Hacking USB Loader GX

[sideskroll]

Don't install wads built by Modmii on vWii, Modmii is not compatible with vWii.
rev53 and 52 have different compatibility, so may be its worth a shot.

I know that.
Thanks for the warning though.
What I meant was the WAY modmii builds the cIOS.
Cause so far the same cIOS (d2x v10 r52) with the same HDD works on Wii but not on vWii.
I'm just trying to find the cause here.
The only difference is in the way the cIOS are installed.
ModMii downloads the originals from Nintendo and patches them with d2x (how?) the d2x installer on the other hand takes the base ios from your own console and patches them before installing on their respective slots.
What's the difference there? What is causing the issues? And most importantly. How/why do these issues manifest with WD drives only?

 

[Hielkenator]

Do your Neek nand have to be of the same region as your physical Wii?
I am struggling with a particular problem game and I am wondering if it is region video specific.
My Wii is PAL and my emunand made with modmii is USA.
Can sombody confirm poolrevolution - cuesports NTSC working in usb loader gx using cIOS or Sneek channel loading?

Also in REV 260 of usblgx does not seem to acknowledge the golbal settings for emunand collection regarding sneek Nand location for some reason.
Manual per game setting works.
However booting a sneek nand from the functions options work properly.

 

[Cyan]

Fact is: d2x cIOS' built by modmii and installed as wads work 100%. And cIOS' patched by the installer don't. (At least for WD drives)

Is that really a fact?
You tried it on Wii, and the installer doesn't work while modmii wad does?

Fix94 installer is based of v2.2 instead of installer v3.1 (I've read few times that 3.1 has some bugs, that's why users prefered using 2.2).
On the first vWii hack, everybody used the intaller (not mod by fix94) which required the user to make a NAND dump, pack the IOS as Wad, put the Wad on root of SD card to be used as base.
What fix94 did is only extracting the internal slot instead of doing it manually with a NAND dump or BlueDump.
Fix94 mod does not change the compatibility.

If compatibility is different, it would be the installer version choice (2.2 instead of 3.1).
What you can do :
- use "yet another blue dump mod" to extract your IOS57. (let's try with 57, it has more compatibility, no need to mess with multiple IOS and slots), copy to SD root.
- download d2x installer 3.1, extract to SD
- extract d2x r52 for vWii in installer folder
- shutdown wifi (to be sure it won't install from network)
- install d2x v10 (r52, not r53) base 56 from offline in slot 250.

you will have slot 249 from 2.2 and 250 from 3.1
I don't know if there are different patching method from 2.2 to 3.1, or if it's only visual changes and bugfixes.

I tried to install a lot of Gamecube banners by downloading them in the loader, but now it says "85 files not found on the server". There are several games that don't have banners when they should, such as Viewtiful Joe. I went to http://nintendont.gxarena.com/banners/ and the banners ARE there, but USBGX just isn't downloading them. Furthermore, games that do have banners sometimes don't have custom music.

so there are 2 different issues?
is the banner on the server an ID4 or ID6 ? if ID6 be sure it's the same region. if ID4, could you try r1252 ?
Maybe the download issue is caused by the (expected) fix I did in r1260, but it broke it instead of fixing it.

No sound is not a bug from me, and I don't know why you don't have it.
Maybe memory issue, again. and I don't know how to fix it. Try to remove games to have less data in memory and see if it fix your issue.
try with a new partition or path (you can change the Gamecube path in the settings, instead of "usb:/games/" try "usb:/test/" and only one game) and reboot the loader.

Do your Neek nand have to be of the same region as your physical Wii?

Region free need to be patched in neek.
Boot neek without a game, in system menu go to the hidden menu and enable region free patch.

Also in REV 260 of usblgx does not seem to acknowledge the golbal settings for emunand collection regarding sneek Nand location for some reason.
Manual per game setting works.
However booting a sneek nand from the functions options work properly.

I didn't touch anything related to emuNAND path recently.
I'm not sure to understand your explanation.
What is not working correctly ? the "loader settings>EmuNAND channel" option, or the "user path>EmuNAND channel path" option ?

the loader is generating and refreshing the nandcfg.bin file in sneek folder, which contains a list of hot swappable emuNAND path while in neek2o.
It should set the current emuNAND path (global one) as first path in that file, unless an individual path is set in the game setting.
move the nandcfg.bin outside of sneek folder and try again. if it fixes your issue, could you send me your bin file? I'll check is something wrong with the content or the creation of that file.

