Hacking WiiWare / VC, having trouble launching with USB Loader GX and neek2o

[Cyan]

never delete an IOS.
keep them outdated, or update them. up to you, like I said these 2 system files are only related to gamecube disc and gamecube mode of the Wii, but don't delete them.
and, yes, they would fit in the wii disc tray, it's meant to detect the size and works just fine.


okay, now back to neek:

You said you have a functioning emuNAND made using modmii compatible with neek. you could launch, shutdown, launch it again.
so we will assume the folder containing your emuNAND is now "good and clean".
I'll assume it contains all IOS. (but we can verify that later)


- make a copy of that folder ! (zip it, whatever).
it might be useful if your emuNAND gives you "system file error" message again.

- now that you made a copy, we can start experimenting.

- do you have other wad files, or only the non working game you desperately try to play ?
if you have other wads, I'd prefer starting with them to confirm your emuNAND works fine, in both cIOS and neek mode.

do you have cave story, or la Mulana ? (these are working on cIOS mode just fine)
do you have Castlevania rebirth ? (this one is working only in neek mode)
if not, we will work with another game of your choice, preferably not the non working one.

- connect only the HDD. Only ONE USB plugged ! connected to USB Port 0 (bottom on Wii). Don't use flashdrives.
- current IOS should be fine, whether d2x or IOS58, but let's set it to 58 to remove a random variable.
- go to usbgx, settings > credit : verify your current IOS Slot: 58 ? 250 ? 249 ? set it to 58 ! (loader's settings > loader's IOS : 58 and reboot)
- go to usbgx, settings > features > wad manager. install a wad from the same region (NTSC-U) to that emuNAND.
only one, don't install 50 of them in batch.
- preferably, don't install a game which reads Miis if you didn't create any Miis on neek yet.
- set emuNAND mode to full.
- launch the game. it should work fine in cIOS mode.
exit, shutdown, go back to usbgx and launch neek from features menu. verify it boots fine and installing a (working) wad didn't corrupt the emuNAND. You can even try launching the game you installed to verify it works in both cIOS mode and now in neek mode too.

 

[NJBoss]

never delete an IOS.

Got it!

and, yes, they would fit in the wii disc tray, it's meant to detect the size and works just fine.

Whoa. I always assumed 3" mini discs (Gamecube, mini CDs, whatever) could only work in a tray type unit, not a slot loader.

You said you have a functioning emuNAND made using modmii compatible with neek. you could launch, shutdown, launch it again.
so we will assume the folder containing your emuNAND is now "good and clean".
I'll assume it contains all IOS. (but we can verify that later)

I still have the clean NAND generated by ModMii. Neek was launched from UGX, restarted a few times, no weirdness going on there. Since then, I have not installed VC / WW WADs to that NAND. Since then, I have also updated the iOS's of sysNAND but I don't think that has to do with our Neek testing. For cIOS, our preferred mode, maybe it does. Back to that in a moment...

- make a copy of that folder ! (zip it, whatever).
it might be useful if your emuNAND gives you "system file error" message again.

Already done. All that is is the pl_us folder. It's sitting on computer hard drive. Is that what you're asking me to keep safe somewhere?

do you have other wad files, or only the non working game you desperately try to play ?
if you have other wads, I'd prefer starting with them to confirm your emuNAND works fine, in both cIOS and neek mode.

do you have cave story, or la Mulana ? (these are working on cIOS mode just fine)
do you have Castlevania rebirth ? (this one is working only in neek mode)
if not, we will work with another game of your choice, preferably not the non working one.

I have all of those. ;-)

- connect only the HDD. Only ONE USB plugged ! connected to USB Port 0 (bottom on Wii). Don't use flashdrives.
- current IOS should be fine, whether d2x or IOS58, but let's set it to 58 to remove a random variable.
- go to usbgx, settings > credit : verify your current IOS Slot: 58 ? 250 ? 249 ? set it to 58 ! (loader's settings > loader's IOS : 58 and reboot)
- go to usbgx, settings > features > wad manager. install a wad from the same region (NTSC-U) to that emuNAND.
only one, don't install 50 of them in batch.
- preferably, don't install a game which reads Miis if you didn't create any Miis on neek yet.

• I have Mii's on sysNAND
• I have the Mii Channel on the emuNAND
• I haven't created any Mii's in the emuNAND channel

With that said, which game to install / test with?

