Hacking IOS RELOAD

[scooby74029]

i am trying to figure out what this does exactly

i want to try to enable it for uneek (if possible)

i am hoping this will fix my problem with metroid other m and frankenstein

these games just do an endless reloading of the ios that they are suppose to use

thanks for any explainations i receive

 

[PPSainity]

Here's my attempt at an explanation...

When the Wii Loads a title/dol/game it loads a requested IOS that has all the features used by the title. Normal IOS from Nintendo are not capable of playing backups or playing games off a USB drive. So we use loaders which can load a cIOS (customized IOS) of our choosing instead of the IOS normally requested by the title. When we load the cIOS, it will be set to do certain things like use the USB Drive instead of the Wii's DVD drive. Problem is some games have more than one dol that are run. Often the first dol that is run is just a small menu program that then loads the appropriate game dol depending on what is chosen. When the new dol is loaded, it requests a certain IOS to be loaded, and we loose all the advantages of the previously loaded cIOS as it has been replaced. By blocking the cIOS from being reloaded, we keep it from being replaced and we keep it from loosing certain settings like when it is set to use the USB Drive instead of the Wii's DVD drive.

Hope that clears things up...

As for UNEEK, I don't know much about it so I'll leave that for more expert members.... But USB Loader GX r1088 + cIOSx rev21d2x v6 is successfully loading USB game backups with IOS reloading disabled.

-[]D

 

[XFlak]

typically ios reloading has never been an issue for s\uneek because it doesn't run off a cIOS, and regardless of what IOS is reloaded while in uneek u shouldn't lose sync with the usb hdd or lose any other patches or w/e. However, I know some IOSs on the emulated nand are just placeholders, like IOS58 for example, all calls to IOS58 while in s\uneek are redirected to IOS56 I believe. But if the emunand is missing either IOS58 OR IOS56 all calls to IOS58 will fail, I believe something similar applies to IOSs under 30 or something.

Anyways, the point is the problem could be with your emulated nand, or more likely the IOS that's supposed to be loaded isn't, instead another IOS is loaded cuz that's how s\uneek does it, and for w/e reason & in rare cases the alternate IOS doesn't cut it. I could be mistaken in this last paragraph, I'm really just thinking out loud.

 

[scooby74029]

thanks guys

thats what i thought but wasnt sure

if anyone can link this to oggzee

i would like to know what the ios reload in cfg loader does exactly

i made it so that uneek will use the ios reload block but when it exucutes it loads the next game on the list instead of the game choosen

i just want to know what the ios octlv request for 0xao (i believe)does?

 

[XFlak]

i just want to know what the ios octlv request for 0xao (i believe)does?

just? I'm sorry man, but you've gone over my head, but I'm sure oggzee will pop his head into this thread soon enough to help you though. I swear, every time his name is mentioned he shows up eventually, that guy is freakin awesome

but yea, WiiPower or davebaol could prolly help u too... heck, by now there's prolly even more ppl out there that could help you too, knowledge travels faster than the speed of light these days!

 

[JoostinOnline]

i just want to know what the ios octlv request for 0xao (i believe)does?

just? I'm sorry man, but you've gone over my head

Check this out. I don't think it's in the Canadian dictionary.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

i just want to know what the ios octlv request for 0xao (i believe)does?

just? I'm sorry man, but you've gone over my head

Check this out. I don't think it's in the Canadian dictionary.

LMFGDHAO! LOLOLOLOLLOLLOOLLLL!!!

Sorry man. I know really what you are referring to, but damn, that is hilarious.

BTW, I know for a fact that canadians know the word, but it is always prefaced by the semi-word 'aye'.

j/k... but really true.

I can't make fun of it though because I will be canadian too, myself, in a few months. Xflak has convinced me.

 

[JoostinOnline]

i just want to know what the ios octlv request for 0xao (i believe)does?

just? I'm sorry man, but you've gone over my head

Check this out. I don't think it's in the Canadian dictionary.

LMFGDHAO! LOLOLOLOLLOLLOOLLLL!!!

Sorry man. I know really what you are referring to, but damn, that is hilarious.

BTW, I know for a fact that canadians know the word, but it is always prefaced by the semi-word 'aye'.

j/k... but really true.

I can't make fun of it though because I will be canadian too, myself, in a few months. Xflak has convinced me.

