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Wii U HOMEBREW Discussion Thread [exploits/apps/games/stuff]

Thanks, will scribble that down so I wont do any mistakes.

Same here.

Also with this USB method, I'm aware of the movement of save games onto USB before the game installation. What's the deal with patching to the latest game updates? I'm DREADING doing my copy of Hyrule Warriors. I'm tempted to just leave that well alone and just continue with my disk due to the potential pain in the ass it might be - And I'd rather play with the later update rather than be stuck at the state the game was at launch!!!! (shudder)
 
Also note that you're pretty unlikely to run into the bug to begin with, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. You have to do things in a pretty specific order.
 

schwupp

Member
Well, for starters, you can dump your OTP and SEEPROM to an SD card and redirect them from there. Meaning RedNAND may actually be useful now if Nintendo issues an update. The way the Wii U works is that it needs to update both the firmware and the SEEPROM, or else you get a brick. If you updated RedNAND without updating the SEEPROM, you'd brick your RedNAND.

so thats the point of mocha ... was really wondering what it actually added besides a few tools you could not use with the old sig patch before.
 
Patching in updates for games is still a real grey area for me. Along with Hyrule (with it's monstrous updates) I also have MK8 and it's a game I'd love to have backed up to my USB, I have all the DLC for it. It's all legit and all above board of course, but obviously online play requires my game to be patched to the latest. I would be mortified if Nintendo banned me so I want to avoid any chance of that happening. I'm at a stage where my machine has D.N.S settings to stop updates.

What is the process to update any game with USB loading? Is it TOTALLY safe? If I have to keep using my MK8 and Hyrule Warrior disks, fine, not the end of the world at all. But I don't want to dive in thinking it would be fine and get in shit with Nintendo all over the convenience of swapping my disks.
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
Patching in updates for games is still a real grey area for me. Along with Hyrule (with it's monstrous updates) I also have MK8 and it's a game I'd love to have backed up to my USB, I have all the DLC for it. It's all legit and all above board of course, but obviously online play requires my game to be patched to the latest. I would be mortified if Nintendo banned me so I want to avoid any chance of that happening. I'm at a stage where my machine has D.N.S settings to stop updates.

What is the process to update any game with USB loading? Is it TOTALLY safe? If I have to keep using my MK8 and Hyrule Warrior disks, fine, not the end of the world at all. But I don't want to dive in thinking it would be fine and get in shit with Nintendo all over the convenience of swapping my disks.

tYou just update the game through the built-in update and it's a completely safe process. Unless you're cheating online, Nintendo won't ban you. They have NEVER* banned anyone for using USB or CIA games, but they have gone and banned people for cheating.

*They did ban some people who played Pokémon SuMo online before the release date, but that also happened to people playing the retail release of the game that had broken street date, not just to CIA users.
 
Ok total idiot question incoming:

I have an external HD plugged in to my Wii U. Every so often through the day, the Wii U will boot up and so will the HD. Sometimes this doesn't even register to me as something happening and sometimes it will "turn on" the Wii U to the point where, if I'm playing PS4/XBO, the Wii U will take over my HDMI switcher and calamity ensues.

Now it has been a LONG time since I first set up my Wii U, and I don't remember what settings do what/were introduced after launch/got changed or upgraded, but how the hell do I make it so my Wii U doesn't just randomly turn on anymore? I looked around in settings and I think I found the option but it also warns it'll turn off Quick Start, does that matter? Does the Wii U still take 8 years to boot up without the "sleep/quick start" option turned on?
 
No Wii U firmware update coming anytime soon.
Screen_Shot_2016-12-16_at_8.30.59_am.png
 
Is there a reason WUPServer / WUPClient is so painfully slow ? I've got 883 Mbps Wireless Connection according to my PC (of course the Wii U is probably ~54 Mbps tops) but it's still taking over 4 hours to pull an installed Eshop game off the USB to have a poke at it.
 

Dambrosi

Banned
Wow, that Haxchi thing sounds scary, like the early A9LH implementations did. I think I'll wait until this (or something even better!) reaches the simplicity, relative safety and elegance that the 3DS's hack did.
 