- set emuNAND mode to full.
- launch the game. it should work fine in cIOS mode.
exit, shutdown, go back to usbgx and launch neek from features menu. verify it boots fine and installing a (working) wad didn't corrupt the emuNAND. You can even try launching the game you installed to verify it works in both cIOS mode and now in neek mode too.

All of this is 100% straightforward. Will be easy to follow these steps when I get a chance tonight. Will report back with my results.
As for setting the iOS, will I / should I change that from 58 to something different after we finish our testing? Not sure what the "best" setting would be for future use. Thank you!

 

[NJBoss]

The quick notes...

Failure. Cave Story and Castlevania Rebirth are both region-free. Maybe that is important info? The NAND being used is NTSC. Not really sure how region-free would give issue to any NAND region but uhh...

That's cIOS mode in UGX. Loader iOS set from 249 to 58. Reboot and confirmed 58 is active. Game iOS remains at 249. I only tried Cave Story. The error message? Corrupt system files.

I even went back and tried setting game iOS to 58, just for kicks. UGX tells me it didn't find that iOS installed... and after clicking through that message, game iOS was set to 200.

I'm ALMOST ready to give up but, we've got this far. My next step will be replacing the NAND files on the SD card and trying to initialize that... and then repeating the above steps. Unless I missed something? Thanks!

 

[NJBoss]

Replaced the relevant files on SD and USB with the "clean" files generated by ModMii. Specifically of note is the NAND on the USB.

Boot Wii. HBC, UGX. emuNAND and emuNAND Channel Path both set to USB\nands\pl_us iOS 58 is set, reboot and confirm UGX is using iOS 58. Launch need from Features. This time, black screen took a little longer. Maybe 30 seconds? Set date, time, etc. Use Home button, Wii Menu to reboot Neek successfully. Shut down console, turn back on. HBC, UGX, install WADs. emuNAND mode set to Full. Launch Cave Story by cIOS and... black screen for about 20 seconds... System files are corrupt message.

Really, what the fuck. Ugh.

EDIT - Good news, both games work under Neek! UGX, Fatures, launch Neek system menu. I'll try to individually edit the game settings under UGX to autoboot Neek but you're saying Cave Story works under cIOS so... why force Neek to be used? Then the issue of corrupt system files still needs to be addressed...

 

[Cyan]

I even went back and tried setting game iOS to 58, just for kicks. UGX tells me it didn't find that iOS installed... and after clicking through that message, game iOS was set to 200.

you decided to do things without being asked to.
that's never a good idea when debugging and when someone else is assisting you.
you can't set a game's IOS to a non cIOS slot ! cIOS are specifically used to redirect game's files to external devices ! if you expect the original IOS to play your emuNAND located games then Nintendo would have added that features by default and cIOS wouldn't be required.


cave story tells you system error in cIOS Full mode?
that's very strange, I know this game works fine in cIOS mode, with d2x v8 final (I never test v10 r52 but it's identical to v8 final).
did you verify that both global and individual settings were set to use cIOS mode full ?
global should be set to :
Game's IOS : 249
EmuNAND Save : disabled
EmuNAND Channel : Full
invidividual setting should be set to : use global
IOS : use global

Replaced the relevant files on SD and USB with the "clean" files generated by ModMii. Specifically of note is the NAND on the USB.

Again, you did things before I asked. So I understand:
you completely deleted your working emuNAND folder and went back to replace it with a "non initialized" emuNAND folder generated from modmii ?



Maybe the issue is a bad setting ?
did you try to reset the loader's settings?
did you try to reset the game's settings? just to be sure video mode is correct, that game is not trying to active any patches, video mode, cheats, aspect ratio, etc.


Another thing to try.
get your working pl_us backup again.
go to usbgx
be sure it's using slot249 this time (instead of 58)
install cave story
try to launch it in cIOS mode.

 

[NJBoss]

cave story tells you system error in cIOS Full mode?
that's very strange, I know this game works fine in cIOS mode, with d2x v8 final (I never test v10 r52 but it's identical to v8 final).

Yes, UGX settings set to Full emulation, not Partial or whatever the other option is. Yes, it is strange. Yes, d2x v8 final is what I remember seeing on the Credits screen AFTER reverting to iOS 249 FROM 58. In other words, tested this with iOS 58 as the loader setting. Then tested again with iOS 249 as the loader setting.

did you verify that both global and individual settings were set to use cIOS mode full ?
global should be set to :
Game's IOS : 249
EmuNAND Save : disabled
EmuNAND Channel : Full
invidividual setting should be set to : use global
IOS : use global

Yes, precisely! This matches my settings.

you completely deleted your working emuNAND folder and went back to replace it with a "non initialized" emuNAND folder generated from modmii ?

