Hacking USB Loader GX

[Cyan]

yes, when I "push" a new release to be detected by the internal updater menu.
sometime I release new revision but don't make them public, because they are intermediate releases (like beta)

 

[tswntk]

Well i am just asking if it is possible to add a custom path option it would be useful for some people who want their games more organized because they use their 2tb hard drive for variety of files backing up and variety of other uses @Cyan please?

of course it can be done, but are you sure you will never need/try other loaders that doesn't support custom Wii game paths?

 

[GR-DRACULA]

of course it can be done, but are you sure you will never need/try other loaders that doesn't support custom Wii game paths?

I just tried wiiflow it worked fine but I will also wait for the usb loader gx update to use just 1 loader. Because of the gc games support too, wiiflow doesn't force nintendont to use the path I have set up only usb loader gx does so I have to use both loaders. (I sold my Wii so I am vWii user idk any other usb loader which has these features I need)

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

yes, when I "push" a new release to be detected by the internal updater menu.
sometime I release new revision but don't make them public, because they are intermediate releases (like beta)

Alright. Thank you for your support.

 

[GR-DRACULA]

I read your post from Jan 5th with instructions how to install neek2o. I am interested if you could assist me. I have not set anything up yet with neek2o.

I am running my emuNand games using cIOS d2xv8 final on USBLoaderGX r1260. Games are on my SD card. Everything works well side from the games that are incompatible.

Care to point me through the steps?

One other thing, when you exit a emuNand game while using neek2o, where does it exit to? I don't have any forwarders setup.

Note: The latest version is d2x v10 beta 53 it has new features and improvements than the older cioses.

 

[GreyWolf]

Note: The latest version is d2x v10 beta 53 it has new features and improvements than the older cioses.

It's 52 and 53. The prior is Wii, the latter vWii. *bzzzt*

 

[ngs428]

It's 52 and 53. The prior is Wii, the latter vWii.

I am not having any issues with v8 final besides wiiware compatibility. I was not aware of any compatibility changes for wiiware in v10 beta. I installed v8 final based on Cyan's recommendation based on my needs.

 

[sonictopfan]

@Cyan : JFYI

Remember once I said "The Last Story" have problem with Emunand Saves later in game? Another user disagree with it.
I thought of two possibility:
1. That user wasn't testing the feature thoroughly
2. My class 4 micro SD is too slow for that game save.

Now I have access to a class 10 card and retested the saves. Guess what, they work now so the speed of the SD card does matter.

I played that game back when it was new and it saved fine for me, played it all the way, best game on the console!

Thanks Cyan for the info. I no longer have my wii hooked up to my wifi so I will connect and update. I've followed your work for years and I must say you are my favorite dev of all time. Never has someone been so helpful to users and kept a great program like USB Loader GX so up to date and full of features. I love your Loadiine GX loader. My Wii U is on 5.4.0 but I haven't hacked it yet. I plan on doing that soon and enjoying Loadiine. Thanks again for all your hard work, Cyan. Not to take this off topic, but which firefox addon are you working on? Do you ever do any work on plugins for Opera?

^This, I've never met any programmer who's as modest and patient with noobs as Cyan, always there to help or give advice.

Edit: About my issue with Save Game Manager, I googled an older version and now I'm using it to delete saves from my EmuNAND, @Cyan I hope this feature to delete saves from EmuNAND can be implemented to USB Loader GX someday, like how you can delete the games cover or the games banner alone, maybe an option to delete the games save from EmuNAND alone can be added too.

Also, I still wish for a cache option like with Multiman on PS3 that would save a lot of time when loading the loader if you've got a lot of games on your HDD.

 

[GreyWolf]

I am not having any issues with v8 final besides wiiware compatibility. I was not aware of any compatibility changes for wiiware in v10 beta. I installed v8 final based on Cyan's recommendation based on my needs.

No, you're fine, then. v8 is the stable one and if it works you should use it. v9 had device compatibility fixes in it but broke some emunand compatibility. v10 b52 and b53 are the v9 changes split into two systems. My previous post was incorrect.

