Hacking USB Loader GX

[Rain_Evil]

I did softmodding on my Wii 12 years ago. Now I just cleaned it and try to catch up what I miss new hacking method for the decade as it is still working and has got much fun for my family.

 

[RookieKid]

I'm thinking about installing USB Loader GX on my external hard drive, which also works as my back-up for my PC. Is there any dangers to the usb itself, if you install USB Loader GX and play Wii/GC games from that hard drive?

 

[azy77]

Hi @blackb0x

did a search in this thread and found a couple of possible similiar problems to mine.

I'm using the loader on vWii with cIOS 11beta3 and partial savegame emulation via emunand. Regardless of whether I have the emunand on sd-card or usb-hdd, the screen goes black when I exit the game and I have to disconnect the power supply to the WiiU.

What am I doing wrong?

I had an issue where whenever I exited a Wii game same thing would happen, a black screen that I have to hard reset but Gamecube games exited fine. I updated USB Loader GX to the latest test version as on the first page of this thread and now Wii games exit back to the loader.

However, now the widescreen GameCube games have a little border on all 4 sides when Wii U res is set to 480p but they were fullscreen on the latest stable build...

 

[Error52]

I had an issue where whenever I exited a Wii game same thing would happen, a black screen that I have to hard reset but Gamecube games exited fine. I updated USB Loader GX to the latest test version as on the first page of this thread and now Wii games exit back to the loader.

However, now the widescreen GameCube games have a little border on all 4 sides when Wii U res is set to 480p but they were fullscreen on the latest stable build...

Try turning on the "Wii U Widescreen" setting.

 

[azy77]

Try turning on the "Wii U Widescreen" setting.

That's already on, it's a tiny border, like an inch all the way round. Tv is 50", not a big deal but it wasn't there on the last stable build and this is for gamecube only.

 

[giusesica79]

PLEASE I TRIED THE 4.0 VERSION, BRING THE CREDITS SONG BACK, PLEASE

Post automatically merged: May 4, 2025

PLEASE BRING THE CREDITS SONG BACK IN THE 4.0, IT IS MISSING

 

[blackb0x]

I'm thinking about installing USB Loader GX on my external hard drive, which also works as my back-up for my PC. Is there any dangers to the usb itself, if you install USB Loader GX and play Wii/GC games from that hard drive?

Personally I wouldn't use a drive on the Wii that also has important files on it, since not all Wii homebrew will verify if the drive has been unmounted correctly.

I assume your drive is also formatted to NTFS, which isn't the recommended format for the Wii, and NTFS support might be dropped in a future release.

I updated USB Loader GX to the latest test version as on the first page of this thread and now Wii games exit back to the loader.

However, now the widescreen GameCube games have a little border on all 4 sides when Wii U res is set to 480p but they were fullscreen on the latest stable build...

I haven't changed anything that should impact the aspect ratio for Nintendont, but I'll check over things within the next day or two.

Just make sure you're also using the latest Nintendont version. You can update it directly from within USB Loader GX.

PLEASE BRING THE CREDITS SONG BACK IN THE 4.0, IT IS MISSING

It was removed in a previous release because it was obnoxiously loud every time you entered the credits screen and I needed to free up some memory.

Reducing the loaders memory footprint improved game compatibility, so the music won't be returning.

 

[azy77]

Personally I wouldn't use a drive on the Wii that also has important files on it, since not all Wii homebrew will verify if the drive has been unmounted correctly.

I assume your drive is also formatted to NTFS, which isn't the recommended format for the Wii, and NTFS support might be dropped in a future release.


I haven't changed anything that should impact the aspect ratio for Nintendont, but I'll check over things within the next day or two.

Just make sure you're also using the latest Nintendont version. You can update it directly from within USB Loader GX.


It was removed in a previous release because it was obnoxiously loud every time you entered the credits screen and I needed to free up some memory.

Reducing the loaders memory footprint improved game compatibility, so the music won't be returning.

Hi, after checking further the small border also happens to some Wii games eg Moh Heroes 2. Might just be a setting on my side, I will have to do some testing on various settings. Thanks

 

[AdeC]

Since moving to V4 (and UNEO as instructed) my soft reset hangs rather than returning to USBLoader GX.

