Hacking USB Loader GX

[tswntk]

Honestly as much as I like Save Game Manager I've always felt it was buggy since reading icons was implemented, always crashes after a few deletes or copies, but I need it if I want to delete saves off EmuNAND, that's why I asked if it's possible to be done here.


That won't work because EmuNAND is much slower than real NAND and in order to properly load it "or so I was told" you need to have no more than 4-5 channels installed, now I have a huge collection of games installed on EmuNAND and I could never manage to boot it because of this, always black screens, Cyan told me it's because I got many channels installed and that it's normal this way, I only use it to run games via USB Loader GX and it works fine for that matter!

not sure about WW and VC games but Wii game saves are stored in Nand\title\00010000\"game id"\. You can manually delete them with Windows/Mac
However you have to convert the ID4 ascii to hex( e.g. saves for Tales of Symphonia ID6=RT4EAF, RT4E=52543445, the saves are stored in Nand\title\00010000\52543445\)

There are Ascii to Hex converters online or offline. The saves are decrypted so you can hex edit them easily too but you will have to deal with the gamesaves' own checksum/protections.

 

[tswntk]

@Cyan : JFYI

Remember once I said "The Last Story" have problem with Emunand Saves later in game? Another user disagree with it.
I thought of two possibility:
1. That user wasn't testing the feature thoroughly
2. My class 4 micro SD is too slow for that game save.

Now I have access to a class 10 card and retested the saves. Guess what, they work now so the speed of the SD card does matter.

 

[lovewiibrew]

last one is r1260, and it's available in the internal update menu too.
if updating from internal menu gets you to 1256 (last google version), then re-update again and this time it will be from sourceforge.
If you are lower than 1256 and the update doesn't work, it's caused by google shutting down their website. You'll have to manually replace the dol.

I didn't work on it since that release.
I was busy with testing loadiine, writing guide/tuto, working on another project of mine (firefox addon which really need a fix, more urgent than usbgx)

Next work I'll do on the loader will be the HDD detection issue.
I bought one, but haven't even unwrapped it yet.

Thanks Cyan for the info. I no longer have my wii hooked up to my wifi so I will connect and update. I've followed your work for years and I must say you are my favorite dev of all time. Never has someone been so helpful to users and kept a great program like USB Loader GX so up to date and full of features. I love your Loadiine GX loader. My Wii U is on 5.4.0 but I haven't hacked it yet. I plan on doing that soon and enjoying Loadiine. Thanks again for all your hard work, Cyan. Not to take this off topic, but which firefox addon are you working on? Do you ever do any work on plugins for Opera?

 

[Cyan]

Thank you for your kind words and crediting some work to me, but I'm not the first developer of USBLoaderGX, and I'm not a loadiine dev at all.
For USBLoaderGX, I started as main beta testers before releasing 2.0, I worked a lot with dimok to fix all issues and helped make a better interface, menus, options, etc.
Dimok explained a lot of things to me and make me work on it little by little.
Only past 3.0 I started working on the loader to add latest features and keep it updated. There are still a lot I wanted to do but I don't have enough knowledge or time to dedicate to that project alone. I'll try to work and fix what I can, when I can. that's the only promise I can do.

About loadiine and GX2, all the work is done by Dimok after Golden45 released v0.1a.
I only tested it and provided communication assistance between him and the users, but I didn't code or work on it.


About firefox :
It's an addon to facilitate the sorting of downloaded files.
if you are the kind of user to download all files to the same location, the addon is not for you.
If you like to sort all files directly in different folders before saving them (you see the file explorer window for every download and select the right folder, and sometime it can be a big nested path and hard to find) then it's for you !
My addon select the correct destination location based on filters in the filename/domain/url/referrer/etc.

unfortunately, Firefox is developing faster than I can follow and the addon is using a lot of deprecated tools now. Mozilla doesn't accept it officially like that, so I "quick fixed" things and released lot of "beta" versions, but a lot of users still have the non working version installed. I also get lot of insulting emails (which I stopped answering, and started getting viruses instead...)
I hoped to update for two years now.
Again, I don't have enough knowledge to update it correctly, the addon is only a pile of tweaks instead of a proper program. I started it only for myself and thought users could be interested, but unhappy users always expect more.
I wish someone could help or contribute while I give direction and ideas.
My main concern now is to learn how async programming is working, and how to convert sync data to asynchronous to get them in time or before the function ends without freezing the UI

I don't know opera or chrome.
Users often asked me to port it to chrome, but I already have difficulty following development progress with one browser, I can't do more.