 

[ToneL]

NEVER (why this option still here?) use EmuNAND channel PARTIAL.
"EmuNAND channel" NEED to be set to full.

Partial is only useful for "EmuNAND save".


Partial : redirects only half the file access from NAND to emuNAND.
Full : redirects all files access.


Using partial with wiigames is useful because it redirects only the "/title/" folder access, which let you save the savegames to SD card without doing a full dump.
"Full" will need a full NAND dump as it will also load mii, settings, wiimote, etc. from that path.


With channels, you NEED a full dump, as not only the savegame are loaded from the EmuNAND but also the data (all the channel's data are located in /title/ folder) so you can't load the savegames from NAND !
But also, you need to get the proper ticket and settings, etc. loaded from the EmuNAND.
If you didn't install that channel to real NAND, you can't expect the "partial" mode to find half the data on NAND and the savegames on EmuNAND path.
the RealNAND will not have the required data.


@kostas sfirakis:
your signature is too big.
at least, put it horizontally instead of vertically.

about the path: I thought there were already an option to change the path inside the loader, but maybe it has been removed to force the user to use the standard path (/wbfs/ IS organized, it's the place where you put wbfs files, unless you want to make it wii/wbfs/ to organize it even more)
I will have to change that anyway to support wii games on SD card, so a setting might be added later to set SD and usb path independently.

But can the partial/full option be set globally to partial and then to full in individual ww/vc game settings? I still haven't installed any. Life in the way and all.

 

[ngs428]

I am on the Wii. So it looks like it will reset the console.

I will look at those instructions again. This is the post I am referring to:

Spoiler

1. Go to http://modmii.comuf.com/ and download ModMii.
2. If you have used ModMii before then delete all the files in your COPY_TO_SD and COPY_TO_USB folders so that you don't accidentally copy over files from another install and accidentally install them. If you installed ModMii into its default path then you can find those folders in C:\ModMii\COPY_TO_SD and C:\ModMii\COPY_TO_USB.
2. After it's installed and/or you've deleted the files in the above folders then open up the regular version of ModMii. Not the skinned version. (Just personal preference and is what I use.)
3. Type "I Agree" (without the quotes. None of the things I will tell you to type will need the quotes) and press Enter.
4. Type "O" and press Enter to go to options.
5. Make sure that that it says "<Enabled>" next to "n20 = neek20 - build mod of s\uneek instead of original". (It should be by default.)
6. Type "M" and press enter to go back to the Main Menu.
7. Type "S" and press enter for "SNEEK Installation, Nand Builder, and Game Bulk Extractor"
8. Type "1" and press enter for "SNEEK Installation".
9. Type "1" and press enter for "96 (hosted online).
10. Type "UD" and press enter for "UNEEK+DI"
11. Type "D" and press enter for "Default Setting: COPY_TO_SD".
12. Type "D" and press enter for "Default Setting: COPY_TO_USB".
13. Type "Y" and press enter for "Yes, do it now!"
14. When everything is done you can exit ModMii.
15. Now go to your "COPY_TO_USB" directory which should be located at "C:\ModMii\COPY_TO_USB" and open that folder. (Ignore the COPY_TO_SD folder. You don't need it).
16. In that folder you will see a folder named "SNEEK". Copy that folder to the root of your USB drive. (if you were to look inside that folder you should see 4 files. di.bin, font.bin, kernel.bin and rev.txt).
Done

Now that is done you need to do one more thing to make it so USB Loader properly exits neek mode EmuNand back to Regular NAND:
1. Now go to "https://code.google.com/p/custom-di/downloads/list" and download one of the 4 wads that have NK2O in them. Me personally I downloaded the one that said "neek2o_NK2O_1.wad"
2. Place that file anywhere you want. Preferably the root of either your SD card or USB drive.
3. Open up USB Loader GX.
4. Click on the gears on the lower left to open up "Global Settings".
5. Click on "Features".
6. Scroll all the way down and click on "EmuNAND Wad Manager"
7. Click on "File"
8. Then go to where you have the WAD file and install it. When done you can delete the WAD file.
Done.

Now when you exit a game loaded in neek it will exit back into real NAND.

And that's it. You just now compiled neek2o and "installed" it onto your USB drive. Just make sure that your EmuNand is also on your USB drive (I have heard neek2o works better from USB). Now all you have to do is change your settings to have your WiiWare and Virtual Console games load up using neek. I would recommend doing this on a per game basis. To do that you would want to do the following:

1. Click on the game you want to play.
2. Click on "Settings".
3. Click on "Game Load".
4. Scroll all the way down until you see "Nand Emulation" and change it to "Neek".

The only thing left to do to make exiting neek more seemless would be to install the USB Loader GX Forwarder into PriiLoader so that when it reboots the Wii it automatically loads back into USB Loader GX. If you need help with that let me know and I can write you a step by step guide for that as well.

EDIT: I got ModMii installed on a different PC I have.

When you state "you need to do one more thing to make it so USB Loader properly exits neek mode EmuNand back to Regular NAND" what do you mean by that? When I exit a game in neek mode it will reset the console, correct?

EDIT: I think my process is a little different than the one I have in the spoiler. My emunand games are on SD. Your Step 10 "10. Type "UD" and press enter for "UNEEK+DI"" should probably be typing SD, correct? Why would anyone use Sneek vs Sneek+DI? Just curious..

@Clutz450 reminder on the questions I posed. Thanks.

 

[Cyan]

But can the partial/full option be set globally to partial and then to full in individual ww/vc game settings? I still haven't installed any. Life in the way and all.

yes you can, but why would you want to set globally a broken option and have to correct that option in ALL games one by one, instead of using the working option globally ?

That option is still here because I thought nobody used it and cared about it.
I will remove the Partial option in next release and force all users to use full or neek.
There's really no reason, purpose, or even logic to use partial with channel installed on a full emuNAND dump.

partial is an option to "use emuNAND for wii disc savegame without a FULL dump", but channels installed on emuNAND require a FULL dump.
If you have a full dump, why use partial again?
Like I said, if you use Partial with channel, it will not save on real NAND (partial is used to SAVE on emuNAND but read the other data from real NAND), it will just broke compatibility because the realNAND will miss the "other" required data because you didn't install the channel on real NAND.

 

[GreyWolf]

I used partial channel emulation for quite a while and it worked fine. It just reads from your NAND folder and saves and uses settings on your real NAND.

Now I'm just using NEEK boot for all NAND titles and set Priiloader to autoboot to GX.

Of course, I've previously installed my VC/Wiiware on real NAND since they were downloaded from the shop so the tickets are already there.

 

[Clutz450]

@Clutz450 reminder on the questions I posed. Thanks.

Sorry about that. I was very busy yesterday and didn't have a chance to check this forum. What I meant about exiting Neek2o was that if you don't have the neek2o channel installed in your emunand, then when you exit neek2o, it will exit you back to your emunand system menu and not real nand. By installing that neek2o chanel to your emunand it will load that channel on exit which will reboot your console causing you to be back on your real nand system menu. Now if you have priiloader installed you can have it set up so that once your console reboots, instead of it taking you to your system menu it will boot you straight into USB Loader GX.

As for trying to run neek2o off your SD card I guess you would just have to choose the SNEEK+DI option and continue from there. I've never used that option before so I don't know what you have to do differently if anything. But it should be relatively the same.

Hope this helps. I'll have some more free time today so hopefully I'll be able to answer your questions a bit faster today.

 

[GreyWolf]

@Cyan - You should add a link to Clutz450's tutorial post in the OP.

 

[ngs428]

Sorry about that. I was very busy yesterday and didn't have a chance to check this forum. What I meant about exiting Neek2o was that if you don't have the neek2o channel installed in your emunand, then when you exit neek2o, it will exit you back to your emunand system menu and not real nand. By installing that neek2o chanel to your emunand it will load that channel on exit which will reboot your console causing you to be back on your real nand system menu. Now if you have priiloader installed you can have it set up so that once your console reboots, instead of it taking you to your system menu it will boot you straight into USB Loader GX.