Wow, that Haxchi thing sounds scary, like the early A9LH implementations did. I think I'll wait until this (or something even better!) reaches the simplicity, relative safety and elegance that the 3DS's hack did.

As long as you stay away from Coldboot stuff and don't do anything stupid on SysNAND (like install Dev signed programs) you should be fine.
 

TunaLover

Member
Got rid off of my secondary HDD, now my Wii U only has the Wii U formatted HDD and a 64gb SD card (more than enough to hold my GCN collection and RetroArch roms), have 6 Wii games are in digital form, I can play the others from disc :3
 
Anyone else getting constant freezes and DSI exception errors with Retroarch?

I really have never got on with Retroarch with any formats. I honestly feel it's so overated. It does so many different emu's, I get that, but it doesn't do them well imo. Constant bugs, crashes and worst of all HARD locks. Having to hard reset my console every time trying to fix this stuff is frankly becoming beyond frustrating. If it's crashing because I'm doing something odd or stupid, I hold my hands up, fair enough. But to hang to such a state.. I'm just not willing to keep hard locking my hardware. It's literally just for half a dozen of my Mega Drive library anyway - I'll live without it lol
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
Anyone else getting constant freezes and DSI exception errors with Retroarch?

I really have never got on with Retroarch with any formats. I honestly feel it's so overated. It does so many different emu's, I get that, but it doesn't do them well imo. Constant bugs, crashes and worst of all HARD locks. Having to hard reset my console every time trying to fix this stuff is frankly becoming beyond frustrating. If it's crashing because I'm doing something odd or stupid, I hold my hands up, fair enough. But to hang to such a state.. I'm just not willing to keep hard locking my hardware. It's literally just for half a dozen of my Mega Drive library anyway - I'll live without it lol

Do you realize you're using nightly builds of an alpha software whose development started like a month ago, right?
 
Do you realize you're using nightly builds of an alpha software whose development started like a month ago, right?

I have problems with it on every platform I've ever used it with, haha, it's no big deal and stopping while it's causing hard locks seems like a good idea. I'm gonna leave it until it's idiot proof.. Lol
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
I have problems with it on every platform I've ever used it with, haha, it's no big deal and stopping while it's causing hard locks seems like a good idea. I'm gonna leave it until it's idiot proof.. Lol

TWeirs. I have no issues wit it on Pc. Most other platforms in wgich Retroarch is on have had a lot more time of development behind them. Try it on the Vita and you'll get a similar experience to the Wii U.

It's really unfair to say that Retroarch is not deserving of its praise because the Wii U port is still very early in development.
 

Amon37

Member
Well I got my daughter wii u. I've noticed a couple things trying to set it up before she opens it.

1. I bought it used and someone had to have hacked it before because Mario kart 8 is on main menu and boots and plays perfectly.

2. Loadiine is flaky AF. I have about a 50% rate or success vs. White screen and frozen.

I'll probably wipe it clean, not knowing what the previous owner did.
 

Pokemaniac

Member
Well I got my daughter wii u. I've noticed a couple things trying to set it up before she opens it.

1. I bought it used and someone had to have hacked it before because Mario kart 8 is on main menu and boots and plays perfectly.

2. Loadiine is flaky AF. I have about a 50% rate or success vs. White screen and frozen.

I'll probably wipe it clean, not knowing what the previous owner did.

You know, it is possible to install retail games on a Wii U without hacking. That's what the eShop is for. Unless there's other evidence of hacking, I'd be more inclined to guess that that was just a digital copy of Mario Kart 8 that was still there because of a stray NNID still associated with the system.
 

Amon37

Member
You know, it is possible to install retail games on a Wii U without hacking. That's what the eShop is for. Unless there's other evidence of hacking, I'd be more inclined to guess that that was just a digital copy of Mario Kart 8 that was still there because of a stray NNID still associated with the system.

I didn't know that, I kept asking me to create a nnid but I was skipping that for now. Well I'll check more after she opens it since I won't have anymore time with it as the wife doesn't know I bought it. Lol
 
Well I got my daughter wii u. I've noticed a couple things trying to set it up before she opens it.

