Hacking USB Loader GX

[SMarioMan]

Have you tried using USB Loader GX r1271 with it's default settings? I'm asking because there are no EmuNAND changes prior to e25c4e2 and you've mentioned using r1272, which boots with a different IOS than every other version of the loader.

A lot of people had issues with USB Loader GX r1272, which is why Cyan made r1271 the default on SourceForge. Then I fixed the issues with r1272, kept releasing updates and then my fork become the official version as of USB Loader GX r1280.

Thanks for your quick response! I just tested per your request, and r1271 works properly using default settings. Over the course of my testing, I also verified that r1256-1257 and r1269 at defaults could properly launch real NAND channels without issues.

Edit: I also wanted to add that I have previously tried manually setting the loader and game IOS selections in r1281 to match those in r1272 (loader IOS: 58, game IOS: 249) and still see the black screen on launch, suggesting that it’s not an IOS selection issue, since that default configuration works for me on r1272.

I have also reproduced the same behaviors on a second Wii with a 10-year-old CIOS configuration to verify that it’s not a problem introduced by the new CIOS.

If you want me to try anything else, let me know. I’m also curious if anyone can reproduce this, because I couldn’t find any reports of this issue elsewhere.

 

[blackb0x]

I have also reproduced the same behaviors on a second Wii with a 10-year-old CIOS configuration to verify that it’s not a problem introduced by the new CIOS.

Are both systems using v1.1.2 of the Homebrew Channel?

If you want me to try anything else, let me know. I’m also curious if anyone can reproduce this, because I couldn’t find any reports of this issue elsewhere.

Yeah. Unfortunately you're the only person who's reported an issue and it's strange that it dates so far back for you.

If you drop me a private message then I could give you the files required to compile the older releases. Although first you could just reset to 618c05e and then cherry pick e25c4e2 so that you can compile the loader with what you've got?

 

[SMarioMan]

Are both systems using v1.1.2 of the Homebrew Channel?

I am running v1.1.2 for the system with the outdated mods and v1.1.5 for the newer one.

If you drop me a private message then I could give you the files required to compile the older releases. Although first you could just reset to 618c05e and then cherry pick e25c4e2 so that you can compile the loader with what you've got?

Cherry-picking worked great here. I was concerned that it would be a merge nightmare, but it was nearly entirely resolved automatically. Thank you for your support.

After extensive bisecting, I have now resolved my issue! There were actually two offending commits.

[e3d94e4ad8a99433873fc8700c67d968ec4f5997] Enable the 480p enhancement by default
The results of my first bisect revealed that enabling the 480p fix by default is perhaps still unsafe. I was testing a launch of Photo Channel 1.1-b extensively, and it only launched without a black screen when the 480p pixel fix was disabled. This is why my issue dates so far back. However, disabling the fix was not enough to resolve my problem on its own, as I would still see a black screen on r1281 even with the 480p fix disabled.

[df76e45150bb653d0ae2609db5465606c17f2ece] Add SD card mode
On my second round of bisecting, this time with the 480p fix disabled for each test, I discovered that SD mode is not compatible with launching NAND channels. On this revision onward, SD card mode must be turned off at launch by pressing B. Otherwise, you will still face the black screen. USB mode is unaffected.

tl; dr: The fixes:

• Disable the 480p pixel fix
• Avoid launching in SD mode

 

[blackb0x]

[e3d94e4ad8a99433873fc8700c67d968ec4f5997] Enable the 480p enhancement by default
The results of my first bisect revealed that enabling the 480p fix by default is perhaps still unsafe. I was testing a launch of Photo Channel 1.1-b extensively, and it only launched without a black screen when the 480p pixel fix was disabled. This is why my issue dates so far back. However, disabling the fix was not enough to resolve my problem on its own, as I would still see a black screen on r1281 even with the 480p fix disabled.

That setting does have compatibility issues, which is why the Photo Channel doesn't apply the 480p fix in my build. But most other channels should work.

I've already improved the 480p patch and video width patch for my next release, so maybe you'll have more luck with it then.

[df76e45150bb653d0ae2609db5465606c17f2ece] Add SD card mode
On my second round of bisecting, this time with the 480p fix disabled for each test, I discovered that SD mode is not compatible with launching NAND channels. On this revision onward, SD card mode must be turned off at launch by pressing B. Otherwise, you will still face the black screen. USB mode is unaffected.

