Hacking Priiloader 0.9 Released!

[urmum_69]

i might consider implementing this change, but i wonder why the state of those installations is what it is.

Personally, I don't have any (convenient) way to copy files to my SD card, since I don't have an SD slot, but I still have it in my wii. I can copy files to it with wiixplorer, so there is a reason to keep it in. There's no harm done in doing this anyway.

 

[DacoTaco]

Why not just check both locations before declaring it missing? Check sd first then usb then nand. Apologies if this was the obvious solution and didn't need to be said

that is indeed the solution, but i have many questions about why the feature is requested before even starting it. it could point to a weird setup that makes no sense, a more severe issue or a completely different feature.

here is a nice image to display part of what im trying to say :

Personally, I don't have any (convenient) way to copy files to my SD card, since I don't have an SD slot, but I still have it in my wii. I can copy files to it with wiixplorer, so there is a reason to keep it in. There's no harm done in doing this anyway.

you don't have an sd slot, yet have one in the wii?
also, you didn't answer my questions, what is on the SD and what is on the USB? what makes the sd essential? :/

 

[XFlak]

If a random user has both an SD card and usb HDD they use for their wii, but for whatever reason they decide to use the usb HDD to update their priiloader and neglect to remove the SD card from their wii (maybe they don't know about this particular issue), they will encounter this problem.

If you were to implement the obvious solution I suggested before, I think the only potential issue is if there's an old priiloader installer and hacks on the SD that get picked up instead of the newer one that's on the usb. But perhaps that can be circumvented by checking all 3 locations and using the newest one. Other than this, I can't think of any downside to checking the usb for hacks even when the SD card is present. Can you think of another potential outcome I haven't considered?

 

[DacoTaco]

If a random user has both an SD card and usb HDD they use for their wii, but for whatever reason they decide to use the usb HDD to update their priiloader and neglect to remove the SD card from their wii (maybe they don't know about this particular issue), they will encounter this problem.

If you were to implement the obvious solution I suggested before, I think the only potential issue is if there's an old priiloader installer and hacks on the SD that get picked up instead of the newer one that's on the usb. But perhaps that can be circumvented by checking all 3 locations and using the newest one. Other than this, I can't think of any downside to checking the usb for hacks even when the SD card is present. Can you think of another potential outcome I haven't considered?

thing is, maybe he needs to drop the SD card all together if it has no purpose, and then priiloader would need to get a 'default fat device' option instead of the whole 'look on sd first then usb' thing (that is already in priiloader for apps).
maybe he's doing something wrong why he needs the SD etc etc.
analyzing the issue before coming to a conclusion is sometimes key

 

[XFlak]

I understand what you're saying, but even if the SD card has no purpose, some ppl will like it there. In urmum's example he cannot use his SD card from any other device so why would it ever leave his Wii?

Yes maybe in some cases users can drop the SD card all together, but it doesn't mean they will.

In any case, I will step aside and let you get the answers you need before proceeding. Thanks again dude for all you've done and continue to do. Cheers.

 

[urmum_69]

I don't have an SD slot

What I really meant was "I don't have an SD slot on my computer"

maybe he's doing something wrong why he needs the SD etc etc.

I think it will simply help reduce confusion, I don't see how having both and only using one could possibly screw anything up or even indicates a "weird setup". I don't get such a question very often, but it has been 4-5 times now that someone has been confused by this from my experience.

Even if you object to this, I think it would be far more sensible to simply put a warning and copy the hacks regardless, which of course you're free to do.

also, you didn't answer my questions, what is on the SD and what is on the USB? what makes the sd essential? :/

As for this, really nothing.
I just don't have any other uses for it and would like to keep it there. Why would having it screw anything up in particular? I just don't seem to understand why you think it could indicate some messed up setup.

 

[DacoTaco]

What I really meant was "I don't have an SD slot on my computer"


I think it will simply help reduce confusion, I don't see how having both and only using one could possibly screw anything up or even indicates a "weird setup". I don't get such a question very often, but it has been 4-5 times now that someone has been confused by this from my experience.

Even if you object to this, I think it would be far more sensible to simply put a warning and copy the hacks regardless, which of course you're free to do.


As for this, really nothing.
I just don't have any other uses for it and would like to keep it there. Why would having it screw anything up in particular? I just don't seem to understand why you think it could indicate some messed up setup.

i've had people talk to me that had (actively used) homebrew on both SD and usb and i just don't understand such setups at all. either use usb or sd, it's a lot cleaner and easier to handle.

if you say nothing actively used of homebrew on the SD, i propose the following change : a setting in priiloader that says which device to mount. default is SD , but it could be set to USB.
all device access ( apps, hacks etc etc ) would be done to the set device.
would this work with your setup, and the users you've been in contact with?

once we've come to the solution , i'll make the report on github and start development for the next major release.

