Difference between revisions of "Wii cIOS base Compatibility List"

Latest revision as of 16:55, 25 February 2023

Some Wii games will work with many different IOS bases, usually base 56 or 57, but some games might require bases which are not installed by default in any guides, such as base 36 or 53, etc.

This compatibility list provides the required base for games which work only with one specific IOS base. If they work correctly with any base, or with both the "common setup" (both 56 & 57), there is no need to list the game here. This list is for games which work only with ONE base (56 OR 57), or another base than these two common ones.

IOS Slots

The Wii has 256 slots. 0 to 199 are reserved for official Nintendo IOS but in practice they've only used 0 to 80. 200 to 255 are free to use for your needs. But please, if you really need more slots, only use slots from 240 to 253!

Softmod guides usually instruct users to install various cIOSs with different bases into different slots like 249, 250, 251, etc. Slot 249 is the default used by most if not all homebrew requiring a cIOS.

You can only use one IOS at a time, so the only reason we ever cared to install different cIOSs to alternate slots was to be able to quickly switch between them when for some reason your primary 249 didn't work with a particular game or homebrew. cIOSs have evolved to a point where 1 cIOS is compatible 98% of the time, that cIOS is called d2x with base 56 or d2x with base 57.

Prior to 2018 it was recommended to use base 56 as the default installed to slot 249, even though base 57 was thought to offer better compatibility than base 56, as it was believed to offer slightly faster loading speeds, which eventually was never proven to be true. So until recently (late 2018) this is what was usually recommended to install to slots 249 and 250:

• slot 249: base 56
• slot 250: base 57

As lot of new gamers struggled to fix "Call of Duty" because they didn't know to just use a different cIOS slot that uses base 57 by selecting slot 250 in their loader's game options, and considering most games working with 56 also work with 57, in 2018 many softmod guides changed the default base in slot 249 to 57 so the recommendation changed to this:

• slot 249: base 57
• slot 250: base 56

Then in Q1 2023, a new recommended cIOS configuration was adopted. Changes were suggested by blackb0x and agreed and coordinated with ModMii, wii.guide, and others (changes may still be in progress as of this writing). A brief rationale for each recommended cIOS provided below:

 - Slot 248 base 38: only bases 38 & 58 can play SpongeBob's Boating Bash, and only 38 has USB keyboard support for Animal Crossing
 - Slot 249 base 56: plays majority of games and a few that base 57 cannot; preferred for slot 249 to avoid unnecessary IOS reloads under USB Loader GX's Auto IOS setting
 - Slot 250 base 57: plays majority of games and a few that base 56 cannot
 - Slot 251 base 58: only bases 38 & 58 can play SpongeBob's Boating Bash, and only 58 supports the LAN adapter

If you don't know what your setup is, you can run syscheck app, and look at your report on the common lines 222-224 and 245-251.

Here are some examples of commonly recommended cIOSs as they would appear in a Syscheck report:

• IOS202[60] (rev 65535, Info: hermesrodries-v6): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0

• IOS222[38] (rev 4, Info: hermes-v4): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access, USB 2.0

• IOS223[38+37] (rev 4, Info: hermes-v4): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access, USB 2.0

• IOS224[57] (rev 65535, Info: hermesrodries-v6): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0

• IOS236[36] (rev 65535, Info: rev 3351): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access

• IOS248[38] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0

• IOS249[56] (rev 21011, Info: d2x-v11beta1): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0

• IOS250[57] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v11beta1): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0

• IOS251[58] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v10beta52): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0

- The first number (249, 250, etc.) is the slot number.

- The number in the bracket ([56], [57], etc.) is the IOS base, this is what you need for the game compatibility.

- The text is the cIOS version. On Wii and vWii, v11 beta 1 is preferred, but it is a very small improvement over v8 final (which is virtually the same as d2x-v10beta52). On Wii-mini d2xL is in beta stage so be sure to follow new releases and update it regularly.

Using a specific slot

If you need to use a specific cIOS base, you have to understand how the Wii, vWii and Wii-mini are working.

The console loads and uses ONE and only one IOS at a time.

Installing a new IOS is not enough to fix your compatibility problem! You need to set your USB Loader settings to actually USE the IOS slot you want to load for the game which requires it.

USBLoaders let you change that settings either globally (for all your games), or individually (for one specific game only).

You should set your loader to use by default the IOS slot which is based on IOS56, and only set a specific slot individually for problematic games

• If your IOS slot 249 contains "base56" and your slot 250 contains "base57" that's good!
• If your IOS slot 249 contains "base57" and your slot 250 contains "base56" that's OK but the reverse is better! The difference is not very significant.

Adding a new cIOS

Before adding a new cIOS to your console, you should check if you don't already have that cIOS version/base installed in one of your existing slots! Run syscheck (see above) if you don't know your setup.

Do not install ALL random cIOS version and base just to cover your needs "just in case one day you need them". Only install new cIOS if you really need it, because your console's internal memory is limited and it's useless to install many IOS at the same time, remember that only ONE is loaded in memory.

If you need a new cIOS, you can replace and overwrite existing slot you don't need anymore. If your slot248 already contains an old version of cIOS, or a cIOS with a base you don't need anymore, just choose that slot number for your new install. It'll replace it and will prevent having useless IOS on your console. If you don't usually need or use your slot 250 or 251, replace them with the needed base ! don't install new IOS in the empty slot 248 if you can replace the unused slot 250. keep your console clean and uncluttered.

cIOS installers

There are a lot of different cIOS installation guides. you can choose the one you want from here:

• ModMii
• https://wii.guide/cios
• https://sites.google.com/site/completesg/backup-launchers/installation

Or if you know what you are doing, you can find complete packs for both Wii and vWii.

For wii-mini, this is here.

Bonus

If you want to understand what IOS and cIOS are, please look at this guide.

d2x cIOS Compatibility list

Note1: When an IOS base is confirmed NOT working, the line is colored. If not colored, it's still unconfirmed or conflicting, or not properly reported! Reporting an IOS base as working doesn't mean OTHER bases are not working, and therefore the game is not necessarily a problematic one and shouldn't need to be part of this incompatibility chart.

Note2: Many guitar hero games used to be part of this list when they were reported as only working with base 56, however other reports confirmed they work with base 57 (as well as hermes cIOSs). If there's no incompatible IOS base, they don't need to be part of this list, but we keep them to let users know they have been tested as working. If the game is not working for you, it's probably your setup, unless you can confirm a specific base is incompatible. Please, report on the forum and someone will update this chart.

Confirmed

Unconfirmed, Conflicting or misleading reports