Hacking USB Loader GX

[vizz]

Is there a known issue with memory leaking? I've seen a few mentions of it searching the Web and seeing posts from like 2012 lol. I've reached over 200 games on my USB loader gx install and now the emunand Wiiware/VC banners aren't caching - and the app will crash if I try to change the display configuration (like only showing emunand apps).
Works fine again if I delete a few games from the harddrive. Is there a way around this that you guys know of?
Thanks

 

[blackb0x]

Also @blackb0x can you, please, provide the older versions of your usbloaderGX On github? I could only find these year releases.

The previous release can be found here. You should delete all existing cache related files for it to work.

The behaviour that you're experiencing is certainly odd, so I'd be curious to know if the previous release behaves the same way.

Is there a known issue with memory leaking? I've seen a few mentions of it searching the Web and seeing posts from like 2012 lol

A lot of memory leaks were fixed within the last few years and USB Loader GX r1280 (and newer) can easily handle a huge collection of games.

Are you using Wii Backup Manager to install the games so that title lengths and characters are all valid?

 

[Sypherone]

@almmiron d2x-v8, d2x-v10, d2x-v11 have the same USB modul, there is no difference. Your description looks like a loading issue, as the drive need some time to find the correct location or the data is corrupted.

• Either the drive has a power issue (use a Y-Cable) when reading the information.
• Port connection issue, check the USB plug that it fits correctly.
• It has some kind of standby and need to spin up again. There exist tools, also on commandline to check and disable it.
• Or filesystem/sector issue, then ckdsk X: /r in Powershell does its job.

Last suggestion would be doing a softreset or a clean install of USB Loader GX.

• Try resesting or deleting all settings and try again
  • Soft: USB Loader GX > Settings > Reset
  • Hard: Delete everything in the /apps/USBLoader_gx/ folder and reinstall only boot.dol, icon.png and meta.xml files.

 

[almmiron]

@almmiron d2x-v8, d2x-v10, d2x-v11 have the same USB modul, there is no difference. Your description looks like a loading issue, as the drive need some time to find the correct location or the data is corrupted.

• Either the drive has a power issue (use a Y-Cable) when reading the information.
• Port connection issue, check the USB plug that it fits correctly.
• It has some kind of standby and need to spin up again. There exist tools, also on commandline to check and disable it.
• Or filesystem/sector issue, then ckdsk X: /r in Powershell does its job.

Last suggestion would be doing a softreset or a clean install of USB Loader GX.

• Try resesting or deleting all settings and try again
  • Soft: USB Loader GX > Settings > Reset
  • Hard: Delete everything in the /apps/USBLoader_gx/ folder and reinstall only boot.dol, icon.png and meta.xml files.

Strange thing that, on older usbLoaderGX (I mean last one before BlackB0x came) and d2xv8, butter smooth navigation for me.

Loading after games starts, and game compatibility is the same, only the navigation trough the app became strange and slow.

Will try some other usb HDD case I have around, just to see if makes any difference. Just to make clear, it's a 2,5'' hdd with ORICO(aliexpress) case of very good quality.

I have 2 wiis, and will put side by side to compare and make a video.

Anyways, thanks! Will check all of your suggestions and report later.

 

[Oddx]

Strange thing that, on older usbLoaderGX (I mean last one before BlackB0x came) and d2xv8, butter smooth navigation for me.

I had a similar issue when i updated but it ended up being a usb drive failing and corrupting itself. Cached banners we're fast until it had to actually read from the drive to create a new cached banner at that point everything would just hang for me. I have a huge number of games and use banner mode exclusively and its fast and smooth after i replaced the bad hardware. I would checkdisk that drive or use a util to look at the smart counters if you want to confrim the drive isnt failing.

