This procedure will allow connect to your Mybook via the PUTTY tool and ssh protocol. You will then be able to manage your Mybook as a real Linux box, via a command line interface.

Spawning sshd

First of all you have to create a new user using standard web interface. SSH will not allow you to log-in as root without password.

Then enter this URL into your browser:
http:///auth/firmware_upgrade.pl?fwserver=martin.hinner.info/mybook/firmware.php

Changing to the actual IP for your MyBook!

You should see page that displays that “new firmware is available”. (default username/password for virgin MyBook is “admin”/”123456″).

Click on “Click to download and install”.

Now you have to be patient, whole process will take a while – not 30 minutes as stated on the firmware upgrade page, because you are not actually performing any upgrade. The “upgrade” process will generate ssh host keys. This takes maybe 1 or 2 minutes. Then root’s password is reset (set to ”) and finally, sshd process is spawned.

Please note that you will not be informed about the operation progress. Just try to log in using ssh after few minutes to see if it has succeeded. When you find out that sshd is running, log in under user you have created in the first step. You should get bash shell immediately. Then type “su -” (no password) to get root shell.

Making sshd permament
In order to get ssh daemon running each time you power-up your MyBook, to do this simply type;

echo ::sysinit:/usr/sbin/sshd: >> /etc/inittab

Now reboot your MyBook to see it if works.

Other recommendations
I highly recommend to get rid of mionet processes. This stuff allows “worldwide” data sharing, but I guess it’s useleess since you can install a webserver or ftp server on your MyBook. Mionet is written in Java, which means that you will save a lot of processor time.

Note
You my get an error message saying that the firmware update failed (Firmware failed to download – try later ” or something). You can ignore this as it is a bug with the 2.00.15 firmware – the hack should still have worked!

Using an external USB hard disk drive improves the load and play speed of the game. Original Wii game discs spin at 6X; backup discs, in a softmodded Wii, spin at 3X. The USB HDD exceeds the speed of the original game disc and can eliminate problems with stuttering or choppy audio and or video from backup game discs.

The external USB HDD used by the Wii will be referred to throughout this tutorial as the Wii HDD to avoid confusion with the HDD associated with the PC. The entire Wii HDD volume can be formatted in the WBFS format for backup game use or one can create a number of partitions. Before partitioning your drive, think about the partitions you may need. As the PC does not recognize a WBFS-formatted drive, it is a good idea to have at least one partition in a format that allows your PC to access the Wii HDD. This partition(s) can be formatted as NTFS, FAT or FAT32 depending on intended use. Homebrew apps and USB Loader files can be stored on the FAT partition of the HDD instead of an SD card. Only the NTFS format will allow the PC to manage files >4GB.

Preparation
1. Follow one of the two softmodding tutorials on this site:
If your Wii runs system menu 3.1-4.1 click here
If your Wii runs system menu 4.2 click here

2. If, after successful completion of the softmod, you did not download and install USB Loader GX and WBFS Manager 3.0; download from HERE. If you need a 64-bit version of WBFS Manager, download from HERE; if you need WBFS Manager for the Mac, download from HERE.

Note: WBFS Manager requires NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (the installer will prompt you to automatically download and install it if you don’t already have it.)

3. Type of USB HDD
a. If you do not yet have an external USB HDD- get a Western Digital USB HDD.
b. You have an external USB HDD- check the compatibility of your HDD HERE.

Formatting the HDD

Your HDD will probably come already formatted for “plug and play” compatibility with a PC:

1. Plug your new Wii HDD into a PC USB port

2a. From the WinXP: Right click on My Computer> Go to Manage>Click on Disk Management
2b. From Vista/Win7: Go to Control Panel> Administrative Tools>Computer Manager>Disk

3. With your disk drive loaded and visible: right click on the Wii HDD and choose to delete either the entire volume or a partition depending on what you are planning to do with the entire HD.

4. Right click on new HDD in lower part or graphical portion of window and click New

5a. Choose to assign a letter to your new drive
5b. Choose NOT TO FORMAT when you create your new partition [note that you can choose size of partition-you can leave some to create additional partitions later
5c. Make your new partition PRIMARY and ACTIVE

Run WBFS Manager 3.0 – Formatting the Wii Drive, drive partition, or USB Flash Drive

1. Select your new drive letter and press Format. If the drive does not show, Press Refresh Drive List

2. To add a game ISO to the WBFS-formatted drive or partition, press the Browse button on the lower right-hand window and locate your ISO.

3. Either double-click the ISO and the game title will now show in the WBFS Manager right-hand window. One can also use Windows Explorer and drag the ISO the the right-hand window. Repeat for multiple ISOs.

4. Select the game title(s) and press the Add button

5. The game(s) will now be added to the Wii HDD. Note that, as extraneous material is not copied to the Wii HDD, the file size will be smaller than 4.37GB.

6. After games have been added to the Wii HDD, clear the ISO list by selecting the game titles again in the right-hand window, and press Remove From List

Rip Game Directly from Disc to Wii HDD

1. Plug your Wii HDD into the OUTERMOST USB PORT (lower or left USB port depending on Wii position). Power up Wii, from the system menu activate USB Loader GX. Load USB HDD. To rip game disc from Wii, push (+) button and insert game disc into Wii drive.

To Play Wii Games from USB Loader GX

Global application settings can be changed by pressing the settings button identified in the above graphic.

Settings can also be set for an individual game; after the game is selected a game disc image will display and another settings option will be available-this time for the individual game.

To select a game from the list use the D-pad: Up/DOWN scrolls by 1 game; LEFT/RIGHT scrolls up and down by 9 game titles, respectively. The scroll bar can also be grabbed to move the highlight bar. Once the desired game is highlighted, press the A button and the game disc screen will display. At this menu, one can either play the game by selecting the disc or change game settings.

Note for playing out-of-region games – first setting of choice is to set the Video Mode to force the video feed to your own region. Example: to play a PAL game on an NTSC Wii, set Video Mode to FORCE NTSC.

Optional

You can either use WBFS Manager or go back to your PC to format the non-WBFS partition if you chose to create one. Remember that while homebrew applications and USB Loader GX files can be recognized from the FAT partition, an NTFS-formatted partition is required to handle files > 4GB. Wii game ISOs are typically 4.37GB.

Credit to WiiHacks for the guide.