Homebrew Channel

	Homebrew Channel
General
Author(s)	Team Twiizers
Type	Loader
Version	1.0.6
Licence	Freeware
Links
	Download
	Website
Peripherals

Not to be confused with Homebrew Browser.

The Homebrew Channel is a self-updating homebrew application loader by Team Twiizers which allows users to load homebrew applications without having to run an exploit every time. Once installed, users can access the channel from the Wii System Menu just like any other Wii channel. It can launch or install homebrew applications from an SD or SDHC card or via TCP/USB Gecko using Wiiload. You can install the Homebrew Channel as part of the HackMii Installer using the Bannerbomb exploit or the Indiana Pwns exploit as suggested on the official website.

Installation

Note: To install the Homebrew Channel on System Menu 4.0 to 4.1 use Bannerbomb v1 in conjunction with the HackMii Installer.

Note: If you updated to System Menu 4.2 this can still be installed via Smash Stack or Indiana Pwns as of this edit. You can also use Bannerbomb v2 in conjunction with the HackMii Installer.

Using The Twilight Hack, Bannerbomb, Smash Stack, or Indiana Pwns.

Assuming that the Twilight Hack, Bannerbomb, Smash Stack, or Indiana Pwns is already setup on your Wii;

Download the installer from the link above.
Expand the archive to find README.txt, wiiload and boot.elf or boot.dol
Place the boot.elf or boot.dol file in the root of your SD card.
Run the Twilight Hack, Bannerbomb, Smash Stack, or Indiana Pwns, and allow the installer to load.
READ THE DISCLAIMER! In the VERY unlikely case your Wii should be bricked by the installer, this will let you know where you stand in regards to Team Twiizers.
Press the RESET button on your Wii.

The installation should be automatic from this point on, and your Wii will reboot.

Using DVD

The DVD method requires a drivechip and won't work on 3.3 firmware update or newer. DVD images for the more recent versions are currently unavailable, though you can install beta8 and then update.

Using a previous unsigned code-loading method

If you have an older version of the homebrew channel or another channel that can load unsigned code installed, you can use that to install the latest version.

Configuring Applications

In order to make an application appear in the Homebrew Channel, the following steps must be taken:

Make a folder on the root of your SD card called "apps".
In the folder "apps," create a folder for the application (for this example, ScummVM will be used).
Copy the files for the application into its folder (e.g. apps/scummvm/).
Find the executable file (either .elf or .dol) and rename it to boot.elf (or boot.dol if it was a .dol file) if it is not already named that (e.g. apps/scummvm/boot.dol). If the app comes with these files, copy the icon.png and meta.xml files into this folder.

Now the application will appear in the Homebrew Channel. However, if the application did not come with icon.png or meta.xml, its appearance on the menu is ugly, and difficult to distinguish from other applications. To fix this, text and an image can be added.

Adding Text

To add text to an application in the Homebrew Channel, do the following: (note: you may install the Homebrew Browser and download pre-formatted apps without performing this step for every app)

Make a file in the folder of the application (e.g. apps/ScummVM/) called "meta.xml" (e.g. apps/ScummVM/meta.xml).
Open "meta.xml" in Notepad and add the following text as a template:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
  <app version="1">
    <name></name>
    <coder></coder>
    <version></version>
    <release_date></release_date>
    <short_description></short_description>
    <long_description></long_description>
  </app>

Add the appropriate information in between the relevant indicators. For example, the name of the application goes between <name> and </name>. The purpose of each field is as follows:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
  <app version="1">
    <name>The name of the application</name>
    <coder>The name of the person or group that wrote the code for the program.</coder>
    <version>The version of the application.</version>
    <release_date>The data the application was released.
    It has to be a timestamp using this format: YYYYmmddHHMMSS</release_date>
    <short_description>This is displayed on the main menu of the Homebrew Channel 
    (before you select an application) and is used as a space to add a few words
     to describe the program.</short_description>
    <long_description>This is displayed once the application is chosen. It describes 
     the program and its function in great detail, and can be used to elaborate 
     on a program's controls.</long_description>
  </app>

An example of a completed "meta.xml" for ScummVM is provided below:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
  <app version="1">
    <name>ScummVM</name>
    <coder>dhewg</coder>
    <version>rev32231</version>
    <release_date>20080523000000</release_date>
    <short_description>Point &amp; Click Adventures</short_description>
    <long_description>ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic 
    graphical point-and-click adventure games,provided you already have their 
    data files. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executables 
    shipped with the games, allowing you to play them on systems for which they 
    were never designed! Some of the adventures ScummVM supports include Adventure 
    Soft's Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2; Revolution's Beneath A Steel Sky, 
    Broken Sword 1 and Broken Sword 2; Flight of the Amazon Queen; Wyrmkeep's Inherit 
    the Earth; Coktel Vision's Gobliiins; Westwood Studios' The Legend of Kyrandia 
    and games based on LucasArts' SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) 
    system such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max and more.
    </long_description>
  </app>

A web application to create meta.xml files and code was made by abeisgreat, but has been taken down due to repeated abuse. Alternatively, you can use Pinecone's Java-based HBCXMLGen program.

