I spoke too soon heh...
Nintendo released a new Alarmo update a few hours ago. The new update contains a new 2ndloader where the signature is properly checked in USB mode. If you want to modify your Alarmo without soldering, stay on v2.0.0!
https://social.treehouse.systems/users/garyodernichts/statuses/114126385908663501Nintendo is still shipping Alarmos without signature checks in the 2ndloader. I assumed they might do something for the wide retail release, but it looks like they don't really care (for now).
After my last post, it was pretty clear what everyone wanted to see on the Alarmo. So, here it is - Doom running on the Nintendo Alarmo!
It's possible to run custom code on the Nintendo Alarmo via USB - without opening it up!
More details in the blog post here:
https://garyodernichts.blogspot.com/2024/10/looking-into-nintendo-alarmo.html
Looking into the Nintendo Alarmo
While everyone was waiting on news for the successor of the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo released the Alarmo. A small plastic alarm clock that ...
Here's a simplified overview of what I figured out about the Alarmo boot process so far.
About dying Wii Us:
Since there are a lot of misconceptions being spread about dying Wii Us again lately, this is my attempt at trying to clear some things up.
First off, there is no need to panic. Your Wii U is most likely going to be fine.
Several people have reported that their Wii Us are showing an error screen on startup.
We've investigated multiple of these systems over the past few years, and most of them fail to read important files from the eMMC (called MLC on the Wii U).
Nintendo has used eMMCs from 3 different manufactures on the Wii U. Almost all of the affected chips were manufactured by SK Hynix.
This does not mean that every SK Hynix chip is going to fail! It's most likely only a faulty revision of this chip, which is currently failing.
So what can we do? Several people have suggested keeping the Wii U plugged in - this will NOT do anything!
The eMMC is not getting any power while the system is plugged in and not powered on. There is also currently no evidence that powering it on even helps.
You can check which eMMC is built into your console either by opening it up (keep in mind, there are two different storage chips), or by using a homebrew tool called WiiUIdent.
But keep in mind, not every Hynix chip is going to fail! Your console will most likely be fine!
If you happen to have an early Hynix chip starting to fail:
- You can install isfshax to your system. This is an exploit early in the system's boot chain, which allows you to restore your system even if the eMMC fails.
- You can additionally replace the eMMC with an SD Card.
Over the past few days I worked on a port of Fullmetal5's BlueBomb for the Pico W and ESP32. You can find the GitHub repository here:
https://github.com/GaryOderNichts/bluebomb_micro
GitHub - GaryOderNichts/bluebomb_micro: BlueBomb for embedded systems
BlueBomb for embedded systems. Contribute to GaryOderNichts/bluebomb_micro development by creating an account on GitHub.
I spent the past few days reverse engineering the Wii U HPAD system library, which is used by Smash to use the Gamecube Controller Adapter.
I also created headers for using HPAD in Wii U homebrew applications and added them to wut.
In case you're one of the few Wii U homebrew developers, you can now add Gamecube Controller support to your application :)
Test project: https://github.com/GaryOderNichts/hpad_test
wut PR: https://github.com/devkitPro/wut/pull/344
GitHub - GaryOderNichts/hpad_test
Contribute to GaryOderNichts/hpad_test development by creating an account on GitHub.
Ever wanted to exploit DNS response parsing on the Wii U? I have just released DNSpresso!
You can find the technical write-up here:
https://garyodernichts.blogspot.com/2023/10/exploiting-dns-response-parsing-on-wii-u.html
Exploiting DNS response parsing on the Wii U
It's annual Wii U exploit time! 😄 Image of the Wii U connection test screen on the GamePad. After reverse engineering parts of the Wii Us' ...
Heh called it! Not sure if it's actually a faulty eMMC, but there's a good chance that it is.