Yes, correct. usb\nands\pl_us was replaced with the "clean" pl_us from ModMii. I then went through the steps to initialize it (Features - Launch neek system menu - set date, time, etc). From Neek sys menu, Cave Story and Castlevania Rebirth launch! So, at least that's some good news?

Maybe the issue is a bad setting ?
did you try to reset the loader's settings?

Now that you said it, yes, I tried that. The one notable setting that I saw change back in UGX loader settings was video mode. Before resetting settings, it was set to System Default. Resetting settings changed this to Disc Default. I think. Sorry, not in front of it at the moment.

Another thing to try.
get your working pl_us backup again.
go to usbgx
be sure it's using slot249 this time (instead of 58)
install cave story
try to launch it in cIOS mode.

I think I answered this above. Could not launch in cIOS mode.
Thank you for dealing with the frustration with me. Hopefully we can figure out the solution.

 

[Cyan]

at least, rebirth works fine in neek, which means your neek setup is (I suppose) good.
cave story works too, but this is strange it doesn't work in "full" mode.

what size is your HDD ? maybe it's just too big.
if the partition is bigger than 2TB, then the size is reported as negative value (the Wii is 32 bit, not 64bit, and therefore anything bigger than 32bit is wrong).
if the game checks how much space is available to create the savegame, and it finds less than 0, then it'll give an error.

again, THIS is why I really hate doing tests and debugs on USB.
Neek SHOULD BE ON SD CARD !

debugging with USB is always bad. it can be a bad setting, or just an incompatible USB drive ! we can't know without proper tests.
while testing with SD card it always works, it's always properly formatted, always good sector size, always proper free space, always MBR, etc.

we are still focusing and locking ourself in a probable mistake, instead of just doing things properly.

 

[NJBoss]

at least, rebirth works fine in neek, which means your neek setup is (I suppose) good.
cave story works too, but this is strange it doesn't work in "full" mode.

Agree.

what size is your HDD ? maybe it's just too big.

Lol
It's a 1.5TB Seagate. I will try to compare the model number with the USB HDD compatibility list. I think such a list exists somewhere... I'll search.

again, THIS is why I really hate doing tests and debugs on USB.
Neek SHOULD BE ON SD CARD !

I thought we agreed that the uNeek setup was favorable? That which DOES NOT include a sneek folder on the SD card...

But, if this means doing things differently (sNeek + DI, for example), I'm fine with that. Would like to keep the NANDs and WW / VC WADs on the USB if I can - has more free space then the SD card.
Thanks.

 

[Cyan]

1.5TB should be fine (theoretically), because 32bit fits in it.
but could you still try Sneek and emuNAND on SD card ? just to verify? (re-generate sneek from modmii specifically for SD card)

I thought we agreed that the uNeek setup was favorable? That which DOES NOT include a sneek folder on the SD card...

that has nothing to do whether it has a sneek folder on SD or not.

sneek folder on SD is required for USB too.

 

[NJBoss]

if you followed what I told repeatedly, the sneek folder on SD is needed only if you choose to launch neek without using USBloaderGX.
you also need the armboot.bin in sd:/bootmii/ folder
bootmii (launch from boot2 or from nswitch homebrew, or nswitch channel) loads armboot.bin, which loads sd:/sneek/kernel.bin which contains the path to where the other files are located. (hint : on usb:/sneek/)
if you followed what I told repeatedly, the sneek folder on SD is needed only if you choose to launch neek without using USBloaderGX.

I don't see a reason to boot neek outside of UGX so, I will REMOVE the sneek folder from SD

that has nothing to do whether it has a sneek folder on SD or not.

sneek folder on SD is required for USB too.

This is where I'm confused (I think rightfully so). I don't intend to launch Neek without UGX. That's why there is no sneek folder on the SD card, currently. But whatever, I guess this doesn't matter since we're just going to try this as a sNeek+DI solution.

but could you still try Sneek and emuNAND on SD card ? just to verify? (re-generate sneek from modmii specifically for SD card)

Yup. Will do tonight and report back.

