Hacking USB Loader GX: Black screen when loading Wii games

Ryanx · Feb 18, 2019

Cyan said:
if the protection is disabled, that's good. AHB_PROT(ection) must be disabled in order to access the IOS and function in memory to patch them.
if the protection was still active, AHB access would be disabled and you'd require to use a compatible cIOS (instead of IOS58+AHB) to patch the system's functions.

SciiFii patches are not needed (it's specifically required for Sciifii tool only)
I don't understand why you have some Wii patching errors, nor why you have ret-1
if it's using IOS58, it's the same for all region and the memory addresses should be the same, and patched the same way. Maybe korean wii are different?

I think we should proceed, you tried reinstalling the cIOS and it still fail. I doubt you's install them wrong every time. Like I said, the only real symptom of bad installation I know is wiimote sync lost by the console (not just wiimote disconnected temporarily). you didn't have that symptom, so don't worry.

So, step 2 is trying with neek.
for that, you'll need a working emuNAND as base for neek.
1
go to usbloadergx, custom path setting, emuNAND channel folder
if it's sd:/nand/ change it to sd:/nand/01/

2
settings, features menu, dump nand, full, if asked choose emunand "channel" not "save".

3
main window, top menu, 4th icon, enable "channels on emuNAND", disable everything else
you should now see the exact content than your console (mii channel, vote channel, weather, etc.), if you have any game, launch it to test if it's working.
if you don't have any game, you can install one : settings, features, wad manager, choose the wad to install. return to main window and launch it.
if it's not working, tell me which game you tried.

Thanks for your follow up but a couple of questions.

1. Emunand mode or Neek2o
I have been studying nand and neek installation mostly relying on your previous post (https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-do-...properly-utilize-emunand.437521/#post-6592730) and downloaded the files using modmii (uneek +di) to get prepared.

What you advised above seem to be the cios emunand mode and not the neek2o mode and was just wondering whether using my own nand dump can resolve the region issue or whether this was just a test to see if my emunand works before moving on to neek2o.

2. Game installation using wad.
I have never used emunand or installed games using wad and was hoping if I could trouble you for further explanation. Do I need to dump my games again somehow or do I use the wbfs files that I have or etc?

I searched online and found some old tutorials and utube using a program called "loadstructor" to create wad files from the wbfs files then to create channels using wad manager. Is this the right approach? Wasn't sure since they seemed quite old and wondered whether gx loader had a similar built-in function of some sort.

Cyan · Feb 19, 2019

like I said, before using neek, you need to be sure your emuNAND dump is working. so start by doing a dump, then try it using cIOS mode.
like I said (bis), first try the non working game on your same region to confirm it's still not working and have a base for comparison with another region.
don't follow old guide or generate wads yourself. try launching channels you have on your emuNAND if you don't have any games.

Ryanx · Feb 19, 2019

Cyan said:
like I said, before using neek, you need to be sure your emuNAND dump is working. so start by doing a dump, then try it using cIOS mode.
like I said (bis), first try the non working game on your same region to confirm it's still not working and have a base for comparison with another region.
don't follow old guide or generate wads yourself. try launching channels you have on your emuNAND if you don't have any games.

So I did everything as suggested and now has cios emunand mode (the dump was done successfully and there were no error messages whatsoever).

However I have only a very few channels ( including homebrew, gxloader and cfg loader) and no game channels at all.

The mii channel and photo channels seem to work fine but channels like homebrew(shows a warning screen that this is not for sale etc) and gxloader don't work(I understand emunad doesn't detect usb or hdd? However a little curious about the warning screen that pops up when launching homebrew since I have never seen it before)

I tried the gx loader settings/features/wad manager but like I said I currently don't have any wad files of any game, which was why I asked whether to generate a game wad file using programs such as crap or loadstructor.

So does this mean the emunand is working and proceed to neek2o or should I try to install some game channels in the emunand for a test in which case (if u advise against old tutorials referring to crap or loadstructor) could you provide some more details?

