Hacking USB Loader GX

[lordelan]

@Cyan When I launch the forwarder to start USB Loader GX while the Wii U HDD is also connected it would stay at the boot screen (trying to detect) forever.
Luckily enough I have an active USB hub with separate on/off switches for each USB slot so I can turn the Wii U HDD off but I was wondering whether you could detect (and ignore) it.

 

[awefour44]

Finally tested out the latest version and it's working great, the new features and compatibility are amazing! Thank you so much @blackb0x for your work on this project.

A small feature request: for the "VI Width" option, it would be interesting to be able to force arbitrary (or a preselected set of) width values in addition to the existing "auto" and "framebuffer" options. The mega man 9/10 games ought to be rendered in 512-pixel width given the games' assets but the framebuffer value is 640 pix, which causes unsightly shimmer distortion when the game scrolls.

 

[ssjkakaroto]

I saw that the first post doesn't mention it, but does USB Loader GX support exFAT formatted drives?
I'm asking because I just saw that GameCube Backup Manager's github say that Nintendont does support it.

 

[XFlak]

No it doesn't, iirc that's more of a cios thing than a usbloader thing

 

[trogdon]

I swear I tried looking before asking this, but where do I put the Wii WBFS files on the SD card if I want to boot them from there?

 

[Sypherone]

@trogdon Same filestructur like on a external drive or go to "user path" in USBLGX settings and set a own location for them.

 

[wiio]

Hi guys !

I'm trying to play "New Super Mario Bros Wii" (SNMP01) from USB Loader GX v3.0
r1281 and d2x v11 beta1, but it "freezes" few seconds after the first screens,
when actually playing. The game seems to work fine from the dolphin emulator.

I'm using an external 256GB hard drive plugged on USB0, formated as FAT32. One
USB port is enough to power it, but the HD box has an optional power cable
that I plugged on USB1, just to be on the safe side.

I've been able to backup two games on the HD, and played "Rabbids Go Home"
with no freeze.

When SNMP01 freezes, the music stop, animations on screen keeps moving, but
it looks like any action from the wiimotes are blackholed. Trying to connect
a second wiimote makes it blink desperately in the great void. the only thing
I can do is to force-off the wii pushing the on/off physical button on it for
few seconds.

Looking around at the forum, I updated the IOS following the wiidev guide in the github repo of usbloadergx and the usb-loader-gx-troubleshooting-guide threads on this forum. This helps a bit as the game was freezing on the "take the wiimote
horizontally" screen. Now, the game freezes few second after the action
actually start.

I tried to disable the deflicker: no luck.
I tried to disable the ocarina: no luck.
I set "Region free everything" from Priiloader: no luck.

The freezes also happen when starting the game from a USB key formatted with
NTFS. So I suppose might no be some drive failure/bad blocks.

Any help or ideas or next step I should try?

Here is my SysCheck output:

Spoiler

SysCheck HDE v2.4.0 HacksDen Edition par JoostinOnline, Double_A, R2-D2199, et Nano
...tourne sous l'IOS58 (rev 6176).

Region: PAL
Menu Systeme 4.3E (v514)
Priiloader installe
Date de disque: 02.13.2007
Chaine Channel 1.1.2 utilise IOS58

Hollywood v0x11
Identifiant de la console: 119289231
Type de Console: Wii
Pays de la chaine boutique: France (77)
Boot2 v4
80 titres trouves.
49 IOS trouves sur cette console. 16 sont des stubs.

