Hacking Trouble with USB Loader GX loading games from FAT32, if split over 4GB

[TheOtherMii]

Yes... I searched... for 2 days already. I've been trying to do research on this, and there doesn't seem to be any mention of the problems I'm having. I got tired of having to resize to increase my WBFS partition so I figured it was time to switch over to FAT32. It seemed to work flawlessly... that is until I tried loading Guitar Hero 5. No freezing on black... it just resets back to the main Wii system menu. Initially I thought maybe the file was corrupt, so I tried the one on my WBFS drive and it worked no problem... so I transfered that file to the FAT32 just to be sure. I used Wii Backup Fusion on a mac, split at 4GB to a WBFS file. Same thing... boots back to system menu. So it's not the game image that's the problem.

BTW I'm running the latest public release of USB Loader GX, and using cIOS dx7final[56] in slot 249. Tried a bunch of other bases... 37, 57, hermes v5 222[38], 223[37], 224[56] but to no avail. Same results. All the games are in the wbfs folder on the HDD, and named GAMEID.wbfs.

Having realized this was the first game I was trying that was over 4GB and split into two files, I tried some of the other split games. I got the same exact results on all these games: Guitar Hero Metallica, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Metroid Other M, Star Wars the Force Unleashed, Super Smash Bros Brawl, and Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword. This is in fact all the games I have that are split, save one. For some strange reason Metroid Prime Trilogy loads no problem. I tried to see if it was named differently, but it has the same WBF1 extension that all the others do. And in fact USBLGX reports the accurate size for each of the games... so it is seeing the split file.

I went through the settings to see if there was any stupid setting that I didn't have set. There isn't. There's is no setting that has anything to do with loading from FAT or split files. The only thing that makes reference to splitting is a setting for ripping games... not loading. The next thing I thought is maybe it has to do with those stupid mirror ".filename" hidden files that my mac likes putting in folders. I usually delete them using WiiExplorer because they can cause trouble with USBLGX seeing them as themes or homebrew apps. But I checked in the wbfs folder and there wasn't a single one.

So I'm stumped. If I can't figure this out I guess I'm just gonna go back to WBFS.

 

[PsyBlade]

it should work
maybe its a bug in your manager
try copying with wwt instead

 

[Hielkenator]

Your WBFS headers are corrupt.
wich manager are you using? wch revsion of USBLGX? r1154 is the latest.

There's NO PROBLEM LOADING Split games from FAT 32.
Not only DVD9 games are split you know....
Make sure your apps and Cios are up to date.
Make sure your HDD is unfragmented.
You should not have any problems if your Game images are good.

 

[TheOtherMii]

ok... that makes sense... because none of the games had any titles on them and I had to use witdb.xml to get them to show up. I'm using Wii Backup Fusion 1.1 for mac. The only other manager that works with wbfs files and has a gui for mac is the old java Wiijmanager... which I'll try if I can't get things working with Fusion. But I think I may know how... there's an option in preferences>WBFS options with a check mark called repair, that is on by default, with two other checks FBT, and INODES. If I uncheck repair, the other options are grayed out. I'm gonna try transferring with repair unchecked and see if it works. Thanks for the lead.

Edit: nope... can't get Fusion to do a clean transfer to the FAT32 drive, even with repair unchecked. Trying Wiijmanager.

 

[TheOtherMii]

Ok so the bug is indeed in Wii Backup Fusion 1.1 for mac. I'm gonna have to let the developers know. The old unsupported Wiijmananger works, albeit a very convoluted way. First, no batch processing... one at a time. Luckily I don't have many 4GB+ files to fix. And the extract to WBFS option doesn't work, so I have to first goto ISO and then convert to wbfs. But it's working and that's what matters. As far as the headers being corrupt in my other files that are less than 4GB... they work, so is there any harm in using them? It's just re-ripping from the wbfs drive using Wiijmanager would be a bitch. I guess I could look into the proper commands for wwt.... I have it installed. What are we talking... wwt extract -z /volumes/wiidrive/wbfs ? Do I have to mount the wbfs partition or will it find it automatically?

also the titles still aren't showing up, so i have to use the wiitdb.xml... is this just a fat32 limitation kinda like having to sync to get the remaining space?

edit: any way to change the topic?