I can't explain this one because I'm able to launch NAND and EmuNAND channels while using SD card mode from both my Wii and vWii (Wii U). And of course it was tested extensively prior to release and nobody reported any issues

 

[SMarioMan]

That setting does have compatibility issues, which is why the Photo Channel doesn't apply the 480p fix in my build. But most other channels should work.

That's interesting, because I was having issues with every channel I tried, including the Photo Channel, the Internet Channel, the Wii Speak Channel, and a handful of Wii VC titles, even on r1281.

I can't explain this one because I'm able to launch NAND and EmuNAND channels while using SD card mode from both my Wii and vWii (Wii U). And of course it was tested extensively prior to release and nobody reported any issues

Hmm. Well, if it helps, I'm using an old 2GB SD card formatted to FAT16. Thank you for trying to reproduce though.

I'm just glad I have everything working at this point.

 

[Vague Rant]

@blackb0x Is it known that Nintendont config is currently non-working on USB Loader GX on vWii? Using USBLGX's Settings > Features > Update Nintendont or just manually updating Nintendont seems to break passing the config to Nintendont. It boots up as if there's no configuration whatsoever, to the SD/USB selection menu with all options at their default values.

EDIT: To be clear, using an older Nintendont revision this still works fine, so it seems to be a clash with current Nintendont specifically.

 

[LeonR]

Hey, I have a few doubts in regards to using an emuNAND on a vWii, if someone can help me, here we go:
1 - When I create a emuNAND, all of the current channels installed on the vWii go are copied over to the emuNAND as well ? Is it safe to delete all of the channels on the emuNAND without it affecting the NAND
2 - What are the most common uses for a emuNAND ? I thought of using it to on the vWii only to store the WiiWare titles, so I can turn on the emuNAND channels on the USBLoaderGX and then it would only show the WiiWare games and not the other channels of Wii
3 - Is there an option load all of the channels through the emuNAND, maybe leaving the NAND of channels as possible ? Is there a configuration to choose what will be loaded by the NAND and the emuNAND separately or leave all to loaded by one of them ?

 

[blackb0x]

@blackb0x Is it known that Nintendont config is currently non-working on USB Loader GX on vWii? Using USBLGX's Settings > Features > Update Nintendont or just manually updating Nintendont seems to break passing the config to Nintendont. It boots up as if there's no configuration whatsoever, to the SD/USB selection menu with all options at their default values.

EDIT: To be clear, using an older Nintendont revision this still works fine, so it seems to be a clash with current Nintendont specifically.

Nintendont added an option to control what Wii U Gamepad slot to use, which introduced a new config version. But the loader doesn't yet support that config version, so when Nintendont boots it rejects the config file created by the loader.

The issue has already been fixed for the next release.

1 - When I create a emuNAND, all of the current channels installed on the vWii go are copied over to the emuNAND as well ? Is it safe to delete all of the channels on the emuNAND without it affecting the NAND

I believe you can.

2 - What are the most common uses for a emuNAND ? I thought of using it to on the vWii only to store the WiiWare titles, so I can turn on the emuNAND channels on the USBLoaderGX and then it would only show the WiiWare games and not the other channels of Wii

WiiWare and VC channels. Although the loaders built in EmuNAND support is far from perfect and many titles don't work when they're installed to an EmuNAND.

On a regular Wii you could instead use uneek/sneek, but on vWii you can only use a leaked buggy version of Neek2o.

3 - Is there an option load all of the channels through the emuNAND, maybe leaving the NAND of channels as possible ? Is there a configuration to choose what will be loaded by the NAND and the emuNAND separately or leave all to loaded by one of them ?

I'm not sure I understand the question.

You can install WAD files to the NAND or EmuNAND and configure the loader to display either EmuNAND only, NAND only or both at the same time.

 

[bololabich]

either I did something wrong or it glitches out the GUI when priiloader for vWii is installed. That's a bit of a shame because priiloader autobooting complements the loader pretty well.

Post automatically merged: Oct 3, 2023

either I did something wrong or it glitches out the GUI when priiloader for vWii is installed. That's a bit of a shame because priiloader autobooting complements the loader pretty well.

 

[Maeson]

@SMarioMan @blackb0x

...Actually, I have experience with that glitch, if it's the same thing, but to me it manifests in a different way.

