BootMii: Understand it before you install it

Forward: The purpose of this post is to explain what BootMii is, what it does, the risks of installing it, and why or why not it is right for you to install it now (pros and cons folks). Don't misunderstand me; BootMii is an incredible piece of software, and I think everyone should have it installed. However, I also don't think that people should immediately install it without truly knowing anything about it either. Sure, Hackmii has posted about it 10 or 20 times by now, but not everyone has read those posts. In fact, some people running off to install BootMii didn't even see it on WiiBrew or HackMii.

With this in mind, if you see someone like what I've described above, please link them to this post as I'll try to make this post the most thorough, complete, and easy to read description of BootMii. I'm also including a long list of links for additional reading for anyone interested.

Preface and fair warning: If you are short of time, impatient, or just plain lazy at just read the pros and cons of installing BootMii so that you'll understand at least a little bit more than you did before you came to this post.

What is BootMii?

BootMii is a versatile program that will allow one to load The Homebrew Channel, run unsigned code, and backup and restore their Wii's NAND (Read: The ultimate method of brick recovery) It was released by Team Twiizers at Hackmii on May 13th, 2009.

How is BootMii Installed?

BootMii is installed via the Hackmii Installer. When installing BootMii with the Hackmii installer, you can choose to install it one of two different ways; It can be installed as boot2, or it can be installed as an IOS.
Boot2 is the third stage in the Wiis booting processes. It occurs just after the Wii has been fully initialized to the point where it can run code; But before any code made by Nintendo is loaded. When you install BootMii as boot2, BoooMii will load and run before the Health Warning Screen and System Menu if your SD Card is inserted in your Wii.
An IOS is one of many low level Input/Output Systems that run on the Wii's coprocessor. When you install BootMii as an IOS, you must use The Homebrew Channel to load and run BootMii. Obviously then, installing BootMii as an IOS instead of boot2 does not offer nearly as great of brick recovery ability as installing BootMii as boot2 does. At the moment, you can only back up your NAND with BootMii installed as an IOS; You are not yet able to restore the NAND at this point in time with BootMii installed as an IOS.
Keep in mind that most newer Wii's can not install BootMii as boot2, but instead can only install BootMii as an IOS. If your Wii has a serial number LU64... you will most likely (most definitely) only be able to install BootMii as an IOS.

How does brick recovery work?

Your Wii's NAND is your Wii's internal memory. BootMii allows you to backup your Wii's NAND on an SD Card. Then, should anything ever happen to your Wii (like if you brick it) you will be able to launch BootMii and restore the Wii's NAND to what it was when it was working. Thus, your Wii is unbricked.
However, if you have BootMii installed as an IOS, you may not be able to access BootMii to restore your Wii's NAND depending on the seriousness of the brick. Furthermore, at the moment, you can not restore your NAND with BootMii installed as an IOS, only create a backup of it. Again, only users with BootMii installed as boot2 can both backup and restore their Wii's NAND.

Pros of installing BootMii as boot2

• Complete Brick Recovery by allowing you to backup and restore your Wii's NAND
  
• Hopefully, you will always have a way to run unsigned code on your Wii, no matter what happens to Bannerbomb or the HBC.
• You can access the HBC more quickly

Pros of installing BootMii as an IOS

• You can backup your Wii's NAND
  
• A way to run unsigned code
  

Cons of installing BootMii

• Its still in beta form, so there's a risk that there could be an unknown bug in it that could brick your Wii
• Its still in beta form, so it's impossible to know what, if any, effects it may have on your system menu (although, there shouldn't be any).

More Reading

• BootMii on WiiBrew
• BootMii as an IOS, BootMii as boot2, and Preloader comparison
• Official Site for BootMii
• BootMii Beta Section of the WiiBrew Forums
  

A Return to the Golden Age of Wii Homebrew

The title of this post really sums up what today is. Lets look at some recent news items:

• Bannerbomb Alpha is Released
• Hackmii Installer v0.1 is released
• Brakken is back!
  

