Hacking USB Loader GX

[JacobM]

I did some additional testing with USBLoaderGX and WiiU WiiVC mode with HID controllers connected...

I had a suspicion this bug may have something to do with the number of USB devices after my previous findings with the WUPC. I installed my forwarder to Wii U NAND and unplugged all of my USB devices (no WiiU formatted USB storage devices) other than the WiiU GameCube Adapter.

I was able to successfully boot a GameCube game using a NAND installed forwarder without any USB storage devices plugged in approximately 50% of the time. Below is an example of one of my barge of tests.

Round 1 Reset settings/stats by deleting USBLoaderGX files -> booted
Round 2 No changes -> booted
Round 3 No changes -> black screen of death
Round 4 No changes -> black screen of death
Round 5 No changes -> booted
​

I was unsuccessful in booting a GameCube game using the same NAND installed forwarder with a Wii U formatted storage device connected.

Oddly, deleting the settings/stats files for USBLoaderGX seems to increase the likelihood of booting a GameCube game to 80%+ (sample size ~10 attempts and it could just be dumb luck!)

 

[shadoom]

which version of the loader ? 1262 or 1265 ?
which version of HBC did you install ? the hackmii installer version, or the wad version?

return to system menu should work :/

usbgx is 1265
hbc via wuphax with hackmii installer

ive just noticed
System => HBC Forwarder => USBGX => Exit To System => Works
System => USBGX Forwarder => Exit To System => Black Screen

which forwarder channel should I use? I believe I used the one in OP but Its a long time ago

 

[Cyan]

I don't understand.
HBC forwarder ? (or maybe you use a forwarder to fix the aspect ratio?)

the forwarder shouldn't be the problem, return to system is done by reloading the system's TitleID. it should work whatever the way you launched the loader.
but if you want to be sure you have the latest forwarder you can reinstall it (be sure you get v5.1 fix for vWii, not the normal "5.1")

 

[shadoom]

Sorry yeah I meant the 16:9 Channel, hovering over it says "HBC Forwarder" with green waves behind the "the homebrew channel" font.
I used YAWMM to install "USB Loader GX-UNEO_Forwarder_5_1_AHBPROT (For vWii ONLY).wad" on the vWii and did the same thing again.
I don't know what kind of forwarder I had previously, the title image didn't change but...
Everything works now.

Thanks for the help

 

[ngs428]

that's strange, nobody else reported that problem, and 1265 has even better compatibility with nintendont as it adds missing settings.
How do you launch the loader? from wii, vwii or WiiUVC?

I didn't test myself, but other users said it was working.
going back to 1262 fix the issue?

My issue was that I had write protection enabled on the SD card by accident.

 

[Cyan]

I like when the issue is just something simple to fix

it's a little scary at first, thinking the code has a bug and it could be bad because I don't know how to fix it. I'm glad it's just something we didn't thought about.

 

[comput3rus3r]

I like when the issue is just something simple to fix

it's a little scary at first, thinking the code has a bug and it could be bad because I don't know how to fix it. I'm glad it's just something we didn't thought about.

hey cyan, can you confirm that 1266 doesnt have the game counter? according to what graywolf said sounds like he's aware of it.

 

[Cyan]

greywolf made a copy of r1263 and CHANGED it in his own taste, doing things which are NOT USBLOADERGX anymore.
unfortunately, he kept the revision numbers for a little while on his "not usbloadergx" versions, so there are now duplicated revision numbers which are different version!
so you said you are using greywolf 1266 version of NOT USBLOADERGX r1266.

HIS 1266 is not the official 1266.

Please, be sure you get 1265 from my signature or sourceforge, not github.
Matter of fact, I never released a r1266 revision myself, only 1265 !

it should have been named r1263 mod by greywolf instead of 1264+
it's just creating confusion.
after some revision, greywolf stopped using the revision number system for his NOT USBLOADERGX version, and numbered it differently to not conflict with the official project.
you can read on his github project that it's "NOT USBLOADERGX", and to not report his bugs to me. his project is renamed to "streamline".

be sure you are using the official version, because I see no reason the game count shouldn't be here, except by displacing its position with a theme, or using a modded version with deleted element.
always use the official release place to get your files.
sourceforge or here, or know that it could be a modded version (sources should be provided, which is the case for greywolf, he did nothing wrong on the contrary he helps by fixing things on a fork project but we can't merge both together)

 

[GreyWolf]

I'm working on getting rid of the revision numbers in streamline right now. The readme.md literally says 5 times in one paragraph that it is NOT official USB Loader GX and not to ask for support as if it was. :/

This is a fork of USB Loader GX. This is not the "latest version" of USB Loader GX. It is a new project. Please do not ask for support for this as the latest version of USB Loader GX. It is NOT USB Loader GX.

EDIT: Now that I'm looking, I don't even have a r1266, whether as a release or a commit.

