Hacking USB Loader GX

[Shiranui-san]

I thought renaming the EmuNAND save to : EmuNAND Disc
to go with "emuNAND channel", to make comparison whether it's a Wii disc or a Wii channel.

Nice, inserting the word "Disc" is the key here I think.

^^ is
2 4
1 3 5
two line is
12
345
that's just my lack of imagination to find proper name, I put / \ / \ (like if you follow it from left to right)
I'm open to any better name choice !

Ok, the difference is clear now, visually is not that clear. Proper names would be something like "pyramid" or "triangle".

D button = Direct button.
it means A = A, B = B
instead of A = Y, B= A, etc. (rotated buttons is the default mode)

Got it. Devo's default mode is rotated buttons (I like this one), while Nintendont's default mode is direct.

Now, about Skylanders games:
- would it be possible to add a feature to GX to emulate the USB portal or let the game think that the portal is always connected?
- would it be possible to add a feature to GX to use the backups of the figures made with Maxlander? (either with a hypothetical emulated portal or with a physical portal)
https://gbatemp.net/threads/maxlander-unboxing-tutorial-and-review.396802/

 

[Cyan]

@digdoug1 : Are you using an external hdd, or a flashdrive?
writing freeze seems to happen with flashdrives. I don't know if it can be fixed.
if it's HDD, I don't know why it hangs halfway.

your setup is fine (the IOS in slot249 is correct version and base).

shiranui:
I don't know how skylander is working, nor the figures or usb reader.
emulating a usb device will be hard, if not impossible, while playing. make the game think it's connected, I suppose it's possible with ocarina patch.
manage the figures on the loader I don't know. it would be too much work for me sorry.

 

[digdoug1]

Cyan:

It's an external HDD. I'm not sure what model drive, but, it's in a Buffalo enclosure.

Thanks for the reply. I hope I can figure something out...

 

[Cyan]

try to dump your games with another loader, or with CleanRIP to see if you have the same issue.
if you do, it's HDD (or disc/lens) issue, not the loader. that will be a first try to find who or what is wrong.

 

[Homuhomux]

@Cyan Thanks a lot! Works perfectly now!
Thanks to TecXero too!

 

[Clutz450]

A few things I wanted to report in case you didn't already know. A lot of it actually being good news. As I have said earlier, my regular Wii is practically perfect so I decided to start trying to make my Wii U's vWii just as perfect with the hopes of being able to pack away my regular Wii and use only my Wii U. Well here is my outcome on the Wii U:

I have 3TB USB Western Digital Hard Drive. The entire thing is formatted as a single FAT32 partition. Because of this I was only able to set the cluster size to 64k. From what I read online anything over 2TB can only be 64k or larger. This worried me since everything I read online about the Wii said you must use 32k cluster size. But to my surprise everything works. USB Loader GX, Nintendont, and even Neek2o (the one you mentioned in an earlier post that works on the Wii U). I was shocked that I actually got Neek2o working. I used Castlevania Rebirth in my test. I don't use any other homebrew like emulators so I don't know if they would work or not with 64k clusters. But for anyone else who only wants to play Wii, GameCube, and WiiWare/VC games a large hard drive set to 64k clusters works great.

Next I wanted to get rid of the nag screen to format when I start up the Wii U so I hid it using UStealth. Obviously USB Loader GX and Nintendont still worked but I totally expected that would break Neek2o since I read somewhere that it wasn't compatible with a hidden hard drive. But it also said it had to be 32k clusters so I tried it anyway. And again to my surprise neek2o worked. I'll have to do some more testing with it but for right now it seems like neek2o (at least the beta version) works with 64k clusters and UStealth.

Now on to my issues. It seems that almost all of my WiiWare and Virtual Console games are named by their 4 Letter Game ID code. I kept trying to download the WiiTDB.xml file through update but it kept saying that it "could not write to destination" and then say "WiiTDB.xml is up to date" but nothing was actually downloaded. I discovered that the custom path for "Titles Path" was usbloader_gx/titles. The titles folder did not exist in my usbload_gx folder. As soon as I added that folder called "titles" it then downloaded fine and everything worked as expected. Is there any way to have USB Loader GX create a folder if that folder it is looking for doesn't exist?

