WKF Autoboot discovered

[megalomaniac]

HERE IT IS


watch the video for instructions
new version of swiss flasher is required

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaNWNP0ZfG4

[LOCtronicz]

YESSSS!!!! Time to downgrade my old wiikey's!! Awesome! I'll let you know how it goes.

[Duhasst0]

Thanks for all the hard work guysi will be testing as soon as my sd geckos come in.

[LOCtronicz]

On a side note. the swiis flasher dol what has been changed in comparison to the r174 dol?

EDIT: all my wiikey fusions are now autoboot!! Thanks allot MEGA. I'll do some in depth testing but as far as I can tell everything is working perfectly.

[ShockSlayer]

So, downgrade to 1.0, then upgrade to Swiss? That's all it takes? I take it this works because Swiss doesn't write over whatever made the 1.0 wiikey's autoboot.

SS

[Ashen]

Nice job Mega! just tested, working great. Thanks!

[megalomaniac]

So, downgrade to 1.0, then upgrade to Swiss? That's all it takes?

you can completely downgrade using the 1.0 restore, or just use the swiss w/1.0 firmware package i uploaded

I take it this works because Swiss doesn't write over whatever made the 1.0 wiikey's autoboot.
SS

exactly...swiss never did overwrite the "base" WKF firmware....
WE ALL overwrote the "base" firmware by using the 1.5 upgrade iso and broke autoboot ourselves...

[MockyLock]

Just as reminder...
the swiss version flashed for WKF autoboot is 1.0, right ?
does the audio streaming work with this firmware or do we still need 1.3 version ?

[megalomaniac]

Just as reminder...
the swiss version flashed for WKF autoboot is 1.0, right ?
does the audio streaming work with this firmware or do we still need 1.3 version ?

think of it like this:
there are two layers to WKF
one layer is the firmware
one layer is the menu


1.0 firmware allows autoboot, all other firmware breaks autoboot for GC
1.0 menu does not display GC titles correctly, 1.3+ menu displays GC titles correctly



audio streaming behavior is a WKF firmware dependent setting...
this has nothing to do with swiss as the "menu" or using the original wkf "menu"
the firmware will control ability to "properly play" audio streaming titles


define "properly play"

Code: Select all

with WKF configuration menu setting: "WKF OFF"
DVD playback of audio streaming titles works with megawire mod
SD playback of audio streaming titles will crash

*ideal setup for GC with DVD drive

Code: Select all

with WKF configuration menu setting: "WKF ON"
DVD playback of audio streaming titles will crash
SD playback of audio streaming titles will be mute (no audio)

*ideal setup for GC with NO DVD drive (portables)

[megalomaniac]

more testing:

this is very interesting....because my testing results may now contradict my previous statement

audio streaming behavior is a WKF firmware dependent setting...
this has nothing to do with swiss as the "menu" or using the original wkf "menu"

using WKF OFF with ORIGINAL WKF MENU and FIRMWARE
audiostreaming titles will crash from SD


using WKF OFF with SWISS MENU and 1.0 FIRMWARE
audiostreaming titles will play from SD muted (with no crash)


it appears swiss will already "correct" audio streaming to prevent crashing



as ive said before, this is all new data that will have to be analyzed and confirmed to provide future recommended setup configurations...i urge everyone to test and try it out with NO FEAR of anything happening to your WKF....
worst case scenario, just use the 1.2 recovery iso

i have already "bricked" a WKF doing stupid shit for the sake of testing and the 1.2 recovery iso worked to revive the WKF...so try it out..
if you dont like autoboot or just dont like new changes and developments then restore your WKF back to normal and keep using your pin29 switch...
its your GC, do what you want....

[emu_kidid]

yeah, not bad for a few minutes of IRC code snippets yesterday. feels like we really achieved something now

I'm going to merge these changes I made for the "flasher" edition so normal swiss will also be able to do it via an extra WKF menu.

Swiss does try its best to adjust to mute audio streaming, and any patching the WKF might try to do will probably be avoided when Swiss is running, which explains the working Audio Streaming games in 1.0 w/ Swiss.

[megalomaniac]

Swiss does try its best to adjust to mute audio streaming, and any patching the WKF might try to do will probably be avoided when Swiss is running, which explains the working Audio Streaming games in 1.0 w/ Swiss.

this test was with WKF OFF
which means WKF was not patching the iso from SD....this also means swiss was able to successfully correct audio streaming to avoid crashing!!!

[MarSAttK]

Alright, here's what I got...

Followed the video instructions step by step but didn't get autoboot. It seems as if the WKF needs a bit more time to start since the blue light comes maybe half a second later (compared to megalomaniac's). Of course it does load swiss, but you have to go through the process of selecting it.

I decided to start building from the ground and went back to stock FW 1.0 using the recovery, then upgraded to stock FW 1.5, flashed swiss 174 and finally the new 214 with 1.0 FW with the same results... but anyways, it's an improvement over having to press the pin 29 switch every time.

