Homebrew Channel Wii

Homebrew Channel
Homebrew Channel
	File:Homebrewchannelwii.jpg
General
Author	fail0verflow
Type	Loader
Version	1.1.4-1
License	GNU GPL v2
Last Updated	2017/10/15
Links
	Download
	Website
	Source

The Homebrew Channel is a channel for launching Wii homebrew applications. It will list homebrew applications stored and organised on an SD card or USB mass storage device in a nice little GUI, which you can very easily customise with descriptions and shiny little icons all by yourself. You can also launch applications via TCP (with a correctly configured PC) or a USBGecko. Both of those built in options make it extremely convenient for testing out new code, as well as a general purpose homebrew launcher.

Installation

Using the HackMii Installer

The Hackmii Installer Wii is most commonly used to install HBC. See the HackMii Installer page for more info.

Using CompatInstaller

In the vWii, CompatInstaller can be run in Wii U mode to install the Homebrew Channel.

Using the ISO installer

This method requires a drivechip and a DVD, and won't work with the 3.3 firmware update or newer. DVD images for more recent releases are currently unavailable, though you can get beta8 and then update. This method is not recommended, due to the requirement of hardware modification that could brick your Wii.

Install your drivechip into the Wii hardware.
Download the ISO here. Note that the file is actually a .rar, despite being named like a .zip. Be sure to remove the .zip from the end before extracting.
Burn the ISO to the DVD.
Put the DVD into the game disc slot.
Launch "the homebrew channel installer" on the Disc Channel.
The installer should now run. The system will reboot when it is finished, and the homebrew channel should be installed.
(Optional) If you are connected to the internet, a dialog should show up when you open the Homebrew Channel asking if you want to update the channel. Press "Yes" to update to the latest version.

Updating from a previous version

If you have an older version of the Homebrew Channel, you can use the auto update function to install the latest version.

Complete Setup Format

You should have a compatible SD or SDHC card.

An SD card should be formatted in FAT16 or FAT32. After you have installed the apps on your SD card, its folder structure should look something like this:

Removable Disk (eg: (E:) on Windows and where it is mounted to on Linux or Mac OS X eg: /media/disk/ )
- apps
  - ScummVM
    - boot.dol
    - meta.xml(Optional)
    - icon.png(Optional)
  - WiiShopInstaller
    - boot.dol
    - meta.xml(Optional)
    - icon.png(Optional)

If you have any problems having your Applications showing up on the 'HBC', make sure you are following the correct format.

Loading from USB

Apps on your USB storage device are stored like on a SD card.

Media

FAQ

The official FAQ from the developers of the Homebrew Channel can be found here.

Easter Eggs

Pop the Bubbles!

Being able to pop the bubbles in the background of the HBC was a frequent request, and as of 1.0, it is possible.

Press Wiimote 2 Button + Wiimote 1 Button and the animated background will be the only thing visible, along with a score counter in the bottom right hand corner. Place the hand cursor over any bubble and it will pop, spawning smaller bubbles and adding to the score counter. The smaller bubbles can also be popped. When you are done, press Wiimote 2 Button + Wiimote 1 Button again to return to the list of applications. If you leave the wii on this screen for too long, it will crash.

NOTE: As of version HBC 1.0.5 the Pop the bubbles (with scoring) is removed. You can still pop the bubbles (without scoring) by pointing at the bubbles as usual, but you cannot prompt a score board. You can also remove the SD Card (and/or USB drive) to make more room on the screen.

