Hacking USB HD connection via active repeater or cat5 extender?

[pb1592]

Hello,

I'm having a problem with a USB hard drive hookup to my wii and wanted to know if anyone has a solution. I am trying to hook up an external usb drive to my wii using a USB active repeater cable and/or a USB Ethernet/cat5 extender cable.

First of all: the hard drive works perfect on the wii with a standards USB hookup. It's dual partitioned with WBFS and FAT32.

However, when I plug the hard drive into the wii through a USB active repeater or USB-to-Cat5/Ethernet dongle, the WBFS partition wont load. I get a "DSI exception" error through USB Loader GX and a timeout through Gecko Loader.

The strange thing though is that I can load apps just fine through homebrew as long as they are on the FAT32 partition of the hard drive (emulators, for example). This same situation hold true for both the USB/cat5 dongle and the active repeater.

Any idea why this could be or have a solution or something I can try?

I have several 'docking stations' throughout my house so i can bring just the wii itself into to other rooms and everything required for hookup is already there (power/av/ir/wiimotes). I am capable of running Ethernet across the house as well. It needs to extend much further then the USB max length of 16 feet (about 60 feet). As stated I have tested a 100-foot Ethernet cable with the USB extension dongle and I can load homebrew and anything off of the FAT32 partition perfectly. The WBFS partition won't load though.

A side note: One thing i did notice when testing the cables/dongles with my PC is that it the dongles only allow transfer rates compatible with USB 1.0 (not that it should really matter).

Any ideas?

Thanks!

-Brian

 

[FIX94]

Try uloader with ios222 and configurable usb loader with ios222 and if it doesn't work configurable usb loader with ios249.

 

[oggzee]

I suspect it won't work with any cios/loader combination, since usb hubs are not supported.
But sure, do try ios222 just in case...
I guess it works with HBC because it uses the native ios usb 1.0 mode.
I wonder if it works with hbc using ios 58 in usb2 mode?

 

[dexter222]

Simple answer... if it reads the FAT32 partition fine and not the WBFS simply get rid of the WBFS partition and use a single FAT32 partition and put your games there

WiiBackupManager is a good tool for that.

WBFS is obsolete anyways

 

[pb1592]

Will USBLoader and Gecko read from a FAT32 parition to load game iso's? It seems to automatically load whatever is on the WBFS partition without asking and i imagine it's not going to search the FAT32 for iso's.

Also, I'm sure this has be discussed in other forums, but isnt data written to WBFS 'auto' scrubbed to reduce wasted space? If every iso i want to switch from WBFS to FAT32 was over 4gb, i'd run out of space pretty quick.

I'll try both, including using a different cios with uloader and let you all know what happens.

Thanks for the info!

-Brian

 

[FIX94]

Will USBLoader and Gecko read from a FAT32 parition to load game iso's? It seems to automatically load whatever is on the WBFS partition without asking and i imagine it's not going to search the FAT32 for iso's.

Also, I'm sure this has be discussed in other forums, but isnt data written to WBFS 'auto' scrubbed to reduce wasted space? If every iso i want to switch from WBFS to FAT32 was over 4gb, i'd run out of space pretty quick.

I'll try both, including using a different cios with uloader and let you all know what happens.

Thanks for the info!

-Brian

FAT32 parition + WBFS files are smaller than a WBFS parition with the games on it. You can use FAT32 and WBFS files in wiiflow or configurable usb loader. Uloader can use FAT32 with cISO files, this format will also scrub the files.

 

[PsyBlade]

switching from wbfs to fat is fine

BUT it will NOT make cios support hdds on hubs

 

[pb1592]

Just out of curiosity, why wont usb hubs work with the wii? is it a hard-wired incompatibility that can in no way be overcome via software/programming, or is it just that nobody has done it yet due to little demand for it?

 

[tueidj]

They work with the wii and regular IOSes, just not the cIOSes (because the original author of the USB2 module didn't add support for them).

 

[PsyBlade]

The problem is USB Hubs are commonly integrated in other devices.
If a device has things like extra usb ports, extra card readers, repeater, camera....
it will most likely use an integrated Hub.
In every other case thats not a problem because to slap the USB logo on something it has to support Hubs.

CIOS does have partial support for Hubs.
Just not for the port used to load games from.
The other port works as it does in normal IOS.
There you can eg plug a hub with your RockBand Instruments and WiiSpeak or whatever

 

[pb1592]

I see. Those explanations make sense except for one thing... How come anything loaded off of the FAT32 partition works just fine? The problem seems to only arise when a loader tries to access ("mount") the WBFS partition when going through a hub. My setup doesnt use an SD card. Everything loads from HBC which accesses my '\apps' folder on the FAT32 partition of my USB HDD (e.g. i can run an NES emu and load roms perfectly thru a HUBBED hdd). Up to this point all works great, but as soon as I try to have it access the WBFS partition it hangs and times out (or get a USB 1.0 not supported error with uloader). And yes, if i hook the hdd up directly and bypass the hub the wbfs partition and wii iso's load perfectly.

