Hacking WiiFlow Lite

Tetsuo Shima · Mar 31, 2019

@fledge68 Something is constantly corrupting my GC banners.
From time to time some of them start showing as a garbled mess. Sometimes the games affected are still working, but most of the time they either cannot be launched anymore (Nintendont starts but black sreen) or are crashing wiiflow (Code Dump) as soon as the banner is showing up.
I thought that clearing the banner cache folder could fix things up, but it does nothing.
For the non-working games I have to use a new .iso file to make them work again. My GC games are on an usb HD Fat32
It has been happening for a while now, and I'm wondering if it could be related to WiiFlow.
have any of you had the same problem?
I don't think it's a faulty hard disk, because it's new and it's working good with everything else.

fledge68 · Mar 31, 2019

Tetsuo Shima said:
@fledge68 Something is constantly corrupting my GC banners.
From time to time some of them start showing as a garbled mess. Sometimes the games affected are still working, but most of the time they either cannot be launched anymore (Nintendont starts but black sreen) or are crashing wiiflow (Code Dump) as soon as the banner is showing up.
I thought that clearing the banner cache folder could fix things up, but it does nothing.
For the non-working games I have to use a new .iso file to make them work again. My GC games are on an usb HD Fat32
It has been happening for a while now, and I'm wondering if it could be related to WiiFlow.
have any of you had the same problem?
I don't think it's a faulty hard disk, because it's new and it's working good with everything else.

not sure why its doing that for you. i haven't had any problems.

1. gc banners are not cached. that's why clearing the banner cache didn't help
2. you said you have to use a new .iso file to make them work again. why? are the games on usb getting corrupted? i would think just rebooting the wii or restarting wiiflow would clear up your problem.
3. i think you really need to do a scandisk or chkdisc or whatever the tool is called. to see if there's any files screwed up and to fix them.
4. something else to try. try running basic wiiflow without themes and backgrounds and see if the banners still mess up.
5. rename your wiiflow_lite.ini and let wiiflow make a new one.

fledge68 · Apr 1, 2019

Wiimpathy said:
With @Jacobeian we ported NEO-CD REDUX to the Wii : https://wiibrew.org/wiki/NeoCD-Wii

To be honest, I've almost ragequit with this one. Untill today there is a bug causing a crash that I still don't understand...
I agree there's no need for a plugin. AES/MVS is far better, no loading or butchered graphics. However there are few exclusive titles. And perhaps sometimes better soundtracks?
In fact, fb alpha libretro is now able to play neo cd games. It could be an option...

I agree with jaguar and saturn. No game is playable at decent speed/sound. I don't find wiisx very enjoyable either...

i'm trying to get play neo cd games with retroarch with no luck. i have neogeo.zip and neocdz.zip. not sure if neocdz.zip is the correct one or if there are different ones. not even sure where it goes. i know neogeo.zip goes in the folder with the roms.

also do i use fbalpha core or fbalpha neo geo core? a little help please.

Wiimpathy · Apr 1, 2019

Sorry if that wasn't clear but none of the official wii builds support neogeo cd.
The one provided for wii is fba2012(split in neogeo,cps1...). It's the more recent fba that support neogeo cd : https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha
It may require some changes to be 'plugin ready'. Last time I've read about it, there was also no wav, mp3 or ogg support.

fledge68 · Apr 2, 2019

Wiimpathy said:
Sorry if that wasn't clear but none of the official wii builds support neogeo cd.
The one provided for wii is fba2012(split in neogeo,cps1...). It's the more recent fba that support neogeo cd : https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha
It may require some changes to be 'plugin ready'. Last time I've read about it, there was also no wav, mp3 or ogg support.

so your neoCD Wii Redux doesn't work? i seen a video on youtube - some guy shows how to set it up and played a game with it. he even showed mastershoes thread on darkumbra for downloading it.

Wiimpathy · Apr 2, 2019

What? Off course NeoCD-Wii is working(with a bug). You just need a specific bios and the game's files like it's explained on Wiibrew.

