Hacking UStealth - Wii U 'Format Disk' Nag workaround :)

[Cyan]

I think it's only a matter of reconnecting the drive.
When you connect it, Windows check if it has known partitions and don't see anything so it marks the drive as unpartitionned and remember that this drive is unusable.
Then you use UStealth to unhide the partitions, but windows is not checking the drive anymore until you force it to check the drive partition's presence again.
Disconnect the drive and reconnect it to force Windows to check the partitions again, now it should work fine.

Some OS may be checking the partitions regularly and doesn't require a drive remount. It seems yours require a manual remount.

 

[darkjedi187]

Thanks for the advice. I finished moving everything back and for now I have nothing else to transfer and may just leave it alone.

 

[scottay2hottay]

Will there be support for wiimc so I can watch films from the same drive or am I just being too greedy?

 

[pentolino]

Hi All,
I tried UStealth but I ended with a strange behaviour.
My wii U has been prepared following this guide
http://gbatemp.net/threads/simple-guide-to-install-cios-on-vwii-backup-nand-and-keys.339890/
I use just WiiFlow 4.2 because USB-Loader GX r1218 doesn recognize any of my USB formatted in wbfs and putting CFGUSBLoaderMODv70r65.dol on the apps folder doesn't make it appears in the HBC menu (any suggestion?).
More, in WiiFlow 4.2 I had been forced to use iOS 251 as default (no Auto) in order to let backups works. With this option set on "auto" I was receiving a black screen on any backup.
Back to the issue with UStealth, When I hide a WBFS USB with it, Wii U doesn annoy with the format message (and its ok) but if I load wiiflow backup with this USB on first slot and another formatted as Wii U storage expansion USB in the second i get a DSI error with a 10 seconds counter.
If I remove the Wii U formatted USB and redo all the steps to go back to WiiFlow with just the WBFS usb in, I get just a blackscreen. And very strange, if I take the USB back to a visible state with UStealth WiiFlow remains with a black screen like UStealth have defintely corrupted the USB drive. From a troubleshooting prospective, if I remove the USB in this situation during WiiFlow trying to load backup (USB unhidden but previously "touched" by UStealth), the loading White bar appears immediately just loading a small Sector of the loading bar (like it was waiting for something, removing the USB let the wiiflow go on but obviously it cannot find the backup).

Any idea/suggestion on my general setup and for UStealth/USB issues?

thanks!

 

[Maxternal]

Hi All,
I tried UStealth but I ended with a strange behaviour.
My wii U has been prepared following this guide
http://gbatemp.net/threads/simple-guide-to-install-cios-on-vwii-backup-nand-and-keys.339890/
I use just WiiFlow 4.2 because USB-Loader GX r1218 doesn recognize any of my USB formatted in wbfs and putting CFGUSBLoaderMODv70r65.dol on the apps folder doesn't make it appears in the HBC menu (any suggestion?).
More, in WiiFlow 4.2 I had been forced to use iOS 251 as default (no Auto) in order to let backups works. With this option set on "auto" I was receiving a black screen on any backup.
Back to the issue with UStealth, When I hide a WBFS USB with it, Wii U doesn annoy with the format message (and its ok) but if I load wiiflow backup with this USB on first slot and another formatted as Wii U storage expansion USB in the second i get a DSI error with a 10 seconds counter.
If I remove the Wii U formatted USB and redo all the steps to go back to WiiFlow with just the WBFS usb in, I get just a blackscreen. And very strange, if I take the USB back to a visible state with UStealth WiiFlow remains with a black screen like UStealth have defintely corrupted the USB drive. From a troubleshooting prospective, if I remove the USB in this situation during WiiFlow trying to load backup (USB unhidden but previously "touched" by UStealth), the loading White bar appears immediately just loading a small Sector of the loading bar (like it was waiting for something, removing the USB let the wiiflow go on but obviously it cannot find the backup).

Any idea/suggestion on my general setup and for UStealth/USB issues?

thanks!

Well, my first impression, given that only cIOS251 (based on IOS58, which has USB2.0 built in) wants to work is that your USB drive is just not compatible with the way the other cIOS work with USB 2.0. In that case, it would just be an issue with your particular model of USB drive. I'm guessing to get some loaders not to crash when they're loading you'll have to run them first with NO drive connected to USB, change the IOS setting to 251, and THEN try running it with the USB plugged in.

Other than that, WBFS format is kinda obsolete. Get wbfs2fat.py and convert that to FAT32 (more compatible and less complicated) and see if that helps at all.

