Wii softmod and apps questions...

[Ziggy]

So yeah, I know I'm late to the game. I just never really had the need for it, but I've read various threads here and Google'd it a few times over the years.

New questions here: viewtopic.php?p=935892#p935892

Original post:

I used Letter Bomb to install the HCB and Bootmii (as boot2). I used Bootmii to back up my NAND, as every one says to do. I haven't done much since that. I edited the Bootmii ini file so it'll boot straight to the system menu at power up. I grabbed FCE Ultra GX and used the tool to make a channel for it. And I grabbed Riivolution so I could play the Newer Super Mario Bros hack (it's amazing so far BTW). And now I'm finding that I have several questions.

1. What's this Preloader / Priiloader I keep hearing about and why do I want it? I understand that Priiloader is a modified version of Preloader... so does "Prii" render "Pre" obsolete? I backed up my NAND with Bootmii, and I see that I can restore it from there too. I have Bootmii installed as boot2 so it loads before the system menu. So if I understand correctly, if I brick my Wii from fucking up the OS I can restore it with Bootmii. So why do I need Prii/Preloader? Thanks!

2a. Newer SMB is awesome. But dammit, Riivolution makes the drive light constantly flash. Is there any way to get Riivolution to stop doing that? Apparently there's no way to keep the drive light from flashing when using Riivolution.

2b. So Riivolution patches games on the fly. That's great, but what if I wanna hard patch my games? I'm playing Newer SMB right now, but there's three other hacks on the Newer Team website that look great. Putting more than one patch at a time on my SD makes none of them work, I can only have one patch on the card at a time. This is most annoying. But more importantly, I'd like to eventually stop using the optical drive whenever possible, which would mean I'd need a hard patched image of the game anyway. So is there anyway I can apply these patches easily? Or would finding a pre-patched image for download be easier? So I found this tool that some one built that will hard patch NSMB with any of the "newer" hacks. I haven't used it yet, but it looks like it works as it's suppose to. Check out the info in this post for more info: viewtopic.php?p=932659#p932659

3. WADs, I was asking about this in another thread and realized I should just make this thread. I see a few WAD managers out there. Which one is best? I went with YAWMM.

Also, what can I do about my legitimately acquired VC and WiiWare games? I have a backup Wii that I don't really use. I got it to keep as a back up in case my original Wii ever dies. It'd be nice to take my WiiWare titles and install them on my backup Wii. I have all my Wii Shop purchases on an SD, and I backed up my SD card to my computer. Browsing through the files, if I go to Private\Wii\Title I have a bunch of folders that have what looks like random letter/numbers for names. Each folder contains a single .bin file, which I'm assuming are my games. Some of them are "data.bin" which I think are the save files I backed up. The rest are "content.bin" which I'm assuming are my VC and WiiWare games.

So... From what I've read, people download .wad files and use a WAD manager to install them on a Wii. So what exactly do I do with my .bin files? Apparently it's easier to just download a ready to install WAD instead of making my own. Still, I'd like to know if there's an easy way to do it.

4. What a safe place to grab Wii homebrew stuff like a WAD Manager? I've been using Wiibrew.org, but they stay clear of anything that has to do with pirating like WAD manager, etc. I don't like to just go to random sites and download random things.

I'm sure I'll have more questions.

edit: I'm looking for info on GCN HDD loading. I currently have USB Loader GX 3.0 installed, and I'll have an external HDD shortly. I'm wondering how I should set up my HDD for use with GCN loading, but does that depend on which loader I go with? DIOS MIOS, Devolution, which is best?

[JoeAwesome]

Putting more than one patch at a time on my SD makes none of them work, I can only have one patch on the card at a time.

I'm pretty sure I have my Riivolution set up with all of the different main NSMB hacks. You load up all the files on the SD card, then after running Riivolution, press the left/right arrows to select which hack you want before loading it.

[Ziggy]

Putting more than one patch at a time on my SD makes none of them work, I can only have one patch on the card at a time.