Adding an Icon

See also: Homebrew Channel/Icons

In order to make icons for the Homebrew Channel show up, they must be in .png format with dimensions of 128x48 pixels. The full alpha channel can be used. Copy it into the folder of the application under the name "icon.png" (e.g. apps/scummvm/icon.png).

Complete Setup Format

You should have a compatible SD or SDHC card. See here for a list of SD and SDHC cards known to be compatible or incompatible. Note: it is by no means a complete list.

An SD card should be formatted in FAT16 or FAT32. After you have installed the apps on your SD card, its folder structure should look something like this:

Removable Disk (eg: (E:) on Windows and where it is mounted to on Linux or Mac OS X eg: /media/disk/ )
- apps
  - ScummVM
    - boot.dol
    - meta.xml(Optional)
    - icon.png(Optional)
  - WiiShopInstaller
    - boot.dol
    - meta.xml(Optional)
    - icon.png(Optional)

If you have any problems having your Applications showing up on the 'HBC', make sure you are following the correct format.

Loading from USB

Files and folders on your USB storage device must be structured in the same way that they would be structured on an SD card for use with the Homebrew Channel. For example, you must have an "apps" folder on the root of your USB storage device with sub-folders containing an executable, meta.xml, and icon.png for each homebrew application. Any specific homebrew instructions related to file and folder placement on and SD card also apply if you are using a USB storage device instead.

Your USB storage device should be plugged in before loading the homebrew channel, but it is not required. If you do not have it plugged in when the Homebrew Channel is loaded, simply plug it in and then bring up the Homebrew Channel menu, then select the "Reload" option.

Notes: At this time, loading applications from USB is considerably slower than loading from an SD or SDHC card. When reading the applications to display from the "apps" folder of a usb device, an SD card icon will appear even though it is loading from USB. If you have an sd card inserted at the same time as a USB storage device, the SD card takes priority and apps from the USB device will not be shown even if there are no visible apps on the SD card.

Controls

You can use to navigate though the application list.

		Action
/	/	Move through the applications Up/Down
or	or or	Change applications page left
or	or or	Change applications page right
		Select option
		Menu
+		Scroll text
		Returns from app screen
		Settings menu
		Swap view
		Shutdown

Removal

Removing the channel can be done by simply deleting it with the channel management in the Wii system software.

Compatibility

Note: The Homebrew Channel requires that you system have at least one unpatched IOS in order to guarantee reliable performance; we've received too many bug reports that were later traced to misbehaving versions of IOS. The HackMii Installer will automatically choose an appropriate (unpatched) IOS to use when installing the Homebrew Channel; if you attempt to defeat this safety measure by replacing its IOS with a corrupted version, you may experience an "impaired HBC experience". Please just don't do it.

Changelog

1.0.6

Freeze fix
Some other minor hiccups

1.0.5

Added support for System Menu 4.2
Faster startup.
Prefer boot.elf over boot.dol when launching apps.
New shiny fonts, tweaked to the last subpixel.
Widescreen support :
- If your Wii is set to 16:9 in the system menu options, HBC won’t stretch the picture like it did on older versions. Unfortunately the fonts might look a little weird then, it really depends on the used display unit. Blame the lack of true widescreen support on the Wii for that.)
Grid view :
- Hit 2/Y while browsing applications to switch between the old and the new view. This shows 4 columns on 16:9 setups, 4:3 users only get 3.
Device hot-plugging :
- You can remove and insert devices (front SD slot, USB mass storage, and SDGecko in both slots) at all times now without reloading HBC. To change to another device, hit 1/X to bring up a simple option dialog.
Application sort order :
- You can now choose how to sort the shown entries. Current options: either by the name or by the release date. Note that for the latter sort order a valid release_date tag has to be present in the meta.xml file. Again, hit 1/X for the options dialog to set this.
wiiload overhaul :
- On-the-fly compression: Uploaded files are automatically compressed on PC side: This makes it way faster, especially on bigger files. Improved USBGecko support: Faster uploads, and you don’t have to stop reading debug messages from the device while uploading files. libftdi support: Because ftdi-sio fails, especially on OSX. Note: Because of these improvements, older wiiload version and 3rd party upload clients are incompatible. Use the bundled v0.5, binaries and source code are included.
Basic application management :
- To add apps: Just wiiload a ZIP archive, it will then get extracted to the active device. The ZIP file must be structured in a certain way, check this description for the details. To delete apps: There’s a new button on the application dialog.

