Hacking Postloader 4.7.96 initial setup issues

[rhester72]

Coming from heavy USB Loader GX background. Using neek2o+di rev 96 and clean 4.3U emunand on USB hard drive connected to port 0. I boot to native Wii System Menu, then start NK20 channel/nswitch to get into NEEK environment, then launch Postloader from forwarder inside NEEK. *No SD card is present*.

Installed by:

- Downloading Postloader from here: https://github.com/thedax/postloader/releases
- Deploying fresh emunand to usb:/nands/pln2o/ from the 'premade Emunand' section here: https://ccabz.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/neek2o-emunand-setup-for-noobs/
NOTE: It is worth pointing out that my NAND is v4.1U, but the emunand is stock v4.3U (and otherwise working perfectly)
- Deploying Postloader WAD to emunand via ShowMiiWads
- Unpacked apps/postloader to usb1:/apps/postloader (I ignored apps/priibootergui as the documenation indicated it is unsupported with my configuration)
- Unpacked the ploader directory to usb1:/ploader
- Attempted to deploy neek2obooter.app as indicated below

The first time I ran, Postloader told me it couldn't find a configuration and was going to create a new one for me, which it presumably did (and I haven't seen that message again).

Issues:

- No GameCube games show up at all, despite being in unstripped iso format in usb1:/games in folders of the form "Game Name [ID6]/game.iso"
- I can't find any mention of Nintendont within Postloader or its documentation, despite this being the version with explicit support for it
- Simply selecting the Wii game list crases Postloader with a stack dump, as also noted here (no solution noted):

https://gbatemp.net/threads/postloader-neek2o-crashing.394892/

Sometimes it reboots into the NEEK System Menu, once it restarted all the way back out to the NAND System Menu.
- Unable to set neek2o+di to start directly into Postloader, following the directions provided in Postloader's readmii.txt (the neek2o v96+ directions about renaming neek2obooter.app and sysmenu in https://github.com/thedax/postloader/blob/master/readmii.txt). I renamed:

usb:/nands/pln2o/title/00000001/00000002/content/00000097.app -> sysmenu.app

and copied neek2obooter.app to:

usb:/nands/pln2o/title/00000001/00000002/content/00000097.app

but get a very garbled screen indicating corrupted system memory when booting into the NEEK environment. (At some point yesterday, I found a forum post with someone else having this same problem, but no clear solution existed - I seem to be unable to find it again now.)
- I can't find anywhere in Postloader or its manual configuration files to indicate the paths to _anything_...I don't see where to tell it to look for GC games (usb1:/games/), Wii games (usb1:/wbfs/), or Nintendont (usb1:/apps/Nintendont/boot.dol).

So far, I'm getting nowhere fast with Postloader. :/ The only thing that actually is working is that my Homebrew shows up. Not sure if channels work, it's a fresh emunand and I haven't installed any Wiiware/VC on it yet.

Any help much appreciated!

Rodney

 

[game_rat]

Are you still experiencing these issues? You might have more luck in the stickied Postloader thread.

http://gbatemp.net/threads/postloader4.299384/

Also, I know that Nintendont support is important but you may want to start with the last official release of Postloader (stfour) and see if that helps.

 

[stl25]

I had to used postloader 4.7.96 from offcial Wii NAND for Nintendont GC game support. 4.7.92 Postloader will not crash when selecting Wii game list so I recommend you use that for Wii games on emunand. GC games will not launch through postloader on emunand which is why I stuck with 4.7.96 on Wii NAND (I made a forwarder to direct launch it rather that use the homebrew channel. To autoboot postloader you need to use priiloader and set it to boot to bootmii. Rename usb:/nands/pln2o/title/00000001/00000002/content/00000098.app -> sysmenu.app and rename neek2obooter.app to 00000098.app and place in usb:/nands/pln2o/title/00000001/00000002/content/

Now you should autoboot to emunad with support for Wii/homebrew/wiiware but no gamecube.