 

[XFlak]

I think the default should be "auto" so that both devices are checked

 

[DacoTaco]

I think the default should be "auto" so that both devices are checked

why? care to collaborate ?
to me it would sound like a user would have homebrew actively used on both devices and he/she doesn't know which device to pick. what do you do when you want to list all applications and that user has applications on both?

 

[XFlak]

I was just sharing an opinion, I'm hardly qualified to collaborate with you on this!

I just think if there's more than 1 device plugged in when using the installer, both of them should be checked for hacks_hash before declaring it missing.

If you are talking about priiloader's installed file functionality, then maybe have the first screen have you select what device to browse, just like how a wad manager prompts you (absent of any overriding config arguments). [edit: but TBH in this instance I think it would be fine to just display sd if an SD is inserted, if users are trying to install a file from USB then just remove the SD card. This is not nearly as common a situation as using system menu hacks so if it's more work than it's worth, I would just look into the hacks_hash thing and not worry about installed files]

To me this is just intuitively how it should be set up and I see no downside.

Ultimately this is your baby and your call. Cheers.

 

[DacoTaco]

I was just sharing an opinion, I'm hardly qualified to collaborate with you on this!

whoops, ye. i meant Elaborate.

I just think if there's more than 1 device plugged in when using the installer, both of them should be checked for hacks_hash before declaring it missing.

If you are talking about priiloader's installed file functionality, then maybe have the first screen have you select what device to browse, just like how a wad manager prompts you (absent of any overriding config arguments). [edit: but TBH in this instance I think it would be fine to just display sd if an SD is inserted, if users are trying to install a file from USB then just remove the SD card. This is not nearly as common a situation as using system menu hacks so if it's more work than it's worth, I would just look into the hacks_hash thing and not worry about installed files]

To me this is just intuitively how it should be set up and I see no downside.

Ultimately this is your baby and your call. Cheers.

the installer doesn't do anything with the hacks file though, only priiloader does. the installer only removes the hacks file if it deems it necessary during install/upgrade (and removes it on an uninstall)

what i don't get is why it would be ok to use SD for installation of a binary, however the hacks file would need to be special? both are loaded from the apps folder, which contain homebrew. this is why i find it odd to have data on the one and other data on the other while they are in the same folder, containing the same type of data? :/

the filesystem selection is not a bad idea though, so we have 2 potential ideas atm!
to me they sounds like they are somewhat the same, but maybe im to focused on not having the apps folder split between 2 devices?

I would just look into the hacks_hash thing and not worry about installed files

thing is, i also need to refactor the mounting code and i don't want to refactor it and then have to redo it again for this

 

[XFlak]

We've always had to browse to install a file in priiloader, so adding a filesystem selector there feels natural. Also, this is something that more advanced users typically do, and they are going out of their way to manually put a specific file on their filesystem to install it, so they would (presumably) know where to look. But system menu hacks are always just there (as if by magic, lol) and much more broadly utilized so it feels different for some reason.

Q for you, when exactly are system menu hacks checked for? Is it when the system menu hack option is selected? Or earlier? Either way, when the check happens, maybe check all the filesystems and if more than 1 set of viable hacks_hash files are found in the standard locations, offer the user a choice (and perhaps a recommendation or at least provide info based on hacks_hash file sizes and timestamps)? I'm not sure if this idea presents other challenges, so I'm curious to hear what you think about it.

PS. thanks for clarifying when priiloader hacks are used, I always thought it was during the install, I stand corrected

 

[XFlak]

@DacoTaco, I have a question perhaps you can assist with. I am trying to access Priiloader on an emulated nand via sneek. In the past the official priiloader fully didn’t work on emunands iirc, and there was a Priiloader v0.7 mod for neek that worked.

Fast forward to today, and I cannot even boot into the Priiloader v0.7 neek mod as I used to. But it’s installed on the EmuNAND and I am being successfully forwarded to the emulated System Menu, so it’s definitely there and working to some degree, I just can’t seem to access the Priiloader menu. I’ve tried holding reset when booting into neek (I used to be able to get it working this way), and I also tried the magicword.dol, which actually exits neek and loads Priiloader from my real nand.

I’ve extracted the .app file that gets installed for Priiloader v0.9 and have tried using that in my EmuNand in place of the Priiloader v0.7 neek mod with the exact same results.

Below is a quote from another thread with some more info on this.

