Hacking USB Loader GX

[Alexander1970]

Sorry, I don't know Cyan, why ? he hate USB flashdrives ?

It was a joke,my Friend,no worries.
(Please let the Picture where it is,it is ok).

Cyan is the Developer from the USBLoader GX,actual / for the Moment - in Homebrew "Retirement".
@blackb0x was so kind and continues the Developement with his on Fork (Enhanced Mod) in Agreement with him of course.

 

[blackb0x]

No, "Initializing usb devices" does not appear before crash. I am not sure that I am now with same context as I did a lot of tests with XFlack, but here is my crash with IOS250 (IOS250[56] d2x-v10beta53-alt) in meta.xml :

Thanks for the picture. Unfortunately it didn't help me too much because the tool that takes that information and points me to the location of the crash doesn't seem to have the correct line numbers

What's really confusing to me though is that you've said this...

The magical configuration is a bit weird : it is IOS 58 for the loader and cIOS 251 for games (the same which worked with others loaders).

But my version of the loader boots with IOS58 to load the config files, so it should be working perfectly, yet it crashes for you. So maybe the libFAT version has something to do with it.

I've sent you a private message.

 

[Shawshank]

What's really confusing to me though is that you've said this...


But my version of the loader boots with IOS58 to load the config files, so it should be working perfectly, yet it crashes for you. So maybe the libFAT version has something to do with it.

I've sent you a private message.

Hi blackb0x,

No problem, I wil test as much as possible. Like I said, my context as changed since the beginning, so I have no more IOS250[56] d2x-v6 installed as XFlack did NOT recommend it, so I have now IOS250[56] d2x-v10beta53-alt in this slot, which is pretty similar. But as behavior was almost the same with 95% of all tested cIOS (all except base 58 ones), I think I can do your requested tests, it is still relevant.

I will update this posts each time I made 1 requested test...

So, with v3 and slot 250 in meta.xml, 'Initializing USB device' is aborting ('Waiting for HDD' message) and no backup are listed.
with v3 and my magical setting, I have an error message saying failing to load IOS 58 because it requires AHB access and it is returning to HBC.

with v4 and slot 250 in meta.xml, 'Initializing USB device' is aborting ('Waiting for HDD' message) and no backup are listed.
with v4 and my magical setting, it is listing backups, but I have black screen when running it.

with v5 and slot 250 in meta.xml, 'Initializing USB device' is aborting ('Waiting for HDD' message) and no backup are listed.
with v5 and my magical setting, it is listing backups, some games are running and some others have black screen.

Note that I also had suspicion about libFAT. Interesting thing to check is if Cfg, GX and WiiFlow are using same version of this library. it could explains why, if data has been reorganized into the flashdrive (for an unknown reason), only GX does not like it. This is also why I tested with a single WBFS partition, but I am not sure that libFAT is unused in this case. this is also why I asked if a tool running on Wii is existing for checking partition structure and format.

Regards,
Shawshank

 

[Cyan]

I really hope @Cyan will never read this Post from you...

Sorry, I don't know Cyan, why ? he hates USB flashdrives ?

Beware!! here I am !! hahah >]

Alexander, don't frighten new comers
They'll think I'm the devil

You can keep your pictures on your post, don't worry.
It's just that flashdrives have the bad habit of being problematic with homebrew compatibility. you should just use a real external HDD instead of flashdrive, and all your issues will be fixed.

 

[jeannotte]

It's just that flashdrives have the bad habit of being problematic with homebrew compatibility. you should just use a real external HDD instead of flashdrive, and all your issues will be fixed.

Hello,

Voila, a very nice sentence

, which in general solved a lot of problems.

 

[XFlak]

You mean I could've just said that instead of 3 pages of comments? Cyan cyan cyan, you put me to shame my friend lol

 

[DDinghoya]

Here's a new version.

• Updated the Wiimmfi patch thanks to Leseratte10
• Fixed a crash that occurs when using some third party classic controllers
• Fixed an issue that would cause a few games to freeze
• Fixed parental controls not working when header caching is enabled
• Fixed PAL to NTSC video mode patching
• Fixed background music selection
• Fixed game size detection when exporting to a list
• Fixed zip file extraction after updating to devkitPPC r38

Download: https://gbatemp.net/posts/8856063

@NoobletCheese That's by design, since you're not really expected to use the loader without a HDD. And if I remember correctly you'll boot slowly unless you press B and then it'll tell you that it's switching to channel list mode.

Hi blackb0x,

Up to USBLoaderGX v3.0 r1272 Mod v4, works the cube forwarder channel made by WiiGS, but in v5 and v6 it stops and output comment "Loading config files" on screen.

Is there a solution?

 

[blackb0x]

Up to USBLoaderGX v3.0 r1272 Mod v4, works the cube forwarder channel made by WiiGS, but in v5 and v6 it stops and output comment "Loading config files" on screen.