Changelog

1.1.4-1 - FIX94

equal to previous file, just corrected a wii vc mistake when selecting "no" if you want to use the gamepad it did not correctly set up the stub

1.1.4 - FIX94

added code based on TinyLoad to stub that allows wii vc to return to HBC when wii vc channel booter was used to initially get into HBC
pushed OHBC version to 1.1.4

1.1.3

The channel is now open source with the source code hosted on github.
- Not released in binary form, although Homebrew Channel 1.1.4 was released in binary form and is based on this version
Fixes issue with aspect ratio on vWii
Title ID changed (OHBC)
Removed scam warning screen

1.1.2

PAL 50Hz (576i) video mode now works properly
Icons load again in The Homebrew Channel

1.1.1

WiiU (WiiMode) compatibility
- New title ID (LULZ)
- Now has a proper entrypoint in the main DOL; previously, entrypoint was unset, since the Broadway always boots to 80003400, but because BC-NAND reads the entrypoint, it is now necessary to set it.

1.1.0

Added support for RVL-CNT-01-TR Wii Remotes
New TrueType font renderer (FreeType) with antialiasing and theming
The new default font is Droid Sans
Added full UTF-8/Unicode support (font dependent)
Added Japanese translation
IOS is always reloaded, use ahb_access to keep AHB access enabled
Fixed HBC framebuffer tearing/lag/sync/corruption issues
Aligned HBC graphics to the pixel grid (sharper graphics)
Aligned font rendering to the pixel grid in both 4:3 and 16:9 mode
Fixed/improved text layout
Fixed support for huge meta.xml files (e.g. very long descriptions)
Renamed "Coder" to "Author" in app descriptions (<coder> is now an alias for <author>)
Fixed missing theme app entries (sometimes)
Changed many crashes into explicit errors / a panic screen
Speed and stability improvements when launching apps (cleanup after IOS)
Reload stub: support any BAT setup (or even real mode)
Reload stub: do not depend on existing exception vectors
Reload stub: do not touch HID4
Reload stub: disable IRQs ASAP
Fixed bugs in device hotplugging support
Added nicer error message triggered when HBC runs out of memory while loading an app
Removed the <unknown> coder/version labels
Fixed memory leaks while loading themes and in app entries
Reduced the minimum theme size (for xml-only themes)
Increased the maximum theme size up to 20MB (for huge fonts)
Reduced memory fragmentation when loading apps/themes (less OOM errors)
Fixed sorting by release date
Fixed crashes with incomplete meta files
Themes now affect language choice (due to font differences)
HBC now allows apps to load code at 0x3400
Fixed various buffer overflow / error conditions
Fixed/improved thread synchronization and race conditions
Theme ZIP files can now contain .txt files, which are ignored (README.txt, etc.)
HBC can now take screenshots (Nunchuk Z+C, in that order)
Updated to devkitPro r24 and latest libogc/libfat git

1.0.8

General USB improvements for all IOS versions, this fixes the regression introduced in version 1.0.7.
USB2 support through IOS58.

1.0.7

New title id (00010001-af1bf516) to circumvent its deletion by System Menu 4.3.
- The low 4 bytes are actually the first 4 bytes of the DSi common key
New look from our favorite pixel artist drmr.
Both views now show five rows of application entries.
On-NAND settings.
HBC now has the HW_AHBPROT flags set for direct hardware access, thus replacing DVDX.
Ability to not reload IOS when launching an application.
USB access is more stable, thanks to tueidj
Fixed the retry mechanism for the network initialization.
Fixed some rare hangs upon launch and exit (Hopefully all of them).
Notable speed improvement.
Now capable of custom themes granted all files are of the same dimensions.

1.0.6

Freeze fix
Some other minor hiccups

1.0.5

System Menu 4.2 support
New title ID to circumvent deletion (JODI)
Improved startup
HBC prefers boot.elf over boot.dol when launching apps
Improved fonts
Widescreen support:
- If your Wii is set to 16:9 in the system menu options, HBC won’t stretch the picture like it did in older versions
Grid view:
- 4 columns on 16:9 TVs
- 3 columns on 4:3 TVs
Device hot-swapping:
Added a menu for device options
App sorting
- Name
- Release date
  - For release date sorting to work a valid release_date tag must be present in the apps meta.xml file
Wiiload overhaul
- On-the-fly compression
- Improved USBGecko support
- libftdi support
  - Because of these improvements, older wiiload versions and 3rd party upload clients are incompatible. Use the bundled v0.5, binaries and source code are included
Basic app management :
- To add apps: Just wiiload a ZIP archive, it will then get extracted to the active device. The ZIP file must be structured in a certain way, check this description for the details
- Added option to delete apps

