Hacking USB Loader GX

[Cyan]

he would like game list caching to prevent the loader from reloading all the games by analyzing the folders and files.
he has lot of games displayed at the same time (3000+ ?) and it's very long to load and change layout or refresh the game list.

having a game list cache would reload the list from a file but would require manual refresh when editing the device content.


I'm now in holiday, but I haven't done anything yet.
I'll first look at the hdd detection issue and/or the max dol size issue.

 

[retKHAAAN]

@Cyan are you a one man show with GX now?

 

[Cyan]

yes.
there were a lot of different developers along its life.
I followed the project since the start and helped as main beta tester since v1.2 and helped Dimok (who worked alone since 1.2) fix and improve everything to a stable release.
but since 3.0, Dimok left and there were nobody else to work on it, so I did what I could to add new features and suggestions from users. I worked mainly on adding Gamecube loader supports (devo, dm, nintendont) and few things like the improved category filtering.

I'm not the best to develop, I only learned C++ by reading this project's sources and getting help from Dimok!
I may have introduce a big bug, as the loader now crash if it reaches a specific dol size
I had to remove old features to add new ones, but I'm now blocked and discouraged to even start looking at a fix as I don't know if I'm capable or if it's possible.
I would gladly accept another developer's help for that issue, that will give me will to continue a little on this project (I had lot of idea, but not enough time and knowledge)

 

[ca032769]

he would like game list caching to prevent the loader from reloading all the games by analyzing the folders and files.
he has lot of games displayed at the same time (3000+ ?) and it's very long to load and change layout or refresh the game list.

having a game list cache would reload the list from a file but would require manual refresh when editing the device content.


I'm now in holiday, but I haven't done anything yet.
I'll first look at the hdd detection issue and/or the max dol size issue.

@Cyan this is an excellent program and has been my favorite for a while now.

I'm in the same boat as sonictopfan, with Wii-GameCube-WW-VC I'm probably over 3,000+ titles. If cache support is eventually added that would be most excellent!

 

[retKHAAAN]

If I had any knowledge at all I would gladly help… I used to compile and upload the dols for each GX update way back before they automated it. Also did bug testing and support in this thread (name was Old8oy then). I thought it would be a good place to start learning some code but I never stuck with it… I think it was mostly Pune and Dimok then

 

[Cyan]

I remember that username
yeah, Giantpune and Dimok were the main developers (along with some others, but they did a lot, specially dimok who rewrote all the C to C++ classes)

compiling had never been automated, they just released each of them manually after each commit. And I continue doing it this way.
I'm not triggering the new update from the loader unless I got enough report from users that it's stable enough.
it makes me remember that I have to update the first post with new sourceforge links!

 

[sonictopfan]

@Cyan I didn't mean to disturb your holiday, by all mean take all the time you need, right now USB Loader GX works just great with me, I have no complaints really.

Edit: don't look so down on yourself, Cyan, you're doing a great job, like I said the loader works great and is up to date with all the important stuff, don't worry about it.

But like Cyan said, my wish is to have a cache support to have the loader load faster when having so many games (I could be wrong but doesn't Nintendont support cache now? I know MultiMan does) I've noticed it's especially slow when you load EmuNAND games, I admit I'm a greedy guy, I like to have all my games displayed and ready to play at any time.

 

[GreyWolf]

I don't think it's the dol size that's the problem. I think the GUI is eating up the free memory. Are you able to get any crash data from your Gecko? I don't have one so I can't see what's actually going on in the console.

I'll have to look at the cover image code. It needs to be unloading the graphics when they're not in view or about to come into view. (No need to allocate memory for titles at the end of the list if you're viewing stuff on the first page. )

I'm trying to integrate XML into the GUI code and a JS engine so a lot of the logic and UI can be moved to SD/USB instead of staying in memory.

I wish you'd move the project to Github. I really hate SF. (You could just remove the svnrev script and bump the version manually.)

 

[Cyan]

it crashes before loading the GUI.
Just after IOS reloading, so I think it's an issue with MEM2 protection (maybe it's not set back and something write to that area), or something related to network (I don't remember if I tried without auto-network)

the gecko doesn't give an address which can be tracked back with gdb.
It provides an address, but I don't know how to check it, or which function tries to access it. maybe with IDA pro? but I don't have it and don't know how to use it.

I tried to add memory information (how much used/free) but except seeing Mem1 is always almost full, It wasn't helpful. I would like a way to visually map the memory (like defrag or bootmii clusters) not sure if it would be useful, but having an idea where the data is stored for each function is maybe useful.

