you recommend continuing to use non-NTFS drives? It sounded like the most support would come from WBFS, but I like the idea of native support in Windows.
FAT32 or NTFS are the ways to go. Both have slight advantages over the other, making them kind of equal, and both have massive advantages over WBFS.
 
So like I have 4.3E and I want to get on the shop... the wiki says there is no way to update the shop yet on 4.3? Is this still valid?
 
Clipper said:
FAT32 or NTFS are the ways to go. Both have slight advantages over the other, making them kind of equal, and both have massive advantages over WBFS.
Maybe you should list the pros/cons for each so people can make a more informed decision. Thanks.
 
VOOK said:
So like I have 4.3E and I want to get on the shop... the wiki says there is no way to update the shop yet on 4.3? Is this still valid?
Where does it say that? The current methods on the Wii Shop page should work.

Fuzzy said:
Maybe you should list the pros/cons for each so people can make a more informed decision. Thanks.
Off the top of my head (I'm probably missing a few)...

Pros of FAT32/NTFS over WBFS:
  • The drive/partition can be used for other things apart from Wii games.
  • Partitioning apps know the format so you can modify the partition without losing data.
  • Management features such as defrag become available.
  • You won't have your drive randomly corrupt games (this happens with some WBFS partitions when you delete games then install others).
  • You don't have to deal with any manager apps.

Pros of WBFS over FAT32/NTFS:
none

Pros of FAT32 over NTFS:
  • Drive format is supported by more OSes/devices (e.g., 360).
  • Most drives are formatted this way by default, so no work needed.
  • Less configuration needed (ntfs_write=1 needs to be added to config.txt for NTFS).

Pros of NTFS over FAT32:
  • Larger file sizes supported (>4GB, but this limit doesn't affect Wii games).
  • Can format natively with Windows.
  • Can rip games as .isos for use with the Wii emulator.
 
Why is it almost every time I first power on the Wii and then go to boot up the USB Loader that it seems to sit there doing nothing? I have to power off the Wii and go through the process again and then the games come up almost instantly.
 
woodsey1982 said:
Any word on GC backups being played from USB yet?

I'd heard that the guy working on it had gotten bored and people weren't willing to pay the amount he wanted to continue with it, so he's dropped it for the time being.
 
Red Dolphin said:
Why is it almost every time I first power on the Wii and then go to boot up the USB Loader that it seems to sit there doing nothing? I have to power off the Wii and go through the process again and then the games come up almost instantly.
Your drive is powering down and takes too long to start up. If you are using a forwarder, try using the HBC instead; it may trigger the wakeup sequence so that it's ready for USB Loader. Also, try turning it on or plugging it in just before you want to play.
 
Cosmic Schwung said:
I'd heard that the guy working on it had gotten bored and people weren't willing to pay the amount he wanted to continue with it, so he's dropped it for the time being.
I'd hate if that were true. Dios Mios being the main reason for checking this thread everytime its bumped :P
 
Looking to buy a new HDD for Configurable.

All of the externals I've used with the Wii have had an external power supply, ie, they are not powered over USB from the Wii.

Can I buy something that is USB powered? Anyone have any experience? Any reason not to? Will the Wii supply enough power? Are there any boot issues? tia
 
I'm going to buy the red Mario Wii next weekend and I was wonder if I should have any problems. Does Homebrew work on 4.3 if this Wii comes with it?
 
gregor7777 said:
Looking to buy a new HDD for Configurable.

All of the externals I've used with the Wii have had an external power supply, ie, they are not powered over USB from the Wii.

Can I buy something that is USB powered? Anyone have any experience? Any reason not to? Will the Wii supply enough power? Are there any boot issues? tia

I use a small laptop sized (2.5") HDD in a USB2.0 caddy that has no power supply and it works fine. You might want to investigate any drives you look into buying to make sure they don't have any spin-down mechanisms that you can't turn off (drives usually have them for Eco reasons)...
 
Cosmic Schwung said:
I'd heard that the guy working on it had gotten bored and people weren't willing to pay the amount he wanted to continue with it, so he's dropped it for the time being.

I think it was more to do with the complications involved. Streaming audio didn't work and because of the way the hack was implemented it was unlikely that it was ever going to work. He'd made a nice proof of concept with Starfox, but I don't think it was ever going to become a real / finished product with no problems.

I'd love it if GC games were bootable this way too, but sadly its not to be. WODE or nothing.
 
radioheadrule83 said:
I use a small laptop sized (2.5") HDD in a USB2.0 caddy that has no power supply and it works fine. You might want to investigate any drives you look into buying to make sure they don't have any spin-down mechanisms that you can't turn off (drives usually have them for Eco reasons)...

