Hacking USB Loader GX

[Deleted User]

Cyan why not use a different host - SourceForge likes to do stuff like own installers and ads - You can use my git if you want another host

 

[ngs428]

It is

USBLoaderGX r1260

Spoiler: Changelog

- removed SSL, and removed nintendont update feature (because it requires SSL), to fix network issue.
- fixed banner download
- added batch wad install (all wad from a folder, no sub-folder loaded)
- renamed the wad menu to "EmuNAND wad manager"
- removed all wad error and warnings messages while installing in "folder mode" to skip them and display how many wad where not processed at the end.
- Added game type and console name for VC channels in the Title list exporter

Sorry that I had to remove nintendont internal update. I liked having the loader create the folders and download file without using the SD on PC or using wiixplorer.

There are still things I didn't test (like banner download, or gamecube game delete).
I hope the banner download works.
let me know if you have issues with anything related to the changelog. (banners, wad batch install/uninstall, export gamelist)

I think I will push this version in the internal update, unless there's a last minute bug you guys will find.
I'll push it internally tomorrow. that will be the first internal update since moving to sourceforge, I hope it will work too.

I'll try to make a new installer.exe too, with link to forwarders instead of full channel (and link to sourceforge instead of googlecode)

1260 is working well for me. Didn't give it too extensive of a test, but did generate the games list, which worked great! Thanks for implementing this!

The CSV game list does have a few odd text issues. Same issues were present in the 1259. Nothing remotely major.. Game title have odd characters. Thought it was from an apostrophe, but those are correct in many other games. These are the only instances I see. Tilde issue for Pokémon and Diaeresis (double dot) issue for Plättchen Twist 'n' Paint and Protöthea. They are shown below by the others.

GTEE01 0 1080° Avalanche Gamecube_Image GameCube
NAOE 0 1080° Snowboarding Channel_EmuNAND VC_N64
PBWE 0 Air “Zonk” Channel_EmuNAND VC_TurboGraphX
WBPE 3.34 Plättchen Twist 'n' Paint Channel_EmuNAND WiiWare
WPSE 3.34 Pokémon Rumble Channel_EmuNAND WiiWare
NAKE 3.34 Pokémon Snap Channel_EmuNAND VC_N64
WPQE 3.34 Protöthea Channel_EmuNAND WiiWare
WTXE 0.43 Texas Hold’em Tournament Channel_EmuNAND WiiWare
FCYE 0.41 Yoshi’s Cookie Channel_EmuNAND VC_NES
FERE 1.11 Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II Channel_EmuNAND VC_NES

Also, the game size column can just be removed/fixed. It is displaying incorrect data. As shown above GB is the 2nd column. 0.41 GB NES game. Not likely.

 

[Cyan]

Cyan why not use a different host - SourceForge likes to do stuff like own installers and ads - You can use my git if you want another host

when google announced the shutdown, there were only two possibility to migrate en entire repository (keeping all svn history, issues, comments, etc.) : github or sourceforge.
sourceforge was the only one using svn, and the loader depends on svn revision a lot (for the auto updates for example)
I never worked with git, and don't like the way they are numbering each revisions, that wasn't a good choice.
I didn't want to lose all history and create a new repository with latest build. I suppose your server doesn't allow migration of an entire svn data?
I never had issue with sourceforge "self installer" (I never saw one), I don't notice ads (but I always use adblockplus, so I don't even know if there are any).

@Clutz450:
Ah, this bug is still there? I wasn't sure.
it looks like this bug (only the ID instead of the name) is present since r1247, which is when I changed the sources to prevent listing channels without data (for example deleted channels from official NAND still have their ticket, and dumping such nand were displaying the game on the emuNAND even if it was deleted because).
I don't know why checking the data presence create an issue with the channel names.
I will have to check that.

I think you can trigger that issue by disabling titlecache (or else it will read names found inside).

I would like someone with that issue to do some tests, but I would also need that person to have a deleted channel on real nand with ticket still present (because that's the purpose of that change in r1247).
Maybe I'll do the tests myself.

@ngs428 :
that's odd, I didn't have a size at all for VC games.
The size is for Wii and gamecube games only.
I thought about adding size for EmuNAND, but you already have it? I'll have to take a look.

the character issue is because the file is saved as ANSI instead of UTF-8.
usually, text editors are automatically switching to UTF8 when detecting a 2bytes character.
But some program don't do that auto-detection and only rely on the BOM (signature at the start of the file).
I don't know which program you are using to open the csv. and I don't know if csv can have a BOM.