Finally I also had a problem when updating. I was on version 1252 because you said that was the best to use for downloading all the artwork. Once I was done with that I went to update and everything looked like the boot.tmp file downloaded fine and it said that USB Loader GX was restarting. But after waiting like 5 minutes and it still didn't restart I had to unplug my Wii U. Then I tried starting up USB Loader GX again with the forwarder but it didn't load. I took a look at my SD card and saw that my boot.dol file was 0 bytes. I also noted that I have practically no space left on my SD card. I guess when I was downloading all the artwork I had forgotten to tell it to download to my USB drive instead of my SD card so my SD card got filled up. I'm assuming that because of this there wasn't any room to download the update but it tried anyway and the end result was a 0 byte boot.dol file. Just to see what would happen I freed up space on my SD card and put the 1252 version boot.dol back on my SD card and tried updating from that. This time the update went fine and when it was done it restarted back into USB Loader GX on the newest version which is 1256. Is there any way to have it make sure there is enough free space for the update before it tries to do the update? This way you don't have the update accidentally break the loader.

That's all for now. Again, I hope you find all this useful and that I wasn't too long winded with my explanations. Bottom line though is because of you and all your help I now have what I call the "perfect" setup on my Wii U and can now box away my regular Wii. I can't thank you enough and as always if there is ever anything I can do for you please just ask.

 

[Shiranui-san]

shiranui:
I don't know how skylander is working, nor the figures or usb reader.
emulating a usb device will be hard, if not impossible, while playing. make the game think it's connected, I suppose it's possible with ocarina patch.
manage the figures on the loader I don't know. it would be too much work for me sorry.

Yeah, that should be hard stuff.
I have a physical portal and some figures, but you know, lot of things around: Wii, hdd, Wiimote, Nunchuk, portal, figures...
It would be really nice if everything could be done through the loader or cIOS.

 

[digdoug1]

Tried another loader; didn't work. Threw a new drive in the enclosure; worked like a champ! Glad it wasn't anything to do with the config!

 

[Clutz450]

So something weird happened on my Wii U. I had everything set up in USB Loader GX and even tried a few WiiWare games that were known to work with normal emunand emulation and they worked fine. Then I started experimenting with neek2o and trying out games that only work with that and manually changing the per game settings that need neek2o to work. But now when I go back to play the WiiWare games that work normally all it does it restart USB Loader GX. Does neek2o do anything to the emunand that would prevent it from working the normal way? All those games do work with neek2o so I can still play them but since I am on the Wii U when I exit a game it goes back to the Wii U menu which I am trying to avoid. I'm thinking about redoing my emunand to see if those games I tried work again. But before I do, can anyone recommend a WiiWare game that they know works without neek2o. For what it's worth, the credits page says I am using d2x v10beta53-alt-vWii base56. I think that is what is doing the WiiWare emulation. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Edit: So I wound up deleting everything in my USB Loader GX folder (minus the image folder) and manually downloaded r1255 from Cyan's signature and resetup my custom paths. I also deleted my emunand and copied back over the one I created on my computer. Everything seems to be working fine again. I played a few WiiWare games without neek2o and a few with and then went back to without neek2o and everything worked fine. Not sure what the issue was but hopefully it doesn't come back.

Edit #2: I did some more testing today and noticed that when I have my hard drive hidden is when my WiiWare games don't work with regular emunand. I only had time to test Adventure Island: The Beginning and Cave Story. Both worked on regular emunand when drive was unhidden but when it was hidden they both didn't work. I also tried a few VC games. I used Super Mario Bros (NES), Super Marios Bros 3(NES) and Super Mario Kart(SNES). All 3 worked when the drive was unhidden. When I hid the drive both Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 3 still worked but Super Mario Kart just restarted USB Loader GX. I wanted to test more games but I just didn't have the time. But can anyone explain to me how hiding the drive can cause regular emunand to work with some games but not for others? Also, if there is no way around this and those games just won't run from a hidden drive, is there anyway to have a per game option to run something like USB Toggle 2.0 before a game is run to unhid the drive and then run it again after exiting the game to put it back to hidden?

