Hacking USB Loader GX

[blackb0x]

I have been trying all week to get my USB with Wii games initialize in USB Loader GX (which is the latest version available in SourceForge and I have also tried other versions I stepped by, I have checked that the root is the correct one on the pen a lot of times), as soon as USB Loader GX finishes, I get an error saying 'USB Device Not Initialized.

You need to use port 0.

And since you're experiencing problems with the older SourceForge version you should delete the usbloader_gx folder from your SD card before you install my version.

https://gbatemp.net/posts/8856063

Sometimes manufacturers change components to increase their profits, so you might have a different revision of the drive that's no longer compatible. But in general USB loaders don't have great compatibility with flash drives.

 

[hgv123]

You need to use port 0.
...
And since you're experiencing problems with the older SourceForge version you should delete the usbloader_gx folder from your SD card before you install my version.
...

Hey, thank you for your quick response, I'm trying to compile the enhanced version in github, but I can't figure out how to install devkitPPC (I'm currently using Linux), could you please, if it's not a big inconvenience of course, maybe send me a compiled version of your USBloaderGX version? Thank you in advance and keep the awesome work!

 

[blackb0x]

@hgv123 A compiled version is attached in the post.

https://gbatemp.net/posts/8856063

I'll also be uploading the releases directly to GitHub when I release my next update.

 

[hgv123]

I'll also be uploading the releases directly to GitHub when I release my next update.

It doesn't work for me, I think it's the USB stick's fault 100%, will be testing a toshiba HDD tomorrow (it's in NTFS format, will also try in FAT32)

 

[blackb0x]

@hgv123 Yep. And some Google results suggest that it's definitely the flash drive at fault.

My version of the loader will work with NTFS, although I'd still recommend FAT32 since that'd make your USB HDD compatible with more homebrew.

 

[hgv123]

@hgv123 Yep. And some Google results suggest that it's definitely the flash drive at fault.

My version of the loader will work with NTFS, although I'd still recommend FAT32 since that'd make your USB HDD compatible with more homebrew.

It was Flash Disk's fault, I'll be buying a new HDD compatible, thanks!

 

[vbarros22]

One of my testers contacted me earlier today and told me that two of the WiiHacks moderators are spreading misinformation about my builds. So, I'd like to put a stop to that.

I first shared a release here at GBAtemp that was based on the 1272 release because Cyan had gone MIA for over 6 months and the loader couldn't download cheat files during that time. Then eventually I had some more free time and decided to fix some of the other bugs, including the one that introduced boot issues and made WiiGSC incompatible.

Two years have now passed and I've continued to put out releases, which have been relatively bug free and loved by many. So, why are there now two reddit moderators saying some wildly inaccurate things about my builds? And it's painfully obvious that neither of them have actually tried my builds because everything that they've said was wrong, despite them claiming to have experience with it.

I'm sure the WiiHacks moderators do have experience with Cyan's version of 1272, and maybe that's what's discouraging them from my builds. But my version of the loader is entirely different as it doesn't have any of the issues that were introduced in Cyan's version. And at this point I can safely say that my version has increased USB HDD compatibility, partition type compatibility and even controller compatibility due to all of the changes that I've made within the last year.

Cyan labelled my build as the official version because I'm fixing bugs that have been in the loader for over 10 years while also adding some useful new features. And over the last 2 years I haven't put out a single release that introduced a major bug.

The next release will be 1280 and it'll be able to do something that some people have been requesting for years

I only miss tab mod and this is not even your fault, your version is great and waiting for the next 1280
amazing job

 

[ca032769]

It was Flash Disk's fault, I'll be buying a new HDD compatible, thanks!

I'll recommend to you a Western Digital Passport, any 1, 2, 3 , 4 or 5TB will do.

You can get the size drive based on how many games you have or plan to have. However if you have (or plan to have) all the NTSC Wii & GameCube's titles you'll need a 5TB for it all to fit onto one drive. A 5TB will also cover the miscellaneous PAL and JPN not released in NTSC format.