Cyan · Feb 19, 2019

yeah, homebrew are not meant to be used as emuNAND, so that's normal they are not working correctly, or at all.

so, your emuNAND dump is good.
we can now advance to adding neek layer to that dump.

you placed your dump on SD, like I said, right?
so, you need to generate a "sneek+di" (not uneek+di) using modmii, or another tool.
once generated, you place the kernel.bin, and font.bin in sd:/sneek/ folder
for now, don't put di.bin, it will not work.

you don't need to worry about armboot.bin or ppcboot.elf file (if generated by modmii).

Now, go to USBLoaderGX > features > boot neek.
it should reboot into the system menu, it can take 30-sec/1min to boot the first time don't worry.
you might not know if you are really in neek, or if the console just rebooted, because you didn't add any games/channels to your emuNAND folder. to verify you are in neek press 1 (or 2) on the wiimote. few times... multiple times (it doesn't work fast

). You should have a menu appearing if you are in neek.

in neek menu, use +/- to change page, and A to validate/change a setting, B to exit. for now, don't change anything.
We just want to be sure you have a working neek mode. (lot of users try to jump steps, and end with nothing working at all)

Launch a channel (miimaker, etc.) to test. exit the mii maker channel. you are still in neek mode ! the console will stay in neek mode, whether you are on system menu on into a game/channel.
To exit neek mode, reboot the console (shutdown).

edit: Ahh, I just thought about it now (sorry, I should have thing before).
here is a WAD : https://storage.googleapis.com/goog.../code.google.com/custom-di/neek2o NK2O_1 .wad
copy this wad into sd:/wad/ folder
go to usbloadergx > wad manager > install this file to your emuNAND.
it's a channel use to exit neek

(it actually reboot the console), but it'll become useful later.
now with that installed channel on your emuNAND, you'll know when you are in neek or in sysNAND.

Ryanx · Feb 19, 2019

Cyan said:
yeah, homebrew are not meant to be used as emuNAND, so that's normal they are not working correctly, or at all.

so, your emuNAND dump is good.
we can now advance to adding neek layer to that dump.

you placed your dump on SD, like I said, right?
so, you need to generate a "sneek+di" (not uneek+di) using modmii, or another tool.
once generated, you place the kernel.bin, and font.bin in sd:/sneek/ folder
for now, don't put di.bin, it will not work.

you don't need to worry about armboot.bin or ppcboot.elf file (if generated by modmii).

Now, go to USBLoaderGX > features > boot neek.
it should reboot into the system menu, it can take 30-sec/1min to boot the first time don't worry.
you might not know if you are really in neek, or if the console just rebooted, because you didn't add any games/channels to your emuNAND folder. to verify you are in neek press 1 (or 2) on the wiimote. few times... multiple times (it doesn't work fast ). You should have a menu appearing if you are in neek.

in neek menu, use +/- to change page, and A to validate/change a setting, B to exit. for now, don't change anything.
We just want to be sure you have a working neek mode. (lot of users try to jump steps, and end with nothing working at all)

Launch a channel (miimaker, etc.) to test. exit the mii maker channel. you are still in neek mode ! the console will stay in neek mode, whether you are on system menu on into a game/channel.
To exit neek mode, reboot the console (shutdown).

edit: Ahh, I just thought about it now (sorry, I should have thing before).
here is a WAD : https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-archive-downloads/v2/code.google.com/custom-di/neek2o NK2O_1 .wad
copy this wad into sd:/wad/ folder
go to usbloadergx > wad manager > install this file to your emuNAND.
it's a channel use to exit neek (it actually reboot the console), but it'll become useful later.
now with that installed channel on your emuNAND, you'll know when you are in neek or in sysNAND.

One quick question. Does it have to be sd? I did everything as suggested but on my hdd(usb -and it worked).(I just presumed sd could be replaced with usb(hdd) since this was also the default custom path for emunand channel(and save) in my gx loader custom path settings)

And while waiting for your response I downloaded the files for uneek +di, using your past tutorial indicating that u can put all the files in the hdd(without any sd card) if they are formatted in fat32 and located in the first partition.

