Atkins Meyer

Great news for people using Wiigator’s backup launcher. He has just release a new version which is easier to install, runs more games, and loads them much faster than the initial version.

Check out Wiigator’s blog for the full story.

Please note that this is all done with version 3.3 of the Wii system version. Doing the recent update to 3.3E will cause you problems.

The big news is that the backup loader no longer needs dvdx. The installation is much simpiler. If you already are using the homebrew channel you’re 90% done. Next on the news list is that you no longer need to decrypt Wii images. This new version will play both 1:1 backups in addition to discs made from the backup-creator from the inital release. The last thing I want to mention is that it loads fast and a lot of bugs have been fixed. Mario Kart Wii ran perfectly for me and I no longer noticed slow load times.

If you followed my tutorial for setting up the initial release of the wii backup loader then all you need to do is download the new backup launcher and add the two apps, Backup_Launcher and cIOS_Installer, to /apps on your sd card. After that, run the cIOS_Installer and then launch a game with the Backup_Launcher. I was able to use cIOS_Installer without uninstalling anything and it worked perfectly the first time.

Download Wiigator’s Backup Launcher 0.3 beta

Download Wiigator’s Backup Launcher 0.3 gamma

** This is old news. With the release of Wiigator’s Backup Launcher 0.3 beta, it is now much, much easier to setup and run backups on your Wii. Please see my update to this tutorial.

With the recent leak of Waninkoko’s backup iso loader and an improved loader made by Wiigator, it’s now possible to softmod a Nintendo Wii to load burned backup discs created from iso files. I got this working on my Wii a couple of days ago and had to look all over the web to find the correct and most up-to-date directions. I’m going to post what I did and what tools I used in this blog so that everything can be found in one place. While this process is far from difficult, I’m hoping someone comes up with a homebrew package that does the following hacks in an easy, run once format. Anyhow, lets get started.

First, you need to find a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii so that you can run the twilight hack and install the Homebrew Channel. I’m not going to cover that part, since it’s already well documented. Even if you’re not interested in the backup loader, I highly recommend installing the Homebrew Channel to everyone out there. It’s fun, legal and very safe.

Now the fun part. Fire up some Dio or Foreigner and get ready to rock.

Add the following apps to your SD card in the \apps\ folder so you can run them from the homebrew channel. Note that you will need to make a folder for each app (ex. \apps\dvdx) and put the .elf or .dol file in that folder and rename it to boot.elf or boot.dol. Do this with the following apps:

• DVDx – download
• WAD Manager – download
• Wiigator’s GeckoOS – download

Now download CIOS36_rev5-64-v1042.wad and place it on your SD card in the \wad folder. Now stick your SD card in your Wii and do the following

• start the homebrew channel
• run the WAD Manager and install the CIOS36_rev5-64-v1042.wad file and return to the homebrew channel
• run DVDx, select advanced install and install CIOS249
• shutdown your Wii and restart it

Your Wii is now ready to run burned dvd-r discs. You can run them by inserting the dvd-r, starting up the homebrew channel and launching Wiigator’s GeckoOS. From there just select Launch Game. Wiigator’s GeckoOS will launch both PAL and NTSC originals and burned dvd-r games. I believe that it will also launch all kinds of Gamecube discs too but I haven’t tried that.

Finally, to make a Wii iso compatible with the loader you need to do the following. You need a Wii iso file which you can rip yourself or download. There is a tutorial at wiiisos.com on how to create an iso from your original Wii disc. Please note that downloading Wii iso files is illegal.

Now download backup-creator-v1.zip and place your iso and the contents of the zip in to a folder. Open a command prompt and cd to that folder. Run backup-creator.exe with the name of your iso (ex. backup-creator mario-kart.iso). Lastly, burn the newly created partition.iso file with the free burning software ImgBurn. I use all the defaults options with ImgBurn and burn on dvd-r (not dvd+r) media at slow speeds.

The Wii scene is changing fast. The loader and the cIOS will surely be updated again soon to iron out the bugs which are in this early release. Update the loader and the cIOS as new ones are released. Currently, there are a couple of problems with this method. First, read speed is locked at a max of 3x, which means load times are longer and full screen video is slow or jumpy. The second problem is disc compatibility isn’t 100%. Currently PAL games work better than NTSC games and around 20% of games will crash or freeze.

** My method is now old news. Jailbreaking, activating and unlocking a 1.1.3 iPhone and iPod Touch can now be done quickly and easily using ZiPhone. Happy Hacking!

Since Nate True released the iPhone jailbreak for firmware 1.1.3 this week on his blog there have been a lot of people having a lot of problems getting everything working. There are a handful of tutorial available now but I had to piece together steps from many different sources before finally getting a fully functional 1.1.3 jailbroken.

