What's my best upgrade path?

[Timmaa]

Alright there everyone! It's been a while since I've done anything with the Wii. In fact I haven't really touched it since I got Black Ops running. The kids only like Kirby and the bloody dancing games!

As that time of year approaches I've gotten my hands on a few bits and pieces and it's become apparent that I need to make a few tweaks. I'm currently running Black Wii on 4.2E with Hermes ULoader 4.9 and an upgraded version of cIOS224 for Black Ops.

From what I can gather from having a tinker with it tonight, I need some new IOS to get the later releases of some games working from my HDD (the new Kirby for starters) and a safe method of updating the shopping channel. I assume the iplayer is still working.

Could anyone recommend what they think is the easiest and safest way of getting my system from where it is to where it needs to be? It's been that long since I've done any jiggerypokery on it that I can't remember anything, though I should be able to get back up to speed over the weekend with a bit of research and advice. Is there any reason to update to 4.3E? Should I upgrade uLoader? Or just the cIOS and the shopping channel? I reckon I'll be on an old version of the Homebrew Channel too... worth an update?

Cheers everyone!

[Keithuk]

Well if you upgrade to 4.3 you will probably have to softmod again but this time you can use LetterBomb and use HackMii 1.0.8. 4.3 has the upgraded shopping channel so all you need to do is use the new USB Loaders like USB Loader GX, CFG USB Loader or WiiFlow with the newer cIOS and dx2 files.

[Timmaa]

There's a safe 4.3 updated in the downloads section but I tend not to update for the sake of it. If there's a benefit to doing so then I will but if it's not broken, why fix it?

Does 4.3 bring anything new to the table in comparison to 4.2?

I clearly need to update something though, to get some of the newer stuff working. But I'm thinking that only needs to be IOSs and a safe shopping channel update.

Does anyone else use the latest HBC and ULoader versions? How are they better than what I currently have?

Where's ck-ok when you need him eh!?

[Keithuk]

Well I've never needed to update as mine was 4.2 but I updated online to 4.3 then I softmodded earlier this year when I found out it could be done.

Try the safe 4.3 updated in the downloads section.

I used HBC 1.0.8.

I've never used Uloader only the 3 main USB Loaders.

I think the only newer thing is the shopping channel update.

[Timmaa]

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/f16/d2x-v7-cios-pack-install-instructions-235450/

From reading this thread and reading between the lines from your earlier post, it looks like Hermes uLoader simply isn't up to the job any more...

I guess I'll need to locate and install a version of USBLoader GX and a forwarder channel, upgrade the d2x cIOS's and test my games. If all is well I'll remove Hermes uLoader after that. I have ~100 blocks of memory on the Wii so I'm hoping that will be enough.

Question though: When I install wads, there's lots of talk of doing it in 249, base 57 etc... I don't really understand that process. Will it all be automatic or do I have to select it? If so, how will I know what to select?

Also, when I remove Hermes, I can delete the channel from the Wii system menu. Is it then simply a case of removing the .wad from the SD card or do I need to use MMM 12.8 or YAWM 17 to uninstall the wads too?

[happy_highlander]

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums...ctions-235450/

From reading this thread and reading between the lines from your earlier post, it looks like Hermes uLoader simply isn't up to the job any more...

I guess I'll need to locate and install a version of USBLoader GX and a forwarder channel, upgrade the d2x cIOS's and test my games. If all is well I'll remove Hermes uLoader after that. I have ~100 blocks of memory on the Wii so I'm hoping that will be enough.

Question though: When I install wads, there's lots of talk of doing it in 249, base 57 etc... I don't really understand that process. Will it all be automatic or do I have to select it? If so, how will I know what to select?

Also, when I remove Hermes, I can delete the channel from the Wii system menu. Is it then simply a case of removing the .wad from the SD card or do I need to use MMM 12.8 or YAWM 17 to uninstall the wads too?

here you go mate I done this pack earlier in one of the threads Digital Kaos - Downloads - Usbloader gx 2.3 r1128 and d2x v7 with mmm 13.4 it has the latest gx and forwarder channel with the full wad pack and mmm just extract it straight onto a blank sd card and it means you won't have to mess with your original sd with bootmii and wad folder...There is instructions in the pack but just remember to reload to ios 236 to install them don't uninstall any wads that you already have these will just overwrite them and you still need hermes 222/223 and 224 if you use v4 of hermes 222/223 they will work on gx if you want to get rid of uloader. All the cios will automatically load to the correct bases as you install them as wads. hermes 222 and 223 may still be required to make the mic games work so just leave them in place they won't hurt.

[Timmaa]

Thanks mate, you're a gentleman. Rep added. I'll take a look at this when the kids are in bed and I have an hour spare.

How can I check which versions of 222/223/224 I'm using? Will MMM show me them?

I think I'll probably do the following:

1/ Back up my SD
2/ Overwrite the SD with the contents of your pack
3/ Follow the instructions in your pack to install the IOS
4/ Reinstate my original SD
5/ Overwrite the MMM on my SD (12.8) with the version in your pack (13.4).... (do I need to do anything else for this to take effect? Install?)
5/ Validate the Hermes cIOS are compatible with gx. If yes, remove the uLoader forwarder channel (will removing the forwarder channel also remove the cover images that I have downloaded? If not, how do I do that? I should keep disk consumption down to a minimum)
6/ If Hermes 222/223/224 are compatible with gx, Remove uLoader from my SD (do I need to uninstall anything in MMM too?)
7/ Deploy gx and forwarder channel from your pack on my SD
8/ Install gx forwarder channel
9/ Use the safe shopping channel updater supplied by ck-ok in the downloads section


Cheers

[Timmaa]

Update: Well I had a little bit of grief with IOS250 that I got around by installing IOS236 and then reinstalling all the gx wads with that.