 

[tswntk]

ModMii downloads the originals from Nintendo and patches them with d2x (how?) the d2x installer on the other hand takes the base ios from your own console and patches them before installing on their respective slots.
What's the difference there? What is causing the issues? And most importantly. How/why do these issues manifest with WD drives only?

There should be no difference if your console ios are up to date.
In the case of vWii, the ios should all be up to date and IIRC, we can't decrypt vWii ios from NUS yet. Thats why we have to patch the ios from our own console.
The patching mechanism should be the same for Wii and vWii but who knows what exactly have Nintendo done to the vWii ios? or what exactly have WD done to their usb drives?

I don't think the bare drives themselves are the problem (except problems with 512 vs 4K drives). Its probably more of a USB interface/chip problem. I have 3 usb 2.0 drives - 2 buffalo cases and 1 Hitachi case. The drives are Hitachi, WD and Seagate. They all are interchangeable (cases and drives) and works fine.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Do your Neek nand have to be of the same region as your physical Wii?

no, I have neek20 and 3 different clean nands each for different regions.
I have a multi-system TV though not sure if the video signals from different region will affect your TV or not.

 

[Cyan]

@sideskroll
I thought you could try something else.
use Wiiflow instead of usbgx. I know wiiflow works fine as other users reported it.
But I don't know if wiiflow only use IOS58, or if you can tell the loader to reload to 249 while inside the loader.

If you find a way to use 249 instead of 58, then that will be a good test.
if wiiflow works with 249, it means the drive init is different in usbgx and means I can fix it.


@Hielkenator :
like tswntk said, if the region free patch doesn't work (I think it's not always working), then you can make different EmuNAND regions.
what you can do though, is to install the other region games in two different path :
the global nand path (the one the loader lists) and the correct region path (the one the loader launches, set in the individual game setting)
that will take twice the space on your drive, but that's a good way to list all games at the same time in the loader.

Also, there are some games which don't like progressive ! set interlace in the neek's wii settings. Someone reported a game few days ago.
Also, there are some (one?) games which don't like widescreen, set 4:3 in the neek's wii settings. The only game I know is Strong bad episode 1 (or 2).
You can also create individual emuNAND dumps for these games : a NAND path with 4:3 interlace for problematic games, as the loader can't edit neek settings on the fly yet.
That's a little more work on user's side if you want everything working fine. if I have time to work on the neek setting editor, then it will prevent such setup with multi nand paths. but for the moment it's the way to do it.

 

[sideskroll]

Is that really a fact?
You tried it on Wii, and the installer doesn't work while modmii wad does?

No. I haven't (I could though... you gave me an idea)
What I meant by fact is the FACT that the modded Wii running the same cIOS can initialize the same HDD that the vWii can't.
That's the "fact" I was referring to.

Fix94 installer is based of v2.2 instead of installer v3.1 (I've read few times that 3.1 has some bugs, that's why users prefered using 2.2).
On the first vWii hack, everybody used the intaller (not mod by fix94) which required the user to make a NAND dump, pack the IOS as Wad, put the Wad on root of SD card to be used as base.
What fix94 did is only extracting the internal slot instead of doing it manually with a NAND dump or BlueDump.
Fix94 mod does not change the compatibility.

If compatibility is different, it would be the installer version choice (2.2 instead of 3.1).
What you can do :
- use "yet another blue dump mod" to extract your IOS57. (let's try with 57, it has more compatibility, no need to mess with multiple IOS and slots), copy to SD root.
- download d2x installer 3.1, extract to SD
- extract d2x r52 for vWii in installer folder
- shutdown wifi (to be sure it won't install from network)
- install d2x v10 (r52, not r53) base 56 from offline in slot 250.

you will have slot 249 from 2.2 and 250 from 3.1
I don't know if there are different patching method from 2.2 to 3.1, or if it's only visual changes and bugfixes.

Didn't work. Although, I'm not even sure if I did install it (Since I was using the same slots) cause, you know the slots map screen that appears after you select the cIOS, base and slot in the installer? Well, according to the legend below that map green means "success", purple means "canceled" and red means "failed". Well the slot was as red as it could be after the installation... I don't know if that's the bug you were referring to or if I read it wrong or if thats just the way it is.
I guess I could try installing it in an empty slot "just to be sure". But I don't like the idea of polluting slots... What do you think?

@sideskroll
I thought you could try something else.
use Wiiflow instead of usbgx. I know wiiflow works fine as other users reported it.
But I don't know if wiiflow only use IOS58, or if you can tell the loader to reload to 249 while inside the loader.

If you find a way to use 249 instead of 58, then that will be a good test.
if wiiflow works with 249, it means the drive init is different in usbgx and means I can fix it.

