Hacking WiiFlow - an open source GUI USB-Loader

[Mantis41]

I finally got the nand emulation up and running after a lot of reading and a reasonable amount of derp from myself. I finally worked out that partion 0 is the SD, 1 is the FAT32 and 2 is the NTFS and they can be easily changed along with the directories in Wiiflow.ini. Yes! I am a slow learner.

Everything is running great, games, channels and homebrew. That is, until a Pokemon crazed 8 year old hops on and quickly finds battle revolution, pokepark and pokepark 2 all end in a black screen after the safety information screen. It was easily fixed by disabling the nand emu for those games. It is strange that as far as I can tell only the pokemon games were affected, even some of the more troublesome titles are working fine.

This is probably not an issue for most of you unless you have a pokemon crazed youth in the household.

Thanks to all for the hours spent on development. It's a bitch to set up but well worth the hassel once it is all running.

 

[macmanhigh]

I finally got the nand emulation up and running after a lot of reading and a reasonable amount of derp from myself. I finally worked out that partion 0 is the SD, 1 is the FAT32 and 2 is the NTFS and they can be easily changed along with the directories in Wiiflow.ini. Yes! I am a slow learner..

Do u have ur nand at root of partition or in subfolder in "nand" folder?I was always confused bout this tried countless setups n No Go...

When i load Wiiflow n try loading nand it shows my sd apps,channels,DL....
It does create the nand folders in my paritions but doesnt load

 

[MassiveRican]

I finally got the nand emulation up and running after a lot of reading and a reasonable amount of derp from myself. I finally worked out that partion 0 is the SD, 1 is the FAT32 and 2 is the NTFS and they can be easily changed along with the directories in Wiiflow.ini. Yes! I am a slow learner.

Everything is running great, games, channels and homebrew. That is, until a Pokemon crazed 8 year old hops on and quickly finds battle revolution, pokepark and pokepark 2 all end in a black screen after the safety information screen. It was easily fixed by disabling the nand emu for those games. It is strange that as far as I can tell only the pokemon games were affected, even some of the more troublesome titles are working fine.

This is probably not an issue for most of you unless you have a pokemon crazed youth in the household.

Thanks to all for the hours spent on development. It's a bitch to set up but well worth the hassel once it is all running.

Good to hear u got it working, sad to hear it was troublesome. Ultimately the main goal of Wiiflow is to have as little to no hassle in setting up, and be as noob friendly as possible.

@[member='EtheBoss'], [member='fix94'], [member='Mugotu'] or anyone else that has pretty good technical expertise can you explain to me the difference between Vipatch and patch video modes and how they work together with video modes if possible?

Thanx, but you are giving me too much credit..although i have been around for a few years now, this part has me confused too..

No worries then, I'm going to try and find out if someone can help me out if I get a good explanation maybe we can add to the wiki what those things are all about.

 

[petspeed]

I just installed DML r58 and tried it in Wiiflow mod r224. It works ok even though there are some issues with the two GC games I got but I guess that is for the DML team and not the Wiiflow-mod team.

However the games don't start with default settings. I need to enable the No-DVD patch for each game otherwise the Wii turns off when I launch a game because I don't have a DVD in the drive. I can't find a general/default setting for either the No-DVD patch or NMM anywhere. I have looked in the settings in Wiiflow and in the wiiflow.ini file. Is it possible to set it once and for all instead of having to set it for each game? I assume there must be because in the settings for each game I can choose default. It's no problem now that I only have 2 games but my collection will probably grow in the future.

Thanks

ok Covers r showing but i try to add GC iso's thru WBFS Manager but no go

Use Crediar's DiscEX for that. Fix94 made a nce guide for that here: http://gbatemp.net/topic/318585-how-to-create-and-use-dml/

 

[MassiveRican]

Also GC covers not showing up in Wiiflow....


