Hacking WiiFlow Lite

[fledge68]

Been using USB Loader GX for years but wanted to give WiiFlow Lite a try after seeing some of the amazing videos of people's setups. Specifically, I'd like to try out setting up all the various emulators and roms with cover art. I was just wondering if there are easy to follow instructions on how to set everything up? I've read the first post here which links to other threads for themes, plug-ins, etc and each one of those threads has links to other threads for more things. I tried watching a few YouTube videos for guidance but a lot of them just say that they zipped everything up already and to just download their pack and you're good to go. Which I never like doing as I'd rather get the files straight from the source and learn how to set it up myself so if I have problems I know how to troubleshoot and fix myself. I'm sure with enough reading and trying it for myself I'll figure it out. Just wondering if there was a road map of what needs to be done that I can follow to help me along. Thanks.

that's the problem. there is no clear road map to follow. everyone wants different setups. some want everything on SD and others USB and still others prefer some on SD and some on USB. the source menu doesn't come with WFL download because it used to be not everyone wanted or needed it. i should probably make one and provide a download. for now most people just get the rhapsodii shima theme which comes with his source menu. the source menu has options too, do you want the standard buttons and pages menu or do you prefer the sourceflow with cover images which has even more options, box covers or flat covers and cover sizes and coverflow layouts.

some people don't know that while viewing the source menu or sourceflow you can press the HOME button to go to a setup menu. the setup menu allows you to hide source menu buttons/covers you don't want to see and don't use. plus you can link a button/cover to a different plugin. for example say the SNES button uses snes9x gx and you would rather use a retroarch snes core. there's even the option to set the path to the roms folder for each plugin.

I would download and install WFL.
download and install rhapsodii shima theme and source menu.
follow the installation.txt included in the download to switch to using his theme and sourceflow or source menu and even homebrew flow setup.
no plugin covers or buttons will work yet, until you download and install the plugins pack.

download and install the plugins pack 2023 and follow the instructiions. i know you don't want to install all the plugins and clutter your SD or USB with useless stuff but it's the easiest way to install it and like i said while viewing the source menu or source flow you can press HOME controller button to go to the setup menu and hide the ones you don't want or use.

and to enhance the pluging emulators experience don't forget to download and install the plugin database files. with the database installed you can view the game images in the upper right with the game cover and press + to go to the game info menu read info about the game and view the game image and cartridge/disc/disk.

 

[Powerful]

@fledge68 so I have downloaded Wii flow lite awhile ago since v3 and themes have always worked through 4.5.3. The issue I am having lately is I updated to 4.5.4 and installed the newest update for the Rhapsodii Shima theme and installed it. It looks great and functions perfectly. For some reason when I launch my GameCube games it freezes on a black screen and never loads. When I use the default theme they launch fine though. I removed all files from the sd card and redownloaded all of them but still have the same issue no matter what settings I use. I load GameCube games through Nintendo MMMod latest version and it’s always worked with themes until now. I have reported this to the dev of the theme hoping for an answer as I’ve tried everything I can think of, but no luck. I am hoping reporting this to you will help get it fixed thanks!

 

[RunningSnakes]

Read this issue on @Tetsuo Shima theme thread also. I hope you have made the necessary settings through WFL...

Game Partitions:
GameCube Partition = USB1

Startup Settings:
Mount SD only = No
______

I completely had to reinstalled WFL from scratch with WFL 5.5.4, i had many issues trying to migrate from 554 beta2 . It is common knowledge/practice to use fresh data, but i have a habit of testing waters.

I have tested 8 GameCube games with WFL 5.5.4 with no issue. All are working correct. I honestly believe your Nintendont files are the culprit.

It has happened to me on a few occasions throughout the years with garbage Nintendont releases from unreliable sources. As we all know to damn well, newer does not mean better or improved.

Here is what i use for GC/Nintendont, if it does not work on your end, please make sure you remove the settings folder inside the wiiflow folder.

Hope you find your solution.

 

[Powerful]

Read this issue on @Tetsuo Shima theme thread also. I hope you have made the necessary settings through WFL...

