Hacking WiiFlow - an open source GUI USB-Loader

[Maxternal]

Fix94 - I didn't see anything like this posted on the WiiU forums and was wondering if you might know if anyone is working on this or something similar...

As you know the WiiU takes over the entire USB drive with some unknown format when it starts up (if you accept the recommendation to format the drive). Instead of worrying about users accidentally formatting a FAT32 or NTFS volume loaded with old Wii games when they start their WiiU - could we do something like the old WBFS partitioning scheme and decipher how the WiiU stores files on that partition and then write a utility like the old WBFS Manager or the WiiBackupManager to maintain Wii game images on the drive?

I have WiiFlow and other homebrew running on the WiiU in emulation mode but I'm afraid one of my kids is going to accidentally format the drive when they turn the WiiU on.

The problem is that the Wii U format is encrypted and the cIOS is expecting it to be unencrypted on the hard drive. I'm sure you could just overwrite a random part of the Wii U formatted drive with the unencrypted wii disk image but you would have to do it in such a way that the wii U wouldn't find out and since we can't read the encrypted contents of the drive we don't know if we're overwriting something important so the hard drive couldn't actually have any wiiu stuff on it. The wii U would have to think it's empty but formatted.

 

[bostonBC]

The problem is that the Wii U format is encrypted and the cIOS is expecting it to be unencrypted on the hard drive. I'm sure you could just overwrite a random part of the Wii U formatted drive with the unencrypted wii disk image but you would have to do it in such a way that the wii U wouldn't find out and since we can't read the encrypted contents of the drive we don't know if we're overwriting something important so the hard drive couldn't actually have any wiiu stuff on it. The wii U would have to think it's empty but formatted.

Ah nuts, I didn't know the drive format was encrypted. Darn Nintendo... hopefully they have very unsecure keys

 

[fledge68]

The problem is that the Wii U format is encrypted and the cIOS is expecting it to be unencrypted on the hard drive. I'm sure you could just overwrite a random part of the Wii U formatted drive with the unencrypted wii disk image but you would have to do it in such a way that the wii U wouldn't find out and since we can't read the encrypted contents of the drive we don't know if we're overwriting something important so the hard drive couldn't actually have any wiiu stuff on it. The wii U would have to think it's empty but formatted.

could you let wiiu format the hard drive and then use easus partition app to shrink it down and add a second partition in fat32 or ntfs? Just an idea.

 

[fledge68]

yo guys, got a quick question:
how EXACTLY would i go about setting a ''combined view'' for my wiiflow sources?
im talking about the "MAIN" sources, would i need to seperated them by commas?
""source= wii, emunand, dml"
or do i have to manually select them each time i start wiiflow by clicking B on the icon?
we all love wiiflow more each revision! THANX!

sorry no you can't make a button to select all the MAIN sources. you will have to click B on each button

 

[bostonBC]

could you let wiiu format the hard drive and then use easus partition app to shrink it down and add a second partition in fat32 or ntfs? Just an idea.

I actually checked that after the WiiU formatted the drive but EaseUS couldn't find any partition - it picked it up as a blank drive needing initialization.

So it looks like Nintento is blanking/filling the place where the normal partition tables are kept.

Really nasty since some folks will accidentally init and format the drives by mistake when they plug it into the PC.

Until they decrypt the formatting I don't think we will be able to have a WBFS-like partition or normal FAT32/NTFS ones.

Will have to live with worrying about it being formatted at startup or find a drive with a power switch that works on the Wii and tell the kids to not switch it on until they have launched Wii emulation mode.

 

[Geren]

Given that retroarch wii 0.9.8 is out, in order to update the plugins I should only have to replace the old plugins and redirect the inis to new ones, right?

 

[Maxternal]

Given that retroarch wii 0.9.8 is out, in order to update the plugins I should only have to replace the old plugins and redirect the inis to new ones, right?

