Hacking USB Loader GX

[XFlak]

On my WiiU, using a wired connection everything works in WiiU mode, HBC network indicates an established connect, but GX fails to init network. Same exact scenario but using wifi to access the same network and GX works. Very odd. I cleared my outdated config folder settings just to be sure it wasn't impacting things. I also cleared all my connections and entered them in again and it made no difference.

On my Wii I didn't try a wired connection because of the PITA factor, so I'm not sure if this is a vwii only issue.

wimmfii still isn't working for me though, I'm not sure if I'm testing it properly (SSBB gives error 60000 when trying to connect). I know you said to actually patch the games, but I'd prefer a loader solution since that's a lot easier for me to roll out to friends' consoles (as opposed to having to help them implement the same manual patches I'm trying to avoid). I may end up going this route eventually but hoping for an easier method.

I saw a setting to change the background music, is there a way to point GX to a folder of mp3's to play at random like cfg? the menu seems like I can just select a single track.

Random Q, can anyone recommend a nice generic dark theme for GX?

So my HDD free space issue went away, it's being reported properly on both Wii and vWii. Guess I just needed to wait?? Really I got nothing but the problem went away so I'm gonna look the other way, lol

 

[Cyan]

network:
--------
no idea for the network issue

Wiimmfi should be as simple as enabling it. there's really nothing else to do.
even games like mario kart work with that setting, without patching the iso. you (should) just have less easier encounter as you'll still have the regional lock.

HDD size:
---------
Glad your partition size is fixed ... though, I don't like when it does it automatically
I prefer knowing there's a bug, even if I don't fix it, because there's a reason you had that issue. I don't like not understanding.


Sound :
-------
I never tried the media player, but yes there's an option to play tracks randomly.

if you set a path to folder where you have your mp3/Ogg/wav/Aiff, the loader generates a list of files to play.
you can skip forward/backward/random.
I think the "sound menu" appear if you set a path. I'm not sure, but based on my quick look at the sources, there should be a sound menu with option to play/stop/skip/loop type/etc.
or maybe it's always there and I never seen it.

be sure to not put the path to hdd, only SD card !
having the sound file on HDD can corrupt the partition, or crash the loader, if you use 2 USB at the same time.
the loader is not properly deinitializing the currently played background music before switching IOS or USB, creating memory leaks and at worse partition corruption.

I had a report that there's also a bug where the BGmusic still play when loading the animated banner, but I never tested.

 

[GreyWolf]

So my HDD free space issue went away, it's being reported properly on both Wii and vWii. Guess I just needed to wait?? Really I got nothing but the problem went away so I'm gonna look the other way, lol

Now that you mention it you do have to wait especially if the drive is fragmented. It calculates it by crawling the FAT table instead of getting it from the table itself.

I've had the free space display turned off for a while.

 

[Cyan]

there's even a bug with that free space calculation : if you launch a game before it displays/end calculating the free size, the loader crashes

I have so much small bugs to fix and I do nothing...

 

[GreyWolf]

It just needs the thread aborted during the app shutdown.

 

[XFlak]

be sure to not put the path to hdd, only SD card !
having the sound file on HDD can corrupt the partition, or crash the loader, if you use 2 USB at the same time.

Is there any risk of corruption if I NEVER use more then 1 HDD at a time? Also, do you know where I specify this path in the options (when I browsed for new background music it wouldn't accept my music folder, I think it wanted me to select a particular track)? Or is there a line a can manually tweak in the config file?

Also, did I interpret your message correctly that the wiimmfi patcher circumvents regional locks but the wiimmfi GX option does not?

 

[Cyan]

if you use only one HDD, there shouldn't be any risk.
it's not only for the BGsound, but also for everything else (settings, themes, covers, etc.), because when using cIOS the loader only has access to one USB at a time and if your resources are on the other one it will be bad if it tries to load them (missing covers, BG stream broken, etc.) and worse if it tries to write to the un-init drive (download covers, save settings, etc.).
I don't know if it can even have issues with dumping disc feature, it wasn't written with dual hdd in mind. dual hdd feature was added later in the development.

I still think it's better to keep all resources on SD, but it's my own personal opinion and there's no real issue if you use only one USB, except if your USB has detection issue which in that case will have problem loading the settings. A user had this problem recently, his HDD needed more time to init, and as a result the loader always acted as if there were no user setting.



I never tried to use the music player, I'm sorry
by looking at the sources, it's called "ogg_path" in the setting. you can try to edit the config file manually, but there should be a way to do it in the loader.
I think there's a way to forward/backward the currently played song without going into the settings.
Maybe Greywolf knows more?
I'll have to get into the sources and analyze all the BGsound files to learn more.


Yes, you correctly understood, wiimmfi patcher in the loader only redirect the server (nintendo.com -> wiimmfi.de)
the manual ISO patcher program also patch the regional limitation, making encounter easier from all users around the world.
It's not impossible to encounter people when using the loader's simple patch, I already used it and I could play online with other players, it's just limited to other users matching your region while you could encounter more people with the manual ISO patch.

 

[XFlak]

Any interest in (eventually) adding the regional restriction patches from wiimmfi into GX?

 

[duomaxwell0007]

sooo I cant get USB loader on vWii to read or do anything with my USB drive. See this post:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/cant-get-vwii-usb-games-to-work.519730/#post-8313801

 

[Cyan]

Any interest in (eventually) adding the regional restriction patches from wiimmfi into GX?

that's not possible. The match making algorithm is on another file.
the loader is patching the boot.dol (executable) which is copied into memory before launching the game.
then the game loads other file from the disc (streamed).

