Hacking USB Loader GX (vWii) stopped working

[gamecaptor]

Hi Tempers,

About a year ago I setup USB Loader GX on my Wii U (vWii). Had it all working, played around with it a bit then never touched it again. Recently I added a few new games to my USB Hard Drive (via Wii Backup Manager v0.4.6 build 79) and now USB Loader will no longer load. It sticks at the ‘initialize USB device’ screen.

So I know the hard drive is good as I can fire up VBA GX and point it to that and it will load stuff fine. It seems like only USB Loader GX doesn’t like the drive any more.

Things I’ve tried:
Formatting the Hard Drive
Flipping the USB Y-Cable (I knew this won’t work, but I figured it was worth at least trying)
Deleting the GXGlobal.cfg

The only thing that has changed since I originally set it up is I updated the Wii U firmware. I did look over the original guide (Truth's tutorial) and it doesn’t appear to me that anything has changed since I first set it up.

I’m sort of stumped.

Your help is appreciated.

Some info about my setup:
Wii U v5.3.2 U
Western Digital My Passport Ultra 1 TB USB 3.0 Hard Drive [using a USB Y-Cable on the Wii U]
Patriot LX Pro 32 GB FAT32 SD Card [all apps are installed on the SD card]

SysCheck v2.3.1 HacksDen Edition by JoostinOnline Double_A R2-D2199 and Nano
...runs on vIOS58 (rev 6432).

Region: NTSC-U
System Menu 4.3U (v609)

Drive date: 0.2.201
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x21
Console ID: 606918330
Console Type: vWii
Shop Channel Country: United States (49)
Boot2 v0
Found 61 titles.
Found 34 IOS on this console. 0 of them are stub.

vIOS9 (rev 1290): No Patches
vIOS12 (rev 782): No Patches
vIOS13 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS14 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS15 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS17 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS21 (rev 1295): No Patches
vIOS22 (rev 1550): No Patches
vIOS28 (rev 2063): No Patches
vIOS31 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS33 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS34 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS35 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS36 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS37 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS38 (rev 4380): No Patches
vIOS41 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS43 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS45 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS46 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS48 (rev 4380): No Patches
vIOS53 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS55 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS56 (rev 5918): No Patches
vIOS57 (rev 6175): No Patches
vIOS58 (rev 6432): USB 2.0
vIOS59 (rev 9249): No Patches
vIOS62 (rev 6942): No Patches
vIOS80 (rev 7200): No Patches
vIOS249[56] (rev 21010 Info: d2x-v10beta52-vWii): NAND Access USB 2.0
vIOS250[57] (rev 21010 Info: d2x-v10beta52-vWii): NAND Access USB 2.0
vIOS251[58] (rev 21010 Info: d2x-v10beta52-vWii): NAND Access USB 2.0
vIOS512 (rev 7): No Patches
vIOS513 (rev 1): No Patches Report generated on 01/26/2015.

 

[Bug_Checker_]

Spoiler

Hi Tempers,

About a year ago I setup USB Loader GX on my Wii U (vWii). Had it all working, played around with it a bit then never touched it again. Recently I added a few new games to my USB Hard Drive (via Wii Backup Manager v0.4.6 build 79) and now USB Loader will no longer load. It sticks at the ‘initialize USB device’ screen.

So I know the hard drive is good as I can fire up VBA GX and point it to that and it will load stuff fine. It seems like only USB Loader GX doesn’t like the drive any more.

Things I’ve tried:
Formatting the Hard Drive
Flipping the USB Y-Cable (I knew this won’t work, but I figured it was worth at least trying)
Deleting the GXGlobal.cfg

The only thing that has changed since I originally set it up is I updated the Wii firmware. I did look over the original guide (Truth's tutorial) and it doesn’t appear to me that anything has changed since I first set it up.

I’m sort of stumped.

Your help is appreciated.

Some info about my setup:
Wii U v5.3.2 U

USB Loader GX Rev1233 IOS249 (Rev 21010) + AHB
(d2x v10beta53-alt-vWii base56)

SysCheck v2.3.0 HacksDen Edition by JoostinOnline Double_A R2-D2199 and Nano
...runs on vIOS58 (rev 6432).