If this was a mistake (wrongful presumption) I will get a sd card and repeat the process.

Cyan · Feb 19, 2019

ah, so, you need to generated "uneek" instead of "sneek".
put files in usb:/sneek/ folder
your usb need to be MBR, FAT32, 512bytes/sector, first partition. it (apparently) doesn't work with 4096b/sector

Ryanx · Feb 19, 2019

Cyan said:
ah, so, you need to generated "uneek" instead of "sneek".
put files in usb:/sneek/ folder
your usb need to be MBR, FAT32, 512bytes/sector, first partition. it (apparently) doesn't work with 4096b/sector

Just to be clear, I would have to reformat my hdd to fat32 with cluster size of 512 bytes instead of 32kb(which is what I understand is the recommended cluster size to be recognized by homebrew apps). Correct?

JayCristoe · Feb 19, 2019

I am having similar issues booting uneek from my HDD. I am looking to play some WiiWare and N64 VC titles. I followed Cyan's instructions that were earlier in this thread perfectly. I

Dumped NAND to USB HDD
fixed folder structure to be /nands/nand1
Set custom path for emuNand and channels to /nands/nand1
Used ModMii to create neek2o+di and moved files to correct location on SD and USB
Made sure I didn't have anything but one wad installed on that emuNand
Went to Features -> Boot Neek System Menu from USB Loader GX
Black screen for an hour and gave up.

Some info on my HDD:

WD My Passport
1TB
1, FAT32 partition, MBR
Used fsutil to check sector size, 4k drive but appears to have a logical 512 sector. Believe these drives emulate 512

So my remaining issue is:

Can't boot Neek System Menu
Tried with a 32GB USB stick, works fine.

I know this has to be something I am doing, I just can't for the life of me can figure it out. Any tips from anyone?

Cyan · Feb 19, 2019

Ryanx said:
hdd to fat32 with cluster size of 512 bytes instead of 32kb. Correct?

no.

cluster size is better with 32k/cluster
what I talked about is sector size. It's a physical property of the manufactured HDD, and it can't be changed. it's a physical size if the plates. unfortunately, some homebrew are hardcoded to the old usual sector size (512bytes), so only old HDD will work with neek.
all new hdd are now manufactured using higher sector size.
that's why SD card is easier to use for a test. but you can try with USB, you never know before trying

JayCristoe said:
Used fsutil to check sector size, 4k drive but appears to have a logical 512 sector. Believe these drives emulate 512

try without di.bin file in your sneek folder.
di.bin can be responsible for non booting neek. that's why I tell users to first check that neek is working without it, to know if the problem is this file or something else. better try things "in order" instead of going full into complete neek+di without testing cIOS emuNAND mode, neek without di, etc.

if di.bin is removed, and it still doesn't boot, maybe neek is detected the real HDD's sector size and doesn't care about the emulated 512 mode.
sometime, 512e or 4k mode is managed by the computer (specifically for seagate drives).

you tried the 32GB with di.bin ?
then I can only guess the problem is the sector size.

JayCristoe · Feb 19, 2019

Cyan said:
try without di.bin file in your sneek folder.

I did, still was just a black screen.

Cyan said:
you tried the 32GB with di.bin ?

I had the di.bin in the USB Flash drive, worked fine.

Cyan said:
sometime, 512e or 4k mode is managed by the computer (specifically for seagate drives).

I will do some research to see if Western Digital can mange the 512e and 4K mode.

If I have to I can always just use Flash Drive for some stuff and the HDD for the rest, just really was hoping to get one solution.

