Fist full of Wii

So I have been doing a bunch of Wii Homebrew lately. Im fond of the Gamecube, but the bitchy disc compatibility makes loading small chunks of code a pain in the ass. The Wii has built in backwards compatibility with the Cube, however it has a full 4.5GB DVD Disc system, instead of the 1.4GB 8cm Disc. The disc compatibility of the Wii is admirable. It was able to load pretty much anything I could throw at it, granted the data layout was correct. (You cant just throw files on a disc and expect it to load). Wii discs have a type of XOR encryption that no PC or Mac can read or burn. There is also a specific way the consoles will authenticate the disc session and even let you load code.

One way to make the DVD drive to authenticate the disc session is by adding a 'ModChip' to the drive controller integrated circuit. This chip will talk to the drive controller and say "Hey, this is a valid disc, now load it before I puke in your boots". Weather or not the use of this modification is legal is moot. I dont care. Yes, you can use it to backup your own games. Yes, you can use it to make copies of rented games. Yes, you can use it to play games you have downloaded off the internet. BUT! It also lets you load your own code, which is why these mods are originally created, it just doesnt take too much time for the bootleggers to follow in the wake of progress.

Some of the bootleggers are legit companies, like CodeJunikes, creators of Code Breakers and Action replay, they have been ripping off a lot of the homebrew code for many of todays current consoles, and repacking a shit quality revision for profit. Lets see some examples! I wont get into too much detail, i want to get to my point soon...

Max Media Dock = M3 Movie Player

Datel Drive Doctor (Wii) = WiiFrii / Chiip / Viper GC Extreme

MaxDrive PS3 = Standard USB HDD

MaxDrive X360 = Standard USB HDD

Action Replay DS = Dipstar / NitroHax freeware cheat system

Games & Music DS = Moonshell & Many Slot-1 loader cards

Mii Manager = Google Mii Hacking, there are TONS of freeware Mii transfer tools!

SD Launcher = SDLoad with Action Replay Exploit

All of the things i mention on the left are code junkies products, on the right is the homebrew solution that was released well before code junkies sank their claws into it. This pisses me off... The one thing that puts my nards in a vice is the whole Action Replay story...

Back in the day and still usable today, there was a way to load code from an SD card on a GC (also works in GC mode on a Wii). This worked by loading a lengthy code via Action Replay which in turn boots a loader from a SD card adapted to fit in Memory Card Slot A. Making the adapter isnt very hard, if you cant, you can buy official GC SD Card Adapters (SD Gecko). So what code junkies did was make their OWN SD card adapter, then removed the 'Add Code" function from Action Replay, and create their OWN version of Action Replay that will only have that ONE code. Now thats all fine and dandy. Rebuilding their own product is fine, but none of this is viable without the work of the developers of SDLoad. Without that, there is no way to load the code off the SD card. This was stolen by Code Junkies ad repacked for their SD Launcher. Not only that, but they are packaging open-source hardware, the GC SD Card Adapter... This violates me in ways i cant explain. They are pretty much raping peoples work, then pimping out their broken spirits.

Ok, to my point. Ever wonder why the Wii doesnt have a DVD Player? It turns out they would have to had paid royalties to whomever owns the CSS Encryption Scheme, and Macromedia. It would have added an extra $75+ to the console. Not really worth it, a DVD player costs as much.

There was a homebrew DVD player for the gamecube, which was recently reworked to work with the full size DVD drive of the Wii. Nintendo recently rolled out a system update for the Wii that removed the El Torrito Disc format, which is commonly used by the homebrew scene. At first I thought Nintendo rolled this update out to kill DVD Playback support. They have been doing really well dealing with piracy and unauthorized stuff, but nobody wants to deal with the movie industry. Big-N is usually really nice to us homebrew people, but when a chunk of homebrew pops up that could cause potential legal problems for them, they have to do something. Now I was doing some experiments and came to the realization that this Wii v3.0 system update also kills the Action Replay, and probably SD Launcher... Could this be Nintendo's strike at homebrew... or at Code Junkies? We already have a way to boot homebrew code without using the El Torrito Disc format... But Code Junkies is FUCKED.