I guess that's my next test then... But I don't think the issue is with the way the loader initializes the drive. Cause in that case it would fail on Wii as well, correct?

 

[Cyan]

for the IOS slot, you can try installing a different base (say,... base37) with d2x installer first, so you see if the installer3.1 worked fine installing base56.

for your second question, I don't know if it would fail on wii as well. maybe the usb interface is initialized differently on wiiu and wiiflow is doing something different.
that may not lead to a fix, but it's always "one less thing to test, narrowing the culprit". tests is all we can do to exclude possibilities.
sorry this is you doing the tests and not me, I know it takes lot of time doing all this. but at the same time, thanks doing it

 

[sideskroll]

for the IOS slot, you can try installing a different base (say,... base37) with d2x installer first, so you see if the installer3.1 worked fine installing base56.

I'll try 58 on 249, how about that?

for your second question, I don't know if it would fail on wii as well. maybe the usb interface is initialized differently on wiiu and wiiflow is doing something different.
that may not lead to a fix, but it's always "one less thing to test, narrowing the culprit". tests is all we can do to exclude possibilities.
sorry this is you doing the tests and not me, I know it takes lot of time doing all this. but at the same time, thanks doing it

Don't even mention it. You do more than enough (way more) for all of us. The least I can do is try to help you test sh!t out. Now if we manage to find a fix then I'll be not only happy but I'll need to charge you for my time
No, really. Don't mention it dude. I only hope we can find the issue and perhaps help all the guys with WD drives that are facing some issues ATM.

*UPDATE* @Cyan Nope. Doesn't work. The base remains the same so it isn't installing.
Does the installer need IOS 236?

*UPDATE 2* @Cyan

- Couldn't get the cios installer to work.
I dumped the ios without fake signing them, I renamed the wads properly (I think? eg: IOS56-64-v5918.wad etc), placed them in root directly (was I supposed to create a WAD folder?) and tried installing. No dice.

- Tried rev 53 base 56, 57 AND 58. The same exact results as with 52. (Used fix's installer)

- Tried Wiiflow (startup settings>force load ios:on, force cios revison:249). Nothing. Can't initialize the drive (the difference with USBLOADER GX is that it doesn't give any feedback. It just sits there with a black screen)
I CAN get it to load though (same as with USBLOADER GX) if I initialize the drive beforehand by either going into HBC>press 1>select USB>let it init the drive go back to sd and launch the loader or by plugging the drive with the vWii system menu already loaded.

It is either the installer versions fault or the vWii cIOS has a difference with the Wii version.
If I could get the damn installer to function properly we could narrow the possible causes even further.
How/why could the vWii initialize drives differently than the Wii?

 

[Cyan]

no, it should work with AHB access.
or maybe I forgot that it needs IOS236, because using this installer was only suggested for few days when vWii hacks started.
I remember that tutorial installed IOS236, but I don't remember if it was needed for the installer.

note:
I pushed r1260 in internal updater, and can confirm the update worked fine.
both auto-detection, download of the dol and the language files. I'm glad I didn't made a bug in that part before google code closed in august 2015.

 

[Hielkenator]

There should be no difference if your console ios are up to date.
In the case of vWii, the ios should all be up to date and IIRC, we can't decrypt vWii ios from NUS yet. Thats why we have to patch the ios from our own console.
The patching mechanism should be the same for Wii and vWii but who knows what exactly have Nintendo done to the vWii ios? or what exactly have WD done to their usb drives?

I don't think the bare drives themselves are the problem (except problems with 512 vs 4K drives). Its probably more of a USB interface/chip problem. I have 3 usb 2.0 drives - 2 buffalo cases and 1 Hitachi case. The drives are Hitachi, WD and Seagate. They all are interchangeable (cases and drives) and works fine.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



no, I have neek20 and 3 different clean nands each for different regions.
I have a multi-system TV though not sure if the video signals from different region will affect your TV or not.

I meant having to force video mode before launching a gamefrom my PAL wii.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Is that really a fact?
You tried it on Wii, and the installer doesn't work while modmii wad does?

Fix94 installer is based of v2.2 instead of installer v3.1 (I've read few times that 3.1 has some bugs, that's why users prefered using 2.2).
On the first vWii hack, everybody used the intaller (not mod by fix94) which required the user to make a NAND dump, pack the IOS as Wad, put the Wad on root of SD card to be used as base.
What fix94 did is only extracting the internal slot instead of doing it manually with a NAND dump or BlueDump.
Fix94 mod does not change the compatibility.

