Hacking USB Loader GX

[lauty29]

It's a great idea, can you tell me where to find the Wii U Menu Channel?

the "Wii U Menu Channel" is installed on the nand, simply enable the filter to show nand titles, then it should appear.

 

[blackb0x]

Does USB Loader GX include a way to have the Wii's disc drive light on all the time while a game is running regardless of if it's just sitting on the USB Loader GX menu or is in a Wii game, GameCube game (Nintendont), or virtual console game?

Nope. When it's passed to the game the cIOS becomes reponsible for that, which is why you'll see it blink if you use an EmuNAND.

In a future cIOS release I might add some settings that'd allow the loader to set how and if the light is shown.

Reverting to version test-1 fixes the problem.

That's weird, since I haven't adjusted anything that'd affect game booting from test 1 to test 2. And it seems to be working for everyone else

I have a Wii with updated cIOS to d2x v11 beta 3 and replaced forwarder with the latest one

If you downgrade to the original forwarder does that get the games booting again?

Here's the vWii version and here's the Wii version.

Failing that, can you try with another USB drive or with a small Wii game from an SD card? I'd be curious to know if that works because if it does, then you've got really unlucky.

I have a question: do you think it would be possible in a future version to add an option to return to the WiiU menu?

I'll look into it.

 

[mayar]

If you downgrade to the original forwarder does that get the games booting again?

Here's the vWii version and here's the Wii version.

Unfortunately downgrade didn't help.

Failing that, can you try with another USB drive or with a small Wii game from an SD card? I'd be curious to know if that works because if it does, then you've got really unlucky.

It seems I have got really unlucky ;D
Wii game runs fine from SD card.
I tried to change Loaders IOS from 249 to 58 and then game started from HDD.

 

[hadi aulia]

You need to force the games aspect ratio to 4:3 and then set the screen mode to fullscreen to get that stretched 4:3 that you want.

Ok got it thanks, it worked

Btw i just tried the latest test version on my wii & i also installed the latest forwarder
If i boot up it says
"Loading
Please install stable version"
And automaticly reboot to hbc

 

[blackb0x]

It seems I have got really unlucky ;D
Wii game runs fine from SD card.

It seems like the loaders minor file size increase has caused your USB drive to write to a memory range that conflicts with loaded game DOL files. So the trashed memory results in the games not working.

I'll send you a private message with another test version after I've made some changes.

I tried to change Loaders IOS from 249 to 58 and then game started from HDD.

That'll work around the issue because it's changing how the memory is being used. But using IOS58 for the loader isn't recommended, since that can cause backup creation to fail, and USB HDDs might go to sleep and then fail to wake.

If i boot up it says
"Loading
Please install stable version"

Make sure your Wii's date and time are correct.

 

[TrungNh]

Dear @blackb0x

I updated my wii to d2x-v11beta3 and usb-loader-gx v4 1282.

But I have noticed the game start slowly . When I click start , USB loader freeze about 5 second before game get in.

The other problem is the HDD light keeps flashing when entering the USB loader even though I didn't do anything on the USB loader.

What is hdd activity for ?

And how can't USB loader start game immediate when I click start ?

 

[rexus_pl]

But I have noticed the game start slowly . When I click start , USB loader freeze about 5 second before game get in.

Have you RiiTag (Winnertag) enabled?

This service is currently down.

I've also noticed it recently and solved this problem

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

I just tried out the new v1282 and, with how the new theme has everything moved to the bottom, it gave me an idea:

When the settings are locked, why not expand most of that view at the bottom to include more games on-screen? I personally use the channel view, and that amount of extra space on the bottom looks like it could fill a fourth row of channels (though the extra vertical viewing area can be nice for the "List view" as well).

Basically the idea is making the "lock settings" also double as kind of a fullscreen view; like if it were a web browser it'd be what you get when pressing F11

Nope. When it's passed to the game the cIOS becomes reponsible for that, which is why you'll see it blink if you use an EmuNAND.

In a future cIOS release I might add some settings that'd allow the loader to set how and if the light is shown.

At least from a front-facing UI setting perspective, I'd think the easiest thing would be to just have an "Always" mode in addition to the existing "On", "Off", and "Only during install" modes.

 

[johnbear]

Howdy! Thanks blackb0x and team for the amazing work you're doing!

One random question about the UNEO forwarder; when you use it to return to USB Loader GX from a game instead of the Wii home menu, your game play time isn't recorded in the native "Wii Message Board" (where you open the little envelopes). It seems like that play time is only recorded if you have things set up to return to the Wii home menu directly. In case it's relevant, I have a Wii U with vWii, and I've got an SD card setup (no hard/USB drive).

Would it ever be possible to have both the UNEO forwarder active (so returning to USB Loader GX when exiting a game) and have the native Wii Message Board populate with game play statistics? Just curious... I always liked the Wii Message Board and it's calendar of game play details

 

[Rainman82]

Thanks black box is there a more recent version of the plugin mod I saw a few years bk. No worries if not I understand it not that easy to just add things sometimes

 

[XFlak]

I had hoped the new default UI in gx would eliminate (or at least reduce) demand for that tab mod that I know must be a pain to maintain. Have u used the new UI in the new test version? How's that compare in your opinion to the tab mod? Hopefully u find it bridges the gap at least somewhat

 

[Rainman82]

I had hoped the new default UI in gx would eliminate (or at least reduce) demand for that tab mod that I know must be a pain to maintain. Have u used the new UI in the new test version? How's that compare in your opinion to the tab mod? Hopefully u find it bridges the gap at least somewhat

I will give it a try thank you for your response and understanding. Sorry my intention was not to bring up this feature again just if implementation was optional.