I'm pretty sure I have my Riivolution set up with all of the different main NSMB hacks. You load up all the files on the SD card, then after running Riivolution, press the left/right arrows to select which hack you want before loading it.

Right, I did that, and they would load but then hang. Originally I just put the main "Newer" hack on there, and it worked fine. Then I discovered the other 3 smaller hacks, so I put those on as well. Then none of the would work, even the original "Newer" on that I had on there. So I removed the 3 smaller hacks and now "Newer" works fine again. I'm assuming that they interfere with each other and that's why they weren't working. No?

[JoeAwesome]

Putting more than one patch at a time on my SD makes none of them work, I can only have one patch on the card at a time.

I'm pretty sure I have my Riivolution set up with all of the different main NSMB hacks. You load up all the files on the SD card, then after running Riivolution, press the left/right arrows to select which hack you want before loading it.

Right, I did that, and they would load but then hang. Originally I just put the main "Newer" hack on there, and it worked fine. Then I discovered the other 3 smaller hacks, so I put those on as well. Then none of the would work, even the original "Newer" on that I had on there. So I removed the 3 smaller hacks and now "Newer" works fine again. I'm assuming that they interfere with each other and that's why they weren't working. No?

It's certainly possible, but from what I've understood, each one accesses it's own specific assets (as well as what's on the disc), and not anothers. Looking at a copy of my wii files, I see there are different XMLs in Riivolution, but I don't know if I deleted the ones for hacks I wasn't using, or if I had all of the XMLs at one time.

On another point from your questions, I remember the makers of Riivolution making it hard to run an iso with it to patch a game with a hack, so you might be better off finding a pre-patched version of the isos with the hacks.

[irixith]

1. What's this Preloader / Priiloader I keep hearing about and why do I want it? I understand that Priiloader is a modified version of Preloader... so does "Prii" render "Pre" obsolete? I backed up my NAND with Bootmii, and I see that I can restore it from there too. I have Bootmii installed as boot2 so it loads before the system menu. So if I understand correctly, if I brick my Wii from fucking up the OS I can restore it with Bootmii. So why do I need Prii/Preloader?

Priiloader installs itself in the boot chain before the system menu. It allows you to do all sorts of nifty hacks -- scrub that awful system menu music, get rid of the health and safety screen, automatically press "A", that sort of thing. It can also protect you from bricks that bootmii is no help with. If you have priiloader + bootmii as boot2, there is absolutely nothing you can do to brick your Wii. Nothing. Priiloader can boot DOLs, bootmii, hbc, etc...you can bypass the system menu entirely if that's your cup of tea. It's an integral part of hacking your Wii!

(For future reference, ModMii is the tool that makes hacking your Wii super easy. It walks you through all the setup, downloads/patches the appropriate files, includes a WAD manager...)

2a. Newer SMB is awesome. But dammit, Riivolution makes the drive light constantly flash. Is there any way to get Riivolution to stop doing that?

Riivolution is written by a group of people that are staunchly against piracy. If you want to use the program, it needs to read from the disc, and since it's patching on the fly, there's going to be a lot of disc reading.

2b. So Riivolution patches games on the fly. That's great, but what if I wanna hard patch my games? I'm playing Newer SMB right now, but there's three other hacks on the Newer Team website that look great. Putting more than one patch at a time on my SD makes none of them work, I can only have one patch on the card at a time. This is most annoying. But more importantly, I'd like to eventually stop using the optical drive whenever possible, which would mean I'd need a hard patched image of the game anyway. So is there anyway I can apply these patches easily? Or would finding a pre-patched image for download be easier?

You can create your own ISO/WBFS/etc with Riivolution patches patched into them if you want. Then you can go back to USB loading. You're looking for Wiims ISO Tools if you want to do the editing yourself, or perhaps just download the ones you're looking for already made up.

3. WADs, I was asking about this in another thread and realized I should just make this thread. I see a few WAD managers out there. Which one is best?

ModMii includes Multi-Mod Manager, which I find works just fine.