I've tested gx from the Homebrew Channel and that's sound. The gx forwarder channel in the pack doesn't work though. Have I missed something?

[Keithuk]

I've tested gx from the Homebrew Channel and that's sound. The gx forwarder channel in the pack doesn't work though. Have I missed something?

So your installed USB Loader GX 2.3 r1128 and you've registerd all the wads and the forwarder channel with MMM but the forwarder still doesn't work?

This attachment is the forwarder channel I use so put it in the wad folder on the SD card and register it with MMM.

[Timmaa]

Cheers mate. That's a bigger file than the one in the pack. It's done the trick anyway. Rep added!

Could you advise how I configure games to use certain IOS's? I'm trying to figure out how to instruct the loader to use cIOS249 when loading Black Ops.

edit: From looking at the 'defaults' I think it is trying to use IOS249 anyway. I'm a little puzzled. If I've installed this pack shouldn't that be the latest version of the IOS? The game hangs on the 'loading....' message. The latest Kirby game appears to work.... it gets further than with uLoader anyway.


I can still get Black Ops working with Hermes uLoader and cIOS224.... I'd really just like to understand why it's not currently working with gx. Is it me being daft or is this a special case?


edit 2: I changed the settings to load with 250 and Black Ops then works... I didn't expect that as I see 249 all over the forum.

Now to get Modern Warfare 3 working...

[Keithuk]

So that USB Loader GX-UNEO Forwarder.wad has given you the USB Loader GX channel on your Wii menu?

Rep added!

Whats that, you can always click the Thanks button?

Cheers mate. That's a bigger file than the one in the pack. It's done the trick anyway. Rep added!

Could you advise how I configure games to use certain IOS's? I'm trying to figure out how to instruct the loader to use cIOS249 when loading Black Ops.

Well I run Black Ops with the default 249 and it works for me. In fact all my games run with 249 its only the newer Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 I have to change it to 250.

[Timmaa]

Yes mate, I had the channel present but it didn't forward to anything other than a black screen. Your forwarder did the trick.

I HAVE to use IOS250 to get Black Ops working. 249 won't have it.

So far with the PAL WiiERD version of MW3, nothing works at all. Instant black screen.

[Keithuk]

I HAVE to use IOS250 to get Black Ops working. 249 won't have it.

So far with the PAL WiiERD version of MW3, nothing works at all. Instant black screen.

Well it appears it isn't the IOS number so much as the version number as talked about in http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums...59/index2.html which I saw you browsing in earlier.

With my Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - PAL I got the black screen with Loading.... screen and stopped. With thanks to HH I changed to to 250 and it worked.

There are a few tweaks for Black Ops if you search on here or Google them.

[Timmaa]

Hmmm. That's interesting. I'm assuming you installed all the cIOS in the dx pack. Did you use the all in one pack on this thread or another set?

According to happy highlander's post in the DX thread, bases are:
cIOS245[37]
cIOS246[38]
cIOS247[53]
cIOS248[55]
cIOS249[56]
cIOS250[57]
cIOS251[58]

and from this post:

That is exactly the point keith, the (c)ustom Ios is just a carrier for the (base) system ios that is required to run the game. It is to dangerous to completely modify a system ios (below 200) so a custom ios is produced. This is what darkcorp does not do. It modifies the original system ios making it very dangerous. However the backup games still require a system ios to run (your base number) i.e 249 (57) will run exactly the same games as 250(57) as they are both using the system ios 57 to load the games. If you do a sys check you will find that all your custom ios have a different base number. In this case on the old softmod the cios update that was used to run black ops was 249(57) but on the new d2x setup 249 has a base of (56) and cios 250 has a base of (57) and if you look at hermes 223 used for mic games it has a base of 38 or something like that. Hope this makes it a bit clearer as to why this game is running on different cios. It is all to do with the softmod setup, both are correct but there seems to be no further support for the older way and the only cios that seem to be being developed and updated are the d2x ones

That infers one of a few things. Either your IOS56 differs from mine (could I have accidentallly reversed some sort of patch on IOS56? Perhaps they are different on 4.2E/4.3E), we used a different DX pack and your IOS249 is different to mine, or we're using different versions of the PAL game and mine is knacked.

When I try to load MW3 I don't even get to see 'Loading....', it's just a black screen.

Back Ops appears to be working fine with IOS250. The new Kirby game runs fine under IOS249.

Perhaps that points to the game image I have being bad.... or my IOS56 being different, or needing patching? edit: I've just seen that the safe shopping channel update installed a new version of IOS56. I will check that the shopping channel works when the kids have gone to bed.

Could you please link me to the DX pack you used and I'll reinstall all wads from that under IOS236 in MMM. I'll see what that does. Failing that, I guess I'll have to source the game again and see if that remedies the situation.

I've seen some other IOS in the downloads section, 58-64, here: http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums...-64v6175-1874/
I've not installed those yet. Should I? What are they for?

[Timmaa]

Even though the shopping channel was working I reinstalled IOS61 and the v2 shopping channel using WAD Manager 1.7.
I then downloaded the DX7 v7 wads in isolation and reinstalled all using MMM 13.4 and IOS236.

I'm in the exact same position as before, Black Ops plays fine but only from IOS 250.
Kirby's adventure plays with default 249, no problem.
MW3 will not play at all. Instant black screen.
I guess I have to assume my version of MW3 is bad and source another.

edit: Well, for completeness I re-extracted the ISO for mw3 and loaded onto the HDD. Voila, the game works with gx on IOS250.

But there's always a but with this upgrade!!!!

I've added the new Zelda game to the HDD, which plays well through Hermes. But no cigar with gx using IOS 249 or 250!!! Lol!! More research required!!