 

[PsOmA]

Seem to have a fundamental issue with config files and the config not saving since upgrading to 1281. Noticed after installing 1281 that my artwork had gone... no big deal. But also changes made to the launcher settings weren't persisting. After deleting the config files from my USB stick (there were none on the SD), I re-inserted them and launched usbLoaderGX again. Still no good. If I select "Default Settings" and quit, not only does nothing change, but there are no config files on either the USB stick or SD card. The custom paths for most folders list "usb8:", but I can't change these to point to the SD card, and pointing to usb1: works for the session, but all settings are erased on relaunch.

The games themselves launch file, I'm just perplexed as to what is happening with the configs or lack thereof?!?

EDIT: Should note, this is on a vWii

 

[Sypherone]

Seem to have a fundamental issue with config files and the config not saving since upgrading to 1281. .... After deleting the config files from my USB stick (there were none on the SD),.. still no good.

You are for sure using a forwarder channel in vWii (not the full channel), this is pointing to : SD:/apps/usbloader_gx/boot.dol USB:/apps/usbloader_gx/boot.dol
Remove existing Folders "usbloader_gx" in this locations. Put the the latest USB Loader GX version, the folder including three files (boot.dol, icon.png, meta.xml), on SD and USB under /apps/.

Try running USB Loader GX from SD (the forwarder checks first on SD), change settings and save. If this works, try to set it up to run from USB.

//EDIT:

I'm using uStealth though... is this supported for launching channels?

Most used homebrew apps meanwhile support the hidden drive (Ustealth/usbhide) including USB Loader GX . If its a specific it needs to be checked.

 

[PsOmA]

Thanks Sypherone,

I just returned to add "Yes, the SD card is unlocked and this happens even if I launch directly from Homebrew Launcher" but yeah, it's the forwarder channel and I have completely wiped the apps/usbloader_gx directory and extracted fresh.

Didn't know you could run apps from the USB so I'll give that a try now. I'm using uStealth though... is this supported for launching channels?

Cheers!

 

[Cyan]

The custom paths for most folders list "usb8:"

usb8 is a symptom of no drive found at launch.
when booting into the loader, it mounts the SD card to search for a suitable partition to load a config file.
if it can't find one, it checks on USB if there's one (the first found takes priority, because some users don't want to use SD, but place everything on their USB : games, but also homebrew, the usb1:/apps/ folder)
if the first partition doesn't contain a config file, it checks the second partition, up to 8th partitions (up to 4 primary partitions, on two USB ports).
if no config is found, it should go back to the first compatible partition to create one (usually SD). but it seems to fail to find a suitable partition.

What's strange is that you still have games displayed, so your USB is compatible.
Maybe not the expected partition format for the config ?


@blackb0x :
I updated cucholix's thread. I added an update message and linked to your vWii UNEO version.
it's the direct link. I think it would be better to point to a place where all next releases will be located too, so the link is not outdated on next change or fix. But if it works, I guess it's ok for years now.
A version number or a date in the filename would have been usefull to know which version is newer. Dimok and me last forwarder release was 5.1

 

[PsOmA]

Ahah - always good to know expected behaviour. What's strange is, usb1: is definitely detected and working as per your point (I've even disabled uStealth to see if that was the issue) AND if I have the USB drive unplugged, it will read the sd: mount for games (though not find any). Bizarre!

 

[Cyan]

it's probably the IOS you use to boot the loader.
ex: it uses IOS58 to check if there's a config file to know which IOS slot you want to use. IOS58 doesn't work with your USB device, so if none is found it doesn't create a config, it reloads to default slot 249 and display the main menu, and then can see your devices and games.


change the value in the settings, edit the settings>loader's IOS, it used to change the meta.xml too. Maybe it's now called "boot IOS", I don't know.
But if blackb0x disabled the meta.xml automatic edition, you can do it manually. remove the 2 "//remove this line" located in the xml, and edit the IOS line.
if 58 is not working for you, try 249
it would even be faster to boot if 249 works for you, no need to reload IOS at boot

 

[PsOmA]

it's probably the IOS you use to boot the loader.
<snip>
change the value in the settings, edit the settings>loader's IOS, it used to change the meta.xml too. Maybe it's now called "boot IOS", I don't know.

