Hacking Neek(2o), some WiiWare games not booting

[LicentiousHowler]

Hello GBATemp, first of all I'd like to extend my thanks to this community, all the homebrew developers who have contributed to the software I have the privilege of using, all the work that people like you have put in with no expectation of anything return, and especially Cyan for making so many posts and guides that really helped me get to this point.

To get to the gist, I have strange issue where I believe I have set up Neek2o (v96) properly, but some games just don't seem to boot at all. They hang on a black screen, where the Wiimote is shut off and unable to connect to the console. Not all games are like this--in particular, the Konami Rebirth games, Cave Story, and Vampire Crystals boot just fine and appear to be perfectly playable. Of the games that I have attempted to boot but hang on this black screen, notably I have observed Alien Crush: Returns, Excitebike: World Rally, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, and Line Attack Heroes (NTSC-J).

Since I had read old threads that suggested that sometimes they need a very long time to build cache, I have allowed these each 10+ minutes to try and boot on... several occasions now lol. Unsure if that's a problem with modern homebrew software tbh.

I have also tested these games in EmuNAND via USBLoader GX (rev1272), but they don't appear to boot there either. I did not give them the very long stretch of time to build cache to be fair--just a few minutes apiece. If you think I should, I can test it. One notable difference is that Castlevania Rebirth did not work in EmuNAND--it boots, but can't load the title screen so just hangs after the notification about handling the Wiimote.

I was wondering at this point if there was something wrong with my WAD files, so I tested them in Dolphin... and they all boot and get to title screens at the very least.

For some more nitty gritty info about my setup and the many things I have tried:

I have backed up my NAND and installed all WiiWare with USBLoader GX (rev1272).

I used Modmii (6.5.1) to manage all Neek2o (v96) installs to any of the storage devices I mention below:

My main goal is to run Sneek and all the WiiWare games from the SD card {for whatever reason, my Wii has fits doing large data transfers or installs over USB sometimes, but is 100% consistent and reliable over SD}. I used the Modmii installer to generate Sneek files (kernel.bin, fonts.bin) and placed them in /sneek. At some point just to sanity check, I also used the uneek+DI option (since it is the most tested according to the compatibility list) and instead ran games off of a 16 GiB USB flash drive formatted to FAT32 with 32K clusters. This made no difference with compatibility for the tested games.

I also tested a different SD card (one that normally works in my Gamecube)--a Toshiba 2 GB non-HC that I formatted to FAT32 with Windows' default allocation size as 32K was not an option, reinstalled the games on that, and observed no difference in compatibility.

I have booted games from USBLoader GX's "Neek" compatibility option from within USBLoader GX, I have also exited USBLoader GX by booting into the Neek System Menu using the relevant option under "Features". I have also tested with NSwitch just in case somehow someway this could be an issue related to USBLoader GX, and observed no difference in compatibility in all of these options.

Finally, I figure I should probably post a syscheck just on the off-chance that anybody sees something glaring:
(this could be embarassing tbh)

Spoiler: syscheck

SysCheck HDE v2.4.0 HacksDen Edition by JoostinOnline, Double_A, R2-D2199, and Nano
...runs on IOS58 (rev 6176).

Region: NTSC-U
System Menu 4.3U (v513)
Priiloader installed
Drive date: 02.13.2007
Homebrew Channel 1.1.2 running on IOS58

Hollywood v0x11
Console ID: 48114160
Console Type: Wii
Shop Channel Country: United States (49)
Boot2 v4
Found 106 titles.
Found 48 IOS on this console. 14 of them are stubs.

IOS4 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS9 (rev 1034): No Patches
IOS10 (rev 768): Stub
IOS11 (rev 256): Stub
IOS12 (rev 526): No Patches
IOS13 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS14 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS15 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS16 (rev 512): Stub
IOS17 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS20 (rev 256): Stub
IOS21 (rev 1039): No Patches
IOS22 (rev 1294): No Patches
IOS28 (rev 1807): No Patches
IOS30 (rev 2816): Stub
IOS31 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS33 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS34 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS35 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS36 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS37 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS38 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS40 (rev 3072): Stub
IOS41 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS43 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS45 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS46 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS48 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS50 (rev 5120): Stub
IOS51 (rev 4864): Stub
IOS52 (rev 5888): Stub
IOS53 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS55 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS56 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS57 (rev 5919): No Patches
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 6400): Stub
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS62 (rev 6430): No Patches
IOS70 (rev 6912): Stub
IOS80 (rev 6944): No Patches
IOS222 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS223 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS247[57] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta52): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS248[56] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta52): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS249[56] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v10beta52): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS250[57] (rev 65535, Info: d2x-v10beta52): Trucha Bug, NAND Access, USB 2.0
IOS254 (rev 65281): BootMii
BC v6
MIOS v10
Report generated on 07/17/2020.