I was refering to another possible way of running neogeo cd games with retroarch fba. It's another emulator that has nothing to do with neocd redux.

suspendedhatch · Apr 2, 2019

Wiimpathy said:
What? Off course NeoCD-Wii is working(with a bug). You just need a specific bios and the game's files like it's explained on Wiibrew.

I was refering to another possible way of running neogeo cd games with retroarch fba. It's another emulator that has nothing to do with neocd redux.

To use the retroarch-wii fba alpha you need the exact romset for that particular version of the emulator. I have the version number written down somewhere but you can check it by loading the fba alpha core in RA and it will be displayed at the bottom.

I went through a ton of trouble to get these working, then realized that many games are too slow or not working, so they'd need to be tested and deleted by hand. On top of that I couldn't find artwork to fit wiiflow. I ended up deleting all of it off the sd card.

Wiimpathy · Apr 2, 2019

Thanks for explaining me how fba works.

But, I'm a bit familiar with fba now.
Last year, I've added virtual memory to the fba neogeo core : https://gbatemp.net/threads/large-neogeo-games-support-and-cps3-tests.493767/

But yeah, you're right all arcade emulators require a specific romset. For fbalpha2012 it's 0.2.97.30.
A lot of games are working fullspeed (754 games): Compatibility list

For arcade covers, what about this thread : https://gbatemp.net/threads/cover-collections-for-emulators-with-cover-support.324714/

fledge68 · Apr 2, 2019

Wiimpathy said:
What? Off course NeoCD-Wii is working(with a bug). You just need a specific bios and the game's files like it's explained on Wiibrew.

I was refering to another possible way of running neogeo cd games with retroarch fba. It's another emulator that has nothing to do with neocd redux.

so what's the bug? when does it happen?

also the guy in the video showed it via wiiflow but it didn't auto start the game he had to click start when neoCD wii loaded. is it not wiiflow plugin ready? can you make it take args?

Wiimpathy · Apr 2, 2019

Oh no it's still not clear and I have an awful headache today.

Neocd-Wii has a workaround(a hack!) in the drawing function : https://github.com/Wiimpathy/Neocd-Wii/blob/master/src/video/video.c#L233
Also see my comment here : https://github.com/Wiimpathy/Neocd-Wii/issues/1
So for me, it's game over...

Making a plugin would also be a pain. In fact, it's the only one I won't even try to do...

There could be a better alternative with https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha. It's not available for the Wii(only fba2012 is). But it's not too hard to compile.
Last time I tried the '--subsystem neocd' didn't work with args in rgui, it had to be hardcoded. I can't find my bloody test build though...

suspendedhatch · Apr 4, 2019

Wiimpathy said:
Thanks for explaining me how fba works. But, I'm a bit familiar with fba now.
Last year, I've added virtual memory to the fba neogeo core : https://gbatemp.net/threads/large-neogeo-games-support-and-cps3-tests.493767/

But yeah, you're right all arcade emulators require a specific romset. For fbalpha2012 it's 0.2.97.30.
A lot of games are working fullspeed (754 games): Compatibility list

For arcade covers, what about this thread : https://gbatemp.net/threads/cover-collections-for-emulators-with-cover-support.324714/

That's all it took for me to get retroarch fba working was to get the right rom set and set up the directories as specified.

That's the thread I go to for covers but unless you like converting game names (including all the mistakes and variations) to mame style abbreviations, you're SOL.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

suspendedhatch said:
Ever since switching to the new version, when I launch Wind Waker on GameCube (literally have not been playing anything else except Punch Out on Wii), Nintendont gives an error saying AHBroot is missing, meta.xml may be missing. It does in fact have that file with the ahbaccess tag. The game works on the 2nd or 3rd attempt.
I think I read this could be the forwarder? I'm using the violet carbonik forwarder from the google site.