Nailed it @Cyan - changing the "bootios" to 249 solved it. Well, it's saving the config to usb1: now. Still not sure why it's not interfacing with the sdcard, but main thing is, I'm up and running again.

Thanks!

 

[blackb0x]

I updated cucholix's thread. I added an update message and linked to your vWii UNEO version.
it's the direct link. I think it would be better to point to a place where all next releases will be located too, so the link is not outdated on next change or fix. But if it works, I guess it's ok for years now.
A version number or a date in the filename would have been usefull to know which version is newer. Dimok and me last forwarder release was 5.1

I had asked him if he could reupload his forwarder package with the WAD file switched out, but he said that he's left the Wii and Wii U scene and left it at that. Kinda weird since it wouldn't take him 5 minutes, but at least now you've added an edit to his post

The forwarder "update" isn't actually an update and I didn't create it, since it's the same 5.1 forwarder that you'd uploaded to GitHub years ago You see, when I got my hands on a Wii U (thanks to danny19901) I figured I'd test SD card mode while using the most popular forwarder package, since a tester had previously said that it acted weird and things like SD card mode wouldn't stick. So it turns out that the issues existed for years simply because cucholix had included USB Loader GX-UNEO_Forwarder_2_0_AHBPROT_vWii (old 5.1).wad instead of USB Loader GX-UNEO_Forwarder_5_1_AHBPROT_vWii (Fix).wad.

Nailed it @Cyan - changing the "bootios" to 249 solved it. Well, it's saving the config to usb1: now. Still not sure why it's not interfacing with the sdcard, but main thing is, I'm up and running again.

https://gbatemp.net/posts/10069288

In your case since you're using vWii it'd also be good to know if you're launching the loader from the HBC or via a forwarder.

 

[rexus_pl]

Simple, maybe stupid, question.

How to run Wii game in 4:3 pillarbox mode (console is set to 16:9 and I don't want to change TV settings everytime I run such game) - like WarioWare Smooth Moves or Opoona? I've tried some options, but every try gives 16:9 streched output.

 

[SolidSonicTH]

When loading Wii games from SD card where do you place them? Is it in a WBFS folder?

Also what do you do about games that exceed 4GB? There aren't a ton of them but they're out there.

 

[XFlak]

Yes, and wii backup manager will split/convert large games and save them to the drive in the appropriate directory and naming structure

 

[nikkums]

Hello! Now that it's possible to overclock vWii's CPU on the Wii U, would it be possible to update USB Loader GX to support these higher clock speeds so game mods and enhancements that require the extra power could work on physical hardware? Specifically, I'm thinking of things like the 60fps patch for Fortune Street.

Thank you!

 

[DorDur215]

Hello! I have a simple question regarding the DOL Video Patch setting.

What do the different settings do and which one should I use if I want to force a game to 480p?

"Region Patch", "On" or "All" ?

I'm trying to run the USA version of Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution in 480p.

 

[tcmt]

Now that it's possible to load games directly from SD cards are there any significant disadvantages of using a SD card over using a traditional USB HDD? Are SD Cards less reliable in terms of game compatibility or load speed for example?

If it pretty much behaves the same as the traditional USB HDDs with the newest USB Loader GX, I'm thinking of completely moving everything over to my SD Card and save me the hassle of dealing with the USB drive altogether.

 

[SolidSonicTH]

Hello! Now that it's possible to overclock vWii's CPU on the Wii U, would it be possible to update USB Loader GX to support these higher clock speeds so game mods and enhancements that require the extra power could work on physical hardware? Specifically, I'm thinking of things like the 60fps patch for Fortune Street.

Thank you!

As an addendum (maybe I'm dense but I think I'm asking the right question) will there come a time that games can be controlled with the GamePad when loaded from USB Loader GX? Similar to how Nintendont can already do if you load Nintendont from the Wii U's menu.