Hacking USB Loader GX

[XFlak]

"Bejewelled 2" in EmuNAND still hard-locks the console when it tries to access save data.

Is your save data on real nand or emunand?

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

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

Might be a good idea to do hard drive health check. Throw Parted Magic on a different drive (Ventoy is your friend to make this easy) :

http://mrsebe.bplaced.net/blog/wordpress/?p=80

(If your PC is newer than like a decade, use the mirror links near the bottom of the blog post under "Parted Magic mirrors (GPL)" to get much more recent builds of Parted Magic, like 2024-2025 newer)

Use whatever the temporary boot menu key is for your PC/motherboard to boot from your Ventoy-formatted drive (could be ESC, F7, F8, F9, F11, F12...), pressing said keyboard key right when the PC is turning on and before it boots into your normal OS (presumably Windows?).

Once booted into Parted Magic's desktop＊, double-click "Disk Health" and then double-click your hard drive. In the window that appears, click the "Self-Tests" tab - the resulting screen should have a drop-down menu containing three different self-test options you can run, but be warned that, if your hard drive's connection is USB 2.0, then the "Extended Self-test" could take a while (several hours), so I strongly recommend using USB 3.0 or connecting directly via SATA if possible.

＊if you're unable to get to the Parted Magic desktop, on the initial boot menu, try either "Black/Blank Screen workaround" or "No official NVIDIA driver".

 

[johnbear]

Is your save data on real nand or emunand?

That I can see, emunand. My setup is SD card based, so as far as I know I have no control over where save data goes.

Looking at the native Wii save data management screens, it looks like data for WBFS and real-NAND games get saved to the real-NAND; no save data for any emunand games appears, although all of my other emunand games are creating and retaining save data, so I can only assume emunand games have their save data stored in the emunand

 

[blackb0x]

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?

Both should be safe, since the loader unmounts and stops the drive the same way in both cases.

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

Some websites say that it's a harmless number that's increased every time you power off the drive, but some others say that it'll occur if the drive loses power in an unexpected way. So maybe hook it up to a computer, check the value, eject the drive and disconnect it, and then reconnect it and check if the value has increased?

"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.

Yeah, this is one of the weird outliers that doesn't work correctly. And it's also broken with sneek/neek, so the only solution is to install it to your NAND.

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.

I'll look into this, but I think it could be the expected behaviour for the FULL setting.

If it's doing what I think it's doing then I'll probably "fix" this in a future d2x cIOS update.

 

[kmarc67]

Here are the results of the quick test which consisted of disconnecting a recent WD Elements 2.5" HDD in different ways:
- by removing the peripheral cleanly with W10: "Power-off Retract Count" +0 (none)
- by switching off the Wii from the USB Loader GX: "Power-off Retract Count" +1
- by switching off the Wii after returning to the Wii's main menu: "Power-off Retract Count" +1

The only “felt” difference between the two ways of shutting down from the Wii is that the HDD seems to shut down a little less suddenly when you go through the Wii menu.

So unless I tell my hard drive that the Wii is in fact a PC, yeah.. it looks like neither way is better than the other.
I think I've red somewhere that it's more a question of iOS instead of Loader or menu, and yes, that's apparently not a big problem. I just Crystal-Disk-Info-checked an older HDD with several thousands of "Power-off Retract Count" and it still works great. But if there'd been a softer way, I'd have taken it.

 

[jacksonf]

- by removing the peripheral cleanly with W10: "Power-off Retract Count" +0 (none)

Windows does not power off devices when you stop them since Vista. That's why LEDs stay on and the disk keeps spinning. It doesn't lead to data losses because modern HDDs park their heads automatically when unplugged. So maybe that flag means a full power off. You can change Windows behavior to test this theory.

 

[Deleted member 702243]

Hello, all! I hope you are enjoying the loader's new style! Just wanted to say we worked hard on it and are considering a dark theme right now! Any feedback or love for the light theme is always appreciated.

Unless someone out there would like to update the theme creator, somehow, I doubt I will update my other themes for the new feature of sorting by console or nand. Here is a link to my resources if you're curious.

