SDUSB

jota2 · Mar 15, 2026

I did everything correctly but now that i pluged the sd card hombrew works but format storage device doesn´t appear. Any possible solution? I have used usb flashdrives on the past for more space, dont know if it matters.

SDIO · Mar 15, 2026

And when you go to the settings and start the format manually?

jota2 · Mar 15, 2026

SDIO said:
And when you go to the settings and start the format manually?

Yeah, when go to settings and pres format a usb device it goes infinately loading (in the wiiu).
Heres a better view of my sd (srry for the spanish)

Edit: Now it worked but I had to go through minute and then select Patch (sd) and boot IOS (slc). Is there A way to launch it with fastbooting or do I always have to go through minute? (I normaly use fastbooting)

sermuns · Mar 20, 2026

If anyone else was looking to partition the SD card on Linux using fdisk (no GUI bloat) here’s how I did it:

1. Identify your SD card device:

Code:

$ lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINTS
sda           8:0    1     0B  0 disk 
sdb           8:16   1  29.7G  0 disk 
└─sdb1        8:17   1  29.7G  0 part 
mmcblk0     179:0    0  29.8G  0 disk 
└─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0  29.8G  0 part 
nvme0n1     259:0    0 238.5G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0     1G  0 part  /boot
└─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0 237.5G  0 part 
  └─root    253:0    0 237.5G  0 crypt /var/lib/docker/btrfs
                                       /var/log
                                       /var/cache/pacman/pkg
                                       /home
                                       /

For me it was sdb.

MAKE SURE IT'S NOT MOUNTED ANYWHERE. THE COLUMN "MOUNTPOINTS" SHOULD BE EMPTY FOR THAT DEVICE.

2. Partition with fdisk:

Code:

sudo fdisk /dev/DEVICE

Create a new partition table:

Code:

Create the FAT32 partition (e.g. 1GiB):

Code:

n
p
1
+1GiB

Set its type to FAT32:

Code:

t
1
c

Mark it as bootable (unsure if this is needed):

Code:

a
1

Create the NTFS partition (rest of the space):

Code:

n
p
2
<enter>
<enter>

Set NTFS type:

Code:

t
2
7

Write changes:

Code:

Then format both partitions (unsure if NTFS formatting is needed):

Code:

sudo mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdb1
sudo mkfs.ntfs -f /dev/sdb2

Notes:

Both partitions are already “primary” by default
Ignore Windows-specific stuff like drive letters
I think alignment from fdisk is already fine. The 64 MiB alignment thing seems unnecessary, worked fine for me.

DolphinPussy · Mar 20, 2026

The Real Jdbye said:
I think it's probably more difficult to do it with USB, because the Wii U wants complete control over any USB drive it sees, but normally ignores the SD card (in Wii U mode)

The real holy grail (imo) is loading the MLC from USB via endurance MicroSD, keeping SDIO for retroarch loads and homebrew, and if using the Internal SATA, then SSD as MLC, or as an HDD storage drive for USBMLC; with the USBHide/Ustealth app to keep the Wii/GC drive on the second USB slot from being formatted.

Each device would be using its own dedicated lane, topped off with an 'I/O Priority' Aroma/Wafel plug-in, to keep speeds as fast and as consistent as possible for the end user, greatly reducing contention. I'll have the slop speak on my behalf.
https://chat.deepseek.com/share/miiksywz92khb5q38n

It would be the homebrew equivalent to the official Wii U Summer Update.
If I had to give the actualized project a name, it would be bullet or butter, like the coffee.

Going back to the menu is still pretty slow, and judging by the plugin blueprint, this will remedy it.

A more advanced LAVD/BORE (Steam Deck) inspired plugin would be the fastest, this still won't be a full blown scheduler, as that would require having a granular understand of the syscalls; but it's a step in the right direction. I'll be learning as I mess with it and will report back when (if) I have progress.
https://chat.deepseek.com/share/xr9ppnh44apay0qbcw

jota2 · Mar 21, 2026

jota2 said:
Yeah, when go to settings and pres format a usb device it goes infinately loading (in the wiiu).
Heres a better view of my sd (srry for the spanish)

Edit: Now it worked but I had to go through minute and then select Patch (sd) and boot IOS (slc). Is there A way to launch it with fastbooting or do I always have to go through minute? (I normaly use fastbooting)

How can I fastboot with this IOs plugin? I have fast boot set up so it loads directly to aroma. To activate sdusb I have to cancell the fastboot and then go through minute. I think I must have to reinstall the fw.img file but I dont know how. Reinstalling the Fastboot fw.img
(isfhax fastboot)

SDIO · Mar 21, 2026

It should also work with the fastboot minute. Did you actually place the fastboot minute as fw.img on the root on the SD?
You can also just configure autoboot on the full minute.

