Hacking Making the shift to UNEEK+DI

[Hooya]

First of all, all my games on on a WBFS drive right now. Is there a relatively easy way to get that all on FAT32 in such a way that if I wanted I could put them back on a WBFS drive? Even if not what is the best way to get my 200+ games in FAT32 version? If I really shuffle things around I can make a new WBFS drive as temporary holding, then reformat my Wii drive to FAT32 before transferring the games over... I'm on Linux and if I remember right the WBFS Manager program I've been using can make a WBFS>FAT32 transfer, but that's intended for USB Loaders I think.

Secondly, I'd like to know what the easiest way to move all the Miis and saved games over from my current NAND into the emulated NAND is so I can just kind of pick up where I left off that way. Or does that happen automatically when getting UNEEK set up? Sorry, a bit of a noob question probably. Still not completely sure on how some of the SNEEK stuff works. My current system is at 4.1, so I could upgrade to 4.2 using a safe upgrade method and then use my current NAND to base my emulated NAND on, but is that really the best way to go?

Is there anything else that I should be asking that I'm not?

 

[jefffisher]

there is no easy way to convert file system ripped games back into any other format in bulk.
you can and should however convert your games from being on a wbfs formatted drive to .wbfs files on a fat32 drive if you have a place to hold them while they are being converted.
usb loaders and sneek+di use different formats they are not interoperable unfortunately.

set up sneek using a nand backup of your own wii using bootmii and showmiiwads, then upgrade to 4.2 on that and you don't have to screw with your real nand at all everything will work fine.

a lot of things in sneek wont work exactly the way you'd expect so you should consider trying it out first before diving all in.

 

[Hooya]

Thanks for the fast response. Two follow up questions:

Are .wbfs files automatically "scrubbed"? If so awesome, if not I have space issues!
Does sneek+di read the files in that .wbfs format or are they unpacked folders? I seem to remember reading in the early SNEEK days that the images were unpacked or unencrypted or something and haven't kept up with the evolution of that.

 

[XFlak]

Thanks for the fast response. Two follow up questions:

Are .wbfs files automatically "scrubbed"? YES If so awesome, if not I have space issues!
Does sneek+di read the files in that .wbfs format NO or are they unpacked folders YES ? I seem to remember reading in the early SNEEK days that the images were unpacked or unencrypted or something and haven't kept up with the evolution of that.

I recommend u check out ModMii's Sneek features!!

 

[KiiNG]

Thanks for the fast response. Two follow up questions:

Are .wbfs files automatically "scrubbed"? If so awesome, if not I have space issues!
Does sneek+di read the files in that .wbfs format or are they unpacked folders? I seem to remember reading in the early SNEEK days that the images were unpacked or unencrypted or something and haven't kept up with the evolution of that.

I personally don't use SNEEK so I can't comment on that, but I've done enough drive2drive transfers to offer a few words.

WBFS files are "scrubbed." The update partition will remain intact unless whatever tool your using is told to remove it. On Linux, I'd recommend grabbing WIT+WWT (http://wit.wiimm.de/wwt/). You can do it all as a bulk process if you have a drive to mule the .wbfs files in the process. Secondly, once you're lined up on a fat partition with .wbfs files, you wont want to go back to a designated wbfs-format partition. It's just a waste with too many variables. Stick with FAT.

On a side note, I've had random bad luck (might be just me) with games that are over 4g. I know WIT's default size for splitting games is 4g chunks. I've got all my 4g+ games to load by splitting them down into 2g chunks instead.

 

[Hooya]

Thanks XFlak, I have been working with your guide and tools to get prepared, but in doing so had these questions.

I'll keep researching and asking questions as they come up. SNEEK just for some reason seems more obfuscated than the USB Loading options in terms of how it works and getting it set up. Even what it does was confusing to me when it first came out.

 

[XFlak]

it was confusing to everyone at one point too, so no worries, just keep at it

 

[Hooya]

Kiing, thanks! I did just do a full drive transfer when I upgraded from a 500GB drive to a 1TB drive, but that was one WBFS drive to another, totally empty, WBFS drive. I have the tool that can do it quite easily but I just didn't know about how it worked with FAT.

 

[jefffisher]

sneek does infact not use wbfs files it uses extracted folder like you said. the reason i wouldn't recommend switching to it entirely is major incompatibility problems with quite a few homebrew and lack of any other methods to launch games outside of disc channel which means no cheating, and most of us have just gotten accustom to usb loaders.

try using sneek at first install a few things you use on it maybe very few games before deciding what you want to do.

 

[XFlak]

I recommend (for now) only using uneek+di for games that don't work properly on USB-Loaders... for example, Metroid Prime Trilogy and Call of Duty 3

 

[Hooya]

sneek does infact not use wbfs files it uses extracted folder like you said. the reason i wouldn't recommend switching to it entirely is major incompatibility problems with quite a few homebrew and lack of any other methods to launch games outside of disc channel which means no cheating, and most of us have just gotten accustom to usb loaders.

try using sneek at first install a few things you use on it maybe very few games before deciding what you want to do.


QUOTE(XFlak @ Sep 24 2010, 12:15 PM) I recommend (for now) only using uneek+di for games that don't work properly on USB-Loaders... for example, Metroid Prime Trilogy and Call of Duty 3

If all I want to do is use my Wii for actual Wii games as they're intended (as in, no cheating or hacking), including VC and WiiWare games and don't really care too much about homebrew (except WiiMC) would switching to UNEEK+DI be worth it? In my case wouldn't it be better to go back to my "real" Wii for the few things that I might do that are actually incompatible with sneek?