Lol, from PM's I can tell you that XFlak knows a lot of four-letter words, but "just" isn't one of them.

The Canadian dictionary thing is a reference to a 30 Rock episode (season 5, episode 14, I suggest you watch it) that I had XFlak watch. There is a mention of "all 700 words in the Canadian dictionary."

 

[XFlak]

I can't make fun of it though because I will be canadian too, myself, in a few months. Xflak has convinced me.really? sweeeet
just in time to help me wire up the new not-so-bachelor pad

but yea, look out Canada, Foez is on his way!


PS.
silly Americans, it's colour not color, neighbour not neighbor, and your going to link me to a dictionary? I think this says it best...

Spoiler

QUOTEHey.
I'm not a lumberjack, or a fur trader, and I don't live in an igloo or eat blubber, or own a dog sled, and I don't know Jimmy, Sally or Suzy from Canada, although I'm certain they're really, really nice.
I have a Prime Minister, not a President. I speak English and French, not American, and I pronounce it 'about', not 'a boot'.
I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack. I believe in peacekeeping, not policing; diversity, not assimilation; and that the beaver is a truly proud and noble animal.
A tuque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch, and it is pronounced zed: not zee – zed!!
Canada is the second largest land mass! The first nation of hockey! And the best part of North America!
My name is XFlak!! And I am Canadian!
... Thank you.

Spoiler

edit:
[youtube]BRI-A3vakVg[/youtube]

edit2: added spoiler, sorry for going offtopic scooby

 

[JoostinOnline]

Aww, don't feel bad. I know being Canadian wasn't a choice you made. You were born that way.

PS: I like "the beaver" as well.

 

[Taleweaver]

Wow...this thread is educational. I never knew these things about IOS reloading. I thought only the UK (and perhaps Australians) used that extra 'u' in words.

i made it so that uneek will use the ios reload block but when it exucutes it loads the next game on the list instead of the game choosen

That's strange behavior...sorry: behaviour. But as already mentioned, I'd look for ways to avoid this sort of coding on uneek.

Basically, a game has their own IOS to use (say: 56). Normal games only request that IOS upon loading, so common USB loaders can simply override that request with giving another IOS or cIOS (most commonly, it throws whatever's in 249 at the game). The way I understand it, "IOS reloading" games do exactly what the name says: somewhere during the game, it will attempt to reload the game's original IOS. obviously, if you're using a cIOS to load your game from an USB drive, switching to the original IOS (56, in this example) will cause a crash, as the ninty IOS don't support USB loading. The IOS reloading block is a way for cIOS to somehow block that request to reload the original IOS (maybe it reloads its current IOS/cIOS or it skips the request entirely...Daveboal should know this).



Uneek doesn't need that because it doesn't attempt to force games to use a different ©IOS. If needed, IOS reloading games just reload the same IOS again and continue working.



EDIT: okay, off-topic, but still: good luck on the move, DeadlyFoez.

 

[obcd]

The ioctlv with code 0xa0 could be an extra code only valid in the cios. I assume it will tell the cios to ignore a request to load another ios.
Uneek sometimes fakes an ios number, but loads another instead. Like in case of IOS58, it will load ios 56 but it will make it appear as 58.

It could be interesting to look into the uneek es code what ios it is trying to load. You could than check if it's present on your nand and if it's treated specially by uneek.

I somehow think the game will check the newly loaded ios. Maybe it will also have some special ioctl or ioctlv call that will fail if the ios isn't loaded.
The latest d2x cios might have buildin support for this. If there is 1 guy who can answer that for sure, it's davebaol who wrote the code.
Maybe the changelog of the cios could help you further as well.

 

[oggzee]

thanks guys
thats what i thought but wasnt sure
if anyone can link this to oggzee
i would like to know what the ios reload in cfg loader does exactly
i made it so that uneek will use the ios reload block but when it exucutes it loads the next game on the list instead of the game choosen
i just want to know what the ios octlv request for 0xao (i believe)does?

ioctl 0xA0 is only for davebaol's d2x cios, you don't need that with sneek.
It tells the d2x cios to be prepared to handle an ios reload, something that sneek i believe handles already automatically? (not sure)

 

[Blue-K]

Not to be mean or anything, but I think you're on the wrong trail. I'm not an expert though, but like XFlak said, there's no reason to implement an IOS-Reload Block in SNEEK/UNEEK, since they work there as they should (with the exception of IOS58, but Other M doesn't use this IOS).