To be honest, I kinda' feel like I might just have a freak Wii at this point. I wish I had another to test with, but the only other hardware I could use right now is my Wii-U.
I'm really sorry if I glanced over something in my searching or did something wrong with this post. As far as I can tell, anybody who's ever posted about running Neek on these forums simply reports that it works... or it doesn't, so I'm not sure what could possibly be the problem to be honest. At least a good number of these WiiWare games do work for me. : )

If you somehow made it all the way to the end of this, thank you for your patience lol.

 

[godreborn]

I know for sure that the after years works with regular emunand. you don't want to put anything in neek that doesn't need or else it will take longer to boot. it could be a very long time if you have hundreds of games from an sd card.

 

[LicentiousHowler]

I did all this testing with a NAND that only has about 35 Titles/channels installed (and some DLCs) because I knew that pumping it up with hundreds can make loads excessively long and render the (Neek/copied) System Menu unstable and run out of Channels anyway.

I resorted to Neek2o specifically because I just couldn't get these working in EmuNAND first for some reason. Black screens all the way.

Thanks for the thought and clarification though.

 

[godreborn]

that's odd. your syscheck looks pretty good. I'm using the same stuff except for the virtual wii. I'm also using neek2o v96. I think di is for disc access. afaik, it doesn't affect flash drives working. I don't have it as part of neek (uneek specifically), and every game I've tried works. I've tried the vania rebirth game on neek2o and the after years with regular emunand. both work in that capacity. though, I did have a glitch where the banner for the after years wouldn't load. I fixed it somehow.

 

[LicentiousHowler]

Glad to hear from at least one person that my syscheck isn't a total mess lol. I did the initial modding like 3-4 years ago and I'm not sure if I fully trust a younger me (updated the apps and IOSs ofc). : P

Since I'm kind of at my wits' end, I'll probably just test this whenever I get around to modding my Wii-U unless somebody else has an idea. Until then, Dolphin can fill in the gaps for the games that don't work if I really need to fulfill some WiiWare itch.

 

[xLAKITUx]

@LicentiousHowler I am in the exact same boat as you. I'm using WiiFlow exclusively for managing and loading WiiWare and VC games from emuNand. I had set up my emuNand and SNEEK/UNEEK+DI forever ago and I know it was working at some point.

I recently upgraded my SD card and USB HDD for more storage, and just copied everything over. The HDD is a 2TB WD My Passport (FAT 32 / 32K cluster size). I added a ton of games to the emuNand via the built-in WiiFlow WAD installer. All the games that don't require Neek to run work flawlessly. However, I have the same issue where if I run something like, say Super Smash Bros. (U.S. VC) - I get that black screen. The other day, I let it sit for about an hour thinking maybe it needed to rebuild the cache, but it never ran.

I kinda wish I hadn't changed so many variables at once, because I can't reasonably lock down if it has something to do with the new USB drive not playing nice or the fact that I tripled the amount of WiiWare and VC games loaded on that emuNand.

Truthfully, it's been so long - I don't even remember how to boot into the emuNand and check out the channels that way.

 

[godreborn]

I don't know about wiiflow, but checking neek is in features iirc in usb loader gx. remember: the more you have the longer it takes to boot up. you can tell for sure if it's doing anything by the activity light on the hdd. if it stops, something is probably wrong.

 

[Draxikor]

For what i know not all Flash drives and HDD are fully compatible with neek mode, i tried with many Flash and none work, i decide to install those games that only work in neek mode (castlevania rebirth, some N64 games and WW too) in the real nand and problem solve

 

[xLAKITUx]

For what i know not all Flash drives and HDD are fully compatible with neek mode, i tried with many Flash and none work, i decide to install those games that only work in neek mode (castlevania rebirth, some N64 games and WW too) in the real nand and problem solve

Yeah, I'm just gonna have to go ahead and install those on real nand - It's easy enough and will save me the headache.