If compatibility is different, it would be the installer version choice (2.2 instead of 3.1).
What you can do :
- use "yet another blue dump mod" to extract your IOS57. (let's try with 57, it has more compatibility, no need to mess with multiple IOS and slots), copy to SD root.
- download d2x installer 3.1, extract to SD
- extract d2x r52 for vWii in installer folder
- shutdown wifi (to be sure it won't install from network)
- install d2x v10 (r52, not r53) base 56 from offline in slot 250.

you will have slot 249 from 2.2 and 250 from 3.1
I don't know if there are different patching method from 2.2 to 3.1, or if it's only visual changes and bugfixes.



so there are 2 different issues?
is the banner on the server an ID4 or ID6 ? if ID6 be sure it's the same region. if ID4, could you try r1252 ?
Maybe the download issue is caused by the (expected) fix I did in r1260, but it broke it instead of fixing it.

No sound is not a bug from me, and I don't know why you don't have it.
Maybe memory issue, again. and I don't know how to fix it. Try to remove games to have less data in memory and see if it fix your issue.
try with a new partition or path (you can change the Gamecube path in the settings, instead of "usb:/games/" try "usb:/test/" and only one game) and reboot the loader.

Region free need to be patched in neek.
Boot neek without a game, in system menu go to the hidden menu and enable region free patch.

I didn't touch anything related to emuNAND path recently.
I'm not sure to understand your explanation.
What is not working correctly ? the "loader settings>EmuNAND channel" option, or the "user path>EmuNAND channel path" option ?

the loader is generating and refreshing the nandcfg.bin file in sneek folder, which contains a list of hot swappable emuNAND path while in neek2o.
It should set the current emuNAND path (global one) as first path in that file, unless an individual path is set in the game setting.
move the nandcfg.bin outside of sneek folder and try again. if it fixes your issue, could you send me your bin file? I'll check is something wrong with the content or the creation of that file.

I think I found a small bug.
When using a fresh cfg file and setting your nand location on the root by clicking the usb button on the bottom of usb loadergx, this adds a second backslash to the path for some reason. clicking the button again removes the backslash.

 

[BlazeHeatnix]

so there are 2 different issues?
is the banner on the server an ID4 or ID6 ? if ID6 be sure it's the same region. if ID4, could you try r1252 ?
Maybe the download issue is caused by the (expected) fix I did in r1260, but it broke it instead of fixing it.

I'm still using r1256. I have no idea about the ID.

No sound is not a bug from me, and I don't know why you don't have it.
Maybe memory issue, again. and I don't know how to fix it. Try to remove games to have less data in memory and see if it fix your issue.
try with a new partition or path (you can change the Gamecube path in the settings, instead of "usb:/games/" try "usb:/test/" and only one game) and reboot the loader.

Images and banners were stored on the SD and I only had 200mb of space left. When I moved them to the usb, it downloaded the rest of the banners, but I'm still missing music on a lot of them. (I assume all banners have music with them). I'll try doing what you said.

 

[Hielkenator]

Config files on a per game basis are definitely finnicky.
I have had instances of paths not being applied after saving settings.
Sometime I got the popup telling me the sneek nanad path was not correct when it was correct.
I have had characters added to the NAND path ( umlaud and ? ).
Also had numerous instances telling the system memory is corrupt.
After resetting the games settings and re entering the paths, some games manage to boot after all.
It seems to me that file writing of Neek setting and those of usb loader gx are no in sync, lol.
Booting channels in neek mode is awefully fast sometimes...

Neek loading is NOT 100% compatible opposed to what some people might think...
For instance Final fantasy IV the after years is unable to create a save file in NEEK, it will nag you to free up system memory.
This game loads fine in d2xcios channel emulation, using the same NAND.
AFter this you can use neek to play this game as savegame creation has been done in d2x channel emulation.

Also I think pool revolution cue sport ( cue sport pool & billiards for PAL ) is incompatible with d2x as it is with Neek.
I would LOOOVE to have confirmation about this particular game as it driving me MAAAAAAAADDD!!!

This seems ot be an ongoing issue it seems:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/neek2o.313314/page-70#post-5952143

Neek and usb loadermade emunands are not compatible in my experience.
It might nhave something to do with the fact USB loader gx has no way to boot actual homebrew the proper way like the hbc ans no way to boot real nand channels properly.
For instance booting Multi mod manager from usb loader gx and then trying to boot into priiloader from MMM is not possible. also usb support from emulators booted from usblgx is lost as is disc support.
This becomes a problem when having usb loader to autoboot from priiloader bypassing the system menu completely.
SInce this is what you essentialy would want having neek channele loading support to have the back to usb loader boot sequence complete, is can be very annoying. the home brew loading in usb loader gx is a bit broken.
Homebrew and channels are always booted with a cIOS from usb loader gx....

