Hacking WiiFlow - an open source GUI USB-Loader

[bostonBC]

Hey guys, happy easter!
Finally after 4 months I think its time to give out 4.1.1, according to my svn program we changed 143 files, so I'm not sure if I'll get everything written down in this small log. Currently I dont have much time because of important life stuff, so I cant remember everything done in those 4 months here. Let me just name a few important changes to you:
-changed back the homebrew bootup size, should fix homebrew booting for the 3tb+ hdd users
-hardcore speedup for channel booting using the real dol instead of loading the apploader, added a gui option per game to switch back to boot apploader if its needed for compatility reasons, with that real dol we can also finally do patching, so you can force video modes, languages etc in your wiiware and virtualconsole stuff
-made the wii disc light option also compatible with wii games and channels, if you enable this option the disc light will always be on if you play the game where you enabled it
-fixed up the wiimote controls, now should be working better with extensions like nunchuk and classic controller, unwanted problems like when pressing c on the nunchuk makes the coverflow going left are fixed this way
-changed our ios patching system, that means people with the issue of missing text in wiiflow should finally see everything just fine again
-FINALLY added a option to use the usb port 1, just check out the startup options in the general settings, as soon as you selected the port there and you go back wiiflow will apply that change on the fly, also this option is working per wii using our wiiflow save file, so if you use wiiflow on another wii it will use the options set from this wii and not on your own one
-updated the gc disc 2 support, now you can finally handle both discs separate, so for example if you hide disc 2 it wont hide disc 1 too, also improved the devolution support, more filenames are getting checked (gam1, gam2 and disc2 compared to gam1 only)
-added a random game booting option, simply press b on the question mark icon to boot some random game in your current coverflow
-added a way to combine multiple coverflows, only works if you use wiiflow packs for the source menu, then you can simply press b on the pictures of the coverflows you want to combine, go back and everything is mixed
-fixed the configuration file handling of wiiflow when they are on a NTFS partition
-added the dios-mios screenshot feature option, you can set it per game
-after returning wiiflow from a game etc you now will get back to the coverflow you were in before, it wont just reset back to the wii game coverflow anymore
-if only one music file exist which is played then wiiflow wont show that information in the top corner of the screen
-and last but not least, wiiflow is a bit faster, cleaner and more compatible, things got cleaned up alot again
I guess thats it, if you find more things consider them as easter egg
Download on google code as always.

Wow! Awesome work, thanks Fix94!

Really appreciate all of your continued efforts.

 

[jackson pesto]

682kb, thats the default size of a cached wii or gc game cover, now the question is why do you have randomly named ones somewhere on your drive? And does that happen with that new rev as well? Or does it just happen since the new rev?

"Massiverican: However what I have been getting for a while are 682 kb randomly named files on the root of my USB drive whenever I use the plugins. Today it was 5, o, m, ypg, it's crazy, no extension but they are damn near 1Mb so it could definitely be problematic if you never delete the files. I always delete em' but I don't know what the fak they are or why they're showing up but again my guess is plugins. Can anyone else confirm if they're getting this issue?"


Hello. I too have this EXACT issue with wiiflow. The problem started somewhere in the r830's for me. Every newer revision I have tested has also had this problem. I have gone all the way back to r828, it is now working fine again. I am surprised more people have not reported this problem.

 

[MaxMinecraft532]

So i have a probelm with WiiFlow. When i try to load black ops i get a black screen here is my SYSCheck

Email: [email protected]

sysCheck v2.1.0b19 by Double_A and R2-D2199 Nano
...runs on IOS58 (rev 6176).

Region: NTSC-U
System Menu 4.3U (v513)
Priiloader installed
Drive date: 2007.02.13
Homebrew Channel 1.1.0 running on IOS58
HomebrewFilter ist nicht installiert
Hollywood v0x11
Console ID: 122987319
Boot2 v4
Found 117 titles.
Found 56 IOS on this console. 6 of them are stub.

IOS3 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS4 (rev 65280): Stub
IOS9 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS10 (rev 768): Stub
IOS11 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS12 (rev 526): No Patches
IOS13 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS14 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS15 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS16 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug ES Identify Flash Access NAND Access
IOS17 (rev 1032): No Patches
IOS20 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS21 (rev 1039): No Patches
IOS22 (rev 1294): No Patches
IOS28 (rev 1807): No Patches
IOS30 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS31 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS33 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS34 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS35 (rev 3608): No Patches
IOS36 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug ES Identify NAND Access
IOS37 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS38 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS40 (rev 3072): Stub
IOS41 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS43 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS45 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS46 (rev 3607): No Patches
IOS48 (rev 4124): No Patches
IOS50 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS51 (rev 4864): Stub
IOS52 (rev 5888): Stub
IOS53 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS55 (rev 5663): No Patches
IOS56 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS57 (rev 5919): No Patches
IOS58 (rev 6176): USB 2.0
IOS60 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS61 (rev 5662): No Patches
IOS62 (rev 6430): No Patches
IOS70 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS80 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS90 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug
IOS202[60] (rev 65535 Info: hermesrodries-v6): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS222[38] (rev 4 Info: hermes-v4): Trucha Bug ES Identify NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS223[38+37] (rev 4 Info: hermes-v4): Trucha Bug ES Identify NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS224[57] (rev 65535 Info: hermesrodries-v6): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS236 (rev 54321): Trucha Bug ES Identify NAND Access
IOS245[37] (rev 21008 Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS246[38] (rev 21008 Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug ES Identify NAND Access
IOS247[53] (rev 21008 Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS248[55] (rev 21008 Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS249[56] (rev 21008 Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS250[57] (rev 21008 Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS251[58] (rev 21008 Info: d2x-v8final): Trucha Bug NAND Access USB 2.0
IOS254 (rev 65281): BootMii
BC v6
MIOS v65535

