Hacking Help - can’t use emuNAND any more but I need it!

IggyNignokt · Sep 22, 2014

Hey all,

So here’s a weird issue… I’ve been using a hacked Wii for years, ever since the internal NAND on my launch-day Wii started dying about 4 or 5 years ago. Prior to that. I was getting corrupted Mii Channel, losing Miis, and corrupt game saves.

Anyway, for the past 3 years or so I’ve been running emuNAND via UNEEK+DI connected to a Seagate 3.5” 320GB 3Gbps SATA HDD in a Vantec USB 2 case. There have been a few hiccups here and there where the Wii would stop recognizing the HDD, but I could always fix it by replacing cert.sys, settings.txt, etc. I’ve also kept a backup to another exact duplicate HDD (purchased at the same time, same model, in the same case, using software to do a block-level copy).

So last week, the primary HDD gave me the click-of-death. It won’t mount in Mac OS or Windows. No problem, I thought, that’s what the backup is for. Only it doesn’t work! I’ve tried running disk utilities in Mac and Windows, which it passes without problems. I’ve tried putting the HDD in the same Vantec case as the original, in case there is a chipset difference. I’ve tried reinstalling all the typical UNEEK+DI trouble files that can get corrupted. I’ve tried reinstalling virgin files from ModMii, including a clean emuNAND. I’ve tried re-hacking my Wii with the ModMii wizard, and I’ve even reformatted the drive just to make sure it’s FAT32 MBR 32k sectors. I’ve tried using example files included on another forum that are supposed to be guaranteed to load.

Nothing works! I’m banging my head against the wall here, since the exact same setup (Wii, SD card, USB cable, case, HDD make and model, formatting, and files) just plain doesn’t work where a week ago it did. And every step to fix it (new Vantec case, new USB cable, all the software mods as above) doesn’t work either.

So where I’m at now is a Wii with HBC, BootMii as boot2, all the patched IOS files from ModMii 6.3.1 Wizard, WiiFlow, and switch2uneek installed. WiiFlow can see the HDD and can extract the internal NAND to it, and it can rip games from the DVD to the HDD. Trying to boot a HDD game from WiiFlow with emuNAND results in a crash to main menu, and trying to boot a disc game from WiiFlow with emuNAND results in a freeze and hard reset needed. Trying to use switch2uneek results in a hard freeze requiring reset after it’s moved my subfolders, and changing bootmiiuneek to bootmii on the SD card results in a black screen and the drive light on the Wii blinking once (which should mean "TMD of the requested title is missing”). This also needs a hard reset.

The kicker is that now when running off real NAND I’m also getting a ton of freezes and crashes. BootMii scanned the NAND and hasn’t found any new bad blocks, so I can only assume that my Wii is really messed up in some other way...

So any advice on getting back to where things were a week ago (working emuNAND, booting games of HDD, everything working just fine) would be much appreciated! Otherwise I’m about ready to just give up and say the Wii had a nice run of 8 years… :-(

endoverend · Sep 22, 2014

If you could possibly pick up a cheap HDD, I would recommend trying that first. There could be some kind of internal Wii error. Have you used "chkdsk" on the backup drive?
Maybe the Wii was slowly ruining your old drive...
Have you replaced the UNEEK SD files? Have you replaced the Bootmii SD files?
Make sure you have the system menu installed on your USB NAND. That's what the disc drive flash means.

IggyNignokt · Sep 22, 2014

Hi endoverend. I’ve run chkdsk on Windows, along with Disk Utility on OS X. They both find no errors with the current drive. The backup I’m using is from ~1 month ago (I back up monthly, as I don’t use the Wii much any more).

I have a spare 1TB USB2 drive I could use, but I really don’t need nearly that much space for my games and NAND. It’s a different brand of HDD and also a different case. I was holding off adding any more variables, since the current one I’m using is an exact duplicate of the known-working HDD I was using last week (and was working as a test ~3 months ago).

I’ve replaced all the UNEEK files, on USB and SD, both with known-working files from 1 month ago, with versions freshly generated by ModMii 6.3.1, and with versions that were “guaranteed working” from another forum. None work for me.

System menu is definitely installed on my USB NAND.

I may bite the bullet and try the other USB drive since it’s about the only thing I haven’t tried yet… But please, keep any other advice coming as well!

endoverend · Sep 22, 2014

Since you have bootmii as boot2, I would build a new NAND for the real Wii using ohneschwanzenegger. Flash it with bootmii, build a fresh UNEEK+DI NAND, and see if that fixes anything.

