The Ultimate (free) Guide to Installing Homebrew on your Nintendo Wii

Who am I?: I am Arikado. I am developer of two Wii Homebrew applications and a Wii Homebrew developers library. I am also the moderator of the WiiBrew forums.

Preface: Homebrew is a term used to refer to the practice of running code that is "home-made" or unauthorized for the sytem it is running on. Running homebrew on any type of a console opens up a door of opportunity to developers, and most of all, users (AKA you the reader). This guide will tell you both why you should put homebrew on your Wii and how to do it.

Why install homebrew on your Wii?
The easiest way for me to explain why you should install homebrew on your Wii is to have you look at a list of all the things you can do with your Wii after you have installed homebrew on it. Click this link here and take a visit to WiiBrew (the mother of Wii Homebrew) and check out all of the cool applications you can run with Wii Homebrew.

Some of the coolest features of having Wii Homebrew installed (in case you didnt see them in the link above) are:

• The ability to watch dvd's on your Wii
• The ability to run emulators so you can play games on the NES, SNES, N64, GBA, GB/GBC, the PS1 and even more systems on your Wii.
• The ability to play ports of famous id Software games like Quake, DOOM, and Wolfenstein.
• The ability to play tons of original homebrew games (I am the author of two by the way)
• The ability to change your system menu's region (from Japanese to European or USA or vice versa for example)
• The ability to play Wii disc games from another region
  
• The ability to back up your Wii's NAND (also known as the Wii's internal memory) so you can restore it and fix your Wii if something fatal should ever happen to it (like you turn the power off in the middle of an update for instance)

If that doesn't convince you to install homebrew on your Wii, I don't know what will.

How to install Homebrew on your Nintendo Wii
To install Homebrew on your Wii, you need a way to run unsigned code on your Wii. This is also known as an exploit. If you are on system menu 3.4 or lower, you can use the Twilight Hack, Bannerbomb, or Indiana Pwns exploits. If you are on system menu 4.0 or higher, you must use the Banneromb exploit. People on system menu 4.2 must be sure to use v2 of Bannerbomb. Indiana Pwns will work on Wii system menu. The only tool you need to run these exploits and use them to install homebrew is an SD Card.

Before we set up to use an exploit, let's set up our SD Card first. It's important that your SD Card is no smaller than 256mb or else homebrew will not work with your SD Card. First, download the Hackmii Installer from here. Use a tool like Winrar, Winzip, or 7zip to extract the Hackmii Installer. Find the file named installer.elf and place it in the root (the main directory, AKA inside of no folders) of your SD Card. Rename the file to boot.elf

Below, are the ways to set up each of the two exploits on your SD Card. Again, you only need to use one, so pick whatever one you prefer. Bannerbomb is the easiest exploit to use, because everyone can use it regardless of their System Menu version. It is also a lot easier to set up and doesn't require you to own a copy of Twilight Princess or LEGO Indiana Jones.

Be sure to turn off WiiConnect24 before you attempt to run either exploit.

Bannerbomb
Bannerbomb can be found and downloaded here. Below are the official instructions for setting up Bannerbomb on your SD Card. I couldn't write them better if I tried.

• "If your SD card has a private directory, rename it temporarily, e.g. to "privateold". Having other saved channels on the same card will screw it up. (Also, if you don't have any channels on the SD card already, it's possible to skip this step so you can keep saves on your SD card)
• Copy the Bannerbomb "private" folder to the root of your SD card.
• Take your Wii executable, name it "boot.dol" or "boot.elf" if it isn't already, and save it in the root directory of your SD card.
• Put your SD card in your Wii and turn it on.
• Go into Wii Options --> Data Management --> Channels --> SD Card.
• A message should appear asking to "load boot.dol/.elf". If it freezes or does not appear, download the next .zip file from the Bannerbomb website and start over.
• The homebrew on your SD card will load. Enjoy!"

Indiana Pwns
Indiana Pwns can be found and downloaded here. Here are the step-by-step instructions to use it, taken straight from the wiki page:"

1. Ensure your SD card is formatted as FAT. By default SD cards are formatted as FAT, so if you're not sure, you may skip this step.
2. (Optional) If you have an existing Indiana save that you want to backup, do so before proceeding:
   1. Put your SD card in your Wii.
   2. Go into Wii Options ⇒ Data Management ⇒ Save Data ⇒ Wii
   3. Find your Indiana save, click on it, click "Copy", and click Yes.
   4. Put your SD card in your computer, and copy the "private" folder from the card to a safe place.
3. Copy the "private" directory from the Indiana Pwns download to the root of your SD card.
4. Take your homebrew Wii executable (ELF file) and save it in the root directory of your SD card as "boot.elf".
5. Put your SD card in your Wii and turn it on.
6. Go into Wii Options ⇒ Data Management ⇒ Save Data ⇒ Wii.
7. Find your Indiana save, click on it, click "Erase", and click Yes.
8. Open the SD card and select the "Indiana Pwns" save that corresponds to your game region. Note: Some people are having problems with the Wii not "seeing" the save file on the SD card. If you are experiencing this, try setting the archive bit for the data.bin file - in Windows this can be either be done from the file's properties dialog (right click on it in Windows Explorer and check the box) or from the command line using "attrib +a ". More info at #wiihelp on Efnet.
9. Click copy and then yes. Now exit out of the menu.
10. Insert LEGO Indiana Jones disc and run the game.
11. From the Indiana game, load the saved game you just copied to the Wii.
12. When the game loads, you will be in Barnett College. Walk to the Art Room (through the Courtyard), approach the left character on the podium. When it zooms on him, choose the switch to option (two silhouettes, staggered, with an arrow pointing between them).
13. Here, the buffer overflow takes over and the Homebrew install will begin." 

