Wii Hacks, News, and Info. Find out about Wii Hacks and tricks such as: Converting video to Wii format. Running homebrew software and Games. Compile Wii Linux. Wii Home Control. Wii Web Browser. Wii WiFi Functionality
I came across this on Ajaxian. It looks like opera has opened up the Wii Internet Channel to developers. You can now use Javascript to poll data from all 4 wiimotes.
The Wii Remote data is accessed through the opera.wiiremote object. This object offers a single method opera.wiiremote.update(n) which is used to obtain the status of an individual Wii Remote. The method expects a single parameter; the Wii Remote number. The number is zero-based, so it starts at 0 for the first remote, and ends at 3 for the fourth remote. The method returns a KpadStatus object, which has several properties that give information about the remote. [source]
The Internet Channel is out of beta, and a new download is available in the Shop Channel.
Nintendo and Opera has unleashed a new version of the beloved internet channel on the Nintendo Wii. It's new features include:
- Parental Control support - Optional Internet content filter provided by Astaro (available soon) - Improved start-up speed - Clearer text when zoomed-in - Improved Wii Remote navigation - Improved scrolling and zooming - Built-in search via Yahoo! or Google - Option to hide Toolbar - New cursor animations and operation sounds - Ability to view page security information - Option to delete cookies - Built-in support manual
It sounds like the most useful feature is going to be the option to hide the toolbar. Finally we can watch fullscreen movies on the wii in the browser! I'm upset not to see usb/bluetooth keyboard support in this release, maybe next time? The parental features are useless because kids will find a way around them, but I guess Nintendo has to at least make an attempt.
UPDATE: The latest browser breaks some things like playing long flv video files. Developers are searching for workarounds. Check Pimpware.org and WiiCR.org for more info.
Opera and Nintendo are planning the release for the final version of the browser for late March/early April. The browser is said to have the ability to do software updates, and there are rumors of keyboard support.
For more information and the full interview, go to play-nintendo.com
There is finally a good solution for OSX users to convert their video content to a format playable on the Wii. Wii Transfer converts your MP3 files and videos to Wii compatible format. It can put them on an SD card or stream them through the Opera Browser.
Additional Features:
• Show album cover artwork in the music sharing interface • Share MP3 music and pictures to your Wii over local network. • Convert movies for playing in Wii's Photo Channel. • Copy movies to SD card automatically if connected. • Browse and convert iTunes video podcasts from within Wii Transfer. • AppleScript support for automated conversions. • Backup saved game files to your Mac automatically.
I think this may be the first search engine that is completely optimized for the Wii with a Wii look 'n feel, large text, automatic search submit, and nice rollover effects to make it easier to navigate the clusters and search results.
Links to this search engine have been placed on the Wii Portal
There is a lot of info on how this all works along with sample code here.
This is way beyond what I will pretend to understand about programming, so i'm just posting it here in case someone else might find it interesting.
UPDATE: Some forum posters have been trying out these codes but so far have not been able to get it to affect the Wii. If you have any success crashing the Wii with this method please report your results.
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PS2-Scene is reporting a vulnerability in the Opera Browser. They have posted code which uses SVG to crash the Wii's Web Browser. This could lead to arbitrary code execution. The hackers are busy at work trying to make something useful out of this, while Opera is probably scrambling to issue a patch to fix the problem.
XiaNaix posted:
A flaw exists within Opera's Javascript SVG implementation. When processing a createSVGTransformFromMatrix request Opera does not properly validate the type of object passed to the function. Passing an incorrect object to this function can result in it using a pointer that is user controlled when it attempts to make the virtual function call.
Exploitation of this vulnerability would allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected host. The attacker would first need to construct a website containing the malicious JavaScript and trick the vulnerable user into visiting the site. This would trigger the vulnerability and allow the code to execute with the privileges of the local user.
This exploit could possibly be used to run code on the Wii!
I've also added this link to the Wii Portal Page, so if you already have that bookmarked, you can test out the 'Crash My Wii' link from there as well.
So to reiterate, they can get the Wii to crash. This has not yet opened up any way to run homebrew, but it's the hole most hackers have been waiting for. Will update later when more is known.
UPDATE 11:35AM More information about this bug posted on iDefense. Seems like Opera has known about this one since November.
UPDATE 11:40AM trapflag on IRC is looking at the registers to find ways to execute code: http://paste.uni.cc/12615 (x86 opera)
UPDATE 11:45AM pab_ has it crashing on Opera 9 PPC binary with debugger attached Debugger Output
UPDATE 12:05PM Opera's Response to this bug:
"Attackers can specially call the function createSVGTransformFromMatrix to have the browser execute code with the user's rights. The vendor has categorized both of the holes as merely "moderate". The firm argues that it is not easy to exploit the heap overflow consistently."
