Wii Update 4.2 Tries (and Fails) To Block Homebrew 520
marcansoft writes "On September 28, Nintendo released a Wii update, titled 4.2. This update was targeted squarely at homebrew, performing sweeping changes throughout the system. It hardly achieved that goal, though, because just two days later a new version of the HackMii installer was released that brings full homebrew capabilities back to all Wii consoles, including unmodified consoles running 4.2. However, as part of their attempt to annoy homebrew users, Nintendo updated the lowest level updateable component of the Wii software stack: boot2 (part of the system bootloader chain). Homebrew users have been using BootMii to patch boot2 in order to gain low level system access and recovery functions (running Linux natively, fixing bricks, etc). The update hasn't hindered this, as users can simply reinstall BootMii after updating (it is compatible with the update). But there's a much bigger problem: Nintendo's boot2 update code is buggy."
Read on for more details.
"Boot2 had never been updated in retail consoles until now. During BootMii's development, its authors noticed that Nintendo's code had critical bugs and could sometimes permanently brick a console by writing incorrect or unchecked data to flash memory, so they decided to write their own, much safer flashing code. Now, Nintendo has pushed a boot2 update to all Wii users, and the results are what was expected: users are reporting bricks after installing 4.2 on unmodified consoles. Nintendo is currently attempting to censor posts and remove references to homebrew. It is worth noting that the new boot2 does not attempt to block anything or offer any additional protection or functionality. Its sole purpose is to simply replace current versions which may or may not have been modified with BootMii. Another interesting tidbit is that Nintendo is not believed to have any method to repair this kind of brick at a factory, short of replacing the entire motherboard."
Nintendo's Response (Score:5, Informative)
Hello,
Some of you have reported problems with your Wii console after updating to the Wii System Menu 4.2. The symptoms most people are describing usually occur when the Wii has been modified. However, some of you also mention your system has never been modified.
We'd like to help get your system working properly again. If you're experiencing problems with your Wii console after downloading Wii System Menu 4.2, and you believe your system has not been modified, please give us a call. If we find that you have a normal system and the update caused your system to not work, we'll repair it at no charge.
Please call our Customer Service Department at your earliest convenience, 1-800-255-3700. We are open 6 AM to 7 PM, Pacific Time, 7 days a week.
Thank you,
NOA_Tech_Jane
Re:Why is that legal? (Score:5, Informative)
Also why are they doing it? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not aware of it even being used for piracy. I have the Homebrew Channel installed and it's great fun to play a few things on, plus occasionally turn the Wii into a media player.
IIRC it can be used to play out-of-region games. Which is a GOOD thing.
What exactly do they have to gain here?
Re:Update by choice or forced? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:So, as someone with the homebrew channel instal (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Why is that legal? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Also why are they doing it? (Score:5, Informative)
Well it is. I was at a buddies house, he had a USB HD plugged into his Wii, all kinds of games on it. Apparently the Mario Galaxy he downloaded had a few bits flipped somewhere in it's image so he played it all the way to the last few planets and then couldn't finish it. Some of the games he actually owned so... I think it's great to be able to back up games to a HD and play off them. When you share the Wii with someone and they get up to play Wii Fit every morning... and I'm working my way through Zelda. Swap swap swap.
Also he had this media center software running on the Wii, sorta like having XBMC or something. Then he uses his iPhone to change the tracks, watch movies, etc... pretty sweet.
Nintendo should just sell a media center channel and let millions of Wii owners plug HDs into those babies.
Re:So, as someone with the homebrew channel instal (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why is that legal? (Score:5, Informative)
An AC modded +3 Insightful for spouting nonsense ? Wow, just....wow !
Nintendo has always made a profit on its raw hardware.
coke with suger (Score:5, Informative)
Regional tastes have nothing to do with it.
American sugar producers lobbied and got a protectionist tariff on sugar that increased the cost significantly which made it cheaper for all the soft drink companies to switch to corn syrup. Elsewhere in the world sugar is cheap enough that it can be used with out driving up the cost of the product prohibitively.
My sister went to Korea some years ago and the coke there also was made with sugar. It's pretty much only in the US that corn syrup is used. Heck, in South America they use sugarcane as feed stock for the ethanol plants to produce fuel for cars.
Re:Dear Nintendo, (Score:3, Informative)
Game Genie. They tried to sue them into the ground more than once, iirc. For something that merely redirected or altered memory contents.
Re:coke with suger (Score:5, Informative)
That, or the fact that The USA has high subsidies [wikipedia.org] for corn.
As a Mexican, I also prefer Sugar-sweetened Cola. I have tried the Corn-version of the drink and it tastes weird. I also read somewhere that cane-sugar is more healthy than corn-syrup [citation needed].
Re:Why is that legal? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Also why are they doing it? (Score:3, Informative)
It can also be used to play legal ports of games that have been open-sourced - for example, Doom and Quake have fabulous ports on the system (the Wiimote makes a very interesting interface for Quake).
But Nintendo doesn't want that, either. Nintendo has always had a bug up their ass about "piracy"; they claimed the "security" chip in the original NES (which was actually about stopping companies from Tengen from making cartridges and was the reason you got the "blinky blinky" power problem so often) was to ward off "piracy" (which back then meant "guys in brazil putting out copied cartridges in a little factory"). They stayed with cartridges rather than CD's for the N64 out of fear of "piracy" (and got absolutely stomped by the CD-using Playstation). They made the Gamecube drive spin backwards and use rinky-dinky discs with stupid little plastic blockers to stop insertion of normal sized discs, and didn't release the DVD-player combo unit anywhere but Japan, out of fear of "piracy."
