Hacking USB Loader GX

[Cyan]

when you exit Nintendont (or any game actually) you told the loader to return to the installed channel.
if it's a forwarder channel, it loads the boot.dol located on SD Card.
if it's a full channel, it loads the boot.dol located INSIDE the channel (on the console), which is never updated if you don't replace and reinstall the channel after each new release of the loader !
last full channel release : revision 1180
last loader's release : revision 1268mod4 (in my signature)
you are almost 100 revision late, the full channel was released BEFORE gamecube was possible on USB, so that version tells you that you need to use SD card.

Follow this tutorial to replace your full channel with a forwarder channel :
https://gbatemp.net/posts/6478222

 

[Alexander1970]

I appreciate your help and knowledge.
Thank you,that works.

 

[Cyan]

yeah, I could have just told you to follow the tutorial, but I prefer explaining things, it's always better and easier when we understand what we are doing

 

[aussiepats]

armboot.bin is the file loaded by bootmii.
if it says it had issues creating this file when you create Uneek(2o), then you are missing a file.

But, USBLoaderGX doesn't rely on this file to boot neek, it's only used if you launch neek from nswitch channel, or nswitch homebrew.
USBloaderGX loads neek kernel directly in memory instead of asking armboot.bin file to do it.

I edited my post above, not sure if you saw it. I added possible issues.

Hey cyan sorry for the random jump in the post I need help with a error redump code. I keep getting this.

 

[whiterabbit420]

<Solved, see edit>

Cyan, I think I need your help, something relatively small, i think.
In WiiFlow, I can use neek2o to boot WiiWare on my EmuNand, using uNeek (DI, neek2o, rev95)
Hoping for an alternative to WiiFlows' ever-so-gracious lacking of a textual list, I set up USBLoaderGX, and it's working in just about every way I can hope.
It was crashing or hanging when viewing the banner grid, but I solved that by using Wii Backup Fusion to cull out games that had bad hashes, straight up empty files, or other weird errors - as well as copying my emunand from its place in a weirdly named folder (which Wiiflow seemed to agree with) to simply "/nand/", as a forum post I saw somewhere - could have been yours, lol - mentioned ULGX could load the banners from there - seemed to fix that problem.

Now, though, I can't really figure out how to get ULGX to actually launch a title from the EmuNand using neek2o.
I don't see many game launching related options that mention neek.
Launching neek2o system menu (uneek) through the nswitch channel works fine, as does "exit to > neek2o" in WiiFlow.

But! This is when I just caved in and came here for help: Going to USBLoaderGX > Settings > Features > Boot Neek System Menu results in a dialog: "Neek NAND path selection failed."
I know I don't need the neek sysmenu, but I figured it's an important diagnostic detail.

My file structure, some of it is probably "This might not have been essential to solving some past problem but I'll leave it there" status

>SD root

>/bootmii
>>armboot replaced with kernel thing

>/SNEEK
>>di.bin
>>diconfig.bin
>>font.bin
>>kernel.bin
>>nandcfg.bin
>>rev.txt

>USB root

>/sneekcache
>>channelcache.bin
>>hackscfg.bin

>/The same bootmii folder

>/nand
>>/pl_us (my emunand)




Any help is appreciated.

After writing all of this, I copied my SNEEK folder from the SD to the USB drive, and ULGX no longer throws that error, but does seem to hang on a black screen, after pushing A at the nintendo logo which is themed differently than the neek system menu that WiiFlow loads. Hmm. I am sure that if I can get whatever neek menu WiiFlow is loading to end up loading when ULGX loads neek menu, it would start loading those neek2o titles?

EDIT: Haha! I am a huge wad.
They say it takes 45 minutes or so for the coffee to actually kick in.
I was misunderstanding the meaning of "Full" in the emunand settings. I changed it to neek, sorted out my confusion where I had directed it to an incorrect emunand backup, and now I am all set.


I want to add if you see this Cyan, you are a real OG and, as a self-teaching C# / Unity programmer who will probably never make a dime from it, I really respect your vigilance on the forums. It's nuts to me that even 2 consoles later, someone with even a menial problem can get a response from the dev.


Edit 2:
While I'm here, does anyone know how to achieve the following?

>Priiloader boots USBLoaderGX forwarder channel on real NAND > USBLoaderGX loads WiiWare in neek mode > Home button > "Return to System Menu" > USBLoaderGX on real NAND back on the screen?

Edit: I figured that out, just had to use ULGX to install nswitch on the emunand and set some options up.