I have an OTB (out of the box) 1.0.0 phone and yes, I paid the apple nerd tax. I have a contract with AT&T. This tutorial is only for people using an iPhone OTB version before 1.1.2 and are legitimately activated through AT&T. That being said, this method will produce a fully functional and jailbroken (not unlocked) 1.1.3 install. Some of the problems that people have with poor 1.1.3 upgrades are broken ring tones, broken location finder, missing edge icon, broken iTunes preview, broken youTube, input characters vanishing and settings not being saved. Most of these problems seem to come from the 1.1.3 soft upgrade using the 1.1.3 iPhone software and older, 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 iPhone firmware. The method below will result in a jailbroken 1.1.3 iPhone using 1.1.3 software and 1.1.3 firmware.

First of all you going to need to download the following things:
iBrickr Classic – That’s right, do NOT use Nate’s new 1.1.3 iBrickr
iPhone firmware 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 – Available from iphone.unlock.no
Touchfree 1.1.2 Jailbreak – Available from Conceited Software
iTunes 7.5 -This is important so uninstall a newer version if you need to.
a virgin 1.1.3 lockdownd file

Long story short this is what you need to do:
1. upgrade your iPhone to the real 1.1.3, which updates the software and firmware.
2. downgrade to 1.1.1 which downgrades the software to 1.1.1 but leaves 1.1.3 firmware
3. jailbreak 1.1.1 using the jailbreakme.com activation method
4. update the installer, community sources and install the BSD subsystem and OkToPrep
5. use iTunes to update to 1.1.2
6. use the 1.1.2 jailbreak
7. install the 1.1.3 Jailbreak DevTeam package
8. reactivate the phone through iTunes using a virgin lockdownd file

To start I reccomend that you backup you data so you can restore your 3rd party app settings later. Use winscp with opensshd on the iPhone to save the contents of your user folder to someplace safe.

Now, this will blow your mind. Use iTunes to update to the real, legit, non-jailbroken 1.1.3 firmware. This will update the software and more importantly the firmware on your iPhone. Once that is complete your ready for hack-tastic fun. Now you need to downgrade to the 1.1.1 firmware using recovery mode.

To enter recovery mode, connect the phone to the computer and press and hold the Power button (on top) and the Home button (on bottom front) simultaneously. After about 15 seconds phone will appear to turn off, release the Power button but keep holding the Home button. After about 15 seconds the computer and iTunes will detect the phone in recovery mode, and you can perform a restore. IMPORTANT: If you just click the restore button, it will restore it with the latest firmware. It’s much safer to manually select firmware instead. If you want to manually select a different firmware you can hold down SHIFT key (Windows) or Option/ALT-key (Mac) when clicking the Restore button, and it will let you choose firmware file. Choose the 1.1.1 firmware you downloaded earlier.

iTunes will now install the 1.1.1 software and error out after trying to install the 1.1.1 firmware giving you a 1050 error. This is fine. You now need to fire up the old iBrickr and it will find your phone in restore mode. Tell iBrickr to boot the phone and hope for a red screen. If you get a green screen try using iBrickr’s option to downgrade to 1.0.2, which will display a white screen and then restore the 1.1.1 firmware. Once the phone has booted you will have invalid sim errors and an unactivated phone.

You now need to do the old school 1.1.1 jailbreak using jailbreakme.com. An excellent tutorial can be found at iphone.unlock.no. Once you’ve jailbroken 1.1.1 you need to fire it up, update the installer and community sources, install the BSD subsystem (to be used later) and the OkToPrep package. Once this is all installed you clear to update (not restore) to firmware 1.1.2. This can easily be done by shift-clicking the update button in iTunes. 1.1.2 will do the same thing that 1.1.1 did. It will update the software but leave the 1.1.3 firmware in place and error out with a 1050 error. This is fine. You need to use iBrickr again to boot the phone. Like the first time you want a red screen followed by a reboot and sim errors. Now it is time to run the 1.1.2 jailbreak. After it completes, you will have an jailbroken and activated 1.1.2 phone with sim errors.

Now install the 1.1.3 Jailbreak DevTeam package and be sure to follow all the instructions. Turn on wireless, dock the phone, disable autolock and make sure you have installer updated and the BSD subsystem installed. This will run for about 20-30 mins and reboot the phone when it is done. The phone will boot up a jailbroken 1.1.3 firmware without sim errors but you will not be connecting to the at&t network.

The final step is to install openssh and use winscp to connect to your phone so we can replace the hacked lockdownd file with our virgin one. Put it in /usr/libexec, use term-vt100 or ssh to do “chmod 0555 /usr/libexec/lockdownd” then reboot your phone. Connect it to iTunes and it will activate it for you.

You should now have the fully functional jailbroken 1.1.3 software and firmware on your phone. I’ve tested it pretty extensivly and all the 1.1.3 features work perfectly. I no longer have trouble with ring tones, itunes previews, map location fuctionality and other oddities that I had using Nate True’s 1.1.3 iBrickr alone.

Lets hope someone comes out with an easier and cleaner way to jailbreak 1.1.3 but until then this method should work a large number of people. Good luck!