I am able to launch Nand and Emunand channels if I don't have any USB connected, or if I have one of my Wii-related USB drives, but if I am using the one I have specifically for GC backups, it stays on black. I've always assumed it was something I've done myself or the USB itself, but it works perfectly fine and only happens with USB Loader GX when funny enough It shouldn't be using that USB at all to begin with, and now that I see your messages I wonder if it's instead a glitch.

My EmuNand and Neek are on SD, by the way.


Oh, and by the way, just for curiosity... Has been any new information about the 480p Fix por more than Rev01 systems?

 

[blackb0x]

@bololabich

Priiloader 0.10.0 changes the index for system menu assets on vWii and that breaks banners for USB Loader GX. This issue has already been fixed for the next release though, so until I release it you should either avoid using Priiloader or go to the loaders GUI settings and set Game Window Mode to Rotating Disc.

This workaround won't fix the banner view though.

I am able to launch Nand and Emunand channels if I don't have any USB connected, or if I have one of my Wii-related USB drives, but if I am using the one I have specifically for GC backups, it stays on black. I've always assumed it was something I've done myself or the USB itself, but it works perfectly fine and only happens with USB Loader GX when funny enough It shouldn't be using that USB at all to begin with, and now that I see your messages I wonder if it's instead a glitch.

My EmuNand and Neek are on SD, by the way.

So your EmuNAND (via neek) is on your SD card, but if you connect a specific USB drive then all channels/games from your EmuNAND stay on a black screen? If I've understood things correctly then how large is the USB drive that you use for your GC backups, is it MBR or GPT, what's the cluster size, how many partitions does it have and are they all FAT32?

Oh, and by the way, just for curiosity... Has been any new information about the 480p Fix por more than Rev01 systems?

No. And unfortauntly I don't have the hardware or the eyesight to notice subtle differences to the video output by fuzzing registers either.

I've heard that RVL-CPU-01 systems should use the BU9055EKV encoder chip and that other revisions of the Wii use different chips. So I guess they either require a different patch or they can't be patched.

The next version of the loader will be able to apply the 480p fix to more games than before. But I guess you won't see a difference if you don't have an older Wii.

 

[Maeson]

So your EmuNAND (via neek) is on your SD card, but if you connect a specific USB drive then all channels/games from your EmuNAND stay on a black screen? If I've understood things correctly then how large is the USB drive that you use for your GC backups, is it MBR or GPT, what's the cluster size, how many partitions does it have and are they all FAT32?


No. And unfortauntly I don't have the hardware or the eyesight to notice subtle differences to the video output by fuzzing registers either.

I've heard that RVL-CPU-01 systems should use the BU9055EKV encoder chip and that other revisions of the Wii use different chips. So I guess they either require a different patch or they can't be patched.

The next version of the loader will be able to apply the 480p fix to more games than before. But I guess you won't see a difference if you don't have an older Wii.

It doesn't matter if it's Emunand or Emunand+Neek, as I launch some games with one and others with Neek (the ones that truly need it), neither boots and also things from the real Nand fail (This morning I got a black screen going to the Mii Maker and I was worried until I remembered I had that particular USB drive plugged).

The USB is a Sandisk, 128GB, MBR, only one partition, Fat32. 32KB Cluster. I only mentioned in case it could help find out the cause, it's not much of an issue to me beyond being dumb and forgetting about it. It's just so specific that I remembered it the moment I saw the conversation.

And thank you for your answer on the 480p fix. I hope one day something can be found, while the change isn't nearly as drastic as "our victory" against the Deflicker menace" which I still celebrate, it'd be nice to have.

Have a good day, Blackb0x.

 

[grandosegood]

hey there, i have some custom roms/emulators that don't appear in gametdb when automatically downloading images (understandably so). is there an easy way or a template i should use to make custom images for these games? they are single rom loaders for various system (n64, ps1, arcade, snes)

edit: i also have a second question

i installed some forwarder wads onto my sysnand, they loaded the game whether the data was on sd or usb. when i put those same forwarders on emunand, i have to turn off "block ios reload" in order for the forwarder to actually load the game. does this have something to do with usb access? Thanks.