 

[GR-DRACULA]

How can I change the main wii games path? I found the option for gc games and worked just fine but why there is no wii games custom path option? @Cyan

 

[GreyWolf]

How can I change the main wii games path? I found the option for gc games and worked just fine but why there is no wii games custom path option? @Cyan

I don't think you can change it. It may be statically required by custom IOS modules.

 

[ToneL]

OK. I have a question about emunand. I dumped my nand using usbloadergx (everything) to /nand on my SD card. I then copied it to my USB drive. Now, does this actually include "everything"? Save games, dlc, channels and everything? There really is no direct information out there on exactly how to use this. I would love to install a bunch of WW/VC titles to the emunand and launch them from usbloadergx, but continue to use my main nand for the dlc and save games of my wii titles. Is this possible? How to do it? I know I have to change the emunand path in ugx to point to usb1:/nand/, and I think I remember seeing something about a setting for nand emulation to be partial so that my wiimote and internet still work right?. Do I have to install neek2o files as well? It's just very confusing.

 

[GreyWolf]

OK. I have a question about emunand. I dumped my nand using usbloadergx (everything) to /nand on my SD card. I then copied it to my USB drive. Now, does this actually include "everything"? Save games, dlc, channels and everything? There really is no direct information out there on exactly how to use this. I would love to install a bunch of WW/VC titles to the emunand and launch them from usbloadergx, but continue to use my main nand for the dlc and save games of my wii titles. Is this possible? How to do it? I know I have to change the emunand path in ugx to point to usb1:/nand/, and I think I remember seeing something about a setting for nand emulation to be partial so that my wiimote and internet still work right?. Do I have to install neek2o files as well? It's just very confusing.

Everything on the NAND goes into the folder.

If you're using EmuNAND then setting channel emulation to partial will use your real NAND's settings and I believe saves. Full uses the emunand files for everything so you have to copy SYSCONF and Miis again if you change them from the system menu.

The "NAND save emulation" option is only for disc-based Wii titles so if you want to keep those on your real NAND then turn it off.

 

[ToneL]

Everything on the NAND goes into the folder.

If you're using EmuNAND then setting channel emulation to partial will use your real NAND's settings and I believe saves. Full uses the emunand files for everything so you have to copy SYSCONF and Miis again if you change them from the system menu.

The "NAND save emulation" option is only for disc-based Wii titles so if you want to keep those on your real NAND then turn it off.

So just change the emunand path, change channel to partial, have save to off and then it to install my ww/vc games just use install wad to emunand, right? And I don't need neek2o?

 

[SuperrSonic]

I don't think you can change it. It may be statically required by custom IOS modules.

https://sourceforge.net/p/usbloadergx/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/source/usbloader/wbfs/wbfs_fat.cpp#l38

I changed that to "/apps/content" and keep all the GB VC injects in there and boot each from a channel forwarder, it's quite nice. I also set partial nand to save/load from SD card and not flood the nand with game boy saves.

 

[Clutz450]

And I don't need neek2o?

neek2o is only necessary for games that don't work with cIOS emulation. You don't have to do anything different with your emunand. Neek2o is just some extra files you have on your drive. Let me know if you are interested in more info on neek2o and I can help you get it set up.

 

[ToneL]

neek2o is only necessary for games that don't work with cIOS emulation. You don't have to do anything different with your emunand. Neek2o is just some extra files you have on your drive. Let me know if you are interested in more info on neek2o and I can help you get it set up.

Thanks. I don't have any VC or WW installed yet so I'll see once I get some installed. Might do a few tonight as the kids are not home and thus the wii is actually available at a decent hour.

 

[ngs428]

neek2o is only necessary for games that don't work with cIOS emulation. You don't have to do anything different with your emunand. Neek2o is just some extra files you have on your drive. Let me know if you are interested in more info on neek2o and I can help you get it set up.

I read your post from Jan 5th with instructions how to install neek2o. I am interested if you could assist me. I have not set anything up yet with neek2o.

I am running my emuNand games using cIOS d2xv8 final on USBLoaderGX r1260. Games are on my SD card. Everything works well side from the games that are incompatible.

Care to point me through the steps?

One other thing, when you exit a emuNand game while using neek2o, where does it exit to? I don't have any forwarders setup.