Cool. Any suggestions? I've used old hard drives in enclosures in the past, but I'm looking to buy a new unit now.
 
Billychu said:
I'm going to buy the red Mario Wii next weekend and I was wonder if I should have any problems. Does Homebrew work on 4.3 if this Wii comes with it?
It almost certainly will come with 4.3 and thus you will need to have certain games to install homebrew. In the US, those games are SSBB or Lego Indiana Jones. If PAL, it has to be Lego Indiana Jones.
 
Quick question about startpatch. Just some background: all I really want it for is skipping game updates that come on the DVD. Also copying blocked saves (if it can do that).

If I apply the startpatch and it can skip game updates, in that little challenger/letter area on the Wii main screen, will the game name still appear there? I find it slightly annoying that using gecko just has it say "homebrew channel played for ####". It is one of those Wii features that I like.
 
Clipper said:
It almost certainly will come with 4.3 and thus you will need to have certain games to install homebrew. In the US, those games are SSBB or Lego Indiana Jones. If PAL, it has to be Lego Indiana Jones.
I have a friend with Brawl. Thanks. I thought the wiki was a bit confusing on 4.3
 
ok so I had to update to 4.3 as it wouldn't let me play black ops otherwise , I cannot load the USB loader anymore anyhting I cna do to get it working again?
 
jufonuk said:
ok so I had to update to 4.3 as it wouldn't let me play black ops otherwise , I cannot load the USB loader anymore anyhting I cna do to get it working again?

Did you keep homebrew channel updated beforehand? If the only thing not working was the usb loader then just reinstall CIOS 20b. If you didn't update homebrew browser beforehand then you'll need to rehack with SSBB or LEGO Indy.
 
So I'm on 4.2 and I was wondering If can update my homebrew channel so that I can get 4.3? Or should I just stick to 4.2? can the update stick potentially brick your system?
 
hikarutilmitt said:
Did you keep homebrew channel updated beforehand? If the only thing not working was the usb loader then just reinstall CIOS 20b. If you didn't update homebrew browser beforehand then you'll need to rehack with SSBB or LEGO Indy.


I updated homebrew channel beforehand pardon my ignorance how do I reinstall CIOS20b?

many thanks
 
Linkzg said:
Quick question about startpatch. Just some background: all I really want it for is skipping game updates that come on the DVD. Also copying blocked saves (if it can do that).

If I apply the startpatch and it can skip game updates, in that little challenger/letter area on the Wii main screen, will the game name still appear there? I find it slightly annoying that using gecko just has it say "homebrew channel played for ####". It is one of those Wii features that I like.
Yes, game names will still appear in the Wii Message Board log. Also, your import games will appear there too if you have been using Gecko for those at all. Another way to play games from the disc with the Wii Message Board logging but without the updates is to use Cfg USB Loader to launch the disc (with write_playlog=1 added to config.txt).

jufonuk said:
ok so I had to update to 4.3 as it wouldn't let me play black ops otherwise , I cannot load the USB loader anymore anyhting I cna do to get it working again?
Updating to 4.3 would have deleted your IOS222, IOS223 and IOS249. You are going to have to reinstall them (or at least 249). Just go back to the tutorial and follow the instructions for reinstallation.

Bizzyb said:
So I'm on 4.2 and I was wondering If can update my homebrew channel so that I can get 4.3? Or should I just stick to 4.2? can the update stick potentially brick your system?
You can upgrade, but there is little need to. You can instead just update the shop so that you can access it. Instructions for upgrading and further FAQs are all in the tutorial.

And for those unfamiliar:
 
Linkzg said:
Quick question about startpatch. Just some background: all I really want it for is skipping game updates that come on the DVD. Also copying blocked saves (if it can do that).

If I apply the startpatch and it can skip game updates, in that little challenger/letter area on the Wii main screen, will the game name still appear there? I find it slightly annoying that using gecko just has it say "homebrew channel played for ####". It is one of those Wii features that I like.

I'm pretty sure Starpatch doesn't do anything to mess with "time played" stats... the reason the homebrew channel makes it like that is because you're not really playing the game, you're playing the homebrew channel running the game. With Startpatch applied you start the games like normal, through the disc channel, not the homebrew channel.
 
Clipper said:
Updating to 4.3 would have deleted your IOS222, IOS223 and IOS249. You are going to have to reinstall them (or at least 249). Just go back to the tutorial and follow the instructions for reinstallation.

trying this now but gets so far before the Wiimote loses Sync and wont let me continue, any thing I could try?
 