Post automatically merged: Mar 22, 2026

sermuns said:
If anyone else was looking to partition the SD card on Linux using fdisk (no GUI bloat) here’s how I did it:

The advantage of gparted is that it lets you easily shrink the existing FAT32 partition.

sermuns said:
Create the FAT32 partition (e.g. 1GiB):

Code:

n p 1 +1GiB

This doesn't work for me. It seems you left out the selecton of the first sector. And there you have to be careful to get a good alignment. Admittedly gparted also does a bad job at aligning the FAT32 partition. It simply aligmens the partition to 1MiB, but that will cause the data section inside the FAT32 file system to be misaligned. The offical SD formatter is much smarter about that, but it only allows 32GiB. Btw, I made this tool for checking aligments, but fsck can also show you the start of the sections: https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/mbrinfo (you have to compile it yourself, as the release is outdated)

sermuns said:
Mark it as bootable (unsure if this is needed):

Code:

a 1

Not needed

sermuns said:
Then format both partitions (unsure if NTFS formatting is needed):

Not needed to format the NTFS partition, only the type must be set. Also I would recommend using 0x17, so the PC doesn't even try to do anything with it.

sermuns said:
I think alignment from fdisk is already fine. The 64 MiB alignment thing seems unnecessary, worked fine for me.

Alignment is not required for to work, but it will affect performance and longevity. The AUs of SD cards can be quite big. For SDHC the offical SD formatter seems to use 8MiB aligmenet for the data section.

Post automatically merged: Mar 22, 2026

DolphinPussy said:
Each device would be using its own dedicated lane, topped off with an 'I/O Priority' Aroma/Wafel plug-in, to keep speeds as fast and as consistent as possible for the end user, greatly reducing contention.

I don't think that is much of a concern on the Wii U.

DolphinPussy · Mar 22, 2026

SDIO said:
I don't think that is much of a concern on the Wii U.

I'll have to do benchmarks and let you know, the I/O difference with the theoretical plugin may be redundant if the lanes are already made separate, but for builds using eMMC or SDUSB as boot, it might actually help to reduce hiccups caused by bottlenecks.

I will be patient for your 5satausb plugin to be finished so I can test with confidence, SATA plugin changes what the device says it is, but doesn't handle the power timing, initialization order, or proper registration with the storage system.

For now I shall keep toying with merged 5partnc IOS autoboot.
Thanks so much for all you do.

SDIO · Mar 23, 2026

I fixed the satausb plugin, so it now uses the MLC key: https://github.com/StroopwafelCFW/wafel_sata_usb/releases

jota2 · Mar 28, 2026

I have everything ready but the ios plugin. How can I run sdusb using fastboot mode on isfhax?

Hollywood2000 · Apr 7, 2026

I made an account just to say thank you for this guide!! It worked beautifully and was just a simple extra step in the process of homebrewing my fiance's childhood Wii U today. I absolutely cannot wait to show him some of the best games for the system (New Super Mario Bros U, anyone?).

For anyone who reads the comments, be aware that I had some issues with Minitool Partition Wizard (I am on Windows 11, that's possibly relevant), but the Paragon Partition Manager worked just fine. I figured I'd put this here in case anyone else is having those "Error 12" headaches and/or can't get it to work for any other reasons.

I suspect it wasn't working properly because my laptop doesn't have an SD card reader, so I have to use a USB to SDXC dongle, and evidently that causes some hiccups with the way Windows reads my SD cards.

Endou-san · Apr 7, 2026

I have a problem, I followed all of the tutorial but I can't see my ntfs partition of the sd card as a usb storage in the wii and the "checking USB storage device..." goes on forever.

I partitionned the sd card into a 32gb fat32 partition then an 87gb ntfs partition, I removed the letter from the ntfs partition, I copied the backup from my other sd card into the fat32 partition then I run wafel_setup_mlc.ipx to rebuild the MLC.

When I check my sd card partitions right after running wafel_setup_mlc.ipx, I see that the ntfs partition turned into a "other" in minitool partition wizard and "not formatted" in paragon partition manager. I guess that this is why SDUSB is not showing the second partition as a usb.

I tried formatting that partition again to ntfs but my wii would stay stuck on "jumping to IOS" until I run wafel_setup_mlc.ipx.

Why?

Wafel Installer

Prerequisites

Setup

Partitioning the SD card​

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Installing the Plugin​

Using SDUSB

Known Problems

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