In the 5TB realm I actually prefer the WD P10 Game Drive because of it's looks, but the 5TB Passport also works great. Not sure of any noticeable functional differences using a passport vs P10 on the Wii. I usually don't care about price as much as that I just like pretty things, and to me the P10 is pretty. Wish they made them in the other Wii colors so I could color match each setup.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

It was Flash Disk's fault, I'll be buying a new HDD compatible, thanks!

If it's not too late, I instead recommend buying a known compatible SATA to USB adapter.

For example, this is the adapter that I and a family friend use (it works on a Wii U as well):
https://vantecusa.com/products_detail.php?p_id=92


This is especially true if you already have a spare 2.5" SATA drive laying around like an older lower-capacity SSD that's no longer used or are able to pull a SATA hard drive out of laptop that's just gathering dust (from no earlier than 2006 or so as any older and you start getting PATA/IDE hard drives instead). In general, going the adapter route then lets you use pretty much any drive without having to worry about compatibility (save for making sure it's a compatible adapter of course), not to mention the flexibility of being able to connect the drive directly to SATA for data management, or even to other SATA adapters using things like Thunderbolt/USB4, eSATA/eSATAp, FireWire/IEEE 1394, etc. And for reference, performance should never be a concern since even old 10+ year old 5200rpm hard drives should almost always be bottle-necked by the Wii's USB 2.0 ports assuming that they aren't fragmented out the wazoo.


It's also a heck of a lot easier to replace the adapter if it fails than if an external USB hard drive fails (whereby it's usually the USB controller portion anyway that fails rather than the hard drive itself). In my view, the only benefit of actual external USB hard drives is that they're sometimes cheaper than internal hard drives of comparable specs.

 

[XFlak]

I recently purchased this enclosure and confirmed its working nicely with the wii
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B082HKY2LW

Edit: a few different times over the years I've gone on Amazon and bought an enclosure for 10-15 bucks and they've all always worked. Cheap enclosures, go figure they'd have decent compatibility.

 

[KungBore]

How is the newest build in regards to:

1. Forcing 480p on Wii games that don't support it natively? (Like MadWorld)

2. Removing the deflicker filter in GameCube games? (Via nintendont)

I could never make these work.


Also, where can I find an explanation about diferent deflicker options for Wii games?

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

2. Removing the deflicker filter in GameCube games? (Via nintendont)

From my own testing with it a couple weeks ago, it seems one has to use the force video mode NTSC 480p option and, for whatever reason, simply forcing progressive and setting deflicker to off is not enough.

...why Nintendont's configuration is actually set up that way is beyond me as one would expect that deflicker set to "off" and everything else set to "auto" would, you know, turn deflicker off just like how the according setting for Wii games operates. But alas this seems to not be the case.


EDIT:

I recently purchased this enclosure and confirmed its working nicely with the wii
a few different times over the years I've gone on Amazon and bought an enclosure for 10-15 bucks and they've all always worked. Cheap enclosures, go figure they'd have decent compatibility.

If we're talking cheap, then the Vantec one I mentioned is only $8 USD at Micro Center:

• https://www.microcenter.com/product/454623/vantec-usb-30-25-sata-hard-drive-adapter-with-case

Furthermore, Micro Center even has a coupon for a free 240GB SATA SSD for new customers (though it's a TLC DRAM-less SSD):

• https://micro.center/8806d3

Of course, on has to actually be lucky enough to have a Micro Center nearby (which, if user profile information is accurate, then ca032769 is the only user outside of myself on this current page that even have a chance of having a Micro Center nearby).

 

[fandango]

1. Forcing 480p on Wii games that don't support it natively? (Like MadWorld)

Some Wii games display in 480i rather than 480p, so you can try forcing them to 480p. In Wii individual game settings, set Video Mode to ‘Force PAL480p’ or ‘Force NTSC480p’ depending on the game's region. If that doesn't work then also set ‘Dol Video Patch’ to On.