But!
For some reason, most of my WiiWare, alphabetically, after the letter P, do not have their banners loaded in the banner view still. And, going too deep into bannerless territory or selecting bannerless games, slows down and sometimes hangs the app.

Any way to diagnose? The USB and SD card seem to have plenty of space, but could it be a "not enough space to cache all those" issue? The titles launch fine, so I'm sure that means they're probably good dumps?

Edit again:
Okay, Im not really sure how I solved it, but I guess it was a mix of purging the banner cache and putting my NAND inside of usb/nand instead of usb/nand/pl_us.

Now, though, I guess I have another problem. Setting return to channel global option as Neek2o and setting a game to launch with neek and "return to" to ON, and then returning to System Menu with the home button results in the EmuNAND system menu trying to load (which it can't because it's too big, hence me really hoping to use a loader like ULGX to launch the titles instead of ever having to look at the system menu).
I swear these same settings, one edit ago, were taking me back to nswitch flipping the console back to real NAND. All I want is to always return to USB loader on real NAND regardless of what kind of game I exited in which mode. Priiloader is loading the forwarder channel just fine

Final edit: I feel like I didn't change anything, but it started working. Return To is set to USB Loader GX, and NEEK titles now use nswitch / NK2O to restart back into real nand, priiloader, and back to ULGX.

It's working like a dream! I ask though: It takes about 40 seconds to load some n64 VC with uNeek. When exiting, it takes about 45 seconds for nswitch to pop up and restart the console, and another 20-25 seconds before I can select another game in ULGX.

Is there anything to be done about the loading / exiting times? Could it be because I am apparently using d2xv10beta52 base56 instead of v8? Is that a huge problem if it's working as is?

Another edit: Can forwarder channels, like ones that launch homebrew, be launched as channels from ULGX?
I.e., I want a "Not64" forwarder channel which is on my NAND (working), to appear as a channel in ULGX(working), and load Not64 when launched from ULGX (from the games list, as opposed to going to the homebrew menu) (not working, just reboots back to loader)

I know it seems trivial, the obvious solution is to settle for just launching homebrew apps from the homebrew list, but the benefit to me would be seeing that homebrew in the form of forwarder channels with banners and covers and all, alongside other channels or wiiware.

 

[aussiepats]

@Cyan hi I cyan I’ve gotten this error would you know what it is ?

 

[jeannotte]

Hello,

@aussiepats ;

Post a syscheck report here ==> https://gbatemp.net/threads/posting-a-system-check.300279/

 

[Cyan]

Aussie, I also need the exact revision number (1268 ? 1268mod4 ? another one?)

Whiterabbit : I haven't read yet, I'll answer you when I did. I'm catching all the message and notification I got while I was away this weekend

 

[GreyWolf]

@whiterabbit420 You cannot use /nand/ for neek2o. It will freak out and try to access the drive's root instead.

Move the folder to /nands/<some short name>/

I just use "/nands/0/" and it works fine with both d2x's emuNAND and neek2o.

I fixed the issue with NAND banner paths for r1268. It should be able to pick up the banners in any path now.

 

[whiterabbit420]

@whiterabbit420 You cannot use /nand/ for neek2o. It will freak out and try to access the drive's root instead.

Move the folder to /nands/<some short name>/

I just use "/nands/0/" and it works fine with both d2x's emuNAND and neek2o.

I fixed the issue with NAND banner paths for r1268. It should be able to pick up the banners in any path now.

Awesome, thank you - I do seem to be using r1268, so hopefully my issue was just configuration related.

Everything seems to be doing what I want it to, but I admit I got really sloppy with how I ended up storing my emunands - poorly organized backups from different instances of me attempting to make a working one or solve old problems - certain things got copied certain places and, well, I lost track of everything as soon as the base functionality started working.

But, I recognize, especially if this isn't my machine in the end, that the user would benefit from a more certain configuration.

Is that to say that "nands/0/" contains "import, meta, shared1, shared2" etc? Or "nands/0/pl_us"?

Another weird question that I am asking halfway through my first coffee:
What path specifically is being loaded when neek2o / nswitch is launched?
Is it possible to store a huge EmuNAND packed full of channels to play (from a loader), but have a separate smaller EmuNAND with fewer channels be used when the neek2o system menu has to be accessed?
I only ask because I swear I have accidentally configured WiiFlow to work like that before - I could see the games on the huge NAND but when WiiFlow quit back to the system menu from NAND mode, or loaded bootmii from the exit to menu, I would end up seeing a separate emunand system menu with a different theme and much fewer channels.