:Edit: Is there a way to make GC titles appear with Wii titles?like all in same grouping or sumthing.......

refresh your cache by hitting "B" button over the settings icon (gear/cog) you "should" see the rest then.
If you put the GC games in the wbfs folder you will be able to see the GC games along with the Wii games.

ok Covers r showing but i try to add GC iso's thru WBFS Manager but no go

Well pretty much all you have to do is convert the ISO w/Discex or the wiiflow-mod GC Dumper, afterwards just place the folder it creates in your WBFS folder manually. WBFS manager and GC ISOS's don't get along right now, just use your OS to transfer the folder manually, the link to the guide PetSpeed put above also has a wealth of useful information on how to get things done.

 

[Mantis41]

Do u have ur nand at root of partition or in subfolder in "nand" folder?I was always confused bout this tried countless setups n No Go...

When i load Wiiflow n try loading nand it shows my sd apps,channels,DL....
It does create the nand folders in my paritions but doesnt load

I did a full dump of my existing NAND using SFSD and moved the results to /nand/ folder in partition 1, fat32 on the HDD. I figured this the best way so I still had all my channels and saves. I have attached a copy of my wiiflow.ini. I had to edit a few of the locations manually to make it all work properly.

Spoiler

Wiiflow.ini

[DML]
always_show_button=no
dir_usb_games=games
dml_r52+=yes
update_cache=yes

[FANART]
enable_fanart=yes

[GAMERCARD]
dutag_key=
dutag_url=http://tag.darkumbra.net/{KEY}.update={ID6}
gamercards=wiinnertag|dutag
gamercards_enable=no
wiinnertag_key=
wiinnertag_url=http://www.wiinnertag.com/wiinnertag_scripts/update_sign.php?key={KEY}&game_id={ID6}

[GAMES]
cheat=no
current_item=RRBP41
dump_list=no
last_cf_mode=1
lastlanguage=EN
partition=2
save_emulation=3
savepartition=-1
savepath=/nand/
sort=0

[GENERAL]
allow_texture_compression=yes
async_network=no
b_lr_mode=no
box_mode=yes
compress_cache=no
country_patch=no
cover_buffer=120
cover_prio=32770
data_on_usb=yes
dir_box_covers=usb2:/wiiflow/boxcovers
dir_cache=usb2:/wiiflow/cache
dir_cheat=usb2:/wiiflow/codes/gct
dir_fanart=usb2:/wiiflow/fanart
dir_flat_covers=usb2:/wiiflow/covers
dir_languages=usb2:/wiiflow/languages
dir_list_cache=usb2:/wiiflow/cache/lists
dir_music=usb2:/wiiflow/music
dir_screenshot=usb2:/wiiflow/screenshots
dir_settings=usb2:/wiiflow/settings
dir_themes=usb2:/wiiflow/themes
dir_trailers=usb2:/wiiflow/trailers
dir_txtcheat=usb2:/wiiflow/codes
dir_wip=usb2:/wiiflow/codes/wip
dpad_mode=no
exit_to=0
favorites_on_startup=no
game_language=0
hidechannel=no
hideviews=no
keep_png=yes
language=0
max_fsaa=3
music_directories=3
music_fade_rate=8
parent_code=
randomize_music=no
reload_block=no
returnto=DWFA
sound_volume_bnr=255
sound_volume_coverflow=255
sound_volume_gui=255
sound_volume_music=255
theme=DEFAULT
tv_height=480
tv_width=640
tv_x=0
tv_y=0
update_cache=no
url_custom_flat_covers=http://art.gametdb.com/wii/cover2/{loc}/{gameid}.png
url_custom_full_covers=http://art.gametdb.com/wii/coverfullHQ2/{loc}/{gameid}.png
url_flat_covers=http://art.gametdb.com/wii/cover/{loc}/{gameid}.png
url_full_covers=http://art.gametdb.com/wii/coverfullHQ/{loc}/{gameid}.png|http://art.gametdb.com/wii/coverfull/{loc}/{gameid}.png
use_grab=no
video_mode=0
vipatch=no
waitmessage_wiilight=yes
watchdog_timeout=10
wiimote_gestures=no

[HOMEBREW]
current_item=
disable=no
dump_list=no
last_cf_mode=1
lastlanguage=EN
parental=no
partition=1
sort=0
update_cache=yes

[NAND]
cheat=no
current_item=HAYA
disable=no
dump_list=no
emulation=2
last_cf_mode=1
lastlanguage=EN
partition=1
path=/nand/
sort=0

Good to hear u got it working, sad to hear it was troublesome. Ultimately the main goal of Wiiflow is to have as little to no hassle in setting up, and be as noob friendly as possible.