Report generated on 2013/03/31.
http://syscheck.softwii.de/QCNf7cuW

 

[Maxternal]

With all of Maxternal's pluginifying of DM and devo, it made me wonder, is it yet possible to use multiple versions of DM at once? That is, can could we use the latest build for the majority of games, but have it boot with an earlier version for any games that may have gotten broken?

Well, unfortunately the DM(L) plugin runs the same copy of DM(L) as everything else. The Neek2o plugin is supposed to also be able to run GameCube and Wii games using Neek2o+DI ... BUT I haven't been able to successfully test that part yet and I've heard that there's a problem with Neek2o that even if I were to have done it right in the plugin it wouldn't be able to run GameCube games correctly because that's just broken on the Neek2o side.

HOWEVER

Theoretically if you had a different version of DM(L) installed in your Neek2o emuNAND you could make another INI for that plugin and just have the rom folder and the file types point to the dummy files folder for GameCube games and it would work.

 

[triptophan]

How would I set the INI to look at my emunand over my real nand for the mios?

 

[Maxternal]

How would I set the INI to look at my emunand over my real nand for the mios?

(No promises this will even work but here's the what you would do assuming you already had the DM(L) or GX-GC plugins working and have Neek2o installed.)

1. Make a copy of the Neek2o.ini file under a different name.
2. Open the new copy.
3. Change it to something like this

[PLUGIN]
arguments={name}
bannersound=GC.ogg
consolecoverid=nintendo
covercolor=000000
coverfolder=GC
displayname=Neek2o GC
dolfile=neek.dol
filetypes=.iso|.GC
magic=6e65656b
returnloader=yes
romdir=wiiflow/GC

(changing magic number, file types, rom folder and (optionally) banner sound, cover folder and display name)

 

[triptophan]

That makes so much more sense than trying to edit the Gamecube plugin. You get a free hug!

 

[drakorex]

Ok, another idea. As of now, what purpose do the plugin settings serve? I think it would be better if each plugin had its own settings that mirror the settings of the program that is launched. For example, some ps1 games work better with frame skip, some don't. Some N64 games work better with different control schemes than others. It'd be so much more convenient to set those options once in wiiflow and then launch the game rather than having to fiddle with settings every time you launch a different game. An alternative option as far as control settings might be to compile altered dols that each write different configurations to different app folders, but I think the first idea is much more elegant. I'm interested to know how Fix and Fledge feel about this.

I suppose that should be back burnered for now. I just tried to recreate my cache using hq covers, buffer set to 40, and a few loaded then stopped. I tried to download one that didn't show and it said not enough memory. Also tried a clean install. It fails to create an ini so I had to manually create a blank one before it would write it. When it started up, the blank text came back til I themed it. When I switched from one theme to another, it dumped then rebooted with the selected theme. What gives?

 

[masterjakeway]

just came st report similar out of memory issues.
it took me changing some settings before the wiiflow.ini was created.
I didn't have any real issues recreating cover cache except in emunand.
gives me a real headache!
that and plugins. but, wii and GameCube seemed to work fine.
I get the plugins, since there are a whole bunch. but, my emunand has less than the number of wii games in my wbfs folder.

 

[MassiveRican]

I just tried to recreate my cache using hq covers, buffer set to 40, and a few loaded then stopped. I tried to download one that didn't show and it said not enough memory. Also tried a clean install. It fails to create an ini so I had to manually create a blank one before it would write it. When it started up, the blank text came back til I themed it. When I switched from one theme to another, it dumped then rebooted with the selected theme. What gives?

Refer to my Mass Cover Caching Guide for tips on clean install cover caching. I got it down pretty good, I cache often since I'm a collector for retro games and use all covers on Mastershoes's thread.

If it helps let me know, I definitely saw an increase in performance and stability while caching. When u finish could you let me know what you're caching? In other words plugin games, GC, Wii Games or if you're doing it in combined view, and if you're using SD or USB setup? Also if any random named files w/no extension popped up on the root of your USB while caching, they'll be 682kb files if you check the properties.

just came st report similar out of memory issues.
it took me changing some settings before the wiiflow.ini was created.
I didn't have any real issues recreating cover cache except in emunand.
gives me a real headache!
that and plugins. but, wii and GameCube seemed to work fine.
I get the plugins, since there are a whole bunch. but, my emunand has less than the number of wii games in my wbfs folder.