Of course half the time "Piracy" is just a red herring; for instance, the "anti-piracy features" of the NES/SNES/N64 also ensured that companies had to use Big N's "licensed factories" to have the cartridges made, and Big N decided how many you got in each production run or if you could even publish in a given market at all (you had to meet their censor restrictions in the US, for instance). It got bad enough that a number of companies made fake-name shell corporations in the US just to get around the restrictions so they could get all their games published. Small wonder that they all jumped ship and Big N were pretty much left with just the Shovelware vendors for the N64/Gamecube days (and some of that still goes on today, seen the piles of "my god this crap just won't sell" marked for $10 per brand-new sealed copy in the Wii section of a Gamestop lately?) when Sony offered an alternative console, no content restrictions/censorship, and didn't care what production run they did as long as they used a black-colored plastic disc and paid their licensing fee.
They got lucky with the Wii when it actually sold, as opposed to the N64/Gamecube which were incredibly poor sellers, and they haven't realized yet that "piracy" is simply not a big deal. The number of people who do it are an incredibly small portion of the userbase, and you're never going to stop them: the best you can do is slow them down for a day or two. Meanwhile, my Wii isn't going to get updated through Nintendo, because I don't feel like losing the ability to back up my system, to back up the save files that they tried to block off (WHY, oh why, do they not want me to move my Super Mario Galaxy savefile to SD card?), and to play legitimately ported titles like Quake.
Re:one datapoint (Score:4, Informative)
Oh, it's going to work fine for [b]most[/b] people, but the bricking rate is still going to be much higher than normal. The boot2 flashing code isn't completely borked (I've successfully used it to flash early versions of BootMii 10-20 times), but the fact of the matter is sometimes it'll botch. I'd expect a sizable number of bricks, much higher than for "normal" system updates.
Re:They can probably recover at the repair depot (Score:4, Informative)
Their system doesn't appear to be designed to accept external driving of the flash. The Hollywood boots and tries to talk to it as soon as you power it on. External NAND flashers need to overdrive the Wii's outputs very hard to properly do their jobs. As far as we can tell, the control outputs to the NAND Flash do not have tristate capability (they always drive hard high or low, even when the system is uninitialized or idle). The NAND power rail is also the 3.3V Hollywood power rail, so it is impossible to power the NAND Flash without powering up the Hollywood.
Nope, pretty sure that's not how they do it.
Re:So, as someone with the homebrew channel instal (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Why is that legal? (Score:3, Informative)
Legal fraud. Nintendo and their like have followed the rules of civility: they hired lobbyists to write the laws. If you want to counter their fraud with your fraud, then you need be civil too. Where's your legislation-writing lobbyist? Because without that, the only other tools you have at your disposal are your votes and persuasive words to get other people to vote too, and I think we all know how that works out: it's too much of a hassle for anyone to bother.
Re:If it's bricked and they Nintendo can't recover (Score:5, Informative)
They just reauthorize those games online on your new console (via the serial numbers). When the system is totally bricked you lose your saves. They only notice homebrew or warez when they get "bricked" consoles that display an error message (which indicates System Menu operation), which they can usually fix by reinstalling stuff with their rescue mode DVDs and a small "flag" tool inserted into a memory card slot to put the menu into recovery mode.
Re:Wii without the discs (Score:3, Informative)
"Waninkoko has released a new build of his SD/USB backup loader for the Wii. This loader will allow you to play backups from an on screen menu using a USB mass storage device or SD card."
^^^^ That should get you on your way. I'm a big fan of not having to use physical disks to play games and when I heard the USB hard-drive would load games faster than the physical disks - I totally wanted to do it.
It didn't work for me though. When I ran it - it didn't recognize my USB drive. The advice I was given was 'Umm, try another USB drive' but I only have the one. Lots of people have more luck.
All of the HomeBrew stuff is....well....buggy. The back-up loaders work pretty good; but not perfectly - so some games don't work and some games fail at certain spots. So, it can be very frustrating if you don't sort of enjoy the headaches and searching the web and trying different things to get the game to work.
Re:Also why are they doing it? (Score:2, Informative)
It's a subsidy on corn. There's no tariff on sugar.
Re:Wii without the discs (Score:3, Informative)
You're confusing homebrew with warez. Homebrew usually works pretty well, and HBC has a near zero chance of bricking your console. Applicaions vary in functionality and robustness, but they're safe since they're just applications that won't modify your console.
Loaders, on the other hand, besides typically illegal (they like to ship around chunks of IOS), are very dodgy and unreliable. System modification is required to install loaders, so it's an inherently risky activity. About 50% of the reports of permanent bricks I get from people are due to using Waninkoko's stuff. Stay far away, he never learned what that 'int' thing before function prototypes is for.
Re:Wii without the discs (Score:3, Informative)
Homebrew is home-made software. Homebrew for the wii is software for the wii that wasn't produced by an officially licensed source.
When someone writes a 'loader' that loader is a homebrew application. Whether or not it is available via the homebrew channel.
The homebrew applications I've used (media players, and emulators) were all quite buggy and have locked up my wii many times. The usb loader I've got also seems buggy as it fails to recognize my USB drive. But either way, nothing about a loader requires warez...you can own the software legitimately and want to run it from the USB.
Re:Why is that legal? (Score:2, Informative)