IggyNignokt · Sep 22, 2014

In the process of doing that now, but I can’t get ohneschwanzenegger to work on my Mac. I used it a long, long time ago (like 2+ years ago). I think Qt has completely changed (it wants v4.7, and now it’s at 5.3. It’s also now open-source and no longer maintained by Nokia), so installing the available SDK files now isn’t putting them anywhere like the app is expecting on Mac.

I’ll give Windows a go.

endoverend · Sep 22, 2014

Ugh, I hate trying to run homebrew utilities on Mac...
Anyway, if this doesn't change anything, your best bet is to try a new HDD
You know, I had a weird issue with trying to run Wii stuff from a backup once. All the same files were on it, but for some odd reason, Dios Mios ans UNEEK refused to run.

IggyNignokt · Sep 23, 2014

Thanks for the suggestions, endoverend. Unfortunately it looks like nothing is working… I tried with the 1TB USB2 HDD, formatted to FAT32 MRB with 32k clusters. I tried UNEEK + DI neek2o rev 96, and UNEEK + DI rev 192, with my last-known-working emuNAND and new emuNAND. I tried not copying over the shared2, cert.sys, and settings.txt, and I tried copying them. I even bit the bullet and used ohneschewanzenegger in Windows to make a totally clean NAND. It seems like I must be missing a step or have a bad file, since every single attempt is failing.

So here’s the step-by-step after going back to an empty NAND with 4.3U via BootMii:

Ran ModMii wizard, and selected to hack a new Wii with Smash Stack.
Used HackMii to install BootMii on boot 2 (still present after the new NAND install, but overwritten) and as an IOS.
Used HackMii to install HBC.
Used BootMii from boot2 to do a sysNAND backup. Completed without errors.
Used HBC to run IOS 236 Installer v5 MOD. It completed successfully.
I skipped Priiloader (this was installed prior to the new sysNAND, and I wanted to rule out if it was causing issues. I’ve read it can mess up UNEEK, but maybe that’s outdated?)
I installed all the ModMii-generated WADs except for the USB loader files and MIOS file (this were installed prior to the new sysNAND, I never use them, and I wanted to make sure they weren’t causing issues), with Multi-Mod Manager 13.4 running IOS236 v65535:
IOS11v16174(IOS60v6174[FS-ES-NP-VP-DIP])

IOS20v16174(IOS60v6174[FS-ES-NP-VP-DIP])

IOS30v16174(IOS60v6174[FS-ES-NP-VP-DIP])

IOS40v16174(IOS60v6174[FS-ES-NP-VP-DIP])

IOS50v16174(IOS60v6174[FS-ES-NP-VP-DIP])

IOS52v16174(IOS60v6174[FS-ES-NP-VP-DIP])

IOS60v16174(IOS60v6174[FS-ES-NP-VP-DIP])

IOS70v16174(IOS60v6174[FS-ES-NP-VP-DIP])

IOS80v16174(IOS60v6174[FS-ES-NP-VP-DIP])