Cyan · Feb 19, 2019

WD is the best and has a tool to enable/disable the emulation mode.
they call it "XP Mode", but I'm sure it's backward. (when enabled, it's using 4kb and disabling the emulation layer, when disabled it's seen as 512b. it should be the contrary for XP to recognize the drive)
if you can format your drive, just try both settings and let me know

ReverseAkira · Feb 19, 2019

Why does it say "Homebrew filter nicht installiert"?
Btw, Just for clarification, that means: Homebrew filter not installed, if anyone wanted to know.

Ryanx · Feb 20, 2019

Cyan said:
yeah, homebrew are not meant to be used as emuNAND, so that's normal they are not working correctly, or at all.

so, your emuNAND dump is good.
we can now advance to adding neek layer to that dump.

you placed your dump on SD, like I said, right?
so, you need to generate a "sneek+di" (not uneek+di) using modmii, or another tool.
once generated, you place the kernel.bin, and font.bin in sd:/sneek/ folder
for now, don't put di.bin, it will not work.

you don't need to worry about armboot.bin or ppcboot.elf file (if generated by modmii).

Now, go to USBLoaderGX > features > boot neek.
it should reboot into the system menu, it can take 30-sec/1min to boot the first time don't worry.
you might not know if you are really in neek, or if the console just rebooted, because you didn't add any games/channels to your emuNAND folder. to verify you are in neek press 1 (or 2) on the wiimote. few times... multiple times (it doesn't work fast ). You should have a menu appearing if you are in neek.

in neek menu, use +/- to change page, and A to validate/change a setting, B to exit. for now, don't change anything.
We just want to be sure you have a working neek mode. (lot of users try to jump steps, and end with nothing working at all)

Launch a channel (miimaker, etc.) to test. exit the mii maker channel. you are still in neek mode ! the console will stay in neek mode, whether you are on system menu on into a game/channel.
To exit neek mode, reboot the console (shutdown).

edit: Ahh, I just thought about it now (sorry, I should have thing before).
here is a WAD : https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-archive-downloads/v2/code.google.com/custom-di/neek2o NK2O_1 .wad
copy this wad into sd:/wad/ folder
go to usbloadergx > wad manager > install this file to your emuNAND.
it's a channel use to exit neek (it actually reboot the console), but it'll become useful later.
now with that installed channel on your emuNAND, you'll know when you are in neek or in sysNAND.

Tried to boot neek but failed. Black Screen freeze (the Wii Power is on).

1. HDD
- 72GB Fujitsu HDD. MBR, 32FAT(cluster size 32kb), Sector size 512bytes(verified using sysinfo in windows 10 : System Information : System Summary->Components->Storage->Disks)

2. sneek folder and files
- I downloaded all the files(for uneek+di) using ModMii using your past posting(tutorial) : downloaded "COPY_TO_SD" and "COPY_TO_USB" folders. There are "sneek" subfolders in both of them. The "COPY_TO_SD/sneek" folder contains 2 files : kernel.bin and rev.txt, whereas "COPY_TO_USB/SNEEK" folder contains 4 files : di.bin, font.bin, kernel.bin and rev.txt. The file size of kernel.bin and rev.txt in both folders are the same(and I presumed they were same files).
- I made a sneek folder as suggested in the root directory of my HDD(usb:/sneek) and put the files kernel.bin, font.bin and rev.txt from the "COPY_TO_USB/SNEEK" folder(I didn't put the di.bin). BTW I created the sneek folder all in small letters as suggested in the past tutorial.

3. Successfully installed the neek2o NK2O_1 wad using the gxloader/global settings/features/Emunand Wad Manager

3. Booting Neek
- Launched gx loader, made sure the emunand was working by retrying one of the emunand channels
- Tried to boot neek but failed : launched using" global settings/features/Boot Neek System Menu" but like I said, the screen turns black and stays black for more than 10 mins (at which time I just reset my Wii).

4. nandcfg.bin : After failing to boot neek, I checked the HDD and found that this file was newly created in the usb:/sneek folder.

JayCristoe · Feb 20, 2019

Cyan said:
WD is the best and has a tool to enable/disable the emulation mode.
they call it "XP Mode"

Unfortunately this option isn’t available on a Windows 10 machine. Still trying to see if there is another way to format similar to WD’s XP Comaptiable setting.