Theoretically, yes. If any don't work just let us know.

 

[izzydeank]

Is there anyway to make a plugin for mame wii? I'd really like one for wiiflow, but I don't know how to go about modding the .dol to make it work.

 

[wiikey]

Anybody know if they is a way to hide the display name of roms in wiiflow ie so its just a emuflow of cover art with no game names shown

 

[izzydeank]

Anybody know if they is a way to hide the display name of roms in wiiflow ie so its just a emuflow of cover art with no game names shown

You should be able to open your theme.ini with either notepad (on windows) or TextEdit (Mac) and change the coverflow font color to #00000000 and then save it. The titles should no longer show.

 

[fledge68]

Anybody know if they is a way to hide the display name of roms in wiiflow ie so its just a emuflow of cover art with no game names shown

you'll need an empty.ttf font. if you have any of the themes i posted a while back it might already be in one of the theme folders. or you could google it and download it. you will need to put it in the theme folder for the theme you want to edit and then modify the theme.ini for that theme with a text editor. look for [COVERFLOW] under that you will see font= that's where you put the name of your empty font with it's extension and then save. now the titles won't show up.

edit: this will affect all flows not just emuflow. the only way to hide in emuflow only is to edit emuflow by going into emuflow mode and then settings and select adjust coverflow and you'll have to change the title position and maybe even a few other title settings so that the title is offscreen

 

[MassiveRican]

Theoretically, yes. If any don't work just let us know.

I was under the impression that Fix94 made some changes to most dol's to have them work as WiiFlow plugins.

 

[AbdallahTerro]

Original Retro dols should work fine as plugins without any modifications.
I was planning to update the dols to v0.9.8.1 but found out that latest prboom is giving display issues and dumps.
I'll test the other dols and see which ones can make it to the plugin folder

 

[izzydeank]

Original Retro dols should work fine as plugins without any modifications.
I was planning to update the dols to v0.9.8.1 but found out that latest prboom is giving display issues and dumps.
I'll test the other dols and see which ones can make it to the plugin folder

So are you saying that the mame wii dol should work without modification? Or were you only talking about the retroarch dols?

 

[MassiveRican]

He means RetroArch dols.

 

[AbdallahTerro]

yep, and looks like all new retroarch dols have a weird display issue, lower part of screen is missing!?
So, no updates for now, until devs look into this issue

 

[MassiveRican]

I don't seem to have any of those issues at least not launching games through retroarch itself. I wasn't planning on updating wiiflow plugins until after Fix94 and devs say its all good.

Another strange problem I'm having. I've seen it reported by others but upon starting a fresh install with r871 WF did not recognize my game partition. I chose USB2 as usual, but WF fails to find wii games. I have to go through Source Menu choose an emu or eNAND then choose Wii games for WF To recreate lists and games to appear. I'm not sure if this is related strictly to a source menu issue or not. I have not attempted a clean install w/o source menu in ages.

 

[drakorex]

So is it a concern to anyone that when multiple sources are selected, that it uses the wii/gc flows instead of emuflows?
So gameboy games are squished and snes/n64 games are flipped/stretched. How much trouble would it be to make each game set use the proper dimensions?

 

[fledge68]

So is it a concern to anyone that when multiple sources are selected, that it uses the wii/gc flows instead of emuflows?
So gameboy games are squished and snes/n64 games are flipped/stretched. How much trouble would it be to make each game set use the proper dimensions?

I'm 90% sure that each cover can not have it's own dimensions. Because of the way coverflow is designed as soon as you change a dimension it affects all the covers. Nobody said combined view would be perfect.

Also, you know you could go to 'Adjust Coverflow' and change one or two relgular coverflows to match say snes emuflow or gba emuflow.

 

[drakorex]

Ya I know I could make yet another coverflow but I'd still have the same problem. It'd be good if the coverflow could autoswitch based on the plugin ini of the game selected. But I understand if its too difficult.