Hacking USB Loader GX

[JacobM]

Yeah, I boot it from Wii VC channel, I got GamePad support in menu but it get lost when launching a game (NAND channel game), but anyway, maybe it could possible inject a modified fw.img into the Wii VC.

Just shooting from the hip here. I am assuming since some Wii games require specific classic controller patches that this probably applies to Wii WADs as well.

1. Are you sure the game you are trying to control has native classic controller support?
2. Does that game require any special patches like "force classic controller connected" WAD patcher? (https://github.com/FIX94/GetExtTypePatcher)

GamePad Emulation modes (Extra modes only applicable for Wii Retail / vWii NAND Launcher Titles)

• • No GamePad Emulation, Wii Remotes only
  • Classic Controller Emulation
  • Vertical Wii Remote Emulation
  • Horizontal Wii Remote Emulation
  • Force Classic Controller Connected (Wii games will be auto-patched to support this feature, your vWii WADs still need to be patched before being installed to vWii)
  • Force No Classic Controller (Very limited use cases)
  • Swap L & R with ZL & ZR

You said in your previous post that you got EmuNAND games to boot through WiiVC (also without Gamepad support)?? Are you positive this is correct? I have a feeling you ran into a bug/feature of the EmuNAND implementation. This is assuming you had the WAD you tested installed on your NAND prior to cloning it for your EmuNAND (you stated you just made your EmuNAND). If you have the same WAD installed to both, USB Loader GX prioritizes/boots the NAND channel version regardless. This fooled me a long time ago when my EmuNAND channels that originated on my NAND always worked perfectly but I couldn't get any newly installed EmuNAND channels to work.

 

[cucholix]

If you have the same WAD installed to both, USB Loader GX prioritizes/boots the NAND channel version regardless. This fooled me a long time ago when my EmuNAND channels that originated on my NAND always worked perfectly but I couldn't get any newly installed EmuNAND channels to work.

Ah, that's what happened then.

 

[JacobM]

Ah, that's what happened then.

Its really easy to test. Either delete the WAD from your NAND and try to EmuNAND version under WiiVC or install a WAD in EmuNAND that you do not have on your NAND. If either one of those setups work then EmuNAND somehow works in WiiVC. If either one doesn't boot then your issue was the NAND/EmuNAND cloning.

 

[JacobM]

Tested 1269 mod 03 on 4.3U d2x-v10-beta52 with a fresh install of USB Loader GX

I have everything set to default settings other than return to UNEO & rerouting EmuNAND to \nands\nand1 (I forget why I have this nested setup when I only have one EmuNAND, is it a sneek/neek2o requirement?)

Wii, Gamecube, NAND, and EmuNAND channels work perfectly as far as I can tell.

Re-downloaded all of my covers/banners and noticed the new GCN banner repository by @Larsenv wasn't added to this revision. Manually changing the URL for "CustomBannersURL" in GXGlobal.cfg worked. Thanks for the suggestion @GreyWolf !


I'm not sure if default settings are generated based on the system being a Wii or vWii. If they are suppose to be unit specific, under USB Loader GX's Nintendont settings, WiiU Widescreen is set to ON by default. I'm assuming Nintendont just ignores this setting on a Wii since the option is grayed out in its UI?

I recreated the banner repository since gxarena is down, and I had all the banners.

To use it set the banner path to http://banners.rc24.xyz/ (is it still possible to grab the banners via usb loader gx?)

The GitHub repository is at https://github.com/larsenv/Custom-Banners

Thank you @Larsenv for hosting this repo. However, you mistyped your banner path The correct URL is http://banner.rc24.xyz/. I noticed your post in the WiiFlow Lite thread is also incorrect (https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiflow-lite.422685/page-14#post-7750018). After correcting the typo, everything worked as expected and seemed faster than gxarena ever was.