Other M is a problematic game for XNEEK+DI, that's right, but I guess it's just a bug in the DI-Module of XNEEK...because, if my memory serves right, it worked fine for me with Sorgs-Version of UNEEK. Sooo...it's probably just a bug that needs to be fixed.

 

[SifJar]

PS. silly Americans, it's colour not color, neighbour not neighbor, and your going to link me to a dictionary?

Huh, I didn't realise Canadians spelt the correct way as well. So it's only Americans that take our language and butcher it then?

 

[JoostinOnline]

Why would you even want to load a game (not VC/WiiWare channels) from an emulated NAND anyway? It's easier just to use a USB loader.

 

[davebaol]

thanks guys
thats what i thought but wasnt sure
if anyone can link this to oggzee
i would like to know what the ios reload in cfg loader does exactly
i made it so that uneek will use the ios reload block but when it exucutes it loads the next game on the list instead of the game choosen
i just want to know what the ios octlv request for 0xao (i believe)does?

ioctl 0xA0 is only for davebaol's d2x cios, you don't need that with sneek.
It tells the d2x cios to be prepared to handle an ios reload, something that sneek i believe handles already automatically? (not sure)

Yeah, sneek's ES module is a completely revised version of the original one from Nintendo in order to support USB/SD natively.
So there's no need to intercept and redirect an ios reload.

Also Metroid Prime Other M and The Island of Dr.Frankenstein are not ios reloading games.
This is just a weird bug in sneek, I guess.

 

[daxtsu]

Why would you even want to load a game (not VC/WiiWare channels) from an emulated NAND anyway? It's easier just to use a USB loader.

A couple reasons, at least in my case:

-Keeps saves portable between Wiis(nice for if you travel/have multiple Wiis)
-No save copy protection(since you have access to the raw files).

 

[davebaol]

typically ios reloading has never been an issue for s\uneek because it doesn't run off a cIOS, and regardless of what IOS is reloaded while in uneek u shouldn't lose sync with the usb hdd or lose any other patches or w/e. However, I know some IOSs on the emulated nand are just placeholders, like IOS58 for example, all calls to IOS58 while in s\uneek are redirected to IOS56 I believe. But if the emunand is missing either IOS58 OR IOS56 all calls to IOS58 will fail, I believe something similar applies to IOSs under 30 or something.

Anyways, the point is the problem could be with your emulated nand, or more likely the IOS that's supposed to be loaded isn't, instead another IOS is loaded cuz that's how s\uneek does it, and for w/e reason & in rare cases the alternate IOS doesn't cut it. I could be mistaken in this last paragraph, I'm really just thinking out loud.
From ES_BootSystem in ES.c
CODEÂÂÂÂ//SNEEK does not support single module IOSs so we just load IOS35 instead
ÂÂÂÂ//IOS58 is also not supported
ÂÂÂÂif( IOSVersion < 28 )
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂIOSVersion = 35;
ÂÂÂÂif( IOSVersion == 58 )
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂIOSVersion = 56;

However this is not the problem since Methoid Prime Other M loads IOS56 and The Island of Dr.Frankenstein loads IOS53. See http://www.hackwii.it/forum/topic18318.html

 

[Taleweaver]

Why would you even want to load a game (not VC/WiiWare channels) from an emulated NAND anyway? It's easier just to use a USB loader.

A couple reasons, at least in my case:

-Keeps saves portable between Wiis(nice for if you travel/have multiple Wiis)
-No save copy protection(since you have access to the raw files).

You beat me to it, daxtsu.

Sure, sticking to cIOS'es and 'classic' USB loaders is easier for now, but wouldn't a full emulated nand be a better option in the long run? Right now, if you brick your wii (or the thing simply breaks to other reasons), you lose all your savegames, miis and settings. Savegame manager GX helps out a bit, but a simple backup/restore of your hard disk is still a lot easier to handle.


Oh, and joyflow is a much easier way to have all your games together than wiiflow/CFG + wad2iso'ed wiiware/VC games. And with respect to the d2x's emulation capabilities, but it is a step in the right direction of what sneek can already do.