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

[jammybudga777]

i have looked through the thread and the main op. but i cant find anywhere emulators that have been re-compiled to work with U-stealth (the only thing stopping me from using this right now) im guessing there isnt any yet and i need to do it myself??

 

[Guips]

Do you think it could be possible to add ustealth support to the libwupc version of Snes9xGX, FCEUGX and VBAGX from here ?

 

[gregde]

Hello everybody

So if i understand , this program (Ustealth) only works with a disk and not a partition (eg : wii games are on a NTFS partition but the disk contains also a FAT32 partition and so the goal is only to hide the Ntfs one) ?

Thank you

 

[Cyan]

you don't hide partitions, you alter the partition table.

a drive works like that:

[drive start][Partition table][partition1][partition2][partition3][partition4][drive end]

The partition table is used to tell where the 4 possible partitions starts on the drive, the format (fat32, ntfs, ext, unformated, etc.) and how big they are.
The partition table has a signature to determine if the HDD is using a partition table or if it's unformated/raw.

The WiiU is formating the drive fully
[Drive start]WiiU Format[Drive end]
No partition, no partition table are used by the console.
The WiiU is looking at the partition table signature to determine if the drive is already formated to wiiU format.

If it finds the Table's signature, it means the drive is not formated yet, and ask to format it.
If it doesn't find the Table's signature, it "think" the drive is already WiiU format, and don't ask to format it.

So, the trick with UStealth is to modify the expecting signature located in the Partition table.
The partition are untouch, they are still starting and containing all the data. The partition table is also correctly defining each partition type/size/location, only the signature is different.

The issue, is that other programs are checking the signature to determine if the drive is formated or not.
If you connect a drive with modified signature on a computer, it will think the drive is not formated because the signature is bad.

You can edit the signature on Wii or vWii (with a homebrew), or on the computer (with a program to edit the signature only, without formating the drive)

 

[75mak]

you don't hide partitions, you alter the partition table.

a drive works like that:

[drive start][Partition table][partition1][partition2][partition3][partition4][drive end]

The partition table is used to tell where the 4 possible partitions starts on the drive, the format (fat32, ntfs, ext, unformated, etc.) and how big they are.
The partition table has a signature to determine if the HDD is using a partition table or if it's unformated/raw.

The WiiU is formating the drive fully
[Drive start]WiiU Format[Drive end]
No partition, no partition table are used by the console.
The WiiU is looking at the partition table signature to determine if the drive is already formated to wiiU format.

If it finds the Table's signature, it means the drive is not formated yet, and ask to format it.
If it doesn't find the Table's signature, it "think" the drive is already WiiU format, and don't ask to format it.

So, the trick with UStealth is to modify the expecting signature located in the Partition table.
The partition are untouch, they are still starting and containing all the data. The partition table is also correctly defining each partition type/size/location, only the signature is different.

The issue, is that other programs are checking the signature to determine if the drive is formated or not.
If you connect a drive with modified signature on a computer, it will think the drive is not formated because the signature is bad.

You can edit the signature on Wii or vWii (with a homebrew), or on the computer (with a program to edit the signature only, without formating the drive)

Do you think an IOS exploit will possibly give more clues as to how the wii U format works so then it would be possible to use wii U format for wii stuff?

 

[Cyan]

no.
The WiiU format is encrypted. even if you can see how the IOS read the drive, or even if you can access the files thanks to the WiiU IOS exploit (you tell the IOS to read the files for you) when you are in WiiU mode, you will not be able to access it from vWii as you will need the encryption key and you are not in WiiU mode so the WiiU IOS will not be available.

 

[Dellguy]

Quick Question. I was able to get U Stealth to hide the hard drive (No format screen at startup) but Wiiflow won't read the drive (was working fine before) . I'm using the WiiFlow Mastermod (And updated it...even took the boot.dol from wiiflow 4.2.1 and replaced it with what I had...still nothing.) Could this be because I'm using WBFS manager, or is there some switch in the wiiflow settings I missed? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[silvers4640]

Just checking in to see if there has been any updates to emulators with ustealth compatibility?