At first I was a little pissed and a wee bit dismayed that all my homebrew wouldnt work, but after some testing, all the stuff I made worked just fine, except some of the early stuff. It seems that Code Junkies and the Mod Chip makers are using the older disc formats of yesteryear. So this update kills all the Code Junkies GC products, and Mod Chip setup discs.

Yay for Nintendo for fisting Code Junkies in the ass using salted lube! The jerkoffs deserve worse...

BSoD at NYC 2600

Im not too fond of 'the scene' but i figured I might as well give the local 2600 group a shot. Some of the early BSoD fans and members can all attest how big of a script kiddie pain in the ass 2600 members have been towrds us. Rooting the old IRC server (buy simply asking the ignorant shell admin for the password) then DDoSing the BSoD site and IRC servers... all because they couldnt act maturely in BSoD. Not to mention the legal troubles I got into because of 2600 and other 'Scene' members that decided to narc on me. It didnt work assholes, i walked away from it scott free! unlike you, I dont do immature skiddie shit to proove anything. ANYWAYS!!

It was kosherPig (aka Jew) Mustang and I. We show up at the Citigroup building on lexington and 53td, where the meet is held every month. This is a place where there is a lot of banking and high profile buisness. So they have some pretty decent security. before we even get to the meet inside we ned to get all of out shit checked to make sure we wont blow anyone up. This is where the fun began, mainly because i decided to take my WiVi rifle for test in the city, plus im sure the 2600 people would have found it interesting. i also brought a bunch of other gizmos and gadgets, most of them home built, something that rasies 'flags'.

We walk in and get our shit checked out by an xray machine. KP goes through no problem, he just has his laptop in a diaper bag (from episode 1). Me on the other hand, I had:

Laptop
GPS Unit
USB Wifi with RPSMA Mod
6dB Collinear antenna that looked like a pipe bomb
two FRS radios, one was modded and looked like a detonator.
Radio scanner
3 foot long antenna (homebrew of course)
multiple smaller antennas, all of them being various coils of wire
Scanner Coax cable
three niMH rechargeable batteries
Solar Charging LiION battery in a GBA SP form factor.
WiVi Rifle.

When walking around NYC with thr WiVi rifle, people tend to stare... the also tend to freak out and try to get far away from you as possible because they have NO idea WTF it is, all they know is its home made and looks like a weapon. When we get to the front doors of course security looks at us like "Ummm... ok?".

So KP gets his bag scanned and walks through, no worries... Next it was my turn. They had to take a little longer to look at all the crap that was in my bag, and then the WiVi rifle. Mustang pointed out to me that they were so busy staring at all my shit coming off the xray convayor belt, they didnt even look at the monitor when his bag passed through. They didnt question him about his meds and hypodermic needles (hes a diabetic).

We get to the main spot a tad early which is a small food court. The first 2 floors of this place is like any standard mall. Wide open 1st and 2nd floor. People on the 2nd floor can look down and see people in the food court. I saw a large metal plant pot with some foliage and said "Ok, we are sitting here, its a tactical advantage. I sit down, put my back to the planter, and settle. The advantage to the plant pot and crap sticking out of it was so that no one can sneak up on me, or stay out of my field of vision. Yes, im that paranoid! Remember what i said in episode 1, know your surroundings.

Things started to escilate quickly. Security didnt know WTF to make of these three guys that just walked in with all this unknown gear. They dont see shit like this every day, even hosting 2600 meets every month. I knew the Wivi rifle would get some attention, but i didnt know it would be such a hit!

As soon as we start to settle i see security checking us out form every corner. KosherPig has been under my training for some time, he knows how to assess a situation, he knows a bit about urban combat and gurella warfare now... Within 5 minutes there were 4 guards covering the front two escilators, two on the second floor, one on each side of us, two security guards holding off the front two exits, and two cops with their gun unholdstered and ready for a firefight behind us. One random guard come up to us and asks "What is that thing? is it a gun!?". You could tell he was nervous as all HELL! That guy must have picked the short straw. You dont want to be the one to walk up to the unstable guy thats obviousaly wired with batteries and god knows what else and ask is hes going to blow himself up or not. We definately raised some heart rates that day.