You can convert it (or add bom) with notepad++
open the file in notepad++ (it will detect utf8 automatically and display the text correctly as utf8)
select menu : encoding > convert to UTF8
(not the one saying "without bom", it's already without the utf8 signature, so you convert it with the signature)
save the file to add the BOM signature.

an alternative is to "convert to ANSI" instead of adding BOM.
encoding > convert to ANSI.

 

[Clutz450]

@Clutz450:
Ah, this bug is still there? I wasn't sure.
it looks like this bug (only the ID instead of the name) is present since r1247, which is when I changed the sources to prevent listing channels without data (for example deleted channels from official NAND still have their ticket, and dumping such nand were displaying the game on the emuNAND even if it was deleted because).
I don't know why checking the data presence create an issue with the channel names.
I will have to check that.

I think you can trigger that issue by disabling titlecache (or else it will read names found inside).

I would like someone with that issue to do some tests, but I would also need that person to have a deleted channel on real nand with ticket still present (because that's the purpose of that change in r1247).
Maybe I'll do the tests myself.

I didn't realize it was a bug. I just thought there was something wrong in my settings. But my settings already had "Title from GameTDB - ON" and "Cache Titles - ON" and I had already downloaded the latest WiiTDB.xml. I think what "fixed" it was that I had turned both those settings off, restarted the loader, turned both settings back on, restarted the loader again and then redownloaded the WiiTDB.xml. It was after I redownloaded the WiiTDB.xml that the GameIDs finally went away and started displaying their Title Names. Not sure which action or combination of actions did it but the final action was redownloading the xml. Hope this helps.

 

[Cyan]

maybe you had an old xml?
I added a refresh of the title list after a wad install, and after a nand path change, thought it was enough to fix missing names.
but maybe it didn't really fix the issue, I didn't spend too much time on it.

 

[ngs428]

@ngs428 :
that's odd, I didn't have a size at all for VC games.
The size is for Wii and gamecube games only.
I thought about adding size for EmuNAND, but you already have it? I'll have to take a look.

the character issue is because the file is saved as ANSI instead of UTF-8.
usually, text editors are automatically switching to UTF8 when detecting a 2bytes character.
But some program don't do that auto-detection and only rely on the BOM (signature at the start of the file).
I don't know which program you are using to open the csv. and I don't know if csv can have a BOM.

You can convert it (or add bom) with notepad++
open the file in notepad++ (it will detect utf8 automatically and display the text correctly as utf8)
select menu : encoding > convert to UTF8
(not the one saying "without bom", it's already without the utf8 signature, so you convert it with the signature)
save the file to add the BOM signature.

an alternative is to "convert to ANSI" instead of adding BOM.
encoding > convert to ANSI.

I am exporting the CSV file and the opening it on my PC using Microsoft EXCEL 2013.

Size is showing 0 for my first 36 games in the export, then 0.7 for the next 25, then 1.42 for the next 15.... Size is certainly not correct for non Wii games. The Wii game disc sizes look correct. Gamecube seems incorrect. They range from 0 to 6.93 GB. I personally don't use the column.

 

[Cyan]

the export feature was added when only wii game was possible.
when we added support for other game type, we didn't check if all features were working.
I'll have a look if it's not to hard.

 

[ngs428]

the export feature was added when only wii game was possible.
when we added support for other game type, we didn't check if all features were working.
I'll have a look if it's not to hard.

Not a big deal, but yes the data is not correct for non Wii games. I appreciate the new columns. Thanks again!

 

[videokid14]

hi. im kinda new at this and i am not sure what to do. i have 2 issues. 1. i am using a usb hard drive and i "install" all my games to the drive. i have a game, spongebobs boating bash" it copies over fine but when i try to play it, it freezes at the loading screen. i dont know how to get it to play. am i doing something wrong or what can i do?? 2. is there another way to install a game other than using usb loader gx. i have also tried using configurable sd/usb loader and i get an error of "ntfs write disabled!" (set ntfs_write=1) i dont know what this is or how to do it! lol

 

[sideskroll]

well, it could be related to the changed HDD, but I find it really strange, because the code to use the drive is the same.

do you still have the previous drive? Maybe we could compare them.