Hope this helps. Any further question let me know.

 

[game_rat]

I had to used postloader 4.7.96 from offcial Wii NAND for Nintendont GC game support

Have you noticed any issues running neek2o with this version of Postloader? When I run the 4.7.96 dol, I lose the neek2o functionality below. When I switch back to 4.7.4, everything is back in place. I'm curious to know if you can do any of the following....

1. From the real nand, when I'm on the "channels" view screen, if I change the "nand source" to my emunand, I no longer have the option to boot a channel in "neek2o mode".

2. From the real nand, when I launch the neek2o channel, I boot into my emunand as expected but I do not see the "change current neek2o nand" option in the Postloader config menu. This basically means I cannot do neek2o nand switching. Emunand Postloader is running via the neek2obooter.app file.

3. From the real nand, when I launch the neek2o channel, I boot into my emunand as expected but Postloader does not show (neek2o) in the bottom left corner, it shows (neek) instead. Emunand Postloader is running via the neek2obooter.app file.

 

[rhester72]

As mentioned, anything beyond 4.7.92 crashes when trying to display the Wii titles menu - I've confirmed it has nothing to do with Unicode characters in directory names, but have no idea what triggers the crash.

4.7.92 launches Wii games and WW/VC flawlessly in neek2o - yay! However, regarding the support for Nintendont...

- It will only think I have Nintendont support if Nintendont is in sd:/apps/nintendont - it never looks at usb1:/apps/nintendont
- As a result of the above, it attempts to copy any Gamecube ISO backup I try to play to SD (!) before launching

Is that just how Postloader 4.7.9x works - no USB support for Nintendont at all? :/

Rodney

 

[rhester72]

Follow-up...I read in the official Postloader thread that it defaults to DML for GC and you have to explicitly enable Nintendont if you want to use that.

Fine...but how exactly do you enable it?

Rodney

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I can't figure out how to delete the above posts - sorry about that.

Was reading through the Postloader 4 thread and discovered the Home button.

Now Nintendont launches, but freezes...I see the Nintendont splash screen, and then it just hangs. This is using PL 4.7.92 under neek2o+di off USB - does Nintendont fail if trying to use it within a NEEK-booted environment? (Man, I hope not...that's the only thing preventing the 'holy grail'!)

One other thing I read that gave me pause...is it true that there is a limit of 1024 channels in PL?

Rodney

 

[Kazuma77]

Follow-up...I read in the official Postloader thread that it defaults to DML for GC and you have to explicitly enable Nintendont if you want to use that.

Fine...but how exactly do you enable it?

Rodney

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I can't figure out how to delete the above posts - sorry about that.

Was reading through the Postloader 4 thread and discovered the Home button.

Now Nintendont launches, but freezes...I see the Nintendont splash screen, and then it just hangs. This is using PL 4.7.92 under neek2o+di off USB - does Nintendont fail if trying to use it within a NEEK-booted environment? (Man, I hope not...that's the only thing preventing the 'holy grail'!)

One other thing I read that gave me pause...is it true that there is a limit of 1024 channels in PL?

Rodney

Yeah, I was going to reply and mention the app's unique use of the "home" button, which just closes most other Wii apps, but I got sidetracked. I see you found it. Apparently Nintendont and Neek2o just use too many of the same resources or something. They don't seem to work together. Also, you do need to run PriibooterGUI at least once so that Postloader can find and switch EmuNANDs. This could be part of game_rat's first issue as well I'm thinking. As for the 1024 limit, hard to say. My current US collection tops off at 750. So, given what I currently have to work with, I'd have to put the PAL collection on the same EmuNAND just to test it. Since PL's filters apparently don't include ones for region, I'm not much inclined to try it. I think what I need is a more complete set in order to further research the issue (so, if someone could PM me some links for said research purposes I'd appreciate it, better yet, if anyone has an invite to "that ebony feline site" ).

