Hacking USB Loader GX

[Jacoby6000]

Once this is tested we will try to have it uploaded to oscwii.org and downloaded by the open shop channel, homebrew browser, and modmii

@Gabubu will hopefully be able to work his magic and make it happen

Edit: hopefully this is just temporary until @blackb0x makes a triumphant return *crosses fingers*

I've got confirmation that the fix works on Wii (as in, it doesn't break anything). Only untested segment now is vWii without priiloader. I'm fairly confident it should work though, after reviewing the priiloader installer code.

Struggling getting Wii games to appear via SD on latest USB Loader GX on Wii U. Followed the guides down to the letter. When Loader GX boots I hit A to tell it to use SD, but it says 0 games and 0 of 0 space. I go into custom paths and everything says USB:8 or something and if I click to change things to SD it just says error in the popup.

All the games are on the SD in the wbfs folder from Wii Backup Manager.

I'm running Aroma if it matters on that side of things.

Seems like this is a common issue when no USB device is detected. The same thing was happening to me when my USB drive didn't have enough power and so usbloader gx thought I had no external storage. Idk what the problem is but I can see if there's anything I can do. It seems like a bug to me.

 

[buddy]

Only untested segment now is vWii without priiloader. I'm fairly confident it should work though, after reviewing the priiloader installer code.

I just tested it in vWii with no Priiloader, and the channel grid mode worked fine - no issues found. No problems with banners/buttons, able to launch games properly.

 

[Jacoby6000]

I just tested it in vWii with no Priiloader, and the channel grid mode worked fine - no issues found. No problems with banners/buttons, able to launch games properly.

Thanks for your validation!

I've made the release a little bit more official on my own fork here: https://github.com/Jacoby6000/usbloadergx/releases/tag/v3.0-1282

I'll make a separate post about this tomorrow. It looks like there's some other very recent PRs by other devs which fix several other bugs and have a lot of other general improvements. I'll try to get their permission and incorporate them in to some of my own future releases and try to manage this stuff in blackb0x's absence

 

[retrofan_k]

Thanks for your validation!

I've made the release a little bit more official on my own fork here: https://github.com/Jacoby6000/usbloadergx/releases/tag/v3.0-1282

I'll make a separate post about this tomorrow. It looks like there's some other very recent PRs by other devs which fix several other bugs and have a lot of other general improvements. I'll try to get their permission and incorporate them in to some of my own future releases and try to manage this stuff in blackb0x's absence

Thanks for this. Hope you get permissions to add further improvements.

 

[Clutz450]

Just out of curiosity, how does having PriiLoader installed affect the graphics in USB Loader GX on a Wii U?

 

[Jacoby6000]

Just out of curiosity, how does having PriiLoader installed affect the graphics in USB Loader GX on a Wii U?

The Channel view on usbloader_gx references some files from the system menu. That's how it gets the channel view to look almost exactly like a normal Wii menu.

Priiloader when installed on a vWii will move those resources to a location that is different than normal. Priiloader does not do this when installed on a normal Wii, which is why the issue is WiiU only.

I'm not sure why, but I'm sure DacoTaco has his reasons for doing it this way.

If you're curious about the details,

• USB Loader GX loads the system menu metadata from /title/00000001/00000002/content/title.tmd
• The title.tmd metadata file normally holds 9 entries, with indexes ranging from 0 to 8
• In normal circumstances the system files are located in the files indicated by the metadata at index 1
• Priiloader when installed on vWii does the following
  • creates a 10th entry at index 9
  • Copies the entry from index 1 to index 9
  • Overwrites the original index 1 with priiloader files
• My patch checks to see if there are 10 entries (a solid indicator that priiloader is installed on a vWii from my testing)
• If there are 10 entries we use index 9 to reference the required system resources, otherwise we use index 1.

 

[qWii]

Thanks for your validation!

I've made the release a little bit more official on my own fork here: https://github.com/Jacoby6000/usbloadergx/releases/tag/v3.0-1282

I'll make a separate post about this tomorrow. It looks like there's some other very recent PRs by other devs which fix several other bugs and have a lot of other general improvements. I'll try to get their permission and incorporate them in to some of my own future releases and try to manage this stuff in blackb0x's absence

Of course, you have mine. In fact I'm already building PR42 locally over your branch. There are no conflicts, so I don't think it will break anything. Anyway, I'll test the new build this afternoon, and if all works as expected I will open a PR in your repo. Thanks for your initiative.

 

[ScrumpyDaniel]

The Channel view on usbloader_gx references some files from the system menu. That's how it gets the channel view to look almost exactly like a normal Wii menu.

Priiloader when installed on a vWii will move those resources to a location that is different than normal. Priiloader does not do this when installed on a normal Wii, which is why the issue is WiiU only.

I'm not sure why, but I'm sure DacoTaco has his reasons for doing it this way.

If you're curious about the details,

• USB Loader GX loads the system menu metadata from /title/00000001/00000002/content/title.tmd
• The title.tmd metadata file normally holds 9 entries, with indexes ranging from 0 to 8
• In normal circumstances the system files are located in the files indicated by the metadata at index 1
• Priiloader when installed on vWii does the following
  • creates a 10th entry at index 9
  • Copies the entry from index 1 to index 9
  • Overwrites the original index 1 with priiloader files
• My patch checks to see if there are 10 entries (a solid indicator that priiloader is installed on a vWii from my testing)
• If there are 10 entries we use index 9 to reference the required system resources, otherwise we use index 1.