Could you reproduce the bug with it?
Could you do a SMART on the old one?
Could you do an usb analyze on both? (I think it's http://www.usblyzer.com/) but it's shareware 30 day free. I never used it so I don't know how it works (Fix94 did, but don't know if he could help,) Checking how many Device Descriptor, Configuration, Interfaces the drive use, etc.
I really don't know where it will lead us, that's just "data" for comparison.
I don't know if usblyzer work with win10

@Cyan Sadly, I don't have the old drive anymore (well, technically I do. But what failed in it was the controller board. So basically I still have the drive but it's a nice little paperweight. And the reason I didn't get a new enclosure and instead bought a pre-made HDD was because I thought it would be beneficial since my enclosure was usb 2.0. If I had known the compatibility was wrong I would've just bought a new cheap enclosure...)
I ran usblyzer but, like you. I have never used it before and as such I'm very unfamiliar with how it works.
I can see it recording the queries and processes active on the drive (And every one says "successful" if it makes any difference) but I'm not sure what you're looking for.
What I did manage to get are the extended properties of the drive. Maybe it helps? You could compare it with your own (working) drive and find something out?
Anyway, here is the info.:

Connection Status Device connected
Current Configuration 1
Speed High (480 Mbit/s)
Device Address 4
Number Of Open Pipes 2
Device Descriptor Elements 1078
Offset Field Size Value Description
0 bLength 1 12h
1 bDescriptorType 1 01h Device
2 bcdUSB 2 0300h USB Spec 3.0
4 bDeviceClass 1 00h Class info in Ifc Descriptors
5 bDeviceSubClass 1 00h
6 bDeviceProtocol 1 00h
7 bMaxPacketSize0 1 09h Should be 64 bytes for high-speed devices
8 idVendor 2 1058h Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
10 idProduct 2 1078h
12 bcdDevice 2 1065h 10.65
14 iManufacturer 1 02h "Western Digital"
15 iProduct 1 03h "Elements 1078"
16 iSerialNumber 1 01h "575834314139353058333934"
17 bNumConfigurations 1 01h
Binary Device Object Store (BOS) Descriptor
Offset Field Size Value Description
0 bLength 1 05h
1 bDescriptorType 1 0Fh Binary Device Object Store (BOS)
2 wTotalLength 2 0016h
4 bNumDeviceCaps 1 02h
Device Capability Descriptor - USB 2.0 Extension
Offset Field Size Value Description
0 bLength 1 07h
1 bDescriptorType 1 10h Device Capability
2 bDevCapabilityType 1 02h USB 2.0 Extension
3 bmAttributes 4 0000F41Eh
0: Reserved ........ ........ ........ .......0
1: Link Power Management ........ ........ ........ ......1.  Yes
31..2: Reserved 00000000 00000000 11110100 000111..  Reserved, should be zero
Device Capability Descriptor - SuperSpeed USB
Offset Field Size Value Description
0 bLength 1 0Ah
1 bDescriptorType 1 10h Device Capability
2 bDevCapabilityType 1 03h SuperSpeed USB
3 bmAttributes 1 00h
0: Reserved .......0
1: Latency Tolerance Messages ......0.  No
7..2: Reserved 000000..
4 wSpeedsSupported 2 000Eh
0: Low-Speed ........ .......0  No
1: Full-Speed ........ ......1.  Yes
2: High-Speed ........ .....1..  Yes
3: Super-Speed ........ ....1...  Yes
15..4: Reserved 00000000 0000....
6 bFunctionalitySupport 1 01h Full-Speed and above
7 bU1DevExitLat 1 0Ah Less than 10 µs
8 wU2DevExitLat 2 07FFh Less than 2047 µs
Configuration Descriptor 1 Bus Powered, 896 mA
Offset Field Size Value Description
0 bLength 1 09h
1 bDescriptorType 1 02h Configuration
2 wTotalLength 2 002Ch
4 bNumInterfaces 1 01h
5 bConfigurationValue 1 01h
6 iConfiguration 1 00h
7 bmAttributes 1 80h Bus Powered
4..0: Reserved ...00000
5: Remote Wakeup ..0.....  No
6: Self Powered .0......  No, Bus Powered
7: Reserved (set to one)
(bus-powered for 1.0) 1.......
8 bMaxPower 1 70h 224 mA
Interface Descriptor 0/0 Mass Storage, 2 Endpoints
Offset Field Size Value Description
0 bLength 1 09h
1 bDescriptorType 1 04h Interface
2 bInterfaceNumber 1 00h
3 bAlternateSetting 1 00h
4 bNumEndpoints 1 02h
5 bInterfaceClass 1 08h Mass Storage
6 bInterfaceSubClass 1 06h SCSI Transparent Command Set
7 bInterfaceProtocol 1 50h Bulk-Only Transport
8 iInterface 1 00h
Endpoint Descriptor 81 1 In, Bulk, 1024 bytes
Offset Field Size Value Description
0 bLength 1 07h
1 bDescriptorType 1 05h Endpoint
2 bEndpointAddress 1 81h 1 In
3 bmAttributes 1 02h Bulk
1..0: Transfer Type ......10  Bulk
7..6: Reserved 00......
4 wMaxPacketSize 2 0400h 1024 bytes
6 bInterval 1 00h
SuperSpeed Endpoint Companion
Offset Field Size Value Description
0 bLength 1 06h
1 bDescriptorType 1 30h SuperSpeed Endpoint Companion
2 bMaxBurst 1 0Fh Up to 16 packets at a time
3 bmAttributes 1 00h
4..0: MaxStreams ...00000
7..5: Reserved 000.....
4 wBytesPerInterval 2 0000h
Endpoint Descriptor 02 2 Out, Bulk, 1024 bytes
Offset Field Size Value Description
0 bLength 1 07h
1 bDescriptorType 1 05h Endpoint
2 bEndpointAddress 1 02h 2 Out
3 bmAttributes 1 02h Bulk
1..0: Transfer Type ......10  Bulk
7..6: Reserved 00......
4 wMaxPacketSize 2 0400h 1024 bytes
6 bInterval 1 00h
SuperSpeed Endpoint Companion
Offset Field Size Value Description
0 bLength 1 06h
1 bDescriptorType 1 30h SuperSpeed Endpoint Companion
2 bMaxBurst 1 0Fh Up to 16 packets at a time
3 bmAttributes 1 00h
4..0: MaxStreams ...00000
7..5: Reserved 000.....
4 wBytesPerInterval 2 0000h