 

[Cyan]

that was a lot of text, but I read it all
I'm glad it's a good news and not an issue this time hehe.
About your questions:

Now on to my issues. It seems that almost all of my WiiWare and Virtual Console games are named by their 4 Letter Game ID code.

This is a known issue. Another users did the tests and found it's happening since r1247. I will revert the changes I did to that revision.

Is there any way to have it make sure there is enough free space for the update before it tries to do the update? This way you don't have the update accidentally break the loader.

Sorry, there's no free size check in place for SD card. I don't know if it can be added, I never looked into it.

But before I do, can anyone recommend a WiiWare game that they know works without neek2o.

Cave story and LaMulana are both known to work fine in cIOS full mode.

Edit #2: I did some more testing today and noticed that when I have my hard drive hidden is when my WiiWare games don't work with regular emunand.

Ahh, right. cIOS EmuNAND is not compatible with UStealth drive .... BUT there is a moddified version lost somewhere on gbatemp.
A user changed the FS module of d2x v10 and released it here. so it's like d2x v10 mod1 (or even unofficial d2x v11 ?)

sorry, you will have to dig the forum to find it

But can anyone explain to me how hiding the drive can cause regular emunand to work with some games but not for others?

Hmm, no I can't explain. that's strange. maybe the cIOS FS module has an issue don't doesn't always properly check the partition table.

I started working on a menu in the loader to edit the stealth state of the drives, but never had time to test it and release it.
I still hope to add it to the loader for v3.1
I don't know if I can make it an option to unhide before launch, it's better that you install d2x v10-mod1

 

[Clutz450]

This is a known issue. Another users did the tests and found it's happening since r1247. I will revert the changes I did to that revision.

I just wanted to make sure you understood about the 4 letter game IDs on WiiWare and VC games. Is the known issue you are talking about the fact that USB Loader GX won't create the "titles" folder if it doesn't exist. Because the reason I had the 4 letter game IDs was because I didn't have WiiTDB.xml downloaded and trying to download it through the update menu in USB Loader GX failed because the "titles" folder it was looking for didn't exist. Once I added that folder it downloaded fine and everything worked. I would just hate for you to revert changes that didn't need to be reverted.

Ahh, right. cIOS EmuNAND is not compatible with UStealth drive .... BUT there is a moddified version lost somewhere on gbatemp.
A user changed the FS module of d2x v10 and released it here. so it's like d2x v10 mod1 (or even unofficial d2x v11 ?)

sorry, you will have to dig the forum to find it

I think I found it. Is this what you were talking about? cIOSX rev21d2x: Yet Another Hot Fix!!!! @airline38 said all you would need to do is "simply replace the FAT.app with the original package". I'm assuming the original package is d2x v10beta53-alt-vWii base56 because that is the one i am currently using which I can download here but when I extract that zip file there is no FAT.app file inside so I'm not really sure where to go from here. I see so many warnings all over the place warning about installing these wrong could brick my vWii so I'd rather wait and hear back from you before trying anything out.

that was a lot of text, but I read it all

Thanks for taking the time to actually read my posts. I'm sorry they are so lengthy. I just try to be as descriptive as possible so that you can get all the facts. In the end I am hoping that the things I say help you out. So if you have any advice for me which will better help you please let me know. Like if you'd rather I used the googlecode page to list my new ideas for features or problems I come across let me know and I will do that instead.

 

[GreyWolf]

Thanks for taking the time to actually read my posts. I'm sorry they are so lengthy. I just try to be as descriptive as possible so that you can get all the facts. In the end I am hoping that the things I say help you out. So if you have any advice for me which will better help you please let me know. Like if you'd rather I used the googlecode page to list my new ideas for features or problems I come across let me know and I will do that instead.

We can't use Google Code anymore. It's been changed to read-only because they're shutting the service down at the end of the year. :/

 

[Cyan]

Googlecode is closed, but I moved it to sourceforge.
I will probably commit again in about 15 days (some holidays !!)

USB Loader GX won't create the "titles" folder

I reverted that path back to usbloader_gx path because /titles/ subfolder seemed to create issues with a lot of users.
it shouldn't be in titles by default anymore. but if you updated from an old version, the config file still had that path as default.

