Hacking USB Loader GX

[Cyan]

I added that message because it's not "officially" supported by the developer.
You can still launch it if you press "ok" or "continue".

I can add a check if it's a wii or wiiu, and add this message on wiiu only.
Let me know if it works fine on Wii for you.
I didn't do a lot of tests with neek2o. On SD I didn't have the hidden menu (I don't know why) so I did all my tests on usb. but maybe it was only a random bug.

 

[biku]

I added that message because it's not "officially" supported by the developer.
You can still launch it if you press "ok" or "continue".

I can add a check if it's a wii or wiiu, and add this message on wiiu only.
Let me know if it works fine on Wii for you.
I didn't do a lot of tests with neek2o. On SD I didn't have the hidden menu (I don't know why) so I did all my tests on usb. but maybe it was only a random bug.

Sorry, I didn't explainit in my last reply.

When that message comes up, I hit continue but the game doesn't load. I've tried two of the games that doesn't load without sneek (1 wiiware and 1 virtual console).

All I get is a black screen with the wiimote disconnected.

I've just copied the ModMii Sneek+Di files and I'm using the same emunand like before. Do I have to set a new emunand or something?

EDIT: I can't even boot the emunand system menu so I'm starting to think that the problem is my SD Card... It works well with games that works without neek, thought.

EDIT 2: Tried with another SD Card and a different (new) emunand, same issue.

 

[Cyan]

maybe neek2o really doesn't work with SD card.
but I thought the Wii version was compatible.

you can try booting Neek with another homebrew, either bootmii@boot2 if you have it (replace the file in bootmii folder) or with NSwitch homebrew or channel.
I don't have the link right now, and I have to go. I'll see tomorrow to give you the links if you didn't find it.

USB is not an option for you? maybe it would be easier to keep neek on usb if it works.

 

[biku]

maybe neek2o really doesn't work with SD card.
but I thought the Wii version was compatible.

you can try booting Neek with another homebrew, either bootmii@boot2 if you have it (replace the file in bootmii folder) or with NSwitch homebrew or channel.
I don't have the link right now, and I have to go. I'll see tomorrow to give you the links if you didn't find it.

USB is not an option for you? maybe it would be easier to keep neek on usb if it works.

I totally prefer to load them via USB and keep USBLoaderGX as my only homebrew/loader. So it's fine

Can I format my hard drive with 3 partitions (1º for the emunand, 2º for Wii Games, 3º for GameCube games)? or will The loader have trouble dealing with them?

If you accept request for future updates (and if what I am going to say it's actually possible), I suggest another line in the loading screen to load the banners and icons before the actual gui is showed. When you have a lot of games installed it looks strange to see the background image of the skin showed for so many seconds before all icons and banners appears. I know it's just visuals and a stupid request, but if it's something easy to do, I would really appreciate it.

Thank you for everything!!

 

[Clutz450]

Why do you want 3 partitions on your drive? You can have one single FAT32 partition and have everything work. I have a 3TB USB hard drive formatted as one single partition and everything works for me. Just note that any partition above 2TB can't be formatted with 32kb clusters size so the lowest you can go is 64kb which I hear may break some homebrew. But all I use my Wii for is USB Loader GX, Nintendont and neek2o and they all work fine.

 

[Cyan]

the loader is already working with up to 8 partitions at the same time, which can be span over multiple USB (currently, only 2 USB : port0 and port1).

the issue is not the USBLoaderGX, but the other homebrew.
Gamecube loaders require that you use a FAT32 partition, and need to be the "first FAT32 primary" on the MBR.
so if you have multiple partition, the first one NEED to be for gamecube.
Wii games can be on any of the 8 partitions
EmuNAND I'm not sure, I think it also require to be on the first primary FAT32 partition.

 

[_47iscool]

Sorry to bother you Cyan, but I was wondering if the deflicker option will be available when the new release comes out.

 

[biku]

the loader is already working with up to 8 partitions at the same time, which can be span over multiple USB (currently, only 2 USB : port0 and port1).

the issue is not the USBLoaderGX, but the other homebrew.
Gamecube loaders require that you use a FAT32 partition, and need to be the "first FAT32 primary" on the MBR.
so if you have multiple partition, the first one NEED to be for gamecube.
Wii games can be on any of the 8 partitions
EmuNAND I'm not sure, I think it also require to be on the first primary FAT32 partition.

So both emunand and Gamecube loaders (I use Nintendont and devolution) need to be on the first fat32 partition of The HDD?