I explain to the guards what the WiVi rifle is, how it works and such. They were very polite and seemed to be interested in its simple yet ingenius deign and function. After about 15 minutes they saw we were no threat and just went back to sleeping. Im glad my back was against that plant, if any of them would have come up behind me, i might have been triggered into a psychotic snap... which would have been a BAD THING.


The meeting went fairly well. There were some good folk there. It was general geek chatter and such. We handed out over 40 BSoD DVDs to people, met a fan of the show, and explained the WiVi Rifle at least as many times as we handed out a DVD. I was expecting to get some attention, not be the center of it all. I dont mind, really, but i wasnt expecting such a swarm of people to swoon over the thing. Its not like this kind of shit is all that new, ive been doing WiVi shit for at least 5 years now. But hey, they liked it, they asked questions, we told stories. It was all good. We werent allowed to take pictures inside the building, i think its because there is a lot of banking and shit done in there. Eh' im not gonna complain, at least they let us all in and hog the atrium.

We made the front page of NYC 2600. There are some photos here and here


I want to extend my thanks to the NYC 2600 group for taking some of the sour taste the past 10 years of l33t ass hax0r 2600 people have left. Good to see some REAL people in 'the scene'. But dont expect me to take my guard down anytime soon... Maybe we will make another appearance next month with some more toys. Time (and my bank account) shall tell.

Here are some memorable photos taken outside after the meetup:

DDoS your nipples.

For those of you that dont know, a DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service attack is when a whole bunch of computers send itty-bitty bits of data to another computer all at once. All those little bits of data pile up on the attacked machine, and it will lag, or even be kicked offline.

With that little bit of information, let me tell you a short tale of my girlfriends tits.

The other day she was complaining her boobs hurt, so, me of my caring and nurturing nature, I decided to do what was right and massage them thoroughly. Now, im sure the lot of you are thinking im a typical tit obsessed male, well, thats besides the point.

Have you ever wondered why massage makes you relax? The human body has multiple types of nerves. Pain and Touch run along different nerve paths, but end up at the same location in your brain. The thing about this is that the nerves that sense touch are much faster than the nerves that sense pain. So if you stimulate the nerves for touch, you DDoS your brain so it cant receive the signals from the pain nerves. Being a person thats quite familiar with an overworked nervous system, I can tell you that this is not only true, but it works, and works well.

So next time you are achy or have a dull pain that wont go away, perhaps a muscle sprain, cramp, or bruise, I think you know what you need to do. Just do me a favor? Dont ask to massage or DDoS my nipples.

WD-40 is NOT lube!

Thats right folks, WD-40 is not lube, its a rust inhibitor. Its used to break down metal oxidations. Simply put, its used to break up rust. Some people try and use it as lube, but it wont work.... woah.. not THAT kind of lube, you sick fuck!

You dont use a telephone book to drive nails into wood. You dont use a meat cleaver to chop down a tree. You dont use a brick to fix a rolex. Point being, the right tool for the right job. Lets get techincal here for a second... O.S. Fanboys. Fuck you all!

Im really sick of all these Apple commercials boasting how PCs suck and they only run Windows. Really, if you think that you can only run Windows on a PC, you... well, you are trolling blogs, I shouldnt expect that much from you. What im trying to say here when it comes to your operating system is "the right tool for the right job". Im not boasting how far more advanced OS-X is compared to Windows. Im not saying Linux is god over BSD. Im saying to all of you hardcore OS wores that claim their OS is better, get off your high horse and realize you shit stinks as well. your OS does nto rule over all because YOU own a copy.

I still run DOS. Why? Because I have shit that only runs in DOS. I could get a DOS emulator for Linux and use that, but geuss what... if I wanted it to run in Linux, I would get LINUX SOFTWARE! If i wanted my Windows XP install to look and feel like Mac OS-X, I would install OSX. Dont brag how whatever OS you chose to use is better than any other, cause' I bet I can find something you CANT do in that OS. Lets take a look-see iat some of the basics.