About cIOS that's the one I was talking about
I will check how it works.
Edit:
That's really simple !!
I'll make a new cIOS installer package with ALL the versions inside. both Wii and vWii.
I always provide two different links to users based on their console, but they don't understand how to extract it, so it's time to make a proper path (apps/homebrew name/etc.)
I'll add the mod version inside.
I just hope (I really HOPE) that including both Wii and vWii in the same zip is not too dangerous for noob, they NEED to read....

Edit2:
It seems FAT module is only included with r52, not in r53
That's maybe why SOME of your games were working ? you had maybe these game set to a slot with r53 and some game set to slot r52?

v9 had the FAT module merged into FFS. but some drives had issues, some EmuNAND didn't work etc.
So Davebaol reverted the changes done on v9 and released two version for v10 :
v10 : FAT module present (like v8) with other v9 changes
v10-alt : FAT module merged (like v9)

I didn't check if the merged FAT module inside FFS is still checking for the partition table signature.

Edit3:
I just checked, and signature check is also done in FFS/FAT module.
so, airline38 patch is ONLY for r52. (v10, not v10alt)

I will not create a v10-alt Ustealth version, it's a "common practice" to install v10 non alt of you want better emuNAND compatibility !


Edit4:
D2x cIOS installer Fullpack v3 (untested Mod1, but should work)
D2x cIOS installer v3.1

Wii d2x v6
Wii d2x v7
Wii d2x v8 final
Wii d2x v10 (r52)
Wii d2x v10 (r52) mod1 UStealth EmuNAND by Airline38
wii d2x v10-alt (r53)​

D2x cIOS installer v2.2Mod

vWii d2x v10 (r52)
vWii d2x v10 (r52) mod1 UStealth EmuNAND by Airline38
vwii d2x v10-alt (r53)​

 

[Clutz450]

Edit2:
It seems FAT module is only included with r52, not in r53
That's maybe why SOME of your games were working ? you had maybe these game set to a slot with r53 and some game set to slot r52?

But wouldn't all the games try to use the same slot unless I changed those games settings individually (which I didn't do)? I swear, no matter how much I try to read up on IOS, CIOS, slots, etc I just get confused. But now I was curious so I created a syscheck just to see what I had installed where.

Spoiler

SysCheck HDE v2.4.0 HacksDen Edition by JoostinOnline, Double_A, R2-D2199, and Nano
...runs on vIOS58 (rev 6432).

Region: NTSC-U
System Menu 4.3U (v609)

Drive date: 06.28.2011
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x21
Console ID: 610225390
Console Type: vWii
Shop Channel Country: United States (49)
Boot2 v0
Found 93 titles.
Found 35 IOS on this console. 0 of them are stubs.

vIOS9 (rev 1290): No Patches
vIOS12 (rev 782): No Patches
vIOS13 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS14 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS15 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS17 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS21 (rev 1295): No Patches
vIOS22 (rev 1550): No Patches
vIOS28 (rev 2063): No Patches
vIOS31 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS33 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS34 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS35 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS36 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS37 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS38 (rev 4380): No Patches
vIOS41 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS43 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS45 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS46 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS48 (rev 4380): No Patches
vIOS53 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS55 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS56 (rev 5918): No Patches
vIOS57 (rev 6175): No Patches
vIOS58 (rev 6432): USB 2.0
vIOS59 (rev 9249): No Patches
vIOS62 (rev 6942): No Patches
vIOS80 (rev 7200): No Patches
vIOS236 (rev 65535): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access
vIOS249[56] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
vIOS250[57] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
vIOS251[58] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
vIOS512 (rev 7): No Patches
vIOS513 (rev 1): No Patches
Report generated on 10/17/2015.

Like I said I really don't know what I am looking at but it looks like I have the same thing in all 3 slots. But is that what you thought I had going on and why some games worked and some didn't?

I will not create a v10-alt Ustealth version, it's a "common practice" to install v10 non alt of you want better emuNAND compatibility !

That's fine. I only had the alt version installed because that's what some guide had me do. But if you say the non alt one is better I will use that. I just saw that you updated the pack. Would you be able to give me a quick guide to go with it so I know exactly what I need to do to install everything correctly?