Also, Opera claims they fixed this bug in Opera 9.10... but the Wii's version appears to be earlier than that.
An important thing to note is that if this works, it is also possible for dangerous things to happen to your Wii. Please use caution before you click on any unknown links, as someone may try to implement malicious code that breaks your Wii.
I'm not sure how much is known about the Wii's architecture, so I'm not sure how viable it will be to run our own unsigned code through this. Not to mention that Opera seems to run in a sort of sandbox - I've Lastmeasured my Wii to the point that the browser was 100% unresponsive but the Home button still worked just fine. Haven't tested this out yet, though, so it's possible that this 'breaks' the sandbox.
Nice PoC, lbradeen and larholm. Question, though: is this an actual overflow, or just an out-of-memory glitch from trying to create an array with 0xFFFFFFFF members? I don't know much about how Opera handles memory in its Javascript handler, or if 0xFFFFFFFF means -1 or 4294967295 for Javascript in general. I assume that shoving this function into createSVGTransformFromMatrix simply bypasses some sort of memory limitation check. Is this really usable to run unsigned code, or just to crash the system?
-- Discuss this topic on the following forum posts:
quasimondo, has posted some source code that allows you to register keypress events from the WiiMote in Flash applications inside the Wii Web Browser. He writes:
Now how does this work? Since all direct Javascript to Flash communication is either impossible or too slow I'm using an indirect method: I use the Stage.onResize event of one Flash file as a trigger and communication device. When a keypress is received by the Opera browser I scale the layer which contains a sender swf to a width that is equal to the detected key code. This triggers a resize event inside the sender swf which reads out its new width and sends that number via LocalConnection to the main swf. There it is processed by a Wiimote class which can then be similary used like a Key object.
This post will give you an overview of the many music and systems available through the Wii Web Browser.
So you may have heard about BrowseAmp which will allow you to browse and control Winamp from a wii compatible webpage. Well there is one step up from that called AjaxAMP
You will also be happy to know that the latest version of Winamp has streaming services built right in. Ben has written an article on how to use Winamp Streaming Services on the Wii
As discussed in a previous post. Orb Streaming Audio definitely works, some people have reported problems with certain video files. Likely that the problem is the Wii can not handle a large amount of data. The WiiCR needs to split video files into pieces and then generate a playlist to work around the problem.
If you are still having problems with ORB, you can also try this tip from one of our readers, David:
ORB streaming problems can be fixed by deleting a registry key. Here are the steps: - run regedit.exe - find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Orb Networks/Orb/OrbStreamer - File | Export (make a backup of this reg folder) - delete the key HQFLASH This modifies the flash encoding to use a lesser-quality which is compatible with Opera-Wii
I suspect the same Windows iTunes streaming tricks that work for PSP will work with the Wii as well, though not confirmed
Wii Media Center X has software for both PC and Mac, but the software is still in it's Alpha stages and not quite ready for prime-time yet.
If you want to go through the trouble of installing apache, php, mysql, etc.. try one of the web server based solutions below..
You may also take a look at Jinzora which is a web based PHP/Apache/Mysql/Flash Music System. One of the founders, Ben is working on a Wii Compatible frontend skin (not released publicly yet) . There are several actual flash players that you can use with Jinzora and all come bundled with the installation. I've also used Jinzora to stream MP3's to my phone and it has been working great! Definitely check it out if you looking for a customizable PHP based music server platform.
Please post in the comments with your experiences, good or bad with any of the above programs, along with any specific settings you needed to change to get it working on the Wii. Also let me know if there are other programs that you have found to add to this list. Thanks!
Here are some of the things people have been saying about our Beta release so far:
Kotaku - "Pretty nifty tool, just be sure to favorite that site as you will have to visit it first to enable the tabbing."
Go Nintendo - "Awesome find, I just added this to my favorites!"
Play-Nintendo - "have come out with some handy tabs for the internet channel on the Wii!"
Max Console - "All you have to do is visit http://teamdsx.net/wii with your Wii and click on the tab that will pop up! It is just that simple."
Wii-Volution - "This is a rather important feature I felt was missing for the Opera Browser."
So thank you everyone for your support. If you like what we do then you can support us by donating OR if you don't want to do that, then you can vote for us on a bunch of Topsites that reset monthly. The vote page is http://teamdsx.net/vote
Don't forget to spread the word on Wii Tabs. A video demo will be made also for people that need to figure out how it works, or are confused about something.