 

[Cyan]

yes, you are right having the sneek folder on SD is not required if you plan to launch Uneek from USBGX, but maybe I misunderstand what you say. I thought you said that folder "shouldn't" be there, while it can, it's just not used. but it's not that it should not be there to use Uneek, because it NEEDs to be there if you don't launch uneek from USBGX.
that's probably just a way of saying things which bugs me.

 

[NJBoss]

yes, you are right having the sneek folder on SD is not required if you plan to launch Uneek from USBGX, but maybe I misunderstand what you say.

that's probably just a way of saying things which bugs me.

A simple misunderstanding, all good! :-)

Anyway, I have used ModMii to generate sNeek+DI and fresh USA nand. It has generated ONLY files to be placed on SD card. Nothing for USB. Because of that... and because my current USB HDD has neek files on it... and to save confusion for this next test... I will unplug USB HDD. A fresh, empty SD card will be used for the test.

I have a feeling that SD card will be missing necessary files (whatever files are needed to launch HBC, for example). With that said, what should next step be for testing? Thanks!

 

[Cyan]

HBC doesn't need any files on SD card.
HBC's executable is installed on your console.
what it needs is the homebrew to list, located on sd:/apps/ folder.

next step is :
put your emNAND into sd:/nands/pl_us/
set USBGX "emuNAND channel folder" to proper path
launch cave story, it should now work. if not, try to go back to fresh nand where you never installed that game and install it on that emuNAND now located on SD card.

Now that the emuNAND is on SD, games checking max available free space/blocs will work fine because you don't have terrabits of spaces when it expects 512max.



now, if you followed what you did :
on SD, you have kernel.bin for emuNAND located on SD.
on USB, you have kernel.bin for emuNAND located on USB.
USBGX will use the one it needs based on where the emuNAND is located.

 

[NJBoss]

put your emNAND into sd:/nands/pl_us/
set USBGX "emuNAND channel folder" to proper path
launch cave story, it should now work. if not, try to go back to fresh nand where you never installed that game and install it on that emuNAND now located on SD card.

Now that the emuNAND is on SD, games checking max available free space/blocs will work fine because you don't have terrabits of spaces when it expects 512max.

Tested this very quickly as I was short on time. No success.

• in ModMii, execute the process for a sNeek+DI and NAND build
• freshly-generated USA NAND from ModMii placed on SD card like this - sd\nands\pl_us
• sd\bootmiineek\armboot.bin replaced the existing folder on sd.
• neek2obooter and neek2obooter.dol replace existing versions currently at root of sd
• *** SNEEK folder containing di.bin, font.bin, and kernel.bin added to SD at root ***

now, if you followed what you did :
on SD, you have kernel.bin for emuNAND located on SD.
on USB, you have kernel.bin for emuNAND located on USB.
USBGX will use the one it needs based on where the emuNAND is located.

Correct. Both USB and SD have a SNEEK folder. Each has a kernel.bin file in it. Here are the steps I made to test:

• First, launch UGX. Point ONLY emuNAND path to SD\nands\pl_us
• emuNAND Channel Path REMAINS as USB\nands\pl_us Remember, Cave Story WAD is already installed there. The goal here, as I understand from your instructions, is to try launching game in cIOS mode using the NAND on SD instead.
• System files corrupt error message.
• I thought that, perhaps, the NAND needed to be initialized so... I tried Features - Launch NEEK System Menu and... kicked me back to the Homebrew Channel.
• Return to UGX. Change emuNAND Channel Path to sd\nands\pl_us Now both emuNAND path and emuNAND channel path are pointing to this same location.
• Features - WAD manager. Install Cave Story WAD (again, to SD NAND)
• Attempt to launch from UGX, system files corrupt error message.
• *** Maybe now would be a good time to try Features - Launch NEEK System Menu to allow it to initialize? ***

It's been a long, frustrating process. I appreciate that you haven't given up on your effort to help me sort this out. Please let me know what I should try next. Thanks!

 

[Cyan]

don't use di.bin !!
how many time did I told you, and in how many thread should I say it? (yeahh, I help other users at the same time )

di.bin is the reason neek is not booting.

