Hacking Yet Another USB Loader GX Issue - vWii - Loading Gamecube Games

[etshelden]

Hey everyone again.

I have a USB drive that I've been using with USB Loader GX for Wii games on my Wii U, and it's been working fine.

I wanted to play some Gamecube games today, so I downloaded them and put them on my USB drive, which I had been using for my Wii game backups. I changed the settings to enable memory card emulation and load Gamecube games from Nintendont in the loader. I'm on the newest version of the loader too.

So, when I put in my USB drive and went to the game list, it seemed as if there were spots for the Gamecube games, but where the text should have been, there were just blank options for each Gamecube game, which didn't load anything when I selected start on them, and the Wii games were under that.

I can't use the USB drive in Nintendont as it's in wbfs format for the loader, and I don't really want to get out and purchase another drive to use for the Gamecube games.

Is there a way for me to set it up that I can play Gamecube game backups via USB Loader GX on my vWii?

Thanks!

EDIT: Apparently, this issue isn't an issue with my USB drive, computer, or Wii. It's an issue from me being stupid, goooooo me!

 

[Wertredgreen]

I can't use the USB drive in Nintendont as it's in wbfs format for the loader

You won't be able to use the flash drive for Nintendon't if it is formatted to WBFS IIRC.

I have a strong feelings about WBFS as a drive format, none good, so what I'd recommend doing if you don't want to buy a new drive is:

• Backup all your games on your PC
• Format the drive to Fat32 (I believe NTFS works as well, but I've never used it)
• Manually place games within the flash drive (Or if a manager works for it use it, I manually place all mine though) (Drive:/wbfs/[000000]/000000.wbfs for Wii, D:/games/namethiswhatever/game.iso for Gamecube)
  
• Test it.

I learned all of this from trial and error, and also searching around these forums and other forums.

And if you are adamant about sticking with a WBFS drive, this is what the official USB Loader GX wiki says about it.

WBFS: Old and deprecated Wii Backup File System format.

 

[Cyan]

Thank you wertredgreen for helping, nice first post and welcome here

I wanted to play some Gamecube games today, so I downloaded them and put them on my USB drive

You put the gamecube games to the WBFS partition ?
WBFS partition format can be used only for wii games.
the loader detected games installed on the "wii" game type, but couldn't load the data (game name, game structure, etc.) so they are blank because it expected them to be wii games and consider them corrupted. Maybe I should add a detection for gamecube games on WBFS partition or located in the /wbfs/ folder and add a message to inform the user that gamecube should go to a FAT32 /games/ folder?

All homebrew (from all consoles) are compatible with FAT32. Only Wii games can use WBFS format and it's since long deprecated (even if still working). Wii games can now also be put on a FAT32 or NTFS partition. Not being able to load gamecube games from WBFS is not "another USBLoaderGX issue" but the way Nintendont (another homebrew, not USBLoaderGX) is working and the hard drive format it's expecting (it requires FAT32 or exFAT). As USBLoaderGX does not support exFAT you should use FAT32 if you want to launch gamecube games using nintendont from USBLoaderGX interface.

Converting WBFS partition to FAT32 partition
without losing Wii games and renaming files after conversion​

What I would suggest you, if you don't want to format your drive and put your games back : convert WBFS to FAT32 without losing existing Wii games.

1- delete the gamecube games from your WBFS partition. (you could try to keep them, but I don't know how the conversion will work with these games!)

2- follow wbfs2fat tutorial link you can find in my signature. It will convert WBFS to FAT32 without losing games or needing you to transfer/restore them to another device.
The wii games will be located in the D:/wbfs/ folder
if a game is bigger than 4GB it will be split in two files, but don't worry the USBloaders can load them !

3- once your partition is in FAT32, your games should be located in subfolders :
/wbfs/subfolder here with the game's title [gameID here]/your game located here.

If not, or if you want to use another language for your game's tittles, I recommend using Wii Backup Manager to rename the game's sub-folders so it's easier to manage your device on computer.
This step can be skipped, it works fine on USBLoaderGX without renaming, but it's just easier to recognize the game in your Windows explorer.

Spoiler: using WiiBackupManager to rename games after using wbfs2fat

current game names are :
/wbfs/SMNP01.wbfs <-- not easy to know which game it is.

Download Wii Backup Manager
Launch the program and go to the settings. there are 2 tabs where you will need to change some settings to get the best game titles and renaming layout for USBLoaderGX.
for both tabs, enable (check) these options:

FAT32/NTFS tab :
- Store games in separate subfolder
- naming title : Title_[ID] (that's the default naming convention used in USBLoaderGX)
- Split : 4GB
- Automatically update storage convention when drive is mounted

Title tab
misc : use Wiitdb
language : <choose your prefered language>
Click "download title.txt" to get the latest game's titles for that language.
renaming : use wiitdb titles for file and folders name


with these options, next time you "mount" the FAT32 partition in the "drive1" tab, all the games will be renamed automatically.
layout will be :

/wbfs/New Super Mario Bros. Wii [SMNP01]/SMNP01.wbfs <--- now you know this game is New mario wii.

4- create the gamecube folder on your USB, like said on the post above mine:
D:/games/
inside, create a folder for each games
rename the ISO to "game.iso" for the first disc. if your game has 2 disc, rename the second ISO to "disc2.iso"
copy the iso files manually in the folder you created. (there's no need to use a program or convert the game ISO, just copy the full ISO manually)

/games/Zelda Wind Waker [GZLP01]/game.iso
or
/games/zelda/game.iso <-- if you don't know the GameID, you don't need it.

