Yesterday in my country was holiday, so I turned on my Wii to play and BOOM, I got a black screen saying "system error - repairing"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! WHY??? NOOOOOOO!!!!

I go into panic for a dozen of minutes: I accidentally removed BootMii with the latest Homebrew Channel update and I can't enter into recovery mode, then, searching on the net (I was about to buy a SaveMii...), I discovered that it was an april's fool joke of the Preloader (now called Priiloader, this joke has been removed)

Yay!, What fun...

After that I remembered that someone in 2009 had the same problem...

Creative is about to launch their new Zii, a video+mp3 player, this is a preview sketch from the FCC:

Uhm... where i saw this design? It looks so similar... to a mobile on sale from some time... let's try to merge the drawings:

Creative Zii in red, Apple iPhone in blue

So cool! The Zii is almost compatible with iPhone covers! What a smart move! It's a pity that they placed the camera in the wrong place... it's a matter of millimeters, otherwise they could write on the box: "New! Compatible with Apple iPhone covers!"

Also, the logo looks similar to another logo... and the name also is similar; Zii... Zii... it resembles another name, become famous 2-3 years ago:

Wow, Creative has been so... creative!

A few weeks ago, the Team Twiizers released the Twilight hack source code, the bug in the savegame data file in the Zelda Twilight Princess game that enabled the installation of the Homebrew Channel on every Wii out there, and, until last month, was the only way to run homebrew.

Releasing the source was a good idea?

Absolutely! Here is another bug found in Super Smash Bros. Melee, from the same team behind the BannerBomb exploit.

Here is the video:

The exploit will be released shortly, and it should be impossible to patch for Nintendo, as it is a bug in the level editor, and not in the savegame data. (The way of fighting the Twilight Hack for Nintendo is automatically delete it from the internal memory... they did not correct anything... they cannot patch a game on-the-fly as in the PS3 or the Xbox360

For who is not willing to wait, is available the good Bannerbomb, better in my opinion, as is not required to have Super Smash Bros. Melee

After just a week, here is the new BootMii beta 2, the wonderful homebrew boot2 replacement.

What's new? There are a lot of added functions, here is a resume:

BootMii beta 2 (v0.9):

• SD card performance has been improved, decreasing the boot and the NAND backup / restore time
• backupmii accepts fragmented SD cards now, reformatting is not performed anymore. Old NAND dumps are still compatible.
• Introduced the INI variable “BOOTDELAY” to set the timeout for the auto boot feature

The Homebrew Channel v1.0.3:

• SDHC cards are working again
• SD performance has been increased again (regression was introduced in v1.0.2)
• HBC works on all system menu versions now
• Fixed rare hangs when exiting HBC

DVDX:

• Switched back to IOS < 37. While the SDHC problem for apps using DVDX has been fixed in libogc, there were also problems with USB keyboards under higher IOS versions

Installer v0.2:

• Installer now works on newer Wiis with boot2v4 (instead of rebooting at “Press 1″)
• Fixed reading of boot1/2 on Wiis with bad ECC data in that area
• BootMii as boot2 and IOS can now be uninstalled

You can install it using the same way of the beta 1

Bushing has just released the BootMii beta 1!

What is that? It is a software that will be installed on the Wii boot2 (or as an additional IOS, if you want), enabling you to commit advanced modifications on your Wii, independently from the firmware version.

Moreover, it has been released as "HackMii installer"; you can choose to install:

• The Homebrew Channel
• DVDx
• The BootMii beta 1 (for now, i suggest to not install this, if you are not keen on this kind of stuff)

Now let's talk about the most interesting stuff - how to install the Homebrew Channel on your 4.0 firmware

First, you need the bannerbomb exploit, then, you have to download the HackMii installer.

Extract the aad1f_v102.zip file from bannerbomb on your SD card, then extract installer_beta1.elf from the Hackmii installer, renaming it in boot.dol, and placing in the root .

Then, follow the direction on how to run bannerbomb, and, when the installation menu will appear, select the Homebrew Channel.

Then, you might be interested to know how to run backups from USB or SD. (Probably it won't be possible to do it on 4.0+ firmwares, as the CIOS installation will fail)

Notes for who is willing to tryout the BootMii:

• It has 3 functions: direct loading of the Homebrew Channel, ROM backup, ARM and PPC code loading.
• For now, is not possible to uninstall the bootmii.
• They have tested it only on 10 console - they feel it is safe, but there can be some problems.
• Since bootmii is loaded before the main OS, is not possible to use the Wiimote, only GameCube controllers and front Wii buttons are supported.
• For now, the IOS version is kinda useless
• On newest Wii, the installation can be troublesome
• If you do the ROM backup, you might be notice that your Wii has a lot of damaged sectors, this is normal: it looks like Nintendo used cheap components - it can have up to 80 damaged sectors...

The new Wii exploit known as "bannerbomb" has just been released, and is ready from download from the official website!

This hack is compatible with almost every Wii out there, and using it is plainly straightforward, you just have to download the aad1f_v102.zip file, and extract it on an SD card. (The ZIP file contains a folder named PRIVATE, don't rename it or move the content in another position)

After this, you have to add an homebrew executable, named boot.elf or boot.bin, placed in the SD card root.

Then, go to the Wii settings, Data Management, Channels and then SD (top left). After doing this, insert the card.

Now, it should happen one of this 3 possibilities:

1. You are asked to "Load /boot.dol", select Yes, and the desired homebrew will be loaded
2. Otherwise, it can appear a dialog - complete the survey
3. Or, it can freeze. In this case, there are two reasons. One reason is that maybe you selected a wrong section; maybe you are in the SD menu (from the main menu), or in the saved games menu. Otherwise, as noticed by bushing, your Wii is one of those "strange" Wiis, so try to download another version, like aad20_v102.zip, aad22_v102.zip, aad1e_v102.zip or aad26_v102.zip

What homebrew we have to install?