cIOS202[60]-v5.1R

cIOS222[38]-v4

cIOS223[37-38]-v4

cIOS224[57]-v5.1R

cIOS249[56]-d2x-v8-final

cIOS250[57]-d2x-v8-final

Mii-Channel-NUS-v6

Photo-Channel-1.1-NUS-v3

Shopping-Channel-NUS-v21

Opera-Internet-Channel-NUS

Weather-Channel-NUS-v7

NEWS-Channel-NUS-v7

RVL-mios-v10

IOS9-64-v1034

IOS12-64-v526

IOS13-64-v1032

IOS14-64-v1032

IOS15-64-v1032

IOS17-64-v1032

IOS21-64-v1039

IOS22-64-v1294

IOS28-64-v1807

IOS31-64-v3608

IOS33-64-v3608

IOS34-64-v3608

IOS35-64-v3608

IOS36-64-v3608

[*]IOS37-64-v5663

[*]IOS38-64-v4124

[*]IOS41-64-v3607

[*]IOS43-64-v3607

[*]IOS45-64-v3607

[*]IOS46-64-v3607

[*]IOS48-64-v4124

[*]IOS53-64-v5663

[*]IOS55-64-v5663

[*]IOS56-64-v5662

[*]IOS57-64-v5919

[*]IOS58-64-v6176

[*]IOS61-64-v5662

[*]IOS62-64-v6430

[*]USBLoader(s)-ahbprot58-SD-USB-v11b-IDCL
Confirmed HBC is 1.1.2 with IOS58 v24.32. It was not upside-down.
Format USB2 HDD using the supplied FAT32 GUI Formatter. I am using both a 320GB and 1TB drive.
Run ModMii again, this time choosing to build SNEEK and NAND, followed by UNEEK+DI, followed by generating a UNEEK+DI neek2o rev 96 build.
Files are copied to SD and USB.
Add 1 game in .wbfs format to the folder “/nands/pl_us/wbfs”, Rock Band 3.
Using MMM, install neek2o_NK2O_1.wad
In Windows, I use Wii NAND Extractor to dump a copy of my sysNAND from Step 4.
From the extracted sysNAND, copy over “/shared2”, “/sys/cert.sys”, and “/title/00000001/00000002/data/settings.txt”
Launch neek2o channel.
The channel gets as far as “Rebooting IOS!” and then freezes. A hard reset is needed.
If I leave it long enough, sometimes the disc activity light will again pulse once, meaning “the TMD of the requested file is missing.” This is the same error I was getting back in the beginning!
With the Wii off, using the SD card on Windows rename “/bootmiineek" to "/bootmii”
Turn on the Wii. The USB HDD’s activity light will flash for a few moments, and then it will spin down. The Wii never boots.
If I leave it long enough, sometimes the disc activity light will again pulse once, meaning “the TMD of the requested file is missing.” This is the same error I was getting back in the beginning!
I undo Step 17, and in Windows I move the game from “/nands/pl_us/wbfs” to “/wbfs” on the HDD.
With bootmiineek disabled, I next try WiiFlow from HBC. From pressing the Home button on the Wiimote, it’s WiiFlow 4.2.1-r441. From the “?” button, it’s running IOS58 v6176.
I use WiiFlow’s settings to create an emuNAND based off my existing sysNAND. I tell it to use it for everything.
I try to boot the Rock Band 3 from “/wbfs”, which has appeared automatically in WiiFlow. It hangs on a black screen.
After restarting the Wii, I get back into WiiFlow from HBC.
I insert the Rock Band 3 disc (the same game that is in “/wbfs”). Success! It launches. I create a new profile.
The saved game file seems to persist, but isn’t being stored on the emuNAND. Going back to System Menu, then launching Data Management:Save Data:Wii shows the DLC is being saved to my sysNAND. This is worrisome since the sysNAND is small and known to be at risk of corruption at any time.
WiiXplorer r212 won’t show my NAND.
SaveGame Manager GX r127 can see and read my original emuNAND, once the paths are adjusted, and can install save game files and Miis. On every launch, however, it appears it loses the path changes and all other settings.
Trying the clean UNEEK+DI neek2o v96 files from this post doesn’t work either.
Replacing all duplicate files and folders with the UNEEK+DI r192 files generated by ModMii and retrying Steps 9-28 results in no change.
Retrying Steps 9-31 with the 1TB HDD results in the all the same issues.

So the end result: I can see my emuNAND, but cannot boot off it with UNEEK+DI neek2o v96 or UNEEK+DI v192. I can set WiiFlow to create an emuNAND, but it can’t use it. Loading a ripped game from WiiFlow crashes. Loading a disc game from WiiFlow results in the internal sysNAND being used.

So I’m basically right back where I started… It all comes down to that damn missing TMD error. At this point I’m clueless as to what the next step should be. Using my sysNAND will probably not be tenable for more than a few days before something becomes corrupted… :-(

IggyNignokt · Sep 23, 2014

As a further update, I also tried UNEEK+DI (verbose) v192, hoping to have some sort of error output to give me clues. Instead, the Wii doesn't boot but also doesn't seem to generate any error file. It seems like UNEEK is at least partially working, as if I delete diconfig.bin it's regenerated on next boot. The contents of this file also appears to show UNEEK can parse the usb:/games folder.

Anyone with anything else to try?

IggyNignokt · Sep 23, 2014

So I also went with UNEEK+DI neek2o verbose v96. I now get an "eslog" file with the following:

ES:ISFS_Get_Di_Path = /sneek
ES:Checking magic in memory 0xffffffff
ES:Loading IOS80 v513...

This appears when using a ModMii-generated clean NAND or with my sysNAND copied to nand.bin on SD and then dumped via NAND Extractor. I also tried clearing all the ModMii temp files and regenerating UNEEK+DI neek2o verbose v96. No change.

usb:/sneek/nandcfg.bin and usb:/nands/pl_us/sneekcache/hackscfg.bin are regenerated at boot if I delete them off the USB, so it seems the whole thing is at least partially booting. It seems like I've almost solved it, but I'm stuck at this point without any other suggestions.

endoverend · Sep 24, 2014

So based on the eslog you posted, it has to do with a problem with the system menu, specifically IOS80 (which the system menu 4.3 runs one).
I would try to generate a 4.1U UNEEK+DI NAND and possibly even use ohneschwanzenegger to make a 4.1U NAND and flash it to you Wii via BootMii. System Menu 4.1 runs on IOS60, not IOS80. There could be a problem with UNEEK trying to parse IOS80.
Do you have a NAND backup from when UNEEK was working?