 

[Wiimm]

The following Bash/Linux command line has the same effect as UStealth:

echo -n $'\xab' | dd of=/dev/XXX bs=1 count=1 seek=511

Replace 'XXX' by the correct device name.
For me it works perfect: Wii U ignores the USB-Stick and CFG-Loader sees the WBFS partition. I have not tested other things.

 

[pokeparadox]

I'm sorry it took so long but in all honesty I just kept forgetting to upload after work, etc.

Here: http://projectinfinity.org.uk/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=pokeparadox:temp:u-stealth-linux.7z

Is my progress in getting a version of the UStealth utility working under Linux. It's not perfect, but it does work. (No warranty implied, etc.)

Please feel free to use the existing code to improve what's there. One known bug is that it will sometimes freeze with the input stolen you have no choice but shutdown your PC.

EDIT: The source is included as are the Exe files. You will need mono to run this. It is intended to be run in linux as it uses shell commands. I doubt it will work on other OSs.
Also it require dd, parted and cut (maybe others I forgot) in order to perform the necessary operations.

 

[sammus2]

and what about the reverse? i mean how we can make the pc to read the usb already in format device from wii u? i fuck up with my saves i moved them in a usb device then i format the wii u and ofc is asking me for format the usb device. and now what if somehow i open the usb device with pc and then i add this UStealth and then maybe the wii u will read the usb with my saves? ;/

 

[Slartibartfast42]

and what about the reverse? i mean how we can make the pc to read the usb already in format device from wii u? i fuck up with my saves i moved them in a usb device then i format the wii u and ofc is asking me for format the usb device. and now what if somehow i open the usb device with pc and then i add this UStealth and then maybe the wii u will read the usb with my saves? ;/

No, that's impossible. It's encrypted, we don't have the keys. What did you do? Why did you do that?

 

[Raffdeblois41]

Big thanks, Ustealth is working

 

[chrisemersonnc]

Has anyone confirmed that USBLoader GX works with this or not on WiiU? I've tried the latest GX and the GX dol the author posted in the first post - but in both cases the HD is never found by GX. I also tried the v7 and v8 versions of the ustealth app - but in both cases there it's the same - the WiiU can't see the drive and GX can't see it either. The fact that this app hides the HDD from the WiiU is so awesome ... but so far I can't get it seen by USBLoader GX. Apologies if this has already been answered btw.

 

[Cyan]

USBLoaderGX is compatible with UStealth mode.

But a lot of drives have issues on vWii (even without UStealth!)
First, be sure your drive works with USBLoaderGX without hidding your drive. if it doesn't work then it's not related to UStealth, but you either don't have enough power, or you have a drive not compatible. (there's a known issue where some drives don't work on vWii)

 

[chrisemersonnc]

USBLoaderGX is compatible with UStealth mode.

But a lot of drives have issues on vWii (even without UStealth!)
First, be sure your drive works with USBLoaderGX without hidding your drive. if it doesn't work then it's not related to UStealth, but you either don't have enough power, or you have a drive not compatible. (there's a known issue where some drives don't work on vWii)

Thanks man. I have confirmed that my drive works-but when I hide it with this application it stops working with either the GX build in this thread or the one I got from the main website. I guess I'll try a few more times.

 

[Cyan]

don't use the one in this thread (very old)
don't use "3.0" it doesn't support UStealth.

use the latest revision, it's in my signature.

 

[chrisemersonnc]

don't use the one in this thread (very old)
don't use "3.0" it doesn't support UStealth.

use the latest revision, it's in my signature.

Totally worked - Thanks! Any chance anyone has made a vWii Channel Forwarder for your version of GX? Not life/death but would be icing on the cake since it would skip a whole loading step for HBC.

Either way - THANK YOU again! UStealth [v8] and GX now working here!

 

[Cyan]

yes, look in the first post of USBLoaderGX thread, there's a link to vWii forwarder.

edit:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/f..._GX-UNEO_Forwarder_5_1_AHBPROT_vWii_(Fix).wad

 

[chrisemersonnc]

Can someone test the stealth'd version?

Hey man - not sure if someone already reported in but this works for me! Thanks a bunch! Finally wiixplorer works with UStealth!