Homebrew Channel

The Homebrew Channel is a freeware homebrew application loader that was developed to provide a way of easily running unofficial software on the Wii console. Once installed, it appears as a standard Wii Channel on the Wii Menu. When launched, it displays a list of applications found on an SD card or USB drive. The user then selects an application to launch by using a Wii Remote or GameCube controller. It also accepts application uploads via a USB Gecko or TCP/IP (over Wi-Fi or Ethernet), which allows for quick application testing during development. When launched from the Wii Menu, the Homebrew Channel will check for updates to itself and automatically download them if the user chooses to do so.

The functionality provided by the Homebrew Channel is provided by Dolphin directly, so the HBC is not needed (except to work around Dolphin's broken Wii homebrew detection in some cases; and a very few homebrew apps that cannot be run directly from Dolphin's game list, including the Priiloader installer).

Emulation Information
The Homebrew Channel also supports the Wii SD slot, which is properly emulated.

Missing USB storage support
As of, Dolphin does not forward any USB storage devices to Homebrew Channel, neither physical passthrough devices, nor emulated devices.

Problems with TCP upload to Homebrew Channel
As of, trying to send .dol files to Homebrew Channel, presumably to Homebrew Channel's default TCP port 4299, won't work. WiiTCPLoad 0.05 claims "The remote host (i.e. Dolphin) closed the connection"; and while it will report a successful transfer if the transfer happens while Homebrew Channel is in its main menu, it won't show up when returning to Homebrew Channel's app menu.

A possible factor is that Homebrew Channel may not have expected to receive TCP transfers from the same IP as itself, but information on this is very scarce.

Problems
{{Problems|{{#vardefineecho:problems|

Pre-1.1.3 Black Screen
The developers of the Homebrew Channel have placed traps into the program to prevent the Homebrew Channel from loading in Dolphin. There are other problems in pre-1.1.3 versions, which won't be documented here. The 1.1.3 release of the Homebrew Channel, which is now open source, has removed the anti-Dolphin code.

Networking
Network initialization never completes. Fixed since at least.

Direct3D
Using Direct3D with XFB enabled will cause the screen go black, but the app stills work normally otherwise. Use OpenGL to solve this. Fixed since at least.

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