 

[Cyan]

vIOS249[56] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
vIOS250[57] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Access
vIOS251[58] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Access

only that part is interesting on a syscheck if you want to play USB backups.

what you read is :
- IOS slot number
- IOS base (the IOS used as base to create the patched version)
- Title version
- Name and version of the cIOS installed

vIOS249[56] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii)
Official IOS56 is used as base, then it's patched by d2x cIOS v10-alt and the result is installed on slot249 with the TitleVersion 21010

The titleVersion was used by Nintendo to detect if an update was needed.
if a version higher than the one you have is present on a game's disc or on NUS, then it's updated.
As hackers don't update their IOS and has patches preventing it, the TitleVersion is used to easily recognize the hacked version.
21010 = waninkoko cIOS v21, mod d2x v10

some users prefer to install the titleVersion with 65535 to prevent nintendo updating the file (there is no higher version, no update possible)
The titleVersion has no effect at all on the hack or homebrew you use.


So, all your cIOS are "r53" (v10-alt).
alternative version is useful if you want to play games from USB Slot1.
if you don't need slot1, I recommend installing d2x v10 (r52 only has USB slot0 access, and has better emuNAND compatibility)
You should install "d2x v10 r52 mod1" from my fullpack, it will allows you to use Ustealth drives.

I don't know why some games worked and some didn't. probably a bug.

Would you be able to give me a quick guide to go with it so I know exactly what I need to do to install everything correctly?

Extract the pack on SD card.
launch "installer (vWii !!)" from HBC.
select "slot249, base56, d2x r52mod, version 21010" press A.
done


Wait, don't use it.
I'm checking it again....

edit:
please, use fullpack v3

 

[Clutz450]

Extract the pack on SD card.
launch "installer (vWii !!)" from HBC.
select "slot249, base56, d2x r52mod, version 21010" press A.
done

Thanks. I saw your v3 pack too. Any reason why you only wanted me to install it into slot249? Are slots 250 and 251 not needed or is what I currently have in those slots good enough? Any benefits to adding to all 3 slots or will I just be messing things up?

 

[Cyan]

the "slot" by itself is not important.
what's important is the base you use to play the games.

base56 : 90% compatibility
base57 : 100% compatibility, but slightly slower than 56

if you want to install only one slot, install base57 in slot249.
if you want two cIOS, 249[56] and 250[57] are the common choice.
if you have issues with music games (microphone, etc.), you might need the base58 (install it in slot251, just for convenience)

 

[Deleted User]

Question from some friends: Would there be a way to implement CRC32 checking?

 

[Clutz450]

the "slot" by itself is not important.
what's important is the base you use to play the games.

base56 : 90% compatibility
base57 : 100% compatibility, but slightly slower than 56

if you want to install only one slot, install base57 in slot249.
if you want two cIOS, 249[56] and 250[57] are the common choice.
if you have issues with music games (microphone, etc.), you might need the base58 (install it in slot251, just for convenience)

Right but as it is right now I have Slots 249, 250 and 251 with base 56, 57 and 58 respectively. But they are all the beta53 alt versions and you only told me to replace slot 249 with the base56 52mod. I was just wondering do I need to replace slots 250 and 251 with the 52mod as well or can I leave them with the beta53 alt? From what you had said earlier it seems like I would want to replace all 3 slots with the 52mod versions (with their appropriate bases) and not just slot 249. Am I correct in that thinking?

 

[tswntk]

Right but as it is right now I have Slots 249, 250 and 251 with base 56, 57 and 58 respectively. But they are all the beta53 alt versions and you only told me to replace slot 249 with the base56 52mod. I was just wondering do I need to replace slots 250 and 251 with the 52mod as well or can I leave them with the beta53 alt? From what you had said earlier it seems like I would want to replace all 3 slots with the 52mod versions (with their appropriate bases) and not just slot 249. Am I correct in that thinking?

As Cyan said, each base and each cios version (52 vs 53alt) have their pros and cons, you install them according to your own needs.
If you wish you can install all base and version combinations to different slots.
If version 52 does not work with your HDD, you virtually have no choice at all, you have to try before you really know.