Hacking USB Loader GX

[jbeeboy]

Thanks. I had just updated like 2 or 3 hours before I posted manually. I saw your post a moment before I posted, but it didn't look like the new update had patched that.

Thanks so much for keeping active on this. I can assure you that new people are still discovering and using your work to play their games better. I've never seen a homebrew dev keep a project so active for so long, and I've been active from GBA to DS to Wii.

 

[Troopage]

it's not already doing that?
the other buttons are not used? ZL ZR?
I'll see what I can do.

Yeah, it's not using ZL, ZR, L, or R.
Thanks for looking at it for me.

 

[Shiranui-san]

@Cyan, great job, I wasn't expecting a fix so quickly. Thanks for all the work you are doing with the loader.

 

[sonictopfan]

You are probably the user with the most games installed at the same time, you should "wait and wait ... and wait".
the more channel are installed on your emuNAND, the longer it will be. it needs about 1 minute and I have only ~15 channels

Yeah, I do have a lot of games installed, mostly for showing off as I don't really play them all, I mostly play the games I buy only and even then I tend to buy more than I can play due to time constructions.

Wow... that's a lot of waiting, no wonder this happens, so it's normal for Neek menu to take long to load? I mean I do see the glimps of channels appearing but then it stays on black screen, with the Wii remote still on, which makes me believe it's still trying to load, if I look at the hard drive I can see it blinking but after a while it stopped and still nothing showed up.

I guess in my case I just need to get that channel to work, btw I only have one EmuNAND and the path is "USB:/nand" I don't know if this is related to the issue or not, should I change it?

 

[DyCerBR]

Took me a while but now I can finally confirm everything I tested works! This is the best update ever! Thanks a lot Cyan!

 

[sonictopfan]

I got it working too, thanks Cyan!

 

[Cyan]

btw I only have one EmuNAND and the path is "USB:/nand" I don't know if this is related to the issue or not, should I change it?

that's a good path, no need to change it.

I got it working too

Glad it finally works.
If your drive is blinking, it's still loading. if it "freeze" (stop blinking) then it means neek loading froze (your channel could not be loaded or is not found, or is badly installed/corrupted) you'll have to hard reset.

I noticed some channels which worked ended not working anymore.
I don't know if it's a known issue with neek which corrupts the channel's data/save, or if it's due to multiple hard reboot/freeze I had while testing with the loader.

 

[DyCerBR]

I noticed some channels which worked ended not working anymore.
I don't know if it's a known issue with neek which corrupts the channel's data/save, or if it's due to multiple hard reboot/freeze I had while testing with the loader.

I had some channels not working too, but that was after I tried loading them with a different cIOS and froze during save file creation. It didn't happen again o Neek2o.

An unrelated question: I currently have a lot of cIOS installed. Are they really needed for something (like a few WiiWare or Wii games)? I currently try every single one with every game that doesn't work well. When none work, I use neek2o.

Currently, i don't have access to my computer but I can take a picture of the syscheck

 

[sonictopfan]

that's a good path, no need to change it.

Glad it finally works.
If your drive is blinking, it's still loading. if it "freeze" (stop blinking) then it means neek loading froze (your channel could not be loaded or is not found, or is badly installed/corrupted) you'll have to hard reset.

I noticed some channels which worked ended not working anymore.
I don't know if it's a known issue with neek which corrupts the channel's data/save, or if it's due to multiple hard reboot/freeze I had while testing with the loader.

The hard drive stops blinking after a while, I guess it's installed badly since I deleted all channels but the ones for games when I made it, I don't want a link to HBC or the News Channel on my games list

I didn't test all games yet but I already tested quite a few and I made sure to test different types of VC titles, especially the harder ones like N64 and Neo Geo, some Wiiware titles that had issue before, I focused mostly on these games, so far everything worked fine with neek.