Also, I haven't being able to replicate the bug by using the default layout (which I think is called "list" or something?) But I think it's because I'm unable to "scroll" on it. What I mean is, it's very difficult to overload it if there's basically nothing going on on-screen.
Do you think that the fact the drive needs ios58 to even launch is pointing to something? Like I said, I doubt the issue is with your banner layout since I've always used it and as far as I remember it never gave me any issues (well, the usual bug here or there but at least it code dumped. Nothing like this)
I also tried CFG mod and it APPEARS to be working fine on it (didn't have to change the way it mounts the disk or anything. It worked OOTB)
What's different in the way GX mounts the disk and CFG? Do you know?
Thanks for the help.
I'm sure (even though no one seems to say anything) that I'm not the only one with this HDD and I guess finding a fix for this would help SOME people at least...)

 

[Poglodyte]

Trying to find the best place to post this, sorry for duplicates but realized this seems to get more action and my problem involves usb loader gx.

Ok so I'm finally going to ask for some help here, been trying to get wiiware/vc games to running on hdd forever... I have wii and gc games working (mostly)

I thought neek2o was the best option since it has the highest compatibility, but I'm about done with trying that. It seemed to work for a second, until I added 700 some wads. I used this mega noob guide https://ccabz.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/neek2o-for-mega-noobs/ with the supplied US region nand. If I do end up trying neek2o again, is there a premade nand out there with the latest neek2o version? or an easy way to update that premade nand?

For now though, I think I'd be perfectly fine with just the cios nand emulation. I've tried it through wiiflow and now usbloadergx (which I like somewhat better), but neither method will actually launch any of the wiiware/vc games... just hangs and goes back to menu (whatever autoboot is set to in priiloader I think).

I'm wondering if the issue is cIOS versions? I used the d2x cIOS installer to update the ones on my real nand (per this guide https://sites.google.com/site/completesg/backup-launchers/installation), and made my emunand after that with the extract options in both wiiflow and then usb loader gx.

Does anyone have suggestions as to what the problem could be? Do you think I just need a different cIOS, or just need to set wiiflow or usbloader gx to use the right one?

Hopefully I supplied enough info. If not, just let me know what else would be helpful. Thanks for reading!

 

[sideskroll]

Trying to find the best place to post this, sorry for duplicates but realized this seems to get more action and my problem involves usb loader gx.

Ok so I'm finally going to ask for some help here, been trying to get wiiware/vc games to running on hdd forever... I have wii and gc games working (mostly)

I thought neek2o was the best option since it has the highest compatibility, but I'm about done with trying that. It seemed to work for a second, until I added 700 some wads. I used this mega noob guide https://ccabz.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/neek2o-for-mega-noobs/ with the supplied US region nand. If I do end up trying neek2o again, is there a premade nand out there with the latest neek2o version? or an easy way to update that premade nand?

