Initial Hombrew Setup (<=4.2)

The Homebrew Channel is the main weapon in the arsenal. It puts the Wii into a state where it waits to load a boot.dol/elf of your choice, which is basically a program a developer writes (kind of like a .exe for Windows). These programs can range from playing media off your Wii, installing and updating IOS's, managing files on your USB drive or SD card, and much more. The possibility's with homebrew are literally endless. Having the Homebrew Channel onto your Wii will enable to run these custom made programs right off your own Wii.

More info on The Homebrew Channel | More info on BootMii

This Guide is only for Wii consoles with System Menu version 4.2 or lower.

If you have a WiiU console, please see the exploits page.

If possible, you should update your Wii to the latest version 4.3 and follow the 4.3 guide (which is easier).

Required

• An SD card

  • Best results are with non-SDHC cards, (SDHC will only work on 4.0 or above) formatted to FAT(32).

  • If you want a backup of your wii memory, you need 520 MB of free space on the card.

• [Optional] Gamecube Controller.

Result

• Working Homebrew Channel (HBC) installed

• Bootmii for brick protection.

• [Optional - Recommended] And a NAND backup.

Risk

• Very Low, bricking is as good as impossible

Guide

* Make a backup of the contents of your SD card

1. Bannerbomb loads files from the root of the SD card, so in this case, put the hackmii installer there.

Download the hackmii installer.

You can find the installer here: http://bootmii.org/download/

Extract the zip file from the download to your PC.

Open the folder that was extracted and you will see a file named boot.elf.

Copy this file to the SD card root (not in any folder).

2. Downloading bannerbomb from its official site.

Go to the bannerbomb website.

• For system menu 4.1 or lower use this link: http://bannerbomb.qoid.us/index.old.php

• For system menu 4.2, go here instead: http://bannerbomb.qoid.us/index.new.php

You will see some instructions there. They are basically the same as our steps, but we still advise you to use this guide.

Download the aad1f.zip file for 4.1/below or abd6a.zip for 4.2. Extract this zip file directly to your SD card root.

3. Insert the SD card in the wii and turn on the Wii.

4. Executing the bannerbomb exploit.

• On 4.1/lower: Go to the Wii options (the big Wii button on the bottom left). Choose Data management, then Wii, go to Channels and finally click SD card at the top right.

• On 4.2: Go to the SD Card Menu (SD button in Wii menu)

5. You should now see the following prompt:

Choose Yes. It will boot the Hackmii installer.

6. You will see a Scam warning screen.

Wait for the message at the bottom to appear, then press 1.

7. You will see a screen like this one:

Depending on your wii, it will show different things behind Bootmii:.

• If you see Can be installed, you can get Bootmii as boot2 (which gives the best brick protection there is).

• If you see Can only be installed as an IOS, you can only get Bootmii as IOS (which will give you NO brick protection on its own).

Press A to continue.

Now we get to the main menu, where we can install everything.

First install the Homebrew Channel (choose Yes, continue).

The Homebrew Channel will now be installed on your Wii.

Optional (Recommended) Steps: Installing BootMii

BootMii is a helps greatly with Brick protection and it is highly recommended to install it.

In the HackMii main menu, choose BootMii... and press A. You will get another menu.

8. Before BootMii will work, we need to prepare our SD card, so do that first with the third option.

9. Install BootMii as IOS. This will always work.

10. If you're one of the lucky winners, choose install BootMii as boot2, then Yes, continue and let it install.

Once you're done, return to the Main menu and choose Exit.

It will automatically launch the Homebrew Channel. Unless you already downloaded some apps, you will probably see just the background.

You can press Home to bring up the menu and reboot the Wii.

11. Now you have to delete bannerbomb of the SD card! (just delete the "atkn" folder inside private/wii/title/).

Don't forget to restore your old private folder if you had one!

If you installed BootMii

If you installed BootMii, regardless whether it was as boot2 or IOS, it is recommended you use it to create a NAND backup. This backup can be used to restore the Wii to a working state in case you brick it.

You can learn about launching BootMii and making a backup on the BootMii page.

If you installed BootMii as Boot2, the BootMii menu will appear every time you boot your Wii.

• If you don't want this, rename/move the "bootmii" folder on the SD card.

• Alternatively, you can enable Wii menu auto-boot in the configuration file.

So, what's next?

It mostly depends on what you want to do.

I want to run basic homebrew applications:

=> You are already done! Visit the list of Homebrew Applications on Wiibrew. You can also view our Homebrew Channel page if you need help setting things up.

I want to load backup games from a USB drive, install WADs:

=> Continue on to install a cIOS which will allow you to use these more advanced apps.

I want to change the system menu theme:

=> First install Priiloader for additional brick protection, then read up on MyMenuify, the app which allows you to change the system menu theme.