Finally, in the case of CFG, if you want anything to show up in HBC, you'll have to rename the DOL file to "boot.dol"

 

[pentolino]

Well, my first impression, given that only cIOS251 (based on IOS58, which has USB2.0 built in) wants to work is that your USB drive is just not compatible with the way the other cIOS work with USB 2.0. In that case, it would just be an issue with your particular model of USB drive. I'm guessing to get some loaders not to crash when they're loading you'll have to run them first with NO drive connected to USB, change the IOS setting to 251, and THEN try running it with the USB plugged in.

Other than that, WBFS format is kinda obsolete. Get wbfs2fat.py and convert that to FAT32 (more compatible and less complicated) and see if that helps at all.

Finally, in the case of CFG, if you want anything to show up in HBC, you'll have to rename the DOL file to "boot.dol"

Thank you Maxternal, also for the boot.dol info!

I am really very ignorant about cIOS and IOS, can you suggest me any link where it's explainend how it works?

unfortunately the problem arise with 2 completely different usb sticks (sandisk 8gb vs trascend 16gb)
About the wbfs, it's what comes from "format" command in backup manger but I will follow your precious suggestion.

Anything I may try more than using other USBs, wbfs2fat and loader? Trying to collect as many options as I can before dedicating next evening to solve those issues

 

[Maxternal]

Thank you Maxternal, also for the boot.dol info!

I am really very ignorant about cIOS and IOS, can you suggest me any link where it's explainend how it works?

unfortunately the problem arise with 2 completely different usb sticks (sandisk 8gb vs trascend 16gb)
About the wbfs, it's what comes from "format" command in backup manger but I will follow your precious suggestion.

Anything I may try more than using other USBs, wbfs2fat and loader? Trying to collect as many options as I can before dedicating next evening to solve those issues

Not sure I can think of any more suggestions off hand.

If what you have is just what you get from the "format" command on Wii Backup Manager, then it's very possible that you do have the drive in FAT32 format (but that would still put the game files in a folder called "wbfs" and they'd be conveted by Wii Backup Manager into WBFS format) basically, if wbfs2fat.py converts it, it was in WBFS foramat ... if it doesn't then it's already in FAT32 format so no need to worry.

I'm not sure of a good place to learn about IOS/cIOS and all things Wii/homebrew related (although I think it WOULD be a good idea for someone to make such a page) Basically, an IOS is the go-between for Wii games and the hardware so a game doesn't communicate directly with the Wiimotes, for example, it just asks the IOS to do it for it. There are several different IOS, each has it's own capabilities. Usually, a particular game will be set to always use just one certain IOS when it runs. Most homebrew does the same thing as well, relying on the IOS to talk to the hardware for it. A cIOS (custom IOS) is an existing IOS that has been modified to add extra features (such as the ability to go to a USB drive for game info when the game is asking for it from the DVD drive) IOS58 is the only normal IOS that has USB 2.0 as one of it's features. IOS251 is basically a copy of IOS58 with those "custom" modifications made to it. The other cIOS (IOS249 and IOS250) are based on IOS56 and IOS57 which didn't already have USB 2.0 support so part of the modifications was that they had to add a USB 2.0 module in there themselves. The result of them having a different method of connecting to USB is that there are SOME drives that will only work with 251 and SOME that will only work with the other two (but the vast majority of them will work with either one)

 

[pentolino]

Not sure I can think of any more suggestions off hand.

If what you have is just what you get from the "format" command on Wii Backup Manager, then it's very possible that you do have the drive in FAT32 format (but that would still put the game files in a folder called "wbfs" and they'd be conveted by Wii Backup Manager into WBFS format) basically, if wbfs2fat.py converts it, it was in WBFS foramat ... if it doesn't then it's already in FAT32 format so no need to worry.

I'm not sure of a good place to learn about IOS/cIOS and all things Wii/homebrew related (although I think it WOULD be a good idea for someone to make such a page) Basically, an IOS is the go-between for Wii games and the hardware so a game doesn't communicate directly with the Wiimotes, for example, it just asks the IOS to do it for it. There are several different IOS, each has it's own capabilities. Usually, a particular game will be set to always use just one certain IOS when it runs. Most homebrew does the same thing as well, relying on the IOS to talk to the hardware for it. A cIOS (custom IOS) is an existing IOS that has been modified to add extra features (such as the ability to go to a USB drive for game info when the game is asking for it from the DVD drive) IOS58 is the only normal IOS that has USB 2.0 as one of it's features. IOS251 is basically a copy of IOS58 with those "custom" modifications made to it. The other cIOS (IOS249 and IOS250) are based on IOS56 and IOS57 which didn't already have USB 2.0 support so part of the modifications was that they had to add a USB 2.0 module in there themselves. The result of them having a different method of connecting to USB is that there are SOME drives that will only work with 251 and SOME that will only work with the other two (but the vast majority of them will work with either one)