1.0.4

Fixed POWER button bug (BootMii IOS)
Turned HBC upside down for those who modified the contents of the HBC or installed it using a "wad manager"

1.0.3

SDHC support... again
Improved SD Card support (regression was introduced in v1.0.2)
HBC is compatable with all pre-4.2 system menu versions (stock 3.3 post Oct 23 has issues
Fixed rare hangs when exiting HBC
Added translation for "Launch BootMii" button

1.0.2

Added "Launch BootMii" button (BootMii IOS) to home menu
System Menu 4.0 support
USB support
Manual shutdown support
Installer has been removed in favor of the HackMii Installer

1.0.1

Fixed B button issues
Wii Remotes are in-sync with System Menu
Possibly fixed the USB Ethernet Issues
Fixed wiimote auto-shutdown
Possibly fixed "video after shutdown" Issues
Changes to () -> *

1.0 (Beta 10)

Meta.xml supports all ISO-8859-1 characters
Wii Remote shutdown support
Rumble support (system menu settings)
Fixed some crash bugs
Fixed meta.xml UNIX style newline regression
Support for Non-Nintendo Wii Remotes
Classic Controller support
Nunchuk support (scroll only)
Guitar Hero 3 guitar support
Left/Right button page scrolling
Hit 1 on Wii Remote for net reload (like net icon click or GC Z)
Add information to installer
Fixed network issues
Pushed in some text to avoid overscan crop
Widened video width to match System Menu ("black bars" fix)
B returns from app screen (unless scrolling)
Auto-connect support
Retry network init
Reload stub now identifies itself (magic number)
Support for broken HTTP proxies in update check
Added IOS revision in main menu

Beta 9

Installer / updater now works with the October 23 update (now uses STM Release Exploit)
SDHC support
Fixed memory card bug
Installer now picks newest sane IOS
- This removes the WiFi router issues caused by switching to IOS21
Added reload button (SD card)
Removed return to system menu warning
Fixed some graphical glitches
Compliant ELF loading code (iff you get errors use ELF to DOL Converter)
Improved XML load code
Many fixes to underlying stuff in the newer libogc

Beta 8

Removed the need to eject your memcards
Converted from IOS35 to IOS21 (HBC is usable on older system updates now)
- WiFi now performs worse as a result
Improved SD card support
- Thanks, svpe
Improved translations
Fixed IP label
Improved argv support
Fixed wiiload issue
Apps are now sorted alphabetically
Rumble support
Installer overhaul
- Added warning if your system menu is too new (future updates)
Updated libogc; Wii-specific code (e.g. Wiimotes) is now part of libogc

Beta 7 (Initial Public Release besides chainloader)

Minor bugfixes
GUI updates
Added translations
ISO distribution
First public beta

April Fools

10 minute ticket time limit

Beta 6

GUI overhaul chapter 2
Added translations
Wii Remote dragging on memo widget
Auto-disconnect Wii Remote after idle time
Other fixes I can't remember

Beta 5

GUI overhaul chapter 1
Improved IR pointer
Improved argv support
Fixed Wii Remote code bugs
Fixed update bugs
SD card is scanned for boot.dol then boot.elf

Beta 4

Added Wii Remote IR cursor

Beta 3

Fixed flicker glitch
Stable Wii Remote libs
Support for argv

External links

Official Website - https://hbc.hackmii.com/
Wiibrew - https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_Channel
Github (fail0verflow) - http://github.com/fail0verflow/hbc
Github (FIX94) - https://github.com/FIX94/hbc/