Game Partitions:
GameCube Partition = USB1

Startup Settings:
Mount SD only = No
______

I completely had to reinstalled WFL from scratch with WFL 5.5.4, i had many issues trying to migrate from 554 beta2 . It is common knowledge/practice to use fresh data, but i have a habit of testing waters.

I have tested 8 GameCube games with WFL 5.5.4 with no issue. All are working correct. I honestly believe your Nintendont files are the culprit.

It has happened to me on a few occasions throughout the years with garbage Nintendont releases from unreliable sources. As we all know to damn well, newer does not mean better or improved.

Here is what i use for GC/Nintendont, if it does not work on your end, please make sure you remove the settings folder inside the wiiflow folder.

Hope you find your solution.

This fixed it so I guess I am gonna try to see if it’s the MMMod version or just a certain setting on it now. Thanks!

 

[worm28]

Im having an issue with Wiiflow Lite v5.5.4 i cant get emunand to work from SD it just gives a DSI Exception whenever i try to load a wiiware or virtual console game the games and banners show up but when i click start game its DSI Exception no white loading bar or nothing. I have tried it on three different Wiis three different sd cards and three hard drives all have the same issue the games load fine from USB does anyone have any advise?

 

[ukigh4ie2]

gives a DSI Exception

Would you be so kind and share the DSI exception information with us?

 

[worm28]

Would you be so kind and share the DSI exception information with us?

This is the error screen it gives me.

 

[RunningSnakes]

@worm28

I experienced the same issue as you with emunand from SD. Forcing cios 249 worked on many games and 250 on some games, 251 on very few for me. I actually was recording my progress to post here when finished with around 110 top games. Needless to say, i got frustrated after around 75-80 games and needed a break, and as always i got sidetracked with other projects and forgot about it. However i will finish testing my remaining 20-25 games and post results in the next few days. USB emunand with neek2o runs perfect with 5.5.4 but it seems SD compatibility has taken a serious hit with default settings.

 

[grandosegood]

hey all,

i'm trying to get all sources to show up, so my friends and family can just scroll through all available games.
the sources would be: wii, gamecube, emunand and sysnand. however, there doesn't seem to be a way to add sysnand, and then have all options be visible. Ideally, it would be setup similar to usb loader GX, where all games available show up on a list, rather than subcategories. does anyone have any advice? Thanks.

 

[jayteef]

I have a WiiFlow install from probably about two years back that I’m wanting to update. I see the installation note in post #1 about how to update and what to back up.

Do I also need to run the channel forwarder creator again? Update the priiloader file?

Post automatically merged: Dec 30, 2023

Edit: I went ahead and did clean installs of channel forwarder and priiloader. Now having some real troubles with updating.

Updated WFL and Rhapsodii Shima at the same time, following instructions on their forum pages. At first WFL seemed to work fine and the new SDTV theme worked well too.

However I am finding that most of my Wii games fail to launch (most of the time they simply take me back to WiiFlow, at least once I got stuck on a black screen). Some games (Wii Sports Resort, Mario Party 9) load fine while others (Wii Sports, Mario Party 8) fail.

Initially I got error messages trying to load Virtual Console games on emunand as well (more on this in a sec).

GameCube games seem to load fine.

Things got even weirder when I tried turning off the Rhapsodii Shima SDTV theme. I set theme to default to see if that eliminated any problems. Now the Wii doesn’t see any of my VC games that were previously giving me errors. Wii games still have trouble loading. And especially weird: I can’t change back to Rhapsodii Shima! Any attempts to change the theme back just give me the default theme again.

Edit2: I am running everything from SD

Edit3: I got my theme and emunand VC to load again by changing the setting for “mount SD only” to “no” but it doesn’t seem to have solved anything else. I saw earlier in the thread fledge had posted some alternate WFL builds, I guess I’ll try those out and report back. Also added photo of error when loading emunand VC titles

Edit4
Tried both of @fletch68 alternate WFL zips from up above, no change, still can’t get VC games or certain Wii games to load.

Edit5: at this point considering backing up my games and wiping the SD card, starting totally fresh. Ugh.

