Homebrew Official Retroarch WiiU (wip.)

[ChiefReginod]

Dear diary, tonight I'm on the verge of a mental breakdown again because of RetroArch on the WiiU. Just when I was nearing the end of the excruciating ordeal setting everything up the way I want it, and while browsing my beautifully constructed massive playlists I suddenly noticed everything disappear. After quitting and restarting, RetroArch would not load anymore. So I powered down the WiiU and put my SD card in my laptop, only to find the entire RetroArch folder being a big garbled mess with corrupted files. Lol, what can you do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Start over, I guess.

Try running this from the command prompt ( just replace x with the SD card drive letter):
chkdsk x: /f

You should definitely also check your SD card with h2testw.

 

[Mansize]

Did that before I started, found nothing special - this is a brand new high end card I unpacked just for this purpose. I have many though, so just to avoid the risk of the card being faulty, I'm throwing it away.

Nothing what I wasn't expecting on a check;

The type of the file system is FAT32.
[...]
Windows is verifying files and folders...
Unrecoverable error in folder \retroarch.

 

[willianholtz]

Did that before I started, found nothing special - this is a brand new high end card I unpacked just for this purpose. I have many though, so just to avoid the risk of the card being faulty, I'm throwing it away.

Nothing what I wasn't expecting on a check;

The type of the file system is FAT32.
[...]
Windows is verifying files and folders...
Unrecoverable error in folder \retroarch.

wii u retroarch build by crazy mac

 

[Mansize]

No, I wouldn't touch THAT.

Just discovered that mGBA has Super Game Boy output support for some GB games... that is just lovely!

 

[mpg408]

So, just tried to install retroarch following OP, but it just shows the retroarch logo then a black screen with music playing (using the forwarder channel).

Is there any stable version that i should be using?

 

[ChiefReginod]

So, just tried to install retroarch following OP, but it just shows the retroarch logo then a black screen with music playing (using the forwarder channel).

Is there any stable version that i should be using?

1.9.0 stable is fine. It sounds like the forwarder just isn't finding the right files to load.

Make sure that your SD card is structured like this:
sd:\retroarch\cores\*.rpx

You don't need to copy anything to sd:\wiiu\apps. Also, read 2-3 pages back in this thread for some tips on massively improving the load times.

 

[arcath]

I don't want to use the tablet at all with retroarch. But every time i try to swap the port 1 controls over to the pro controller, the table obviously stops working but the pro controller doesn't do anything and the only way to fix it is to blow away my config and start over.

Is there something I'm missing to get the pro controller working?

 

[ChiefReginod]

I don't want to use the tablet at all with retroarch. But every time i try to swap the port 1 controls over to the pro controller, the table obviously stops working but the pro controller doesn't do anything and the only way to fix it is to blow away my config and start over.

Is there something I'm missing to get the pro controller working?

1.9.0 seems to have some issues with the controller drivers. This specific issue wasn't present in 1.8.9. A temporary workaround is to move the gamepad out of range before turning the system on. If you get stuck on the menus with no inputs being recognized, plug in a USB keyboard and then change the controller settings to use the Wii U Pro Controller.

Supposedly a new stable version is coming soon, so hopefully this issue gets a fix.

 

[Mansize]

I don't want to use the tablet at all with retroarch. But every time i try to swap the port 1 controls over to the pro controller, the table obviously stops working but the pro controller doesn't do anything and the only way to fix it is to blow away my config and start over.

Is there something I'm missing to get the pro controller working?

This works for me most of the time; place the Gamepad out of range while booting RetroArch with a WiiMote - make sure you have the other stuff you want connected already connected.

 

[arcath]

1.9.0 seems to have some issues with the controller drivers. This specific issue wasn't present in 1.8.9. A temporary workaround is to move the gamepad out of range before turning the system on. If you get stuck on the menus with no inputs being recognized, plug in a USB keyboard and then change the controller settings to use the Wii U Pro Controller.

Supposedly a new stable version is coming soon, so hopefully this issue gets a fix.

I guess I will have to wait. I tried to start it without the gamepad in range but haxchi requires the gamepad to start. Even with it out of range once haxchi is started, neither the pro controller or a wiimote w/classic controller seemed to work in the menus when i set them in the menus with a keyboard.

 

[sideskroll]

By the way, our "storage_usb" -mod is now officially merged into RetroArch and can be used by downloading the latest Nightly built cores, I wanna thank everyone being supportive and testing!

Hopefully the write speeds (at least it's what I think is the problem) can be improved up on somehow!

EDIT: I started a thread here that hopefully (fingers crossed) could yield some better understand when it comes to read/write speeds of homebrew apps

Hi, dude. I was JUST searching for this!. Let me ask you something, Im not using a "WiiU fomatted USB" but a "regular" fat32 ustealthed hdd in which I keep my wii and gcn isos etc. Does the bightly builds support loading roms from a ustealth usb drive? Im asking before I go ahead and manually edit my playlists... Thanks!

 

[Maxbeta]

Is multiplayer on 1 Wii U console possible on any of the Game boy advance cores?