This is great, will give it a go on my Wii U later. I have a tab mod for my USB Loader GX, Will this be available with your release?

Thanks.

 

[hadi aulia]

Thanks for your validation!

I've made the release a little bit more official on my own fork here: https://github.com/Jacoby6000/usbloadergx/releases/tag/v3.0-1282

I'll make a separate post about this tomorrow. It looks like there's some other very recent PRs by other devs which fix several other bugs and have a lot of other general improvements. I'll try to get their permission and incorporate them in to some of my own future releases and try to manage this stuff in blackb0x's absence

Is your fork included changes/improvement from this release ?
https://github.com/ayuanx/usbloadergx/releases/tag/v3.0-r240527

 

[Jacoby6000]

Is your fork included changes/improvement from this release ?
https://github.com/ayuanx/usbloadergx/releases/tag/v3.0-r240527

No, currently it's just the channel view patch. It'll take awhile for me to validate and merge the work from other devs.

I've created a separate thread https://gbatemp.net/threads/usbloader-gx-channel-view-fixed.658777/#post-10464296

 

[devlman127]

Is there a way to create single-game forwarders in the Wii U menu? I want to use the patching features that come with the loader but I prefer for all my games to be in one place on the Wii U menu (if I want any more than 300 I'll just uninstall a few old ones)

 

[kobeskillz]

Hey guys i tried looking but man so so soooo many pages.

I know it's been a while but are we ever getting a new update to the USB Loader GX?

I have the latest version and i waited for it and was on here in the forums super excited but since i don't think we've gotten anything.

Any news on future updates?

 

[Jacoby6000]

Hey guys i tried looking but man so so soooo many pages.

I know it's been a while but are we ever getting a new update to the USB Loader GX?

I have the latest version and i waited for it and was on here in the forums super excited but since i don't think we've gotten anything.

Any news on future updates?

The dev that was maintaining it has been gone for at least 6 months now. He may come back eventually, but no guarantees there obviously.

The repo has a bunch of pending patches submitted by other people, and I'm going to make an effort to start triaging, testing, and merging them in to my own fork and releases after gaining permission from the authors of the various patches.

I've already released one for vWii/Priiloader issues, and one is pending to help fix some issues with wad installation. There's some other nice people who have submitted additional language support, a patch to make SD card mode more usable, and a few others I don't remember off the top of my head.

 

[kobeskillz]

The dev that was maintaining it has been gone for at least 6 months now. He may come back eventually, but no guarantees there obviously.

The repo has a bunch of pending patches submitted by other people, and I'm going to make an effort to start triaging, testing, and merging them in to my own fork and releases after gaining permission from the authors of the various patches.

I've already released one for vWii/Priiloader issues, and one is pending to help fix some issues with wad installation. There's some other nice people who have submitted additional language support, a patch to make SD card mode more usable, and a few others I don't remember off the top of my head.

oh that's cool. You're talking about blackbox I think?

I guess i got spoiled by extrems and his amazing dedication to swiss! : )

USB Loader gx is amazing. Hope it keeps going and improves further.

Thank you for the update! Love the community here. So helpful and nice.

 

[XFlak]

after gaining permission from the authors of the various patches

Not to sound insensitive but they shared it publicly in github so I think you're fine. Still nice to do as a courtesy but if you don't hear back from someone I think you're safe to adopt any of their patches so long as they make sense and work

 

[CheeseBurgerwithLove]

I think someone should take over. Black announced on numerous occasions that he would release an update and he did not do so for whatever reasons, so if he's going to last a long time to return it would be best someone to take over.

 

[Clutz450]

I think someone should take over. Black announced on numerous occasions that he would release an update and he did not do so for whatever reasons, so if he's going to last a long time to return it would be best someone to take over.

Congrats! You are now in charge. Now get to work!!!

Post automatically merged: Jul 31, 2024

But seriously though, I hope Blackb0x is OK. Just seems weird to go radio silent on us after being so active. I really hope nothing bad has happened.

 

[CheeseBurgerwithLove]

I don't understand your sarcasm because I'm totally serious. But hey, congrats to you for getting noticed.

 

[kobeskillz]

Congrats! You are now in charge. Now get to work!!!

Post automatically merged: Jul 31, 2024

But seriously though, I hope Blackb0x is OK. Just seems weird to go radio silent on us after being so active. I really hope nothing bad has happened.

Yeah i understand life. I got divorce and went away for like 2 years and didn't care about retro stuff or much of anything. Life can suck.

Blackb0x did the lords work for us and i'm soooo appreciative of him and others like extrems on the gamecube swiss side.

I do hope someone else takes over and continues it like extrems. That would be amazing!!!

 

[shoemaker]

If USB Loader GX is getting supported again, and we’re able to put in a feature request, I’d like to have USB controller support in the main USBLGX menu.

I’m on Wii U, and use USBLGX as a front end for Nintendont. I’m able to use HID-to-VPAD to use the GC Controller Adapter on the Wii U menu to navigate to the USBLGX forwarder, so it would be nice to be able to continue using the GC Controller Adapter to select a GC game instead of needing to pull out a Wiimote just for the menu.

If it’s a complicated thing to add, no big deal, just thought it was worth asking. Thanks!