System Menu

The System Menu is software shipped pre-installed into every Wii which allows the launching of games from an officially Nintendo certified game disk, launching of Nintendo Certified channels and Virtual Console and WiiWare titles.

It plays a major role in the startup, shutdown, and transitions between system states; upon starting up, the System Menu's main() reads the following files:

• /title/00000001/00000002/data/setting.txt
• /title/00000001/00000002/data/state.dat
• /shared/sys2/NANDBOOTINFO
• /title/00000001/00000002/data/cache.dat
• ?

Based on the things read by main() (as well as certain flags set in memory?), the menu can take the following actions:

• Hang (unrecoverable brick!)
• Boot a disc title directly from cache.dat
• Shutdown system from GC mode
• Eject a disc, then shut down (if Eject was pressed)
• "Shutdown to idle" (Enable WC24, halt PPC)
• "Launch NAND app from WC24"
• Enter "recovery mode" (aka IRD mode)
• Display the Health / "Warning" screen, and proceed on with normal boot

On an un-modded system, it is the first thing a Wii user will see when s/he turns on his/her Wii having pressed 'A' at the Health and Safety screen. An X denotes that no version is available for the applicable region.

The disc-handling actions of the System Menu are governed by a complex state machine known as BS2.

Versions

Version	JAP	USA	PAL	KOR	Release date	IOS	Changelog	CDN Availability	CDN Post Date
Prelaunch	x	x	x	X	Never publicly released	Unknown (may have used use IOS3,IOS9 or IOS12)	Prelaunch Developement (Does not report a version number.)	Unavailable	Unavailable
1.0	33	33	33	X	November 19, 2006	IOS9	"Launch-Day" menu shipped with early Wiis. (Does not report a version number.)	Unavailable	Unavailable
2.0	128	97	130	X	November 19, 2006	IOS11	First region-specific menu. Added SD support for savegames, "Country Settings", downloadable System Updates, parental controls, ability to rearrange channels.	97, 128, 130	November 18, 2006; November 30, 2006; December 5, 2006
2.1	X	X	162	X	January 10, 2007	IOS11	Update to support the News Channel going live	162	Jaunary 9, 2007
2.2	192	193	194	X	April 11, 2007	IOS20	"Resolved connection issues that affected a small number of users who connected online through a specific Internet Service Provider and supplied router."	192, 193, 194	April 11, 2007
3.0	224	225	226	X	August 6, 2007	IOS30 v1037	Channels can now display data gathered by WC24 (Weather, News). Clock display. The Wii Message Board button will now flash when a message arrives. You can now rearrange the order of your Wii Friends in the address book, scroll the message text by pressing the B button on the message screen.	224, 225, 226	August 6, 2007
3.1	256	257	258	X	October 10, 2007	IOS30 v1039	USB Keyboard support. New version of Internet Channel and Everybody Votes Channel	256, 257, 258	October 9, 2007
3.2	288	289	290	X	February 25, 2008	IOS30 v1040	"This update does not affect any prominently-used features or menus; however it does provide some behind the scenes updates that will improve system performance."	288, 289, 290	February 25, 2008
3.3	352	353	354	326	June 17, 2008	IOS30 v2576, IOS40 v2320	First attempt at blocking Twilight Hack. Shipped with fixed versions of IOS30, BC, MIOS.	352, 353, 354	June 13, 2008
3.4	384	385	386	X	November 17, 2008	IOS50 v4889	Second attempt at blocking Twilight Hack. New EULA. Supposedly has speed fixes for DVD and SD access. An enhancement was made to the Wii console's Parental Controls. USB keyboard support with the Mii Channel.	384, 385, 386	November 17, 2008
3.5	X	X	X	390	March 3, 2009	IOS52 v5661	First update to Korean Wii System Menu, Launches with new Shop and Region Select Channel	390	March 1, 2009
4.0	416	417	418	X	March 25, 2009	IOS60 v6174	SDHC support added and possibility to launch channels on an SD card. Also, an update of the Wii Shop Channel to download onto an SD card. A "transfer" button has been added in the Wii console's Data Management menu. Update to block the Twilight Hack.	416, 417, 418	March 24, 2009
4.1	448	449	450	454	July 3, 2009; July 15, 2009, July 30, 2009	IOS60 v6174	Fixes a problem related to the Wii MotionPlus video and the SD Card Menu.	448, 449, 450, 454	July 2, 2009; July 15, 2009, July 30, 2009
4.2	480	481	482	486	September 28, 2009	IOS70 v6687	Intended solely to block hacking/piracy attempts. Among the changes were a fix for Bannerbomb v1, overwriting BootMii (as boot2) with boot2v4, blacklisting the title IDs "HAXX" and "DVDX", and several preventative IOSes (222, 223, 249, 250). Region-free hacks were blocked (now fixed), and Wiis converted to and from the Korean region were bricked with Error 003.	480, 481, 482, 486	September 28, 2009
4.3	512	513	514	518	June 21, 2010	IOS80 v6943	Another exploit-fixing update. Among the changes were a fix for Bannerbomb v2 (visible as Error 004), deleting BootMii (as an IOS), and removing HBC.	512 513 514 518	June 21, 2010

Please feel free to add more changelog entries. Some data taken from http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/wii/en_na/systemMenuFeatures.jsp

Homebrew Alternatives

With the development of BootMii, the idea of booting straight to Homebrew may soon become a reality. In light of this, there are a couple of projects out there to create a homebrew-friendly System Menu alternative, such as WiiMU.