 

[RunningSnakes]

I have a WiiFlow install from probably about two years back that I’m wanting to update. I see the installation note in post #1 about how to update and what to back up.

Do I also need to run the channel forwarder creator again? Update the priiloader file?

Try clicking/highlight on any game then go into settings and force 249 [56] as IOS. This should fix almost all Wii game issues and most WiiWare. You will have to do this on each individual game as the IOS boot sequence uses [58] slot [251] by default and it seems using SD is the issue. Through USB, this issue does not exist. If you still have issues, force IOS 250 on individual games.

WFL using [58] as default has really crippled SD users. I remember this was an issue for USB GX also, which is a major reason i stopped using that loader altogether as an alternate.

One would think forcing 249 in default settings would fix this issue but that is simply not the case. The SD user MUST do this manually for each individual game that will not boot.

 

[jayteef]

Try clicking/highlight on any game then go into settings and force 249 [56] as IOS. This should fix almost all Wii game issues and most WiiWare.

Thanks! I’m in the process of setting up a fresh SD card to see if it makes any difference, and if not I’ll try that next.

Maybe it’ll be worth it to just get a USB drive, but the SD is just so clean and simple.

Post automatically merged: Dec 31, 2023

Alright, well, I got both Wii games and VC games launching that weren’t working before by forcing IOS 249.

Gotta figure out how I want to finish this off now that my SD card and WFL install are in shambles. (Managed to delete my custom menu music! )

 

[fledge68]

Try clicking/highlight on any game then go into settings and force 249 [56] as IOS. This should fix almost all Wii game issues and most WiiWare. You will have to do this on each individual game as the IOS boot sequence uses [58] slot [251] by default and it seems using SD is the issue. Through USB, this issue does not exist. If you still have issues, force IOS 250 on individual games.

WFL using [58] as default has really crippled SD users. I remember this was an issue for USB GX also, which is a major reason i stopped using that loader altogether as an alternate.

One would think forcing 249 in default settings would fix this issue but that is simply not the case. The SD user MUST do this manually for each individual game that will not boot.

thanks for replying and helping. i've noticed quite a few people have trouble with the new 'AUTO' IOS/cIOS option. yes changing each games' ios to 249 or 250 seems to fix it. wish i had more free time to look into it and fix it.

 

[impeeza]

thanks for replying and helping. i've noticed quite a few people have trouble with the new 'AUTO' IOS/cIOS option. yes changing each games' ios to 249 or 250 seems to fix it. wish i had more free time to look into it and fix it.

Happy new year!!! my best wishes to you.

 

[jayteef]

thanks for replying and helping. i've noticed quite a few people have trouble with the new 'AUTO' IOS/cIOS option. yes changing each games' ios to 249 or 250 seems to fix it. wish i had more free time to look into it and fix it.

no idea if I could actually successfully build from source, but maybe I’ll take a look at the code and see if I can’t figure out the specific problem.

What was the intent behind the new auto CIOS option?

 

[wiinuos]

Hi I'm very new to the community so please disregard my noobiness. I have gx loader fully working and wanted to get WFL as its beatiful and seems to have a lot going for it. Games show and are loaded with covers however when I try launch a game I get the WFL logo then black screen and wii resets to wii menu. I managed to get one game to work which was new super mario bros 2 which is odd and had a play around with forced cios but to no avail.

EDIT: I am using latest WFL, SD only

 

[sockscap]

My Wii console is 4.3J (Japan region). With a new WiiFlow Lite setup, the text of most options in settings menu doesn't show, until I switch the language to English. I quickly go through the languages, and find the issue occurs mainly on CJK (Chinese/Japanese/Korea) languages. Does it require addditional font or something else?

 

[Deleted member 688789]

Is it possible to implement the pair my ds 4 library into Wiiflow, so you can use a ps4 controller for navigating the loader?

 

[Deleted member 688789]

Can Wiiflow read a split iso?

 

[jeannotte]

Can Wiiflow read a split iso?

Yes

your media must be FAT32 and use wii backup manager to manage your games