I currently hace two partitions:
-First one (NTFS) for Wii games (I didn't know they work in fat32)
-Second one (Fat32) for Gamecube.

So it's 100% necesary that emunand and Gamecube games share the same partition?

I guess I'll just format The entire hdd into one single FAT32 partition like clutz450 suggested.

Does wii games load faster/slower in fat32 compared to NTSC? Are there any compatibility issue?

Thanks again.

 

[Cyan]

You don't need to format, your partitions are fine like they are.
nintendont use the first FAT32 partition it finds.
I guess EmuNAND too, but I'm not sure.
If you want to use (the old) DIOS MIOS, then you will need to format the NTFS to FAT32 as it loads from the first partition, not the first fat32.

There's no speed differences based on partition format.
the speed is based on the used IOS base (56 > 57> 58), and your drive's hardware/seek speed.

 

[biku]

You don't need to format, your partitions are fine like they are.
nintendont use the first FAT32 partition it finds.
I guess EmuNAND too, but I'm not sure.
If you want to use (the old) DIOS MIOS, then you will need to format the NTFS to FAT32 as it loads from the first partition, not the first fat32.

There's no speed differences based on partition format.
the speed is based on the used IOS base (56 > 57> 58), and your drive's hardware/seek speed.

It looks like emunand needs to be The First partition too

I formatted The whole hdd in fat 32 but when I was copying the files I realized that some wii games are bigger than 4GB -__-

 

[Cyan]

that's fine !
use WiiBackupManager to copy/convert/transfer/whatever your ISO to wbfs, it will be split in two file if the game data is bigger than 4GB.
if the game data is only 400MB (mario for example) then the wbfs file will be 400MB, not 4GB.
don't use ISO format, it's a waste of space. (unless you want to keep iso for archival purpose, or future hack/translation patches to apply to full iso only, but it's less likely to be the case as patches can be applied on wbfs too)

 

[tswntk]

@Cyan Just did a little bit of testing on my Wii with a 7-port hub:

1. only ios58 works with usbloadergx or Wiixplorer. cios d2x beta 52/53 base 58 DO NOT work.

2. during the tests, after the hdd fails to initialize (due to cios), the "Show Wii games" check box is unchecked and have to be checked manually for the next boot to show Wii games again - This may be one of the reason why some users cannot find their Wii games because the option was unchecked for "no reason".

3. If I plug one hdd to the hub, Wiixplorer finds it with no problem. If I plug 2 hdds and restart, only the 2nd hdd is found. This may be due to the port order on the hub, but only 1 can be found anyway. I have not done more testings by swapping the hdds as I am not really into using a hub.

4. What I refer to as hdd on point 1 to 3 are actually sd card readers. My 1TB hdd which works fine when plugged directly to the Wii, wont work with the hub - drive light on with slow pulsing, no clicking sound. The hub is not self powered, may be it eats some of the Wii's power?

Just FYI

Edit. Will a hub with a hdd and an HID controller work in Nintendont? I might try it later but I am not into Ninendont yet (I like a hdd with GC games but not writing to it and I have enough Wii games to fill the years to come). May be some one can test it?

 

[biku]

that's fine !
use WiiBackupManager to copy/convert/transfer/whatever your ISO to wbfs, it will be split in two file if the game data is bigger than 4GB.
if the game data is only 400MB (mario for example) then the wbfs file will be 400MB, not 4GB.
don't use ISO format, it's a waste of space. (unless you want to keep iso for archival purpose, or future hack/translation patches to apply to full iso only, but it's less likely to be the case as patches can be applied on wbfs too)

Thanks! I'll give it a Try.
I only have the games in WBFS format... I hope they can be transfered (and automatically splitted) when they're already .wbfs

 

[oboewan42]

A vWii-specific question/feature request:

Most of the games that I have run properly in widescreen, but there are some games that don't. (examples - Trauma Center:SO, WarioWare, Ghost Squad, most if not all VC games)

Is there a way to get those specific games to display in 4:3 (black bars, no stretching) without manually going to the Features menu and turning off "WiiU Widescreen" each time?

For GC games using Nintendont, I can set "WiiU Widescreen" as a launch option and that works; however, for Wii/VC/WW games, that option isn't there.

I'm using the forwarder if that matters.

 

[Cyan]

Is there a way to get those specific games to display in 4:3 (black bars, no stretching) without manually going to the Features menu and turning off "WiiU Widescreen" each time?

not yet.
it's a request already to add an option for wii games too, though it will affect only vWii so I'm not very found on adding game settings which will have no effect (on wii).