IggyNignokt · Sep 24, 2014

Endoverend, thanks again for all the help. The last NAND I have from prior is like a year old, not that it matters since I've been using emuNAND for like 3-4 years at this point. Reloading that doesn't seem to change anything, sadly. I wish I could sort out what's different! Everything used to work so simply, and I never had such trouble with this many crashes and malfunctioning homebrew.

I haven't had time to make a 4.1U sysNAND. Is there a guide to do that, so I include any necessary IOS or other NUS files beyond having ohneschwanzenegger get 4.1U?

Otherwise, if I could just use a USB loader to use an emuNAND, even if the Wii is booting off janky sysNAND, that might be enough. So far, WiiFlow seems unreliable, with many games not ripping from drive to USB or then not launching once ripped. Using prior rips from the copy of the dead HD are also unreliable... I was thinking of either USB Configurable Loader GX vs. PostLoader. Any rec there?

It's starting to seem like my Wii is on its last legs. Maybe time for a Wii U?

endoverend · Sep 25, 2014

I vote USB Configurable loader over postloader. Postloader has some nice functionality, but it's ugly as hell.
Anyway, I was suggesting that you make a 4.1U emuNAND with ModMii, and if you feel the need to, a 4.1 sysNAND to replace your janky one.
I can't tell you anything about buying a Wii U since I don't own one (yet) but I am strongly considering it, especially for new Smash.

IggyNignokt · Sep 26, 2014

Success!

Given that the problems were the same with fresh 4.3U sysNAND and the 4.2U sysNAND backup, I went to the freshly re-done ModMii 4.3U. From there the other loaders worked and can use a 4.1U emuNAND without issue. So my Wii is back in business! It had been so long since I messed with any loaders, I didn't know they can basically all use emuNAND now.

I probably should've just gone with that in the first place, instead of spending all this time with UNEEK/neek2o. Thanks for all your help, Endoverend!!

IggyNignokt · Sep 28, 2014

Looks like I spoke too soon. Back to games crashing, homebrew not working... And nothing's changed except I turned the Wii off for a day. Ugh. I'm copying back my known-working files from 3 days ago, but if that doesn't work I think I'm done. Something must be seriously broken with this Wii...

endoverend · Sep 28, 2014

So I don't understand what your solution was in the first place...
Did you give up on UNEEK entirely? What I suggested was to make a 4.1U UNEEK NAND...
Try that, and see if it will fix any problems, but given the fact that your working solution caved in on itself like that, your Wii must have some kind of hardware issue.

IggyNignokt · Sep 29, 2014

I made a 4.1U emuNAND, but UNEEK still won't boot. For whatever reason, even though I ran UNEEK for years I can't get any variation (neek2o v95 and v 96, UNEEK v150, v191, v192, emuNAND with 4.1U, 4.3U, fresh files versus copying the previously working files, etc) running after my old HD died. Instead, the 4.1U emuNAND worked with USB Loader to at least let me play some games when I said "success!" above. Except that only lasted for a few days, and crapped out when I needed it most for a karaoke party with a bunch of people coming over yesterday.

It might be time to wait for a Wii U sale when Smash Bros or the next Zelda comes out...

endoverend · Sep 29, 2014

Yeah, I was thinking about buying a Wii U around Smash Bros. too...
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but given the fact that you had a working solution that crapped out without you modifying anything, I think it's safe to say your Wii has a serious, non-fixable hardware malfunction.

IggyNignokt · Sep 29, 2014

Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing. I've been thinking it since using the duplicate HDD with the exact same setup wasn't working, but I've been too stubborn to accept it!

I'm going to try and at least get the files back into the same state they were late Wed night when things were working (stubbornness!), but even if that works again I'm sure it will only be temporary. At least with the Wii U all the RB3 DLC will transfer, even if I have to manually download everything again (one. at. a. time. for hours and hours)...

IggyNignokt · Sep 30, 2014

Yeah, restore of the same files isn't working (random freezes, some games that worked before black-screen, etc), recheck of internal NAND with BootMii had new bad blocks, and there were minor (fixable) errors with the USB drive. So maybe it's RAM, maybe it's internal NAND, maybe it's the USB bus, or a combo of all three...

But it looks like this Wii is dead. 8 years isn't a bad run with modern tech, I guess. Although I still have a fully functional original NES from 29 years ago.

endoverend · Oct 1, 2014

Sorry man... I did all I could

Hacking Help - can’t use emuNAND any more but I need it!

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