1. I bought it used and someone had to have hacked it before because Mario kart 8 is on main menu and boots and plays perfectly.

2. Loadiine is flaky AF. I have about a 50% rate or success vs. White screen and frozen.

I'll probably wipe it clean, not knowing what the previous owner did.

Format the sd to 64k cluster
 

Platy

Member
A good way to verify if was installed by the brazilian method is going to the game's page on the eshop and see if there is a "buy" option.

If you buy on the eshop it says purchased but the brazilian method still says buy
 
I didn't know that, I kept asking me to create a nnid but I was skipping that for now. Well I'll check more after she opens it since I won't have anymore time with it as the wife doesn't know I bought it. Lol

If there's no NNID on console then its probably a pirated/dumped version. Its possible to temporarily launch homebrew and install games with fake tickets, then remove/wipe SD card. The games will continue to work like normal. I guess previous owner removed his NNID (if he had one) but forgot to wipe his system. Also check if there's any title named Haxchi installed on the system. If there is, it might be linked to coldboot hack and you definitely don't want to delete that. It will brick your WiiU.
 

Pokemaniac

Member
If there's no NNID on console then its probably a pirated/dumped version. Its possible to temporarily launch homebrew and install games with fake tickets, then remove/wipe SD card. The games will continue to work like normal. I guess previous owner removed his NNID (if he had one) but forgot to wipe his system. Also check if there's any title named Haxchi installed on the system. If there is, it might be linked to coldboot hack and you definitely don't want to delete that. It will brick your WiiU.

Depending on how the previously owner removed their NNID, there could still be usable licenses on the system. The real check is to see if it show up under "Software on this Console" tab under "Your Downloads" in the eShop.
 

jediyoshi

Member
Well I got my daughter wii u. I've noticed a couple things trying to set it up before she opens it.

1. I bought it used and someone had to have hacked it before because Mario kart 8 is on main menu and boots and plays perfectly.

Wii U consoles with games packed in are more often than not system preinstalled rather than discs

ACornEK.png
 
If you had cbhax and somehiw removed the NNID you should instabrick on next reboot since the title license used for Haxchi would be invalid.
 
Depending on how the previously owner removed their NNID, there could still be usable licenses on the system. The real check is to see if it show up under "Software on this Console" tab under "Your Downloads" in the eShop.

Didn't know that. I thought deleting NNID removed your ability to launch games bought and installed on the system using that NNID.
 

Amon37

Member
IMO, you should move your Wii and GameCube stuff to your SD card and use the USB drive for Wii U games. Loadiine compatibility is severely limited, and since you're already willing to use an SD card, go for the combination that gives you the most advantages.

I'm thinking about trying Haxchi so I can do this, but the sd card is fat 32 so how can I move the wii games to the SD card some of them are over 4 GB? The external HDD is wbfs formatted, I never really used any updated methods for the wii
 

Pokemaniac

Member
Didn't know that. I thought deleting NNID removed your ability to launch games bought and installed on the system using that NNID.

Well, yeah, but most people probably don't outright delete their NNID when selling a system. If they just removed it but didn't format (or maybe removed it and formatted, I'm not 100% sure on the exact mechanics) the games could potentially still be available. Also, as mentioned, above, it also could have originally been a pack-in. Mario Kart 8 was a pack-in for a while.
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
I'm thinking about trying Haxchi so I can do this, but the sd card is fat 32 so how can I move the wii games to the SD card some of them are over 4 GB? The external HDD is wbfs formatted, I never really used any updated methods for the wii

Yikes. Don't use a WFBS formatted HDD. That's, like, an ancient method :p Format the drive to FAT32 and use Wii Backup Manager to move the games as WFBS files to a WFBS folder. Don't worry, the program does all the conversion needed by itself.

The same goes if you're using an SD card. That way you can use it for Wii games and Wii and Wii U homebrew at the same time.
 

Amon37

Member
Yikes. Don't use a WFBS formatted HDD. That's, like, an ancient method :p Format the drive to FAT32 and use Wii Backup Manager to move the games as WFBS files to a WFBS folder. Don't worry, the program does all the conversion needed by itself.