 

[etshelden]

I have a strong feelings about WBFS as a drive format, none good, so what I'd recommend doing if you don't want to buy a new drive is:

• Backup all your games on your PC
• Format the drive to Fat32 (I believe NTFS works as well, but I've never used it)

Well shoot. I thought it had to be in wbfs format. Ugh, I'll go format it tonight.

You put the gamecube games to the WBFS partition ?

Yep, I did. Probably not the best idea in hindsight but my stupidness thought it would work.

- follow wbfs2fat tutorial link you can find in my signature. It will convert WBFS to FAT32 without losing games or needing you to transfer/restore them to another device.

This looked like a good idea, but unfortunately I'm using a Mac so I don't think it's possible for me to run it. (Macs, awesome for legal stuff, evil for Homebrew)



Thanks @Wertredgreen and @Cyan for helping out for me being stupid. I don't think my computer has enough space to hold all of my games, so I'll just redownload them.

 

[Cyan]

Mac can run python?
wbfs2fat is written in python.
You won't be able to use WiiBackupManager to rename the games, but you can use Wit instead if you want the renamed title version.

 

[etshelden]

Mac can run python?
wbfs2fat is written in python.
You won't be able to use WiiBackupManager to rename the games, but you can use Wit instead if you want the renamed title version.

Oops, missed that. I'll test it out later though.

 

[Deleted User]

Mac can run python?

Mac can run python, but with limitations. For example, if the program depends on a platform-only library (or a native library - dll) then it becomes platform-specific.

(Macs, awesome for legal stuff, evil for Homebrew)

Yes. Yes. YES! Awesome for making homebrew, but not helpful when it comes to copying data to SD Cards. (thx wiiload)

 

[etshelden]

Mac can run python, but with limitations. For example, if the program depends on a platform-only library (or a native library - dll) then it becomes platform-specific.

Yeah, I was looking through the files and couldn't figure out how I'd want to run it.

 

[spotanjo3]

Mac can run python?
wbfs2fat is written in python.
You won't be able to use WiiBackupManager to rename the games, but you can use Wit instead if you want the renamed title version.

Yes, you can. Since I have a MAC. Here:

https://docs.python.org/2/using/mac.html

 

[etshelden]

Manually place games within the flash drive (Or if a manager works for it use it, I manually place all mine though) (Drive:/wbfs/[000000]/000000.wbfs for Wii, D:/games/namethiswhatever/game.iso for Gamecube)

EDIT: Never mind, problem solved.

Alright, I just manually formatted the flash drive as it was easier for me. However, quick question. For when you say to put it in Drive://wbfs/[000000]/000000.wbfs, what would I name the [000000] folder to? Thanks!

 

[Cyan]

the 6 digits inside the bracket are the GameID.
it's best to have it in the folder name, as it loads the game list faster.
if you don't have the GameID, the loader will have to open each ISO one by one to get the ID located inside the file's header.

it's usually better to name the folder this way :
/wbfs/Game title [GameID]/GameID.wbfs

If you don't use "wiitdb" to get the proper game's title inside the loader, then the loader will use your "game title" part for that game.
if you use wiitdb, then the title in the folder is not important, and probably why he told you to use only /[GameID6]/ as folder name, but only the ID is :
1. not useful to know which game it is
2. redundant. You don't need subfolders if you want only GameIDs. For example, it's enough to use this format : /wbfs/GameID.wbfs
the subfolder layout was created to be able to give the game a title for easy drive management.


To get the titleID, you can look on gametdb.com
or use Wit to move/copy the game from your computer to your hdd.
wit copy "origin_path" "destination_wbfs_folder/%Y/%+" --split

%Y/%+ will generate the correct game path and filename using Wiitdb title and the gameID.
/wbfs/Title [ID]/ID.wbfs

 

[etshelden]

the 6 digits inside the bracket are the GameID.
it's best to have it in the folder name, as it loads the game list faster.
if you don't have the GameID, the loader will have to open each ISO one by one to get the ID located inside the file's header.

it's usually better to name the folder this way :
/wbfs/Game title [GameID]/GameID.wbfs

If you don't use "wiitdb" to get the proper game's title inside the loader, then the loader will use your "game title" part for that game.
if you use wiitdb, then the title in the folder is not important, and probably why he told you to use only /[GameID6]/ as folder name, but only the ID is :
1. not useful to know which game it is
2. redundant. You don't need subfolders if you want only GameIDs. For example, it's enough to use this format : /wbfs/GameID.wbfs
the subfolder layout was created to be able to give the game a title for easy drive management.


To get the titleID, you can look on gametdb.com
or use Wit to move/copy the game from your computer to your hdd.
wit copy "origin_path" "destination_wbfs_folder/%Y/%+" --split

%Y/%+ will generate the correct game path and filename using Wiitdb title and the gameID.
/wbfs/Title [ID]/ID.wbfs

Okay, slight problem.

I formatted my drive to FAT32, put in my games as /wbfs/GameID.wbfs as I don't care all that much about organization.

However, USB Loader GX doesn't read the games (Wii games), and instead of the 64GB on the drive with 55GB available, it says '0.19GB of 0.19GB free, games 0'. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, advice would be appreciated.

USB Loader GX screen [view from Gamepad, same on TV though]
Drive organization

 

[Cyan]

your drive looks fine.
verify you have "wii" enabled in the "game origin" menu : 4th icon in the top menu.

I don't know why it sees only 0.19 instead of 64GB.
maybe your drive (or flash) has a hidden partition, and it's loading/listing the hidden one which doesn't contain games.
go to settings>hdd settings> click on the first option to scroll/swap the detected partition. If there are more than one, try the others. if there's only one, then I don't know. Maybe an issue with the flash drive.