2. during the tests, after the hdd fails to initialize (due to cios), the "Show Wii games" check box is unchecked and have to be checked manually for the next boot to show Wii games again - This may be one of the reason why some users cannot find their Wii games because the option was unchecked for "no reason".

It's not really with no reason. It's because it loaded without a HDD connected, so no Wii game was possible to load (as only USB is possible, no SD card, for wii games).

I changed that behavior recently. Previously, when HDD was not mount at boot, the loader enabled ALL the checkboxes. I found that weird saying "going to channel mode" and enabling gamecube too....
So instead I removed Wii and enabled channel.
I can just "enable channel" and keep the current setting, OR I can just "not change anything". No HDD mounted, then it's loaded to a white screen if no other sources are selected.

what do you think is best?

If USB is not mounted and Wii is selected:
Old behavior : Wii -> ALL
Current behavior : Wii -> Channel (keep other sources, if gamecube was enabled, it still is, but channel is added and wii removed)
possibility 1 : Wii -> Wii + channel (keep current setting + add real channel)
possibility 2 : Wii -> no changes (Nothing to display if only Wii was selected no game will be listed)
possibility 3 : Wii -> Real NAND only if Wii alone was selected (if EmuNAND or gamecube is enabled, don't go to channel mode, if no game in the list then channel mode is enabled)

It can be a user option too.
I like choice2, No changes at all. but a lot of users might complain that no games are displayed at all. "freeze on white screen"
choice 3 could be done, realNAND is set only if there's nothing to display.

Will a hub with a hdd and an HID controller work in Nintendont?

I don't know if HID can load from HUB. let me know your result.

 

[tswntk]

what do you think is best?

If USB is not mounted and Wii is selected:
Old behavior : Wii -> ALL
Current behavior : Wii -> Channel (keep other sources, if gamecube was enabled, it still is, but channel is added and wii removed)
possibility 1 : Wii -> Wii + channel (keep current setting + add real channel)
possibility 2 : Wii -> no changes (Nothing to display if only Wii was selected no game will be listed)
possibility 3 : Wii -> Real NAND only if Wii alone was selected (if EmuNAND or gamecube is enabled, don't go to channel mode, if no game in the list then channel mode is enabled)

It can be a user option too.
I like choice2, No changes at all. but a lot of users might complain that no games are displayed at all. "freeze on white screen"
choice 3 could be done, realNAND is set only if there's nothing to display.

I don't know if HID can load from HUB. let me know your result.

I don't really have an opinion on this as I can find my way around the settings. I just saw so many users asking for help that no Wii game is shown "for no reason" (I don't mean you made it that way for no reason) just because they didn't check the buttons.
possibility 1 maybe better for noobs.

I don't plan on testing the HID anytime soon as my only HID controller is cheap and not stable, I use an Xbox 360 controller for all my PC needs and I love it. But if I did test it, I will let you know the result.

 

[biku]

that's fine !
use WiiBackupManager to copy/convert/transfer/whatever your ISO to wbfs, it will be split in two file if the game data is bigger than 4GB.
if the game data is only 400MB (mario for example) then the wbfs file will be 400MB, not 4GB.
don't use ISO format, it's a waste of space. (unless you want to keep iso for archival purpose, or future hack/translation patches to apply to full iso only, but it's less likely to be the case as patches can be applied on wbfs too)

Everything set perfect and working fine! Thank you again!!

I've got a new Issue, thought

When I download the covers (pressing '1', etc), it just download like 5 ~ 10 of them and then shows a message saying that the other ones left doesn't exist in the server. If I restart the Loader and do the process again, it'll download another 5 ~ 10 and then show the message again.

Considering the amount of covers to download, I'll need to restart the loader a looooooot of times hahaha.

 

[Deleted User]

Maybe a PC tool should be made that can transfer them via a Gecko?
It already outputs to a Gecko if connected.

 

[GreyWolf]

Everything set perfect and working fine! Thank you again!!

I've got a new Issue, thought

When I download the covers (pressing '1', etc), it just download like 5 ~ 10 of them and then shows a message saying that the other ones left doesn't exist in the server. If I restart the Loader and do the process again, it'll download another 5 ~ 10 and then show the message again.

Considering the amount of covers to download, I'll need to restart the loader a looooooot of times hahaha.

You can use WBM to download the covers and put them on your HDD, too. There is a setting for it where you can select which loader you're using.

 

[biku]

You can use WBM to download the covers and put them on your HDD, too. There is a setting for it where you can select which loader you're using.

Does WBM also find covers for gamecube games and the emunand (VC and WW) games?