1.0.4

Fix the POWER button bug with BootMii IOS
Turned HBC upside down for those who modified the contents of the HBC or installed it using a "wad manager"

1.0.3

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 (stock 3.3 post Oct 23 has issues^[1])
Fixed rare hangs when exiting HBC
Translation added for "Launch BootMii" button

1.0.2

Added "Launch BootMii" button (only for BootMii IOS version) to home menu
Compatible with 4.0
USB support added
Wii's front power button now shutsdown the wii

1.0.1

Fixed B button issues
Wiimotes now keep the ordering from the System Menu (libogc)
Hopefully fixed the USB Ethernet Issues
Fixed wiimote auto-shutdown (libogc)
Hopefully fixed "video after shutdown" Issues (libogc)
Changes to () -> *

1.0

meta.xml now handles all ISO-8859-1 characters properly
Wiimote power button support (shutdown)
Wiimote rumble honors system setting
Fixed some crash bugs
Fix meta.xml UNIX style newline regression
All wiimotes work now, not just the first one
Classic Controller support
Nunchuk support (scroll only)
Guitar Hero 3 guitar support
Left and right change pages too
Hit 1 on Wiimote for net reload (like net icon click or GC Z)
Add information to installer
Fixed some networking issues with net disabled
Pushed in some text to avoid overscan crop
Widened video width to match System Menu ("black bars" fix)
B returns from app screen (unless scrolling)
Try to initialize network earlier
Retry network init a few times
Fix a networking issue (libogc)
Reload stub now identifies itself (magic number)
Support broken HTTP proxies in update check
Show IOS revision in main menu

Beta 9

Installer / updater now works with the October 23 update
SDHC support
REALLY fixed the memcard bug
Installer now picks newest sane IOS, fixes some beta8 regressions
Added a reload button (for SD card changes)
Return to System Menu skips warning
Fixed some graphical glitches
Compliant ELF loading code (if you get errors use ELF to DOL Converter)
Saner XML load code
Many fixes to underlying stuff in the newer libogc

Beta 8

you don’t need to eject your memcards anymore
switched from IOS35 to IOS21, this makes the hbc usable on older firmwares
improved SD card loading performance (thanks, svpe!)
improved some translations
the IP label isn’t cut off anymore
fixed argv support when loading SD apps
fixed a minor wiiload issue
the SD app entries are now sorted alphabetically
wiimote rumble support
installer overhaul, it now warns you if your System Menu is too new (future updates)

Beta 7

(Initial Public Release besides chainloader)

minor bugfixes and last GUI updates
more translations
ISO distribution
first public beta

Beta 6

GUI overhaul chapter two
translations
wiimote dragging on memo widget
auto disconnect wiimote after idle time
various fixes

Beta 5

GUI overhaul chapter one
IR pointer smoothing
improved argv support
fixed bugs introduced with wiimote code
fixed update bugs
SD card is scanned for boot.dol then boot.elf

Beta 4

wiimote IR cursor

Beta 3

flicker fix
stable wiimote libraries
argv support

FAQ

The official FAQ from the developers of the Homebrew Channel can be found here.

Bugs

If you believe you've found a bug in the Homebrew Channel, report it here.

Easter Eggs

Pop the Bubbles!

Being able to pop the bubbles in the background of the HBC was a frequent request, and as of 1.0, it is possible.

Press + and the animated background will be the only thing visible, along with a score counter in the bottom right hand corner. Place the hand cursor over any bubble and it will pop, spawning smaller bubbles and adding to the score counter. The smaller bubbles can also be popped. When you are done, press + again to return to the list of applications. If you leave the wii on this screen for too long, it will crash.

NOTE: As of version HBC 1.0.5 the Pop the bubbles (with scoring) is removed. You can still pop the bubbles (without scoring) by pointing at the bubbles as usual, but you cannot prompt a score board. You can also remove the SD Card (and/or USB drive) to make more room on the screen.

Notes

1. IOS51 problems

[1]