Comments on: Timing is everything (the case of the “unsoftmoddable Wii”) http://hackmii.com/2009/08/timing-is-everything-the-case-of-the-unsoftmoddable-wii/ Notes from inside your Wii Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:38:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: techneek54115 http://hackmii.com/2009/08/timing-is-everything-the-case-of-the-unsoftmoddable-wii/comment-page-1/#comment-6045 techneek54115 Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:21:42 +0000 http://hackmii.com/?p=654#comment-6045 i have a originally 3.4u normal to 4.0 then bannerbombed installed bootmii as boot2 then uninstalled it(retard) then installed bad wad , bannerbricked , then recovered after getting drivekey with sddm and indiana pwns combo. i did also put in a patched nsmb before using indiana pwns which updated me to 4.1usa and now my boot2 is v24 wth i thought boot1 couldn't be patched outside the factory. i don't know where to post this since it contradicts everything i've read i have a originally 3.4u normal to 4.0 then bannerbombed installed bootmii as boot2 then uninstalled it(retard) then installed bad wad , bannerbricked , then recovered after getting drivekey with sddm and indiana pwns combo. i did also put in a patched nsmb before using indiana pwns which updated me to 4.1usa and now my boot2 is v24 wth i thought boot1 couldn’t be patched outside the factory. i don’t know where to post this since it contradicts everything i’ve read

]]> By: KingLewy http://hackmii.com/2009/08/timing-is-everything-the-case-of-the-unsoftmoddable-wii/comment-page-1/#comment-5632 KingLewy Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:11:23 +0000 http://hackmii.com/?p=654#comment-5632 Wow. You know a year ago I first heard of Homebrew and I didn't want anything to do with it. 2 months ago I found out I could get ScummVM on my Wii through HBC and practically jumped on it. My entire opinion of homebrewing has completely changed and after reading these blogs (in the past two days, since I stupidly upgraded to 4.2) a USBGecko is on my shopping list. Where can I learn how to do all this stuff, as I'm new to programming? Many thanks bushing for some great incites into the workings of my Wii. Wow. You know a year ago I first heard of Homebrew and I didn’t want anything to do with it. 2 months ago I found out I could get ScummVM on my Wii through HBC and practically jumped on it. My entire opinion of homebrewing has completely changed and after reading these blogs (in the past two days, since I stupidly upgraded to 4.2) a USBGecko is on my shopping list. Where can I learn how to do all this stuff, as I’m new to programming?

Many thanks bushing for some great incites into the workings of my Wii.

]]> By: RogueFive http://hackmii.com/2009/08/timing-is-everything-the-case-of-the-unsoftmoddable-wii/comment-page-1/#comment-5422 RogueFive Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:39:15 +0000 http://hackmii.com/?p=654#comment-5422 Fascinating read. I have been following your blog for quite some time now and this has been the most intriguing post by far. The dedication and detective work reminds of my early assembler days writing demos. (This is going to be really boring for younger people and non-geeks, but I thought you would appreciate it). We faced a similar situation when (and I am really going to show my age here) someone found by accident that you can mess with the screen display on the Atari ST by switching the screen refresh frequency in the middle of screen redraws. The first exploit allowed the removal of the lower screen border ... you had to switch from 50 to 60hz when the raster electron ray was in the last part of the last regular line, just before the VBL. The top border was next to go (by "simply" writing your own VBL interrupt and switching frequencies before the ray would get to "normal", then the right border (doing your own HBL interrupt) and finally the left border when someone switched to 71hz for a few cycles. Talk about timing. We also faced problems with hardware revisions, but in the end we did fullscreen demos on the Atari that nobody thought were possible. It took the coder community 4 years to get this done ... but we didn't have the internet back then. I applaud your efforts ... it is very refreshing that in this day & age when high processing power tends to create lazy programmers someone still has the dedication to think in milliseconds. Keep up the good work! Fascinating read. I have been following your blog for quite some time now and this has been the most intriguing post by far.
The dedication and detective work reminds of my early assembler days writing demos. (This is going to be really boring for younger people and non-geeks, but I thought you would appreciate it).
We faced a similar situation when (and I am really going to show my age here) someone found by accident that you can mess with the screen display on the Atari ST by switching the screen refresh frequency in the middle of screen redraws.
The first exploit allowed the removal of the lower screen border … you had to switch from 50 to 60hz when the raster electron ray was in the last part of the last regular line, just before the VBL. The top border was next to go (by “simply” writing your own VBL interrupt and switching frequencies before the ray would get to “normal”, then the right border (doing your own HBL interrupt) and finally the left border when someone switched to 71hz for a few cycles.
Talk about timing. We also faced problems with hardware revisions, but in the end we did fullscreen demos on the Atari that nobody thought were possible. It took the coder community 4 years to get this done … but we didn’t have the internet back then.
I applaud your efforts … it is very refreshing that in this day & age when high processing power tends to create lazy programmers someone still has the dedication to think in milliseconds. Keep up the good work!