For now though, I think I'd be perfectly fine with just the cios nand emulation. I've tried it through wiiflow and now usbloadergx (which I like somewhat better), but neither method will actually launch any of the wiiware/vc games... just hangs and goes back to menu (whatever autoboot is set to in priiloader I think).

I'm wondering if the issue is cIOS versions? I used the d2x cIOS installer to update the ones on my real nand (per this guide https://sites.google.com/site/completesg/backup-launchers/installation), and made my emunand after that with the extract options in both wiiflow and then usb loader gx.

Does anyone have suggestions as to what the problem could be? Do you think I just need a different cIOS, or just need to set wiiflow or usbloader gx to use the right one?

Hopefully I supplied enough info. If not, just let me know what else would be helpful. Thanks for reading!

Hi. Ill try to help you.
The easiest way for you to do this would be to dump your nand to emunand from usbloader gx (features/dump nand to emunand) and compile uneek+di from modmii (Is it still active?).
You can search for the specifics in a previous post from @Cyan
Other than that, do you know the format and cluster size of your HDD?

 

[Poglodyte]

Hi. Ill try to help you.
The easiest way for you to do this would be to dump your nand to emunand from usbloader gx (features/dump nand to emunand) and compile uneek+di from modmii (Is it still active?).
You can search for the specifics in a previous post from @Cyan
Other than that, do you know the format and cluster size of your HDD?

Thank you for your reply! So, for now I would just like to set the neek stuff aside. It might be nice to have in the future, but I'd like to have this cIOS emunand working to start with. Then at least I have that to fall back on. It may be at the root of some larger problem as well since I seem to have the same issue with wiiflow and usbloadergx.

Once difference though, when launching a ww/vw title from wiiflow it takes me back to wii system menu. From usbloadergx I end up at homebrew menu. There doesn't appear to be a setting in usbloadergx that is affecting this... I could be missing it, but I messed with the return to option only a little.

Ok, so first thing first and then I have an issue with gamecube games in usbloadergx that I'd love to solve too.

The HDD I'm working with is an adata 500 gb usb3 with no extra power supply. I don't think the extra power that usb3 draws should be an issue, should it? It seems to work for everything else here. I think I followed correct guidelines when setting it up the partition. It is formatted as MBR, only one primary fat32 partition. Looking at the properties in minitool partition wizard says "sectors per cluster: 64" so I guess I chose 64k cluster size?

Anyway neek2o seemed to launch from the system menu forwarder wad when I initially set it up with like 30 game wads so I think the formatting is ok. Then I took it up to nearly 800 game wads and it seemed to just hang on a black screen with the wiimote still connected. I think the initial press A to continue black screen appeared after a while but then just hanging forever. I really think I want to skip neek for now though so onto the cIOS emunand, preferably through usbloadergx...

What could possibly be the issue though with launching a ww/vc title always going back to homebrew browser? I dumped the nand through usbloadergx and installed a few wads directly with it too.

Are there any super important things I need to have on my real nand before dumping it? I did install cIOS to it with the d2x cIOS installer. I followed the complete softmod guide here https://sites.google.com/site/completesg/backup-launchers/installation which installs:

• cIOS 249 base 56 v10 beta53-alt
• cIOS 250 base 57 v10 beta52

I set them both as max revision number I think too. I think I read somewhere there was some issue with it thinking the nand was only in the root directory when that was done, but I never experienced that issue.

After experiencing my issue with wiiflow, I even edited my nand I dumped with wiiflow in modmii and I think it replaced the 249 cIOS with one that now says version 14. I tried loading games from that edited emunand with both wiiflow and usbloadergx to the same results, back to menu.

Is there just some settings I need to change with how the loader selected the cIOS or do I need the proper cIOS on my real nand first?

I'm sorry for the massive post, just trying to give the right details on this... I think I'll save the gamecube games issue until after I solve this one! Thanks a ton to anyone who takes the time to read and help!

 

[Clutz450]

The easiest way for you to do this would be to dump your nand to emunand from usbloader gx (features/dump nand to emunand) and compile uneek+di from modmii (Is it still active?).

Yes, ModMii still works for compiling neek. I thought the date for Google Code shutting down was the first but I was able to compile it and I've heard that the date for it shutting down is the 25th. So you at least have a few more weeks unless ModMii gets updated.