As for trying to run neek2o off your SD card I guess you would just have to choose the SNEEK+DI option and continue from there. I've never used that option before so I don't know what you have to do differently if anything. But it should be relatively the same.

Hope this helps. I'll have some more free time today so hopefully I'll be able to answer your questions a bit faster today.

No problem. There were just a ton of posts after my last one. I didn't want mine to get lost. Thanks for the additional info. I will try to rewrite your steps for an SD install and see if I can get any feedback on their accuracy. Trying the measure twice cut one philosophy for this install.

 

[ngs428]

Following @Clutz450 instruction for a UNEEK+DI (USB) install I wanted to see if anyone has experience with a SD install.. My changes to his process are included in the instructions below in the spoiler. Is this an accurate install process for SNEEK+DI (SD) using Mod Mii? I changed the text in RED.

Also, are there any disadvantages of using a SD install vs a USB install? Thanks?

Spoiler

1. Go to http://modmii.comuf.com/ and download ModMii.
2. If you have used ModMii before then delete all the files in your COPY_TO_SD and COPY_TO_USB folders so that you don't accidentally copy over files from another install and accidentally install them. If you installed ModMii into its default path then you can find those folders in C:\ModMii\COPY_TO_SD and C:\ModMii\COPY_TO_USB.
2. After it's installed and/or you've deleted the files in the above folders then open up the regular version of ModMii. Not the skinned version. (Just personal preference and is what I use.)
3. Type "I Agree" (without the quotes. None of the things I will tell you to type will need the quotes) and press Enter.
4. Type "O" and press Enter to go to options.
5. Make sure that that it says "<Enabled>" next to "n20 = neek20 - build mod of s\uneek instead of original". (It should be by default.) I see "SSD = Sneek and Sneek+DI SD Access" is set to disabled by default, is that correct?
6. Type "M" and press enter to go back to the Main Menu.
7. Type "S" and press enter for "SNEEK Installation, Nand Builder, and Game Bulk Extractor"
8. Type "1" and press enter for "SNEEK Installation".
9. Type "1" and press enter for "96 (hosted online)".
10. Type "SD" and press enter for "SNEEK+DI"
11. Type "D" and press enter for "Default Setting: COPY_TO_SD".
12. Type "D" and press enter for "Default Setting: COPY_TO_USB". - Remove This - Didn't have to do this step
13. Type "Y" and press enter for "Yes, do it now!"
14. When everything is done you can exit ModMii.
15. Now go to your "COPY_TO_SD" directory which should be located at "C:\ModMii\COPY_TO_SD" and open that folder. (Ignore the COPY_TO_USB folder. You don't need it).
16. In that folder you will see a folder named "SNEEK". Copy that folder to the root of your SD drive. (if you were to look inside that folder you should see 4 files. di.bin, font.bin, kernel.bin and rev.txt).
Done

Now that is done you need to do one more thing to make it so USB Loader properly exits neek mode EmuNand back to Regular NAND:
1. Now go to "https://code.google.com/p/custom-di/downloads/list" and download one of the 4 wads that have NK2O in them. Me personally I downloaded the one that said "neek2o_NK2O_1.wad" Does that one work for the SD install? it states "channel wad to boot neek2o that works without sd card". Can someone verify? Do I need to choose a different one of the 4? - Confirmed by GreyWolf that this is a compatible wad.
2. Place that file anywhere you want. Preferably the root of either your SD card or USB drive.
3. Open up USB Loader GX.
4. Click on the gears on the lower left to open up "Global Settings".
5. Click on "Features".
6. Scroll all the way down and click on "EmuNAND Wad Manager" - Have to install on EmuNAND
7. Click on "File"
8. Then go to where you have the WAD file and install it. When done you can delete the WAD file.
Done.