Anyways, thanks for your time!

it's fantastic and easily a 10x improvement over the old one

 

[kmarc67]

Windows does not power off devices when you stop them since Vista. That's why LEDs stay on and the disk keeps spinning. It doesn't lead to data losses because modern HDDs park their heads automatically when unplugged. So maybe that flag means a full power off. You can change Windows behavior to test this theory.

In my case, on my 2 PCs with W10, it completely stops the HDDs (no more movement, no more light, no more noise).

 

[FMRad10]

With the new theme in 1282, is there anywhere that it's in a format that I could edit? Would love to make a dark one to match the rest of my dark wii stuff. Or is there a way to extract it from the dol? I've been searching but not found a way to be able to do it yet.

 

[kmarc67]

It's me again! =D

Is it true that VC games, especially the injected versions, are potentially less compatible with the latest versions of Wiimotes (those with the motion plus in the remote control)? How true is this?

I'm wondering if I shouldn't try to get an older one instead.

 

[worm28]

It's me again! =D

Is it true that VC games, especially the injected versions, are potentially less compatible with the latest versions of Wiimotes (those with the motion plus in the remote control)? How true is this?

I'm wondering if I shouldn't try to get an older one instead.

There are two revisions of the wiimote plus the original version works with all homebrew and everything the second version does not you can tell them apart because the second revision has the sync button exposed on the battery cover you can see the red sync button on it dont buy it buy a first gen wiimoe plus with a normal battery cover and be sure to get an official wiimote plus.

 

[FMRad10]

There are two revisions of the wiimote plus the original version works with all homebrew and everything the second version does not you can tell them apart because the second revision has the sync button exposed on the battery cover you can see the red sync button on it dont buy it buy a first gen wiimoe plus with a normal battery cover and be sure to get an official wiimote plus.

turns out there's 3 versions of the wiimote plus. https://www.reddit.com/r/wii/comments/l5d18u/did_you_know_there_are_4_generations_of_wii/#lightbox

sync button is the giveaway on the last 2 revisions though.

 

[blackb0x]

With the new theme in 1282, is there anywhere that it's in a format that I could edit? Would love to make a dark one to match the rest of my dark wii stuff. Or is there a way to extract it from the dol? I've been searching but not found a way to be able to do it yet.

Support for loading new themes isn't fully implemented in this test version, but it will when the release is eventually on GitHub.

Nully and myself are currently working on an official dark version of the theme, which will be an optional download within the loader.

EDIT: To be clear, I added all of the new UI functionality and made it all work as you'd expect it to. And while I can edit images, I am not a graphic designer. So that's where nully comes in, and he's been awesome to work with.

https://gbatemp.net/members/nully.722380/#resources

His existing themes won't have the new UI functionality, but you can see that he's created many great looking unique themes in a short amount of time. And I'm sure he'll eventually release a few more

 

[AaronZ]

r1282 is failing to launch "The Sims 2: Pets" (R4PE69), launches fine on r1281. Not sure if its a flag being set with r1281 allowing it to load. My Wii is PAL UK and this is the USA version of the game. Latest d2x-v11-beta3 installed and HBC 1.1.5.

Verified my rip with redump is good.

 

[blackb0x]

r1282 is failing to launch "The Sims 2: Pets" (R4PE69), launches fine on r1281. Not sure if its a flag being set with r1281 allowing it to load. My Wii is PAL UK and this is the USA version of the game. Latest d2x-v11-beta3 installed and HBC 1.1.5.

Verified my rip with redump is good.

It's probably a case of where things land in memory for you, so I'll send you a private message with the test version that fixed things for mayar.

 

[AaronZ]

It's probably a case of where things land in memory for you, so I'll send you a private message with the test version that fixed things for mayar.

Yep fixed The Sims 2 as well, thanks.

 

[Afeohtan]

I just now got the 3.0 1282 version. I was using the 1281 version and switched to SD Mode.

Very bad idea.

I was setting the paths to the SD card and as I was pressing A on the GC controller it asked me something which I could not see because I accidentally pressed A so I could continue updating paths to the SD card.