I'll try a clean install with the latest rev and see if it creates wiiflow.ini when I get home tonight.

 

[MassiveRican]

Guys on a clean install, other than a slightly longer boot time for initial boot ( Which is normal), everything went smoothly. Couldn't reproduce either issue.

 

[matt0620]

Hello all.

If anyone is interested, I've created a WiiColEm plugin for WiiFlow.
https://mega.co.nz/#!JF4gSBKY!C1bJLH5jOXkry5f4Q08_lHLDneZ2XjD2Et3u5jdeNeo

 

[AbdallahTerro]

Hello all.

If anyone is interested, I've created a WiiColEm plugin for WiiFlow.
https://mega.co.nz/#!JF4gSBKY!C1bJLH5jOXkry5f4Q08_lHLDneZ2XjD2Et3u5jdeNeo

Thanks matt, I'll test it and add it to the pack if all is good

 

[AbdallahTerro]

Coleco plugin working gr8
Oh, (@Fix94 or @Fledge68) I found a bug in 4.1.1 (894) that needs confirmation by other users.
Custom missing covers are not showing only default one shows
i used rev 888 to take these screenies so it must be something very recent:

Spoiler

@matt0620 I've added the plugin to the extracted pack with the custom missing cover, I hope I'll make a new 7z pack when the bug is fixed
Hopefully BlueMSX is next

Edit: more testing and found that bug started in 892

 

[MassiveRican]

Coleco plugin working gr8
Oh, (@Fix94 or @Fledge68) I found a bug in 4.1.1 (894) that needs confirmation by other users.
Custom missing covers are not showing only default one shows
i used rev 888 to take these screenies so it must be something very recent

Hopefully BlueMSX is next

Edit: more testing and found that bug started in 892

Confirmed. It's been happening to me since r892 as well. I just thought there was something wrong with my setup due to all the changes I've been making recently. I didn't have time to troubleshoot. Now I know it's not just me.

Also @Fledge68 an empty frame around banner is showing again for Wii/GC games with FanArt. didn't test out WiiWare yet. I loved the fix u provided in the past would it be possible to implement it again?

Can anyone confirm that in 4.1 combined view is broken as well. Whenever I hit "B" it cancels out of the source menu regardless of which icon I'm on.

 

[mastershoes]

Hello all.

If anyone is interested, I've created a WiiColEm plugin for WiiFlow.
https://mega.co.nz/#!JF4gSBKY!C1bJLH5jOXkry5f4Q08_lHLDneZ2XjD2Et3u5jdeNeo

Working great, thankyou very much for this! Would you by chance be interested in doing a plugin for wii7800?? It's another one of Raz0red's ports with the same setup & gui as wiicolem, so i would assume it would be a very similar (if not the same) process to convert it to a plugin?

Either way.. thanks again, been waiting for this one!

 

[jackson pesto]

"Massiverican: However what I have been getting for a while are 682 kb randomly named files on the root of my USB drive whenever I use the plugins. Today it was 5, o, m, ypg, it's crazy, no extension but they are damn near 1Mb so it could definitely be problematic if you never delete the files. I always delete em' but I don't know what the fak they are or why they're showing up but again my guess is plugins. Can anyone else confirm if they're getting this issue?"


Hello. I too have this EXACT issue with wiiflow. The problem started somewhere in the r830's for me. Every newer revision I have tested has also had this problem. I have gone all the way back to r828, it is now working fine again. I am surprised more people have not reported this problem.

Hello again. Has anyone a solution to this problem?

 

[fledge68]

@MassiveRican - can you tell me what revision the tv frame started showing again. I looked at the recent changes fix94 did but can't see any changes to the code that displays the tv frame.

edit: just tested r894 and r895 and tv frame doesn't show during fanart. there is slight pause or stutter when moving left or right to next game when changing from a non fanart game to a fanart game but the tv frame hides when showing fanart. are you sure it's not theme related. what theme are you using?

 

[MassiveRican]

@MassiveRican - can you tell me what revision the tv frame started showing again. I looked at the recent changes fix94 did but can't see any changes to the code that displays the tv frame.

edit: just tested r894 and r895 and tv frame doesn't show during fanart. there is slight pause or stutter when moving left or right to next game when changing from a non fanart game to a fanart game but the tv frame hides when showing fanart. are you sure it's not theme related. what theme are you using?

I'm using the Carbonik-Abz theme. It's the only theme that has the TV frames for. I haven't configured any other themes ini to have that feature. How about the combined view source menu feature, is that working for you still?

Hello again. Has anyone a solution to this problem?

Hi jackson pesto, unfortunately time is limited for the devs right now, however fix94 did respond, so he's aware of the issue. We just have to be patient. In the meantime it's not breaking anything so we can enjoy what we have until a fix is found.

 

[fledge68]

@massiverican - yes combined view works too. are you sure you didn't replace your boot.dol with a really old version before I patched the tv frame and added combined view?