 

[tswntk]

I'm working on getting rid of the revision numbers in streamline right now. The readme.md literally says 5 times in one paragraph that it is NOT official USB Loader GX and not to ask for support as if it was. :/



EDIT: Now that I'm looking, I don't even have a r1266, whether as a release or a commit.

another chinese rip-off?
I always change the boot message to "usbloadergx tswntk" (something like that, I have use that only for testing) so as not to confuse even myself. I just did little changes to fit my own taste but never been released (not worth it)
I guess calling your project anything wont change the users' mind that it is ULGX. I haven't tried streamline so I am not sure if you already did, but changing the boot message, credit screen and even the boot graphic to something like "usbloadergx greywolf" might help a little.

 

[GreyWolf]

another chinese rip-off?
I always change the boot message to "usbloadergx tswntk" (something like that, I have use that only for testing) so as not to confuse even myself. I just did little changes to fit my own taste but never been released (not worth it)
I guess calling your project anything wont change the users' mind that it is ULGX. I haven't tried streamline so I am not sure if you already did, but changing the boot message, credit screen and even the boot graphic to something like "usbloadergx greywolf" might help a little.

I'm not sure any of that would do any good. If nobody reads the notes all over the repository saying it's not GX they're not going to read the boot screen either. It hasn't said just "rXXXX" since r1263, which is the exact same code as Cyan's r1262. I'm removing the USB Loader GX branding completely and switching to standard major.minor.patch.build format. Then I will purge the older builds.

 

[tswntk]

I'm not sure any of that would do any good. If nobody reads the notes all over the repository saying it's not GX they're not going to read the boot screen either. It hasn't said just "rXXXX" since r1263, which is the exact same code as Cyan's r1262. I'm removing the USB Loader GX branding completely and switching to standard major.minor.patch.build format. Then I will purge the older builds.

probably won't help either if the look and feel is still the same and I hope that wouldn't make merging with the official ULGX more difficult.
maybe we need to start telling ppl to take a screenshot of their credit screen to avoid typos, guessing and old forwarders. Still that won't help if Chinese rip-offs/mods exist. (I hate to use the phase Chinese rip-offs as I am a Chinese myself but former Chinese rip-offs do exist.)
Sigh, do we really have to come to these?

 

[GreyWolf]

I can backport pretty much anything if Cyan asks for it. I just didn't want people asking him for help with a project he doesn't have anything to do with.

The logos will be removed in the next commit then I will rebase it so the old code is gone.

 

[comput3rus3r]

I can backport pretty much anything if Cyan asks for it. I just didn't want people asking him for help with a project he doesn't have anything to do with.

The logos will be removed in the next commit then I will rebase it so the old code is gone.

it would be nice to know what features you've added. The only thing i noticed was that yours was missing the game counter. I am now using cyan's version 1265 which does have it. Also maybe your project needs it's own thread.

 

[GreyWolf]

it would be nice to know what features you've added. The only thing i noticed was that yours was missing the game counter. I am now using cyan's version 1265 which does have it. Also maybe your project needs it's own thread.

It's unreleased. There is no support for streamline anywhere other than GitHub currently. I will make a thread if it gets to a release stage.

It's not really fair to expect me to obfuscate something I'm working on to that degree just to prevent confusion that could be avoided by simply reading the release notes. :/

As I said, there is no r1265 in the releases. There is a 1263, which is the same as official r1262 and one later build, which is tagged "3.1.1.1278-master" as the version, which corresponds to no official version number. 1278 just happened to be the commit number when I tagged the release.

 

[Cyan]

Actually, I have a r1266 on sourceforge but I never compiled/released it myself.
I made 1265 but forgot the .a library file, so I committed it just in case people wanted to compile the loader themselves.
If he has r1266, it's not compiled by me.


I know you made the needed change to not conflict with the official release, and displayed the warning on your github page, so I didn't think he was using your version.
But he said he used yours when you asked, while you don't even have a r1266 ? and I didn't release one either...

 

[comput3rus3r]

oops i was using badableks fork

 

[Cyan]

ahh, ok, so yes you are right it's r1266 as he compiled the latest commit.
Greywolf, Problem solved ! haha

As he moved the design a little to add tabs, he probably removed other element.
The "top menu" is now moved to where the game count text is usually placed.

maybe he removed the gamecount completely, maybe he moved its location to outside of the screen.
if it's moved outside, you can create an empty theme file with just this value set to force its position back to where you want it.


Badablek :
I didn't check your patch, but are you modifying the StartupProcess.cpp line58?
You can (should, to prevent confusion with the official build) set that line to 1 to add "mod" to the bootscreen.
there, you can also rename it to "tab mod" if you want, so users will see "r1266 tab mod" on the boot screen.

 

[GreyWolf]

I knew I hadn't done anything with the counters.

Nevertheless, the versioning for Streamline is changed now. The current version is now code-named "ambergris."

 

[Badablek]

@Cyan I'm only compiling tab mod for people who could be interested. Too bad some of them don't even know what they are downloading/using.
I'd like to keep USBLoader GX as "vanilla" as possible, but I guess it should avoid confusion by adding something in the boot screen.

So I added this :
"USBLoader GX 3.0 R%s tabmod - Build not supported by official team"
it can't be more clearer, even if I know it will not stop some people to report bugs in the official thread (in that case, I would keep my builds for myself)


I have updated the file on MEGA, anybody who downloads it from now will have the "new build with the new boot screen (Latest french langage was also added, just in case)