Hacking Devolution - Public Release

[Nintendo Maniac]

"IS" not!! It might eventually BE better.. But for right now Nintendont only plays WW... barely...

And only supports SD cards.

 

[EtahnJay144]

"IS" not!! It might eventually BE better.. But for right now Nintendont only plays WW... barely...

I mean it will be, much easier to use, no ap etc.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

I mean it will be, much easier to use, no ap etc.

No AP does not automatically make it easier. Maybe easier to just run a game, but everything else is still up in the air.

In other news, is there any rhyme or reason for why USB Loader GX sometimes only loads in like 5 seconds while other times takes what feels like an entire minute?

 

[OriginalHamster]

In other news, is there any rhyme or reason for why USB Loader GX sometimes only loads in like 5 seconds while other times takes what feels like an entire minute?

In my case it always load in about 8 seconds. Under WiiU it takes more time because it checks both USB ports (don't know why), even when I specifically tell it just check port0.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

In my case it always load in about 8 seconds. Under WiiU it takes more time because it checks both USB ports (don't know why), even when I specifically tell it just check port0.

I'm only using it on a Wii, and it's only on a single Wii system too. Also I hardly ever change what is on my USB drive, maybe once a month at most, and yet it still seems to do both the "8 seconds" or the "1 minute".

Even weirder, after discovering that there's some fragmentation on my USB drive, I decided to defragment it. Once it was completely defragmented, USB Loader GX would always load in, as you say it, about 8 seconds. While I was at it, I decided to defragment my SD card as well, but once I did that USB Loader GX started doing the random 8 seconds or 1 minute load-time again...


And FYI, I know that defragmenting flash memory isn't a good idea. So instead of actually doing a defrag, I backed up all the files to my computer, reformatted the drive, and then copied the files back. Such a method results in considerably less write cycles and is much faster overall than defragmenting on slower flash memory.

Also a heads up, my USB drive is a 16GB flash drive. I know that defragging isn't useful on flash memory performance-wise, but I thought that maybe it'd make a difference for the loading of USB Loader GX (which it seemed to). But I defragged my SD card because custom BRSTM files MUST be defragged, otherwise you'll get horrible static.

 

[OriginalHamster]

Not idea what would be the problem, maybe cyan can be more helpful. I recently defrag my HDD too (both NTSF/FAT32 partitions), and it still loads in about 8 seconds.

BTW when it loads in 1 minute, do you get any different message like "waiting for HDD"?

Another idea, try booting ULGX from your flash USB, in order to isolate the problem, maybe your SD card is acting funny.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

BTW when it loads in 1 minute, do you get any different message like "waiting for HDD"?

For that 1 minute it just sits at "Loading... Initializing usb device"

Another idea, try booting ULGX from your flash USB, in order to isolate the problem, maybe your SD card is acting funny.

I can do that for testing purposes, but I won't be able to use that as a permanent setup because AFAIK you cannot use forwarders and forwarder channels with apps located on a USB drive.

 

[Vahkiti]

SO. The new system update enables Gamepad support for Wii games and by extension Gamecube via Devolution. Now my question is this; will there be any way in a future release to CONTROL the game with the Gamepad now that Wii mode has some kind of link to it?

(Disclaimer: I know nothing about hacking the Wii/Wii U directly, so I don't know how or if this would actually work, just asking. )

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

DISCLAIMER: I do not own a Wii U, nor have I ever even touched a Wii U.


If I'm understanding correctly, the gamepad's buttons don't do anything and it's purely a portable video screen for Wii games, correct? If so then I don't think it's really talking to Wii mode at all and it just doing a direct connection to the Wii U's video encoder for the gamepad.

Of course, that doesn't mean they won't add classic controller emulation in the future... it would be such a tease to enable gamepad video support for Wii games and nothing else.

 

[TeleTubby666]

I would simply love to see support for this tool implemented into devolution:

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?threads/UStealth---Wii-U-'Format-Disk'-Nag-solved--:).352786/

 

[mrbigreddog]

Of course, that doesn't mean they won't add classic controller emulation in the future... it would be such a tease to enable gamepad video support for Wii games and nothing else.

My guess is Nintendo won't just so they can still get you to pay for the upgraded VC games to be able to play/control them with the gamepad. But maybe someone will be able to hack it for vWii...

Excited either way!

 

[Cyan]

I won't be able to use that as a permanent setup because AFAIK you cannot use forwarders and forwarder channels with apps located on a USB drive.

USBLoaderGX forwarder init the USB devices and load from FAT32/NTFS/ext2/3/4 partition format without problem.
It checks SD card first, checks both loader's folder and /config/ folder, then mount the USB port 0 (and only port0) to find the GXglobal.cfg on each found partitions.

I don't know why you have random issue with mount time. Some users have issue with drive mounting if the drive was connected before launching the loader (it's not an issue if they connect the drive at countdown screen). I'll have to investigate that issue.
I'll release a version of the loader which use IOS58 to mount HDD. maybe it will fix your issue.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

USBLoaderGX forwarder init the USB devices and load from FAT32/NTFS/ext2/3/4 partition format without problem.