Once cheat codes support is added to neek I'll be deleting all channels installed on the real nand, I already went past the allowed 20 pages in the SD menu that it always tells me I have more channels that aren't being displayed, this would probably free some space on my SD, maybe I'll reinstall the other SEGA CD titles that I deleted =p

Speaking of which, I wonder if anyone got a chance to test running a channel with real nand after the update, I doubt it would break anything but just in case, I should test it when I get back, that is if I had time, seriously during Ramadan organizing time can become a bit of an issue.

 

[AbdallahTerro]

Just compiled 1251 with DS3 (HID) support using libsicksaxis: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/101209384/usbloader-gui-1251-DS3-Mod.7z
check it out !!
Source patch included

 

[marchrius]

Haven't had the time to do so yet, sorry.

No prob

 

[kmksoulja]

Which IOS do I need to install in order for my USBLoader GX to use port 1 for the HDD? (I expect this is the problem as I havent updated any IOS's in years and I am using the current build of USBLoader GX.)

 

[Shiranui-san]

Which IOS do I need to install in order for my USBLoader GX to use port 1 for the HDD? (I expect this is the problem as I havent updated any IOS's in years and I am using the current build of USBLoader GX.)

According to the opening post:
"Compatible with both USB ports (needs Hermes cIOS or d2x v9+)"

 

[Cyan]

in fact, it's :
- Any hermes cIOS
- d2x v9
- d2x v10-alt

because v9 had some stability/compatibility issues, it was split in two version :
v8+v9 without port1 support = v10
v8+v9 with port1 support = v10 alternative

Are they really needed for something (like a few WiiWare or Wii games)?

sorry, I didn't see your post earlier.
So, you have "a lot" of installed cIOS at the same time, but most of them are the same version.... (not very useful for WiiWare or Virtual consoles).

I'll try to resume quickly their use.

Hardware access:
slot202 : old cIOS, used for WiiMC to get hardware access. not used anymore by WiiMC. Some WiiSX mod version are using it, as it's faster USB access than IOS58.

Hermes type:
Slot222 : Hermes v4 base 38
slot223 : Hermes v4 base mixed with 37 and 38
slot224 : Hermes mod by rodried v6 base 57

Hermes cIOS were used mainly for musical games (using microphone, etc.), and some games which didn't work with old Waninkoko cIOS because it didn't provide a way to select a different "base IOS" to generate the cIOS. It was always base37 or base38. some games requires base56+. Since Waninkoko rev18 the user can choose different bases, so Hermes ability to have different bases is not needed.

Trucha bug:
Slot236 : It's a copy of your IOS36 with the "Trucha bug" restored. Old IOS36 had a bug in the signature check (called the Trucha bug) but nintendo fixed it after 3.2, this IOS36 with bug was used by Wad managers to install bad signed wads. You can still use this slo236 to do the same, but it's not required anymore with new homebrew which are now patching trucha bug on the fly. Old homebrew are still dependent on this slot.

Waninkoko type:
slot244 : cIOS rev19 with base 57
slot245 to
slot251 : cIOS rev21 mod d2x v8 with ALL possible bases.

In fact you have only two different version of the "waninkoko cIOS" type : rev19 and rev21 mod8.
So, you have only Two possible compatibility test you can try with all your wiiware and VC. testing all slots are not really useful and are usually a waste of time.
If you really want to test compatibility with EmuNAND, you should install different cIOS versions, not necessarily different base. (but specific base can help too! not everytime. base38, 56, 57 or 58 are the main base you should test)
Look in the first post of the d2x cIOS thread, there's a table with some compatibility comparison, based on the version of the cIOS.
Some games work with old version, some with specific version, etc.
You can also help fill this page :
http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/Wii_cIOS_EmuNAND_Compatibility_List

Bootmii as IOS:
Slot254 : This is bootmii program, installed as an IOS (ARM homebrew which can be launched)




What you should do :
1. Do not delete IOS. f you don't use them, don't use them. that's all.
2. if you want to test different compatibility with emuNAND channels, you can install different cIOS version in slots 245 to 248.
currently, the slot 245 to 248 are using bases (37,38,53,55) which are not needed at all for any games (wii games or channels). having them are not useful.
3. Wii games only need base 56 (slot249) or base 57 (slot250). The slot251 can be used for musical games which requires USB accessories like microphones, wiiSpeak, etc.
Wii games can also benefit from Hermes cIOS if you want, but d2x should cover all the requirement. Remember that hermes cIOS are old. They don't have all the support and compatibility for new 4k drives, don't support NTFS, etc.
4. same with old Waninkoko cIOS, everytime you try something old, you need to keep in mind that they were released without newer feature supports and need to comply with their limitation.