USBLoaderGX can't patch files, it can only patch the memory. only the dol is kept in memory and available before USBLoaderGX shut downs.

a solution could be to rewrite the cIOS to allow loading external file like Riivolution does, and have a patched file on external device. the loader would still not patch it, you'd have to prepare the files before playing.

 

[Hyena]

I noticed that the cover art download always freezes when it tries to grab a file from Nintendont.com.
Wouldn't be so irritating if the Cancel button actually responded/did something

 

[GreyWolf]

I noticed that the cover art download always freezes when it tries to grab a file from Nintendont.com.
Wouldn't be so irritating if the Cancel button actually responded/did something

Huh? There is no Nintendont.com.

 

[Hyena]

Huh? There is no Nintendont.com.

I know, I checked too, but it's the URL it claims trying to download from. I will take a picture as I retry!

 

[Cyan]

if you mean it fails to download custom animated banner for gamecube games, then you are right.
the URL has changed, and I never updated it officially.

You can use the r1268mod4 in my signature to get the new URL, or replace the URL manually in your settings.
I suggest you just replace the boot.dol with the one in 1268mod4 as it also fixes 2 nintendont settings, and it'll also fix the URL for custom banners.


if you only want the new URL without updating to beta version of the loader :
edit GXGlobal.cfg in notepad and replace the URL at the bottom with this one http://banner.rc24.xyz/

 

[Hyena]

Thanks for your assistance Cyan, you're a beast! I've installed the mod and my covers are working nicely now.

But there is a new problem which I can't seem to be able to fix. Yesterday, I could load Wii games off my thumb stick just fine, but now those Wii games don't show up in the list anymore.
Gamecube titles from the SD Card are all there, but no Wii. I've got the latest d2x and all that, using the upper port at the back of the console (while it lies flat). Under Hard Drive Settings it recognizes my WBFS Stick, Multi Partitions OFF, USB Port 1, Mount USB at launch ON. I'm not sure what else to try. I've been restarting a couple of times now, but without any success :/

PS: The 1268 mod archive also had a boot.elf and a .patch file. Anything I need to do with those? For now I just placed them in the same directory. Funny thing is that the mod update also fixed the vWii USB Loader Channel for me, which previously had only given me a blue screen with cursor but nothing happening in it.

 

[Cyan]

you don't need the additional files, they are for developers.

the mod force the drive to be mounted using 58, and it does not have any setting to mount port0 or port1. IOS58 mounts both.
that may be your issue.

check the settings, verify the Loader's IOS is set to 249 (or 250)
check the game origin (top menu, 4th icon), verify Wii games are enabled


Any particular reason you are using Port1 instead of Port 0?
if you use Port1, it means you are using d2x r53, which is bad for hardware and game compatibility. Apparently you didn't have hardware issue when using it so it's good for you, but you might encounter games not working.
if there's no particular reason you need to use port1, I suggest you plug on Wii bottom port, set the loader to load port 0, install d2x r52 instead.

I'm not fully clear how I should init the drives at loader's launch, either 58 and ahb access, or cIOS, or mixed, every user want a different setup, that's not easy to find the best setup which works for everyone.

 

[Zonta85]

Is possible to edit the way that USB loader GX reads and displays the region from the title id?
I know that the region is readed in the fourth character of the title id (E for NTSC-U, P for PAL, J for Jap).
The problem is that there are a lot of kinds of PAL releases (because the low space on GC mini DVD i think) like "I" for only Italian, "S" for only Spanish, "F" for only French, "D" for only German, "X", "Y" and Z" for releases that are multi 2-3-4 languages without being the main PAL release.

The loader mistakenly thinks that they are (and shows them) Region free, like in the picture:

 

[Retro_Mod_Gamer]

Having a new and unique problem. I was using r1260 and found myself getting stuck on the "mounting usb to slot 1" so I updated to r1268 and now usb loader GX sends both wii and gamecube screens to black screen, doesn't launch into Wii Games or Nintendont, which worked fine on r1260, short of the inability to load past the mounting issue. Is there a specific revision I should be using to fix the mounting issue or a version specific fix for r1268 for the loading issue?

Thanks in advance! *fingers crossed*

 

[Hyena]

check the settings, verify the Loader's IOS is set to 249 (or 250)
check the game origin (top menu, 4th icon), verify Wii games are enabled

Thank you so much!! I swear I had checked the Wii game origin and it didn't work. But I have also changed Loader's IOS to 250 from 249, not sure if that made any difference.

I just checked again, and after downloading some missing covers, Wii Games were checked but none of them in the list. Might be a bug. To fix it, I had to uncheck Wii. Confirm. Check again, then I had them back in my overview.

To answer your other questions: I'm just a noob who has followed the pinned vWii hacking guide. I'm using d2x r52 and you're right, I had been using Port0 for most of my attempts.

 

[Cyan]

Is possible to edit the way that USB loader GX reads and displays the region from the title id?

X = region free. when I have "X" I can't know if it's M3 or M5, etc. it's just working on multiple region.
if it's F or G, it's displaying PAL.

mounting usb to slot 1

any reason you want to use USB Slot1?
if you don't want slot 1 and that's your problem, did you try to reset the settings? you should use port0, and d2x NOT r53. (v8 or v10 r52)
black screen is probably also due to wrong used port.