 

[froggydarren]

been trying the mod 3 version via normal means and by WIIUVC injection and all works great apart from sometimes via gamepad once a game is selected it will black screen and need the power cable to be removed yet loading up by normal means everything loads fine first time so thought id mention it as i know its a test build of sorts

 

[Nomelas]

how do you apply 'r1269_mod03.patch' ?

when the loader boots, it says '3.0 rev. r1268 mod'

 

[Nomelas]

I recreated the banner repository since gxarena is down, and I had all the banners.

To use it set the banner path to http://banners.rc24.xyz/ (is it still possible to grab the banners via usb loader gx?)

The GitHub repository is at https://github.com/larsenv/Custom-Banners

It seems to only download 4-5 banners at a time and then freezes. I need to force shut down the console and relaunch it every time.

 

[JacobM]

It seems to only download 4-5 banners at a time and then freezes. I need to force shut down the console and relaunch it every time.

Did you add http://banners.rc24.xyz/ or http://banner.rc24.xyz/? The second one is the correct address. Yesterday it download 30+ banners without a hitch.

My old setup use to freeze just like what you were describing when downloading covers and banners. By any chance are you using a flash drive for external storage? USB Loader GX is known to have issues with usb flash devices and I think this problem went away after I switched to a hard drive.

 

[GreyWolf]

how do you apply 'r1269_mod03.patch' ?

when the loader boots, it says '3.0 rev. r1268 mod'

You don't need the patch file, you need the 7z file from the link Cyan posted about halfway down this page. (http://www.mediafire.com/file/232780esy10r6po/USBLoaderGX_r1269_mod03.7z)

 

[Nomelas]

Did you add http://banners.rc24.xyz/ or http://banner.rc24.xyz/? The second one is the correct address. Yesterday it download 30+ banners without a hitch.

My old setup use to freeze just like what you were describing when downloading covers and banners. By any chance are you using a flash drive for external storage? USB Loader GX is known to have issues with usb flash devices and I think this problem went away after I switched to a hard drive.

No, just an external USB. I downloaded a ton of missing cover art without any issues. Only when I include banners from (the second link) does it freeze. It succeeds in downloading a few, but freezes after what appears to be a random number. Sometimes I get just 1 downloaded, sometimes 4-5, sometimes as much as 7-20. All out of the total of 59 that I was missing to begin with.

You don't need the patch file, you need the 7z file from the link Cyan posted about halfway down this page. (http://www.mediafire.com/file/232780esy10r6po/USBLoaderGX_r1269_mod03.7z)

That's the one. The zip includes the file I mentioned, and also boot.elf - I guess all I need from the zip is boot.dol ?

 

[GreyWolf]

That's the one. The zip includes the file I mentioned, and also boot.elf - I guess all I need from the zip is boot.dol ?

Oh, yes, you just want the dol.

The elf file is the same as the dol except with the symbol tables still in it. It's for using with a debugging program to track down stack dumps. The patch is there for other developers to add the changes to the official r1268 source code since r1269 isn't published yet.

 

[JacobM]

No, just an external USB. I downloaded a ton of missing cover art without any issues. Only when I include banners from (the second link) does it freeze. It succeeds in downloading a few, but freezes after what appears to be a random number. Sometimes I get just 1 downloaded, sometimes 4-5, sometimes as much as 7-20. All out of the total of 59 that I was missing to begin with.

And by external USB you mean a hard disk drive and not an SSD, right? I just reran it twice after removing cached banners for my 36 games.

Round 1: Got hung up half way through on NBA Street (GNSE69), after reboot everything else downloaded. Avg of 4 seconds per download.
Round 2: Everything downloaded in one round. Avg of 4 seconds per download.

The only titles that did not have banners were my custom ISO games like NBA Street 2016 and Hydro Thunder.

Do you have any random settings modified? I would suggest trying a fresh install of USB Loader GX, a different USB device, or a different SD card. It would have to be one of those three things imo. Maybe you have too many total games on your drive? Best of luck!

