Hacking neek2o

[jasonmbrown]

Its not that USBLoaderGX isnt working with my hard drive, It crashes/hangs on start while it "Initializing Usb Hdd". My HDD uses 4k byte sectors, Guess Im screwed... especially since the update scene for the wii seems to have died down. Again Can someone point me to a Useable HDD.

 

[Cyan]

I covered different things.

USBLoaderGX not finding the HDD and you waiting 20minutes : set IOS58 !

Neek not working : I'm not sure the emulation mode is working, you'll have to test both states (emulation ON or OFF).

about the 4k emu mode: To my understanding, using "WinXP Mode" is working in reversed mode. using XP mode should enable the emulation (for XP to only see 512byte drives, not 4k), while this option is used by lot of users to format FAT32 up to 16TB, so I guess it's actually disable it.... so be sure to test both, you don't know which one is best.

 

[jasonmbrown]

Again The USBLoaderGX Not finding the HDD Shouldn't cause it to Lockup? I cant even open USBLoaderGX To get to its settings... :|, Although Just in case I will try Launching usbloaderGX with the hdd unplugged and plug it in after I set the IOS. As for neek I think the Advanced Format (4k) has doomed me.

 

[Cyan]

of course you have to unplug the HDD to launch the loader if you don't want the loader to hang on detecting HDD.

 

[jasonmbrown]

Btw Why doesnt neek work on 4k sector drives? and could that be fixed by compiling with a newer version of libs?

Edit:
I got USBLoaderGX Working and changed all its paths to the USB Drive. However it has the same issue as wiiflow when I try to play any games, After a couple minutes the audio will cut out, and the game will crash shortly there after (usually on any attempt to load data from the hdd). I havent Yet tried to launch neek Via USBLoader But I will see what happens.

Again Can someone point me to a compatible external HDD at the least for the purpose of playing backup games (Forget about neek for now, If I need to Il just get a 64gb SD Card to store the nand on)

Im quite sure that My HDD Is going into IDLE mode, and the d2x IOS is unable to pull it out of Idle mode. Im not sure if its fixable without actual updates to the ios, but i can try a different IOS If anyone has suggestions.

It seems my hdd sets itself to the lowest power consumption when it powers on. Its also a little strange that when I use Neek + DI to launch a game from neek system menu, aside from a really long load time there isnt any other issues with the game.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

My 4k hd (Maxtor M3 1Tb) has issues with neek2o mode only (black screen)
but IOS mode is working nicely with emunand, I'm using Wiiflow Lite.
I think that it's a serious issue, though, because people will have to change their hard disks sooner or later, and more companies are making a transition to 4K physical clusters. There's not a compatibily list, and buying a new one can be a hit or miss.

 

[jasonmbrown]

Well its my understanding that most 4k drives have an emulation mode built into them for handling 512 clusters but I dont know how it gets turned on. Also The neek2o issues im encountering are quite possibly entirely caused by the Low Power mode, (It seems to idle the drive after about 10-20 seconds of inactivity, and cant Spin it back up). Which Explains why to launch games with the Neek2o System Menu, I need to Unplug and replug the drive while its in the frozen state. Which is a complete pain in the ass.

However Neek2o Keeps the Drive spun up for its built in loader though, seems to work for my drive (as Once the game is loaded via DI, Aside from Periodic Stutters of the game it doesn't crash (tested on Super Paper Mario and Fire Emblem).

Also I Have to use the Premade Emunand, If I use my own dump it seems to get locked into some kind of loop on boot, I Think that Might be due to the old start patch Hacks installed on my nand however (I have Moveable Disc Channel, Skip Health/Saftey Screen) @Tetsuo Shima Have you tried booting to your neek2o emunand using the Bootmii/boot2 replacement for the SD Card Along with the Premade Emunand from Abz's MasterPack/Fresh emunand from ModMii?