LOL, now I feel really thick.

 

[MassiveRican]

Good to hear u got it working, sad to hear it was troublesome. Ultimately the main goal of Wiiflow is to have as little to no hassle in setting up, and be as noob friendly as possible.

LOL, now I feel really thick.

Lmao, by no means did I mean to insult you, I meant that one of the primary goals of wiiflow is to ultimately need as little input from the user as possible to have everything work right away the right way, and that is another thing to look forward to in the near future. However, it takes prepping up when it comes to nand emu stuff, there's work that comes into play that has nothing to do with WiiFlow, like creating a NAND dump, adding games or saves to the NAND and whatnot, things that are more towards advanced users but still not horribly difficult

Main thing is u pulled it off and it will be easier overall with the next few releases.

 

[macmanhigh]

I got a 1 TB HD Partitioned into 3......

NTFS - i keep my movies n tv series backed up here
FAT32 - Nes Snes Genesis n all retro roms here
Unformatted - Wii games

i modded my wii a while back used Wiifow as my Loader of choice always never could get emu nand working
so i put nand content to FAT32 NTFS SD n edited the hell outta my wiiflow.ini n No Dice
i think maybe i should wait for another release maybe

Thx in advance for the help chaps really appreciate it much

 

[Gaiaknight]

vipatch is needed so some text will actually appear on tvs properly most cases are japanese games new play control chibi robo is one of those games even setting the language to japanese will cause the letters to not display in proper japanese vipatch fixes this

 

[Mantis41]

I got a 1 TB HD Partitioned into 3......

NTFS - i keep my movies n tv series backed up here
FAT32 - Nes Snes Genesis n all retro roms here
Unformatted - Wii games

i modded my wii a while back used Wiifow as my Loader of choice always never could get emu nand working
so i put nand content to FAT32 NTFS SD n edited the hell outta my wiiflow.ini n No Dice
i think maybe i should wait for another release maybe

Thx in advance for the help chaps really appreciate it much

Wiiflow and the NAND need to be on seperate partitions.

Miigotu Says: I suggest a 2 partition setup, the first being fat32 of around 25GB, for your normal apps (other than wiiflow), and your emulated nand.
The second partition, formatted as NTFS should hold usb2:/apps/wiiflow, usb:/wiiflow, and usb2:/wbfs (your games). You dont want any wiiflow files on usb1 since your emulated nand is there and issues can occur if you try to emulate saves or nand while wiiflow is writing to configuraiton files on the same partition.
Q: How do I boot wiiflow from the hbc then?
A: Make a folder usb1:/apps/wiiflow-forwarder and put the priiloader forwarder in it as boot.dol, along with meta.xml and icon.png. This forwarder will find usb2:/apps/wiiflow/boot.dol and launch wiiflow correctly.

 

[fledge68]

off topic - how did you all become administrators? what has happened? and how do I become administrator?

 

[FIX94]

You REALLY ask that? May look at the date

 

[Etheboss]

Hahaha, well actually a few ppl seem to have really got admin rights..i hope one is not Mugotu... (JK)

See HERE

 

[macmanhigh]

I have all my Wiiflow on SD n nand on FAT32......it actually loaded!?%&!?%%?

But i try to run a Wiiware title my wiimote lost sync i had to hard reset the system......i load again & nothing!

Am i being punished by the gaming gods???

 

[FIX94]

Uploaded wiiflow-mod to r230 now.
Changes from r224 are that you can have 20 categories and select to view more than one category at a time, if wiiflow finds old 12 categories.ini it will update it to 20. Now custom case colors defined in the custom_titles.ini work again, you now have new colors available to choose from, #FFFFFF for white, #000000 for black, #FF0000 for red, #FCFF00 for yellow, #01A300 for green 1 and #00E360 for green 2. For DML the 480p possibility is only set if you have a component cable and your wii is set to 480p or you force to progressive for the game. The problem with the internal wiiflow update changelog is not displayed correctly is also fixed.