Anony said:
when you rip games to wbfs, the games automatically are compressed

dont know if this is true on fat32 or ntfs
Of course it's true. I wouldn't leave out something as huge as that in my list if it wasn't. In fact, games often come out a few kB smaller on FAT32 and NTFS due to differences in the cluster sizes.

jufonuk said:
trying this now but gets so far before the Wiimote loses Sync and wont let me continue, any thing I could try?
Properly sync the Wii Remotes to the Wii using the sync buttons on both the console and remotes while in the Wii Menu. Also make sure you followed the instruction to remove GameCube stuff from the contoller and memory card ports.
 
Clipper said:
Properly sync the Wii Remotes to the Wii using the sync buttons on both the console and remotes while in the Wii Menu. Also make sure you followed the instruction to remove GameCube stuff from the contoller and memory card ports.


cool will try in the morning am off to kip now, thanks for the advice, i removed GC stuff beforehand also
 
jufonuk said:
trying this now but gets so far before the Wiimote loses Sync and wont let me continue, any thing I could try?

How long do you let it sit when starting usb loader before it regains sync? Mine actually goes out of sync for a good 30 seconds before I can actually use my remote again (this started happening a few revisions ago, actually). I'm still not certain what is doing it, but whatever, it works in the end.
 
Ledsen said:
I'm pretty sure Starpatch doesn't do anything to mess with "time played" stats... the reason the homebrew channel makes it like that is because you're not really playing the game, you're playing the homebrew channel running the game. With Startpatch applied you start the games like normal, through the disc channel, not the homebrew channel.
Clipper said:
Yes, game names will still appear in the Wii Message Board log. Also, your import games will appear there too if you have been using Gecko for those at all. Another way to play games from the disc with the Wii Message Board logging but without the updates is to use Cfg USB Loader to launch the disc (with write_playlog=1 added to config.txt).

thanks

Had no clue you could do it with usb loader too. I don't really use it that often because the Wii games I've played in the past few months didn't have bad loading times (main reason I'd use it).
 
So I plan on soft modding again. I had softmodded on 4.0, but reverted afterward for the shop. Now that I have a nice, USB powered 640GB 2.5" drive, I think it's a good time for me to have a go at it again.

Is there any essential homebrew that has come out since? How has emulation progressed on the Wii?
 
So, I'm running 4.3U, and I'm attempting to install the HBC with SmashStack. I deleted the stages (never had Smash Service running), and stuck the SmashStack private folder and boot.elf on my FAT32 formatted 2GB SD card.

When I go to the stage builder, the level icon is just spinning...it's been going for about 5 minutes and is basically frozen in this state. Any ideas?

edit: FAT32 and/or 4k sectors may have been the issue. I formatted as FAT and all is well.
 
I am still have problems getting USB loader woring on my Wii the rev 20b does not work as I lose all sync have tried syncing form the wii menu and also waiting 30 secs to no avail, anything else I can try?

many thanks
 
jufonuk said:
I am still have problems getting USB loader woring on my Wii the rev 20b does not work as I lose all sync have tried syncing form the wii menu and also waiting 30 secs to no avail, anything else I can try?

many thanks
That's very strange. Try redoing the installation of IOS236. Also, I'm not sure if GCN controller support was ever added to the 249 installer, but it might have been, so give that a go if you have one (yes I told you to remove them before, but that was part of the troubleshooting).

One final thing to try is updating the Wii online before attempting installation of 249.

TheExodu5 said:
Is there a homebrew app I can use to move stuff around on the Wii System Menu and create shortcuts to apps like SNES emulators?
You can already move most stuff around just by holding A&B on the channels. StartPatch has hooks that also allow you to move the fixed channels like the disc channel too.

As for creating channels, those are called forwarders. There are no apps to create them except on the PC. YOu can create a custom forwarder channel and then install that channel to the Wii. However, I don't recommend doing so as there is a great potential to brick your Wii and all those channels can be quickly defeated by a future update. Using the HBC and only official forwarders recommended by the creators of your apps is a much safer and (in my opinion) wiser technique.
 
Clipper said:
That's very strange. Try redoing the installation of IOS236. Also, I'm not sure if GCN controller support was ever added to the 249 installer, but it might have been, so give that a go if you have one (yes I told you to remove them before, but that was part of the troubleshooting).
One final thing to try is updating the Wii online before attempting installation of 249.

I will try the 249 with GCN controllers if not the IOS236 instalation is in the wiki?
many thanks for all your help
 
So holy shit, I finally ended up hacking my wii. Why didn't I do this sooner? So far I've just gotten emulators, but they are AWESOME. SNES and Genesis run perfectly. And many N64 games run smooth as butter (diddy kong racing, super mario 64).