Great work guys, looking forward to the new features!
I came across an app called Wii Media Center. It is made by the same author that wrote Wii Video 9, an application that converts your video files to motion jpeg movies that are viewable in the photo channel.
Now he has created software that will generate nice looking webpages to browse through all of the media on your hard drive. Once the transcoding capabilities of Wii Video 9 and the website abilities of Wii Media Center are combined, we will be looking at a really solid platform for hosting video, audio and other media for the Wii.
Although there are still a few hurdles to get by, I have no doubts these issues will be solved soon.. Red Kawa, it's author, had this to say:
Now that the Wii Opera Browser has finally been released, we were finally able to test Wii Media Center X on the Wii and like a lot of you have mentioned, we've also noticed that there are major issues.
Since the Wii browser only supports Flash 7 and does not support LiveConnect, you will most likely encounter problems using the slideshow or my music features. Also there are reports of choppy video in the My Video's section.
We wanted to let you know that we are aware of these issues and are working on fixing them. Our plan of attack is to first get the Video section working well and then move onto the other sections.
So, it looks like they are making good progress, but it's just not quite there yet. For now you will want to try ORB.com which has been confirmed working on the Wii Web Browser.
After downloading a 26mb file, which will use up 230 blocks on your wii, the browser channel will show up in your wii menu.
Once you launch it you are presented with a window where you can type in any url, or navigate to your favorites.
Controller Buttons: You can get to the favorites page by pressing the 1 button on the wii-mote.
The 2 button on the wiimote puts the browser into a large text viewing mode. it reformats the pages so that it is readable and fits on the tv.
The browser supports Flash. It is a version of Flash player 7, and it supports sendAndLoad(). This means lots of fun client/server flash applications can be developed.
I have gotten audio streaming with orb.com but the flash video from there does not seem to work yet. I will keep trying. The author of WiiCR is also making improvements to his software to allow realtime transcoding of your video files to a flash format that is compatible with the wii web browser. Expect an update on that later today.
This browser is sure to open up a flood of new and fun homebrew games, apps, and proof-of-concept projects. I want to hear about them all. Post in the comments if you have something cool that you want to share with the wii hacking community. Is your site ready for Wii?
UPDATE: I have created a quick portal page to get to all of the Wii Compatible websites without having to type in long urls. All you need to do is type in this URL once then bookmark it:
To get you caught up here's the latest on the Wii Opera Browser...
Nintendo announced that a BETA of the Opera browser will be availible for download from the Wii Shop for FREE starting on December 22nd.
This was very exciting news, because there are lots of cool and fun flash projects in development that are hoping to take advantage on the Wii's onscreen and pointing abilities to create their own content.
Some examples of sites that are being developed for the Wii include:
"A source close to the Wii Opera project", as they've wished to be identified, has given yours truly a little bit of info on what you'll be able to expect from the trial version of the Opera browser that's being made available to Wii owners this Friday.
...
Several key features are expected to be nerfed from the trial build. Most notably, full Javascript support. From what we've heard, part of the Opera Wii Browser QA issue is that several areas in the Wii's architecture can be exploited through Javascript, and Nintendo wants Opera to patch that before any release. Nintendo's so worried about potential violations and exposures of the Wii software, they're playing it safe.
...
Other things you'll notice with the trial version: Flash may not work correctly. It appears that Opera is custom building their Flash plug-ins to limit the security exposures that the plug-in presents. And while that's great from a control standpoint, it's expected to cause some compatibility issues. You'll have problems accessing some sites that utilize Flash.
Widget support is being hurriedly rushed in a desperate attempt to get it included in the Wii Browser on Friday, but it's not expected to be made available. Support for the Ajax technology is expected to work fine, however.
You can also read more comments on the subject over on digg
Most people are calling this guy out saing it's BS. The article says there is no Javascript, but it fully supports AJAX?! Some things don't add up, so for now all we can do is wait and see what Nintendo delivers to us in the next few days... Check back soon for a full update on the capabilities of the Wii Web Browser once it has been released!
UPDATE: It has been reported that the browser has been released in Europe and Australia, but not in the United States yet. Most people are confirming that it is a full browser, supports flash, ajax/javascript, loads youtube perfectly, and even passes the acid2 browser test.
Other Features / Limitations: Opera can only store up to 21 bookmarks Flash Player 7 - [ Your Player Version: WII 7,0,70,0 | Operating System: Nintendo Wii | Debug Player: No | Video Encoder: No] (thx linFox)
This is great news! Stay tuned for a full update later.