Linux - Cant run games all too well
BSD - Cant do Flash animations, as a desktop replacement it BLOWS
DOS - Cant do much at all anymore, really
Windows9x - Cant stay running, crashes easy, and has a general dictatorship over your PC useage.
BeOS - Was it ever really usefull?
Windows XP/NT - Cant access Communication ports for user apps (Serial ports wont work too well)
OSX - Cant do anything apple thought you wouldnt need to do, like right click and upgrade. Lacks all BASIC forms of com ports, like printer, serial, and PS/2. its also a bitch to find decent software/hardware. All backwards compatability from previous OS versions do not exist.
Vista - Cant do ANYTHING usefull yet, all usefull apps run on OSX or XP.

Im just picking random shit off the tip of the list when it comes to your most beloved OS' lacking list. If anyone wants to dispute, ill be willing to tear them a new asshole.

Fonera Feever

Intro
I have been working with the some buddies and my long time on again/off again fuck buddy Google.com to do unpleastent and inappropriate things with the Fonera router. Fon is a worldwide community of people that are willing to share their wifi access with other users (for free) and have non fonners pay for time on the network. This is a great idea! Honestly, no more pirating Wifi... This is a global effort to make wifi available for everyone. Well, it WAS a great idea. Fon was selling Linksys WRT54G routers which natively run linux and are treasured by many people as a fun wireless linux toy. Fon was selling them for a mere $5 plus shipping. Not bad concidering they still run for $60. People jumped on the deal and started getting Fon Branded WRT routers, then taking them off the FON network for their own gain. Thats a really cunty thing to do. Here is a company not asking for much, loosing money trying to spread wifi arround... Im not going to get into morals or politics on that matter.

Fon learned their lesson the hard way. They tried another take on the free/cheap router deal. Now they have added some security and lockdowns so people cant steal Fon routers. This hasnt stopped people from doing it. To be honest, most of the people involved in the Fon Hacking scene arent trying to steal Fon routers, they want to unlock them and make them more usefull, powerfull, and configurable. I have a Fon and a Linksys WRT router, both are on the Fon Network (The WRT is not a fon brand, I just like the idea of the Fon community, so I added the Fon Function to it).

Preface
Fon uses the DD-WRT Router Firmware that was designed to replace the stock firmware on many routers, including the Linksys WRT series. It adds many usefull functions and abilities that even the most expensive "gaming", VoIP, or QoS routers dont have. Whats gret about it is you can add and remove features from the router as you need them, taloring it to your individual needs. Its a great project and really fun to be a part of. Fon based their firmware from DD-WRT which maks a really good foundation. They added and removed some stuff, as to be expected. All in all the Fon firmware is ok, but its a little lacking, and its really REALLY locked down. The only way to change a setting it so log into your Fon.com account, apply the settings there, and reboot the router. I dont like that. What if you have no internet access? What if something went horribly wrong? There (in my opinion) isnt enough user control at the local router to be a viable router or AP. Plus the tiny lil' Fon can do SO much more, so why the hell not?

Natively the Fon has some limits to what it can do out of the box. Even after you install DD-WRT there are some minor issues that need to be worked out.

Secure Shell
To install DD-WRT you need to gain SSH (secure shell) access to the system. There are 3 main ways of doing this right now as of this writing, and depending on your available hardware and Fon Firmware will determine what method you use.

Method 1: Cross Site "Exploit"
DD-WRT has a web-interface which allows you to type in commands as if it were a command window. Fon removed access to this. Using an HTML file you create and run in your web browser, you can regain access to this console. Go here for information on how to make the files needed. Basically take the HTML code provided and save it as Fon1.html and Fon2.html. The first patch of code will access the iptables of the system and allow access to the SSH port (Port 22). The second will send the command to run the DropBear SSH Server.

Method 2: Serial Access
The Fonera Wiki has information on how to hook to the Fon serial port and gain Shell access. From there you can run the console commands as stated in the previous method to add the iptable rule allowing access to the SSH port. Then you can start the DropBear SSH Server manually.