 

[Nomelas]

And by external USB you mean a hard disk drive and not an SSD, right? I just reran it twice after removing cached banners for my 36 games.

Round 1: Got hung up half way through on NBA Street (GNSE69), after reboot everything else downloaded. Avg of 4 seconds per download.
Round 2: Everything downloaded in one round. Avg of 4 seconds per download.

The only titles that did not have banners were my custom ISO games like NBA Street 2016 and Hydro Thunder.

Do you have any random settings modified? I would suggest trying a fresh install of USB Loader GX, a different USB device, or a different SD card. It would have to be one of those three things imo. Maybe you have too many total games on your drive? Best of luck!

from 59, once I got down to 32, it downloaded the next 20 and hung after that.... then the last 12 finished after a restart. At about 4 seconds per download, maybe less

Judging by the fact that yours also froze around half way with 39 banners, I'd say you experienced the same thing as me. (needs more testing cases of course)

 

[GreyWolf]

It's probably downloading them to memory then writing them to disk and running out of room. There's FileDownloader.DownloadFileToPath() might work better for grabbing banners/artwork. It looks like only the updater and defunct theme downloader use it.

 

[Larsenv]

Well, glad to know that it's at least working!

Yeah, I guess that the banners aren't downloading smoothly, but I can't fix that.

Thanks for the heads-up, I fixed the URL for the banners.

About my problem not seeing the option to download banners, @GreyWolf, do I need the mod of USB Loader GX to get custom banners? I have my URL set in GXGlobal.cfg, but when I press 1 or navigate around the menus I don't see an option to download banners.

 

[FIX94]

fix94's channel booter can launch channels with gamepad support? if it can, then USBGX will be able to do the same.

it can if the patched fw.img does not have -passthrough set, remember that to real wii games/channels -passthrough will mean you can only use real wiimotes/classic controllers.
oh also those ISFS patches arent patched in the fw.img by default simply because its not really required in most cases, at least you noticed the ones I made up for the channel booter though, the wii vc ISFS is just ever so slightly different because it reads so differently from the NAND due to the wiiu side still accessable so it needed a new set of patches.

 

[JacobM]

@FIX94 I am still having issues with HID arg passthrough on WiiVC USB Loader GX and CFGLoader when booting titles via Nintendont. Any idea what could be missing from the arg implementations to cause this hangup? (https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/page-1228#post-7669977)

do I need the mod of USB Loader GX to get custom banners? I have my URL set in GXGlobal.cfg, but when I press 1 or navigate around the menus I don't see an option to download banners.

I think the custom banners are only for GameCube games. In the list view of USB Loader GX, make sure you see GameCube games listed before click on any 3D boxart to the left. This opens the download art/banner interface.

 

[FIX94]

@FIX94 I am still having issues with HID arg passthrough on WiiVC USB Loader GX and CFGLoader when booting titles via Nintendont. Any idea what could be missing from the arg implementations to cause this hangup? (https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/page-1228#post-7669977)

doubt its anything to do with the actual implementation but more so just a thing of nintendont sometimes being a tad bit unstable, you could always just compile a nintendont version yourself that shows whats happening on screen, just comment out the "if(argsboot == false)" lines in the main.c file.

 

[JacobM]

doubt its anything to do with the actual implementation but more so just a thing of nintendont sometimes being a tad bit unstable, you could always just compile a nintendont version yourself that shows whats happening on screen, just comment out the "if(argsboot == false)" lines in the main.c file.

Thanks! I'll give that a shot. The logging available normally shows a blank file with this setup.

 

[FIX94]

Thanks! I'll give that a shot. The logging available normally shows a blank file with this setup.

oh also at first my app booter didnt properly work either, I found out on wii vc its very important to unmount the sd card prior to booting nintendont or else you can get a black screen or the games run horribly slow, there seems to be some sort of irq conflict or something inside the fw.img sd implementation when having multiple handles left open. so make sure in usb loader gx that the sd is unmounted.