Twilight Hack
The Twilight Hack can be found and downloaded here. Here are the step-by-step instructions to use it, taken right from the wiki page:"

1. Ensure your SD card is formatted as FAT. By default SD cards are formatted as FAT, so if you're not sure you can skip this step.
2. (Optional) If you have an existing Zelda save that you want to backup, do so before proceeding:
   
   1. Put your SD card in your Wii and turn it on.
   2. Go into Wii Options --> Data Management --> Save Data --> Wii
   3. Find your Zelda save, click on it, click "Copy", and click Yes
   4. Put your SD card in your computer, and copy the "private" folder from the card to a safe place.
   
   
3. Copy the "private" directory from the Twilight Hack download to the root of your SD card.
4. Take your homebrew Wii executable (elf or dol file) and save it in the root directory of your SD card as "boot.elf" or "boot.dol" as appropriate.
5. Put your SD card in your Wii and turn it on.
6. Go into Wii Options --> Data Management --> Save Data --> Wii.
7. Find your Zelda save, click on it, click "Erase", and click Yes.
8. Open the SD card and select the "Twilight Hack" save that corresponds to your game region. Note: Some people are having problems with the Wii not "seeing" the save file on the SD card. If you are experiencing this, try setting the archive bit for the data.bin file - in Windows this can be either be done from the file's properties dialog (right click on it in Windows Explorer and check the box) or from the command line using "attrib +a ". More info at #wiihelp on Efnet.
9. Click copy and then yes. Now exit out of the menu.
10. If you are using System Menu 3.4, you must immediately put the Twilight Hack to use. Turning off or running some other channel or game will have the System Menu delete the savegame again, and you'll have to start over.
11. Insert The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess game disc and run the game.
    
    • If you have the USA version of the game, load the "TwilightHack0" or "TwilightHack2" version of the game as appropriate (see above).
    • Otherwise, load the only "Twilight Hack" save game.
    
    
12. Once in the game, either walk backwards or talk to the man standing in front of you.
13. Follow the instructions listed on the screen.
14. Enjoy."

More on the Hackmii Installer
No matter which exploit you choose to use, after running the exploit, the HackMii Installer should start and you will be able to install the Homebrew Channel, DVDX, and/or Bootmii. Be sure to install the Homebrew Channel - it's the most important obviously.

Running apps with the homebrew channel
To run homebrew with the Homebrew Channel, you first need to create a folder a called "apps" (without the quotes of course) in the root of your SD Card. Every app you download, will need to be extracted, and then placed in this folder to be able to be run with the Homebrew Channel. In other words, the path of each app on your SD Card should look like this: root:apps/afolder/boot.dol or root:apps/afolder/boot.elf

Troubleshooting
Read the FAQ I wrote to solve your common troubleshooting issues and problems

Good luck, and have fun with Wii Homebrew :D

Final Notes: If you were able to succesfully install homebrew on your Wii with this guide, please send the link of this guide to others. If you need one-on-one assistance, feel free to e-mail me, Arikado, at castlevania7689@yahoo.com I will help you o the best of my ability with anything to do with this guide, or more advanced Wii Homebrew and wii hacking problems. Feel free to follow me on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/OArikadoO

NintendoMax Dev Compo Wii Releases

A lot of new Wii apps have been released for the nintendomax wii homebrew development competition. I'm going through all of them and making WiiBrew wiki pages for them today. I'll post the wiki page links to them here as I make 'em:

• StarPlot
• StillAliveWii
  

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.

Hello Blogger World!

Hi everyone!

This is Arikado. That famous WiiBrewer. I was using a Yahoo Blog for awhile, but it quickly became out of date and I had a lot of problems with the system. So I've upgraded myself to Blogger.

I'll be using this blog to keep everyone updated on my projects (and not just Wii projects as you'll one day see ;) ) and occasionally post those offtopic rant or review posts. Unlike my Yahoo Blog though, this won't fall out of date or become boring.

I'll posting lots of blog posts very soon. But for now, I just wanted to recognize my existence here and let you know that more interesting stuff will eventually be here (like tomorrow).