Hacking USB Loader GX

[nakata6790]

Two emunand questions.

1. Anybody got Retro city rampage running. For me it just kicks me out to the system menu.

2. Whenever I try to set up problem games to run from a different cios GX tells me I must use a d2x cios for emunand. any help with this.

1. Yep, works great (WR5E) with default settings and GX rev1209 (ios 248) from emunand.
2. I guess you have your emunand on a folder and NOT in the root of your hdd or SD. Non D2X IOS' es need the emunand to be on the root of your hdd or sd.

 

[Cyan]

I made the support for non d2x only for users who understand how to use older cIOS with emunand.
If you don't set it up correctly, the loader still tells you that you need a d2x cIOS as it's the default behavior to prevent newbies being confused about multiple different settings for EmuNAND.

If you know how to setup an emuNAND for rev17-19, then the loader will let you do it.
What you need:
- cIOS rev17+
- Nand Path on the root of the first FAT32 partition of the drive (either primary or extended are working)
- 512bytes per sector (4KBytes per sector won't work)

 

[Hielkenator]

Awesome.
We should get a compatibilty list together.
I noticed that when you dumped a NAND containing a Priiloader install, some games ( bonsai barber, loaded with rev17, with a pre-made save on the dumped nand ) exits to the priloader installation on you Emunand.
Obviosely this emunand cannot boot so shutting the Wii of and reboot is the only option.

 

[nakata6790]

Awesome.
We should get a compatibilty list together.
I noticed that when you dumped a NAND containing a Priiloader install, some games ( bonsai barber, loaded with rev17, with a pre-made save on the dumped nand ) exits to the priloader installation on you Emunand.
Obviosely this emunand cannot boot so shutting the Wii of and reboot is the only option.

Nope! This can be bypassed. I had the same issue with Whiterock Castle, MDK2 and Beaver Defence but it is fixed now. Here's what to do:

1. Backup your problematic game's gamesave with Savegame manager or with Showmiiwads nand emumanager.
2. Now unistall the problematic game.
3. Take the game's wad that you had originally installed and fix it with Nand loader mod 1.1. Instructions here:
http://gbatemp.net/threads/custom-nand-loader-mod-1-1.198242/
It should now be xxx[patched][loader][regionfree].wad instead of just xxx.wad.
4. Take the xxx[patched][loader][regionfree].wad and install that to your emunand(s).
5. Restore the gamesave.
6.???
7. Profit!

Just make sure to keep the gamesave cause rev17 or 19 demand a premade savegame.

Btw, this trick, in conjunction with wwpacker's regionfreeplus also works to have EVERY single Japanese VC Arcade wad work on my 4.3 PAL Wii. Some real gems in there.

For the compatibility list, i'll attach the new gamelist (i now have ~610 games total) along with the GXGameSettings.cfg file.
Look the code for each game and then in the GXGameSettings.cfg (rename it to GXGameSettings.txt and open it with wordpad or w/e) file you should see what settings are used for that game.

 

[OriginalHamster]

Can someone point me what is the lastest release (including the beta ones)?

 

[Cyan]

Current public version is r1209
There's a private one with EmuNAND wad's installation fixed. I'll release it soon.


I don't understand why some games requires that save files already exists on the emuNAND.
When you install a new game on real NAND, it only creates the folder, not the empty/dummy save files. so it should work the same way.

in the next release, I also fixed the path were the save folder is created if it doesn't exists yet. (it created the save path in the Wii game folder, instead of the Channel folder)
maybe it'll fix that problem in the next release?

@hielkenator:
If you can test it: install a known problematic game you never had on emuNAND and see if it works or not without manually creating the save files.

 

[nakata6790]

Cyan, this ONLY happens when loading games with a non d2x cios from emunand on the root of the device (ios 240 and 249 in my case).

To bypass this, one can install the wad to the real nand and play it once, then copy the save from the real nand to the emunand via savegame manager GX.

 

[Cyan]

can't you just use the "extract save" function of the loader?

 

[nakata6790]

I guess so, but seeing that the emunand i used to run those games was not the one set as default on the GX global settings (usb1:/nand) but on the root of the hdd, i figured i would transfer the saves with SGM GX.