Download via internal wiiflow update or google code.

 

[macmanhigh]

Ok just updated to r230 but my covers dont refresh
ive placed in both covers & boxcovers folders in Wiiflow......i added Wiiware titles but covers not showing
i already deleted settings ini files too.....

 

[fledge68]

You REALLY ask that? May look at the date

sorry I'm old - didn't realize it was april fools day. when you get old april fools day seems like just another day.

 

[Ape8000]

A couple of ideas based on r425:

1. When downloading covers, if the HQ cover for an id# is not found, then automatically try another region.
eg. R5IX4Q has no cover so change the region from X to E and try again.

the ini value could be a single letter, or maybe more then 1 letter to specify the first, second, third try.
cover_retry_regions=EPX

2. When a game is selected in the coverflow, then update the jacket bitmap to a hi-res version instead of the cached version so it is more easily viewed. Worst case make it an option if the cover is flipped. Then use the low res when zoomed out if needed.

3. In the individual game settings, the NAND options should include regular NAND (no emulation) because you can set the default emulation in the XML to partial (emulation=1), but if you do there is no way to set a game to not use emulation.

keep up the good work.

 

[Ape8000]

EDIT - Nevermind. It was a virus checker conflict. I did a clean build after turning off the auto-sandbox and everything compiled fine.

I have dowloaded the latest devkitpro and programmer's notepad. It builds the official Wiiflow r425 properly but fails on linking. I know C but am not to fluent in C++.

This is the error. Any ideas?

Spoiler

linking ... boot.elf
cachedlist.o: In function `CachedList::Save()':
c:/Projects/wii/wiiflow/source/list/cachedlist.hpp:48: undefined reference to `CCache::CCache(safe_vector&, std::string, CMode)'
c:/Projects/wii/wiiflow/source/list/cachedlist.hpp:48: undefined reference to `CCache::~CCache()'
cachedlist.o: In function `CachedList::Load(std::string, std::string)':
c:/Projects/wii/wiiflow/source/list/cachedlist.cpp:61: undefined reference to `CCache::CCache(safe_vector&, std::string, CMode)'
c:/Projects/wii/wiiflow/source/list/cachedlist.cpp:61: undefined reference to `CCache::~CCache()'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [/c/Projects/wii/wiiflow/boot.elf] Error 1
"make": *** [build] Error 2

 

[Ape8000]

1. When downloading covers, if the HQ cover for an id# is not found, then automatically try another region.
eg. R5IX4Q has no cover so change the region from X to E and try again.

I wrote up some quick code to modify wiiflow r425 to check for the other covers. I did not add an ini setting. Wiiflow seems to be english-centric so I just check for this:
1. original id
2. original id with "US" country code.
(1&2 are the current wiiflow code, so I added
Then check for E, P, X region if they are different region then the unfound id's region

I also added a check that the size is >0. Just checking for NULL data can sometimes create 0 byte png files.

menu/menu_download.cpp from line 367

Spoiler

   for (u32 j = 0; !success && j < fmtURLBox.size() && !m_thrdStop; ++j)
{
if (j == 0) ++step;
m_thrdStep = listWeight + dlWeight * (float)step / (float)nbSteps;

download.data = NULL;
string testID;
string testCountry;
for (u32 k = 0; download.data == NULL && k  < 5; k++)
{
testID = newID;

if (k == 2)
{
if (testID[3] == 'E')
continue;
else
testID[3] = 'E';
}
else if (k == 3)
{
if (testID[3] == 'P')
continue;
else
testID[3] = 'P';
}
else if (k == 4)
{
if (testID[3] == 'X')
continue;
else
testID[3] = 'X';
}

if (k != 1)
testCountry = countryCode(testID);
else
testCountry = "US";

url = makeURL(fmtURLBox[j], testID, testCountry);
_setThrdMsg(wfmt(_fmt("dlmsg3", L"Downloading from %s"), url.c_str()), m_thrdStep);
download = downloadfile(buffer.get(), bufferSize, url.c_str(), CMenu::_downloadProgress, this);
}
if (download.data != NULL && download.size > 0)
{
if (savePNG)