Hacking So I successfully softmodded my Wii - but what exactly have I done?

[woffle99]

OK, so I have been reading all of the various posts about getting GH5 to work as I really would quite like to get it working, but a it all seems rather confusing as to what people are doing.

I softmodded my Wii using LarryLje's Guide on the afterdawn forums (now sadly pulled by him for some reason) and it was all very straightforward and worked fine - I've now had a 4.1E Wii with the Homebrew channel, USBLoader GX and a hard drive of working images for several weeks. However, although it was easy to follow, the guide didn't really seek to explain just exactly what it was doing to my Wii and what changes it was making.

I therefore was hoping I could post my suppositions as to what I actually did (together with what I have managed to piece together about how the Wii works) in the hope that those with more experience and expertise than me can either tell me if I'm right, point out where I'm wrong or fill in some of the gaps. Hopefully this will also help other people who have followed guides, now that they are so easy, without possibly stopping to think about what they were doing.
(Please note, I am stating all of these as if they were fact purely as a way of explaining how I see it – not because I actually know or believe them to be true).

Step 1 – Run Bannerbomb and use hackmii to install the Homebrew channel.
This is basically an exploit that allows you to install the homebrew channel as if it were a normal Nintendo channel – it does not change any IOS

Step 2 – Downgrade and patch IOS 35
This downgrades the current Nintendo version of IOS 35 on your wii to a previous Nintendo version of IOS 35 and then patches it. You need to do this as only the older patched version of IOS35 will allow you to perform the next step.
An IOS is a version of (essentially) the Wii’s Operating System. There are 256 ‘slots’ on the Wii each of which can hold a different IOS, though only a certain number are currently full. This page lists the official Nintendo IOS - http://wiibrew.org/wiki/IOS_History .

Step 3 – Install Custom IOS 38 Revision 14
This installs Waninko’s custom version of IOS38 (latest revision is 14) to slot 249 (previously empty) on the wii to create CIOS 249. This allows the use of USB Loaders.

Step 4 – Install IOS60 Patched
Installs a patched version of IOS60 (which seems a little dodgy to me as the IOS history link above suggests that this is the IOS used by 4.0 and 4.1) using CIOS249 to do so. This is necessary to allow the use of Neogamma’s Disc Backup Launcher.

Step 5 – Install Neogamma
Installs Neogamma’s Disc Backup Launcher. This creates another channel in the same way the Homebrew channel was created.

Effectively then, the only ‘proper’ IOS I have changed are IOS35 and IOS60.

So if all this is right, then all of the people talking about installing Hermes IOS to either 222 or 223 in various merges are effectively creating a custom IOS in slot 222 or 223 (which were empty before) that are frankenstein merges of various proper IOS (36, 37 or 60) with added bits thrown in that can then be used as an alternative IOS to load certain games from USB loaders like USB Loader GX.

Thoughts/corrections please?
Thanks.

 

[davidsl_128]

You got pretty much everything right. Just something you may want to know; cIOS 249 doesn't allow only the USB Loader to work, but it allows any kind of backup loading (DVD/SD/USB) and is used by many other Wii apps.

 

[woffle99]

Thanks for the reply. I have to say I'm surprised I haven't got something wrong - maybe I am as clever as I think I am

So do I need to worry that Nintendo may change the IOS' (35 and 60) back to their original unpatched or downgraded versions (say when I put in a retail disk?) or have they both done what they needed to do and I don't need to worry as long as I have IOS249 now. In fact, might it be a good idea to deliberately change them back to their proper and most up to date Nintendo versions in case a game needs to use them?

 

[HaniKazmi]

Thanks for the reply. I have to say I'm surprised I haven't got something wrong - maybe I am as clever as I think I am

So do I need to worry that Nintendo may change the IOS' (35 and 60) back to their original unpatched or downgraded versions (say when I put in a retail disk?) or have they both done what they needed to do and I don't need to worry as long as I have IOS249 now. In fact, might it be a good idea to deliberately change them back to their proper and most up to date Nintendo versions in case a game needs to use them?

We can't really say for the future, as we don't know what Nintendo is cooking up. However, there is no reason to replace the ios's right now. A helpful precaution would be to install preloader and use it to block dish updates.

 

[woffle99]

Thanks for the info - I shall leave well alone and also not stick any new retail disks in my Wii until I can be sure they won't change anything.

After working my way through all of this to get my head around it, I went ahead and installed Hermes into slot 223 without issue (and felt fairly relaxed about doing it, knowing what I do now). Managed to get GH5 working and have posted my findings to that thread - I suppose I could have waited for my pukka copy to arrive when release day comes around but as you have suggested, I actually feel safer getting stuff working through the USB loader than sticking DVD's in my drive these days

 

[Hooya]

Installing a disk update or an online update may in fact revert your IOS35 or 60 (or others you may have patched) to the official versions. This could result in errors in various homebrew, especially in lower level homebrew like Wad Manager, StartPatch, Preloader and maybe others.

 

[remixer]

If you're worried about what Nintendo may do in the future, you may wish to install Bootmii and backup your Nand, this way if nintendo make a modification or you accidently install stuff from a retail disc then you can revert to your current nand and be safe.