Coming back to the Wii after catching up on recent 3DS advancements, I also tried to run everything in EmuNAND. Long story short, it's apparently putting the cart before the horse. The more I messed with it, the more I realized that trying to run everything through EmuNAND like I do on the 3DS just needlessly complicates things. Nintendont is a perfect example. It doesn't save to NAND. It saves to the "saves" folder. The saves are already going to the USB HDD, so there really isn't any need for the redirection an EmuNAND provides.

Aside from that, Neek2o has other problems that prevent it from being the "grail" as well. Try playing "Final Fantasy IV: The After Years" for example. It can't create a save. At least not from a large EmuNAND with 300+ WiiWare games installed anyway. Have USB Loader GX run it from a d2x cIOS (which is probably your default setting), and it creates the save just fine. At least it works for me. I do have a separate save NAND setup though, which is not oversized, so that could be part of the solution, though I think it's more likely a fix in d2x.

Looks like someone beat me to mentioning it, but, your crash was a result of renaming the wrong files. The one to rename and replace should be around 4 MB. Also, before installing Neek2obooter on that pre-made EmuNAND, you should delete "sneekcache\hackscfg.bin" or you risk partially bricking the EmuNAND (I lost 3 myself) because Neek2obooter is not compatible with the built-in hacks at all. The effects aren't always immediately obvious, but, for example, if you try going into settings, you might get a web page error, etc. Keep in mind that Neek2obooter's primary purpose is booting Neek2o mode directly into a game from SysNAND, and then exiting back to SysNAND. If you're not doing that, don't bother installing it just to auto-boot the Postloader channel. The built-in hacks can already do that, and they seem more stable.

I would advise creating your own EmuNANDs using ModMii. It only takes a couple of minutes, you can configure them based on your intended use, and you can use your actual serial number, so wifi will work (you could always copy "settings.txt" over from an extracted NAND dump, but that takes longer than it does to complete the generation process). Just remember to copy "cert.sys" to the "sys" folder from your NAND dump (or the pre-made EmuNAND), and optionally your "shared2" folder. I've currently setup about 9 different ones -- one for saves, a WiiWare one for each region, a VC one for each region (optional I guess, there's probably nothing there that Retroarch doesn't do better), and two for Postloader use -- one for USA games, and one for PAL (I would make one for Japanese games, but I haven't found a good collection yet, though I'm not looking very hard I guess, because I'd probably never play most of them anyway). Also, both of my Postloader EmuNANDs are actually USA, because I can't find Postloader's option to force 60 Hz.

Two things to be aware of if you create EmuNANDs for other regions. 1. Japanese EmuNANDS are NOT compatible with themes (they break system settings). 2. PAL EmuNANDs NEED the force 60 Hz hack installed. You'll need to nSwitch into a USA one, hit the "2" button, hit "+", set that "Force PAL" option to one of the 60 Hz options (depending on your TV), and save. Then copy the "sneekcache\hackscfg.bin" over to the PAL EmuNAND. Note that you should not install Neek2obooter on either of these. In fact, I have yet to find any way to use a PAL EmuNAND with Postloader in Neek2o mode.

Basically, if you want an AIO solution, you'll need your loader to initially start in SysNAND, and then load Neek2o on an as-needed basis. USB Loader GX does offer the option of booting to Neek2o mode by default. Wiiflow and Postloader default to cIOS. That said, most WiiWare and VC titles will work just fine from cIOS, and as I mentioned, this solves some saving issues. So, even if you are using USB Loader GX, the best option is still probably to go with the "FULL" setting, and just configure the problematic ones to run from Neek2o (there's not that many, see this list). USB Loader GX has the added benefit of a built-in WAD to EmuNAND installer (like a non-batch ShowMiiWads for your Wii). It's in the "Features" menu under settings. The other two have emulator plugins, though Retroarch minimizes the need. All 3 of them can launch Neek2o on an as-needed basis. USB Loader GX and Wiiflow have the option of designating a separate EmuNAND for disc-based game saves as well (I'd recommend it, there will be less to backup if something gets messed up and you need to remake your WiiWare/VC NAND, as for what could possibly go wrong with an EmuNAND containing hundreds of titles, that's a subject unto itself).