 

[Clutz450]

I read your post from Jan 5th with instructions how to install neek2o. I am interested if you could assist me. I have not set anything up yet with neek2o.

I am running my emuNand games using cIOS d2xv8 final on USBLoaderGX r1260. Games are on my SD card. Everything works well side from the games that are incompatible.

Care to point me through the steps?

One other thing, when you exit a emuNand game while using neek2o, where does it exit to? I don't have any forwarders setup.

If you saw my ModMii instructions then just follow that to a T and you should be fine. Are you on a Wii or Wii U's vWii? Exiting Neek2o resets the console. If you are on a Wii and have PriiLoader installed you can have it autoboot USB Loader GX which makes everything seem seemless. If you are on a Wii U's vWii then when you exit neek2o it will reset the console and you will be back at the Wii U home screen. No way around that.

Sorry to be so quick but I am going to bed now. If you need more help then this I will gladly help you out more tomorrow.

 

[ngs428]

If you saw my ModMii instructions then just follow that to a T and you should be fine. Are you on a Wii or Wii U's vWii? Exiting Neek2o resets the console. If you are on a Wii and have PriiLoader installed you can have it autoboot USB Loader GX which makes everything seem seemless. If you are on a Wii U's vWii then when you exit neek2o it will reset the console and you will be back at the Wii U home screen. No way around that.

Sorry to be so quick but I am going to bed now. If you need more help then this I will gladly help you out more tomorrow.

I am on the Wii. So it looks like it will reset the console.

I will look at those instructions again. This is the post I am referring to:

Spoiler

1. Go to http://modmii.comuf.com/ and download ModMii.
2. If you have used ModMii before then delete all the files in your COPY_TO_SD and COPY_TO_USB folders so that you don't accidentally copy over files from another install and accidentally install them. If you installed ModMii into its default path then you can find those folders in C:\ModMii\COPY_TO_SD and C:\ModMii\COPY_TO_USB.
2. After it's installed and/or you've deleted the files in the above folders then open up the regular version of ModMii. Not the skinned version. (Just personal preference and is what I use.)
3. Type "I Agree" (without the quotes. None of the things I will tell you to type will need the quotes) and press Enter.
4. Type "O" and press Enter to go to options.
5. Make sure that that it says "<Enabled>" next to "n20 = neek20 - build mod of s\uneek instead of original". (It should be by default.)
6. Type "M" and press enter to go back to the Main Menu.
7. Type "S" and press enter for "SNEEK Installation, Nand Builder, and Game Bulk Extractor"
8. Type "1" and press enter for "SNEEK Installation".
9. Type "1" and press enter for "96 (hosted online).
10. Type "UD" and press enter for "UNEEK+DI"
11. Type "D" and press enter for "Default Setting: COPY_TO_SD".
12. Type "D" and press enter for "Default Setting: COPY_TO_USB".
13. Type "Y" and press enter for "Yes, do it now!"
14. When everything is done you can exit ModMii.
15. Now go to your "COPY_TO_USB" directory which should be located at "C:\ModMii\COPY_TO_USB" and open that folder. (Ignore the COPY_TO_SD folder. You don't need it).
16. In that folder you will see a folder named "SNEEK". Copy that folder to the root of your USB drive. (if you were to look inside that folder you should see 4 files. di.bin, font.bin, kernel.bin and rev.txt).
Done

Now that is done you need to do one more thing to make it so USB Loader properly exits neek mode EmuNand back to Regular NAND:
1. Now go to "https://code.google.com/p/custom-di/downloads/list" and download one of the 4 wads that have NK2O in them. Me personally I downloaded the one that said "neek2o_NK2O_1.wad"
2. Place that file anywhere you want. Preferably the root of either your SD card or USB drive.
3. Open up USB Loader GX.
4. Click on the gears on the lower left to open up "Global Settings".
5. Click on "Features".
6. Scroll all the way down and click on "EmuNAND Wad Manager"
7. Click on "File"
8. Then go to where you have the WAD file and install it. When done you can delete the WAD file.
Done.

Now when you exit a game loaded in neek it will exit back into real NAND.

And that's it. You just now compiled neek2o and "installed" it onto your USB drive. Just make sure that your EmuNand is also on your USB drive (I have heard neek2o works better from USB). Now all you have to do is change your settings to have your WiiWare and Virtual Console games load up using neek. I would recommend doing this on a per game basis. To do that you would want to do the following:

1. Click on the game you want to play.
2. Click on "Settings".
3. Click on "Game Load".
4. Scroll all the way down until you see "Nand Emulation" and change it to "Neek".

