Hacking vWii - Is there a WiiU-specific version of USB Loader GX or something? I am having a lot of trouble.

[Cyber Akuma]

Mainly, I am having a ton of trouble trying to get it to load anything from a USB drive. 99% of the time it will hard-lockup on the "Initialize USB Device" message... and by "hard" I mean not even holding down the power button shuts off the system, I am forced to physically unplug it.

I Googled several suggestions that said try switching the Loader's IOS from the default 249 to 58.... and it stopped the lockups, but it's not seeing any games on the drives.

I tried the very same drive that works perfectly on my Wii (fat32 for homebrew/gc and ntfs for Wii), a USB harddrive formatted in NTFS, a USB harddrive formatted in FAT32/WBFS (which was my old Wii HDD before I migrated to NTFS), and a USB Flashdrive formatted to NTFS.

It can see the drive, it's game partition, and it's partition size....... but sees 0 games on it.

The only thing that seems to work is if I format a USB Flashdrive with a single WBFS partition.

I really would far prefer to be able to get a FAT32/NTFS drive working on this. I keep the USB loader itself and it's covers/data as well as my GameCube images on the FAT32 section, and my Wii games (because I do actually have some games larger than 4GB) on the NTFS section. This setup has zero problems working on my actual Wii and has worked for years..... so I am confused why it's not working on the vWii of my WiiU.

 

[tmnr1992]

Which backup loader are you using? I would advise trying the latest version of usb loader gx, then check your paths and make sure they are correct. One time the loader couldn't find my games because the paths changed from USB to SD. I think it had something to do with having the loader on both my usb and my sd card.

 

[godreborn]

iirc, there is no vwii specific usb loader. there is when it comes to forwarders, I believe, but not the app itself. I use 1271, because it loads my usb hdd faster than 1272. I haven't tried any experimental builds.

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remember, wii games have to be in a folder named wbfs and cube games go in a folder called games. it can be a fat32 drive. don't make it a wbfs drive.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Which backup loader are you using?

USB Loader GX, latest version.

I would advise trying the latest version of usb loader gx, then check your paths and make sure they are correct.

Like I said, literally plugging my drive which works perfectly in my Wii into my WiiU still didn't work. Without IOS58 it would lock up, with it, it sees the drive and it's partitions, but sees 0 games. The drive is FAT32/NTFS.

iirc, there is no vwii specific usb loader. there is when it comes to forwarders

I'll need to keep that one in mind when I install a forwarder.

it can be a fat32 drive. don't make it a wbfs drive.

I use NTFS for my Wii partition so it can handle the games that are over 4GB, the FAT32 partition is for the loader itself and GameCube games...... at least, that's how it works on my Wii. But my WiiU seems to ONLY be able to handle USB Flashdrives with a single WBFS partition..

 

[godreborn]

you can have fat32. wii backup manager will split the game into wbfs and wbf1. but yeah, I think you can use ntfs anyway. @alexander1970 might have an idea. he's well versed in usb loader gx. @Cyan was one of the developers if not the developer for it, so he may have a clue as well. you might need to show your syscheck.

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it's like this:

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btw, I did the same as you. I used the same hdd. aside from different emunands for the vwii and neek, everything is pretty much the same. I had no issues. if you use emunand with ustealth, you have to replace the fat library for one of the cios versions or else it will take you back to usb loader gx when you try opening the game. @Cyan is the one who told me about the fat library. it's in the ustealth thread from what I remember. he's very helpful, knows almost anything you could imagine about getting the wii or vwii stuff working.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

you can have fat32. wii backup manager will split the game into wbfs and wbf1. but yeah, I think you can use ntfs anyway.

Yeah, I know they can be split, but since I want to use these files interchangeably between my Wii, WiiU, and Emulators I don't want to deal with that mess, it's a lot easier having a single file per game to manage than multiple. Using NTFS fixes that issue now that pretty much all the major loaders support it for Wii titles. Like I said, I had this working this way on my Wii for years.