@Poglodyte About your issue. I forget the game number limit but the Neek system menu will not load up if you have too many games installed on your emunand. So it makes sense that you were able to load into it when you only had a few games and then it stopped working when you added a ton more. However, that only effects loading up the Neek system menu. You can still use USB Loader GX to launch a game into neek mode from the loader.

As for cIOS emulation and the issues you are having with that I don't have any idea right now. The best way for you to help us would be to post a syscheck using this guide here (https://gbatemp.net/threads/posting-a-system-check.300279/). There are only a handful of WiiWare games and and Virtual Console games that require neek so it seems odd to me that you can't get any of them working. But that syscheck you post will help narrow things down. You can also run your syscheck through ModMii and it will tell you if anything should be updated.

For your hard drive you should be fine with it set as FAT32 and 64k clusters. I know just about every other guide says you should do 32k clusters but I can tell you from experience that 64k works on USB Loader GX, Nintendont, cIOS emulation and neek2o. As far as it not being externally powered, as long as you are using a Wii and not a Wii U I think you should be fine.

As a last resort, if you still have all your WADs and Wii and GameCube games you could try formating your drive and SD card and just start over from scratch. I know it's not ideal but when I wad new to hacking I had a Wii that I just couldn't figure out what I did to make it stop working and after I redid everything it started working again. Hopefully it doesn't come to that though.

 

[sideskroll]

Thank you for your reply! So, for now I would just like to set the neek stuff aside. It might be nice to have in the future, but I'd like to have this cIOS emunand working to start with. Then at least I have that to fall back on. It may be at the root of some larger problem as well since I seem to have the same issue with wiiflow and usbloadergx.

Once difference though, when launching a ww/vw title from wiiflow it takes me back to wii system menu. From usbloadergx I end up at homebrew menu. There doesn't appear to be a setting in usbloadergx that is affecting this... I could be missing it, but I messed with the return to option only a little.

Ok, so first thing first and then I have an issue with gamecube games in usbloadergx that I'd love to solve too.

The HDD I'm working with is an adata 500 gb usb3 with no extra power supply. I don't think the extra power that usb3 draws should be an issue, should it? It seems to work for everything else here. I think I followed correct guidelines when setting it up the partition. It is formatted as MBR, only one primary fat32 partition. Looking at the properties in minitool partition wizard says "sectors per cluster: 64" so I guess I chose 64k cluster size?

Anyway neek2o seemed to launch from the system menu forwarder wad when I initially set it up with like 30 game wads so I think the formatting is ok. Then I took it up to nearly 800 game wads and it seemed to just hang on a black screen with the wiimote still connected. I think the initial press A to continue black screen appeared after a while but then just hanging forever. I really think I want to skip neek for now though so onto the cIOS emunand, preferably through usbloadergx...

What could possibly be the issue though with launching a ww/vc title always going back to homebrew browser? I dumped the nand through usbloadergx and installed a few wads directly with it too.

Are there any super important things I need to have on my real nand before dumping it? I did install cIOS to it with the d2x cIOS installer. I followed the complete softmod guide here https://sites.google.com/site/completesg/backup-launchers/installation which installs:

• cIOS 249 base 56 v10 beta53-alt
• cIOS 250 base 57 v10 beta52

I set them both as max revision number I think too. I think I read somewhere there was some issue with it thinking the nand was only in the root directory when that was done, but I never experienced that issue.

After experiencing my issue with wiiflow, I even edited my nand I dumped with wiiflow in modmii and I think it replaced the 249 cIOS with one that now says version 14. I tried loading games from that edited emunand with both wiiflow and usbloadergx to the same results, back to menu.

Is there just some settings I need to change with how the loader selected the cIOS or do I need the proper cIOS on my real nand first?

I'm sorry for the massive post, just trying to give the right details on this... I think I'll save the gamecube games issue until after I solve this one! Thanks a ton to anyone who takes the time to read and help!

Mmm try dumping the nand in USBLOADER GX (for that, I would recommend manually creating a "nand" folder on the root of your HDD and selecting that path in USBLOADER GX. IIRC the loader comes with the default setting of SD:\Nand\)
And try installing your wads with showmiiwad (I had some issues with the internal installer before. Maybe Cyan fixed those but it won't hurt to try)
To check the cluster size of your HDD: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/245436

Like @Clutz450 says, a syscheck would help troubleshoot your issues. although I would just re-softmod the whole thing before ModMii goes offline.
That way you can be sure everything is properly updated and installed.
It's pretty easy and self explanatory.

