Hacking NTFS-3G (read/write support for NTFS)

[Rfire]

I'd like an FS that's read/writeable from Windows Explorer. Whether its natively supported or supported by a file system driver makes no difference to me.

 

[piratesmack]

I'd like an FS that's read/writeable from Windows Explorer. Whether its natively supported or supported by a file system driver makes no difference to me.

Ext2 driver for Windows:
http://www.fs-driver.org/

 

[azeazezar]

You guys can stop dreaming:
The file system driver has to be run on starlet (ios), and that aint powerful enough to do so at a decent rate.

 

[FenrirWolf]

The only thing wrong with WBFS is the bug where removing a game causes the next installed game to overwrite other titles on the drive. Once that's fixed or a good compactor is released for it it'll be just fine.

 

[adam_the_1st]

I don't really even see the point anymore with the WBFS tool for Linux and Windows (OS X can't read NTFS or WBFS).

OSX reads NTFS natively, and writes to it using the same open source driver as linux (NTFS-3G). It also read and writes to WBFS using an app similar to that in Windows... soooo right...?

 

[adam_the_1st]

Also, why Ext2 and not Ext3 may I ask?

 

[ingsoc]

ext2 is extremely well tested and understood, and has been bug free for several years. ext3 only adds journaling to ext2, and in this circumstance is totally unneeded.

I expect the most pertinent answer is to just get WBFS fixed. Filesystems for single-process, single-user systems are not complex - even ext2 would be waaaay overkill. Fat32 would be nice; but as mentioned above, isos would need to be split into

 

[adam_the_1st]

ext2 is extremely well tested and understood, and has been bug free for several years. ext3 only adds journaling to ext2, and in this circumstance is totally unneeded.

I expect the most pertinent answer is to just get WBFS fixed. Filesystems for single-process, single-user systems are not complex - even ext2 would be waaaay overkill. Fat32 would be nice; but as mentioned above, isos would need to be split into

 

[koji2009]

I think this arguement is moot unless someone takes an actual look at how WBFS works then compare it to an existing filesystem. There is obviously some reason Waninkoko and kwiirk chose to this route versus a typical more common file system... I can't see either one of them intentionally making more work for themselves than necessary.

 

[Dteyn]

The only thing wrong with WBFS is the bug where removing a game causes the next installed game to overwrite other titles on the drive. Once that's fixed or a good compactor is released for it it'll be just fine.

I agree. The more I think about it, NTFS or EXT2 doesn't make sense for the Wii. My original suggestion of using NTFS-3G came about due to the corruption issues with WBFS, and thinking perhaps NTFS or EXT2 would be a suitable replacement. Obviously (for several reasons that many of you pointed out), these two FS's are not the best solution to replace WBFS.

Rather, WBFS works great and only has one small issue that needs to be fixed (obviously it's just a problem with the WBFS file manager that a WBFS defrag tool would fix). I'm sure once the bug is worked out, this whole discussion will be moot.

Anyways, I just wanted to start some conversation about the issue and offer some constructive criticism. Here's to hoping that an updated version of WBFS is released soon that addresses the corruption / overlapping issue.

Also just wanted to send a kudos to the developers of WBFS and USB Loader, they sure have done a great job so far! Keep up the great work guys!

 

[manias]

and now the bug is found and fixed, all tools are being updated as we speak including wbfs manager
Therefore, no need for this

 

[ohyeah]

I would like to see a NTFS driver available not for USBLoader but to other homebrews like MPlayer CE. With this, it would be a near perfect media player for Wii.

 

[WiiPower]

I would like to see a NTFS driver available not for USBLoader but to other homebrews like MPlayer CE. With this, it would be a near perfect media player for Wii.

I forgot which one it was, but there's at least one media player that played fine from my ntfs hdd.

 

[cwstjdenobs]

You guys can stop dreaming:
The file system driver has to be run on starlet (ios), and that aint powerful enough to do so at a decent rate.

QUOTE(ohyeah @ Apr 12 2009, 10:36 PM) I would like to see a NTFS driver available not for USBLoader but to other homebrews like MPlayer CE. With this, it would be a near perfect media player for Wii.