I'm not sure what else to try. it's just been too long since I used neek on the wii. I had to look up how to get into priiloader after having forgotten a few weeks ago. I know neek pretty well on the virtual wii, but the wii is a blur.

you mind refreshing my memory? I'm fairly certain I'm doing everything correctly but I can't boot into priiloader on my emunand anymore, and I'm certain I used to be able to. I know it's installed and working to a certain degree, because I can see it in the emunand and that it moved the original SM .app file and took it's place i.e. My SM is moved to 1000007c.app, and priiloader.app is saved to 0000007c.app; and so it must be working because priiloader is forwarding properly to my SM at 1000007c.app cuz I see the system menu. But holding reset or launching the magicword.dol isn't successful in accessing the neek Priiloader menu

TLDR: how do you consistently have success accessing Priiloader on EmuNAND?

stay tuned I'm editing this message right now...

edit:
some more info. ModMii has the option to install a special neek version of Priiloader v0.7 to EmuNANDs, and back in the day I was able to get this to work but not the official Priiloader. I have documented that the Priiloader menu is accessible by holding reset when booting neek, so I must have had this working on my Wii HDD, but it's not working now.

Btw, I tested the current Priiloader v0.9 installed app file on an emunand with the same results as the v0.7 neek mod. I'd like to see if I can get Priiloader v0.7neek mod working again, and then try v0.9 under otherwise identical circumstances to see if it works too. If I can get this working I'd very easily be able to update ModMii to use priiloader v0.9 on EmuNANDS (already updated to v0.9 on real nand in the latest ModMii beta)

Edit: I wonder if I should try an older version of neek2o…

 

[godreborn]

@DacoTaco, I have a question perhaps you can assist with. I am trying to access Priiloader on an emulated nand via sneek. In the past the official priiloader fully didn’t work on emunands iirc, and there was a Priiloader v0.7 mod for neek that worked.

Fast forward to today, and I cannot even boot into the v0.7 neek mod as I used to. But it’s installed on the EmuNAND and I am being successfully forwarded to the System Menu, so it’s definitely there and working, I just can’t seem to access the Priiloader menu. I’ve tried holding reset when booting into neek (I used to be able to get it working this way), and I also tried the magicword.dol, which actually exits neek and loads Priiloader from my real nand.

I’ve extracted the .app file that gets installed for Priiloader v0.9 and have tried using that in place of the v0.7 neek mod with the exact same results.

Below is a quote from another thread with some more info on this.


Edit: I wonder if I should try an older version of neek2o…

are you saying that you think the problem with not booing into neek2o is priiloader? that's interesting. I haven't updated priiloader in a very long time (probably don't have 0.9 installed), and obviously with my efforts being on the virtual wii, I wouldn't have that problem. I don't remember much about the wii hacks, but I do remember the wii u and virtual wii ones quite well, possibly since I game on the system nearly every day. I did have it once where a couple games got corrupted as well as the emunand for neek, so I just copied over the contents from my backup to fix it. I think neek2o wouldn't load or something or I was getting a constant black screen. I've since replaced the hdd and enclosure (still using the same power cable and usb cable). no issues, though, if I haven't used the virtual wii's hdd in a while, dkc returns (my favorite game on the system) would sometimes have issues booting up. the hdd's activity light would stop flashing after showing the wii remote screen, then I'd have to wait a few moments for it to start flashing again. it happens just that once, then every other time booting the game, it's very fast. the game could be over a bad sector part of the hdd or the hdd might just have to get used to working again, I dunno. I have no issues with any other game after the hdd has been off for a while.

 

[XFlak]

Just to clarify, all the versions of priiloader that I've tested on Emunands successfully booted to the system menu, I just can't access the emunand priiloader menu.

Modmii's emulated nand modifier is able to add or remove priiloader to emunands, I don't think priiloader would be causing a problem with booting neek, but if u ever want to remove priiloader from the emunand for testing purposes you can use modmii instead of doing it manually

Edit:
@godreborn, in the other thread you said you were able to access priiloader in your emunand, can you share the method you used to successfully do this please?

 

[DacoTaco]

Just to clarify, all the versions of priiloader that I've tested on Emunands successfully booted to the system menu, I just can't access the emunand priiloader menu.