 

[Hielkenator]

Ok so the bug is indeed in Wii Backup Fusion 1.1 for mac. I'm gonna have to let the developers know. The old unsupported Wiijmananger works, albeit a very convoluted way. First, no batch processing... one at a time. Luckily I don't have many 4GB+ files to fix. And the extract to WBFS option doesn't work, so I have to first goto ISO and then convert to wbfs. But it's working and that's what matters. As far as the headers being corrupt in my other files that are less than 4GB... they work, so is there any harm in using them? It's just re-ripping from the wbfs drive using Wiijmanager would be a bitch. I guess I could look into the proper commands for wwt.... I have it installed. What are we talking... wwt extract -z /volumes/wiidrive/wbfs ? Do I have to mount the wbfs partition or will it find it automatically?

also the titles still aren't showing up, so i have to use the wiitdb.xml... is this just a fat32 limitation kinda like having to sync to get the remaining space?

edit: any way to change the topic?

If your files are damaged you wll find out upon booting the game or when playing the game.
About wiitdb ( it's gametdb now...), it depends on the used loader.
USB loader gx gves you an option to use tdb or you header titles on your HDD.
My geuss is you .wbfs table s corrupted. It will be a matter of time before you lose your games.
Make sure you cIOS and your loader are up to date.
Usb loader gx is at rev1154 now.

http://code.google.com/p/usbloader-gui/source/list

 

[TheOtherMii]

yeah, I knew it got changed to gametdb, but USBLGX still calls it wiitdb and still downloads wiitdb.zip when you update it. and the file that it is referencing is still wiitdb.xml and if you don't have that it will give an error when you look at game details, and it of course won't display any titles.

anyway... like i said, I have the latest "public" usblgx, which means when I goto update in app it says i'm up to date. I'm sure there are beta releases that are newer. I'm on cios dx7final, and there are v8 betas out... i'm fine with the public releases... i can wait for betas to be worked out. It's all irrelevant anyway because I've already narrowed this down to be a problem with the manager WBFusion that I was using. I've transferred the games just fine with a different manager.

So when you say you think my .wbfs table is corrupted, are you referring to the one on my WBFS drive, or do you mean something in the .wbfs files that reside on the FAT32? Because I have backups of the games on an NTFS drive and transferring from those (with Fusion) exhibits the same issue. So I really don't think it has anything to do with the wbfs table on my wbfs drive. I think it all comes down to the headers (like you said) for each file that gets split, but the headers are being messed up through Fusion... it has nothing to do with the WBFS table on my drive.

As a matter of fact I was having issues with games that were never even on my WBFS drive. For instance SSBB.... I have a confirmed good rip in wbfs split format. I originally combined the split onto the NTFS for archival purposes. Then I used Fusion to transfer and split to FAT32. No good. But I tried the original split wbfs file and it works fine. For shits and giggles I then tested the combined file (on the NTFS) and transfered and split it to wbfs on the FAT32, but I used a different manager.... works fine. So the problem was not in the original, it was not in the combined file, but it was present when I transfered and split using Fusion.

 

[Cyan]

just to clear the naming of the Title Database:

Gametdb.com is the website name
Wiitdb.xml is the database file for the wii.
The website is (or Will be) hosting different console's title database. Hence why the USBloader is downloading "Wiitdb.xml" from "gametdb.com" website, and not a "gametdb.xml".
The loader is using "Wiitdb" when it's referring to the file itself.

 

[Hielkenator]

yeah, I knew it got changed to gametdb, but USBLGX still calls it wiitdb and still downloads wiitdb.zip when you update it. and the file that it is referencing is still wiitdb.xml and if you don't have that it will give an error when you look at game details, and it of course won't display any titles.

anyway... like i said, I have the latest "public" usblgx, which means when I goto update in app it says i'm up to date. I'm sure there are beta releases that are newer. I'm on cios dx7final, and there are v8 betas out... i'm fine with the public releases... i can wait for betas to be worked out. It's all irrelevant anyway because I've already narrowed this down to be a problem with the manager WBFusion that I was using. I've transferred the games just fine with a different manager.

So when you say you think my .wbfs table is corrupted, are you referring to the one on my WBFS drive, or do you mean something in the .wbfs files that reside on the FAT32? Because I have backups of the games on an NTFS drive and transferring from those (with Fusion) exhibits the same issue. So I really don't think it has anything to do with the wbfs table on my wbfs drive. I think it all comes down to the headers (like you said) for each file that gets split, but the headers are being messed up through Fusion... it has nothing to do with the WBFS table on my drive.

As a matter of fact I was having issues with games that were never even on my WBFS drive. For instance SSBB.... I have a confirmed good rip in wbfs split format. I originally combined the split onto the NTFS for archival purposes. Then I used Fusion to transfer and split to FAT32. No good. But I tried the original split wbfs file and it works fine. For shits and giggles I then tested the combined file (on the NTFS) and transfered and split it to wbfs on the FAT32, but I used a different manager.... works fine. So the problem was not in the original, it was not in the combined file, but it was present when I transfered and split using Fusion.

Good! Glad you could narrow it down!

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