 

[TrungNh]

Have you RiiTag (Winnertag) enabled?

This service is currently down.

I've also noticed it recently and solved this problem

No. I already disabled Winnertag .

Post automatically merged: Mar 31, 2025

I had hoped the new default UI in gx would eliminate (or at least reduce) demand for that tab mod that I know must be a pain to maintain. Have u used the new UI in the new test version? How's that compare in your opinion to the tab mod? Hopefully u find it bridges the gap at least somewhat

Honestly, I like the tab mod interface. The new version can switch between games, but it takes more steps, and it also take more step to skip Real Wii Nand, which I never need when I'm in the USB loader

 

[GustavoReis]

Thank's for your work @blackb0x

I have a question, the cheats for some games didn't work properly (example: XIII GameCube). Has this also been fixed in this latest version? Or does it have to do with iOS? Since my iOS is beta v10 if I remember correctly (pimp my Wii 3.03)
I'm asking because I haven't tested the new build yet.

 

[Rick328]

Thank you @blackb0x for the update, great work!

About the new UI as a tab mod alternative, it would be nice if the little sliders menu at the bottom right (game source select) could actually select which sources the button will toggle through, instead of which source appear in the main "all games" display. I don't have any game on real nand, so I always have to cycle through it for nothing.

 

[blackb0x]

But I have noticed the game start slowly . When I click start , USB loader freeze about 5 second before game get in.

This is normal, especially when using r1282 as it flushes some memory.

The other problem is the HDD light keeps flashing when entering the USB loader even though I didn't do anything on the USB loader.

What is hdd activity for ?

It's searching for any games on your USB HDD and it'll read randomly to keep the drive awake. Otherwise, some USB drives may power down and not spin up again.

When the settings are locked, why not expand most of that view at the bottom to include more games on-screen? I personally use the channel view, and that amount of extra space on the bottom looks like it could fill a fourth row of channels (though the extra vertical viewing area can be nice for the "List view" as well).

Mainly because of TVs that overscan. That and I'm trying to avoid overlapping UI elements while also maintaining compatibility with older themes.

I have a question, the cheats for some games didn't work properly (example: XIII GameCube). Has this also been fixed in this latest version?

The loader downloads the cheat files, but it can't validate if the cheats will actually work.

If the cheats were sourced from GameHacking then there's a chance they won't work, since their conversions aren't always good. In fact, a lot of their gecko codes are bad because they strip cheat files of all instructions, they attempt to convert gecko codes into gecko codes (which breaks some of them) and cheats that contain modifiers end up as 00000000 or a blank line.

I don't have any game on real nand, so I toggled it off, but the real nand still appear even when it's unchecked in the menu.

That's because the toggles only apply to the custom list type.

The updated UI is designed to be more user friendly while also making it easier for people to troubleshoot. So for example, I now know that everyone will have the same buttons enabled and they'll always be in the same order. And unlike previous versions of the loader there won't be situations where someones games go missing because they booted the loader without their USB drive connected one time.

 

[AaronZ]

I was looking into the nvme2wii "mod" and saw it had problems with USB Loader GX, is this still the case or has it been fixed?

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

Mainly because of TVs that overscan.

If it makes you feel any better, my TV is already one such case of in fact forcing overscan when using analog signals (and considering I'm directly using component cables with no converter/adapter from a non-hardware modified Wii console, analog is my only route).

So my comments of it looking there there's enough space was already when accounting for overscan because, to be honest, I forgot that my TV is already applying it.

 

[kmarc67]

Hi, I wanted to ask what is the safest way for a self-powered hard drive to get shut down.
-> Directly with Usbloadergx shutdown buton vs return to Wii main menu before shut down vs other ways?

In Crystal disk info I see that something like a "Power-off Retract Count" value is slowly climbing. Is it bad?

 

[johnbear]

Thanks @blackb0x for your updates and continued work on this!

I've done some testing on the current test version of USB Loader GX using d2x-v11-beta3 (PAL vWii, SD-card mode) and I've noticed a few things:

• "Bejewelled 2" in EmuNAND still hard-locks the console when it tries to access save data. I've tested both the PAL and NTSC versions. Both versions work fine when no save-data is present; when save-data is present, the game locks the device up when the Bejewelled 2 logo is displayed, requiring the power button to be held.

• With "Messageboard update" turned ON, "Return to" set to NONE (i.e., return to Wii menu) and "EmuNAND Channel Mode" set to FULL (the default), play times in the Wii Message Board for EmuNAND-based games are incorrectly recorded as "00:01" regardless of how long the game was open for. Times for regular Wii games (WBFS) and real-NAND games launched via USB Loader GX are recorded correctly with the above settings. Changing "EmuNAND Channel Mode" to PARTIAL for an EmuNAND-based game causes the playtime to be correctly recorded. So something about FULL channel mode breaks playtime recording for EmuNAND titles specifically.

I hope that helps - let me know if you need any more details!