Yes, ModMii still works for compiling neek. I thought the date for Google Code shutting down was the first but I was able to compile it and I've heard that the date for it shutting down is the 25th. So you at least have a few more weeks unless ModMii gets updated.

@Poglodyte About your issue. I forget the game number limit but the Neek system menu will not load up if you have too many games installed on your emunand. So it makes sense that you were able to load into it when you only had a few games and then it stopped working when you added a ton more. However, that only effects loading up the Neek system menu. You can still use USB Loader GX to launch a game into neek mode from the loader.

As for cIOS emulation and the issues you are having with that I don't have any idea right now. The best way for you to help us would be to post a syscheck using this guide here (https://gbatemp.net/threads/posting-a-system-check.300279/). There are only a handful of WiiWare games and and Virtual Console games that require neek so it seems odd to me that you can't get any of them working. But that syscheck you post will help narrow things down. You can also run your syscheck through ModMii and it will tell you if anything should be updated.

For your hard drive you should be fine with it set as FAT32 and 64k clusters. I know just about every other guide says you should do 32k clusters but I can tell you from experience that 64k works on USB Loader GX, Nintendont, cIOS emulation and neek2o. As far as it not being externally powered, as long as you are using a Wii and not a Wii U I think you should be fine.

As a last resort, if you still have all your WADs and Wii and GameCube games you could try formating your drive and SD card and just start over from scratch. I know it's not ideal but when I wad new to hacking I had a Wii that I just couldn't figure out what I did to make it stop working and after I redid everything it started working again. Hopefully it doesn't come to that though.

I actually had a HDD that ONLY WORKED with 32KB. I don't know why or how. But anything else would just blackscreen.
Anyway, I would first re-softmod the wii and strat from there.

 

[Poglodyte]

Ok I've run a syscheck. Before I did that I had tried one more thing. I found that @Cyan recommends a specific cIOS for 249 so I went ahead and used the installer for that, still to no avail. Actually now it seems to go black and freeze instead of back to menu. I tried doing a new nand dump as well, but I can't figure out how to set the path in usbloadergx. It claims that it extracts to the path you have set for nandemu and nandeme channels under custompaths? I don't think it did overwrite the one I had there though, and doesn't seem to have an option to create a new path. The "path" button while dumping the nand doesn't seem to allow device selection and does nothing no matter what path I type there. I think I'm on v1256 so I'll update to v1260 and see if that helps.

Anyway, here is the current syscheck:

Spoiler

SysCheck HDE v2.4.0 HacksDen Edition by JoostinOnline, Double_A, R2-D2199, and Nano
...runs on IOS58 (rev 6176).

Region: NTSC-U
System Menu 4.3U (v513)
Priiloader installed
Drive date: 02.13.2007
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x11
Console ID: 106235898
Console Type: Wii
Shop Channel Country: United States (49)
Boot2 v4
Found 120 titles.
Found 55 IOS on this console. 5 of them are stubs.

IOS4 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS9 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS10 (rev 768): Stub
IOS11 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS12 (rev 526): No Patches
IOS13 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS14 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS15 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS16 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, Flash Access, NAND Access
IOS17 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS20 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS21 (rev 1039): No Patches
IOS22 (rev 1294): No Patches
IOS28 (rev 1807): No Patches
IOS30 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS31 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS33 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS34 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS35 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS36 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access
IOS37 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS38 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS40 (rev 3072): Stub
IOS41 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS43 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS45 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS46 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS48 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS50 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS51 (rev 4864): Stub
IOS52 (rev 5888): Stub
IOS53 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS55 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS56 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS57 (rev 5919): No Patches
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS62 (rev 6430): No Patches
IOS70 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS80 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS90 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS202[60] (rev 65535, Info: hermesrodries-v6): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS222[38] (rev 4, Info: hermes-v4): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS223[38+37] (rev 4, Info: hermes-v4): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS224[57] (rev 65535, Info: hermesrodries-v6): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS236 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access, Beer Ticket
IOS245[37] (rev 21008, Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS246[38] (rev 21008, Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Access
IOS247[53] (rev 21008, Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS248[55] (rev 21008, Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS249[57] (rev 21008, Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS250[57] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v10beta52): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS251[58] (rev 21008, Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS254 (rev 65281): BootMii
BC v6
MIOS v65535
Report generated on 01/03/2016.