 

[send0r]

I have a little question:
Is it possible that downloading covers, etc. from gametdb.com is broken for gamecube games?
Because if I download covers for Wii games everything works fine, but once I want to download a cover for a gamecube game, usbloader gx does nothing and even the cancel button of the download-"window" doesn't work so I have to hard reset my vWii.
I am using r1251 but experienced this on r1246 too...

Thank you for quite working on this loader

 

[Cyan]

the code used to download cover is the same for all plateforms (wii, gc, channels)
the only difference is the URL used to download custom animated banners.
I changed that URL dew times because the server used to host these banners often closes and moves.

Did you try to disable custom banners ?
try to enable only one category at a time (3D, or cover, or cover full) to see if there's one with issue, or if it freeze at a specific game, etc.

I'll try to add a better support for the progress bar freeze. when the progress freeze on download or wad install or zip extraction, there's no way to cancel it.


edit:
@sonictopfan:
a question about game caching.
After the game list is loaded and you see your games, editing the source takes another long time to load?
for example, if you go to source menu (4th icon) and disable Gamecube (or any other sources), valid, open the menu again and then re-enable it, does it takes another long time to re-parse the games list or are they kept in memory?
I just want to know if this menu contains a "force a game list refresh" function of it it's using the list already in memory.

Don't get your hopes up.
I'm not working on it, I'm only thinking how it currently works. (it's faster to ask you than checking the sources )

 

[send0r]

I tested out and the only category that works is custom animated banners. The rest freezes on every game (I deleted the games on that it was freezing, but it freezed on just on the next game)

I will go to download the covers manually
Thanks for your answer

 

[Cyan]

maybe there's an issue with the website, or an issue with the loader.
I'll test downloading covers (or someone else can test and report before I do?)

 

[DyCerBR]

Wow, thanks for the detailed explanation!

I had installed a lot of different base d2x cIOS because I thought that the cIOS base was likely the determinant factor for some Wiiware games not working. Now that I think of it, only one WiiWare game worked with only base 37. Every other game I tested either don't work with any base at all or work with all of them. I'll try installing different versions like you suggested instead.

I had wanin's rev19 on slot 244 for running problematic games. Too bad it only supports emunand on the hdd root. I haven't tested, but does neek2o work if the emunand is on the hdd root? (I remember you saying it had issues before the release). I like to keep things organized and neek2o support was great for doing it. My hdd root was such a mess I didn't even know what was what.

 

[Cyan]

yes, you can use neek2o now, it works both on root or in subfolders.
install the neek2o files into the /sneek/ folder and select neek as emuNAND mode in the loader.

you need only usb:/sneek/kernel.bin
(sneek/di.bin is used to emulate the disc drive, in case you want to launch incompatible wii games like tintin, or driver. If you want only channel launching, you don't need it, but it's not a problem to have it)

or you can try using the cIOS Full Emulation NAND instead of neek, try different cIOS version for wiiware compatibility, check the wiki I linked.
you can try :
rev17 (always base38)
rev19 (base38 or 57)
rev20 and 21 have issues and controller lags. you should skip them.
any d2x version (either base 38 or 57)

note:
Like said by a user above, launching a game with a non compatible cIOS emuNAND method sometime corrupts the save.
uninstalling the wad and reinstalling it to be sure the save is clean could be a good thing to do before trying a different cIOS version.
it's a lot of tests to do and takes a lot of time, just report what you test. don't try to test everything