Recommended wii firmware version for USB Gecko?

[Hitman12]

is there a recommended wii firmware version to have if your are using a USB Gecko?

[Romaap]

3.4 was the homebrew-friendliest firmware if I remember correctly.
But if you are higher then there is no need to downgrade because Gecko works on every firmware out now, but with the latest firmwares some things are not available.
edit: read other posts ;)

[elmoreas]

On anything greater than 3.4 Rebooter and Wiiware/VC codes are not available without running some NAND modifying programs via HBC that are somewhat risky. They reinstall 2 bugs on 2 seperate IOS's that allow rebooter and the WiiWare/VC codes to come back all the way up to and including 4.2 And voila you have full functionality of Gecko back. It takes an hour or so to do and is legal now that the program has been modified to use only released Nintendo code, but it modifies your NAND which is risky if you dont make a NAND backup and set bootmii to boot2 which you cant do if you are higher than 3.4 so then you need a savemii dongle in case something should happen. I don't think I am allowed to tell you what the name of the program that does this is, but if you go to wiibrew.org and read the forums and scan the apps page you should be able to figure it out in short order. Of course if you do it and something happens to your wii it is your responsibility as I didnt even provide the info all I did was tell you what could be done and where the info could be found. You searched it out and chose to act on it. I am not trying to be mean, in fact I am trying to be as helpful as I can but I am also trying to protect myself at the same time. Best of luck.

Elmoreas

P.S. I have done this on all 3 of my Wii's and had 2 complete sucesses and one sucess with a code dump that required a second attempt but no damage was done. So it can happen but I got off lucky. Plus I have bootmii on boot2 and a savemii for double safety.

[Link]

I personally use 4.1 - the homebrew friendliest firmware was 3.2 - but only in one way: Nintendo has always disliked homebrew however, 3.2 was the last firmware which had absolutely no anti homebrew prevention. 3.3 was the first firmware to include Trucha blocks and the first Twilight Hack block.. 3.3v2 then blocked WAD installing and 3.4 is more or less a wrap-up of 3.3v2 again with tightened security - and another way of blocking the Twilight Hack.

4.0 then introduced new features and finally came up with a Twilight Hack solution.. 4.1 (bug fix of 4.0 basically) which I use has no tightened security over 4.0 - bannerbomb which is the new exploit since then has not been fixed - so in my personal opinion for users who basically want an as much up to date system as possible while having good homebrew options.. in my opinion 4.1 is the way to go.

4.2 is OBVIOUSLY only a homebrew and modchip blocker.. it does not bring any new features.. nothing at all.. instead the update might brick every Wii on earth (including completely unmodified ones) to kill BootMii - so Nintendo has decided to use very harsh steps in the homebrew fight. While all in security in 4.2 can be completely worked around again nowadays (Trucha Bug Restorer 1.1 and such), I personally do not intend to update to it. Instead I have a 4.1E Wii which has Preloader and blocks all Disc updates so that even discs I insert can't get the idea to update to 4.2. For modchip blocking: 4.2 cannot block modchips from playing in-region copies, but 4.2 successfully blocks imports on all modchips availible!

Thus as long as no real features are announced on Nintendo's side.. I do not plan on updating right now.. let's see what 4.3 brings.. unfortunately it will certainly bring new tightened homebrew security.