 

[Prod1219]

@Cyan I was reading on a discussion you had on this post and was wondering if nintendont supports GPT now? Ive been trying to set it up with my 4tb hard drive to have wii and gc games on it however when I try to run GC games on usb loader(I have nintendont set as my source) Im prompted with an error in regards to the path I have set. I know it has to be primary but mine is GPT since I set that partition to that in order to get more space. Could you help? Thanks.

 

[GreyWolf]

Awesome, thank you - I do seem to be using r1268, so hopefully my issue was just configuration related.

Everything seems to be doing what I want it to, but I admit I got really sloppy with how I ended up storing my emunands - poorly organized backups from different instances of me attempting to make a working one or solve old problems - certain things got copied certain places and, well, I lost track of everything as soon as the base functionality started working.

But, I recognize, especially if this isn't my machine in the end, that the user would benefit from a more certain configuration.

Is that to say that "nands/0/" contains "import, meta, shared1, shared2" etc? Or "nands/0/pl_us"?

Another weird question that I am asking halfway through my first coffee:
What path specifically is being loaded when neek2o / nswitch is launched?
Is it possible to store a huge EmuNAND packed full of channels to play (from a loader), but have a separate smaller EmuNAND with fewer channels be used when the neek2o system menu has to be accessed?
I only ask because I swear I have accidentally configured WiiFlow to work like that before - I could see the games on the huge NAND but when WiiFlow quit back to the system menu from NAND mode, or loaded bootmii from the exit to menu, I would end up seeing a separate emunand system menu with a different theme and much fewer channels.

No, mine is dumped straight into "/nands/0/" as in your first example. I just use the same folder for emuNAND and NEEK.

You can use separate NANDs as you suggested but they don't share the config so you'd still need to at least copy the settings file between them. That's something that would be pretty simple to add to the loader.

 

[timothy10583]

Heya. I’ve recently gotten usb loader gx downloaded, and I’ve also installed iOS 249,250, and 251 on the cIOS guide on the Wii hacking website. The problem is, when I launch usblgx, it tells me that my usb drive is not initialised. When I put my usb drive in the other slot, it gets stuck at “initialising usb drive.”
Any help? Sorry if I’m being an annoyance.

 

[lordelan]

Heya. I’ve recently gotten usb loader gx downloaded, and I’ve also installed iOS 249,250, and 251 on the cIOS guide on the Wii hacking website. The problem is, when I launch usblgx, it tells me that my usb drive is not initialised. When I put my usb drive in the other slot, it gets stuck at “initialising usb drive.”
Any help? Sorry if I’m being an annoyance.

Seems to be the "wake up issue".
Try launching WiiFlow first. In WiiFlow you can launch homebrew apps as well. Launch USB Loader GX from there and see if that works. At least it does for me.
Unfortunately this didn't get fixed. Reported it a few years ago.

In WiiFlow be sure that it lists your USB games (so WiiFlow wakes and accesses the drive before you start USBLGX).

 

[Cyan]

change the loader's IOS setting from 249 to 58.


or try 1268 mod4 (in my signature). I tried to fix it, but the few reports (only 2) I got from the beta version which force IOS58 are not concluding so I'll have to change it again.

another idea is to put the loader on USB (instead of SD) and use HBC to list the apps folder. (don't use forwarder channel ... even though it should work because it uses IOS58 too).
really, if someone know why the loader is not initializing the hdd properly even when using IOS58, let me know so we can fix it once and for all.

 

[timothy10583]

wiiflow doesn't load my usb games either, i've been playing them on the sd. when i take it out, it says that there were no partitions found

 

[Cyan]

are you using USB Port 0 for your HDD ?
on WiiU, the USB Port 0 is the back-top port AND use of y-cable or external additional power source.
on wii, the Port0 is the bottom one.
don't use a flash drive or HUB, only direct HDD or SSD.

 

[timothy10583]

i only have a flash drive. something messes up on both slots

 

[lordelan]

change the loader's IOS setting from 249 to 58.

That causes many games to not start any longer. That was the big downer back then for me.

 

[Cyan]

that shouldn't cause a problem to launch game, except if your HDD is sensible to sleep timer.
How long do you stay in the loader's interface before launching a game? If you launch a game right after the drive is initialized there's no reason the hdd doesn't work as it reloads to cIOS before launching the game.

cIOS has an internal anti-sleep timer (every 30sec it makes a random sector read to keep it awake). IOS58 doesn't have that feature as it was never planed by nintendo to play games from USB.