Now I just need to install the stuff that will let me rip games to a hard drive.

fake edit: Is there a way to get say a SNES emulator to show up on the official Nintendo OS? Or do you have to launch the homebrew channel.
 
whitehawk said:
fake edit: Is there a way to get say a SNES emulator to show up on the official Nintendo OS? Or do you have to launch the homebrew channel.
Clipper just answered that exact question.
 
whitehawk said:
fake edit: Is there a way to get say a SNES emulator to show up on the official Nintendo OS? Or do you have to launch the homebrew channel.

You need to get a forwarder channel .... it is usualy very easy to make ... but you can find most of then in the web already done
 
Clipper said:
As for creating channels, those are called forwarders. There are no apps to create them except on the PC. YOu can create a custom forwarder channel and then install that channel to the Wii. However, I don't recommend doing so as there is a great potential to brick your Wii and all those channels can be quickly defeated by a future update. Using the HBC and only official forwarders recommended by the creators of your apps is a much safer and (in my opinion) wiser technique.
Alright, never mind then lol.
 
Are there any know issues with Wi-Fi games when you play from USB online? I was playing Animal Crossing online and every now and then a blue screen with Resetti popped and told me I lost my Nintendo WFC. The person I was playing with plays with the disc and there console locked up both times.
 
alf717 said:
Are there any know issues with Wi-Fi games when you play from USB online? I was playing Animal Crossing online and every now and then a blue screen with Resetti popped and told me I lost my Nintendo WFC. The person I was playing with plays with the disc and there console locked up both times.
Some people have reported they get better online using certain bases of the IOS, but those reports are difficult to confirm.
 
Quick question:

I have a 4.2U Wii from launch, and I'm definitely going to mod it after reading through everything.

I just have one question regarding the sequence of things:
Am I supposed to install BootMii first, or HBC? I ask because I was following a combo of the BootMii / HBC guides, and I ended up installing BootMii first as boot2. However, upon restarting my Wii (is there a proper method for this? I backed out the the main HackMii menu and exited, and then powered my Wii off and on again), I did not see a BootMii menu. Instead, it went straight to the standard Nintendo menu.

I should note that the HackMii installer seems to recognize that BootMii is installed as boot2, because I now have the option to uninstall it.
 
Ecrofirt said:
Quick question:

I have a 4.2U Wii from launch, and I'm definitely going to mod it after reading through everything.

I just have one question regarding the sequence of things:
Am I supposed to install BootMii first, or HBC? I ask because I was following a combo of the BootMii / HBC guides, and I ended up installing BootMii first as boot2. However, upon restarting my Wii (is there a proper method for this? I backed out the the main HackMii menu and exited, and then powered my Wii off and on again), I did not see a BootMii menu. Instead, it went straight to the standard Nintendo menu.

I should note that the HackMii installer seems to recognize that BootMii is installed as boot2, because I now have the option to uninstall it.
You probably did not prepare your SD card for BootMii. This produces the files on the SD card that BootMii needs in order to run. It's an option that you can perform as part of the BootMii installation. The BootMii on your Wii only launches the app on the SD card if it can find it and performs a normal boot if it can't. Another way to know if BootMii is working is that your disc slot will flash on and off when you switch on the Wii.

Also, make sure you click on Mario above to access the GAF tutorial for hacking the Wii. Other tutorials out there assume you are a pirate and give you a lot of crap that is dangerous to your Wii and may cause problems down the line.
 
Clipper said:
You probably did not prepare your SD card for BootMii. This produces the files on the SD card that BootMii needs in order to run. It's an option that you can perform as part of the BootMii installation. The BootMii on your Wii only launches the app on the SD card if it can find it and performs a normal boot if it can't. Another way to know if BootMii is working is that your disc slot will flash on and off when you switch on the Wii.

Also, make sure you click on Mario above to access the GAF tutorial for hacking the Wii. Other tutorials out there assume you are a pirate and give you a lot of crap that is dangerous to your Wii and may cause problems down the line.

No worries, I've *only* been following the GAF guide. I didn't choose to prepare an SD card as it wasn't one of the steps of the BootMii install.

The next time I restarted my Wii, it booted into BootMii. I was just afraid to go any further initially, because I didn't want to do anything without getting a NAND backup.

Now I've got BootMii and HBC installed, and I'm attempting to get HBB to work. Took over an hour for the HBB zip file to finally download, and now it's timing out when it tries to retrieve the repositories :(
 
I haven't been following this at all. I have a PAL Wii with I believe all the latest updates. Is that version 4.3? Can I see which version I have on the Wii somehow?

Edit: Found it.

Edit2: Lego Indiana Jones :/ so unfair when US and JAP can use Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 
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