PS: If anyone knows how to Launch games Via Wiiflow Or USBLoaderGX As If I had used the EmuNand DI Menu to load them let me know. As This might fix my crashing issues... Wiiflow doesnt seem to like launching anything using emunand for me.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

Yes, booting emunand from SD card with bootmii sneek replacement is working. However it's a bit slower than usb and there's the annoying part of rebooting the wii each time with the sd card in.
Using Wiiflow Lite I can't use SD nand, but I can set usb emunand. Go to settings, partition setting and select USB1 for emunand, then go to emunand settings and choose your nand foder (mine is pl_eu). I can see all my games from wiiflow and launch them except for those few games that are using neek2o mode.

 

[Cyan]

PS: If anyone knows how to Launch games Via Wiiflow Or USBLoaderGX As If I had used the EmuNand DI Menu to load them let me know. As This might fix my crashing issues... Wiiflow doesnt seem to like launching anything using emunand for me.

it's not possible, it's a bug in neek.
actually, not really a bug, but the function used to launch game discs using argument (from loaders) is completely disabled in neek2o sources.
I think it was disabled on purpose. By looking at the sources I saw it was missing codes to work. you can't just remove the comments and reactivate it, you need to (re)code the function.

 

[GreyWolf]

it's not possible, it's a bug in neek.
actually, not really a bug, but the function used to launch game discs using argument (from loaders) is completely disabled in neek2o sources.
I think it was disabled on purpose. By looking at the sources I saw it was missing codes to work. you can't just remove the comments and reactivate it, you need to (re)code the function.

It needs TinyLoad integrated into the DI source.

 

[jasonmbrown]

On a side note, what version of Libs do I need to compile Neek2o, and Is anyone else encountering issues with devkitpro's updater (I keep getting a files not found error when I try to reinstall).

It will probably take me a while to get back into c/c++ so I don't expect to get very far right away, but Might as well give it a shot, and at the very least update it enough to use the latest libs.

PS: If I understand correctly, There's no way to pass arguments into uNeek + DI to get it to load a selected ISO/Game? Alternatively, How does Neek Boot the Games off ISO (as this is the functionality that I believe might fix my hdd crashing, Since It sounds like you cant use a launcher to forward into neek and boot)

 

[Cyan]

the problem is not tinyLoad, nor Di. the problem is in ES.
The Autoboot disc variables" are all commented out in the argument reading function, so it will never read the TitleID sent by argument from a loader.

It looks like overjoy tried different hardcoded values for gameid (SNMP) and gamemagic (0x5d1c9ea3 for Wii games), and ended not reading nor using any.
the "dvdloadgame" is commented out too, so nothing is sent to di.

the MCMagic is set to "OJOY" and that's all.



I don't have all the sources in mind anymore, it's been a long time I read it, maybe I don't understand and it can be fixed easily ?
And maybe I'm totally wrong, and I'm sorry if I am. I might not even link to the correct issue.


@jasonmbrown :
You need devkitARM r32


neek2o get TitleID argument to autoboot channels, but not discs.
I don't know why overjoy commented these lines, maybe he did to test something and forgot to uncomment for the release?

edit:
for info, here is the config creation from USBLoaderGX sent to neek :
https://sourceforge.net/p/usbloadergx/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/source/usbloader/neek.cpp#l217
maybe it's wrong too, I never completed the USBLoaderGX's neek2o settings creation part. I had plan to make more neek config creation in the loader (to generate the neek's hidden menu for video settings, cheat, etc.)
too bad I don't have any more free time to work on it. living alone takes all my time

 

[jasonmbrown]

Lol, It looks like forwarding portion of USBLoaderGX might work, at the very least if it does I think neek does nothing with it (looks like neek just has a bit of Pre-emptive Placeholder code (Probably a feature that was being worked on, but never got implemented. Looks like it wouldn't need too much work to finish implementing (seems like the code is partially there just not Syntax Correct/Ready), However I haven't done any c/c++ Since the Start of 3ds Homebrew, so I could be horribly wrong. Also I havent looked to hard at the rest of the neek source)

 

[GreyWolf]

The problem is there's not actually any code to autoboot the disc. TinyLoad was designed to load and run the mounted disc so that should work but there would be no game patching.