This is a return to the best of the best times to be involved with Wii Homebrew. Not since the original exploit (Twilight Hack) have things been this awesome. The ultimate scene and news site, tehskeen, is back to being as good as it used to be. Piracy is down dramatically after the 3.4 and 4.0 updates. And we now have Bootmii (Beta 1); So those of you that install it as boot2 will always have a way to run unsigned code on your Wii - Even if you delete the HBC. So lets take today and enjoy the great wealth of new and classic Wii Homebrew available.

Edit: (Speaking of classic homebrew... Check back tomorrow for a big update on my crown jewel ;) )

RE: Bootmii Rumors and Bannerbomb Release

The other day, there were rumors swirling about, claiming that Bootmii would be released by today. The following is a log of what happened when asked for confirmation of these rumors in #wiidev:

[22:49] (jassim> bootmiis out tomorrow correct?
[22:49] (jassim> sorry is this was asked a million times
[22:49] <@crediar> yep
[22:50] (jassim> thank you and thanks for the effort put into it :D
[22:50] <@crediar> no problem
[22:50] <@crediar> for fun, not for fame!

This log was forwarded to me by two different people when I logged onto the IRC at my usual time after school. At the time, I truly believed that Bootmii would be released by now. Surprising, because I never believe rumors.

Shortly afterword, there was another rumor (started indirectly by my blog post here) that Comex's Exploit (Bannerbomb) would be released at the exact same time. Now, today, Bannerbomb is released and Bootmii is not. Shocking, eh?

So what exactly happened here? I'm going to speculate again and take a shot in the dark guess here: Comex, like everyone else (including myself), released Bannerbomb believing that Bootmii would be released. This would give Bannerbomb a real reason to actually be released.

Unfortunately though, it looks like we've all been fooled :( I have no idea when Bootmii will end up being released (I never get to know these things :P) But I do believe it will be released relatively soon. Hey, its perfectly plausible that it was going to be released but there was a last minute bug or problem holding it up and we'll see it released tomorrow instead.

Dont despair, for those of you who cant use the Homebrew Channel because you accidently deleted it or moved it on to your SD Card, I'll be revealing a method(s)tomorrow that will recover the Homebrew Channel for most of you.

Comex's Exploit (AKA Bannerbomb)

Hm. A quick read through forums related to Wii Hacking or Homebrew anywhere shows repeating topics. "When will it be done?", "Where is it?", "Is it real?", "I said where is it?".

Hopefully this post will enlighten you and clear the air of ubiquitous rumors, speculation, and unreasonable hate toward Comex.

First, I wonder if any of you even know what an exploit is? On the Wii, an exploit is a file or program that crashes the Wii, and then loads and runs unsigned code. Unsigned code is basically our code. Its those boot.dol and boot.elf files. To give you an example of an exploit, lets look at the Twilight Hack. It was a save file that crashed the Wii and then loaded and ran a boot.dol or boot.elf file in the root of your SD card.

In case you haven't realized yet, Bannerbomb is only an exploit. It loads a corrupted banner, crashing the Wii, and then loads a boot.dol or boot.elf file off of your SD card. On its own, it will not install the Homebrew Channel. The unsigned code that it runs will have to do that. Who will have to write that unsigned code then? Most likely, it will end up being Team Twiizers again.

So with all of this in mind, exactly when will Bannerbomb be released? While I don't know for sure, (I'm not Comex after all :P) I do know that it would be pointless to release Bannerbomb now. Sure you could all use it to play Wii Shooting Gallery and WiiBreaker again, but it would be annoying to have to crash the Wii everytime you want to run a piece of code. So I'm sure Comex will release Bannerbomb as soon as there is something worthwhile to release it for. After all, it would be fairly trivial for Nintendo to push out a new release a quick firmware update disabling Bannerbomb soon after it is released. So you might as well use it to install Bootmii or the Homebrew Channel before you lose the ability to use it at all.