I guess you mean WiiGSC? I think that old forwarder expects the loader to be using cIOS 249, so if you edit your meta.xml file you can force the loader to boot with 249 instead of 58.

Leseratte made changes to the startup code to fix things for his Wii, but it looks like it might of made some old forwarders incompatible again. I'll look into it more shortly.

 

[mive]

Current release:

• Updated the Wiimmfi patch thanks to Leseratte10
• Fixed a crash that occurs when using some third party classic controllers
• Fixed an issue that would cause a few games to freeze
• Fixed parental controls not working when header caching is enabled
• Fixed PAL to NTSC video mode patching
• Fixed background music selection
• Fixed game size detection when exporting to a list
• Fixed zip file extraction after updating to devkitPPC r38

Source: https://github.com/wiidev/usbloadergx/commits/enhanced
...

svnrev.sh seems broken if someone is cloning your github repo (as svnversion command returns "Unversioned directory"), so rev_new is 0 (rev_new_raw is present so the [[ -z rev_new_raw ]] line isnt used )

https://github.com/wiidev/usbloadergx/commit/618c05e136a10e4a2281a5834f12555b59ef4ada

so I had to add a nasty hack which just uses version.txt

if [ -z $IGNORE_SVN ]; then IGNORE_SVN="false"; fi
if [ $IGNORE_SVN == "true" ]; 
    then
        rev_new=$(cat version.txt)
        printf "%s\n" "Using version.txt for svn revision (using $rev_new )" >&2
    else
....

 

[blackb0x]

svnrev.sh seems broken if someone is cloning your github repo (as svnversion command returns "Unversioned directory"), so rev_new is 0 (rev_new_raw is present so the [[ -z rev_new_raw ]] line isnt used )

It's a known issue and I haven't done anything about it yet because I was considering removing everything to do with Subversion anyway.

You could just change this...

[ -z "$rev_new_raw" ] && rev_new_raw=$(cat version.txt) && skip_ver_bump="true"

To this...

[ "${#rev_new_raw}" != "5" ] && rev_new_raw=$(cat version.txt) && skip_ver_bump="true"

 

[jackdolphin1947]

Is the current version of USB Loader GX fully stable ? Can it run all Wii games without any issues/bugs just like the games normally run using a disc from Disc Channel?
I'm new to homebrew, and I just plan to install USB loader gx for once only, that is I dont want to update again and again.

And if it is needed to update it regularly, then what is the way of manually installing them as I wont connect my Wii to internet.

 

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

Is the current version of USB Loader GX fully stable ? Can it run all Wii games without any issues/bugs just like the games normally run using a disc from Disc Channel?
I'm new to homebrew, and I just plan to install USB loader gx for once only, that is I dont want to update again and again.

And if it is needed to update it regularly, then what is the way of manually installing them as I wont connect my Wii to internet.

If you mean this latest USBLoader GX Version from blackb0x
https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/page-1316#post-8856063

Yes,it is very reliable and stable.
But it maybe depends on your USB Device,your Games/ISO Files and how do you transfer the Games.
So,there is no 100 Percent Warranty for your "without Issues/Bugs" Question,very sorry.

If your Wii is currently not on System Version 4.3x you can safely update before you Homebrew your Wii.
There are not really Benefits of an older System Version.
But of course,you can stay on a lower Version (lower than 4.0x is not really reasonable).

For maybe "better" Game Fun,fortunately,you have 3 USB Loaders you can choose from.
Aside USBLoader GX there is WiiFlow Lite (very recommended) and the Configurable USBLoader Mod.

For your "Request" modding without Internet on the Wii
this awesome PC Tool called ModMii should be your Choise.
For first Modding your Wii,to get these USB Loaders and many more Things.

For Modding your Wii (Internetconnection maybe useful) is also this Guide (highly) recommended:
https://wii.guide/

If you have Questions,please ask.


Good Luck
Thank you.

 

[jackdolphin1947]

Thank you for the guidance.
@alexander1970

 

[ViTOgx]

Current release:

• Updated the Wiimmfi patch thanks to Leseratte10
• Fixed a crash that occurs when using some third party classic controllers
• Fixed an issue that would cause a few games to freeze
• Fixed parental controls not working when header caching is enabled
• Fixed PAL to NTSC video mode patching
• Fixed background music selection
• Fixed game size detection when exporting to a list
• Fixed zip file extraction after updating to devkitPPC r38

Please send me a private message if you need to report a problem. Don't expect any help from Cyan as this is an unofficial enhanced build.

Hi blackb0x,

After searching for information about the freeze issues with Tintin I eventually stumbled over your modded/enhanced version of USB Loader GX. So I replaced the 1271 official version I had with this one because of the mention of:

• Fixed an issue that would cause a few games to freeze

The link references to a small list of games among which was Tintin.
That sounded great, but unfortunately it still freezes. I tested the NTSC as well as the PAL version. I've tested with d2x v10 rev 52 with IOS249, as well as IOS250. There is no difference in behavior.