It looks like there are IOCtl commands to change disc images, too.

 

[jasonmbrown]

Could you just boot the Disc Channel Using Neek after its mounted the disc Image (as Neek Patches its own stuff?) So it would Need the config to forward which Image to load, Then Forward the TitleID for the Disc Channel?
(EG so would Use GameID, GameMagic, To set the ISO (Wii/GCN))... Will at least work on getting that part working, Then from There Look into Autobooting/Writing an Autoboot or using TinyLoad, I cant Remember if the Wii had an internal Autoboot for an inserted Disc)

Edit: Stupid SVN, Cant Just download the sources as a zip... Will have to try again later.. (I hate svn crap (Not gonna argue they are SUPER useful though))

Does anyone Know if the TCP Debugger Works In games (Launched Disc Stuff?, I assume I would just need to compile USBLoaderGX using the Debug Mode Options in the makefile, along with using the TCP Patch (http://wiibrew.org/wiki/User:PhoenixTank/Setting_up_Eclipse_for_Wii_Development#Wifi_Debugging_Patch)). Thinking If I can get a debugger running, I can see what the fk is crashing my wii and see about fixing it more directly Rather then this guess work ... Just not sure If I would absolutely Need to have a USB Gecko to debug.

Edit2: Finally Got my dev environment set up. Will post any changes I do, to get sht working.

 

[GreyWolf]

The disc channel doesn't have a tile ID so there's no way to launch it using the method that works with WW/VC. That's what I suggested TinyLoad for. You could make a channel out of it and send the disc ID as a parameter.

 

[jasonmbrown]

I Really need to write down exactly how I have to do things to make them work... EG, Using Neek (about 1 minute boot up time, on entire WiiWare Library). If I try to launch anything I have to Unplug and replug the USB drive After Wii goes to blackscreen. Then wait about 45 seconds after that Aside from the periodic Audio Cutting out in most games it seems fine. Which Means whatever Neek is doing to the read the games off HDD Is Working Better for me then what the other programs are doing... Also I didnt properly set up my dev environment... Because Of course everything needs to use different Revs DevKitPPC. and the newest one doesnt have any good examples for the simplest stuff (and I dont know my c++ syntax well enough to figure out much).

It would be nice If I could just figure out what it is that neek's doing that USBLoaderGX Isn't. And Have neek reinit the USB HDD Right before Launching a game (so I dont have to manually get up and Replug the drive)


Edit: Well I gave in and picked up a 4TB western digital "My Elements" external (139$ on sale), Took me forever To format it correctly... I suspect anything over 2tb Wont work on the wii. I had to spend a while to Turn off 512E and get it so that windows sees it as 4k sectors. Otherwise I couldnt format it to MBR And use all the space (Without 4k Sector, It only lets me allocate 2TB under MBR, With 4k I can Partition Entire Drive under Fat32 @ 32k Clusters.
Just for Future Reference To random People Finding this post, To Format a Drive Bigger then 2TB as Fat32, you need to Disable the 512 Sector Emulation. Usually using a format tool that comes from the drive manufacturer.

Im gonna do some tests with it and hope that it works fine.

 

[Hephaestus]

I am using uNeek2o for the vWii/Wii U and neither pressing "1", nor "2" opens any menus.
Even waited quite a while on the home screen and it still didnt work, sadly.
Is that because i have over 700 titles?

 

[XFlak]

Did u install neek2o+di? You're referring to the DI menu, right?

 

[Hephaestus]

@XFlak

I installed the only version i could find of uneek2o for vWii at all.
Not much data included. Folder is called "uneek2or96beta9.6".
Does that help at all?

A file called "di.bin" is part of the "sneek"-folder.