Region: NTSC-U
System Menu 4.3U (v609)

Drive date: 0.2.201
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x21
Console ID: 606918330
Console Type: vWii
Shop Channel Country: United States (49)
Boot2 v0
Found 61 titles.
Found 34 IOS on this console. 0 of them are stub.

vIOS9 (rev 1290): No Patches
vIOS12 (rev 782): No Patches
vIOS13 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS14 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS15 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS17 (rev 1288): No Patches
vIOS21 (rev 1295): No Patches
vIOS22 (rev 1550): No Patches
vIOS28 (rev 2063): No Patches
vIOS31 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS33 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS34 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS35 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS36 (rev 3864): No Patches
vIOS37 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS38 (rev 4380): No Patches
vIOS41 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS43 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS45 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS46 (rev 3863): No Patches
vIOS48 (rev 4380): No Patches
vIOS53 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS55 (rev 5919): No Patches
vIOS56 (rev 5918): No Patches
vIOS57 (rev 6175): No Patches
vIOS58 (rev 6432): USB 2.0
vIOS59 (rev 9249): No Patches
vIOS62 (rev 6942): No Patches
vIOS80 (rev 7200): No Patches
vIOS249[56] (rev 21010 Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): NAND Access USB 2.0
vIOS250[57] (rev 21010 Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): NAND Access USB 2.0
vIOS251[58] (rev 21010 Info: d2x-v10beta53-alt-vWii): NAND Access USB 2.0
vIOS512 (rev 7): No Patches
vIOS513 (rev 1): No Patches

Hard Drive is 1 TB FAT32/32 KB Clusters (one partition)

You said "I updated the Wii firmware" Do you mean WiiU firmware?

What firmware version did you start at before updating?
The reason I ask is Nintendo was non-compliant in regards to checking power usage with USB standards. That has caused some problems after correcting that lack of a check.
Can you self power the harddrive? It most likely a USB harddrive power problem.

 

[gamecaptor]

Hey Bug_Checker,

ya, you are correct, Wii U firmware (typo). I also added in that I am using a USB Y-Cable as I recall that being a problem with the Wii U.

Interesting discovery as I've been troubleshooting this. For kicks I formatted the hard drive with WBFS and threw a few games on it. Low and behold USB Loader GX booted just fine. I then formatted the drive again as FAT32 and it would lock up again at the same point, 'Initialize USB device’. I should mention that it completely locks up my Wii U; I have to pull the power.

So next I split the hard drive, partition 1 as FAT32 and partition 2 as WBFS and it still locked up.

Clearly USB Loader GX does not like the FAT32 format (but other things do). Has anyone ever seen this before?

 

[fadamox]

Hey Bug_Checker,

ya, you are correct, Wii U firmware (typo). I also added in that I am using a USB Y-Cable as I recall that being a problem with the Wii U.

Interesting discovery as I've been troubleshooting this. For kicks I formatted the hard drive with WBFS and threw a few games on it. Low and behold USB Loader GX booted just fine. I then formatted the drive again as FAT32 and it would lock up again at the same point, 'Initialize USB device’. I should mention that it completely locks up my Wii U; I have to pull the power.

So next I split the hard drive, partition 1 as FAT32 and partition 2 as WBFS and it still locked up.

Clearly USB Loader GX does not like the FAT32 format (but other things do). Has anyone ever seen this before?

I have a similar problem with USB Loader freezing at the initialize screen. Same deal, FAT32 (unsure of cluster size but will check this evening). The drive seems to work fine in WiiFlow but freezes 99% of the time with USB Loader GX. Can I ask the make and model of your disk?

 

[Dharengo]

Have you tried leaving the USB drive disconnected until right before loading up GX?

 

[Cyan]

If you can test previous revision of the loader and tell me which revision your issue started (drive frozen at detection screen), that will help me find the issue.
You can find all revision on the link in the official thread or googlecode home page.

I think the detection issue on vWii started around r1220-1230

Edit:
users reported issue with 1219.
I'm still waiting confirmation that 1217 was working fine.
I would still need testing with 1220-1230.

 

[fadamox]

If you can test previous revision of the loader and tell me which revision your issue started (drive frozen at detection screen), that will help me find the issue.
You can find all revision on the link in the official thread or googlecode home page.

I think the detection issue on vWii started around r1220-1230

I believe I'm using R1233 (at least that's the version I have downloaded to my computer). My issue may be slightly different, though. I'm also having additional problems not surrounding USB Loader freezing when two hard drives are attached. Posted about that here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/ustealth-wii-u-format-disk-nag-workaround.352786/page-17#post-5277370

Appreciate your help, Cyan!

 

[gamecaptor]

Thanks Cyan. I will test tonight and report back.

