Hacking WiiFlow Lite

[fledge68]

I hesitate to bring it up so as not to confuse the issue, but it may be related - if wiiflow is caching stuff on the harware, and it must be - is it possible that the corruption is due to two references to the same data (or two datas for the same reference) - one from wiiflow, the other from a 'hardware' cache?

There is no hardware cacheing of images. If you didnt turn the wii off i guess its possible the image was still in memory when you ran wfl again.

 

[kaisersozeh]

There is no hardware cacheing of images. If you didnt turn the wii off i guess its possible the image was still in memory when you ran wfl again.

I've turned the wii off, left it for days, gone back and images that are not in the binary I'm using or on the sd card are showing up.
I don't know why

 

[dishe]

ok if that little white progress bar isn't showing it means the error is occurring in the extrernal_booter. I'll have to look at that code to see. do you see any of that progress bar at all? the other thing to try is backup wiiflow_lite.ini and rename it to let wiiflow lite make a new one.

Unless it is displaying it so quickly that I miss it, I think it isn't showing it at all. I believe the same thing happens if you manually select the wrong IOS. It just locks up before showing the bar, and the only thing you can do is force it off (physical access to the unit is necessary).

I tried deleting the WiiFlow save file to see if it made a difference, I didn't think to try that ini, I'll try it next. Wife has the car today so I can't try it yet.

 

[Hakaisha]

I've turned the wii off, left it for days, gone back and images that are not in the binary I'm using or on the sd card are showing up.
I don't know why

That's interesting. I've had something similar happen while making new SourceFlow small cover artwork.

I wanted a fresh slate to start on, so I deleted all of my SourceFlow cache and all of my PNG files in the Small Covers folder.

Wanting to test just a few new covers, I added like 4-5 PNGs to build some new WFCs for SourceFlow. That worked just fine.

However, oddly enough, the covers without any artwork would default to an old PlayStation cover I had in my old SourceFlow setup; even though the WFC or PNG file is nowhere to be found on the SD card.

 

[fledge68]

Unless it is displaying it so quickly that I miss it, I think it isn't showing it at all. I believe the same thing happens if you manually select the wrong IOS. It just locks up before showing the bar, and the only thing you can do is force it off (physical access to the unit is necessary).

I tried deleting the WiiFlow save file to see if it made a difference, I didn't think to try that ini, I'll try it next. Wife has the car today so I can't try it yet.

fyi the defaults of the wiiflow save are to use ios58 and not force cios. so when launching a wii or nand game it needs to switch from ios58 to load the cios (usually 249) which involves unmounting and remounting the usb hdd. a lot of users including myself have freezes loading games with this setup (something to do with the usb hdd unmounting and not mounting after the switch to cios). so i and the others goto startup settings and set force cios on and the cios to 249. this skips the unmounting and remounting of the usb hdd.

 

[dishe]

fyi the defaults of the wiiflow save are to use ios58 and not force cios. so when launching a wii or nand game it needs to switch from ios58 to load the cios (usually 249) which involves unmounting and remounting the usb hdd. a lot of users including myself have freezes loading games with this setup (something to do with the usb hdd unmounting and not mounting after the switch to cios). so i and the others goto startup settings and set force cios on and the cios to 249. this skips the unmounting and remounting of the usb hdd.

Interesting. I'll try that. But it is strange that it was working fine for weeks and suddenly having issues now. Wonder what's up with that.

 

[fledge68]

can someone with sd only try this boot.dol and tell me if it removes the 20 second delay.

note if you don't have wiiflow_lite.ini already in the wiiflow_lite folder, the first time you run wfl the 20 second delay will still be there. make sure to exit wiiflow properly by going to the home menu and then start wiiflow lite again to see if the 20 second wait is still there. this is not an issue for those that already have a wiiflow_lite.ini.

link removed use the one below in aphirst post

 

[aphirst]

I've been testing some versions from @fledge68 via PM and the most recent one which seems to work for me (work = doesn't exhibit 20s delay on my Wii U setup) is http://www.mediafire.com/file/5hz5cf6u2vi94av/boot.dol - perhaps @fledge68 will provide this or a newer link later on. Regardless, as far as I'm concerned, the 20s delay is now pretty much put to rest.

There is of course still the mysterious SD corruption issue, which I actually haven't been able to get any more info on in the last 24 hours - as with all the worst issues, it's not consistently reproducible, but rather random(-seeming). I'll post more if I can work out more, and I'm open to testing things out that people suggest.

I have discovered a third issue seemingly with WiiFlow Lite - "Metroid: Other M" (PAL) fails to load in-game content. It boots fine, but on a fresh save the crash occurs after selecting the languages, and with an existing save the crash occurs when loading the save. In both cases it's when the "Loading..." text should appear ("Speichervorgang", I have it in German), and it's a hard crash, necessitating a removal of the power cord. I get the issue with both "releases" (v1.00 and v1.01) of the game, my ISOs are cleanrip redump.org verified, and the .wbfs files created both using "wit" and "wii backup manager" - makes no difference to this issue.

