Marcan has released his own version of Crediar’s System Menu patches. The main difference is that MenuLoader temporarily patches the menu, while Crediar’s Starfall writes the patches permanently. Most versions of the System Menu should be compatible with this program.
From the release notes:
menuloader 0.4 is a tool that dynamically launches the System Menu with a set of patches. The patching occurs entirely as the menu is loaded, and the changes aren’t permanent. None of the patches will persist once you reboot the Wii or reload the System Menu. This release is meant to be a “test” version, as it lacks some features and the patches have not undergone much testing. It includes the following (selectable) patches:
USBGecko debugging, with optional extended debugging information
Regionfree Wii disc booting (I hear this doesn’t work perfectly yet)
Regionfree channel booting (useful if you’ve region-swapped your Wii and want to use your old store-bought VC and WiiWare titles)
Skip Warning screen
Disable background music
Additionally, you can pick which IOS to use when booting. On a 3.3 Wii, for example, pick IOS35 to get back the ability to use fakesigned discs. On a 3.2 or older Wii, you can pick IOS37 to “experience” what happens when 3.3 users try to use fakesigned discs, like we did in March (assuming you actually have IOS37 installed).
The main difference between this tool and crediar’s is that menuloader boots the new system menu with the patches applied during the launch process - nothing ever gets modified in your Wii’s NAND filesystem. This means that the hack only persists until the system menu exits (when you boot a game or reboot the Wii), but it also means that it is much safer for trying out new patches.
The ideas for some of the patches were inspired by crediar’s demonstration video, but the actual patches were developed independently and, in fact, before crediar’s installer was released. The patching methodology is entirely different in both applications - Starfall app uses static patches which only work on 3.2E, while menuloader uses dynamic search and replace, which is compatible with a wide range of System Menu versions. We can afford to do this because menuloader does not install anything to NAND. If anything goes wrong, you can just reboot the Wii and everything will be back to normal.
FAIR WARNING: While menuloader does not modify your NAND filesystem, the System Menu does have the ability to do so, and incorrect patches could result in the System Menu itself causing trouble. In particular, the same warnings that apply to region-free modchips apply to menuloader: if you run an update from a disc from another region, it could result in duplicated channels, a semibrick, or in rare cases a full brick.
Once I get a chance to clean things up a bit, I’ll release a new version with source code so you can experiment with your own patches.
It is important to note that this isn’t merely a testing or specific-use tool with no ability to apply the patches on startup. While I do not think that modifying the System Menu in NAND is a good idea, there are ways of making Menuloader run on startup, effectively accomplishing the same goal in a safer way. We expect to be able to do this when the boot2 hack is released (which, from now on, I’m going to call boot1.5 or BootMii).
Download: MenuLoader - 0.4
Download:
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