 

[zfa]

Hey Cyan,

Quick question - would it be possible to implement different defaults for channels and disc games? In particular I'm wanting a different default cIOS for each.

In my setup I'm using d2xv10-alt as the USB Loader GX default as that's what works for virtually all of my disc rips, but obviously WiiWare/VC is much more compatible when launched under d2xv10 (std).

It kind of makes sense (certainly to me) that you may want 249[56alt], say, as your default for disc rips (better USB support, plug and play etc), but then also want 248[56std], say, as the default for WW/VC.

This way you have maximum compatibility for each 'set' of games just by the different defaults.

Just a thought.

 

[Cyan]

@nakata: yes, you are right.
I didn't thought about the individual EmuNAND path. It's only extracted to the Globbal EmuNAND channel path.

@zfa:
It's possible.
I wouldn't want to complicate the menus too much with a lot of default cIOS, but I plan to re-work the settings a little. (I don't know when, I don't work fast).
I'll keep in mind your suggestion.

 

[PsyBlade]

considered configfile only settings?

 

[ArDark]

Guys, please take a look at my problem. May be someone can help me...
http://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx-vs-uloader-specific-hdd-problems.344670/

 

[Cyan]

If no other loader are detecting your HDD, it's maybe not usbloaderGX problem.
I'm thinking of two possibilities for the moment.

1. Partition format
is your WBFS partition the only partition on the drive?
Maybe you don't have a partition table.

I added support for WBFS partition without tables, it will be available on the next revision. (I should really release that one soon)

2. selected IOS.
uLoader use Hermes's IOS, while other loaders use Waninkoko/d2x IOS.
Did you try to set the loader's IOS (you can edit the setting file manually on your SD card) to 222 or 223 instead of 249?
edit: I see you tried it.
so, maybe it's the partition detection which is the problem.
I can provide you a test version to see if it's a problem due to the partition table missing. (link sent by PM).

 

[ArDark]

trying to answer

1. yes, full HDD have only one WBFS partition. and yes, partition table at place. this wbfs partition is primary and set as Active.
2. if uLoader uses Hermes IOS, may be this is the way for me? install hermes IOS as 222 and set it in USB loader. May be after that i can start use USB Loader GX
but straight after one question appear, uLoader uses IOS inside program not in Wii itself? because im not install any Hermes IOS(damn it was in default softmodding guide %) )

 

[ArDark]

think im found where i was wrong. setting IOS inside program not correct thing.
When i uncomment lines in META.XML and changed IOS there, all start working, HDD detects well (with around 13sec delay, but it works!)
So this lines in meta.xml influence to starting USB Loader GX, and in settings inside there IOS for games... i think

Spoiler

<arguments>
<arg>--ios=222</arg>
<arg>--usbport=0</arg>
</arguments>

 

[Shiranui-san]

I'm having problems playing my backup of Skyward Sword with emunand enabled. I always get a black screen after the first "press A button" screen (just after the game recognizes the motion plus). If emunan is disabled the game works fine. I'm using r1209 and cIOS D2X v8 Final [56]. Any other game works great with emunand enabled. Any ideas?

 

[Maxternal]

I'm having problems playing my backup of Skyward Sword with emunand enabled. I always get a black screen after the first "press A button" screen (just after the game recognizes the motion plus). If emunan is disabled the game works fine. I'm using r1209 and cIOS D2X v8 Final [56]. Any other game works great with emunand enabled. Any ideas?

Some games just don't work with emunand. I've heard other people having problems with that game, too.

 

[Hielkenator]

I'm having problems playing my backup of Skyward Sword with emunand enabled. I always get a black screen after the first "press A button" screen (just after the game recognizes the motion plus). If emunan is disabled the game works fine. I'm using r1209 and cIOS D2X v8 Final [56]. Any other game works great with emunand enabled. Any ideas?

Hopefully dave can fix those Cios isseus in the future...

 

[Shiranui-san]

Hopefully dave can fix those Cios isseus in the future...

A friend told me today that he plays Skyward using uLoader with emunand enabled and he hasn't found any problem at all, so I thought it should be a cIOS related problem. Let's wait then to those improvements by davebaol.