Also, what can I do about my legitimately acquired VC and WiiWare games? I have a backup Wii that I don't really use. I got it to keep as a back up in case my original Wii ever dies. It'd be nice to take my WiiWare titles and install them on my backup Wii. I have all my Wii Shop purchases on an SD, and I backed up my SD card to my computer. Browsing through the files, if I go to Private\Wii\Title I have a bunch of folders that have what looks like random letter/numbers for names. Each folder contains a single .bin file, which I'm assuming are my games. Some of them are "data.bin" which I think are the save files I backed up. The rest are "content.bin" which I'm assuming are my VC and WiiWare games.

So... From what I've read, people download .wad files and use a WAD manager to install them on a Wii. So what exactly do I do with my .bin files?

As you might be aware, your Wii Shop account is linked directly to your Wii. If you ever format your Wii and remove the shop account, you will never be able to re-download or use your legit backed up purchases on it. (Or, say, move them to another Wii.) Since you're hacked now, you can simply download the WADs for all your legit purchases and have at it. You can make your own WAD files out of your downloads if you want, but there's really no point in doing the work that's already been done. You can download the entirety of the Wii Shop library in a single torrent in less time than it will take you to produce your own WADs.

4. What a safe place to grab Wii homebrew stuff like a WAD Manager? I've been using Wiibrew.org, but they stay clear of anything that has to do with pirating like WAD manager, etc. I don't like to just go to random sites and download random things.

That's the big site. GBAtemp/Filetrip links to a lot of it as well. Lots of the Wii sites are dying along with the interest I guess.

[Ziggy]

It's certainly possible, but from what I've understood, each one accesses it's own specific assets (as well as what's on the disc), and not anothers. Looking at a copy of my wii files, I see there are different XMLs in Riivolution, but I don't know if I deleted the ones for hacks I wasn't using, or if I had all of the XMLs at one time.

Hmm, well I guess what I can try is editing the name of the XMLs and/or the folders that contain the patch data so they don't interfere. It's just annoying that I'd have to edit the file/folder names in order to play each patch.

It can also protect you from bricks that bootmii is no help with. If you have priiloader + bootmii as boot2, there is absolutely nothing you can do to brick your Wii. Nothing.

That's what I wanted to hear. OK, I guess I install Priiloader.

Just for my own knowledge, what exactly will Priiloader do that Bootmii can't? What kind of a brick situation would I be in that Bootmii is no help? I thought the NAND memory contains the OS, and since Bootmii backs up the NAND, that meant that no matter what I do to fuck up the OS I could always restore it with my backed up NAND file.

(For future reference, ModMii is the tool that makes hacking your Wii super easy. It walks you through all the setup, downloads/patches the appropriate files, includes a WAD manager...)

So, ModMii will just hold my hand and do everything automatically for me? Where's the fun in that? But serious, I took a look at ModMii and saw that it's a .exe file. So I'm assuming that it's an application that you'd launch in Windows, then customize options to create all the right files to hack your Wii with? Never mind, I think this completely answers my question: https://gbatemp.net/threads/modmii-for- ... ic.207126/

Riivolution is written by a group of people that are staunchly against piracy. If you want to use the program, it needs to read from the disc, and since it's patching on the fly, there's going to be a lot of disc reading.

So are you saying there's NO way to keep the drive light from flashing? It's super annoying LOL. More of a reason to hard patch the game IMO.

[Exhuminator]

So are you saying there's NO way to keep the drive light from flashing?

There's a way:


Every time I have some sort of electronic device with annoying blinky LEDs, I put a piece of electric tape over it. It might not look high class, but it sure is effective.

[Ziggy]

Heh, yeah, I've done that myself a few times. But the Wii's drive light surrounds the disc slot. Cover the light would mean covering the slot.

[irixith]

You can always disconnect the light. Just a couple of screws and a plug are between you and freedom...

[Exhuminator]

Cover the light would mean covering the slot.

Maybe turn the Wii around to face the wall away from you?