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while. Still on rev.1.7.7

 

[Whodat2345]

Hello,
So my issue is being able to change a different controller to port 1. As of right now I can only use the Gamepad. I have a classic controller set as port 2, I go into port 1 and change the “device index” to classic controller... And none of the buttons work. From this point I can’t even switch the “device index” back to the Gamepad, the only thing that works is pressing on the triggers/shoulders to reset retroarch on the Gamepad. I would just like to be able to play games with other controllers as player 1 and not the Gamepad. Any info is much appreciated, thank you!

Edit: I saw someone say you need to give all controllers menu navigation. But I see no such option under input

 

[ChiefReginod]

Hello,
So my issue is being able to change a different controller to port 1. As of right now I can only use the Gamepad. I have a classic controller set as port 2, I go into port 1 and change the “device index” to classic controller... And none of the buttons work. From this point I can’t even switch the “device index” back to the Gamepad, the only thing that works is pressing on the triggers/shoulders to reset retroarch on the Gamepad. I would just like to be able to play games with other controllers as player 1 and not the Gamepad. Any info is much appreciated, thank you!

Edit: I saw someone say you need to give all controllers menu navigation. But I see no such option under input

1.8.8 was the last version to have the "All Users Control Menu" option. No idea why it was removed.

In addition, 1.9.0 seems to have some issues with the controller drivers. If you end up stuck on the menus without any control, plug in a USB keyboard and you should be able to switch the device index back. Read a few pages back in this thread for some more discussion on this.

 

[Whodat2345]

1.8.8 was the last version to have the "All Users Control Menu" option. No idea why it was removed.

In addition, 1.9.0 seems to have some issues with the controller drivers. If you end up stuck on the menus without any control, plug in a USB keyboard and you should be able to switch the device index back. Read a few pages back in this thread for some more discussion on this.

Thanks, I’m very new at this... would it be advisable to downgrade to 1.8.8 for that option? I read it may be fixed at some point, but for now it seems like putting Gamepad out of range when launching retro arch may work. Or use a USB keyboard to navigate(which I don’t have unfortunately)

 

[ChiefReginod]

Thanks, I’m very new at this... would it be advisable to downgrade to 1.8.8 for that option? I read it may be fixed at some point, but for now it seems like putting Gamepad out of range when launching retro arch may work. Or use a USB keyboard to navigate(which I don’t have unfortunately)

It depends on whether it's important enough to you to warrant going back. 1.9.0 has some significant improvements in other areas.

Here are the archive.org links to the last few stable versions:
1.8.8 - Has the option for all users to control the menu. Pro controller works fine.https://web.archive.org/web/2020071...m/stable/1.8.8/nintendo/wiiu/RetroArch_rpx.7z
1.8.9 - Doesn't have the option to allow all users to control the menu but the Pro controller seems to work fine.

I just messed around a bit in 1.9.0 and can confirm that either moving the gamepad out of range or disconnecting the battery will let you use the Pro controller as player 1 in-game and on the menus without a problem. Under no other scenario was I able to set the Pro controller as player 1, and I tried a bunch of things. Basically, the only way is to take the gamepad out of the equation.

 

[Whodat2345]

It depends on whether it's important enough to you to warrant going back. 1.9.0 has some significant improvements in other areas.

Here are the archive.org links to the last few stable versions:
1.8.8- Has the option for all users to control the menu. Pro controller works fine.
1.8.9- Doesn't have the option to allow all users to control the menu but the Pro controller seems to work fine.

I just messed around a bit in 1.9.0 and can confirm that either moving the gamepad out of range or disconnecting the battery will let you use the Pro controller as player 1 in-game and on the menus without a problem. Under no other scenario was I able to set the Pro controller as player 1, and I tried a bunch of things. Basically, the only way is to take the gamepad out of the equation.

Awesome thanks, I’ll go ahead and stick with the new version then, and hope they fix the Gamepad issue at some point With an update . It’s a little annoying but not a deal breaker, I just stuck my Gamepad in the microwave when launching Wiiu and it worked great! Thanks for the info

 

[NinStar]

am I the only one who can't download thumbnails directly on wii u? by the way, I am aware of what happened in the main repository, but I am not sure if this would have any direct relation to the thumbnail repository.

 

[Maxbeta]

am I the only one who can't download thumbnails directly on wii u? by the way, I am aware of what happened in the main repository, but I am not sure if this would have any direct relation to the thumbnail repository.

Direct downloads from the Wii U have never been great so far. Do it directly from the site and avoid it at all costs unless it’s a small simple task like updating 1 core at a time.

 

[jacobsson]

It depends on whether it's important enough to you to warrant going back. 1.9.0 has some significant improvements in other areas.

Here are the archive.org links to the last few stable versions:
1.8.8 - Has the option for all users to control the menu. Pro controller works fine.
1.8.9 - Doesn't have the option to allow all users to control the menu but the Pro controller seems to work fine.

I just messed around a bit in 1.9.0 and can confirm that either moving the gamepad out of range or disconnecting the battery will let you use the Pro controller as player 1 in-game and on the menus without a problem. Under no other scenario was I able to set the Pro controller as player 1, and I tried a bunch of things. Basically, the only way is to take the gamepad out of the equation.

Regarding all user control in 1.9.0, is there any chance RA would still parse the all_user_control_menu = true if it was manually added in the config?