 

[morgoth32]

Hi, i have exactly the same issue with rev 1235 when i boot from the forwarder.
Works great when i launch it from homebrew channel.

 

[gamecaptor]

ok, I think I have it! r1218 boots up my FAT32 Hard Drive just fine! r1219 locks up at the 'initialize USB device’. I didn't bother going any further up the versions as I would expect them to all be broken. Hopefully this helps Cyan!

Side question, does the IOS version of USB Loader GX make any difference? I've always thought to use the ISO 249 version, but if it makes a difference please let me know.

So I don't know if the hard drive or SD card have anything to do with this either, but I included that info in my first post for reference.

Please let me know what other info I can provide to help.

 

[Cyan]

there's no differences in the boot's IOS version.
it's just the "first loaded cIOS slot" used to mount SD/USB and read the config file before reloading to the user's selected IOS in the settings.

if you set the loader to use IOS250, it launches IOS249 then reload IOS250.
using the boot.dol version 250 just prevented the reload time (2 seconds).

now the loader automatically edits the meta.xml to reflect user's settings and doesn't care anymore about the boot version. The meta.xml provides settings at launch time, so you can tell the loader which IOS to use to load the config file and prevent a second IOS reload.

I still provide them as historical reason. I started releasing a separate and single dol, and other builds on another download.

 

[gamecaptor]

Ah, good to know. Thanks for explaining.

Let me know if you need me to test any future releases for the FAT32 issue. I have extra HDs and SD cards to I can flip things around to test.

 

[Hammyface]

I am now having this same issue too, but noticed it didn't start until I followed this guide:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/simple-guide-to-install-cios-on-vwii-backup-nand-and-keys.339890/

Before doing that guide, USB Loader GX loaded just fine. Obviously I could only boot GC games combining it with Nintendont, but USB Loader GX booted just fine regardless.

I guess installing the custom IOSs messed something up. My USB Loader GX just locks up on boot with "Initialize USB device" staying frozen. Now that I know the cause, what can I do to fix it? Thanks!

 

[Dharengo]

At what point during setup do you plug in the USB device?

 

[gamecaptor]

Hammyface, roll back to r1218 and see if you still have the issue.

Dharengo, the USB Hard Drive should be plugged in prior to turning on your Wii/Wii U

 

[Hammyface]

At what point during setup do you plug in the USB device?

It doesn't seem to matter. If I leave it unplugged and then let USB Loader GX load and then plug the drive in, USB Loader GX says it could not initialize the hard drive.

Again, this only began after installing d2x-v10-beta53-alt-vWii because I wanted to play Wii games. USB Loader GX was running Gamecube games just fine and detecting the drive right before this.

 

[Hammyface]

I tried rolling back to 1218. Still freezes on "initialize usb device".
I went in and told it to use 250 for loader and game, same error.
I tried 251, and USB Loader GX stops freezing, but it never detects the drive.

So basically same issue as latest USB Loader GX.... help!

 

[Hammyface]

OK, I somehow got it to work on R1218 when changing it to IOS250.

However, this version is no good for me because it claims Nintendon't will not run GC games from a hard drive.

Is there any way to get the latest USB Loader GX working? I don't think I did anything wrong. I followed the guide here perfectly, so I am not sure why USB Loader GX freezes on startup in the latest version, but works in R1218?

 

[Cyan]

1218 is using IOS58 by default to load the config file, then reloads to the user's define IOS slot.
1219 is using cIOS by default again (but done differently than 1217). I would need confirmation that 1217 is not freezing for you.

I also changed the way the boot process is done in 1223. please, report if 1223 has the freezing issue.

if possible, when testing please use the default/clean meta.xml with still commented out lines to not use arguments.

As second test, please try this:
- use latest release (currently 1239)
- be sure to set Loader's IOS to 249 or 250
- it will automatically edit the meta.xml to put ios=249 or 250, and remove the commented lines to enable arguments.
- exit the loader, edit the meta.xml to put ios=58 instead
- launch the loader ! it should work as long as you don't edit the IOS or HDD settings anymore.

it will now use IOS58 to boot, mount SD and USB, read GXGlobal.cfg, then it will reload to cIOS.
the USB will be initiated using IOS58 (which work fine, because 1218 is working fine), and cIOS will take over the control of the HDD.

If all is good, I will change the boot method again by adding a "boot IOS" setting instead of using the same for both boot and loader's IOS.

 

[Dharengo]

What I meant was, have you tried plugging in the drive -right before- launching GX?