Hacking USB Loader GX

[Cyan]

@Cyan --> do you ever plan to pull @blackb0x enhanced changes into the "Official Usb Loader GX"

I lost interest and I don't know if I'll ever update/merge and officially release it.
It's open source and on both svn, and git for anyone to contribute and fork as they want. but it's true that it would be nice to have a single consolidated project.
for now at least, no plan to merge.

I'm also lacking time (or not taking it), and I don't even know when I'll apply yours and Oddx's cache patch. but as it's based on 1272 and in patch version, it's very easy to apply, so I'll probably do it.
The git and fork merging is more complicated for me and I didn't put any time to learn it and familiarize with it yet. I might even do it file by file manually to do it the way I know.

 

[blackb0x]

It looks like he will eventually have a new release of his enhanced build.

Soon. I've got a few changes left to push, one which is very important as it'll allow you to compile USB Loader GX with both old and new versions of devkitPro. And there won't be a single error or warning reported by the compiler

I'll probably manually patch @Oddx's changes into a branch and test them, although I won't be able to benchmark the changes because all of my games are already displayed within a second or two. I can verify if everything is caching correctly at different stages though.

 

[Oddx]

https://gbatemp.net/posts/9249999

Updated patch adding recommended copywriter info. Also included a fix for the cheat code download on 1272 network stack as well as a new button in settings that will download any missing cheat files for all your games if they exist.

 

[Alexander1970]

https://gbatemp.net/posts/9249999

Updated patch adding recommended copywriter info. Also included a fix for the cheat code download on 1272 network stack as well as a new button in settings that will download any missing cheat files for all your games if they exist.

Thank you very much for your Interest to "continue" on USBLoader GX and your Time and Work.

 

[blackb0x]

@Oddx You can ignore this post now as I've fixed the problem myself.

I couldn't personally see any difference in speed, but I'll include the caching changes in my next release. Thanks

 

[Oddx]

@Oddx You can ignore this post now as I've fixed the problem myself.

I couldn't personally see any difference in speed, but I'll include the caching changes in my next release. Thanks

The entire system can be toggled off in settings for those that don't see any benefit in speeds... It should really help out with large collections and slower devices. The bypassing reloads on large numbers of emunand games was a good start by geoGolem but the real problems started with the sorting routines as the total games displayed gets larger and larger... caching the headers of wii and gamecube shaved a few seconds here and there also... it won't be large improvements for everyone but those with large collections and boot times should get a huge speedup.

For example when i was profiling the app i noticed the sort was running 2x before anything is displayed... the flow could probably be fixed but the cache on it should negate it until another solution is found.. so when that sort is taking 15-20 seconds, that's an extra 30-40 seconds added to the load time that can be bypassed since its doing the exact same process and getting the same results. The cache puts that sort order in a file and reconstructs it in less than a second.

 

[blackb0x]

The entire system can be toggled off in settings for those that don't see any benefit in speeds... It should really help out with large collections and slower devices.

I'm sure it helps, although I am curious how many games you've got and where you're storing them and your emuNAND for it to be as slow as it is for you?

For example when i was profiling the app i noticed the sort was running 2x before anything is displayed... the flow could probably be fixed but the cache on it should negate it until another solution is found..

I noticed that while fixing a filtering bug in the past, but I didn't bother to dig into it more because I don't like to edit too much of the old code. It's just not worth it at this point due to the consoles age and diminishing popularity.

 

[Oddx]

I'm sure it helps, although I am curious how many games you've got and where you're storing them and your emuNAND for it to be as slow as it is for you?

It's sizable lol... when it takes 90seconds to show games and 20 seconds between letters when filtering or changing system type options I had to find a faster solution or use wiiflow... I'm a big fan of banner mode though.

 

[blackb0x]

It's sizable lol... when it takes 90seconds to show games and 20 seconds between letters when filtering or changing system type options I had to find a faster solution or use wiiflow... I'm a big fan of banner mode though.

The only reason I'm asking is because if any of them games or the emuNAND are stored on your SD card then it's much slower. But if everythings on a USB HDD then you could easily have 200 Wii games & 200 GC games displayed within 2-5 seconds. So you must really have a ton of games

 

[godreborn]

Something sounds very wrong if it takes 20 seconds. I have nearly 800 games, and it takes 2 to 5 seconds for all games to appear. Searching for a game is instantaneos.

 

[Oddx]

The only reason I'm asking is because if any of them games or the emuNAND are stored on your SD card then it's much slower. But if everythings on a USB HDD then you could easily have 200 Wii games & 200 GC games displayed within 2-5 seconds. So you must really have a ton of games

I do use sdcard for emunand mainly cause sneek works on sd and uneek doesn't on a 4k drives. Basically when i profiled the processes it took 4 seconds to load wii from usb, 7 seconds to load gc from usb, 18 seconds to load emunand from sd, and 20 secs for unfiltered list sort followed by the filtered list doing the same sort without filtering anything for another 20 secs. The list sorts work off of headers already in memory so those times are not affected by device access and purely number or games it needs to sort against each other. The device access probably plays a role in slower loading times but its really the sorting that takes the most time and is all processing time.