]]> By: patterp http://hackmii.com/2009/08/timing-is-everything-the-case-of-the-unsoftmoddable-wii/comment-page-1/#comment-5379 patterp Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:35:29 +0000 http://hackmii.com/?p=654#comment-5379 Reloadtest: On my Wii 3.2E/PAL purchases end 08 I get: IOS Version: IOS36 12.22 / boot2v3 ... IOS Version: IOS34 4.15 stats: id=0x06a08e16 boot2v3 IOSticks=32 IPCticks=441 ... good work Reloadtest:
On my Wii 3.2E/PAL purchases end 08
I get:
IOS Version: IOS36 12.22 / boot2v3
…
IOS Version: IOS34 4.15
stats: id=0x06a08e16 boot2v3 IOSticks=32 IPCticks=441

… good work

]]> By: bushing http://hackmii.com/2009/08/timing-is-everything-the-case-of-the-unsoftmoddable-wii/comment-page-1/#comment-5370 bushing Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:28:25 +0000 http://hackmii.com/?p=654#comment-5370 @feraligatr: I don't really know. My best guess is that the the new hardware takes longer to start up, and the old IOSes don't delay long enough when they try to load. The system then locks up. (Guessing is all I can really do; we don't have many good ways to debug this sort of thing.) @feraligatr: I don’t really know. My best guess is that the the new hardware takes longer to start up, and the old IOSes don’t delay long enough when they try to load. The system then locks up.

(Guessing is all I can really do; we don’t have many good ways to debug this sort of thing.)

]]> By: feraligatr http://hackmii.com/2009/08/timing-is-everything-the-case-of-the-unsoftmoddable-wii/comment-page-1/#comment-5368 feraligatr Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:25:58 +0000 http://hackmii.com/?p=654#comment-5368 Very great article! At the beginning, it says, on new Wiis "1.Old (but valid) versions of IOS would not run at all; they would hang if you tried, which prevented downgrading IOS. This did not apply to the leaked IOS16. 2.Attempts at reloading IOS by libogc would sometimes fail; depending on the program, this would look like a hang or would just cause all IOS calls to fail" This article mainly focuses on the second issue. But I cannot get clue about the first one. Why doesn't older IOSes work at all? If the system follows the IOS->IOS->ppc sequence strictly, that timing problem shouldn't affect official softwares including older IOSes. Very great article!

At the beginning, it says, on new Wiis

“1.Old (but valid) versions of IOS would not run at all; they would hang if you tried, which prevented downgrading IOS. This did not apply to the leaked IOS16.
2.Attempts at reloading IOS by libogc would sometimes fail; depending on the program, this would look like a hang or would just cause all IOS calls to fail”

This article mainly focuses on the second issue. But I cannot get clue about the first one. Why doesn’t older IOSes work at all? If the system follows the IOS->IOS->ppc sequence strictly, that timing problem shouldn’t affect official softwares including older IOSes.

]]> By: takaneko http://hackmii.com/2009/08/timing-is-everything-the-case-of-the-unsoftmoddable-wii/comment-page-1/#comment-5367 takaneko Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:46:01 +0000 http://hackmii.com/?p=654#comment-5367 NTSC-U Wii purchased mid-late July '09. stats: id=0x03d65556 IOS36->IOS34 boot2v4 IOSticks=31 IPCticks=430 How is it that I have boot2v4 and yet I have successfully softmodded my Wii? Did I just get lucky? Is there any way I can contribute to your research? BTW you rock. NTSC-U Wii purchased mid-late July ’09.

stats: id=0x03d65556 IOS36->IOS34 boot2v4 IOSticks=31 IPCticks=430

How is it that I have boot2v4 and yet I have successfully softmodded my Wii? Did I just get lucky? Is there any way I can contribute to your research?

BTW you rock.

]]> By: pembo http://hackmii.com/2009/08/timing-is-everything-the-case-of-the-unsoftmoddable-wii/comment-page-1/#comment-5366 pembo Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:18:27 +0000 http://hackmii.com/?p=654#comment-5366 That's an excellent, well thought out, and well written post. Thanks for giving me a good insight into the wii boot process :) That’s an excellent, well thought out, and well written post.

Thanks for giving me a good insight into the wii boot process :)

]]> By: TwoBladedKnight http://hackmii.com/2009/08/timing-is-everything-the-case-of-the-unsoftmoddable-wii/comment-page-1/#comment-5365 TwoBladedKnight Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:03:04 +0000 http://hackmii.com/?p=654#comment-5365 God I love reading your posts on how the wii works God I love reading your posts on how the wii works

]]> By: SuperAxel http://hackmii.com/2009/08/timing-is-everything-the-case-of-the-unsoftmoddable-wii/comment-page-1/#comment-5364 SuperAxel Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:38:01 +0000 http://hackmii.com/?p=654#comment-5364 Korean Wii (Hollywood - May, 08): stats: id = 0x060d101d boot2v3 IOSticks= 31 IPCticks 430 Korean Wii (Hollywood – May, 08):

stats: id = 0x060d101d boot2v3 IOSticks= 31 IPCticks 430

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