I need some DESPERATE help on MULTIPLE different things

[ChrisAllison]

Alright everyone. This will be long and somewhat ramble-y, so I apologize in advance, and want to say that I appreciate any and all help that can be given.

So I recently set up Dolphin for my fiance. As I was browsing the Dolphin webpage I saw that you could now go on to the Wii Shopping channel! "WHATTTTT?!" I Said. I immediately set out to learn how to get this amazing emulator to do this wonderful feat. I downloaded 5.0-2874, so I KNOW the capability should be there.

I then followed the basic network setup listed here: https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Wii_Network_Guide. The one that the DEV team said to follow. I followed it to a T and nothing went wrong or abnormal while doing that.

I installed the newest version of my system menu from NUSD v1.9 (V513) onto dolphin, as well as the EULA (just in case?) which I accepted. I got the Mii Channel AND the shopping channel (both of which are newest versions for america) and launched the shop channel......Which brought me right back to the Wii Menu...."Weird" I thought. So I tried it with the Mii Channel to the exact same outcome. "Oh it must be cause I'm not connected to my internet through the system menu!" I then went in, connected it to my internet, and after doing so it said "System update is available" "Hey great, I saw them update in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHJ0Nw20row), so I must be doing something righ...what the fuck is error 32004...."

I went in and pushed my MTU's to 1500, and I have stellar internet. NOTHING is working and allowing me to update or fix these problems. I went and did some digging (because I don't like asking for help) and got some indicators that maybe I need to set up a correct NAND path? "A...A what?!" Back to this page: https://dolphin-emu.org/docs/guides/nand-usage-guide/. Well that page was basically German to me, and I was unsure of what to do. "Oh, maybe I need to install this homebrew channel thing so I can follow the next steps...." to keep a long story short, after hours of tinkering, I learned that doesn't fucking work and probably will never.

In the Emulator, if you go to Config > Paths near the bottom it says Wii NAND Root.....WHERE DO I POINT THAT?! Do I need that for the channels/"update" to work?! DO I EVEN UPDATE?! I want to be able to go online and for those channels NOT to send me back to the Wii Menu. I know how to make a bigger SD card to mount inside of the emulator but that hasn't seemed to help.

Can SOMEONE please help me do this? What the HELL do I need to do? What am I doing wrong?!

tl;dr Channels aren't loading, need help

[Craftyawesome]

I think Wii nand root is dolphin emulator, Wii. Also AFAIK you need a dumped nand for Wii shop.

[ChrisAllison]

(04-23-2017, 02:49 AM)Craftyawesome Wrote: I think Wii nand root is dolphin emulator, Wii. Also AFAIK you need a dumped nand for Wii shop.

Sigh. OK that's great....for those that know how. I don't.....So How the hell do I do that. 

[AnyOldName3]

As you may have learned in your own investigations, there are certain things that you can't do in Dolphin without dumping the NAND from a real Wii. Using the shopping channel is one of them. If you have a real Wii, then it's not a difficult task (I'm guessing the issue you had was that you tried doing it from Dolphin instead of a real console), but if you don't, then you're kind of boned, as there're potential legal implications of using someone else's NAND dump or a NAND dump from someone else's console.

The specific reason why you need a real NAND in this case is that there are unique keys issued by Nintendo to each console when it is manufactured, and Nintendo locks purchases to these keys. If they're not there, then Nintendo blocks the purchase.

If you can't get hold of a Wii, then I think you might be able to use a WiiU's VWii mode instead. Normally if you needed a Wii, for example to dump games, I'd suggest picking up a used one, doing what you needed, and then selling it for the same price, but when you need the NAND, that's definitely something you're probably not supposed to sell the console after extracting.

[ChrisAllison]

(04-23-2017, 02:59 AM)AnyOldName3 Wrote: As you may have learned in your own investigations, there are certain things that you can't do in Dolphin without dumping the NAND from a real Wii. Using the shopping channel is one of them. If you have a real Wii, then it's not a difficult task (I'm guessing the issue you had was that you tried doing it from Dolphin instead of a real console), but if you don't, then you're kind of boned, as there're potential legal implications of using someone else's NAND dump or a NAND dump from someone else's console.

The specific reason why you need a real NAND in this case is that there are unique keys issued by Nintendo to each console when it is manufactured, and Nintendo locks purchases to these keys. If they're not there, then Nintendo blocks the purchase.

If you can't get hold of a Wii, then I think you might be able to use a WiiU's VWii mode instead. Normally if you needed a Wii, for example to dump games, I'd suggest picking up a used one, doing what you needed, and then selling it for the same price, but when you need the NAND, that's definitely something you're probably not supposed to sell the console after extracting.

I do have an actual wii sitting around, that i was ABOUT to sell, but it's missing the sensor bar. So I just need an SD card? What steps do I need to take after I get an SD card?

[Craftyawesome]

(04-23-2017, 03:08 AM)ChrisAllison Wrote: I do have an actual wii sitting around, that i was ABOUT to sell, but it's missing the sensor bar. So I just need an SD card? What steps do I need to take after I get an SD card?

Just an sd card should do. Just follow the nand usage guide in your OP.

[JosJuice]

(04-23-2017, 03:36 AM)Craftyawesome Wrote: Just an sd card should do. Just follow the nand usage guide in your OP.

Well, you also need a Wii Remote and a sensor bar (or sensor bar substitute) in order to use the Wii Menu so you can load the exploit (assuming you don't have HBC already)... And the NAND usage guide really doesn't explain how to run an exploit and install the Homebrew Channel.

[ChrisAllison]

(04-23-2017, 03:42 AM)JosJuice Wrote: Well, you also need a Wii Remote and a sensor bar (or sensor bar substitute) in order to use the Wii Menu so you can load the exploit (assuming you don't have HBC already)... And the NAND usage guide really doesn't explain how to run an exploit and install the Homebrew Channel.

I'm assuming I load an exploit like letterbomb onto the sd card, pop it into the wii, run letter bomb.....after that I'm not sure where the homebrew channel is or how to get it on. 

After all that, I somehow get the nand and the key files yes?

[JosJuice]

(04-23-2017, 04:07 AM)ChrisAllison Wrote: I'm assuming I load an exploit like letterbomb onto the sd card, pop it into the wii, run letter bomb.....after that I'm not sure where the homebrew channel is or how to get it on. 

Yes, that's how it works.

The Homebrew Channel is used for launching software from e.g. an SD card, without needing to use exploits every time you want to launch something. The Homebrew Channel is installed using the HackMii Installer, which you can find here: https://bootmii.org/download/

There is also a guide here: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_setup

In short, put the boot.elf (or was it boot.dol?) file of the installer in the SD card's root, and LetterBomb will launch it.

(04-23-2017, 04:07 AM)ChrisAllison Wrote: After all that, I somehow get the nand and the key files yes?

Yes. You do this using BootMii, which also is available through the HackMii installer that I mentioned above.

[ChrisAllison]

(04-23-2017, 04:27 AM)JosJuice Wrote: Yes, that's how it works.

The Homebrew Channel is used for launching software from e.g. an SD card, without needing to use exploits every time you want to launch something. The Homebrew Channel is installed using the HackMii Installer, which you can find here: https://bootmii.org/download/

There is also a guide here: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_setup

In short, put the boot.elf (or was it boot.dol?) file of the installer in the SD card's root, and LetterBomb will launch it.


Yes. You do this using BootMii, which also is available through the HackMii installer that I mentioned above.

To your knowledge, is there any way to do this with an USB stick instead? And if so do I have to format it in any certain way? (8gb USB stick)