Wii System Menu 4.0 Released

dougisfunny writes "The Wii System Menu 4.0 has been released. It adds a number of features that people have been waiting for, including the ability to use SDHC cards, as well as the ability to download and play things directly off of the SD/SDHC card rather than the internal memory. This was announced at GDC09 by Nintendo's President Saturo Iwata in his keynote address. More information can be found at Nintendo's website."

Comments

Re:Hacks

[i.of.the.storm]

Yeah, I would advise you to just use the Twilight Hack and install the Homebrew Channel and then update - the update does not remove the Homebrew Channel but it does close the hole for the Twilight Hack once and for all, or at least so it would seem. There isn't really a drawback to having the Homebrew Channel on your Wii, except for the maybe 1meg of space it takes up. That way if you later decide you want to use homebrew, you won't have to wait for the next exploit. Team Twiizers, the team behind the Twilight hack, have been sitting on other exploits for when this finally got properly patched, but it's going to take them time to actually put out the next hack so if there's any chance you want homebrew just hack it now and then update.

Re:Hacks

[i.of.the.storm]

Right, so I should probably include relevant links for those too lazy to Google. Consider this a mini-guide to homebrew on the Wii.

• The Homebrew Channel: This is essentially a launcher for unsigned code on the Wii. Follow the instructions on the page to install it onto your pre 4.0 Wii. As of now, there are no hacks to install it on 4.0 but it will only be a matter of time. This page also includes the Twilight Hack, which is a hacked save file for Twilight Princess that causes the Wii to crash and I presume elevate privileges so that you can run unsigned code from SD. The idea is that you run the Twilight Hack, which launched the HBC installer, and then it's on your Wii's system memory.
• HackMii: The blog of Team Twiizers, the group that does all the ground breaking hacking of the Wii. Definitely add them to your RSS reader if you decide to hack your Wii. It's also an interesting technical read. Note that Team Twiizers are firmly against piracy, and any mention of it there will not be tolerated.
• WiiBrew: Also run by Team Twiizers and co, this is the wiki for Wii homebrew. Contains apps and general information about Wii hacking, as well as technical information on the software and security of the Wii. In particular, this list is a fairly thorough list of legit homebrew applications on the Wii.
• The Homebrew Browser: This gets a special mention out of all the apps because it's basically a package repository type program for the Wii. The guy also runs a blog at codemii.com with updates on included applications and also a few basic Wii coding tutorials.

Phew. That's probably the most effort I've ever spent on a Slashdot post. These links should be enough to get anyone started. Since I'm tired of typing HTML tags, I'll just list a few recommended apps: GeeXBoX is an excellent media center app, and there's also a handful of mplayer ports, then there's all the emulators, Gecko OS lets you tweak a few aspects of the System menu as well as use cheats (but don't use them online, people have been getting banned), FTPii is useful if you're too lazy to take your SD card out of your Wii, there are a few Wii Linux distros in their infancy, and of course, a plethora of games (including Quake!).

One last thing, Team Twiizers is working on something called BootMii, which is essentially a replacement of some very low level boot code on the Wii. Once this is finished, Wii homebrew will essentially have complete access to everything on the Wii. Keep an eye out for it; among other things it should make a Wii relatively brick-proof. It'll be on Hackmii of course.