Code:

Setting Wii games partition to: 1
Emu NAND Full Path = sd:/nands/default
IOS Compatible NAND Path = /nands/default
Creating Gamelist
Games found: 1249
Coverflow started!
wiiflow main screen ready!
Coverflow stopped!
Creating Gamelist
Games found: 640
Coverflow started!
Coverflow stopped!
Creating Gamelist
Games found: 640
Coverflow started!
Coverflow stopped!
Coverflow started!
Launching game GZLE01
Coverflow stopped!
Nintendont loaded: sd:/apps/nintendont/boot.dol
Cleanup Coverflow
Stopping sound thread
Stopped sound thread
MEM1_freesize(): 8871920
MEM2_freesize(): 32219904
Nintendont Game Path: /games/Legend of Zelda, The - The Wind Waker (USA)/game.iso, ID: 475a4c45
Writing Arguments

fledge68 · Apr 4, 2019

suspendedhatch said:
That's all it took for me to get retroarch fba working was to get the right rom set and set up the directories as specified.

That's the thread I go to for covers but unless you like converting game names (including all the mistakes and variations) to mame style abbreviations, you're SOL.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Code:

Setting Wii games partition to: 1 Emu NAND Full Path = sd:/nands/default IOS Compatible NAND Path = /nands/default Creating Gamelist Games found: 1249 Coverflow started! wiiflow main screen ready! Coverflow stopped! Creating Gamelist Games found: 640 Coverflow started! Coverflow stopped! Creating Gamelist Games found: 640 Coverflow started! Coverflow stopped! Coverflow started! Launching game GZLE01 Coverflow stopped! Nintendont loaded: sd:/apps/nintendont/boot.dol Cleanup Coverflow Stopping sound thread Stopped sound thread MEM1_freesize(): 8871920 MEM2_freesize(): 32219904 Nintendont Game Path: /games/Legend of Zelda, The - The Wind Waker (USA)/game.iso, ID: 475a4c45 Writing Arguments

Thanks for the sd log but you left off the beginning which tells me important things like if ahbprot is disabled. And i can tell you are not using the latest wiiflow. Plus it shouldnt say anything after mem1 and mem2. Especially the crc. You mustve added those lines.

Wiimpathy · Apr 4, 2019

suspendedhatch said:
That's the thread I go to for covers but unless you like converting game names (including all the mistakes and variations) to mame style abbreviations, you're SOL.

All FBA flyers are named correctly. Off course, it's better to sort your roms first. It's crazy to have a full romset with all clones/non working games.

Well, ok it takes more than 5 minutes to do but there are many ways.
With the compat linked above, it's just a matter of keeping the 'WORKING' column games and saving the zip names only as a simple text file, 'fba.txt' for example.
Then write a batch that will copy or move the files to an Output folder. Like this :

Code:

for /f "delims=" %%L in (fba.txt) do copy "%%L" Output

This list has almost no clones.

There is that compat list too (with clones but more script friendly) : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...CclVfIhDfVW-SeN6mEdpYSK9VjQ/edit#gid=89942608

More elaborated scripts can be written too. For Windows, someone wrote a powershell script called WiiFBASort.

For little variations in name (amidar/amidaru), FuzzyRenameEXT is pretty good.
There are also PC tools to manage roms like clrmamepro. Etc...

suspendedhatch · Apr 4, 2019

fledge68 said:
Thanks for the sd log but you left off the beginning which tells me important things like if ahbprot is disabled. And i can tell you are not using the latest wiiflow. Plus it shouldnt say anything after mem1 and mem2. Especially the crc. You mustve added those lines.

No, I can assure you I didn't omit or doctor anything lol. Why would anyone do that? Maybe it's something weird my mac is doing? I see the date on the log file is march 21st... Let me run it again and see if it will create a new file.
The meta.xml confirms it's 5.2.
Yeah, it's not overwriting that file. I wonder how I got it to finally create it.

*okay so apparently opening it up with Console (mac default app for .log files) is the source of the weird messages. I'll open it in my code editor from now on.
I deleted the 3/21 wiiflow.log and now it's not recreating it. There must be some shutdown etc procedure of getting wiiflow to create the log.

AbdallahTerro · Apr 4, 2019

Just droppin to say "hi" to everyone, especially wiimpathy and fledge and all my old friends.
Hope you guys are doing fine and wish I still had some free time like the old days to mess with the code

Keep it up

Wiimpathy · Apr 4, 2019

Hi Abdallah. I also hope all is well for you.