If I do decide to just use Sneek for a few of those games ('cause my understanding is that game compatibility is perfect with sneek, right?) I can set up a forwarder to my "real" Wii to boot the emulated NAND, right?

 

[2323oi]

On a side note, I've had random bad luck (might be just me) with games that are over 4g. I know WIT's default size for splitting games is 4g chunks. I've got all my 4g+ games to load by splitting them down into 2g chunks instead.

the 4GB problem is a limitation of FAT32. i use NTFS so no splitting is necessary--among other perks. it appears that there is an aversion to NTFS for some reason. i use configurable usb loader...

 

[XFlak]

if u rip a game directly to your NTFS hard drive via the wii, you risk corrupting all your data on that hard drive

fat32 doesn't have this problem

fat32 also supports games of all sizes, even those larger than 4GB (large games are split into 4GB parts)

fat32 also works for homebrew, ntfs does not

fat32 is the best for your wii hard drive

 

[Hooya]

Thanks for the fast response. Two follow up questions:

Are .wbfs files automatically "scrubbed"? If so awesome, if not I have space issues!
Does sneek+di read the files in that .wbfs format or are they unpacked folders? I seem to remember reading in the early SNEEK days that the images were unpacked or unencrypted or something and haven't kept up with the evolution of that.

I personally don't use SNEEK so I can't comment on that, but I've done enough drive2drive transfers to offer a few words.

WBFS files are "scrubbed." The update partition will remain intact unless whatever tool your using is told to remove it. On Linux, I'd recommend grabbing WIT+WWT (http://wit.wiimm.de/wwt/). You can do it all as a bulk process if you have a drive to mule the .wbfs files in the process. Secondly, once you're lined up on a fat partition with .wbfs files, you wont want to go back to a designated wbfs-format partition. It's just a waste with too many variables. Stick with FAT.

On a side note, I've had random bad luck (might be just me) with games that are over 4g. I know WIT's default size for splitting games is 4g chunks. I've got all my 4g+ games to load by splitting them down into 2g chunks instead.

OK, my tool won't do what I thought it would and I can't figure out what syntax I'm missing in wtt to get it to extract all the images from my WBFS partition to a /Media/wiidisks/
Can you help me with the command for this program? I get either an error that says missing parameter or an error that says it can't find my WBFS partition (even with the --auto command)

help?!

 

[jefffisher]

wiimc doesn't run in sneek.
most games run perfectly i have found a few that don't run at all don't remember, other M will freeze your wii if you press home button.
do you have bootmii as boot2 or ios?

 

[sk0ld]

The latest WiiMC works fine, except for when it's trying to load IOS58, and that's only a problem for DI and UNEEK. The newest revision of SNEEK reloads 35 when 58 is requested. That should work as well, but for the time being it's just better to remove 58 from the fs. You can also use older revisions of WiiMC, but if it tries to load a cIOS202.. it's essentially the same problem for SNEEK as newer revisions reloading 58. SNEEK now pretty much works with every piece of homebrew I throw at it, but in some rare cases requires slight modifications to the program.
I guess revision123 fixes the home button problem in Other M, but I have yet to try it.

 

[KiiNG]

the 4GB problem is a limitation of FAT32. i use NTFS so no splitting is necessary--among other perks. it appears that there is an aversion to NTFS for some reason. i use configurable usb loader...

It's hard to recommend NTFS to a Linux user. And besides, that's not what I'm saying. I simply had problems with a few games (not all, just a few) being split into 4g chunks. I was able to resolve them by making them 2g chunks instead. Little King's Story was a prime example for this (at least for me.)

On topic:

Try running #wwt analyze to make sure wwt is finding your drive, then use the extract command with directories in place. You can add options to easily have it convert to .wbfs on-the-fly. Make sure the target destination is already created, I had problems with it creating directories. The website has great doc files on the commands/options. You can also ask more related questions about wit+wwt here (http://gbatemp.net/t182236-wwt-wit-wiimms-wbfs-iso-tools)

 

[jefffisher]

The latest WiiMC works fine, except for when it's trying to load IOS58, and that's only a problem for DI and UNEEK. The newest revision of SNEEK reloads 35 when 58 is requested. That should work as well, but for the time being it's just better to remove 58 from the fs. You can also use older revisions of WiiMC, but if it tries to load a cIOS202.. it's essentially the same problem for SNEEK as newer revisions reloading 58. SNEEK now pretty much works with every piece of homebrew I throw at it, but in some rare cases requires slight modifications to the program.
I guess revision123 fixes the home button problem in Other M, but I have yet to try it.

the OP did say he wanted to use usb and usb loading which would mean uneek+di.

 

[Hooya]

1. BootMii is Boot2 and IOS both

2. "wtt analyze" finds my wbfs drive just fine, although it's on sdd1, so it takes a while before it looks there. I can't get the syntax right. I've tried all sorts of combinations and I must be missing something, I keep getting syntax errors. Can you treat me like a child and lay out how the command should look?

 

[Hooya]

One of the main reasons I want to use UNEEK is to have virtually unlimited space for VC and Wiiware games to be installed on the system menu. It's going to be nicer to be able to install all those wads at once, then not have to worry about transferring them all to an SD card and have to re-load them for playtime... So running UNEEK for those things while my normal system menu is on for USB loading as usual. It all loads off the same FAT32 partition, right? All good that way.