The same goes if you're using an SD card. That way you can use it for Wii games and Wii and Wii U homebrew at the same time.

OK great, like I said I hadn't used any updated wii hacking methods lol.
 
Anyway to dump games without an impossible to set up network configuration yet?

E-shop games aren't hard either. Just very tedious. Use Mocha , launch WUP Client Mod on your PC, and then find the game folder and copy it to the SD card (don't try to copy it to the PC, the network transfer speeds are terrible because WUP Server has a tiny tiny buffer and will take until approximately the heat death of the universe to dump a game).
 

Lazaro

Member
Is there a way to pull the save files from my Wii and make it so the vWii will find them?

I believe you can move your saves from an actual Wii to vWii using System settings.
Official Nintendo Support Article: How to Copy Save Data to an SD Card

You can then bring that SD card to Wii U/vWii and go to system settings to restore them.
Official Nintendo Support Article: How to Move Save Data From an SD Card to the Wii

Alternatively you can do a Wii to Wii U System Transfer.
 

Tall4Life

Member
What are the advantages of using Haxchi/Coldboot/Mocha stuff over launching homebrew through the internet browser? All I'm going to be using Wii U homebrew for is playing patched digital versions of my Wii U disc games and possibly playing my VC games that have the dark filter removed.
 

TunaLover

Member
Anyone else getting constant freezes and DSI exception errors with Retroarch?

I really have never got on with Retroarch with any formats. I honestly feel it's so overated. It does so many different emu's, I get that, but it doesn't do them well imo. Constant bugs, crashes and worst of all HARD locks. Having to hard reset my console every time trying to fix this stuff is frankly becoming beyond frustrating. If it's crashing because I'm doing something odd or stupid, I hold my hands up, fair enough. But to hang to such a state.. I'm just not willing to keep hard locking my hardware. It's literally just for half a dozen of my Mega Drive library anyway - I'll live without it lol
Currently RetroArch doesn't have a method to catch errors, so if there's a problem with uncompatible romset, incorrect parameters in the config files, missing bios, etc... it will just throw raw DSI exceptions. Make sure you delete the retroarch folder in the root of your SD, also make sure you are using correct romsets for MAME, or compatible rom extensions, also it's pretty important that you have working BIOS and set the path in settings, yeah it's not pretty user friendly because it doesn't tell you where's the error, I understand that constatly power off the Wii U can be annoying (happen me alot during my first attempts), but it really works when you put everything in order.
 

Joey Ravn

Banned
What are the advantages of using Haxchi/Coldboot/Mocha stuff over launching homebrew through the internet browser? All I'm going to be using Wii U homebrew for is playing patched digital versions of my Wii U disc games and possibly playing my VC games that have the dark filter removed.

Booting directly into sig-patched NAND and having offline access, basically. In 30 seconds you can be on sig-patched NAND, instead of having to boot regular NAND, get into the browser, go to the Homebrew Launcher, start the sig-patcher, boot again into sig-patched NAND.
 

TunaLover

Member
Booting directly into sig-patched NAND and having offline access, basically. In 30 seconds you can be on sig-patched NAND, instead of having to boot regular NAND, get into the browser, go to the Homebrew Launcher, start the sig-patcher, boot again into sig-patched NAND.
I always though sigpatches only serve for piracy purposes, no other way around, you can backup your disc games and they don't need CFW, the only thing that uses sigpatches are VC games, and DLC, game updates work just fine with normal firmware.

Also, what prevent you access to eShop to get your legit DLC, VC, and digital games?
 
I always though sigpatches only serve for piracy purposes, no other way around, you can backup your disc games and they don't need CFW, the only thing that uses sigpatches are VC games, and DLC, game updates work just fine with normal firmware.

Also, what prevent you access to eShop to get your legit DLC, VC, and digital games?

Sig patches also allow for a perma-Installed Homebrew channel you can launch with 100% success rate (obviously it doesn't work when sigs aren't patched but it remains installed and doesn't hurt anything). Actually there's no reason I can see that would stop Homebrew that needs greater resource access from using Sig Patched channels themselves.
 