Thanks so much for your packs and all the tutorials/info you wrote. To be honest, since your 'retirement' and with all WiiFlow novelties, new plugins, nobody has been able to release an updated pack and solid documentation.
We miss you.

kaisersozeh · Apr 4, 2019

This ^

suspendedhatch · Apr 4, 2019

Code:

Welcome to WiiFlow WFL 5.3.0 beta 3!
This is the debug output.
Real Wii
AHBPROT disabled = no
IOS58 v6176
patched isfs_permissions 0 times.
patched es_setuid 0 times.
patched es_identify 0 times.
patched hash_check 0 times.
patched new_hash_check 0 times.
Init ISFS
Found WiiFlow Save
Loading IOS Settings from wiiflow save
Using IOS58
FAT Partition at sd: mounted.
Changing USB port to port 0....
 * * * * * * * * * * * *
 * HDD Information
 * Sectors: 976746239
 * Size [Sector Size]: 3.788 TB [4096]
 * * * * * * * * * * * *
FAT Partition at usb1: mounted.
Running sound thread
Wiiflow boot.dol Location: sd:/apps/wiiflow
Data Directory: sd:/wiiflow
Wii Games Directory: %s:/wbfs
Nintendont found
GameCube Games Directory: %s:/games
Loading cIOS map
Found cIOS in slot 249
Found cIOS in slot 250
Found cIOS in slot 251
Setting Wii games partition to: 1
emu nand path = sd:/nands/default
saves nand path = sd:/nands/default
Bootup completed!
Creating Gamelist
Adding gamecube list
Games found: 640
Displaying covers
Creating Gamelist
Adding gamecube list
Games found: 640
Displaying covers
Launching game GZLE01
Nintendont loaded: sd:/apps/nintendont/boot.dol
Cleanup Coverflow
Stopping sound thread
Stopped sound thread
MEM1_freesize(): 8691696
MEM2_freesize(): 34939648
Nintendont Game Path: /games/Legend of Zelda, The - The Wind Waker (USA)/game.iso, ID: 475a4c45
Writing Arguments
 
Welcome to WiiFlow WFL 5.3.0 beta 3!
This is the debug output.
Real Wii
AHBPROT disabled = yes
IOS58 v6176
patched isfs_permissions 1 times.
patched es_setuid 1 times.
patched es_identify 1 times.
patched hash_check 0 times.
patched new_hash_check 1 times.
Init ISFS
Found WiiFlow Save
Loading IOS Settings from wiiflow save
Using IOS58
FAT Partition at sd: mounted.
Changing USB port to port 0....
 * * * * * * * * * * * *
 * HDD Information
 * Sectors: 976746239
 * Size [Sector Size]: 3.788 TB [4096]
 * * * * * * * * * * * *
FAT Partition at usb1: mounted.
Running sound thread
Wiiflow boot.dol Location: sd:/apps/wiiflow
Data Directory: sd:/wiiflow
Wii Games Directory: %s:/wbfs
Nintendont found
GameCube Games Directory: %s:/games
Loading cIOS map
Found d2x base 56 in slot 249
Found d2x base 57 in slot 250
Found d2x base 58 in slot 251
Setting Wii games partition to: 1
emu nand path = sd:/nands/default
saves nand path = sd:/nands/default
Bootup completed!
Creating Gamelist
Adding gamecube list
Games found: 640
Displaying covers
Cleanup Coverflow
Stopping sound thread
Stopped sound thread
MEM1_freesize(): 8728560
MEM2_freesize(): 32271232

fledge68 · Apr 4, 2019

suspendedhatch said:

Code:

Welcome to WiiFlow WFL 5.3.0 beta 3!
This is the debug output.
Real Wii
AHBPROT disabled = no
IOS58 v6176
patched isfs_permissions 0 times.
patched es_setuid 0 times.
patched es_identify 0 times.
patched hash_check 0 times.
patched new_hash_check 0 times.
Init ISFS
Found WiiFlow Save
Loading IOS Settings from wiiflow save
Using IOS58
FAT Partition at sd: mounted.
Changing USB port to port 0....
 * * * * * * * * * * * *
 * HDD Information
 * Sectors: 976746239
 * Size [Sector Size]: 3.788 TB [4096]
 * * * * * * * * * * * *
FAT Partition at usb1: mounted.
Running sound thread
Wiiflow boot.dol Location: sd:/apps/wiiflow
Data Directory: sd:/wiiflow
Wii Games Directory: %s:/wbfs
Nintendont found
GameCube Games Directory: %s:/games
Loading cIOS map
Found cIOS in slot 249
Found cIOS in slot 250
Found cIOS in slot 251
Setting Wii games partition to: 1
emu nand path = sd:/nands/default
saves nand path = sd:/nands/default
Bootup completed!
Creating Gamelist
Adding gamecube list
Games found: 640
Displaying covers
Creating Gamelist
Adding gamecube list
Games found: 640
Displaying covers
Launching game GZLE01
Nintendont loaded: sd:/apps/nintendont/boot.dol
Cleanup Coverflow
Stopping sound thread
Stopped sound thread
MEM1_freesize(): 8691696
MEM2_freesize(): 34939648
Nintendont Game Path: /games/Legend of Zelda, The - The Wind Waker (USA)/game.iso, ID: 475a4c45
Writing Arguments
 
Welcome to WiiFlow WFL 5.3.0 beta 3!
This is the debug output.
Real Wii
AHBPROT disabled = yes
IOS58 v6176
patched isfs_permissions 1 times.
patched es_setuid 1 times.
patched es_identify 1 times.
patched hash_check 0 times.
patched new_hash_check 1 times.
Init ISFS
Found WiiFlow Save
Loading IOS Settings from wiiflow save
Using IOS58
FAT Partition at sd: mounted.
Changing USB port to port 0....
 * * * * * * * * * * * *
 * HDD Information
 * Sectors: 976746239
 * Size [Sector Size]: 3.788 TB [4096]
 * * * * * * * * * * * *
FAT Partition at usb1: mounted.
Running sound thread
Wiiflow boot.dol Location: sd:/apps/wiiflow
Data Directory: sd:/wiiflow
Wii Games Directory: %s:/wbfs
Nintendont found
GameCube Games Directory: %s:/games
Loading cIOS map
Found d2x base 56 in slot 249
Found d2x base 57 in slot 250
Found d2x base 58 in slot 251
Setting Wii games partition to: 1
emu nand path = sd:/nands/default
saves nand path = sd:/nands/default
Bootup completed!
Creating Gamelist
Adding gamecube list
Games found: 640
Displaying covers
Cleanup Coverflow
Stopping sound thread
Stopped sound thread
MEM1_freesize(): 8728560
MEM2_freesize(): 32271232

So ya theres your problem. Ahbprot not disabled. Until you return to wiiflow. The forwarder or whatever you launch wiiflow is not disabling ahbprot. Try a different forwarder.

@Wiimpathy @AbdallahTerro im actually in the pprocess of making a new wiiflow 5 masterpiece pack.

AbdallahTerro · Apr 4, 2019

Wiimpathy said:
Hi Abdallah. I also hope all is well for you.

Thanks so much for your packs and all the tutorials/info you wrote. To be honest, since your 'retirement' and with all WiiFlow novelties, new plugins, nobody has been able to release an updated pack and solid documentation.
We miss you.

"retirement" is not the right word though
My wii is still as good as new in the hands of my 2 sons now, so I still check it out from time to time
And yeah you're right my latest wiiflow pack on mediafire has been downloaded for around 40,000 times now, I didn't feel like releasing any updates since 2016 though I still have lots of stuff in my "temp" folder.
The main reason I stopped updating the pack beside lack of time was that gxarena.com was down and that's where all my http links, updates, banners and what not were hosted and I didn't find any reliable free alternative.
I still hope that some day I might upload all the stuff again, I still have the devkit and sources so recompiling with the new links should not be a big issue.
Anyways thanks and take care buddy

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

fledge68 said:
So ya theres your problem. Ahbprot not disabled. Until you return to wiiflow. The forwarder or whatever you launch wiiflow is not disabling ahbprot. Try a different forwarder.

@Wiimpathy @AbdallahTerro im actually in the pprocess of making a new wiiflow 5 masterpiece pack.

ninja'ed

Hacking WiiFlow Lite

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