Cyan · Feb 20, 2019

ah, that's too bad the tool is filtering this option based on used OS. it should allow users to just decide what they want to do, it's not because you are in one OS that you are not using the drive on other devices.
I don't know if there's an alternative (other than using XP).

Ryanx said:
Tried to boot neek but failed. Black Screen freeze (the Wii Power is on).

Thank you for detailed log.
you did all I said, that makes me happy for once someone did what I asked

I'm sorry it didn't work on first try. maybe you are in the same case than JayCristoe? windows report 512, but it's an emulated sector size seen by windows, and the drive can be 4096b/sector physically.
it's hard to know without specific tools from the manufacturer.

you can try to use sneek instead of uneek, put the nand path on SD card.
even if you don't plan to keep using neek or the SD, this is just a test to see if you can launch neek on SD, and then a test to see if the game is still not working on korean region, then you'll do a test with a clean new region NAND to test if the game (will) actually work if you do a permanent "region change" hack. no need to do a dangerous region change if the game is still not working. it should, but I always prefer doing tests first.

ReverseAkira said:
Why does it say "Homebrew filter nicht installiert"?
Btw, Just for clarification, that means: Homebrew filter not installed, if anyone wanted to know.

hello, who are you ? first time you post in this thread?
no idea what you are talking about, nor where you seen this.
it's not a message of USBLoaderGX, and this thread is about USBLoaderGX, so I don't understand what you ask or expect.

Greenie17 · Feb 21, 2019

Hi Cyan. Quick question. Can you create multiple wbfs folders? In other words, instead of having all wbfs files in one single folder can I say split them up into 10 folders with 100 games in each? Or perhaps split them up into game types? Thanks.

Cyan · Feb 22, 2019

why would you need to split games?
you can use multiple partitions, one wbfs per partition, and enable the "multiple partition" option to list them all at once, or select the partition you want to see with "install partition" if you disable the multi option.

if you want to only display part of the games, there are tools in USBLoaderGX to do it, no need to split the file location.

Greenie17 · Feb 22, 2019

Seems like it is crashing again. I assume it's just the large amount of games in a single folder ~1,200. I am a bit of a collector. :b

Cyan · Feb 22, 2019

Does it crash/freeze while you are inside the loader? if it does, then it's probably a game problem.

The amount of game is not the problem.
one of the game is probably the problem (or its banner, or its cover). the idea of splitting the folder is good to find the problematic game.
keep half, test both, if only one folder crashes try again by splitting the crashing one. narrow the crash by always cutting in half and keeping the bad one until you keep only the bad game.

do you really have 1200 games without VC/WW ? only Wii wbfs games?
be sure to first filter games by displaying only one kind (wii, channels, emuNAND or GC)

JayCristoe · Feb 22, 2019

Update on issue with black screen on WiiWare games...

Still getting no where. Here are a couple of other things I have attempted.

Focused on games that are on the compatibility list to work with d2x V10 52 (Alien Crush Returns, World of Goo, etc)
Started by installing wad onto RealNand, it works.
Installed on USB Flash Drive (32gb, USB 3.0), doesn't work.
Tried to load compatible games into HDD, do not work.
Tried to load game using with different cios bases for d2x v10. Base 56 and base 57, doesn't work.
Tried to move emunand to SD card. Installed wad to emunand on SD, doesn't work.
I have gotten a few games to work, Cave Story worked and Blaster Master worked. For other games that don't work, I have found replacement wads for them thinking maybe there was corruption, but they still don't work and will work if I install onto RealNand.
Tried using uneek when running on HDD, and sneek from SD.

Has anyone else had this much trouble with WiiWare? I feel like some where there is user error here on my part but I am super confident I followed the steps correctly. If anyone has any other tips, it would be greatly appreciated.

Hacking USB Loader GX: Black screen when loading Wii games

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