It after booting back into it it deleted all of my covers, cheats and themes. Why? Why did it do such a thing? Thankfully I have the files backup up and I thought it was finished because it wasn't deleting any more files. Yet.

I then add or removed some GC games and it did it again. It shows a message that said it was deleting files. Why is such a feature in the loader?

If this issue persists on 1282 I might just have to go back to CFG USB Loader. I hope this issue is fixed.

 

[blackb0x]

I was setting the paths to the SD card and as I was pressing A on the GC controller it asked me something which I could not see because I accidentally pressed A so I could continue updating paths to the SD card.

You likely adjusted the Titles Path setting, which asks you if you want to move a few files and warns you that any existing files will be deleted. But this setting only applies to some of the loaders core files and not covers, cheats or themes.

You said that you were changing paths, so if you changed the paths for the covers, cheats and themes then the files should be in their original locations.

I then add or removed some GC games and it did it again. It shows a message that said it was deleting files. Why is such a feature in the loader?

When you add or remove games it'll only delete cache files.

If you think you've stumbled across a bug then please send me your GXGlobal.cfg file and let me know where you've got the loaders DOL file installed. I'm assuming it's on your SD card, although normally when the loaders installed to your SD card the paths will default to your SD card.

 

[davidmorom]

Hi blackb0x! I've been testing the new version both on Wii and vWii, and everything seems to work great. I love all the recent changes, so I can't wait for the final version to be released!

In the meanwhile, I made some corrections and style updates to the Spanish language file. I also left some technical terms in English, as they are easier to understand (like frame, hook, flicker). I attach the modified file to this post, just in case you want to include it in the final version.

Thanks for your great work!

 

[Afeohtan]

You likely adjusted the Titles Path setting, which asks you if you want to move a few files and warns you that any existing files will be deleted. But this setting only applies to some of the loaders core files and not covers, cheats or themes.

You said that you were changing paths, so if you changed the paths for the covers, cheats and themes then the files should be in their original locations.


When you add or remove games it'll only delete cache files.

If you think you've stumbled across a bug then please send me your GXGlobal.cfg file and let me know where you've got the loaders DOL file installed. I'm assuming it's on your SD card, although normally when the loaders installed to your SD card the paths will default to your SD card.