TunaLover

Member
Sig patches also allow for a perma-Installed Homebrew channel you can launch with 100% success rate (obviously it doesn't work when sigs aren't patched but it remains installed and doesn't hurt anything). Actually there's no reason I can see that would stop Homebrew that needs greater resource access from using Sig Patched channels themselves.
But in the case of Homebrew Launcher it's once time thing, you don't need to boot your console with sig patches enabled everytime to get a permanent HBL working. Furthermore with the latest Haxchi installer you don't even need sig patch your system FW beforehand.
 

Amon37

Member
So I'm trying to get my Wii games running from an SD card instead of the USB HDD so I can use that for the upcoming Wiiu.

I'm using USB config loader (maybe that's ancient too?) I pick the sd card and pick the FAT partition it loads up all the covers but I'm getting an error anytime I start a game.

ERROR: setting up fragments -2 4
ID mismatch
Wbfs error -3

I used wii backup manager to move the games over to the SD card and on the SD card there is a WFBS folder and then folders with the games name and ID


EDIT: after trying a few loaders only wiiflow will load all my games off the sd card but I don't like the interface.
 
So I'm trying to get my Wii games running from an SD card instead of the USB HDD so I can use that for the upcoming Wiiu.

I'm using USB config loader (maybe that's ancient too?) I pick the sd card and pick the FAT partition it loads up all the covers but I'm getting an error anytime I start a game.

ERROR: setting up fragments -2 4
ID mismatch
Wbfs error -3

I used wii backup manager to move the games over to the SD card and on the SD card there is a WFBS folder and then folders with the games name and ID


EDIT: after trying a few loaders only wiiflow will load all my games off the sd card but I don't like the interface.

So I'm trying to get my Wii games running from an SD card instead of the USB HDD so I can use that for the upcoming Wiiu.

I'm using USB config loader (maybe that's ancient too?) I pick the sd card and pick the FAT partition it loads up all the covers but I'm getting an error anytime I start a game.

ERROR: setting up fragments -2 4
ID mismatch
Wbfs error -3

I used wii backup manager to move the games over to the SD card and on the SD card there is a WFBS folder and then folders with the games name and ID


EDIT: after trying a few loaders only wiiflow will load all my games off the sd card but I don't like the interface.

Sounds like you have games over 4 GB that aren't named like Configurable USB Loader expects (but also try a SD defrafmenter in case that's the problem). Unfortunately USB Loader GX is pretty much the only still active loader and it only does SD support for GC games. And you can't just use a NTFS HDD since Nintendont doesn't support NTFS. I've got a NTFS USB UStealthed for my Wii games and a FAT32 128GB card for GC/RedNAND/Homebrew (Wii and Wii U).
 
Currently RetroArch doesn't have a method to catch errors, so if there's a problem with uncompatible romset, incorrect parameters in the config files, missing bios, etc... it will just throw raw DSI exceptions. Make sure you delete the retroarch folder in the root of your SD, also make sure you are using correct romsets for MAME, or compatible rom extensions, also it's pretty important that you have working BIOS and set the path in settings, yeah it's not pretty user friendly because it doesn't tell you where's the error, I understand that constatly power off the Wii U can be annoying (happen me alot during my first attempts), but it really works when you put everything in order.

Yeah, I have to admit my frustrations took over when originally trying this out on the Wii U. Thanks for explaining and I'll try removing the folder and starting again from scratch. I'm unsure if the roms are an issue as I'm only looking to do a few Snes and Mega Drive games that I have - I thought the rom issues were due to differing MAME files rather than the consoles, but I'll have another look anyway.

All being said, my fears were due to hard powering off my wii u. I appreciate not everything can work straight off, but even a crash then back to home GUI would be fine rather than what it does now.
 
Well... Tried the new 2.4 version of Haxchi, I'm not sure what the catch is but my machine is behaving exactly as before even booting with the "sysmenu". Error messaging regarding 'sig required'.

Bit of a shame, but oh well.
 
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