IOS3 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS4 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS9 (rev 1034): Pas de patches
IOS10 (rev 768): Stub
IOS11 (rev 256): Stub
IOS12 (rev 526): Pas de patches
IOS13 (rev 1032): Pas de patches
IOS14 (rev 1032): Pas de patches
IOS15 (rev 1032): Pas de patches
IOS16 (rev 512): Stub
IOS17 (rev 1032): Pas de patches
IOS20 (rev 256): Stub
IOS21 (rev 1039): Pas de patches
IOS22 (rev 1294): Pas de patches
IOS28 (rev 1807): Pas de patches
IOS30 (rev 2816): Stub
IOS31 (rev 3608): Pas de patches
IOS33 (rev 3608): Pas de patches
IOS34 (rev 3608): Pas de patches
IOS35 (rev 3608): Pas de patches
IOS36 (rev 3608): Pas de patches
IOS37 (rev 5663): Pas de patches
IOS38 (rev 4124): Pas de patches
IOS40 (rev 3072): Stub
IOS41 (rev 3607): Pas de patches
IOS43 (rev 3607): Pas de patches
IOS45 (rev 3607): Pas de patches
IOS46 (rev 3607): Pas de patches
IOS48 (rev 4124): Pas de patches
IOS50 (rev 5120): Stub
IOS51 (rev 4864): Stub
IOS52 (rev 5888): Stub
IOS53 (rev 5663): Pas de patches
IOS55 (rev 5663): Pas de patches
IOS56 (rev 5662): Pas de patches
IOS57 (rev 5919): Pas de patches
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 6400): Stub
IOS61 (rev 5662): Pas de patches
IOS62 (rev 6430): Pas de patches
IOS70 (rev 6912): Stub
IOS80 (rev 6944): Pas de patches
IOS222 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS223 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS248[38] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v11beta1): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, Acces NAND
IOS249[56] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v11beta1): Trucha Bug, Acces NAND, USB 2.0
IOS250[57] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v11beta1): Trucha Bug, Acces NAND, USB 2.0
IOS251[58] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v11beta1): Trucha Bug, Acces NAND, USB 2.0
IOS254 (rev 65280): Stub
BC v6
MIOS v10
Rapport genere le 2023/02/24.

Thanks all,

Cheers!

 

[XFlak]

It's not the cause of your issue, but it seems like you're missing bootmii (and probably a nand backup)

Have u tried a new/fresh rip of the game? Other games on the same drive are working I'm assuming, right?

 

[GDX]

Probably a bad game dump checked the md5 hash of the full iso before converting it to wbfs

and checked that the md5 hash matches the redump database

 

[Sypherone]

Game image integrity :

• Simple : Verify your game backup image is not corrupted by running it on PC or Smartphone with Dolphin Emulator.
• Recommended : Verify the MD5 or SHA-1 hash value of the generated game backup image and when its moved or copied to another place.
  • The MD5 and SHA-1 hash value of a generated game ISO image, can be verified manually for GC and Wii games on redump.org by using 7zip for hash value calculation or automaticly by Redump Verifier or Wimms ISO Tool.
  • The SHA-1 value is already stored inside the image by Nintendo and can be verified for WBFS and ISO images with GC/Wii Backup Manager under "Tools"
• Use GC Backup Manager or Wii Backup Manager to copy the game automatically to correct path on the drive, which will calculate a new MD5 hash value and store it inside the wbfs images to verify the integrity of the copied image.

When I launch the forwarder to start USB Loader GX while the Wii U HDD is also connected it would stay at the boot screen (trying to detect) forever.

There is a recognizen bug by USB Loader GX that may happen if vWii+WiiU drive is pluged in at the same time.

If you dont play a game, like guitar hero or sing star, that requires a specific IOS. You can try this workaround by using IOS 58 as loader and game IOS and plug vWii drive to port 1 and WiiU drive to port 0.

 

[Mikef1]

Hello,
Has the 'Slow EmuNAND game saving' (sometimes) issue been fixed?

PS: I'm not sure if it's a loader issue or the ISOs.

Thank-you

 

[wiio]

Have u tried a new/fresh rip of the game?

Not yet.

Other games on the same drive are working I'm assuming, right?

Yes, with the game "Rabbids Go Home" I actually backed up from the disk to my HD using USB Loader GX.

Simple : Verify your game backup image is not corrupted by running it on PC or Smartphone withDolphin Emulator

I gave it a try, under Linux: seems to run fine.

I mounted the wbfs image using "wfuse", I checked my image against the redump database. For what it worth, the SHA/md5 of the iso embeded in the wbfs file seems wrong according to the rebase database:

$ sha1sum mnt/wbfs/slot/0/disc.iso
a4ac4289a7a70209a4dcf5bee85e1072b777dd0c

$ md5sum mnt/wbfs/slot/0/disc.iso
ed16b8a0158929473730765bb1d4084b  mnt/wbfs/slot/0/disc.iso

I'm not sure this is the correct way to check the iso signature though, as the iso might be changed during the wrap inside the wbfs image... ?