I do want to do a clean mod on everything now that I understand things a little better, but I'd like to be sure I have everything in order before doing so. I've only tried modmii for the emunand and neek stuff so far. Is it the way to go for modding your real nand as well?

Also I did try just launching games from wiiflow in neek2o mode which worked (slowly) but I think it froze on exit.

Lastly, I'd like to use usbloadergx to launch gamecube games because it seems to play PAL games correctly on my NTSC machine where wiiflow did not have the proper launch setting. However, it seems that all gamecube games launched through usbloadergx will freeze when I try to exit them (using home button on wiimote, as I have no other controller yet).

So I think that covers most of my current issues. Thanks so much for the help guys!

Edit: Oh and I think my hdd is 32k cluster size because that's what https://support.microsoft.com/EN-US/kb/67321 lists for 64 sectors per cluster.

 

[sideskroll]

I do want to do a clean mod on everything now that I understand things a little better, but I'd like to be sure I have everything in order before doing so. I've only tried modmii for the emunand and neek stuff so far. Is it the way to go for modding your real nand as well?

Ok. So go get ModMii and get going.
It shouldn't take more than 30 minutes and yes that's the most reliable way to softmod your wii.
It's pretty self-explanatory so if you have any questions just ask.
If you want you can even give me the MAC address of your Wii and I can give you an already made download queue for ModMii.
If you want to go that way PM me your MAC address. Just in case.

 

[game_rat]

I thought neek2o was the best option since it has the highest compatibility, but I'm about done with trying that. It seemed to work for a second, until I added 700 some wads. I used this mega noob guide https://ccabz.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/neek2o-for-mega-noobs/ with the supplied US region nand. If I do end up trying neek2o again, is there a premade nand out there with the latest neek2o version? or an easy way to update that premade nand?

I had similar issues with neek2o, too long of a wait for large nands. A good workaround is to install Postloader on your neek2o nand and then configure it to use "neek2obooter.app" as the system menu. This allows Postloader to replace your neek2o system menu and it boots up right away, no more long wait.

 

[Poglodyte]

I had similar issues with neek2o, too long of a wait for large nands. A good workaround is to install Postloader on your neek2o nand and then configure it to use "neek2obooter.app" as the system menu. This allows Postloader to replace your neek2o system menu and it boots up right away, no more long wait.

Ah, thanks for the recommendation sir! I will have to give that a try if I install neek2o again.

In the meantime, I've re-modded with modmii thanks to the help of @sideskroll and everything seems to be working through usbloader gx: wiiware/vc on emunand and gamecube games all launching and exiting properly!

 

[Cyan]

f you want you can even give me the MAC address of your Wii

MAC address? for what?
he already has the Homebrew channel, he doesn't need letter bomb anymore to launch hackmii installer, he can run it from HBC. (and he doesn't even need to, as he already has HBC 1.1.2 running on IOS58.

All his IOS slots are fine.
just one thing I noticed :
slot 249 : you have d2x v8 base 57 (that's good ! you don't need base56, base57 has better compatibility)
slot 250 : you have d2x v10 base57 (that's ... unnecessary. v10 is a copy of v8. not useful to have multiple slots with the same things. What you could install is d2x v10-alt (the revision 53 of d2x) which allows Port1 support, but it's bad with emuNAND)
if you don't need port1 (you shouldn't need it) then your console is already good like that. don't change anything.
the only real issue, is your MIOS, which is version 65535. it doesn't tell which version of the MIOS you have. probably a cMIOS from wiigator? it should allow burned gamecube discs from wiigator's gc launcher. If you don't use discs for GC anymore, that's fine. leave it like that too.


But, I see you already resoftmodded, so it's too late for "keeping everything like that"

About your emuNAND issue :
after installing 200 wads ....
ok, here is your issue, batch installing wads without testing them first. a lot of dumps are bad and can corrupt nand.
it can even brick your wii if you installed that corrupted wad to your real NAND, so good thing you used emuNAND. and that's the main purpose of the emuNAND : prevent bricks in case of system file issue.

you should do lot of test & tries : install 100 wad instead of 200.
if it works, it means the problematic wad is in the 100 next batch. test 50 more, etc.
there's no easy method, you need to test them to find the issue.

using cIOS emuNAND mode will not fix the emuNAND issue

Also, I'm not too sure if it has been fixed or not, I think there were a limit of ticket you could have on a console. 256 maybe?
what you can do is create different emuNAND dumps, and span wads in different paths. it could b ehard to maintain and find a game you want to launch, but if it can prevent issues, why not.