So went over the Game Load options again but with most options the Game wouldn't even load (black screen). The only setting that seems to be required to start the game (but with the freeze behavior) is setting the Language to Console Default. My Wii is PAL and it needs to be set this way for both game versions (NTSC and PAL).

Do I miss something. Maybe another setting, or a complete other cIOS version?

Thanks for al the effort and keep up the good work!

 

[jeannotte]

Hi blackb0x,

After searching for information about the freeze issues with Tintin I eventually stumbled over your modded/enhanced version of USB Loader GX. So I replaced the 1271 official version I had with this one because of the mention of:

• Fixed an issue that would cause a few games to freeze

The link references to a small list of games among which was Tintin.
That sounded great, but unfortunately it still freezes. I tested the NTSC as well as the PAL version. I've tested with d2x v10 rev 52 with IOS249, as well as IOS250. There is no difference in behavior.

So went over the Game Load options again but with most options the Game wouldn't even load (black screen). The only setting that seems to be required to start the game (but with the freeze behavior) is setting the Language to Console Default. My Wii is PAL and it needs to be set this way for both game versions (NTSC and PAL).

Do I miss something. Maybe another setting, or a complete other cIOS version?

Thanks for al the effort and keep up the good work!

Hello,

For me the game works.

Can you test with another loader? ==> configurable loader v70 or wiiflow lite.

Myself, I have all three loaders, and when a game doesn't work with one loader, I try another.

try to redo the dump (original copy).

 

[blackb0x]

@ViTOgx If you were to reset the loader to it's default settings it might work.

Any global settings that patch the game in some way can cause these games to stop working. So for example, if you've got cheats (ocarina) enabled for all games then you should disable it for the games that use MetaFortress.

The only reason these problematic games might work in a different loader (e.g. configurable loader) is because that loaders new to you and you haven't applied any global settings.

 

[ViTOgx]

@ViTOgx If you were to reset the loader to it's default settings it might work.

Any global setting that patch the game in some way can cause these games to stop working. So for example, if you've got cheats (ocarina) enabled for all games then you should disable it for the games that use MetaFortress.

The only reason these problematic games might work in a different loader (e.g. configurable loader) is because that loaders new to you and you haven't applied any global settings.

Thanks for your response!

I renamed the current usbloader_gx directory and extracted the contents of your .7z to a new usbloader_gx directory.
I was able to start both versions of the game in this fresh "installation" USB Loader GX without any further changes.

However, the game still freezes at the checkpoints. So when you restart the Wii and start the game again you can continue because it was saved at exactly that point prior to freezing again.

In the Dolphin emu this behavior seems fixed in issue 10361, but the details on the how and why don't seem extensive. As you linked to the MetaFortress game I supposed that it a referred an implementation of this issue.

 

[blackb0x]

@ViTOgx Ah, of course. Tintin has been a problematic game for years, but you can get it to work with neek. Just search for "tintin" and you'll find dozens of posts about it.

I don't know if the changes that Dolphin made can be applied from the loader or if it'll need a cIOS update. I'll do some tests when I get a bit more free time.

 

[DDinghoya]

Sorry, I rarely (if not never) look at the issue tab on usbloadergx's sourceforge site.
I didn't know someone posted an updated language file for Korean. usually, it's posted on this forum.

Edit: I went to the issue tracker, searched for issue 2360 but didn't find it in the list.
it looks like someone posted it as "fixed", and assigned it to Cyan, but I didn't do any of this.
either the user created it as fixed, instead of issue. either Dimok did it (I don't know if he is still active in the project), or someone else has access to the site.


I don't understand the problem : it's with or without the updated lang file?
did you try to use the provided lang file?

If it's without it, then I'll add it on next update.
if it's with the updated lang file that you still don't have the text on buttons:

- Does the lang file contain the "Start" and "Option" strings?
- If it's empty, it should use english, or maybe the "default from the console". if not, it should use the one provided by the lang file.
Maybe there's no "default from the console" ?

Which region is your console?
do you use "system font" ?
do you use language automatic or Korean in usbloadergx?

@Cyan, Suddenly, I'm thinking about this issue. As below link's picture.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/usb-loader-gx.149922/page-1286#post-8474073

Maybe... Did it the program encoding of the picture be "utf-8"? If not, I think it could be blank in buttons as shown in the picture when applying Korean.

Would you please review for it?

 

[Cyan]

everything should be UTF-8 without BOM in the language file, that's why there's a "é - do not edit or remove that line" at the top of the file, to force file editors to save in UTF-8 instead of ANSI, or other encoding.

Did you try to actually ... write anything else in place of "option" or "start" in the language file ?
just to see if you see ANY other text in appearing in these empty button and only these korean words would be the issue ?

nobody has any issue on these buttons with all other languages.