First, launch UGX. Point ONLY emuNAND path to SD\nands\pl_us
• emuNAND Channel Path REMAINS as USB\nands\pl_us Remember,

you are contracting yourself.
did you, or didn't you change the "emuNAND channel" path ? you said you changed "emuNAND path" <-- this option does NOT exist. it's either "emuNAND SAVE" or "emuNAND CHANNEL".

the "emuNAND SAVE folder" has NOTHING TO DO WITH NEEK nor with channels nor cave story nor wiiware nor virtual consoles !!!

Why would you wan the emuNAND channel to REMAIN on USB if you want to test launching cave story from SD card?

*** Maybe now would be a good time to try Features - Launch NEEK System Menu to allow it to initialize? ***

There's nothing to initialize anymore, you already did it few days ago !
that's the reason I told you to keep a backup, zip, rar, whatever of the "already initialized" emuNAND !
you don't need to init it again, if it launches, it's initialized. use that backup folder (clean, initialized, with no added games) as base for all your new tests.



But, really, I don't understand why you are doing so many unnecessary and conflicting steps.
this is SOOOO EASY in 3 steps :


1. set emuNAND CHANNEL folder to sd:/nands/01/
2. go to features > dump NAND > full
3. install wad to emuNAND
Enjoy cave story !

like I said, cave story works fine on cIOS mode, and neek is not required.
dumping your own NAND to SD is all you need. no worry about clean, unclean, initializing or not, etc.

 

[NJBoss]

don't use di.bin !!
how many time did I told you, and in how many thread should I say it? (yeahh, I help other users at the same time )

di.bin is the reason neek is not booting.

UGH. I will remove that file from the sneek folder on SD card. Sorry!

did you, or didn't you change the "emuNAND channel" path ? you said you changed "emuNAND path" <-- this option does NOT exist. it's either "emuNAND SAVE" or "emuNAND CHANNEL".

Sorry, I'm not in front of the console now to check. I tested with changing that Channel path (to SD) and without changing the path too.

To save wasting our time by repeating information, I'll remove that dl.bin from SD\sneek, point emuNAND channel path to SD\nands\pl_us, then try to launch Cave Story in cIOS.

 

[NJBoss]

Well, failed again.

Even tried launching Neek system menu from UGX Features, my attempt to initialize the NAND. Black screen. I let it go for 35 minutes. I don't know WHEN it happened but the disc tray light turned on and remained solid. No blinking. Gave up and powered it off.

At this point, I have a working uNEEK. Any problem games I will set to auto boot Neek on a per-game basis. Really a lovely feature.
Unless there's something else worth trying to run these games under cIOS...

EDIT - I just saw you edited your last message. I will follow that advice and see what happens. Cheers.

 

[NJBoss]

1. set emuNAND CHANNEL folder to sd:/nands/01/
2. go to features > dump NAND > full
3. install wad to emuNAND
Enjoy cave story !

Holy shit it worked.
The steps:

Literally followed above. Little else needs to be said. So, Cave Story works under cIOS. WAD installed to the DUMPED NAND on SD card. My goal is to have the emuNAND on HDD, not SD but before I get ahead of myself, what should be my next test? Thanks!

 

[Cyan]

good, so now we have a working "base" to use as witness/guinea pig (forgot the correct english name).

dump NAND to SD, install WAD : works

now try the same thing but with USB.
dump NAND to usb, install WAD : check if it works.

maybe your USB is just not compatible with cIOS emuNAND, OR cave story checks the free space and can't initialize the savegame if too big.


if not working :
copy your NAND dump from SD to USB, and try to launch cave story which you already got working once on SD. (the savegame is already created, the size check should be skipped)
result : tell me too.


these two tests will check if the issue is the USB, or the partition size.

 

[NJBoss]

dump NAND to SD, install WAD : works

now try the same thing but with USB.
dump NAND to usb, install WAD : check if it works.

Will do.

*** Key point - I SUSPECT that the reason this worked is because I'm using a dump of sysNAND. sysNAND which has had those cIOS updates aoolied recently. Remember how outdated my cIOS's were? We re-modded after discovering that. Since then, emuNAND was still pointing to the "clean" NAND generated by ModMii; NOT a dump from the updated sysNAND. Really just my speculation, what do you think? ***

if not working :
copy your NAND dump from SD to USB, and try to launch cave story which you already got working once on SD. (the savegame is already created, the size check should be skipped)
result : tell me too.

Yup. I will do the tests in the order as above. First, a NAND dump to USB\nands\01 Install WAD, test. Even if that's successful, should I go to the effort of manually copying the NAND from SD\nands\01 to USB ?
Thanks!