Each has some drawbacks, so "one loader to rule them all" might be the wrong approach:

Postloader clearly wants "pln2o" to be the name of the EmuNAND you're using. Otherwise, if you try to use Neek2o mode, it will create the "pln2o" folder, copy the game to it, then try to launch that EmuNAND and fail, kicking you back to the system menu. Also, non-d2x cIOSes will only work if the EmuNAND is either named "pln2o" or in the root. Speaking of cIOSes, it only lets you use 6 of them, though you mainly just need v19 base 57 and v17, which you could place on 248 and 247 (use ModMii's advanced mode, it allows you to reassign the slot, and don't spoof versions, that especially breaks v17). Of course, you could just run all non-d2x-compatible games via Neek2o, but some might not be able to create a save, whereas with v17 they usually can (I'd recommend trying v17 first for any WiiWare title on the compatibility chart that "works" with v19 -- the game may run under 19, but 9 times out of 10, it can't create a save). PL can exit a game booted in EmuNAND to SysNAND, but it needs Neek2obooter installed. PL also isn't an ISO/WBFS loader. It merely serves as a front end for them. So you'll need at least one other backup loader installed. However, the biggest problem PL has is an apparent lack of a default memory card emulation setting for Nintendont.

As for Wiiflow, well, I don't like how it makes you go through the software menus in order. It also crashes back to the system menu if you try to use a non-d2x cIOS (at least it does with v17 anyway), even on a root EmuNAND. It does allow a bigger cIOS selection though, including the Hermes range. There is not a per-game "Return To" option though, so, if you try setting it to "Back To Nand" it will go into Neek2o mode when exiting a game running via cIOS-based emulation. So, having it exit Neek2o mode automatically is apparently not practical.

USB Loader GX only allows non-d2x cIOSes on a root EmuNAND as far as I can tell (from what I've read, it's a limitation of the cIOSes themselves, so I'm guessing PL moves things back and forth to the root of the drive or something). But it does allow you to pick ANY IOS slot. Again, you could just run all non-d2x-compatible games in Neek2o mode, but they might not be able to create a save like most of them can with v17. I guess you could temporarily move the EmuNAND's folders to the root, generate the saves using v17, then move the folders back and set the games to use Neek2o. Also, I've encountered one incompatibility. "Swords & Soldiers" is supposed to work with d2x v10 base 57, according to the compatibility list. This does not work in USB Loader GX, but does in Postloader for some reason. But it should work in Neek2o mode fine (at least once the game has it's save file made). USB Loader GX does have a per-game "Return To" feature, though it can only be set to "ON" so I'm guessing you need to set the global option to something like NK2O, then disable it again. I can't be certain that was necessary, but the games I've tried booting in "Neek" mode with the per-game "Return To" setting set to "ON" do exit to SysNAND, so, something is working right.


Oh, I almost forgot, pick up that Wiiflow "Masterpiece" compilation, because it includes updated versions of many useful things. One of them being the Neek2o 8.6 beta, which it has configured as the default. You're going to want that, because it has fixes for large EmuNANDs (according to the change log anyway). Be aware that the beta will hide any new channels you install. This is to keep your EmuNAND from taking all day to load. So, make sure you boot the EmuNAND in r96 after setting up all the channels you want to see, THEN switch to the beta, then install your WiiWare collection via ShowMiiWads.

I just realized this post is getting quite long, so I'll stop for now and give you a chance to rest your eyes. My apologies for the length, but it just seems like you are trying a lot of the same things I did a few weeks ago, so I thought pointing out some of these discoveries I've made might save you (and anyone else returning to Wii homebrew after a long absence) some frustration. I hope you'll find it useful.