This is why I wanted to try loading '.cios' game files from my FAT32 partition (since loading apps from that partition seems to work fine), only thing is i can't figure out how to get any loader to read from that partition by default. They seem to all automatically look at WBFS first and then error out. Gecko gives no option I can find for FAT32 loading, and uloader wont even completely do a basic boot if it sees a WBFS partition. Configurable usbloader will run fine but when I choose to access 'usb mass storage device' it errors, and it too gives no option to look only at FAT32 and ignore the WBFS partition.

FYI, I used wii backup manager to convert a few of my games which were originally on the WBFS partition to '.cios' files and placed them in the '\WBFS' folder of the FAT32 partition of the hdd.

Is there something I am doing wrong in terms of having the loaders bypass the WBFS partition and access from FAT32? Given this situation does anybody have any final suggestions I could try before throwing in the towel in this futile struggle?

Thanks!

-Brian

 

[oggzee]

It has already been answered.

HBC uses the official IOS which does support usb hubs apparently.
But the official IOS works in USB 1.0 mode (except for IOS 58 which does support USB 2.0)

USB Loaders don't use the official IOS but instead use the cIOS (either hermes 22x or waninkoko 249) which support USB 2.0 but don't support USB HUBs.

The filesystem used (FAT or WBFS) has nothing to do with it.

 

[PsyBlade]

Is there something I am doing wrong in terms of having the loaders bypass the WBFS partition and access from FAT32? Given this situation does anybody have any final suggestions I could try before throwing in the towel in this futile struggle?

ATM no
but iirc I heard that someone wanted to test if 58s usbmodule can be used in cios instead of the homebrew one
maybe some version will allow hubs this way
would wait for the next releases before giving up hope

I'd try to attack the problem from the other side.
What are you trying to gain?

 

[oggzee]

You can try asking waninkoko for cios249 rev21 alpha, i think he was experimenting with ios 58

 

[pb1592]

Here is what I am trying to accomplish:

I have three rooms in my house (living room, bedroom, basement) that have tv's and I want to be able to have each set up such that all I need to do is bring just the wii (nothing else) to a particular room, hook it up, and play. I already have additional power supply's, wiimotes, IR sensors, and a/v cables in each room. The only problem is that i have one USB hard drive in my living room that has all of my wii games/apps/emu's/etc. on it. Running cable through the wall or in the basement to each room is not a problem. The only problem is the length limitation of the USB cable (max =15 feet). I have a manual USB switchbox to switch from room to room.

Ideally, I need to have a way to hook a USB hard drive up to the wii from a length of around 60 feet way. The usb/cat5 extender adapter works great but as discussed earlier, it acts as a USB hub, and as a result I can't use it to load anything from a cios. Moving the hard drive every time i wanted to play in a different room would be to cumbersome and not really worth it since it has its own usb cable and a power supply plug which are neatly tucked behind my tv stand.

 

[kylster]

Drop the WBFS Drive & switch to FAT32. Yes the ISOs will be 4g but Wii Backup Manager can convert those ISO files to a .WBFS extension which is equivalent to having it on a WBFS Drive but compatible with your new FAT32 drive. The process is simple and takes less time to convert. Lets see Metroid other M took only 7 mins to convert from .ISO to .WBFS split in 2g files (recommended)
You will need to place games "usb:\wbfs\Name of GAME_GAME ID\GAME ID"

Wii Backup Manager will do all this for you and you can choose which file structure you want to put the newly converted .WBFS game into just copy that folder into your "wbfs" folder on root of usb drive or sd card depending on what you use.

Hope this help

 

[tueidj]

Hope this help

No it doesn't; nothing you mentioned has anything to do with making a USB hub work.

 

[kylster]

simply stating what someone said the FAT32 Drive was being detected this way; simple advice.

 

[OncleJulien]

simply stating what someone said the FAT32 Drive was being detected this way; simple advice.

simple advice yes, on topic, no. you can advise him to paint his walls a soothing shade of turquoise as well, but its not going to change this fact:

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=258...t&p=3189264

which is the topic of thread, and the problem the op is trying to solve.

still, upon reflection, perhaps a periwinkle or robin's egg might be a better choice for him.

 

[oggzee]

Here is what I am trying to accomplish:

I have three rooms in my house (living room, bedroom, basement) that have tv's and I want to be able to have each set up such that all I need to do is bring just the wii (nothing else) to a particular room, hook it up, and play. I already have additional power supply's, wiimotes, IR sensors, and a/v cables in each room. The only problem is that i have one USB hard drive in my living room that has all of my wii games/apps/emu's/etc. on it. Running cable through the wall or in the basement to each room is not a problem. The only problem is the length limitation of the USB cable (max =15 feet). I have a manual USB switchbox to switch from room to room.

Ideally, I need to have a way to hook a USB hard drive up to the wii from a length of around 60 feet way. The usb/cat5 extender adapter works great but as discussed earlier, it acts as a USB hub, and as a result I can't use it to load anything from a cios. Moving the hard drive every time i wanted to play in a different room would be to cumbersome and not really worth it since it has its own usb cable and a power supply plug which are neatly tucked behind my tv stand.

Just get a 2.5" usb powered external hdd (make sure it's compatible first), then fix it to the wii with some power tape and you're done

No more fiddling with usb hubs and extensions.
Or just glue it on: