Hacking USB Loader GX

[NANASHI89]

This willl not work.

I have installed the required cIOS, and every time I try to initialize a flash drive, it's stuck on "initializing USB Slot."
and this is what I get, when trying to load the app from a flash drive.

 

[ThaCrip]

@NANASHI89

It's likely the USB Thumb Drive that's causing it (I think it's pretty common knowledge that for Wii's, USB flash drives are problematic). because I was playing with a Sandisk USB 3.0 64GB flash drive on my Wii and it was doing similar to that during a game (Punch-Out).

use a hard drive instead of the flash drive and that will likely go away as I don't have any issues like that when using a hard drive as I have played many hours on the Scarface Wii game and that's never occurred. but when I was playing Punch-Out from a flash drive it had a screen like yours at least 2-3 times. so if you want a stable Wii, use a hard drive.

p.s. I use a 2.5" hard drive connected to this... https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-SATA-Drive-Adapter-Cable/dp/B00HJZJI84 ; it's only $10.95 currently plus hard drive cost. I have only tested that on a 2.5" hard drive with a 700mA power draw but the device itself supports up to 900mA but I am not sure how much power the USB port on the Wii can output.

 

[lucaswoop]

Hello! So for Christmas I got myself a 1 TB USB drive. I usually use a 32 GB flash drive that works great for usb loader gx but I wanted to upgrade. How should I get started on making it compatible with usb loader gx?

 

[ThaCrip]

@lucaswoop

Just format it to FAT32 and your golden as it's got maximum compatibility that way. they have programs in Windows that do it (I have not used any of those so far) but I just used my old laptop running Linux Mint with 'GParted' to format mine to FAT32. or you can use 'GParted Live' which boots from USB.

I think if you just use Wii games NTFS works but with Gamecube I think FAT32 is needed.

only catch with FAT32 is 4GB file size limit so some games you will have to split but you can use 'Wii Backup Manager' to split the files for you if needed.

 

[lucaswoop]

@lucaswoop

Just format it to FAT32 and your golden as it's got maximum compatibility that way. they have programs in Windows that do it (I have not used any of those so far) but I just used my old laptop running Linux Mint with 'GParted' to format mine to FAT32. or you can use 'GParted Live' which boots from USB.

I think if you just use Wii games NTFS works but with Gamecube I think FAT32 is needed.

only catch with FAT32 is 4GB file size limit so some games you will have to split but you can use 'Wii Backup Manager' to split the files for you if needed.

Ok, Thank you so much for your help!

 

[lucaswoop]

Well, The gamecube games work, but whenever I try to copy the wbfs folder to it, its contents just disappear. Even trying to copy each one individually causes them to disappear after I back out the the main usb directory. Help would be appreciated

 

[ThaCrip]

@lucaswoop

Assuming your hard drive is formatted to FAT32 the following should work on USBLoaderGX r1268 (or newest r1271) with stuff on your hard drive setup like the following shows...

Wii games = wbfs\Wii Game Name [XXXXXX]\XXXXXX.wbfs
Gamecube games = games\Gamecube Game Name [XXXXXX]\game.iso

where XXXXXX is the random numbers/letters assigned to a game.

p.s. you can also try resetting the USBLoaderGX to it's default settings which there is a option for this in the setting menu somewhere.

 

[lucaswoop]

@lucaswoop

Assuming your hard drive is formatted to FAT32 the following should work on USBLoaderGX r1268 (or newest r1271) with stuff on your hard drive setup like the following shows...

Wii games = wbfs\Wii Game Name [XXXXXX]\XXXXXX.wbfs
Gamecube games = games\Gamecube Game Name [XXXXXX]\game.iso

where XXXXXX is the random numbers/letters assigned to a game.

p.s. you can also try resetting the USBLoaderGX to it's default settings which there is a option for this in the setting menu somewhere.

Ok, I’ll try setting usb loader gx to its default settings. The strange thing is tho that this also happebs on my computer with the 1 TB flash drive. Maybe I did something wrong with the re-partitioning? IDk, but I’ll look into it more

 

[ThaCrip]

@lucaswoop

I just noticed you said '1TB USB drive' in your initial post but then on your recent post you said '1TB flash drive'... so which is it, a flash drive or a hard drive?

because USB flash drives are generally a bad idea to use on a Wii as they can be problematic as a hard drive is always a safer bet for a stable Wii system. NOTE: I was testing a Sandisk 64GB (USB 3) flash drive on one of my Wii's but it's unstable as at one point it corrupted the files on the USB flash drive (had to wipe it and start from scratch) and even when it was working it was locking up with error screens (on the Punch-Out Wii game) similar to what NANAISH89 posted above in his screenshot. but after switching to a hard drive I never had a problem with that since as I had some 2.5" hard drives laying around and some other stuff etc.

also, on Windows 10 it won't let you use the built-in tools to format to FAT32 (Windows 10 only allows NTFS/exFAT for larger devices) so you will need a 3rd party program, or use Linux etc, to get FAT32 file system on it.

p.s. I use this connected to a 250GB 2.5" hard drive (the hard drive has a 700mA power draw) for the Wii... https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-SATA-Drive-Adapter-Cable/dp/B00HJZJI84 ; that works fine for USBLoaderGX as I just got one earlier this month and it's only $10.95 currently but then you will need to buy a 2.5" hard drive to connect to it. if you decide to use this device keep in mind that it only supports up to 900mA (or 0.9a) for power draw although I can only confirm that the Wii works with it up to 700mA since that's what I personally tested. it might work fine with hard drives with higher power draw though as it just boils down to whether the Wii's USB port can power the device or not with a higher power draw.

 

[lucaswoop]

@lucaswoop

I just noticed you said '1TB USB drive' in your initial post but then on your recent post you said '1TB flash drive'... so which is it, a flash drive or a hard drive?

because USB flash drives are generally a bad idea to use on a Wii as they can be problematic as a hard drive is always a safer bet for a stable Wii system. NOTE: I was testing a Sandisk 64GB (USB 3) flash drive on one of my Wii's but it's unstable as at one point it corrupted the files on the USB flash drive (had to wipe it and start from scratch) and even when it was working it was locking up with error screens (on the Punch-Out Wii game) similar to what NANAISH89 posted above in his screenshot. but after switching to a hard drive I never had a problem with that since as I had some 2.5" hard drives laying around and some other stuff etc.

also, on Windows 10 it won't let you use the built-in tools to format to FAT32 (Windows 10 only allows NTFS/exFAT for larger devices) so you will need a 3rd party program, or use Linux etc, to get FAT32 file system on it.

p.s. I use this connected to a 250GB 2.5" hard drive (the hard drive has a 700mA power draw) for the Wii... https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-SATA-Drive-Adapter-Cable/dp/B00HJZJI84 ; that works fine for USBLoaderGX as I just got one earlier this month and it's only $10.95 currently but then you will need to buy a 2.5" hard drive to connect to it. if you decide to use this device keep in mind that it only supports up to 900mA (or 0.9a) for power draw although I can only confirm that the Wii works with it up to 700mA since that's what I personally tested. it might work fine with hard drives with higher power draw though as it just boils down to whether the Wii's USB port can power the device or not with a higher power draw.

It's a flash drive, sorry for the confusion. I used bootice to format it to a fat 32. I also discovered that any new gc games that I try to copy to the flash drive also disappear, similarly to the wii games.
EDIT: It's also a vwii running on wii u, if that info helps anything

 

[JacobM]

It's a flash drive, sorry for the confusion. I used bootice to format it to a fat 32. I also discovered that any new gc games that I try to copy to the flash drive also disappear, similarly to the wii games.
EDIT: It's also a vwii running on wii u, if that info helps anything

Pretty sure you got scammed. Did you buy it from a retail store or online? That drive is falsely advertising it’s space and likely has only 32 or 64gb of real space. This is a very common scam that’s been happening for well over a decade. If the price is too good to be true, it’s likely a fake card. Linus recently made a video about these you might find useful...

 

[ThaCrip]

@lucaswoop

I have no experience with Wii-U with the virtual Wii stuff so I can't comment much on that as what I know applies to the actual Wii system.

p.s. and like JacobM said... "If the price is too good to be true, it’s likely a fake card." ; I think that applies to stuff in general as if prices are too good to be true something ain't right. because getting a deal on something can be good but if the price is so cheap that it's a lot cheaper than other equivalent known good stuff on the market then chances are it's a fake etc.

 

[Cyan]

I have some issues testing this new build.
It seems that it is using neek instead of the emunand function inside ios

I didn't change anything regarding neek emunand.
neek does not use any IOS or cIOS at all, as it only reboots the console by loading the kernel.bin file. that's the only file loaded in memory.

but at the same time, I cant play Paper Mario or Majoras Mask inside USB Loader GX as I can inside the true neek environment

a lot of VC N64 only work in neek environment, so that's probably why Paper mario and Majora's mask only work in neek.

, but at the same time, I cant use emunand in disc games either like I used to.

you mean emuNAND save? for disc game, that's the only valid option, redirect savegames to "emuNAND save" path.

Before I could play most games in emunand, regardless of media and used nswitch in some specific cases, now i can only play emunand with installed games with no benefit from compatibility (Paper Mario and Majoras).

using nswitch? You know usbloaderGX can boot neek without the need of nswitch.
When you say "installed games" you mean channels? They are not really installed on your console or else you wouldn't need neek nor emuNAND. they are probably "installed" on your "emuNAND channel" path.

I dont know if the nand is set up properly because it loads in nswitch, but it is strange that Paper Mario doesnt work when in USBGX like it would.

it worked on cIOS emuNAND, or neek ? which one are you talking here?
I suppose you mean :
it works when launching neek with nswitch (good)
it doesn't when when launching neek from USBLoaderGX ?

I think a toggle for cios emunand and neek would be neat, I could keep cios for disc games and neek for everything else.

it's already an option.
the loader has 2 options : global and individual.
you MUST (should?) keep cIOS emuNAND for all your games, set in global setting.
then you only edit that option individually for games which require neek.
no need to use neek mode for games which doesn't require neek, cIOS is enough and faster to boot/exit for these games.

It is even more confusing that neek is tied to specific folders and when a game is installed on a drive, it works fine on a different folder like emunand cios

of course neek is "tied" to a folder, where do you think neek read files from if it's not redirected to a specific folder on SD or USB ?
neek is an emuNAND, it requires you to make a copy of your NAND to a folder on an external drive and use that "specific folder" as if it was the real internal Wii content. it requires a folder ! without any folder, you wouldn't be able to install wads to that folder to act as emuNAND and launch them from here.

If you don't have any emuNAND folder, how do you expect emuNAND to work ?

EmuNAND cIOS and Neek cIOS share the SAME folder.

but as soon as I pop an disc, it ignores all settings and goes straight to system memory

that's probably a setting issue.


So, for all those issues above :
I guess you updated to r1271 ?
I edited the default path for emuNAND from /nand/ to /nands/01/
But it only affects people who either install the loader for the first time, OR reset their settings.
if you kept your old setting, there's no reason the path changed to the new one, as it keep the user's path upon each loader's launch.

but, all your issues seem related to wrong emuNAND path, so please, just go check you are correctly using the proper path !
USBLoaderGX > Settings > custom path :
EmuNAND Channel folder : This one is used for both emuNAND cIOS and Neek ! this is the path you need to use for all your wad channels. This must point to the same path used by nswitch!
emuNAND save folder : can be the same or not the same than the channel folder (your choice). This one is the path used for disc based games (wbfs and iso) when you enable emuNAND save folder, used to redirect savegames only if you choose "partial" and doesn't require a full NAND dump, or also redirect everything (settings, mii, wiimote, etc.) if you choose "full" and requires a full NAND dump before using that option for that setting.

USBLoaderGX > Settings > Loader's setting :
EmuNAND channel : always keep that setting to Full ! it's the global setting for all emuNAND channels. never use partial (or it would try to load things from your real nand too), don't use neek here!
EmuNAND save : whether you want to redirect savegames, and/or Mii, settings and wiimote sync using the emuNAND save folder.


Select game > option > game's setting :
EmuNAND : HERE you select whether you enable neek on a game by game basis.
EmuNAND path : You can, if you ever need, use a different emuNAND path for this game. But do not use it if you don't understand why that option exists.

I can't seem to ever get it to show the NTFS storage space as even when it does display the free space etc properly, it's ALWAYS showing the FAT32 partition and never the NTFS

I guess that option has a bug. I'll have to check it fully to see what's wrong.

anything else worth looking into on my end?

No, thank you for your tests so far

 

[Codemastershock]

I did reset configs and it worked for WADs and WBFS's. Disc games still dont work regardless of folder I choose and ignore all settings (even wiimmfi). I use two folders, sd root as a cios nand by default (i always used because it worked the best, especially with games with a lot of DLCs) and nands/U1 as a wad folder for US games, and nands/J1 for japanese games with neek2o. I tried switching to the U1 folder just to see if Just Dance 4 and Mario Kart were at least saving in the folder instead of system memory (if it worked I could move everything to the U1 emunand) and it didnt work.

I am pointing this because in a previous version that I use on a different sd card (1247), disc games work as WBFS games should, loading my DLCs and saving everything directly to the folders chosen, but I want to upgrade to properly use nintendont and wiimmfi. I know installing everything is better to save lens and loadings, but for me, saving lens is not a problem because I have a spare drive from a dead wii and buying a bigger USB drive is more expensive than buying the Wii discs I want to play.

 

[Cyan]

you said wads and wbfs are working now? you mean the cIOS emuNAND Full, and the wbfs with and without using emuNAND save settings?
the broken part is only when inserting a disc? Sorry, I didn't understand that before.
The settings are loaded based on the TitleID, and both wbfs and disc share the same settings for the same game. whether it already exist or you create it for the first time, it should be used.
I don't remember last time I edited the way disc settings are loaded.


you had 1247 right before 1271 ?
could you try to revert?
first with r1268? this is the last stable release before 1271. let me know if your issue is fixed. if not, try reverting back to 1247 and tell me too. Maybe I changed something related to emuNAND or neek or disc loading since 1247, I didn't thought you had a revision that old when I said I changed "only" the path to nands/01/.
if it works with 1247, and if you have time, it would be nice if you can find the exact version which break your compatibility. you can find all releases on a link on the first post. (oh, I forgot to put 1269/70/71 there).



also, you said you use SD root? I remember neek2o requires subfolders, and has bugs when not using 2 levels (that's why I changed from 1 level /nand/ to 2 levels /nands/xx/), I don't remember if SD root works fine with neek2o r96.
SD Root is required for plain sneek (not 2o, but requires at least 1 extracted game if you use +di, and doesn't have wbfs or autoboot support)
nands/u1 and nands/j1 are good for neek2o, I didn't know you could use root for the main one.

 

[Codemastershock]

you said wads and wbfs are working now? you mean the cIOS emuNAND Full, and the wbfs with and without using emuNAND save settings?

yes, I copied the exact contents from one card to another, but I forgot to clean the settings and setting everything as global did work fine. Some games were set on the same sd root folder, but they were not set as global for some reason.

the broken part is only when inserting a disc? Sorry, I didn't understand that before.

Yes. Today I borrowed a 8gb thumb drive and did an test: running the game directly to disc and installing and running the game. All game settings were reset and stored in the SD Card and the drive that had my disc games installed found my savegames fine, but when I rebooted with my main drive without these games installed and running directly from disc, they ignored settings. I will try with different versions.

 

[lucaswoop]

Pretty sure you got scammed. Did you buy it from a retail store or online? That drive is falsely advertising it’s space and likely has only 32 or 64gb of real space. This is a very common scam that’s been happening for well over a decade. If the price is too good to be true, it’s likely a fake card. Linus recently made a video about these you might find useful...

Oh, it says that it's actualy 1.9 TB on my computer. So that's not real? IF so then that's a real damn shame. My parents got it for me as one of my christmas presents since they know I like to mod my wii u

 

[Cyan]

a lot of users suggest using h2testw to check the real SD card size. There are more tools you can use too.
https://www.ghacks.net/2018/03/14/8-tools-to-detect-fake-storage-devices/

Once you find the real card's size, you can use a partition manager tool to delete the existing partition on the SD, and create a new one with the real size so you won't overwrite existing data on it by storing more than possible.

 

[lucaswoop]

a lot of users suggest using h2testw to check the real SD card size. There are more tools you can use too.
https://www.ghacks.net/2018/03/14/8-tools-to-detect-fake-storage-devices/

Once you find the real card's size, you can use a partition manager tool to delete the existing partition on the SD, and create a new one with the real size so you won't overwrite existing data on it by storing more than possible.

It's not a sd card, it's a USB flash drive. Thank you tho

 

[Cyan]

ah, sorry
it's often the SD cards which are fake. in that link there are tools for usb drives too but I don't know them.