2. Removing the deflicker filter in GameCube games? (Via nintendont)

There is a setting in the Nintendont section of the ULGX settings called 'Progressive patch' which you can turn on and it should force progressive and may remove the flicker filter?
BTW I have noted that most GC games output 480i for NTSC and 576i for PAL, although some NTSC games allow you to select progressive at the start which gives 480p. For 480i games again you can use the Progressive patch setting to force 480p.

Also, where can I find an explanation about diferent deflicker options for Wii games?

The default setting is 'Auto' which doesn't do anything, so if a game has a deflicker filter it is still applied.
Off (safe) will turn off a deflicker filter if it is being applied. This is a safe way of doing this and so can be applied as a setting for all games if you wish.
For some games 'Off (safe)' doesn't work and so you can try the more aggressive setting of 'Off (extended)', but it can break fade and brightness effects in some games, so will need testing.

 

[Maeson]

There is a Force Progressive option on Nintendont, and it tries to do so to any 480i video format (either PAL or NTSC), and for the vast majority of games can be turned on and it's kinda recommended.

For removing the filters on GC games you should simply Force Video modes to either NTSC or PAL60 depending on the region... Although I just let it at PAL60 and it worked on both anyways.

I don't use USB Loader GX to boot GC games, I just go to the Nintendont app on my HBC, but I imagine there's settings for all of that on it.

 

[KungBore]

Some Wii games display in 480i rather than 480p, so you can try forcing them to 480p. In Wii individual game settings, set Video Mode to ‘Force PAL480p’ or ‘Force NTSC480p’ depending on the game's region. If that doesn't work then also set ‘Dol Video Patch’ to On..

Oh, it worked with MadWorld! I had to enable "Force NTSC480p" and set "Dol Video Patch" to on.

Edit: It didn't work with Tenchu tough. Maybe it just won't work with everything.

I guess it's a setting in the Nintendont section of the ULGX settings?
BTW I have noted that most GC games output 480i for NTSC and 576i for PAL, although some NTSC games allow you to select progressive at the start which gives 480p. For 480i games again there is probably a setting for forcing progressive in the Nintendont section?.

Yes, it is! I've managed to get it to work with Shrek 2 (non-native 480p) and Smash Melee (native 480p) by enabling "Force NTSC480p", but I'm not sure I noticed any difference in Time Splitters Future Perfect.

The default setting is 'Auto' which doesn't do anything, so if a game has a deflicker filter it is still applied.
Off (safe) will turn off a deflicker filter if it is being applied. This is a safe way of doing this and so can be applied as a setting for all games if you wish.
For some games 'Off (safe)' doesn't work and so you can try the more aggressive setting of 'Off (extended)', but it can break fade and brightness effects in some games, so will need testing.

Ok, thanks!

 

[ca032769]

I recently purchased this enclosure and confirmed its working nicely with the wii
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B082HKY2LW

Edit: a few different times over the years I've gone on Amazon and bought an enclosure for 10-15 bucks and they've all always worked. Cheap enclosures, go figure they'd have decent compatibility.

Hey, what size is the largest drive you've used the enclosure on? Looking to see if the controller board does what is needed to support the larger than 2TB drives we've been discussing?

 

[XFlak]

500GB, unfortunately the largest 2.5" drive I have is 1.5tb so I can't even test it for you, that plus I gave it away already.

 

[Nintendo Maniac]

Hey, for all we know the next USB Loader GX update will include RVZ support and therefore maybe a 2TB hard drive will be more than enough?


(I don't actually know how much disk space is required for all of the Wii games when compressed as RVZ, I'm just making a joke...)


Alternatively, if the next USB Loader GX update includes SD card support, then you could instead go the insane route and buy a giant batch of SD cards and go the cartridge-like route and set things up to have one game per SD card and have the console auto-boot the game located on the according SD card (it's my impression that USB Loader GX is able to auto-boot directly to a game, and we already know that you can make a bootmii-enabled console directly boot to USB Loader GX)

 

[one-piece]

Hi, does the new blackbox official release apply the 480p fix patch to VC and WiiWare games?

 

[blackb0x]

@one-piece Yes. Although the 480p fix is very subtle.