Curiously, I decided to try the game out in CFG USB Loader Mod, where so far I've had no issues at all. I was able to play through the first (very boring) cutscene (ramblings about a baby alien), and through the tutorial. With some more cutscenes, and no end in sight, I gave up testing.

I wonder why it works there but not here?

 

[fledge68]

i have metroid other m and just played it. started a new game and played up to landing on the ship responding to the baby's cry. of course i have the NTSC version. but no problems.

 

[aphirst]

i have metroid other m and just played it. started a new game and played up to landing on the ship responding to the baby's cry. of course i have the NTSC version. but no problems.

Are you able to try one of the PAL versions? I'll see if I'm able to try the NTSC version, and if so, will report back.

 

[ChromeCrafterWilliam]

Hey, can someone help me plz. I'm trying to utilize priiloader to its full capability and I'm trying to get WiiFlow Lite to automatically load when my wii starts. Whenever I do this however, it doesn't work. Fledge could you help me plz

EDIT: I may have found something on the wiki, hold on a moment xD

 

[aphirst]

i have metroid other m and just played it. started a new game and played up to landing on the ship responding to the baby's cry. of course i have the NTSC version. but no problems.

OK, well I was able to get hold of a copy of the NTSC version. Using a CleanRip-verified ISO, and making .wbfs files with either "wit" or "wii backup manager", the result is a crash after the language select screen. The game works fine in cfg usbloader mod, where I'm able to get far enough to save, and if I try again with WFL I crash when loading a save (or when choosing new game, and selecting the language again).

What do you think the issue might be here? Should I check what CIOSs I have installed? (What was the name of that tool, again, which would dump all that info into a text file?)

 

[fledge68]

syscheck

https://gbatemp.net/threads/syscheck-hacksden-edition.356133/

 

[aphirst]

SysCheck HDE v2.4.0 HacksDen Edition von JoostinOnline, Double_A, R2-D2199, und Nano
...laeuft auf dem vIOS58 (rev 6432).

Region: PAL
Systemmenue 4.3E (v610)

Laufwerksdatum: 28.06.2011
Homebrewkanal 1.1.2 benutzt IOS58

Hollywood v0x21
Konsolen-ID: 605379919
Konsolentyp: vWii
Shop-Kanal-Land: United Kingdom (110)
Boot2 v0
Es wurden 73 Titel gefunden.
Es wurden 35 IOS gefunden, von denen 0 funktionslos (Stub) sind.

vIOS9 (rev 1290): Keine Patches
vIOS12 (rev 782): Keine Patches
vIOS13 (rev 1288): Keine Patches
vIOS14 (rev 1288): Keine Patches
vIOS15 (rev 1288): Keine Patches
vIOS17 (rev 1288): Keine Patches
vIOS21 (rev 1295): Keine Patches
vIOS22 (rev 1550): Keine Patches
vIOS28 (rev 2063): Keine Patches
vIOS31 (rev 3864): Keine Patches
vIOS33 (rev 3864): Keine Patches
vIOS34 (rev 3864): Keine Patches
vIOS35 (rev 3864): Keine Patches
vIOS36 (rev 3864): Keine Patches
vIOS37 (rev 5919): Keine Patches
vIOS38 (rev 4380): Keine Patches
vIOS41 (rev 3863): Keine Patches
vIOS43 (rev 3863): Keine Patches
vIOS45 (rev 3863): Keine Patches
vIOS46 (rev 3863): Keine Patches
vIOS48 (rev 4380): Keine Patches
vIOS53 (rev 5919): Keine Patches
vIOS55 (rev 5919): Keine Patches
vIOS56 (rev 5918): Keine Patches
vIOS57 (rev 6175): Keine Patches
vIOS58 (rev 6432): USB 2.0
vIOS59 (rev 9249): Keine Patches
vIOS62 (rev 6942): Keine Patches
vIOS80 (rev 7200): Keine Patches
vIOS236 (rev 65535): Trucha Bug, ES Identify, NAND Zugriff
vIOS249[56] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta52-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Zugriff
vIOS250[57] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta52-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Zugriff
vIOS251[58] (rev 21010, Info: d2x-v10beta52-vWii): Trucha Bug, NAND Zugriff
vIOS512 (rev 7): Keine Patches
vIOS513 (rev 1): Keine Patches
Bericht wurde am 11.07.2018 generiert.

I don't expect there's anything in there which suggests why WiiFlow-Lite can't load Other M, but CFG Mod can? Sorry about it being in German.

 

[fledge68]

Not sure what to tell you. Odd that it does work with cfg loader. Odd that its your only game not to work with wfl. Does it work on usbloadergx? In wiiflow lite when you select the game have you gone into settings menu and tried different settings?