Maybe my WKF is a bit lazy!

Edit: Forgot to mention that when under stock FW 1.0 the GC autoboots into de WKF screen without any issues.

[LOCtronicz]

Think it has something to do with the speed of the sd card. Cause I have the same issue but not with all sd cards. For some reason the wiikey isn't fast enough to initialize the sd card in the slot.

[MarSAttK]

LOCtronics: You were right about the SD Card! Tried with a different card (microSD, the first one was SD) and it worked, too bad it's only 4GB in capacity.

Do you think it has to do with the class of the card? Size? Or is it just random?

[LOCtronicz]

Well the funny thing is I have a 4gb ultra sandisk 15mb/s class 4 card which doesn't boot directly into the menu but I have a 16gb sd card with the exact same specs which does. I have a 4gb mirco sandisk, 8gb ultra 2 class 4 sandisk and a 32gb class 10 which all don't boot directly into the menu.

I have to say I can't really say what it is exactly. I plan on buying a 64gb sd card to see if that works properly. It's not a big deal though but would still be nice if it did boot directly.

[ShockSlayer]

If it matters, I've only used Kingston cards and never had any issues with any.

[megalomaniac]

this might not be anything....but....
i ran a few tests and the only way the WKF DOES NOT directly boot into swiss is if the card IS NOT fat/fat32 formatted...
i inserted a few WBFS cards and there is no direct autoboot....
with fat/fat32, autoboot works fine...

so, just guessing here:
maybe there is a slight corruption of your fat/fat32 card??
maybe reformatting will fix it??


or maybe it could have something with the cards filled capacity?
too full might cause an issue?


if anything, test this just so we know these possibilities have nothing to do with it...

[LOCtronicz]

I'll check. I reformated the card and they still have the same issue. I however do not have allot on them. But so doesn't my 16gb autobooting card. Which is find strange. Brand is all from sandisk except the 32gb card.

as for the wbfs cards I realized that also a couple of days ago. It almost seems like the wiikey is reading some sectors from the sd card to know it can boot the iso. I don't know all the technicals involved but i plan to do proper testing with multiple cards from different brands. When I get to it I'll post my findings.

[MarSAttK]

Alright, checked formatting with SD formatter under Mac. I chose the "complete" format even though that takes a lot of time but it didn't autoboot. Test performed with a Kingston 8GB microSD Class 4 card. I also tried formatting under command prompt in windows XP with the same result.

I just realised that the cards that don't work (in my experience) are all branded Kingston. The one that does work is actually generic! possibly one that came with a NOKIA cellphone.

[emu_kidid]

we need to define something here...

There's 2 things that people are referring to as "Autoboot".
1. Autoboot means that you won't have to hit pin29 switch anymore.
2. Autoboot means that you don't have to even navigate to the disc menu in the IPL cause it'll init the SD card fast enough.

I figure the 1st one will be phased out/forgotten soon as users won't be going to 1.5 WKF firmware and Swiss anymore.

If you guys really want super-fast autoboot regardless of how long it takes the WKF to init the SD card, then I need to work on a apploader that takes over the IPL as soon as it's called for the first time

[Ashen]

I'd define "autoboot" as just not having to push the pin 29 "eject" button anymore. The fact that some Cubes may "direct boot" the boot/initial iso is just a bonus (and may depend on a number of factors such as installed wire length/latency of the actual WKF install, IPL revision, SD card speed, type, brand, and how and what software you've used to format the card, cluster size, etc). None of the test cubes I have setup here "direct boot" the iso. I have to select Gameplay, hit A, and press start still.

So;

Autoboot: Inital ISO is loaded (without button push) in GC IPL/BIOS @ system power on.
Direct boot: Initial ISO is loaded and the GC boots directly into Swiss @ system power on.

[LOCtronicz]

Agrees with Ashen. Clear difference. Let's name them like this to avoid confusion.

[MarSAttK]

Agree.
To be perfectly clear, I mentioned before that the swiss ISO loads everytime (autoboot) which is awesome (thanks again to all those involved), but I have to go through the process of selecting Gameplay, hit A and press start.

Now I brought this up is because in mega's video the card "direct boots". A behaviour that I only achieved with the generic microSD card.

The setups are:
1- DOL-001 (IPL 1.0) using megadrive.
2- DOL-101 (IPL 1.2) using homemade DVD drive - FFC adapter. (wires are 3" or shorter)

[megalomaniac]

dont wanna add to any confusion but just thought i would point this out....wouldnt autoboot be the same as direct boot??

autoboot/directboot:
gamecubes which "automatically load and directly boot" the initial iso with no pin 29 action are performing two functions:
"automatically loading" the initial iso into memory and "automatic direct booting" of that iso


autoload:
gamecubes which "automatically load" the initial iso into memory with no pin 29 action but does not boot the iso