EDIT:
Just noticed usb loader gx neek loading and actual neek loading are mixing up cfg file is you are using a Nand dump on the root of your usb drive and if you have another nand in a sub folder.
Also for some reason La mulana is not working in neek anymore.
It is working fine on the normal Wii nand.

I wonder what is shared from the real nand for enabling nand emu loading.
Are region settings checked etc?
This is giving me a headache, if even Neek does not work properly while it should, is usb loader gx the problem of the majority of channel problems?
Wich files are written by usb loader gx? also the file size of the installed wads is sometimes smaller when installed with usb loader gx.
For instance cue sport is one block larger when installed with a wad manager on my actual wii.

Installing with show mii wads gives no better result.
This makes me wonder if compatibilty has gotten worse on neek or that the NANDs built with modmii are somehow faulty....
As of now in my experience compatiblity is very very finicky in pal vs ntsc/ real nand vs emunand in neek loading and neek in general.

Also arent priiloader hacks clashing with the built in neek hacks?

 

[BlazeHeatnix]

I have a weird error with USBGX. When I first load it, it says it's r1256. But I updated beforehand. When I reset and load it from system menu I get r1260. But when it first boots I get r1256.

 

[Cyan]

homebrew booting is maybe broken. just exit to HBC, it even loads faster.
I don't know why you mentionned booting MMM to boot neek, does MMM use the same method?
I don't think MMM is using its own booting method and is instead relying on SD:/bootmii/ folder, so if you install Uneek on USB you also need the kernel.bin in SD:/sneek folder, and armboot.bin in bootmii folder.
If you want to use a different homebrew to boot neek, you need to see that homebrew requirements.

Wich files are written by usb loader gx? also the file size of the installed wads is sometimes smaller when installed with usb loader gx.
For instance cue sport is one block larger when installed with a wad manager on my actual wii.

That is interesting. I thought I fixed the file size issue in an old revisions.
Maybe I'll need that wad to see the issue.

Also arent priiloader hacks clashing with the built in neek hacks?

I think you shouldn't use priiloader on the dump, it's probably creating conflict in patches.

overall, I don't use neek myself, so I can't help a lot. but I don't see why usbgx would be the one creating issues.
try a clean NAND, install wad with showmiiwads and launch neek from nswitch, see if you have different compatibility than doing all the dump/install/launch process in the loader.

about your link to neek2o thread : I also installed channels from USBGX, and I can see the channels fine in neek (on wii, not on vWii).

I have a weird error with USBGX. When I first load it, it says it's r1256. But I updated beforehand. When I reset and load it from system menu I get r1260. But when it first boots I get r1256.

Do you have priiloader ? (probably, lot of people do).
Did you install the loader to autoboot at launch ? you probably installed 1256 in priiloader, which got an internal update this weekend and installed the new version to the "expected" folder on SD card.
so your channel (forwarder) is correctly booting the version on SD card, but priiloader still have an old version.

Don't use the loader's boot.dol in priiloader, use the forwarder's dol instead.

 

[BlazeHeatnix]

How do I install that dol to priiloader?

 

[GreyWolf]

How do I install that dol to priiloader?

Copy it to the root of your SD card and install it from there through the Priiloader menu.

 

[Hielkenator]

The "return to" option breaks cue sports revolution when loading with sneek from usb loader gx.
Also installing cue sports via usblgx wad manager breaks the game.
Installing it via another wad manager from within uneek ( using postloader ) makes the game work both in uneek and usb loader using above mentioned options.
Block size is also different between both methos of install.
There are probably more game giving problems using this option.
Retro city rampage dx comes to mind.

 

[lordelan]

I guess it's been asked a lot of times already but since I don't wanna scan 1078 pages ...
The only thing where WiiFlow outstands USB Loader GX (and I really love USB Loader GX - I'm using it since it's release) is this emuflow stuff where games from SNES, Game Gear and god knows what else joins my Wii and GC games.

Is that planned Cyan?

 

[Cyan]

plug-in system is planned, but I can't tell if nor when it will be done.
I work on the loader sporadically, and do things at my pace.

Hielkenator:
I will have to take a look.
could you tell me which release you are using (if it's a wad from a release group)?
I'll try to find it and see what happens when decrypting the wad and files.
I didn't add a checksum check after decryption process, but it could be useful (tmd holds the file checksums). I'll have to see how that works.

 

[Corrosive]

I'm trying to import some saves to use in GX, that were made in cfg usb loader. The saves from cfg are .raw and I'm not sure how to make that into a usable format, nor what format that may be.