Hacking USB Loader GX

[GerbilSoft]

@GerbilSoft Did you take a look at my previous quotes?
I've waiting for that for a long time. I'm sure others have as well.
It would be really amazing if you could integrate it into the loader.

I saw your suggestions. I haven't started doing any sort of hax on ULGX yet, though. I'll keep the extra Nintendont settings in mind if/when I start on it.

 

[sideskroll]

I saw your suggestions. I haven't started doing any sort of hax on ULGX yet, though. I'll keep the extra Nintendont settings in mind if/when I start on it.

The "Wii U widescreen" request though, is on a per system/game basis. So we can "fix" games like RE, and VC/WiiWare game that set the flag incorrectly.

 

[Kairu43]

I'm on revision 1662 running Usbloader gx on vWii. I've run into an issue I'd like to share in hopes there is either a way to fix it or that the bug can be isolated. Using HBL2HBC previously and now using a CBHC mod to autoboot into vWii mode, I love the fact that I can use a wiiu pro controller without needing batteries for a wiimote. That said, if I launch an emulator via a forwarder (the .dol for which has been updated to support pro controllers, Snes9X for example) and then return to the loader via that homebrew's menu, I am returned to unloaded gx to find only system channels are displayed, not my gamecube/wii games, and my pro controller will no longer sync or move the pointer until a restart of the console occurs.

I can't recall if holding the power button on the controller will still shutdown the console or if I had to manually pull the power/hold the button, but returning to loader is definitely not working properly. I don't have this issue when I launch a gamecube game, for example, via nintendont directly from usbloader gx. I can load a game, hit home, and then select something else via the pro controller.

 

[Cyan]

@Cyan , I was taking a look at the USBLOADER repository and found out 2 things:
1st, what's up with rev 1263? Is it a beta or something like that? How come that's not the one on your signature? and 2: what is that HDD test? Would it by any chance be related to my (and some others) issue with WD drives (Which I'm guessing, even though you actually purchased the drive haven't looked at it yet? )

1263 has no changes, it's a recompiled version with different libraries. it's the same version than 1262.

where did you see "hdd test" ?
I guess that's what this means. it's related to WD issue, and users just have to set IOS58 manually. The only fix I can do is set IOS58 by default (which has issues with some users!) or make a fallback to 58 is hdd is not detected after 20sec but that will expand the hdd detection to 40sec at launch.


I see nintendont has new options, I should check all the changes since last time I updated it.
Sorry that I'm slow (or inactive) with this loader. I see few users want to make mods and branches of it, but it would be better for users to have a single version being updated.
Maybe with patches I can commit them to the main project.

 

[GreyWolf]

I've finished updating the source to support the latest devkitPPC/libogc and added the CC rumble and IPL settings for Nintendont. I'll push it to GitHub later today after I look into the WiiU widescreen overrides.

People should be a bit more patient if they can't do things themselves. :/ Updating to the latest devkit required hundreds of changes.

 

[GreyWolf]

I'm on revision 1662 running Usbloader gx on vWii. I've run into an issue I'd like to share in hopes there is either a way to fix it or that the bug can be isolated. Using HBL2HBC previously and now using a CBHC mod to autoboot into vWii mode, I love the fact that I can use a wiiu pro controller without needing batteries for a wiimote. That said, if I launch an emulator via a forwarder (the .dol for which has been updated to support pro controllers, Snes9X for example) and then return to the loader via that homebrew's menu, I am returned to unloaded gx to find only system channels are displayed, not my gamecube/wii games, and my pro controller will no longer sync or move the pointer until a restart of the console occurs.

I can't recall if holding the power button on the controller will still shutdown the console or if I had to manually pull the power/hold the button, but returning to loader is definitely not working properly. I don't have this issue when I launch a gamecube game, for example, via nintendont directly from usbloader gx. I can load a game, hit home, and then select something else via the pro controller.

1. Make sure you don't have the full channel installed. If there's a "c" at the end of the version in the credits screen you do.
2. If you're autobooting (I don't know what CBHC is) make sure you're booting the forwarder dol and not either the full channel or the forwarder installed on your NAND. It needs to be the .dol forwarder or you will run into configuration errors.

 

[Kairu43]

From the sound of it, my issue is that I'm making use of the forwarder installed on my NAND. There is no 'c' on the version on my credit screen. I can't boot to the homebrew channel as it requires a wiimote.

So being I have to boot to an installed channel that has pro controller support, it looks as though the following is my course of action: I can leave things as they are if I want to run one of my GameCube/wii games, and if I want to run an app like an emulator, I have to use the app menu built into usbloader gx to launch usbloaded gx and then launch an emulator. When I return to loader after that extra step, it seems to work properly; my pro controller is still synced and games are visible instead of just installed channels.

A minor annoyance, I suppose, but until/if hbc ever supports pro controllers so that I can launch the app without a forwarder, it's a functional workaround. I'm not certain if anything could be done to usbloader gx to mitigate this as I'm guessing the app itself doesn't know how it was launched, so adding a setting to auto-load the app would be an effective infinite loop.

So barring a break-through in that configuration error situation for this scenario, it looks like that's the work-around: Launch usbloaded gx from itself if you need to run an app, instead of the built in nintendont loader, if you care about being able to properly return to a fully-functioning instance of the app. I appreciate your input as a workaround is far better than having to unplug my console every time Thank you.

 

[Jeff Lavenz]

So I'm thinking of installing an emuNAND to my HDD because of my SD card being 64GB and wanting to keep as much space as possible. Problem is, I would like to use the Japanese Wii menu (possibly installing this via a WAD), since I mainly intend for it to be used with Japanese Wii WBFS games so that way they'll stay out of my US Wii menu (for ease sake) and then the text will show up properly in certain games, ex. Spongebob to Nakamatachi: Toybot no Kougeki [Nicktoons Attack of the Toybots]. Is there a certain order I should do this in to properly install the emunand? Or rather, I should also ask is if it is possible.

The second thing is that I'm wondering if you can install two emunands on the same drive. I would assume not because of the folder setup, but I wanted to do some experimentation on a nand to see if I can get the JP font to read in a US system menu. It's not too worrisome to me at this point since I am mainly thinking of doing the first, but thought I'd ask nonetheless.

 

[GreyWolf]

You'd be better off setting up a NEEK environment with a clean NTSC-J menu using ModMii. Trying to change the system menu like that is a good way to end up with a bricked Wii.

With neek2o the NAND dump needs to go in /nands/<some name> anyway and d2x's EmuNAND can read them from there as well. You can just make multiple folders under /nands/. I think there's a homebrew app that will switch the NEEK config to different dumps but I can't think of what it is right now.

 

[sideskroll]

I've finished updating the source to support the latest devkitPPC/libogc and added the CC rumble and IPL settings for Nintendont. I'll push it to GitHub later today after I look into the WiiU widescreen overrides.

People should be a bit more patient if they can't do things themselves. :/ Updating to the latest devkit required hundreds of changes.

As alwayd, if you need me to test anything let me know.

 

[GreyWolf]

As alwayd, if you need me to test anything let me know.

I think it's fine. I'll post a link to the dol when I get it committed. Adding settings is a PITA as it has to be inserted in like 6 different places, twice that many if it can be overridden per-game. I'm just checking to make sure the new settings aren't in the wrong order.

 

[GreyWolf]

Alternate test build is up: https://github.com/GreyWolfSC/usbloadergx/releases

This is not official or necessarily deemed stable. It required recompiling the custom FAT module and libtremor.

New Nintendont settings are included. I couldn't find anything wrong with the NIN Wii U widescreen options. I may have to look back at the issue in the thread if it's still not working as expected.

Please try to put issues with this build on GitHub if you can. Don't bug Cyan about it unless he merges it with the official source.

 

[Jeff Lavenz]

You'd be better off setting up a NEEK environment with a clean NTSC-J menu using ModMii. Trying to change the system menu like that is a good way to end up with a bricked Wii.

With neek2o the NAND dump needs to go in /nands/<some name> anyway and d2x's EmuNAND can read them from there as well. You can just make multiple folders under /nands/. I think there's a homebrew app that will switch the NEEK config to different dumps but I can't think of what it is right now.

Do you have a tutorial or anything that could help me do this? I haven't ever done this before. :S Plus would that mean that I have to re-sync my wiimotes if I don't copy the data from that one folder they are all stored in?

 

[GreyWolf]

Do you have a tutorial or anything that could help me do this? I haven't ever done this before. :S Plus would that mean that I have to re-sync my wiimotes if I don't copy the data from that one folder they are all stored in?

You can get ModMii here. Once you have it installed go to "S" for SNEEK installation and either do "3 - all of the above" or "2" to build a NAND. It walks you through it.

You can *try* copying your sysconf file from a dump of your real NAND to the NTSC-J. It's located in "/shared2/sys/SYSCONF" in the filesystem. I'm not sure if it contains any region-specific data in it.

Another alternative is just dump your real NAND to two folders then use GX's built in WAD installer to install all of the NTSC-J WAD to it.

 

[Jeff Lavenz]

aight, I'll try modmii first, since building one is more of what I need anyways, as I just want to use it for Japanese games to keep everything organized. same with PAL, but I just have to swap out the NTSC-J with PAL respectively. Do I need to download the NTSC-J (or PAL in the other's case) wad if I build one or no?

 

[GreyWolf]

aight, I'll try modmii first, since building one is more of what I need anyways, as I just want to use it for Japanese games to keep everything organized. same with PAL, but I just have to swap out the NTSC-J with PAL respectively. Do I need to download the NTSC-J (or PAL in the other's case) wad if I build one or no?

No, the NAND builder downloads all of the files it needs. It even generates an HTML guide to show you what to do with the files.

 

[Jeff Lavenz]

Sounds good, will follow up once I finish this game download and install Modmii.

 

[tswntk]

Sounds good, will follow up once I finish this game download and install Modmii.

USBloaders are region free already. If your problem is only strange characters from Japanese games, you may play with per game settings such as patch country string, language or sometimes different video patch settings. Most (sadly not all) will work properly.

Neek is good but is slow to boot.

 

[Jeff Lavenz]

USBloaders are region free already. If your problem is only strange characters from Japanese games, you may play with per game settings such as patch country string, language or sometimes different video patch settings. Most (sadly not all) will work properly.

Neek is good but is slow to boot.

I already tried that, I just want to be able to keep certain region saves with certain region saves, mainly for convenience than anything else. :S

No, the NAND builder downloads all of the files it needs. It even generates an HTML guide to show you what to do with the files.

Alright, well ModMii just told me something that is a bit unnerving. it says that the region has to be the same as my actual Wii in order to allow for simultaneous syncing. Is there possibly a way around that or no?

 

[Jeff Lavenz]

-Accidental double post. :S-