 

[grandosegood]

hey there, i have some custom roms/emulators that don't appear in gametdb when automatically downloading images (understandably so). is there an easy way or a template i should use to make custom images for these games? they are single rom loaders for various system (n64, ps1, arcade, snes)

edit: i also have a second question

i installed some forwarder wads onto my sysnand, they loaded the game whether the data was on sd or usb. when i put those same forwarders on emunand, i have to turn off "block ios reload" in order for the forwarder to actually load the game. does this have something to do with usb access? Thanks.

the issue was some of the boot.dol needed to be replaced with the single rom loaders from the other thread. i attempted to update some of the emulators, but it seems not all of the updated versions can load meta.xml. also, had to fix ps1 file renames

 

[johw]

Guys, where can I download the most updated version of the usbloadGX TAB?

 

[aleps]

Hello.
Is there a way to report bugs?
I have updated to the latest version and I find that if I start a game quickly the screen goes black. On the other hand, if I wait a few seconds on the banner, the game starts correctly.

 

[grandosegood]

actually, i spoke too soon. i have created some forwarder channels for wiistation signle rom loaders. when i install the forwarder channels to nand, they open the game fine. however, when i launch them from usb loader gx, with the wad installed on sysnand or emunand, the game ends up not being able to find the wiisxr folder and stays at 0 fps with a black screen, or returning to the wii menu in some cases. launching it from hbc does work correctly. i used v14 .dol from modmii if that helps. any other ideas? thanks again

 

[blackb0x]

Hello.
Is there a way to report bugs?
I have updated to the latest version and I find that if I start a game quickly the screen goes black. On the other hand, if I wait a few seconds on the banner, the game starts correctly.

Originally I didn't have issue reports open on GitHub because my version of the loader was a fork, but I guess now that it's official I'll look into accepting issue reports after I release the next update.

Could you try using my previous release? You'll need to delete TitlesCache.bin from the usbloader_gx folder for it to boot correctly.

hey there, i have some custom roms/emulators that don't appear in gametdb when automatically downloading images (understandably so). is there an easy way or a template i should use to make custom images for these games? they are single rom loaders for various system (n64, ps1, arcade, snes)

https://www.gametdb.com/Wii/BoxMaker

And GameTDB recommends using these cover templates.

when i install the forwarder channels to nand, they open the game fine. however, when i launch them from usb loader gx, with the wad installed on sysnand or emunand, the game ends up not being able to find the wiisxr folder and stays at 0 fps with a black screen, or returning to the wii menu in some cases. launching it from hbc does work correctly. i used v14 .dol from modmii if that helps. any other ideas? thanks again

I fixed this issue back in July for someone else.

EDIT: Actually, I just realised that it was you that I gave the test version to and it worked back then. So I assume you're still using that test version?

i installed some forwarder wads onto my sysnand, they loaded the game whether the data was on sd or usb. when i put those same forwarders on emunand, i have to turn off "block ios reload" in order for the forwarder to actually load the game. does this have something to do with usb access? Thanks.

I'd need to check, but I guess it could be caused by an IOS mismatch since I didn't test the fix against an EmuNAND.

 

[Kirby6417]

actually, i spoke too soon. i have created some forwarder channels for wiistation signle rom loaders. when i install the forwarder channels to nand, they open the game fine. however, when i launch them from usb loader gx, with the wad installed on sysnand or emunand, the game ends up not being able to find the wiisxr folder and stays at 0 fps with a black screen, or returning to the wii menu in some cases. launching it from hbc does work correctly. i used v14 .dol from modmii if that helps. any other ideas? thanks again

I do notice you mention the wiisxr folder. I believe WiiStation is looking for a folder called wiisxrx on the root of your storage device, not wiisxr.

 

[grandosegood]

Originally I didn't have issue reports open on GitHub because my version of the loader was a fork, but I guess now that it's official I'll look into accepting issue reports after I release the next update.

Could you try using my previous release? You'll need to delete TitlesCache.bin from the usbloader_gx folder for it to boot correctly.


https://www.gametdb.com/Wii/BoxMaker

And GameTDB recommends using these cover templates.


I fixed this issue back in July for someone else.

EDIT: Actually, I just realised that it was you that I gave the test version to and it worked back then. So I assume you're still using that test version?


I'd need to check, but I guess it could be caused by an IOS mismatch since I didn't test the fix against an EmuNAND.

thank you much, it actually was me lol. some forwarders work from emunand while some do not. the version you provided does work if the forwarder is installed on sysnand (wii home menu)