Method 3: DNS Spoofing
Here are instructions with an easy way of enabling SSH using DNS Spoofing. Remember when I mentioned the Fon calls home to get any system settings that have changed? Well, Stefans Datenbruch figured out a way to spoof the Fon DNS server and fool the hardware into enabling the SSH server, he nicknamed this Kolofonium. This was a very SLICK method of doing it, and to be honest, the ONLY way to get SSH enabled on the 0.7.1 r2 firmwares that are being shipped out.

Installing DD-WRT
Once you have SSH access you need to follow the simplified process of installing DD-WRT at Two Slashes. Nick (a buddy of mine from Techcentric) has put together a semi-clear how to process on getting DD-WRT going. The proeces is somthing like this:

1. Enable SSH
2. Via SSH make the FlashROM (FIS) writeable
3. Copy needed Fon DD-WRT files via SSH and 'wget'
4. Write new kernel, hex, etc... reboot
5. Log into RebBoot bootlader, using TFTP and nstall new booloader configuration.

Thats the simplified process. Its a wee bit more complex, but thats the short story.

Hop on irc.bsodirc.org (linked with irc.techcentric.org ) in Fonners if you need any help.

Shit that dont' work
DHCP Doesnt work on LAN for some reason

GPIO has been disabled, no SD card option.... yet

JFF2S Filesystem is disabled, needed for SD card support

Anything that uses rfmon like WiViz, Kismet, and Site Survey doesnt work properly, or at all.

Dual antenna is retarted. There isnt enugh space. (Dual antenna should be spaced as far apart as possible!)

The heatsink is SHIT! The thing constantly overheats


Ending blabber
Im working on a bunch of Fon stuff, but I need my laptop, it should be here soon. I use my couchputer, but its not designed to sit there and punch in SSH Commands, so I get uncomfortable after 10 minutes. Im focusing on hardware hacks, since thats my strongpoint. Adding a dual antenna is easy as sin, but the lack of space in the fon makes it a not-so-good idea. You dont want Ant1 broadcasting directly into Ant2. That can cause damage to the RF Modules, You need to place the antennas at LEAST 1 wavelength apart. For wifi thats almost 5 inches. Honestly as a radio guy, I would use at least 4 wavelengths to get higher diversity. I want to focus on SD Card support. Once you get an SD card in there the amount of packages you can install is damn near limitless. I want Site Survey, mainly kismet to work, but that can wait for now. Keep an eye on BSoD and TechCentric for some Fon stuff, or if you dont want to wait for us to do segments, pop on irc and join Fonners

Dont be a fag and steal Fon routers... And i dont mean the good kind that dress nice and smell pleasent. Im talking about the icky hippie fags that dress in rags and smell like farts and vasolene...

Descisions, descisions

Many of my friends know I enjoy a wee bit of console homebrew. For those of you that dont know, Console Homebrew, often called Console Hacking, is making your home game console do more than just play games... or you make your own demos and games for the sheer fun of it all. A good example is Cool Paint for the GBA. Its a MS Paint application for the GBA, designed strictly for free by a coder just for the fun of it. Its a really cool "game". Out of the box the Xbox (not the X360) cant play Xvid movies, JPEG slideshows, and stream networked media... with a little bit of hacking and homebrew it can! Hell, you can even use your xbox to run Linux, an alternate OS which makes it do all the things you want to do with a PC. Ok, not ALL of it, but a lot of the fun stuff like e-mail, chat, movies, music, web browsing, etc...

Ok, the point of this... I recently bought a Nintendo DS and all the PSP Fanboy fags have been giving me a belly full of bullshit about how the PSP is so much better than the DS. Im not going to say DS is better than PSP or vice versa, as a console hacker and homevrew hobbiest i am more intersted in the EXTRA things a console can do. I look at the history of the console, how easy it is to fiddle with hardware wise, and what it takes to get your own code running on it. Let me shed some light on why I got the DS.

