Homebrew How do I get homebrew apps and usb loader to run off HDD?

[burner1]

Just did a MODmii softmod, and all is working well. I have partitioned my USB drive with FAT32 & WBFS. The games all load fine and I'm happy with the way it's working.

The issue I have is without the SD card in the Wii, usb loader won't work, and homebrew is empty (I copied everything from the SD card to the FAT32 partition on the HDD, and modified all the file paths in USB loader settings to poing to USB1. Can anyone ;point me in the right direction?

BTW, the HDisk works fine in the 2nd Wii I have that was softmoded by someone else without the SD card installed.

 

[PsyBlade]

do both wiis run HBC on the same IOS?

 

[burner1]

Yes, IOS is on 4.3 E, however my USBLoader GX icon on the channel page looks different then the other Wii (maybe a different softmod?) but the USBLoader GX app is the same, and I've mirrored all the settings from the other one. Both USBLoaders are sett to use IOS222 in the settings page.

 

[PsyBlade]

ios != sysmenu

different forwarder channels can behave differently

can you run GX from Homebrew Channel?
while in there look for its IOS (in settings upper right iirc)

 

[burner1]

In USB Loader GX under Credits it says v2.3 IOS222 (Rev 4).

I've made some progress, I moved the apps folder to the root of the USB drive and it now loads without the SD card in there (figured that out while sifting through USBLoader(s)-ahbprot58-SD-USB-v11b-IDC.txt).

However, just can't figure out why the other Wii is running without USB Loader GX on the USB drive at all, is there a way to copy this into the Wii and have it run from an internal storage?

 

[obcd]

Looks like 1 wii is using a forwarder channel, and the other is using a usbloader_gx channel. channels are installed on the internal wii nand flash chip. The usbloader_gx channel directly starts the usbloader_gx dol. The forwarer channel starts a small application that loads usbloader_gx dol from either sd or usb and starts it.

forwarder channel:
pro:
takes less space on internal nand flash. (which has a 512MB limit)
makes it easy to upgrade the application (only copy new dol 2 sd or usb.)
cons;
app loads slower as it needs to be copied from sd or usb first.
not always clear what application dol the forwarder is trying to load and in which order.
more complicated install. (Installing the channel and copiing the app to sd or usb)

 

[burner1]

Do you have a guide to installing it as a channel instead of a forwarder?

 

[obcd]

No guide. You just need a diiferent wad file. Usually, it's stated if a wad is actually a forwarder channel or the program.
You just install the new wad using your favorite wad installer. (The same you used to install the forwarder wad)

Launching an usb loader without a connected usb device doesn't seem to make much sense? So why do you want it to work without the program on the usb drive?
Also note that most homebrew programs write configuration files to sd or usb as well. So, if you connect another harddisk, it likely won't work well due to those missing.

 

[burner1]

Yeh, I hear you. I guess it's no big deal, was just trying to replicate the other one. I'll leave the 10GB FAT32 partition on the drive, as I like having the pics come up too. Now I just need to buy an external USB 2.5" drive, instead of my ancient 400GB 3.5" powered drive. These damn hard disk prices have gone through the roof since the Thailand floods.

 

[obcd]

Yes they are. They might drop again within a couple of months.
I just can't believe all manufacturing companies have flooded, and I think the prices are artificially held high.
Why are you still using a wbfs partition on your harddisk? Most modern usb loaders can load a wbfs game file directly from a fat 32 partition.
It also means you can simply copy the game files to the partition under windows and linux, and you can use all of your harddisk space for wathever you like.
If you format your harddisk with a 32KB cluster size, you can use neek2o as well for your games that give problems with usb loaders.
Since you consider using another harddisk, you might give it a try. I never heard a reason yet to still use a wbfs partition.

 

[PsyBlade]

btw you don't need to use wbfs partitions anymore, fat32 and ntfs can be used too

 

[the_randomizer]

WBFS is pretty much useless and has no advantages over the much more stable FAT32.

 

[burner1]

Doesn't putting the iso's on a fat32 partition mean that you will consume the full 4.7GB of space for each game, as opposed to the reduced filesize (less the padding) with a WFBS partition? The 77 games I have consumes about 160GB at the moment. If they were full ISO's they'd take up about 752GB wouldn't they? Or would WBFS manager do the same thing on a FAT32 drive?

 

[JoostinOnline]

Doesn't putting the iso's on a fat32 partition mean that you will consume the full 4.7GB of space for each game, as opposed to the reduced filesize (less the padding) with a WFBS partition? The 77 games I have consumes about 160GB at the moment. If they were full ISO's they'd take up about 752GB wouldn't they? Or would WBFS manager do the same thing on a FAT32 drive?

Wii Backup Manager scrubs the games, splits them if necessary, and saves them to your HDD as .wbfs files.

If you can, I suggest still running homebrew off of an SD card. It's faster and more compatible.

 

[decomposition]

Wii Backup Manager scrubs the games, splits them if necessary, and saves them to your HDD as .wbfs files.

If you can, I suggest still running homebrew off of an SD card. It's faster and more compatible.

ok bummer I was wondering the same thing, wanted to speed up things by moving some apps over to the USB as I see one was already put there, I forget which
guess I need a faster SD card

 

[JoostinOnline]

ok bummer I was wondering the same thing, wanted to speed up things by moving some apps over to the USB as I see one was already put there, I forget which
guess I need a faster SD card

Read speeds are almost equal across all SD cards, so the class doesn't matter. An SD is also always faster than a HDD.

 

[decomposition]

Read speeds are almost equal across all SD cards, so the class doesn't matter. An SD is also always faster than a HDD.

alright. the one I have now is ok I suppose. but I was a PNY HC/SD before that was exceptionally slow. it on a camera too so probably just a bad card.
SANSDISK seems to be the best.