 

[DoctorWhosThat]

There's me thinking, that this was actually dead and someone revives it!

Thank you @blackb0x.

 

[Larsenv]

So I did a poll on Twitter to see what the most popular USB Loader is. Here are the results.

https://twitter.com/riiconnect24/status/1326013827851358209

 

[Magnus87]

So I did a poll on Twitter to see what the most popular USB Loader is. Here are the results.

https://twitter.com/riiconnect24/status/1326013827851358209

ULGX is my favorite as it has a clean, simple interface and also mimics the Wii System Menu.
It feels like you are using genuine firmware when using channel view.

At least I don't need 3D views, custom backgrounds, I like that it looks like a console without mods but with all the extra features.

 

[TheThief]

I've been using r1260 with no issues for a long time. I recently tried r1271 for it's ability to patch Mario Kart Wii for Wiimmfi. That worked out fine. When I started a Gamecube game in r1271 it did not auto boot it as r1260 does. It seems the nintendont settings within USBLoaderGX such as autoboot and memory card, emulation, ocarina, etc. are ignored by nintendont. I've tried changing the "settings" option from " delete, create, no change" to no avail.

If I go into nintendont settings on the standalone app and choose auto and memory card emulation then it does save those settings but any changes made within USBLoaderGX are not reflected. I've since gone back to r1260 and when I adjust nintendont settings in USBLoaderGX it works as it should. I'm not sure why this issue occurs in r1271 and was wondering if anyone else has encountered this. Any input is cool, but I suppose with Mario Kart being online capable again I could just keep rocking r1260 since it has been working flawlessly forever.

Edit: I solved this issue by installing the latest version of nintendont. The games now auto boot from USBLoaderGX r1271 and any "settings" changes made within now reflect in nintendont. Hope this helps someone else.

 

[Kronzky]

Would it make sense to auto-generate a GXGameSettings file, based on the data exported by the Backup Manager?
Rather than setting PAL/NTSC & IOS by hand for each game, it looks like it would be a pretty straightforward job for a little script.

The only thing that makes me wonder is that I have lots of games with rather old/unique IOS demands (at least as far as Backup Manager is concerned). Other than the usual 56 & 57, I also have plenty of games that (presumably) need 9, 12, 17, 21, 33, 35, 37, 53 & 55. What should I do with those???

 

[jeannotte]

Would it make sense to auto-generate a GXGameSettings file, based on the data exported by the Backup Manager?
Rather than setting PAL/NTSC & IOS by hand for each game, it looks like it would be a pretty straightforward job for a little script.

The only thing that makes me wonder is that I have lots of games with rather old/unique IOS demands (at least as far as Backup Manager is concerned). Other than the usual 56 & 57, I also have plenty of games that (presumably) need 9, 12, 17, 21, 33, 35, 37, 53 & 55. What should I do with those???

Hello,

The history of IOS ==>https://wiibrew.org/wiki/IOS_History

 

[Magnus87]

I lost interest and I don't know if I'll ever update/merge and officially release it.

It makes me very sad to know that it is the "end of USBLGX" but I also understand that you are the only one who has remained on top of the boat and managed to improve several things.
I would like it to be 2006 again and everyone has the same energy and passion to make homebrew for Wii.
I know that everything has an end but it is still very sad to say goodbye.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

So, I am posting here because I hope that someone will be able to help me.

I recently got a EHDD from best buy, this model to be exact, and USB loader gX doesn't recognizes it, as some people suggested in the past, I got a Y cable for it, the thickest cable of the two is plugged on the bottom port and the other one on the top port.

CFG Mod is capable of seeing the EHDD, as well mGBA, wiiexplorer, SNES9x, wiiSX among other applications. Its specifically happening with USBloader GX. No matter what I do, USB loader GX will not recognize the drive, its not partitioned, its FAT32 formatted, is set as primary, etc. nothing.

 

[ca032769]

So, I am posting here because I hope that someone will be able to help me.

I recently got a EHDD from best buy, this model to be exact, and USB loader gX doesn't recognizes it, as some people suggested in the past, I got a Y cable for it, the thickest cable of the two is plugged on the bottom port and the other one on the top port.

CFG Mod is capable of seeing the EHDD, as well mGBA, wiiexplorer, SNES9x, wiiSX among other applications. Its specifically happening with USBloader GX. No matter what I do, USB loader GX will not recognize the drive, its not partitioned, its FAT32 formatted, is set as primary, etc. nothing.

Just a thought, have you gone in and checked to see if there is any unallocated space on the drive? I have had small intermittent issues when this happens and maybe GX is just being a little extra picky about it.

Click the last link in my signature below about using large hard drives and then scroll down to the first picture in my post. Anything on the drive that is unallocated or with an asterisk (like what the picture shows) should be merged into the main partition to ensure that only the one partition is showing.

If needed, use the free version of EaseUS Partition Master to look at the drive and merge it. Link can be found in step one of that post.