Also, something I missed....

I use 1271, because it loads my usb hdd faster than 1272

The latest version of USB LOader GX is 1272? The latest version I was able to find was 1721. Does it have any fixes in regards to this?

 

[godreborn]

1272 is the latest official version, @blackb0x has continued developing the app after @Cyan took a break. I haven't used any of those builds. one thing you might see is if wii games are checked in what's displayed (one of the icons at the top). it will have nand, emunand, wii games, gc games. you want all but nand usually.

 

[blackb0x]

My version of the loader has better NTFS support and accurate parition size detection. And the bootup stage was reworked a little, so depending on your drive you might find it to be a little faster.

https://gbatemp.net/posts/8856063

I'd suggest deleting the USB Loader GX config file prior to using using my version. That way you'll get some new default settings applied.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

Thanks, I'll have to try experimenting with that when I have time again. The NTFS and partition size detection sounds like exactly what I need personally.

EDIT: Hmm, that link you posted seems to be the version I was using, though as I said I was on 1271 not 1272. Did I get the right link? The /releases page doesn't seem to have compiled versions either.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Mainly, I am having a ton of trouble trying to get it to load anything from a USB drive. 99% of the time it will hard-lockup on the "Initialize USB Device" message... and by "hard" I mean not even holding down the power button shuts off the system, I am forced to physically unplug it.

I Googled several suggestions that said try switching the Loader's IOS from the default 249 to 58.... and it stopped the lockups, but it's not seeing any games on the drives.

I tried the very same drive that works perfectly on my Wii (fat32 for homebrew/gc and ntfs for Wii), a USB harddrive formatted in NTFS, a USB harddrive formatted in FAT32/WBFS (which was my old Wii HDD before I migrated to NTFS), and a USB Flashdrive formatted to NTFS.

It can see the drive, it's game partition, and it's partition size....... but sees 0 games on it.

The only thing that seems to work is if I format a USB Flashdrive with a single WBFS partition.

I really would far prefer to be able to get a FAT32/NTFS drive working on this. I keep the USB loader itself and it's covers/data as well as my GameCube images on the FAT32 section, and my Wii games (because I do actually have some games larger than 4GB) on the NTFS section. This setup has zero problems working on my actual Wii and has worked for years..... so I am confused why it's not working on the vWii of my WiiU.

The Wii U's USB ports don't provide enough power for a HDD so you need to either be using an externally powered drive, powered hub or a Y-cable to give the drive extra power.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

The Wii U's USB ports don't provide enough power for a HDD so you need to either be using an externally powered drive, powered hub or a Y-cable to give the drive extra power.

Yeah I know, I used a Y-cable for the HDD that holds my WiiU games, but that doesn't explain why a USB 2.0 Flashdrive doesn't work unless it's also formatted as WBFS.

 

[godreborn]

Yeah I know, I used a Y-cable for the HDD that holds my WiiU games, but that doesn't explain why a USB 2.0 Flashdrive doesn't work unless it's also formatted as WBFS.

the wii u especially doesn't like flash drives. some work; others don't.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Yeah I know, I used a Y-cable for the HDD that holds my WiiU games, but that doesn't explain why a USB 2.0 Flashdrive doesn't work unless it's also formatted as WBFS.

Flash drives just don't work well with USB loaders in general.

 

[blackb0x]

EDIT: Hmm, that link you posted seems to be the version I was using, though as I said I was on 1271 not 1272. Did I get the right link? The /releases page doesn't seem to have compiled versions either.

There's a 7z file attached to that post.

When you're using my version it'll say something like "3.0 Rev. 1272 mod (e25c4e5)" at the bottom left of the screen as the loader boots.

 

[Radrian]

Are you booting the loader through a forwarder on your Wii u by chance?
I had the same problem with nintendont, loading it from a forwarder made it so it couldn't open the usb device, but booting it from the vwii homebrew channel worked just fine.

 

[Cyber Akuma]

I was using the homebrew loader, but I installed a forwarder now.