Hacking [Wii] Making both USB ports accessible for noob-friendly setup

[MathMarvel]

Hi all,

I've been working on soft-modding a coworker's Wii, and I've been trying to make the setup as simple as possible since he is not very tech literate. I'm using USB Loader GX to display his games backed up on a flash drive, and I've noticed that it seems impossible for the loader to detect the flash drive when it is connected to USB port 2, even when I manually change the settings in USB Loader GX to look at this port. I also briefly tested Configurable USB Loader and had the same issue, so I'm fairly certain that it's either a hardware limitation or as simple as using another cIOS (I'm using a standard setup, v10 beta53 base 56 slot 249; v10 beta52 base 57 slot 250).

In short, I'm asking is there a way to automatically detect a drive in USB port 2 when there is no media in the first USB port? If not, I'm planning on putting his Wii and GC games on separate drives and labeling his drives and ports to try and minimize any possible confusion (although he might be pretty confused if he removed the Wii stick and found that his GC backups weren't working).

Sorry if this gets a little confusing. Any help is appreciated.

 

[JordenNixNix]

It has been too long ago,
but I clearly remember that the ALT versions of D2X CIOS brought support for both USB ports.

On my hacked Wii I installed the following CIOS with D2X CIOS v10-beta53-alt:
- IOS 222
- IOS 254

I think I used 236 as base slot.
I think the only con from those CIOS are that emunand support is limited.


Also about GC backups:
Keep in mind that your USB device or SD Card is formatted as FAT32.
I know this is pity since USB loader GX support NTFS just fine for Wii games.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hi all,

I've been working on soft-modding a coworker's Wii, and I've been trying to make the setup as simple as possible since he is not very tech literate. I'm using USB Loader GX to display his games backed up on a flash drive, and I've noticed that it seems impossible for the loader to detect the flash drive when it is connected to USB port 2, even when I manually change the settings in USB Loader GX to look at this port. I also briefly tested Configurable USB Loader and had the same issue, so I'm fairly certain that it's either a hardware limitation or as simple as using another cIOS (I'm using a standard setup, v10 beta53 base 56 slot 249; v10 beta52 base 57 slot 250).

In short, I'm asking is there a way to automatically detect a drive in USB port 2 when there is no media in the first USB port? If not, I'm planning on putting his Wii and GC games on separate drives and labeling his drives and ports to try and minimize any possible confusion (although he might be pretty confused if he removed the Wii stick and found that his GC backups weren't working).

Sorry if this gets a little confusing. Any help is appreciated.

v10 beta53 supports it but in some cases you might run into other issues with it (might not matter to you though), you should replace the IOS250 with beta53 base 57 if you want it set up that way.
It used to be that Nintendont required the drive to be plugged into the first port, but now that's no longer the case, so using a drive plugged into the second port should be relatively unproblematic as long as it's the only drive plugged in.
The issues with beta53 are mainly related to emuNAND I think.

 

[migles]

glue the usb cables to the ports so he wouldn't be able to disconenct them? ;O;

anyway, probably you don't have the ALT version of the cIOS? i remember something about it, it has been long ago since i touched a wii, but there were 2 versions of the same cIOS, one with better game compatibility and other that supported loading from either usb port

 

[XFlak]

I remember a modified version of configurable USB loader used to exist that looked at port1 instead of port0, this was on an older version but if u do some digging you might be able to find it

 

[MathMarvel]

Thanks for the quick responses. I'll try changing IOS 250 to the beta53-alt when I get home from work tonight and see how things go.

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

glue the usb cables to the ports so he wouldn't be able to disconenct them? ;O;

Yeah I probably could do that and tell him his setup required super glue and there's nothing I can do about it lol.

 

[GreyWolf]

Just put a piece of electrical tape over port 1.

 

[Cyan]

these are the IOS you can use with USB Port 1 :

- IOS58, if you don't want that port to play wii game disc, then IOS58 is fine, for example being in a homebrew interface is working fine with 58. If you use 58 with a loader, you can use it to launch gamecube games too.
- Hermes cIOS v4 and v5.1, but somewhat old, might not be compatible with all features and hdd format (I don't remember if it supports ntfs)
- cIOS d2x v9 (beta), has some hardware compatibility issues, doesn't work well with all games, have issues with wii games launched from SD.
- cIOS d2x v10-alt (r53), it's exactly the same as v9, except cIOS developer was forced to release it as v10 due to WiiU console hacking history. being exactly the same, it's still a beta and has the same compatibility issue.

So, you have 4 possibilities.
Maybe Hermes cIOS is a better choice if d2x v10-alternative is not working for you.

 

[YOUCANTSTOPME]

Can't you just leave the drive plugged in when you give it back to him, and tell him "it MUST be in this port, or it will not work". Shouldn't that suffice? This is what I've done in the past.

 

[Cyan]

Just tell him "only this port is working".
done.

Don't think people are too dumb to understand (without trying first).
you'd better use d2x r52 (without port 1 support) to make it the easiest possible.