Now when you exit a game loaded in neek it will exit back into real NAND.

And that's it. You just now compiled neek2o and "installed" it onto your SD drive. Just make sure that your EmuNand is also on your SD drive (I have heard neek2o works better from USB). Now all you have to do is change your settings to have your WiiWare and Virtual Console games load up using neek. I would recommend doing this on a per game basis. To do that you would want to do the following:

1. Click on the game you want to play.
2. Click on "Settings".
3. Click on "Game Load".
4. Scroll all the way down until you see "Nand Emulation" and change it to "Neek".

The only thing left to do to make exiting neek more seemless would be to install the USB Loader GX Forwarder into PriiLoader so that when it reboots the Wii it automatically loads back into USB Loader GX. If you need help with that let me know and I can write you a step by step guide for that as well.

 

[GreyWolf]

@ngs428 - It might be a bit slower from SD, but probably not by much.

That neek2o forwarder is the one I used. It works fine.

 

[ngs428]

I downloaded the forwarder from the first post for my Wii. Looks like the built in WAD manager in USBLoaderGX is only for the EmuNAND. Could someone please tell me a good WAD installer and where can I find it? There seems to be a bunch of options and outdated info on the WAD managers out there.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Went through the steps for Sneek setup that @Clutz450 posted and I modified for the SD install. I went into MotorHeroz game and set the Nand Emulation to Neek. I went to launch the game and a error message pops op in USBLoaderGX stating "Neek2o does not support emulated NAND channel path on SD. Please setup uNeek2o instead." My emuNand is on SD and I would like to keep it there. Is there a setting I am missing?

 

[GreyWolf]

I downloaded the forwarder from the first post for my Wii. Looks like the built in WAD manager in USBLoaderGX is only for the EmuNAND. Could someone please tell me a good WAD installer and where can I find it? There seems to be a bunch of options and outdated info on the WAD managers out there.

Try MultiModManager or YAMM. You can download them with ModMii. MMM doesn't work with WiiMotion+ so you'll need a GC controller or old remote for it. YAMM should work with WiiMotion+ controllers.

If you're talking about the neek2o forwarder you don't need to install that on your real NAND for GX's neek support. Just use the loader's WAD installer to put it on your emunand.

Went through the steps for Sneek setup that @Clutz450 posted and I modified for the SD install. I went into MotorHeroz game and set the Nand Emulation to Neek. I went to launch the game and a error message pops op in USBLoaderGX stating "Neek2o does not support emulated NAND channel path on SD. Please setup uNeek2o instead." My emuNand is on SD and I would like to keep it there. Is there a setting I am missing?

I got that warning as well but it seemed to work. Cyan will probably have more info on that.

 

[ngs428]

Try MultiModManager or YAMM. You can download them with ModMii. MMM doesn't work with WiiMotion+ so you'll need a GC controller or old remote for it. YAMM should work with WiiMotion+ controllers.

If you're talking about the neek2o forwarder you don't need to install that on your real NAND for GX's neek support. Just use the loader's WAD installer to put it on your emunand.



I got that warning as well but it seemed to work. Cyan will probably have more info on that.

I was talking about the USBLoaderGX forwarder. I downloaded the one you recommend, YAMM. I will let you know if I have any questions installing the forwarder to nand.

Edit: ModMii downloads a rev25 version of YAWMM. This version is not compatible with motion+. Thankfully I have a small army of wiimotes. Got the forwarder installed. This page has a link to one that it states supports motion + https://sites.google.com/site/completesg/how-to-use/wad-manager


On the Sneek install...
I was not brave enough to continue through the warning message I posted. Guess I will try. Hopefully @Cyan can provide some knowledge here.

Edit: selected continue to get past the warning. MotorHeroz did not load. Had to power cycle the Wii. Going back into the game and trying to play gave a new USBLoaderGX message: "Error: Neek NAND path selection failed". So not sure what is going on here. The only setting I changed was the setting for that game in NAND Emulation set to Neek from global. Did I miss any other setting?

Thanks!