Thanks Maxternal,
what do you think about my USB drives working before Ustealth hiding and not working either when unhided?
Does Ustealth changes anything permanently on the USB drive?
Does a format will bring the USB drive back to its initial and working state in your opinion?

thank you

 

[Maxternal]

Thanks Maxternal,
what do you think about my USB drives working before Ustealth hiding and not working either when unhided?
Does Ustealth changes anything permanently on the USB drive?
Does a format will bring the USB drive back to its initial and working state in your opinion?

thank you

Not sure what to tell you there. I'd think a format would be good enough to undo anything that UStealth did and I don't think it would do anything permanent but not sure why UStealth would have left it unworking like that. ... Maybe UStealth is meant more for the MBR on hard drives rather than the kind that's on USB sticks? I couldn't tell you for sure there.

 

[pentolino]

UPDATE: formatted the same USB key in FAT32, re-transferred all the backup isos with the manager, overwrited previously installed wiiflow on the wiiu and corrected the CFG to .dol, put the UStealth on.
RESULTS: everything works like a charm! Dunno what happened and I hope it will not happen again.

Thank you for your precious assistance!

 

[Muyfa666]

Is it possible to make homebrew apps compatible with Ustealth or does it have to be coded in by authors? I'm wondering about Devolution. Would be nice to use it with Ustealth...

 

[Maxternal]

Is it possible to make homebrew apps compatible with Ustealth or does it have to be coded in by authors? I'm wondering about Devolution. Would be nice to use it with Ustealth...

has to be coded by the authors.

 

[Muyfa666]

Ok. I see.

 

[Muyfa666]

Reaching for straws here... could a Ustealth app work directly in vWii mode to hide/unhide the drive? Would it be possible at all?

 

[Cyan]

Some homebrew are working natively, because they are not checking the MBR's signature, instead they are checking if they find a well-formed partition table (which is only few bytes in the MBR sector).

It's possible to have a homebrew to switch the stealth status directly on the console.
I started to add that feature to USBLoaderGX, but never tested it yet. (and I don't have 4k drives to test them).

 

[Muyfa666]

Some homebrew are working natively, because they are not checking the MBR's signature, instead they are checking if they find a well-formed partition table (which is only few bytes in the MBR sector).

It's possible to have a homebrew to switch the stealth status directly on the console.
I started to add that feature to USBLoaderGX, but never tested it yet. (and I don't have 4k drives to test them).

I'm sure you get my thinking, being able to unhide from eg. vWii homescreen, then run Devolution directly or from USBLGX, then unhide it before you shut down.

Even better would be having USBLGX handle it all, unhide-play-hide, all done automatically. Hopes and prayers? ;-)

 

[Cyan]

It can unhide before launching a homebrew, but it can't hide it automatically when exiting that homebrew because the loader is not always relaunched ("return to" not working, shutting down the console, crash, etc.)

If I add it to the loader, it will be only a manual switch (and a warning before launching homebrew) to let the user know what he is doing, and which state the HDD is currently set to.
Doing things automatically is not a good idea in my opinion, even more when it has a risk of corrupting the drive's partition table, I don't want users to criticize the loader/me for their broken hdd.

 

[Muyfa666]

Maybe a setting to auto unhide, then a button to manually both hide/unhide? Could that work?

 

[Cyan]

it's possible, but I prefer it this way :
An option (in HDD settings) to open the stealth menu, where you can see current devices' state, and switch back and forth.
If you try to launch a homebrew or EmuNAND while the drive is stealth'd, it will warn you and ask if you are sure to continue (as some homebrew are compatible, so it's best to not deactivate it automatically every time).

I don't know if/when I'll add this feature. I have another project I need to work on first.

 

[Muyfa666]

it's possible, but I prefer it this way :
An option (in HDD settings) to open the stealth menu, where you can see current devices' state, and switch back and forth.
If you try to launch a homebrew or EmuNAND while the drive is stealth'd, it will warn you and ask if you are sure to continue (as some homebrew are compatible, so it's best to not deactivate it automatically every time).

I don't know if/when I'll add this feature. I have another project I need to work on first.

This sounds really good. So you will probably add this feature down the line? If so - awesome!