Obviously the homebrew channel! Download it from the official website, choosing ".DOL (For usage with Twilight Hack & other booting methods)"

For extract the file, you might need 7-Zip (free) or Winrar (shareware)

Please note: if your firmware is the 4.0 version, you have to wait bootmii for installing the homebrew channel. There is another hard way to install it, by downgrading the firmware, but is risky and I don't recommend it as it can render your Wii useless

Have fun!

For any problems, drop a line on the forum (signup not required)

After installed the homebrew channel, you might be interested to know how to run backups from USB or SD card

Note: this requires the Homebrew Installer. If you don't have it, please read this.

With Waninkoko's USB loader, is possible to load games saved on an USB drive, or even from an SD card inserted in the internal Wii reader. Wii.
How to do that?

1. First of all, you must install the Homebrew Channel. For doing that, you can use the new Wii exploit (not yet released), or with the "Twilight Hack" (soon I will publish an howto)
2. Then, you have to install the CIOS 36 rev 10. CIOS stands for Custom IOS, is something like a "system file" with some edits. For mnore information, read what is a CIOS
3. Download the CIOS from here
4. Unzip the file on an SD card in the X:\apps\cios folder and renaming the file cIOS36_rev10-Installer.dol in boot.dol
5. If you run the program from the Homebrew Channel, you will see that you are prompted to choose from two installation methods, networked or local method. The CIOS is based on the original IOS36 file, so it needs that for applying the edits. If your Wii is able to access the Internet, you can choose the "network" method, downloading it automatically from Nintendo servers; otherwise, you have to place the, IOS36-64-v1042.wad file in the SD card root. This file is copyrighted by Nintendo, so, you have to search it on Google, or get it legally (by extracting it from a game update - i will explain it later, if requested)
6. After having installed the CIOS; download the SD/USB loader from here.
7. Still, unzip on the SD card in the X:\apps\usbloader folder, renaming SDUSB-Loader_v1.5.dol in boot.dol
8. Here is the USB Loader:

With left and right buttons on the wiimote, you can choose to load from SD or USB.
Warning: The USB drive, or the SD card, must be formatted in WBFS. That means that you have to use a dedicated USB drive or a SD card for do that.
The program recognizes automatically if the drive is not WBFS formatted, and asks if you want to format it.
To copy a game on the USB drive, is a piece of cake: just insert a DVD in the Wii DVD drivem and press the + button. In a few minutes, the game will be copied on the drive, ready to be played! Moreover, the games will be "compressed; they will occupy less space! For example, Wii Play is just 100 mb.
After copying the games on the drive, it will appear a list with the available games - so neat, it isn't?

From a PC, you can manage and add new games with the WBFS manager:

Click to enlarge

You can download the WBFS manager from the official website

Have fun!

The exploit has been released! Read more!

A "working title" group has discovered a new exploit to make homebrew run on the Wii!

With a "secret file" on the SD card, you can force a "maintenance mode", enabling the installation of "not-authorized channels", like the homebrew channel!

Here is the video:

Well, it's a bit weird that Bushing did not see this exploit... the "load from SD card" text will be looked suspicious...

This exploit was previously known as "bannerbomb", and there was an help request on tehskeen about reading a banner, and then running a report application; probably the exploit is a buffer overflow in the VC banners? 

When will be available? According to someone, it will available just before easter... that means we just have to wait a few hours 

Let's continue to talk about this in the forum

Video of the Wii SD loader!

How to run games from SD card!

A while ago, Marcan did a provocation to Waninkoko: coding a way to load (pirated) games from USB drives in just 6 hours.

Ha ha, Waninkoko has replied, he has coded a way to load (pirated) games from SD card in just 2 hours!

Here is the video:

But, he would not release this program. Probably this is due that his loaders use a proprietary file system (WBFS), so loading games from an SD card would be unfomfortable, requiring a switch every times. An USB loader is WAY batter! An 1TB hdd and then.. hahaha. Soon i will publish an how to on the usb loader

UPDATE: The SD loader has been released! You can download it from Waninkoko's blog.

Video of the usb backup loader for wii!

How to run games from USB!

Marcan is one of the hackers behind the Team Twiizers.
Totally against piracy, he is the first to find the signing bug in the Wii, the Zelda save bug, the dvd-video player for Wii, the SaveMii, and many other "discoveries" that has helped so much the Wii homebrew world.

Waninkoko is one of the first hackers to exploit the homebrew world for piracy purposes.
He created the WAD loader/extractor to make possible to pirate WiiWare/Virtual Console games, a backup loader to use copied games without a mod-chip, a region setting software, another to copy Mii to SD card, etc...

Both are active programmers; let's say that Marcan is from the "bright side", while Waninkoko is the "dark side"

Waninkoko feels very condifent in his knowledge and for this reason has been mocked by Marcan. For example, the first version of his program to change the region of the Wii, had a "side effect" of "bricking" the console; or that Waninkoko is constantly trying to "monetize his talent" by putting advertising in his programs, or reselling to mod-chip manufacturers.

Recently Waninkoko has leaked a video on youtube, where is shown an usb game loader!

Marcan has promptly replied:

Marcan has coded an USB backup loader in JUST SIX HOURS!!

After that, he derided the poor Waninkoko by saying that he is a script kiddie.

Marcan, "unfortunately", in on the "bright side", so, he won't release his loader.

"Luckily", Waninkoko, is on the "dark side" and has just released his loader... but, just in my humble opinion... the Marcan one it was easier to manage/install

UPDATE: Waninkoko has wrote a very interesting reply on his blog