Slot 249 : d2x r52 base 57
Slot 249 : this is the default slot used by USB Loaders
r52 : Do not use r53 ! it's beta and has a LOT of issues, not noob friendly. Even if r53 has Port1 support, just don't use it.
base 57 : YES, 57 ! not 56. 57 has better game compatibility.

having r52 base57 in slot 249 will get him the best cIOS version/base for all existing games.
base56 in default slot249 is not a good idea if you want a noob-friendly setup, because he will encounter some games not working, and will have to search and ask how to fix (answer: by using base57, and requires to edit the loader settings to use another slot).

Trying to setup something with Port 1 available will be worse, because less game and HDD and Flash drive will be working. He will encounter far more issues !
using a cIOS with USB Port0 + USB Port 1 support is definitely NOT noob-friendly. You need to understand what you are doing to use this setup because it's not automatic and you have to edit all homebrew settings each time you plug into a different port.



If you really think he is not intelligent enough to remember which port he need to use, add an indication on the console itself (an arrow, or obstruct the port1 with paper+adhesive, like Greywolf suggested, it's REALLY the easiest).
Or just tell him "if it doesn't work, try the other port"

DO NOT use 2 HDD to separate Wii and Gamecube, that's unnecessary !
just one HDD, with FAT32, 32k/cluster, in USB Port 0.

I know this is pity since USB loader GX support NTFS just fine for Wii games.

This is a pitty since USB Loader GX supports FAT32 just fine for Wii games.

 

[MathMarvel]

Thank you for your suggestions, Cyan. Booting the loader with IOS58 and using r52 base 57 on port 249 seems to get the job done. I can just mark USB port 1 as "GAMECUBE ONLY" and this setup might just suffice.

DO NOT use 2 HDD to separate Wii and Gamecube, that's unnecessary !
just one HDD, with FAT32, 32k/cluster, in USB Port 0.

Yes, you are correct, that would be quite simple to do...if the flash drive he bought before he gave this to me wasn't too small. Oh, but he also bought an SD card that I could use to store the Gamecube games...if it wasn't a counterfeit. He's made it somewhat clear that he's trying to get this done as cheaply as possible, so at this point his cheapest option is to buy another flash drive for me to finish the job. Sometimes that's just how she goes.

 

[MathMarvel]

I ran into a few more issues before I got everything to mostly work, so I'm posting this as a reference if anyone else has similar issues.

Using IOS58 with USB Loader GX did allow me to access both USB ports, but I could only access one at a time. When I tried plugging both flash drives in, only the drive in port 1 would be loaded. If I tried to change the USB port settings in the loader, I was greeted with an error telling me only the Hermes cIOS would allow for changing USB ports.

Next, I tried using cIOS d2x v10-alt r53, which again allowed me to use both ports independently, but when both drives were inserted it would load up the drive in port 0 twice. When I went to change directories, usb1 and usb2 would both show the directories from port 0.

Last, I tried the old Hermes v5.1 cIOS. This worked, mostly. I've noticed a couple times during testing that after the USB loader boots up, no games are displayed for some reason. Resetting the Wii fixes this. Also, the other issue I've noticed is that you are not able to exit a GameCube game after loading it with Nintendont. The controller command Z+R+B+Down freezes the Wii, and requires a hard restart. This isn't a big deal in my case. I might try out Devolution later and see if I can get that functionality back.

A final note is that with my setup, the Wii games will only boot from port 0, and if you decide to change around ports with your GameCube drive, you will have to change the GameCube games directory every time you do this. So basically both drives need to be plugged in, the Wii in port 0 and the GameCube in port 1, in order to avoid hassles.

 

[tswntk]

to really avoid hassles, DONT use flash drives, don't use cIOS d2x v10-alt r53, and dont use port 1 unless your port 0 is not working.
usbloaders only mount one drive at a times, don't expect to list games from both drives simultaneously.
If you are going cheap, then don't expect hassle free.
If you use Devolution, why don't just use the original gamecube disks? You can save one drive that way. You need the original disks for devolution to work anyway.

 

[MathMarvel]

to really avoid hassles, DONT use flash drives, don't use cIOS d2x v10-alt r53, and dont use port 1 unless your port 0 is not working.
usbloaders only mount one drive at a times, don't expect to list games from both drives simultaneously.
If you are going cheap, then don't expect hassle free.

Yes, this is the true moral of the story. Don't be a cheap dickhead then give your BS hardware to your tech-literate friend so he can clean up your mess.

You need the original disks for devolution to work anyway.

I realized that after doing two minutes of research. This current configuration looks like it's as good as it'll get.

 

[GreyWolf]

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to use two storage devices at once. It could end up corrupting them. Also keep in mind a good amount of games may black-screen at boot with beta53.

 

[MathMarvel]

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to use two storage devices at once. It could end up corrupting them.

Really? Is there any specific reason you think this might happen?

Also keep in mind a good amount of games may black-screen at boot with beta53.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, but I ended up using Hermes cIOS v5.1 for the loader and beta52 for the games.