Wii U Internal Storage Upgrades are possible

[SDIO]

I was able to setup isfshax together with minute and stroopwafel on my console with everything loading from slc. Big thanks to @shinyquagsire23 for helping me with that and @rw-r-r-0644 for isfshax.
This will allow the use of unlimted mlc without defusing the console and without needing a SD to boot.
But this is still far from release and time has to tell how stable isfshax really is. Remember, isfshax adds an error to the slc file system on purpose. If something goes wrong, defuse and a backup is required to unbrick it.

Also the boot1@slccmpt thing for defuse also worked (but not with the current defuse release)

 

[Ysecond]

I was able to setup isfshax together with minute and stroopwafel on my console with everything loading from slc. Big thanks to @shinyquagsire23 for helping me with that and @rw-r-r-0644 for isfshax.
This will allow the use of unlimted mlc without defusing the console and without needing a SD to boot.
But this is still far from release and time has to tell how stable isfshax really is. Remember, isfshax adds an error to the slc file system on purpose. If something goes wrong, defuse and a backup is required to unbrick it.

Also the boot1@slccmpt thing for defuse also worked (but not with the current defuse release)

My idea is very impolite, but is it possible for me to test this? I am not afraid that the console will become brick, and if it is permanently damaged, I will not be angry.If my ideas make a foolish mistake, please forgive me.

 

[Valery0p]

I was able to setup isfshax together with minute and stroopwafel on my console with everything loading from slc. Big thanks to @shinyquagsire23 for helping me with that and @rw-r-r-0644 for isfshax.
This will allow the use of unlimted mlc without defusing the console and without needing a SD to boot.
But this is still far from release and time has to tell how stable isfshax really is. Remember, isfshax adds an error to the slc file system on purpose. If something goes wrong, defuse and a backup is required to unbrick it.

Also the boot1@slccmpt thing for defuse also worked (but not with the current defuse release)

Glad to know things are progressing!
Nice to hear about boo1@slccmpt.

Honestly I don't see isfshax being used widely for several reasons, but maybe I'm wrong...

 

[SDIO]

What would be your resons for rather soldering defuse, then using isfshax, if you had the choice?

Post automatically merged: Jul 30, 2023

My idea is very impolite, but is it possible for me to test this? I am not afraid that the console will become brick, and if it is permanently damaged, I will not be angry.If my ideas make a foolish mistake, please forgive me.

If you really want you can try it. Just be sure you are able to recover it it, if things go south. As long as you can defuse and have a slc + slccmpt backup you should be able to recover.

Everyone who considers trying this: please don't, except you know exactly what you are doing and how you can recover it. No guarantees from y side, you do everything on your own risk.

Also disable the standby services, as they are incompatible with isfshax.

This contains a few folders:

Installer this is the isfshax installer, I didn't modify it, just built it from https://github.com/isfshax/isfshax_installer. It is a standard fw.img that you can load with wa fw.img loader. If you launch tiramisu or aroma and press B a menu comes up, where you can select it. For that loader you need the fw-encrypted.img and put it as fw.img on the SD. This installer will install the superblock.img.

minute_superblock this contains a custom superblock.img based on minute_minute boot1. You need to place it together with the sha file on the SD, so the installer can find it. Once installed it will do the following: when the Wii U is turned on, it will try to load slc:/sys/hax/fw.img if it doesn't find one, it will try to load fw.img from the sd. Both the fw.img on the SD and the one on the SLC need to be unencrypted. If you press the power button again after turning on (till the led becomes static purple) it will skip the load from SLC and directly go to the SD load (in case you messed the SLC fw.img up)

Notes for building from source:
This branch https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/minute_minute/tree/isfshax-boot1 (191fb62) has a Makefile.isfshax, it will produce a isfshax_stage2-strip.elf This was concatenated with the stage2ldr.bin from the upstream isfshax https://github.com/isfshax/isfshax and from that the superblock.img was built with the isfshax.py.

make -f Makefile.isfshax
cat ../isfshax/stage2ldr/stage2ldr.bin isfshax_stage2-strip.elf > ../isfshax-master/boot1.img
cd ../isfshax/
python3 isfshax.py boot1.img superblock.img

minute_isfs_toleration this is a standard minute, but with added toleration for isfshax, so it can load the IOSU from slc. This is what you would put on the SD card as fw.img after the installation of isfshax. If everything went well the minute menu should show up, when you turn on the wii u. But if you try to Boot the IOSU, it will crash. For that you need a stroopwafel patch, you find it in hax/ios_plugins/isfshax.ipx it was built from https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/wafel_isfshax_patch . You use it like any other stroopwafel patch.

hax this folder can be copied to slc:/sys/ it contains a minute fw.img that was modified to directly load IOSU and plugins from SLC, without showing a menu. It searches the plugins in slc:/sys/hax/ios_plugins. Because isfs doesn't support long filenames, wafel_core.ipx needed to be changed to core.ipx.
It was built from https://github.com/jan-hofmeier/minute_minute/tree/isfshax-boot1 using the standard Makefile.
The core.ipx is a slightly modified stroopwafel, without a wupserver and more importantly coded to reload from slc:/sys/hax/fw.img instead of the sd. So with that setup you can run completely without sd once installed.

If you want to use that with the unlimted mlc, you still need to copy that ipx in the appropriate ios_plugins folder. For the slc one you need to rename it an give it a shorter name.

EDIT: known problems: refresh of the isfshax superblocks is not yet implemented. (the original isfshax stage2 did that)

 

[Ysecond]

Niubi！I love it！
Thank you for your explanation and sharing . It is very detailed and specific. @SDIO
I will read thoroughly to understand before proceeding with the steps.

 

[SDIO]

I noticed together with the stroopwafel redNAND isfshax would also allow us a completely solder less mlc replacement, as long as you are still able to run the recovery for inital install of isfshax. But this will to take a little more work.
I would still preferring to do the NAND-AID replacement, but I think isfshax + redNAND could be a good alternative for people for which soldering is not an option.

 

[Ysecond]

May I ask if this connection is correct? Is that only need to connect A+, A -, B+, B -, GND, 5V？
We designed this PCB, but I couldn't properly connect the hard drive and install the title.
Could you give me some tips? Is that other settings do we need to make in the minute menu?

 

[SDIO]

I didn't try the SATA stuff yet, that was all done by @QuarkTheAwesome . Can you show your wiring? Do you see any messages related to mlc or sata in the console?

 

[Ysecond]

Can you show your wiring? Do you see any messages related to mlc or sata in the console?

Yes, of course，there are also console logs, please take a look.

 

[SDIO]

You need to keep the traces of a differential pair right next to each other without and or anything in between.
But not sure if that is the problem here.
Maybe just wait for quarky.

It says that the SATA link becomes ready but not the device. Can you check how the log looks like when no sata device is connected?
For now you neither need the setup or the destroy plugin. If we don't see a mlc01 device, they won't do anything anyway

 

[Ysecond]

keep the traces of a differential pair right next to each

I will fix it in the next version.

Maybe just wait for quarky.

Yes, that's a good idea!

 

[SDIO]

Ok, now we are getting link not ready. So maybe it's really the routing of the diff pairs. But not sure...
Maybe try another SATA device or try setting to GEN1

 

[Ysecond]

We tested gen1, gen2, HDD * 2, SDD * 2, and fly wire connections. We tested again and again. I must have made a mistake, but I haven't found it yet.

 

[betik]

Awesome stuff