 

[GreyWolf]

Maybe debug logging is the only option unless someone knows where I can find a usable Gecko.

I wonder if it's related to the invalid address errors I get trying to run the loader in Dolphin? It generates a bunch of them before it finally loads. MEM1 is the SRAM that both the Starlet and PPC share, IIRC. The loader shouldn't need to be using it except when it runs one of the IPLs.

 

[EnigmaXtreme]

I love the new EmuNand features, finally got around to installing Neek thanks to it. Would it be possible to get a Launch Neek System Menu button on the main screen?

 

[sonictopfan]

@GreyWolf Since we're on the topic of issues with USB Loader GX I'd like to remind you that my 64GB SDHC doesn't run it (along with Wii Xplorer and SaveGame Manager GX) which is strange since the rest of apps and emulators I have seem to work fine with it, it does however work fine on my 32GB SD.

I love the new EmuNand features, finally got around to installing Neek thanks to it. Would it be possible to get a Launch Neek System Menu button on the main screen?

There is an option in the settings menu.

 

[EnigmaXtreme]

@GreyWolf Since we're on the topic of issues with USB Loader GX I'd like to remind you that my 64GB SDHC doesn't run it (along with Wii Xplorer and SaveGame Manager GX) which is strange since the rest of apps and emulators I have seem to work fine with it, it does however work fine on my 32GB SD.


There is an option in the settings menu.

Yeah, I know, I was suggesting having a shortcut on the main menu as well

 

[Cyan]

I don't like the idea of adding options to main screen, as users would wonder why a button is not working, or what's its purpose etc.
but I understand that it could be done by displaying it only if neek is detected, or adding an option in the GUI (that's the best option I think, a GUI option disabled by default), but then users will want a button on the main menu to do different things (wad manager, etc.)

I think the SD refresh is not useful (and users shouldn't remove their SD card while in the loader), maybe that place could be used for something else.

 

[Magnus87]

Someone has a Delorean or a TARDIS?

I want to back to the 2006 with ULGX source code.
Maybe Dimok, Nlxx, Giantpune or young Cyan could give update for the loader XD

God save the ULGX

 

[GreyWolf]

Someone has a Delorean or a TARDIS?

I want to back to the 2006 with ULGX source code.
Maybe Dimok, Nlxx, Giantpune or young Cyan could give update for the loader XD

God save the ULGX

You can grab any binary that's still in the repository or check out whichever revision you want and compile it yourself.

Why would you want an older one?

 

[Cyan]

young Cyan

yeahh, you are saying I'm old ?!
I waited to be in holidays to be able to work on it again, but I admit I didn't do anything yet (I'm in holidays for 10 days now).
I have my niece at home and spend some time with her instead, and I found a new home and am in the process to move there. (rhaaa, I have too many books ! that's so heavy! and it's a single room with not much space...).
I'll now be living alone and will have even less time, but I can't tell if I will continue working on the loader or not. I'll do things based on the needs (for example new nintendont release break it, I'll update quickly, which makes me remember to post r1262 soon).

I'm in holidays until end of august, but will bring my niece back home the last week. so I have only one week left to do any work I wanted to do. I'll probably spent it moving my stuff to the new place.
going back or freezing time would be great, indeed.

 

[SkwerlyMike]

Has anybody figured out how to run Rock Band 3 with the usb peripherals and sd card support for dlc at the same time? I can't get them to both work.

 

[Cyan]

SD Card support, do you mean saved DLC on the SD card?
I didn't know it was possible to save DLC on the SD card menu. DLC is usually stored on the internal memory.

Are you playing on Wii or vWii ?
if it's wii, did you try to use hermes cIOS or pluggin USB accessories before launching the loader?
you can also try using a cIOS with base58

 

[SkwerlyMike]

SD Card support, do you mean saved DLC on the SD card?
I didn't know it was possible to save DLC on the SD card menu. DLC is usually stored on the internal memory.

Are you playing on Wii or vWii ?
if it's wii, did you try to use hermes cIOS or pluggin USB accessories before launching the loader?
you can also try using a cIOS with base58

I'm playing on a Wii. I can get it to run with only USB peripherals with Hermes cios 222. The SD card only works with 249. I want to use the SD card for dlc because internal memory only holds like 4 dlc songs. I've considered using emulated nand to store more dlc and negate the need for an SD card, but can't get the game to recognize it.