I forgot which one it was, but there's at least one media player that played fine from my ntfs hdd.

Yeah, I was convinced the FS doesn't need to be in IOS, just a way to access the hardware. I guess IOS needs to (and does) allow raw access to the device, how else have we had SDHC support in homebrew so long? The driver in the cIOS is for USB2 (EHCI) not for WBFS/FAT whatever. IOS doesn't even directly handle WODs, it has to be written into games, running on broadway not starlet.

EDIT: The free space bug and the delete game corrupt bug being fixed by a new Loader not cIOS proves that the app handles the FS, not starlet

 

[delta123]

I would like to see a NTFS driver available not for USBLoader but to other homebrews like MPlayer CE. With this, it would be a near perfect media player for Wii.

I forgot which one it was, but there's at least one media player that played fine from my ntfs hdd.

mplayer is that one that read ntfs

 

[ohyeah]

I would like to see a NTFS driver available not for USBLoader but to other homebrews like MPlayer CE. With this, it would be a near perfect media player for Wii.

I forgot which one it was, but there's at least one media player that played fine from my ntfs hdd.

GeeXbox, but doesn't support USB2.0 like MPlayer CE.

 

[WiiPower]

[...]
Yeah, I was convinced the FS doesn't need to be in IOS, just a way to access the hardware. I guess IOS needs to (and does) allow raw access to the device, how else have we had SDHC support in homebrew so long? The driver in the cIOS is for USB2 (EHCI) not for WBFS/FAT whatever. IOS doesn't even directly handle WODs, it has to be written into games, running on broadway not starlet.

EDIT: The free space bug and the delete game corrupt bug being fixed by a new Loader not cIOS proves that the app handles the FS, not starlet

For homebrew it's correct, for homebrew you only need applications with the proper filesystem drivers. But when running games from a storage device the filesystem driver has to be inside the IOS, because at the time you access the filesystem the only things running are the IOS and the game.

 

[cwstjdenobs]

[...]
Yeah, I was convinced the FS doesn't need to be in IOS, just a way to access the hardware. I guess IOS needs to (and does) allow raw access to the device, how else have we had SDHC support in homebrew so long? The driver in the cIOS is for USB2 (EHCI) not for WBFS/FAT whatever. IOS doesn't even directly handle WODs, it has to be written into games, running on broadway not starlet.

EDIT: The free space bug and the delete game corrupt bug being fixed by a new Loader not cIOS proves that the app handles the FS, not starlet

For homebrew it's correct, for homebrew you only need applications with the proper filesystem drivers. But when running games from a storage device the filesystem driver has to be inside the IOS, because at the time you access the filesystem the only things running are the IOS and the game.

OK, so none of the loader stays in memory? I thought it would be like old TSR programmes on the ST, or patching the main.dol on the fly to work with USB.

 

[WiiPower]

None of the loaders stays in memory. You can patch the main.dol on the fly because the loader(the disc channel is a loader too) is supposed to load the main.dol into the memory and it stays there until the game is ended. Well, ok, some parts of Gecko OS including ocarina stay somehow im memory, but i don't understand how it works.

 

[AllWiidUp]

The only thing wrong with WBFS is the bug where removing a game causes the next installed game to overwrite other titles on the drive. Once that's fixed or a good compactor is released for it it'll be just fine.

I agree. The more I think about it, NTFS or EXT2 doesn't make sense for the Wii. My original suggestion of using NTFS-3G came about due to the corruption issues with WBFS, and thinking perhaps NTFS or EXT2 would be a suitable replacement. Obviously (for several reasons that many of you pointed out), these two FS's are not the best solution to replace WBFS.

Rather, WBFS works great and only has one small issue that needs to be fixed (obviously it's just a problem with the WBFS file manager that a WBFS defrag tool would fix). I'm sure once the bug is worked out, this whole discussion will be moot.

Anyways, I just wanted to start some conversation about the issue and offer some constructive criticism. Here's to hoping that an updated version of WBFS is released soon that addresses the corruption / overlapping issue.

Also just wanted to send a kudos to the developers of WBFS and USB Loader, they sure have done a great job so far! Keep up the great work guys!

This is fixed Here and supported in a few tools already.