Out of the box the PSP does movies, games and music. Allthough it has an odd sreen resoloution, making it so you need to recode all your movies. Im not denying its a good system... I just dont like sony. They tend to lock down their systems really tight, and I dont know why. The main form of storage us the UMD drive, which right now is useless to homebrew. You cant use the main means of storage to hold your code or files. They use the propritary Sony Memory Stick Duo II for the memory card slot, which until not too long ago was under complete marketing control of Sony. The cards are still kinda' expensive, and still limiting. The main way to load homebrew code is to have a known bug (called an exploit) to fuck with the PSP and make it run the code you want. There is no way to just natively boot code. Its kinda' clumsy and unreliable if you ask me. Sony keeps releasing new firmware updates fixing the "bug" which allows you to run your own code. I can understand sony doesnt want peoples stealing games, but they could embrace the Homebrew scene which has a very anti-piracy moral. The one thing on the PSP thats supposed to be a common standard.. the USB (you know... the UNIVERSAL Serial Bus) has been locked down and made natively unaccessable. That means no USB keyboards or mice... which means no kind of user/text imput. C'Mon, did you have to make EVERY fucking port, pin, and bit on the PSP 100% locked down... Good move doushebags. The only soloution right now is a PSP modchip, and to be honest most people interested in it is for the bootleg games, not homebrew. Ive been asked by MANY people to install one so they can play backup games, and frankly... installing one is not for the faint of heart. Not to mention you need a custom PSP Coding enviroment (usually linux based) to create anything. If you just started to pick up coding, and dont know dick about linux, this will set you back in your learning process. All in all, not something I want to deal with.

There are some GREAT homebrew apps and addons PSP Homebrew brings to the tabe. Not gonna list em' all, but there are Emulators, Media Players, Networking Tools, WiFi Scanners, VoIP stuff, Web Browsers, and lots of great homebrew games. I could care less for the PSP Games... they kinda suck, and im not much of a gamer.

The DS on the other hand, now it might not be as powerfull as the PSP, the hardware is more specific for its task. Nintendo does a GOOD, nay, GREAT job designing their hardware. They take a logical approach on making the hardware as powerfull as needed, and easy to code for. As of right now, granted it took a little time to get this going, you can directly boot code off the NDS Game Slot, or the GBA Game slot using a NDS Boot Card. I have a DS Lite with the M3 Lite adapter. This lets me boot code from my GBA slot using the PassKey. This also lets me use the cart on my older GBA, which I like. One cart for two consoles.

Out of the box it lets me boot homebrew code thats stored on a standard SD card, play multiple music formats (inclusding MP3), play movies (no idea what limits yet), basic PDA functions, E-Book Reader, and Picture viewer. I know the PSP has all that, but the PSP lacks any kind of user input. The DS Touchscreen makes mouse or keyboard input semi-easy. Much easier than a D-Pad. I mocked the dual screen at first, but now im liking it! It really does give a lot of options for user input. I dont like games that use it though, especially shooter games. Yeah, the screen is kinda small for movies, bit if I wanted a movie player, id buy a portable DVD player, or use my PDA with the 4" VGA screen... not a 2" iPod or DS.

Price wise getting a DS or PSP plus the shit needed for homebrew is about the same, however the SD card I can slap in damn near anything in my house, and the M3 cart is backwards compatable with the GBA, which gives me next to no space restrictions.

Plus, I like the DS games a bit more... and Sony has a track record of having suicidal products. So far my friend Mustang has 2 DS' that survived 2 neglectfull kids and a wife that doesnt take care of anything except her sex toys. However i know people that have been through multiple PSPs by now. With my track record of going through suicidal PS2s' myself, and helping others fix theirs... Im going to stay away from sony products. Not to mention that Big N embraces the Hombrew Scene. In other countries like Germany and Netherlands they hold coding competitions where if you win, they gve you a job. Plus Big N usually releases more than enough info, and sometimes even their native development software so Homebrew peoples can start fiddling.

First Post

I got off my ass and got a real blog. Time to start spamming the world with my bad poems and gibberish musings that nobody fucking cares about. This is going to be more about the stuff I do, and how. This is to compliment all the ramblings I do on IRC to help people, and from www.BSoDtv.org

Hopefully now I wont have to repeat the same instructions over, and over, and OVER, AND OVER AGAIN! (Which was the reason i started the myspace blog, which I hate with a passion.)

Ill start posting all of my older articles, videos, pics and other interesting junk soon.