Hacking USB Loader GX

[GreyWolf]

Alright, thanks guys!


I've had several games corrupt and had to replace the wbfs. These include Skyward Sword, Boom Box: Bash Party, and Metroid: Other M. Plus, Hardrive space isn't a problem.

I have all of those and they work fine. I use CleanRip to dump my discs then use Wii Backup Manager to make WBFS files out of them. WBFS as an actual filesystem is terrible but the file format works fine.

 

[Troopage]

I have all of those and they work fine. I use CleanRip to dump my discs then use Wii Backup Manager to make WBFS files out of them. WBFS as an actual filesystem is terrible but the file format works fine.

So you'd recommend keeping all my games wbfs?

 

[GreyWolf]

So you'd recommend keeping all my games wbfs?

Yes. They are essentially the same as putting them on an NTFS drive with sparse file support. WBFS files have a small header and the chunks from the game discs with the unused space removed. WiiFlow, CFG USB Loader and USB Loader GX all support the file format. There may be other loaders that do but those are the only ones I've used.

Just staying with FAT32 has the additional advantage of being compatible with GC loaders and the Homebrew Channel without mucking around with separate partitions.

 

[drewtheretrogamer]

Use ShowMiiWads or another NAND extractor to dump the bin file to a file structure. I don't have a Wii-U, but I assume those should still work on it? You only need the NAND bin and keys.bin.

Still doesn't work. Just boots me back to USB Loader GX when I boot up a game.

 

[Cyan]

drew: your "Game's IOS" is correctly set to 249 in the setting?
if it is, then I'm sorry I don't know why it doesn't work.

 

[drewtheretrogamer]

drew: your "Game's IOS" is correctly set to 249 in the setting?
if it is, then I'm sorry I don't know why it doesn't work.

yeah, still doesn't work. If anyone has a working vWii NAND I would love if someone could post it (if it's ok with Cyan)

 

[Etheboss]

2 possibilities left i guess, i don't use GX so i am not sure how it looks at the emumand path, but maybe that is wrong, or you do not use the correct cIOS, when you use a D2X cios it needs to be a cIOS with base 56, usually IOS slot 249 is used for it.

 

[drewtheretrogamer]

2 possibilities left i guess, i don't use GX so i am not sure how it looks at the emumand path, but maybe that is wrong, or you do not use the correct cIOS, when you use a D2X cios it needs to be a cIOS with base 56, usually IOS slot 249 is used for it.

On the emunand path there is two different paths, one for the emunand, and one for the emunand channels. I just put the emunand root as both.

 

[sonictopfan]

Few Wiiware games have issues with the cIOS method (castlevania, megaman, etc.)...

Weird, all Megaman games (VC/Wiiware) run fine for me with EmuNAND, saving, loading, dlc... etc, the only issue is with using cheat codes which is a known issue for EmuNAND in general.

 

[Troopage]

Yes. They are essentially the same as putting them on an NTFS drive with sparse file support. WBFS files have a small header and the chunks from the game discs with the unused space removed. WiiFlow, CFG USB Loader and USB Loader GX all support the file format. There may be other loaders that do but those are the only ones I've used.

Just staying with FAT32 has the additional advantage of being compatible with GC loaders and the Homebrew Channel without mucking around with separate partitions.

Haha, I must have come across as a noob to you; I already know all of this. I didn't want my games as wbfs files anymore because they kept getting corrupted. If it is still a better way to keep my games then I'll keep them wbfs files like you recommend and just restore them if anything happens. Thanks for the help, Greywolf!

 

[Cyan]

Weird, all Megaman games (VC/Wiiware) run fine for me with EmuNAND, saving, loading, dlc... etc, the only issue is with using cheat codes which is a known issue for EmuNAND in general.

ah, I always thought this game wasn't working.
thanks for the info.

edit:

few questions about neek:
1)
is the Sd:/sneek/kernel.bin file always required?
modmii create it on both SD and USB, but I guess it's not needed on SD card as long as the loader is loading it from where it's stored.
For example, Nswitch is loading it from USB first, then SD if not found.

it's needed to have it on both SD and usb?
if only one is needed, it could be used to have sneek and uneek setup at the same time. the kernel on SD would load sneek, and the other one uneek. the file could be selected based on your current NAND path.

2)
for users who are already using neek2o with other loaders :
Is the "return to" feature working correctly?
it seems some games are freezing and can't be launched if they are patched to return to another channel at exit.
(toki tori doesn't boot for example)

I don't know if it's an issue with me only or if it's a know issue for many games.

I currently have hardcoded return to NK2O channel, but seeing some game doesn't boot I will not force that option.

3) some progress for this weekend:
I added proper settings to select emuNAND : off / partial / full /neek (Wii and EmuNAND channels)
it can boot channels
I can't auto boot Wii games (wbfs from fat32) and don't understand why.
I didn't try booting GC/quad games yet (I didn't install BC and the files yet)

 

[Troopage]

The only homebrew I use are USBLGX and Nintendont, so I'm not using anything with neek2o. I wish I could help here.

 

[drewtheretrogamer]

I tried to extract my NAND using DumpMiiNAND but it still didn't work. Could someone post a working vWii NAND so I can see if it's my USB Loader or my NAND?

 

[GreyWolf]

I tried to extract my NAND using DumpMiiNAND but it still didn't work. Could someone post a working vWii NAND so I can see if it's my USB Loader or my NAND?

That would have to be done via PM, AFAIK. The NAND is full of copyrighted Nintendo stuff. :/

 

[Cyan]

and I don't think it's the NAND which is the issue.

He tried multiple method to dump it and it still doesn't work on WiiU, while he tried on Wii and it worked on the first try.
I think something is wrong on the console, not on the NAND.

Did you try to place the NAND on SD and USB?
Maybe the device is not good or not compatible with emuNAND. (I don't know if it's possible that only EmuNAND doesn't work, but try another ports or device)
it could be hardware related.

or maybe it's really something bad on the NAND (you installed, replaced or patched existing IOS?). But I think if the NAND was bad it wouldn't boot in vWii mode either.

 

[superkrups20056]

Hi cyan! I used wiiflow flow for a while and the return to function only worked correctly with NEEK20 if you installed a ghost channel on the emunand. This channel never showed up in any menu, but it was there and I think it redirected you to the right spot when you selected the return to function after you were done playing with a channel.

 

[drewtheretrogamer]

My emuNAND now works

All I did was change my cIOS from beta53 to beta52!

Thanks for all your guys' feedback!

 

[Etheboss]

My emuNAND now works

All I did was change my cIOS from beta53 to beta52!

Thanks for all your guys' feedback!

lol, i knew it was something with the cIOS

 

[jamallego]

thanks for the new update (r1246)

 

[sonictopfan]

Cyan does this mean Neek2o is now implemented partially? I'm so eager to get that but at the same time I rather wait until it's fully implemented with all bugs fixed, installing EmuNAND the first time was a pain and I don't want to redo the whole thing only to realize it's not fully functioning, good luck with the project and thank you for your hard work!