What obvious thing am I missing?

 

[blackb0x]

Since moving to V4 (and UNEO as instructed) my soft reset hangs rather than returning to USBLoader GX.

What obvious thing am I missing?

I will send you a private message with an updated test version that has resolved this issue for everyone who has encountered it.

 

[grandosegood]

Hey there, I wanted to thank everyone for their contributions, most notable @blackb0x and @XFlak

I wanted to note something on my end - some forwarder wads still don't work, they either return to loader/homescreen or just simply go to black screen.

eg, I have a forwarder wad to that points to an emulator or single rom loader (SRL) for snes9x rx, wiistation or genplus GX. some do work, but others do not.

 

[XFlak]

U can try updating the forwarder dol and or nandloader of those channels. Modmii can assist with both of these things. It may be a bit of trial and error since there are various forwarder dol types and nandloader options to choose from. Emulator forwarders shouldn't be an issue to get working, not sure about SRLs

 

[wei134102]

Hey there, I wanted to thank everyone for their contributions, most notable @blackb0x and @XFlak

I wanted to note something on my end - some forwarder wads still don't work, they either return to loader/homescreen or just simply go to black screen.

eg, I have a forwarder wad to that points to an emulator or single rom loader (SRL) for snes9x rx, wiistation or genplus GX. some do work, but others do not.

mybe some forwarders use ios58 ,so you must install ios58 first!

 

[Squished Squirrel]

R u starting from the hbc or via a forwarder channel?

Edit: perhaps try editing a forwarder to use a dif ios, load it up with customize mii or whatever (edit2: modmii works too)

The person you were responding to said they were going to try editing the forwarder channel to see if they could get the bootios to stick when opening USB Loader. I wonder if that is my problem with fakemote... I kept using a forwarder and it may have been changing the ios from 247 (with fakemote) back to 58.

Now I gotta see how to modify forwarder channels with modmii...

 

[XFlak]

The person you were responding to said they were going to try editing the forwarder channel to see if they could get the bootios to stick when opening USB Loader. I wonder if that is my problem with fakemote... I kept using a forwarder and it may have been changing the ios from 247 (with fakemote) back to 58.

Now I gotta see how to modify forwarder channels with modmii...

Open the wad using modmii, and change its IOS to whatever u need

 

[Squished Squirrel]

Open the wad using modmii, and change its IOS to whatever u need

I have confirmed that the --bootios setting in meta.xml is getting changed even when I launch from homebrew and not via a forwarder. (As you suspected in another thread post.)

Hey mods, I'm trying to play nice and leave ads enabled, but if focus keeps getting pulled away from this box every time a new ad loads, its off to ad-block land.

 

[blackb0x]

That's already on, it's a tiny border, like an inch all the way round. Tv is 50", not a big deal but it wasn't there on the last stable build and this is for gamecube only.

Try booting the games directly via Nintendont too so that you're removing the loader from the equation. I found that the output was identical in Resident Evil 4 and 007 Nightfire when I did this.

I wanted to note something on my end - some forwarder wads still don't work, they either return to loader/homescreen or just simply go to black screen.

I sent you a private message.

---

I have confirmed that the --bootios setting in meta.xml is getting changed even when I launch from homebrew and not via a forwarder. (As you suspected in another thread post.)

The --bootios=58 parameter is what's initially used to look for the loaders config file, and then the --ios=249 parameter is what the loader will reload to to function. So unless you have a USB drive that doesn't work when an IOS reload occurs, you shouldn't need to modify --bootios=58.

You can use ModMii or WiiMod Lite's IOS manager to stub all of your cIOS, and then use ModMii to create the cIOS with fakemote in the recommended slots. That way there isn't going to be any cIOS conflicts and the loader will work with it's default settings (assuming fakemote works with base IOS 38 and 56).

Slot 248 base 38
Slot 249 base 56
Slot 250 base 57
Slot 251 base 58

In the fakemote thread I noticed you said this...