 

[aphirst]

Not sure what to tell you. Odd that it does work with cfg loader. Odd that its your only game not to work with wfl. Does it work on usbloadergx? In wiiflow lite when you select the game have you gone into settings menu and tried different settings?

I haven't set up usbloadergx, but I can try that out later.

I have tried out a few different settings, mainly the different IOS overrides (AUTO/249/250/251), which had no effect. The fact that I have to boot all the way back each time it fails is a strong deterrent to a depth-first search in all the different other settings, e.g. video modes etc.

Are you running on a vWii or on a real Wii? What do you have in your syscheck? Is your .wbfs (or original ISO) cleanrip-verified, or patched in some way? Are you running the game from USB or from SD?

 

[fledge68]

I haven't set up usbloadergx, but I can try that out later.

I have tried out a few different settings, mainly the different IOS overrides (AUTO/249/250/251), which had no effect. The fact that I have to boot all the way back each time it fails is a strong deterrent to a depth-first search in all the different other settings, e.g. video modes etc.

Are you running on a vWii or on a real Wii? What do you have in your syscheck? Is your .wbfs (or original ISO) cleanrip-verified, or patched in some way? Are you running the game from USB or from SD?

Most likely the update partition is missing. Majority of my wbfs backups dont include the update partition. I read in another thread that that fixed it for others.

 

[aphirst]

Most likely the update partition is missing. Majority of my wbfs backups dont include the update partition. I read in another thread that that fixed it for others.

Most of the threads I find are like this one: https://gbatemp.net/threads/my-metroid-other-m-ridley-cutscene-freeze-fix.267087/
The issue as described by these people seems to be that you always get a crash regardless, either at the "ridley" cutscene, or the "baby's cry" cutscene. (Frustratingly, everyone refers to these solely under these names, as if everyone knows unambiguously which cutscene it is, which isn't helpful to me as someone that isn't yet familiar with the game). The differentiating factor is, as they report, whether you make the .wbfs files with or without the Update partition. (I left it in).

That's all well and good, but then how come I get different behaviour on the same .wbfs files based on which backup loader I use? (I'll be able to try USB Loader GX later... it does support loading Wii games from SD, right?)

Edit: Do you know whether your NTSC copy is v1.00 or v1.01? Could we compare:

• (unscrubbed) ISO checksums,
• Wii Backup Manager settings
• resulting .wbf{s,1} checksums?

 

[aphirst]

OK, well I can't test with USB Loader GX since I'm pretty sure that it outright doesn't support Wii games on the SD card. I'm not going to set up a Wii HDD just to test this, when my intended use case is SD anyway.

After extensive testing, I can confirm that the v1.00 and v1.01 releases of Metrod: Other M, for both PAL and NTSC, exhibit exactly the same behaviour for me, regardless of whether converted to WBFS using "Wii Backup Manager" or by "wit", and regardless of whether the Update partition was removed while converting. The behaviour is

• In CFG USB Loader Mod, no issues that I can see (not in the first 30 minutes, I will play further on the PAL version to verify this!)
• In WiiFlow Lite,
  • if no save file exists, hard crash after choosing language
  • if a save file exists, hard crash after choosing the save
  • (in both cases, it's on pretty much the first frame of the loading screen, before the "Loading..." text has yet rendered)

Some MD5 checksums (not all, but I can add more if need be, to compare with your versions):

• ISO (raw, unscrubbed, CleanRip)
  • PAL v1.00: c188f8704b96e40e3f86b4f698599b3c
  • PAL v1.01: 80e59370d19749e94c8376eb7f6bea71
  • NTSC-U v1.01: 3e6170d5deb86ccf11a90aedea35097e
• WBFS (no partitions removed) [Wii Backup Manager]
  • PAL v1.01:
    • a7b0c67464dbf62f1fa1e7e59027dec5 R3OP01.wbf1
    • af4f2fa4ecc90a7a9afcf798be8a7cf6 R3OP01.wbfs
  • NTSC-U v1.01:
    • 8de66dc092b6bde57f9dd6fd6900beda R3OE01.wbf1
    • e6f1cb0421947b04e7b32c92245b503f R3OE01.wbfs
• WBFS (only Game partition kept) [Wii Backup Manager]
  • NTSC-U v1.01:
    • 24ff3c3438ab4f3701dfff36f0d06456 R3OE01.wbf1
    • e8f8fd07aa360e28c3a39f193f96626b R3OE01.wbfs

(Note: Checksum comparison doesn't make sense for "wit"-created WBFS files since they include file timestamp metadata in a way which I believe Wii Backup Manager doesn't.)
(Note 2: I didn't enable "full scrubbing" in Wii Backup Manager either.)

 

[fledge68]

@GreyWolf any input as to why aphirst is having trouble with metroid other m? Hes using only a sd card on a pal wiiu. The game works on cfg loader but not wiiflow lite. But its crashing during the game which means wiiflow lite is done and the cios is in control. Is there maybe a setting wfl needs to send to the cios?