Please be advised that the latest update for the Wii blocks DNS redirection for the Wii Shop Channel, do if you are developing something and do not want to lose browser access do not install the update. And so begins the arms race between wii hackers and nintendo... With quick turnaround time like that you can be sure that Nintendo is going to put up a good fight to make sure people are not downloading their games for free.
UPDATE: SiteDude of WiiModWii suggested that people who do not want to download Wii updates add the following hostname to their DNS so that firmware updates will not automatically download: ccs.shop.wii.com
As a reminder this site does not condone anything related to the act of getting Nintendo Wii or Virtual console games for free. Please do not post anything of this nature in the comments. If someone else has posted these materials, please notify me, liquidice629 at gmail.com
The 'Hacks' in the title refers to tinkering with the Wii to get it to do things it was not meant to do, and making modifications to the hardware and software to allow execution of user created wii homebrew applications. If you would like to contribute an article to the site, or if you have information that has not been discussed on here related to hacking the wii, contact me: liquidice629 at gmail.com
Finally thanks for all of the webmasters who have linked me. I will be creating some better linking materials to send to you soon. If you have a established Wii hacking related site and would like to see it listed here, drop me an email.
Some new information about the browser hacking going on inside the Wii's Shopping channel:
There is a piece of code found in the shopping channel: var ec = new ECommerceInterface ();
The problem is that the code for ECommerceInterface isn't found in any of the .JS files. This leads me to believe the code is somehow stored in the Wii itself.
While we do not support trying to download games for free, it is extremely interesting how these Javascript functions are included in the browser itself so that they are availible in every page displayed and not in the source of the pages served up from Nintendo.
Has anyone tried to access urls with file:// or others?
On the PSP we were able to access some of the flash file system by using different internal addresses. The full PSP thread which talks about overflowing the buffer and the internal addresses via the wipeout browser dns hack can be found here: http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?t=1948
UPDATE: OK I've got the on-screen keyboard and sounds working!
Here are instructions to get a somewhat working web browser on the Nintendo Wii by redirecting the content of the Wii Shopping Channel.
Basically you would download Simple DNS or another DNS server package and redirect oss.shop.wii.com to the ip address of your choice.
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For example, to do it in Simple DNS Plus:
Download and Install Simple DNS Plus from: http://www.jhsoft.com/
Launch Simple DNS Plus and goto Tools -> Edit DNS Records
In the DNS records goto tools --> Quick Domain Wizard
In the domain field type "oss.shop.wii.com"
for the webserver ip type in the ip of the website in as the "Web Server IP" (if you want to find out the ip goto cmd prompt and type ping sitename.com)
For example, Google's IP is 64.233.167.99
Erase the secondary DNS Server and press OK
Now, on the Wii
Goto the Wii Menu -> Wii Settings -> Internet -> Connection Settings -> Chose your connection -> Change settings Click next 3 times until you get to the DNS setup Click Advanced Settings
Then enter the primary DNS as your computers IP address of the computer running Simple DNS
Finally, click ok and launch the Shopping Channel, it should bring up google now!
It does load the Google Homepage, and all links within the main www.google.com domain are clickable. I quickly tested a flash page, but it did not load, just a white box. There is also a loading widget that goes in front of the screen and will not go away. I suppose some Javascript can get rid of it.
There is no onscreen keyboard that pops up when you select a textbox, hopefully it can be triggered with some javascript as well..?
Next step is for someone to get the urls and header information the wii shopping channel browser uses and try to see if you can access the wii shopping pages on your pc. Then we will be able to see what kind of javascript or other types of applets are used to display the wii shopping channel.
Also going to try out how it handles file downloads. Will post back with updates.
Nice find wiimodwii! Lets get crackin on some Wii homebrew fellow web developers.
UPDATE: Work is underway to create a Wii Portal page similar to the PSP Portals that popped up back in the day when the Wipeout Pure Browser Hack was discovered on the PSP.
UPDATE: To disable the spinning 'loading' widget you must include this code in your webpage:
<script> var shop = new wiiShop(); function wiiStartWaiting() { if (shop != null && "beginWaiting" in shop) { shop.beginWaiting(); } } function wiiStopWaiting() { if (shop != null && "endWaiting" in shop) { shop.endWaiting(); } } shop.endWaiting(); </script>
UPDATE: I have the wiiKeyboard and wiiSound Objects working!! Sample Code here: Wii Shopping Channel Hack