But doesn't the boot.dol have to be on the SD card for a forwarder to work?

 

[Cyan]

not necessarily.
you can put it on usbX:/apps/usbloader_gx/boot.dol or usbX:/apps/usbloadergx/boot.dol (X beeing the partition you want. Though, the path with underscore is more commonly used by users)
On the first run, it will save the path used for the loader in the config file, and all the folders used by the loader will use the same partition (images, covers, themes, etc.)
but if you move your existing GXGlobal.cfg from SD to USB, remember to replace all SD references to usb1 (or usbX) in that file.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

And does that apply to things like Priiloader and resetting to USB Loader GX rather than the Wii Menu as well? I have considered making my Wii system boot directly to USB Loader GX, but have been hesitant due to the sometimes 1-minute-long load time.

 

[Etheboss]

But doesn't the boot.dol have to be on the SD card for a forwarder to work?

Lol, i never use anything else then the hdd, heck most of the time i don't even have a SD card in. Better read up on it NM..

 

[MassiveRican]

I can do that for testing purposes, but I won't be able to use that as a permanent setup because AFAIK you cannot use forwarders and forwarder channels with apps located on a USB drive.

Actually as long as u have an updated forwarder that looks for apps on USB your all set. 95% of my setup is USB only, I only use my SD card for a few legacy apps that hardly get used and postloader since I want that to work regardless if my USB is plugged in or not. Basically u could have all your apps on USB w/forwarders no problem.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

Yeah, I just did a bunch of testing and the forwarder works just fine with the boot.dol on the USB. Not sure where I got the SD-only idea from...

Anyway, like I just said, I did a bunch of testing and I've greatly narrowed down the issue. I did discover some other unrelated issues in USB Loader GX, but I'd rather solve one problem before working on a different one.

First off, I just want to say that I timed the "1 minute" load time and it hangs at "Initializing USB device..." for exactly 62 seconds.

So rather than telling the whole process, I'll just say the result - the problem is caused by my 16GB Corsair Voyager flash drive. The SD card is fine as confirmed when I used my external HDD and/or a 1GB flash drive, and my 62-second load time still happened when I put the boot.dol on my 16GB flash drive and left my SD card ejected.

However, during my testing, I actually DID find a pattern to whether or not it loads in 10 seconds or in over a minute. If I load a Wii game from USB Loader GX, the next time I load USB Loader GX it'll take over a minute to load. If I load USB Loader GX but then just turn off the system, go to the homebrew channel, or go to the Wii menu without loading a game, the next time I try to load USB Loader GX it will take over a minute.

HOWEVER! In USB Loader GX if I load a GameCube game via Devolution, the next time I load USB Loader GX it will load in only 10 seconds.


So uh, any idea what the crap is going on here? For reference the 16GB flash drive is just single FAT32 partition formatted with a 64K allocation unit size.

 

[Cyan]

The gamecube games are on your SD card?
The only thing I'm seeing related to "last used" is that USBGX has a "last played game" memory to display it first on next launch.
But it's done after the devices are loaded, and just before displaying the game list. it shouldn't change the launch delay to detect the devices.

I released r1218, maybe you can try to use IOS58 for the loader (and IOS249 for the games. there are now two distinct settings).
If you use meta.xml argument, set the IOS to 58, or disable the arguments in the xml.
It will use IOS58+AHB for all the loader's features, and reload to the selected game's IOS only when you launch a Wii game or EmuNAND. (though, the problem could rise when launching a game, waiting for hdd init)

You can also try a mixed state : set the Loader's IOS to 249, but set the Meta.xml's IOS argument to 58. This way it will first load on IOS58 (don't even need to reload as it's already using this IOS in HBC or forwarder) and hard drive should already be mounted. after the loader is launched it will reload to the IOS's loader set in your settings.
I don't know if it's better, but it's the solution if you need to use both USBports as the loader needs d2x.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

The GameCube games are located on the same USB flash drive, and were always located on the same partition as the Wii games for all of the tests I did.

I will test the IOS settings you mentioned for r1218, but uh... where can I download a compiled version?

EDIT: Found the download
http://gbatemp.net/threads/nintendont-crediars-new-project.349258/page-41#post-4790328

EDIT 2: Uhh... r1218 is even worse, now it always takes 62 seconds to load from my 16GB Corsair flash drive no matter what I previously loaded, even with it set to IOS 58. This time however it hangs on "Reinitializing devices..." and during this time my wiimote even disconnects and I have to re-establish connection manually via pressing any button on said wiimote.

And of course r1218 worked perfectly fine and loaded in like 10 seconds with a different drive.

EDIT 3: I'll try doing some partition nuking and different formatting and stuff (hopefully) tomorrow, and if that doesn't work I might just try a different loader; it's been about a year since I tested the others out.