Installing homebrew channel

The first step will be to have access to the homebrew channel on your Wii. This can be accomplished by several ways. I used the Twilight hack described here http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Twilight_Hack however, this has been fixed in later updates of the Wii firmware. However the Indiana Pwns hack explained here http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Indiana_Pwns currently works with the latest 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 system menus.

You can also use the BannerBomb hack which is explained in this article http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Bannerbomb

I am however not going to explain in detail the software hacking of the Wii, as this was something I did when I first got the Wii, by going out and buying The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, so I could load the hacked save game and start installing home brew. This is all explained in the links I posted and should be enough to get you started.

Installing the latest IOS package cIOSCORP

In order for the system to be able to load the latest games without having to update the system itself, we need the latest IOS packages. These packages can be installed in numerous amounts of ways, but I found it easiest to use a package installer called cIOSCORP. This installed all the latest IOS packages, patched with whatever it needed to have patched, and as many as needed to run any game available on the market. More info and download of the package can be found here http://cioscorp.com/

Simply explained is that you download the package, place it under apps/ on your SD card and start the install through the homebrew channel. Some basics about how you do this here http://sites.google.com/site/completesg/how-to-use/homebrew-channel

Making a WBFS USB stick with wbfsmanager

In order to play games from an USB stick, the file system on the USB stick have to be altered to use the WBFS system the Wii uses to read the game DVD’s etc. This can be accomplished by using a simple application called WBFS Manager, and can be downloaded here http://wbfsmanager.codeplex.com/ Simply follow this guide http://adewii.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/howto-wbfs-manager-for-windows-basics/ and you will have the USB stick converted to WBFS in no time. This guide also explains how to transfer the ISO files onto your USB stick.

Scrubbing Wii game isos and adding to usb stick

It is also possible to do a “scrub” of the ISO images for games you backup. This makes them smaller, which is what we want when we are storing games on an USB stick. You can download the Wii scrubber here http://wiiscrubber.com/ Once the game you have scrubbed is done, transfer it to the WBFS USB stick as shown in the link above.

Installing an USB loader

I’m currently on a slight experimental stage with this, but right now I’m using an USB loader called WiiFlow which is working quite well. Download it here http://wiiflow.wiitdb.com/ Simply place the package inside the apps/ folder on your SD card to run it from the homebrew channel. If everything is working as it should, you will be asked to insert the USB stick and the games placed on the stick will show up!

I know there is another launcher available, enabling you to launch games directly from the channel menu explained here http://sites.google.com/site/completesg/backup-launchers/usb/loadstructor which I’m going to try out, but I just managed to boot up Super Mario Galaxy, and my girlfriend has now claimed the Wii for the evening ;)

Disclaimer:

I take no responsibility for the use of pirated games with this walk through. This guide is strictly for information use only (and as my personal reference). I also take no responsibility for any damage to your Wii caused by this guide, neither do I take responsibility for any harm made to other hardware.

Also, there are probably several errors in this guide. If you wish to correct my post, please leave a comment and I will do the necessary updates.

For the lock screen I stripped away all the clutter, and ended up with a very clean look. On the springboard I decided to use my cute little penguin wallpaper, and sorted my icons to not get in the way of him. Also, I added an app that displays the current weather over his head.

Here are a couple of shots showing how it ended up looking:

Yes, new gadget! I got myself a Western Digital My Book World edition (White Edition), and man I love this little box of fun!

It’s running GNU/Linux stripped down edition (which by the way is GPL and can be downloaded here), it’s got a 1TB Western Digital hard drive, 1 Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mb  and a USB 2.0 connection.

I have been working on and off for some time now to set up a new server with some old spare parts I got from work, but as always with old hardware it’s slow, not a 100% compatible with GNU/Linux and the cabinet is too big and bulky to place anywhere, also, it’s usually pretty noisy, either with the CPU fan acting as a small air-plane or the BIOS fan being slightly off, which makes the whole cabinet vibrate (personal experience ™).

Here’s what made me decide on buying one:

Torrent client - Check! – The box runs Transmission perfectly and download speeds are very good. There are also hacks enabling RSS feed downloading, which makes it perfect for getting TV-Shows as soon as they are available.

Media server system – Check! – This box has a system called Twonkyvision running, which enables it to be discovered on our Popcorn hour A-110 with no problems! All our media is displayed directly and streaming works flawless (all tough I have not tried HD-Content yet, but I kind of doubt it would be any problem). This system also support iTunes, which makes it possible to stream all our music to our machines directly.

Access to GNU/Linux shell - Check! – This box doesn’t only allow you to access the shell, it seems they even encourage it. In the advanced settings on the web interface, you’re allowed to enable SSH access, and you are given the root password. You are also able to compile applications with gcc (all tough pre-installed gcc was removed in the latest firmware, it’s still available to install).

Basically, this device is just as good as any old server. I have also later found out that I can do the following with this box:

CUPS – Enables the NAS to serve as a printer server for the local network.

Net-SNMP - Makes it possible to poll the box for any info you would like to graph into ex. MRTG or RRDTool. This makes monitoring the device load, memory, temperature, disk size etc. incredibly easy.

vsftpd – FTP server support for transferring files super fast to and from the device.

rsync – Ability to run as a rsync server, which enables it to receive backups and incremental backups from other machines and keep everything up to date.

Now, when I first got it, I had a bit of a problem. At home in our current appartement, we don’t have any Internet connection, not directly into our apartment anway, but we share a wireless connection with our neighbours. This works all well when we have computers that have WLAN, but when I get a device that requires cable, It gets a bit difficult.

So I decided to set the box up like this:

Western digital My book connects to a 10/100Mbit switch I have. This switch is then connected to my computer by regular Cat5 cable. In my computer I set up NAT routing the traffic from eth0 (the wired network) to wlan0 (the wireless network). This makes it possible for the My book to download torrents, update firmware etc. etc. If anyone would be interested in the setup needed, I’d be glad to share it.

I might be posting more about this device later, as I’m no doubt going to be hacking and tweaking away at it until I’m a 100% satisfied.

All in all, this is a fantastic device, and so far I’ve had no problems with it. Sure, some might show up, but that’s usually due to me being a bit too curious on how things work ;)