WiiBrew:FAQ

These are some currently popular questions in the #wiibrew channel. Remember to read Channel_FAQ before you jump in.

General

Are we using the SDK? Is there an SDK from Nintendo for Wii development? Is it leaked?

Research devkitPro and libOGC - A number of people are working on a working legal opensource toolchain environment to compile Wii ELF homebrew.

devkitPPC should be updated soon with a template for wii projects. shagkur (I think) is working on the libwii library.

Will the Wii have homebrew apps just like the iPhone?

There's a chance that the Wii will have homebrew third-party apps. I can see the Wii having an image-editing program, third-party emulators, and DVD support, but we will have to wait and see.

Will a Wii System Update brick my hacked Wii?

Probably not. Everything we do is erased from memory when you turn off your Wii. Future hacks might be more invasive, which will carry greater risk.

What if the next Wii update patches the exploits?

The only ways to "patch the exploits" (currently only the Twilight Hack) would be to press new discs or have the system patch the game upon loading it. The likelyhood of the former depends on whether or not they intend to keep fixing bugs anyway -- this hack is probably not enough reason for them to restart production of the discs. (That having been said, there are already two different NTSC/US versions of that game, so a third could be released.)

Patching the game while loading is unlikely for a number of boring reasons. It's a lot of work with very little benefit -- until homebrew activities threaten Nintendo's revenue, don't expect them to expend serious effort to stop it.

Wii Hacking

What's happening now?

A lot of people are working on fancy Wii homebrew. Lots of work remains to be done.

For example:

Building a working toolchain environment
Making a working low-level library to access hardware (CPU/GPU/controllers/USB/Framebuffers and debugging)
Documenting memory maps,
Discovering usage of registers for (Audio Interface, Serial Interface, Memory Interface, Video Interface),
Triggering and setting up interrupt handling
Working on a stable Initial Program Loader
Reverse engineering IOS and other binary files.

What does 'Soon: FAT' on #wiidev mean?

The next release of Twilight Hack will probably have fat support. and it will be done when it's done (give it a week, two weeks or even a month). FAT support has nothing to do with front SD.

The fish disc looks really promising

The disc is able to transfer the bare essentials (savegames, preferences) of one Wii to another. It also allows all personal data to be erased, much like the "Format System Memory" option.

Is the ELF loader ready yet?/Is the Zelda Exploit able to boot homebrew?

Yes, see Twilight Hack

What new features are you planning for the next release?

Of course some *specific* things are planned already, but it's useless to talk about it. Plans change. Commonly requested features include FAT support and "front SD slot" support.

How did this happen?

The "tweezer" attack was originally used to access the restricted parts of the RAM. This allowed them to access/discover a exploit (as used in the original video)

This exploit can be patched "easily" by Nintendo so they have decided not to publicly release it but used that knowledge to discover another way to access the hardware.

There are a lot of keys, encryption methods, protection and systems in place.. Most of these are not public.

Can i use the Wiimote?

No, we are working on it but a lot has to be implemented to make this work, the GC-controller is the only controller supported as of right now.

Twilight Hack

How does it work?

An exploit has been found in the Wii game "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess". Once used it launches custom code. Think of it as the GTA PSP Exploit. Yeah, thats it.

How do I use it?

The Twilight Hack WiiBrew Wiki page has everything you need to know on how to use the Zelda Exploit.