The only USB drive I use is for Wii U content. All my wii and gc stuff is on the SD card. That leaves the rear lower USB port for the Mayflash adapter so it works in both fakemote patched IOS 57 and 58.

That USB drive isn't connected to the rear of the console, is it? Since the rear ports are reserved for vWii usage.

If your Wii U USB drive is connected to a rear USB port then move it to a USB port on the front of your console. Then you can try using your Mayflash adater in both of the rear ports.

If you still can't control the loader with the Mayflash adapter then try changing the loaders IOS to 251 (base 58).

 

[Squished Squirrel]

The --bootios=58 parameter is what's initially used to look for the loaders config file, and then the --ios=249 parameter is what the loader will reload to to function. So unless you have a USB drive that doesn't work when an IOS reload occurs, you shouldn't need to modify --bootios=58.

You can use ModMii or WiiMod Lite's IOS manager to stub all of your cIOS, and then use ModMii to create the cIOS with fakemote in the recommended slots. That way there isn't going to be any cIOS conflicts and the loader will work with it's default settings (assuming fakemote works with base IOS 38 and 56).



In the fakemote thread I noticed you said this...

That USB drive isn't connected to the rear of the console, is it? Since the rear ports are reserved for vWii usage.

View attachment 503914

If your Wii U USB drive is connected to a rear USB port then move it to a USB port on the front of your console. Then you can try using your Mayflash adator in both of the rear ports.

If you still can't control the loader with the Mayflash adaptor then try changing the loaders IOS to 251 (base 58).

Thanks for the clarification on the bootios setting. That explains why some settings were lost after changing that.

As for the ports, yes I do have the Wii U USB in the top rear, Mayflash in lower rear. I needed the front 2 ports for the Mayflash GC Y adapter to use our wavebird controllers for GC games.

I moved all Wii and GC content to the SD card, and it all works well from there.

 

[blackb0x]

As for the ports, yes I do have the Wii U USB in the top rear, Mayflash in lower rear. I needed the front 2 ports for the Mayflash GC Y adapter to use our wavebird controllers for GC games.

Temporarily remove the USB drive to see if that helps. If it doesn't, then try using the Mayflash adapter in the other USB port.

If using both of the rear USB ports doesn't work then stub (uninstall) all of the cIOS that you've installed and install them in the way that I suggested. And then if it's still not working try changing the loaders IOS to 251.

I don't know if fakemote works with base IOS 38 and 56, but with your current setup you're sacrificing game compatibility for partial controller support.

 

[Squished Squirrel]

Temporarily remove the USB drive to see if that helps. If it doesn't, then try using the Mayflash adaptor in the other USB port.

If using both of the rear USB ports doesn't work then stub (uninstall) all of the cIOS that you've installed and install them in the way that I suggested. And then if it's still not working try changing the loaders IOS to 251.

I don't know if fakemote works with base IOS 38 and 56, but with your current setup you're sacrificing game compatibility for partial controller support.

I may not have mentioned it in this thread, but the mayflash does work fine with fakemote once in a game, if the game is set to an ios slot that has the fakemote patch (Currently slot 247, IOS 57). Both fakemote 57 and 58 IOSs can see the bottom rear USB port without issue in-game.

The only issue left is the USB Loader GX menu screen. When the loader IOS is set to one of the fakemote slots, the GUI isn't accepting input from the mayflash. (I do exit out of USB Loader after changin loader IOS slots, and verify it is using the expected slot with the credits button.)

Someone else mentioned that if they played a game that used fakemote, and the game exited back to USB Loader GX, then fakemote would work. I need to try setting my prefs to exit back to USB loader rather than the wii (vwii) home screen to see if the same happens for me for diagnostic purposes if nothing else. if I understand correctly, I can exit games back to the loader, or I may be misremembering that post.

I am a little hesitant to stub the 248-251 IOS slots until I understand what that does and how it works. Last thing I need right now is to screw up my vwii, so I am taking this step by step making sure I understand what I am doing before attempting it.

I know I am sacrificing some controller support, but when you have someone in the house on the autism spectrum that only likes the Switch Pro and Gamecube wavebird controllers, you can see where I am trying to solve this the best I can.