# USB Loader GX R1281 - Main settings file
# Note: This file is automatically generated
godmode = 1
videomode = 1
videopatch = 0
videoPatchDol = 0
patchFix480p = 1
deflicker = 0
videowidth = 0
language = 10
ocarina = 0
hddinfo = 1
sinfo = 1
rumble = 1
volume = 0
sfxvolume = 80
gamesoundvolume = 80
tooltips = 1
RememberUnlock = 1
password =
GameSort = 1
LoaderIOS = 249
cios = 249
autoios = 0
keyset = 0
xflip = 2
gridRows = 1
quickboot = 0
wsprompt = 0
parentalcontrol = 4
covers_path = sd:/usbloader_gx/
covers2d_path = sd:/usbloader_gx/
coversFull_path = sd:/usbloader_gx/
theme_path = sd:/usbloader_gx/
theme =
disc_path = sd:/usbloader_gx/
language_path =
languagefiles_path = usb1:/apps/usbloadergx_r1281/language/
TxtCheatcodespath = sd:/usbloader_gx/codes/txt/
titlestxt_path = sd:/usbloader_gx/
gamesound = 0
dolpath = sd:/
ogg_path =
wiilight = 1
gameDisplay = 3
homebrewapps_path = sd:/apps/
BNRCachePath = sd:/usbloader_gx/
GameHeaderCachePath = sd:/usbloader_gx/
Cheatcodespath = sd:/usbloader_gx/codes/gct/
BcaCodepath = sd:/bca/
WipCodepath = usb1:/wip/
WDMpath = usb1:/wdm/
TitlesType = 2
CacheCheck = 1
CacheCheckCRC = 154307EB
CacheTitles = 1
patchcountrystrings = 0
screensaver = 2
musicloopmode = 0
autonetwork = 0
discart = 0
coversfull = 0
CoverAction = 0
partition = 0
marknewtitles = 0
ShowFreeSpace = 1
ShowGameCount = 1
InstallToDir = 2
GameSplit = 2
InstallPartitions = FFFFFFFD
PlaylogUpdate = 0
ParentalBlocks = FFFFFFFF
returnTo =
HomeMenu = 2
MultiplePartitions = 0
USBPort = 0
USBAutoMount = 1
BlockIOSReload = 2
WSFactor = 0.800
FontScaleFactor = 0.800
ClockFontScaleFactor = 1.000
EnabledCategories = 0
RequiredCategories =
ForbiddenCategories =
Wiinnertag = 0
WiinnertagPath = usb1:/apps/usbloadergx_r1281/
SelectedGame = -1
GameListOffset = 0
RememberLastGame = 0
sneekVideoPatch = 0
NandEmuMode = 0
NandEmuChanMode = 2
NandEmuPath = sd:/nand/
NandEmuChanPath = sd:/nand/
UseSystemFont = 1
Hooktype = 1
WiirdDebugger = 0
WiirdDebuggerPause = 0
ShowPlayCount = 0
bannerFavIcon = 4
LoaderMode = 9
SearchMode = 0
GameAspectRatio = 2
PointerSpeed = 0.18
UseChanLauncher = 0
AdjustOverscanX = 0
AdjustOverscanY = 0
TooltipDelay = 1500
GameWindowMode = 2
CacheBNRFiles = 1
BannerAnimStart = 0
BannerGridSpeed = 25.6
BannerZoomDuration = 30
BannerProjectionOffsetX = 0
BannerProjectionOffsetY = 0
BannerProjectionWidth = 608
BannerProjectionHeight = 470
GCBannerScale = 1.5
GameCubePath = sd:/games/
GameCubeSDPath = sd:/games/
GameCubeMode = 2
GameCubeSource = 2
MultiDiscPrompt = 0
DMLVideo = 0
DMLProgPatch = 0
DMLNMM = 1
DMLActivityLED = 0
DMLPADHOOK = 1
DMLNoDisc2 = 0
DMLWidescreen = 0
DMLScreenshot = 0
DMLJPNPatch = 0
DMLDebug = 0
NINDeflicker = 0
NINPal50Patch = 0
NINWiiUWide = 0
NINVideoScale = 0
NINVideoOffset = 0
NINRemlimit = 0
NINArcadeMode = 0
NINCCRumble = 0
NINSkipIPL = 1
NINBBA = 0
NINBBAProfile = 0
NINMCEmulation = 1
NINMCSize = 2
NINAutoboot = 1
NINSettings = 2
NINUSBHID = 0
NINMaxPads = 2
NINNativeSI = 0
NINOSReport = 0
NINLED = 0
NINLog = 0
DEVOMCEmulation = 1
DEVOWidescreen = 0
DEVOActivityLED = 0
DEVOFZeroAX = 0
DEVOTimerFix = 0
DEVODButtons = 0
DEVOCropOverscan = 0
DEVODiscDelay = 1
DEVOLoaderPath = sd:/apps/gc_devo/
NINLoaderPath = sd:/apps/Nintendont/
GCInstallCompressed = 0
GCInstallAligned = 1
PrivateServer = 0
CustomAddress = wiimmfi.de
URL_Banners = https://banner.rc24.xyz/
URL_Covers2D = https://art.gametdb.com/wii/cover/
URL_Covers3D = https://art.gametdb.com/wii/cover3D/
URL_CoversFull = https://art.gametdb.com/wii/coverfull/
URL_CoversFullHQ = https://art.gametdb.com/wii/coverfullHQ/
URL_Discs = https://art.gametdb.com/wii/disc/
URL_DiscsCustom = https://art.gametdb.com/wii/disccustom/
URL_GameTDB = https://www.gametdb.com/wiitdb.zip
URL_Cheats = https://codes.rc24.xyz/txt.php?txt={gameid}
ProxyUseSystem = 1
ProxyUsername =
ProxyPassword =
ProxyAddress =
ProxyPort = 0