I'll check with an image from archive.org and report back tonight.

Cheers,

 

[CoolMe]

I swear I tried looking before asking this, but where do I put the Wii WBFS files on the SD card if I want to boot them from there?

Sd:/wbfs
==============
@wiio since the wbfs file didn't work on both the hdd and usb flash drive means it's probably corrupt.

I'm not sure this is the correct way to check the iso signature though, as the iso might be changed during the wrap inside the wbfs image... ?

Use WiiBackupManager to verify your Wii isos & wbfs files for corruption, it's under "tools".

 

[wiio]

Hi all,

Well, you were right, off course: the wbfs was probably corrupt. I tried with another one and was able to play for about 1h with no freeze.

Use WiiBackupManager to verify your Wii isos & wbfs files for corruption, it's under "tools".

I couldn't as I'm only running Linux.
I did check/verify the wbfs file using "wtt" (from wit.wiimm.de), but this tool doesn't detect any error... but I'm not sure how deep it checks things...

The new wbfs and the old one looks a bit different inside ... anyway it works!

It's not the cause of your issue, but it seems like you're missing bootmii (and probably a nand backup)

I'll have a look at documentations about these, I'm not 100% sure yet how useful they might be. Thanks for the advice!

Thanks a lot for your help, advice, patience and for USB Loader GX!

 

[homestar92]

Maybe I'm missing something really obvious, but is it possible to have Wii games load from SD card but use an EmuNAND that's on the USB drive? That is pretty much the piece that's missing to make this absolutely perfect for my workflow.

 

[CoolMe]

but is it possible to have Wii games load from SD card

Yes, with both usbloadergx and WiiFlow Lite. Just make sure you have the latest of either to be able to do that.

but use an EmuNAND that's on the USB drive?

Yes, sure, usbloadergx has the function to that, you could use it to install vc and wiiware games. There's also Uneek (emunand), you can make it with ModMii.

 

[homestar92]

Yes, with both usbloadergx and WiiFlow Lite. Just make sure you have the latest of either to be able to do that.

Yes, sure, usbloadergx has the function to that, you could use it to install vc and wiiware games. There's also Uneek (emunand), you can make it with ModMii

See that's the thing though - unless I'm missing something obvious in the UI, USB Loader GX doesn't seem to support USB EmuNAND when it's in SD mode. If I flip it back to USB mode, then I can use the USB EmuNAND, but not my Wii games on the SD card.

 

[blackb0x]

A small feature request: for the "VI Width" option, it would be interesting to be able to force arbitrary (or a preselected set of) width values in addition to the existing "auto" and "framebuffer" options. The mega man 9/10 games ought to be rendered in 512-pixel width given the games' assets but the framebuffer value is 640 pix, which causes unsightly shimmer distortion when the game scrolls.

I had experimented with custom widths, which is why the setting isn't simply an ON/OFF toggle. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get it working correctly though, but I'll probably look into it again at some point.

Has the 'Slow EmuNAND game saving' (sometimes) issue been fixed?

Does that issue occur when playing a specific game? Since I've never experienced slow saves.

Maybe I'm missing something really obvious, but is it possible to have Wii games load from SD card but use an EmuNAND that's on the USB drive?

When you enable SD card mode the loaders reconfigured to work with just your SD card. That's why it restarts, changes some settings and tells you that EmuNAND saves aren't supported if you try to enable the setting globally.

I'd like EmuNAND saves to work from the SD card, but the d2x cIOS doesn't currently allow anything to be written to your SD card while you're playing a game from it.

 

[FerLu]

Hi guys, first i would like to thank you for your hard work on this usb loader, i really apreciate all the features that it has. Second, does this thread also acts as a help thread? Because i need some help with the online error 50330 that only appears when using usb loader for some reason

 

[lordelan]

@Cyan When I launch the forwarder to start USB Loader GX while the Wii U HDD is also connected it would stay at the boot screen (trying to detect) forever.
Luckily enough I have an active USB hub with separate on/off switches for each USB slot so I can turn the Wii U HDD off but I was wondering whether you could detect (and ignore) it.

@Cyan Additionally to this: Why is it impossible to create GitHub issues in your repository?