Modmii's emulated nand modifier is able to add or remove priiloader to emunands, I don't think priiloader would be causing a problem with booting neek, but if u ever want to remove priiloader from the emunand for testing purposes you can use modmii instead of doing it manually

Edit:
@godreborn, in the other thread you said you were able to access priiloader in your emunand, can you share the method you used to successfully do this please?

so ive been ignoring gbafail for a while. whoops.

so if i get it correctly, you have priiloader installed on both the real and emunand (real to boot emunand, emunand to boot SM or something else i suppose?) , right?

i don't know enough about how emunand works, but iirc it loaded itself into starlet/ios and redirected all nand access, correct?
does it prevent ios reloading from unloading it? how does that work?

you could try setting the settings file to autoboot none i guess (first byte of loader.ini , set it to 0x00) , but thats not really user friendly.

if you enable logging, does it show priiloader booting twice (real+emunand) ? o.O

 

[XFlak]

Mostly correct. I have priiloader installed to real nand, but it's set to boot the real system menu, not emunand. Everything on real nand is working as expected.

So this was my emunand's original loader.ini (presumably set up by priiloader-v0.7-neek-mod, but TBH I don't recall

00 00 00 04 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

I also tried this loader.ini taken from a recent nand dump with priiloader v0.9 installed

03 00 00 00 00 00 00 5A 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

then I modified the above as you directed like so

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 5A 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

All 3 are behaving the same way, just booting directly to the emunand system menu (whether I hold reset during emunand bootup makes no difference)

I can't explain the finer details of how neek works, but in addition to redirected nand, my understanding is that IOS reloading is not blocked, it just reloads it from the emulated nand

edit:
these source files may be more helpful than just the link to the priiloader neek mod binary file. I'm not sure how difficult it would be, but maybe you can identify the neek mods that were applied to priiloader v0.7 to perhaps replicate something similar to v0.9. This link also includes a Priiloader neek mod installer and priibooter app (maybe a modified magicword app?)
https://master.dl.sourceforge.net/project/neek2o/priiloader_uneek2.rar?viasf=1

again I am 100% certain something was preventing the stock priiloader 0.7 from working on emunands, which is why the neek mod was created in the first place. And I'm certain I was able to access the priiloader neek mod menu from my emunand (and automated the process into ModMii), I just can't boot it anymore no matter what I do. Note I that I am not asking for your help with the neek mod, I know you didn't build it, besides I'd much rather get v0.9 working on emunands.

edit2: I'm not sure how to enable logging in the version of Priiloader that's installed to my emunand if I can't access the menu. Did you still want me to enable it on my real nand and report back anything?

edit3: I also tried a pure 1:1 dump of my nand with priiloader v0.9 installed, same result

 

[DacoTaco]

Mostly correct. I have priiloader installed to real nand, but it's set to boot the real system menu, not emunand. Everything on real nand is working as expected.

So this was my emunand's original loader.ini (presumably set up by priiloader-v0.7-neek-mod, but TBH I don't recall

00 00 00 04 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

I also tried this loader.ini taken from a recent nand dump with priiloader v0.9 installed

03 00 00 00 00 00 00 5A 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

then I modified the above as you directed like so

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 5A 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

All 3 are behaving the same way, just booting directly to the emunand system menu (whether I hold reset during emunand bootup makes no difference)

I can't explain the finer details of how neek works, but in addition to redirected nand, my understanding is that IOS reloading is not blocked, it just reloads it from the emulated nand

edit:
these source files may be more helpful than just the link to the priiloader neek mod binary file. I'm not sure how difficult it would be, but maybe you can identify the neek mods that were applied to priiloader v0.7 to perhaps replicate something similar to v0.9. This link also includes a Priiloader neek mod installer and priibooter app (maybe a modified magicword app?)
https://master.dl.sourceforge.net/project/neek2o/priiloader_uneek2.rar?viasf=1

again I am 100% certain something was preventing the stock priiloader 0.7 from working on emunands, which is why the neek mod was created in the first place. And I'm certain I was able to access the priiloader neek mod menu from my emunand (and automated the process into ModMii), I just can't boot it anymore no matter what I do. Note I that I am not asking for your help with the neek mod, I know you didn't build it, besides I'd much rather get v0.9 working on emunands.

edit2: I'm not sure how to enable logging in the version of Priiloader that's installed to my emunand if I can't access the menu. Did you still want me to enable it on my real nand and report back anything?

edit3: I also tried a pure 1:1 dump of my nand with priiloader v0.9 installed, same result

that settings edit should have worked.
do you have any idea what that neek mod did ? any source of it?
also, what does the log say when you enabled it in both anyway? (enable it on host and copy paste the loader.ini to emunand, i forgot which byte is the logging byte lol )

this might be a bit harder to debug/figure out without the mod source or a usbgecko hehe (or setting up emunand myself which i don't want to do unless i have to)

 

[XFlak]

Source provided in my previous post, sorry can't reply properly right now but wanted to at least mention that for now

 

[DacoTaco]

ah, my mistake. i thought it was the sneek source lol