The only thing left to do to make exiting neek more seemless would be to install the USB Loader GX Forwarder into PriiLoader so that when it reboots the Wii it automatically loads back into USB Loader GX. If you need help with that let me know and I can write you a step by step guide for that as well.

EDIT: I got ModMii installed on a different PC I have.

When you state "you need to do one more thing to make it so USB Loader properly exits neek mode EmuNand back to Regular NAND" what do you mean by that? When I exit a game in neek mode it will reset the console, correct?

EDIT: I think my process is a little different than the one I have in the spoiler. My emunand games are on SD. Your Step 10 "10. Type "UD" and press enter for "UNEEK+DI"" should probably be typing SD, correct? Why would anyone use Sneek vs Sneek+DI? Just curious..

 

[GR-DRACULA]

I don't think you can change it. It may be statically required by custom IOS modules.

O.o Why? Is it that bad to change the folder where i want to save my wii games wbfs?

 

[tswntk]

ever heard of Standards? Conventions?
of course you can change the way how one loader works but then you will be isolated from the rest of the world; plus the fact that most loaders and all cios have stopped development.

 

[GR-DRACULA]

ever heard of Standards? Conventions?
of course you can change the way how one loader works but then you will be isolated from the rest of the world; plus the fact that most loaders and all cios have stopped development.

Well i am just asking if it is possible to add a custom path option it would be useful for some people who want their games more organized because they use their 2tb hard drive for variety of files backing up and variety of other uses @Cyan please?

 

[Cyan]

NEVER (why this option still here?) use EmuNAND channel PARTIAL.
"EmuNAND channel" NEED to be set to full.

Partial is only useful for "EmuNAND save".


Partial : redirects only half the file access from NAND to emuNAND.
Full : redirects all files access.


Using partial with wiigames is useful because it redirects only the "/title/" folder access, which let you save the savegames to SD card without doing a full dump.
"Full" will need a full NAND dump as it will also load mii, settings, wiimote, etc. from that path.


With channels, you NEED a full dump, as not only the savegame are loaded from the EmuNAND but also the data (all the channel's data are located in /title/ folder) so you can't load the savegames from NAND !
But also, you need to get the proper ticket and settings, etc. loaded from the EmuNAND.
If you didn't install that channel to real NAND, you can't expect the "partial" mode to find half the data on NAND and the savegames on EmuNAND path.
the RealNAND will not have the required data.


@kostas sfirakis:
your signature is too big.
at least, put it horizontally instead of vertically.

about the path: I thought there were already an option to change the path inside the loader, but maybe it has been removed to force the user to use the standard path (/wbfs/ IS organized, it's the place where you put wbfs files, unless you want to make it wii/wbfs/ to organize it even more)
I will have to change that anyway to support wii games on SD card, so a setting might be added later to set SD and usb path independently.

 

[GR-DRACULA]

NEVER (why this option still here?) use EmuNAND channel PARTIAL.
"EmuNAND channel" NEED to be set to full.

Partial is only useful for "EmuNAND save".


Partial : redirects only half the file access from NAND to emuNAND.
Full : redirects all files access.


Using partial with wiigames is useful because it redirects only the "/title/" folder access, which let you save the savegames to SD card without doing a full dump.
"Full" will need a full NAND dump as it will also load mii, settings, wiimote, etc. from that path.


With channels, you NEED a full dump, as not only the savegame are loaded from the EmuNAND but also the data (all the channel's data are located in /title/ folder) so you can't load the savegames from NAND !
But also, you need to get the proper ticket and settings, etc. loaded from the EmuNAND.
If you didn't install that channel to real NAND, you can't expect the "partial" mode to find half the data on NAND and the savegames on EmuNAND path.
the RealNAND will not have the required data.


@kostas sfirakis:
your signature is too big.
at least, put it horizontally instead of vertically.

about the path: I thought there were already an option to change the path inside the loader, but maybe it has been removed to force the user to use the standard path (/wbfs/ IS organized, it's the place where you put wbfs files, unless you want to make it wii/wbfs/ to organize it even more)
I will have to change that anyway to support wii games on SD card, so a setting might be added later to set SD and usb path independently.

Oh ok then @Cyan it will automatically get the update via its updater right? (I have latest version 1260)