187 lines
9.2 KiB
Text
187 lines
9.2 KiB
Text
FriiDump - A program to dump Nintendo Wii and GameCube disc
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===============================================================================
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FriiDump is a program that lets you dump Nintendo Wii and GameCube disc from
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your computer, without using original Nintendo hardware. It basically performs
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the same functions as the famous "RawDump" program, but with a big difference,
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which should be clear straight from its name: FriiDump is free software, where
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"free" is to be intended both as in "free speech" and in "free beer". As such,
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FriiDump is distributed with its sources.
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This leads to a number of good consequences:
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- Having the sources available, it can be easily ported to different operating
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systems and hardware platforms. At the moment it is developed under a
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GNU/Linux system, but it also runs natively on Windows. A MacOS X version can
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be easily created, although I don't have a Mac, so I can't do it myself.
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- Also, having the sources and these being well-organized (I know I'm a modest
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guy) allows support for new DVD-ROM drives to be added relatively easily. At
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the moment the same drives as RawDump are supported, but this might improve
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in the future, if anyone takes the effort... See README.technical for
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details.
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- The sources might also be used as a reference for several things regarding
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Nintendo Wii/GameCube discs and the hacks used to read them on an ordinary
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drive.
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Furthermore, FriiDump also features some functional improvements over RawDump:
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- FriiDump can use 4 different methods to read the disc, with different
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performance.
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- FriiDump dumps a lot of useful information about the discs it dumps,
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such as whether the disc contains an update or not, which can help avoid
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bricking your Wii ;).
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- FriiDump calculates the CRC32, MD4, MD5, SHA-1 and ED2K hashes of dumped
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discs, so you can immediately know if your dump is good or not, by comparing
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the hashes with the well-known ones available on several Internet sites.
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- FriiDump comes in the form of a library and a command-line front-end, which
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allows its functions to be easily reused in other programs.
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Unfortunately, there is also a main downfall:
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- Even the fastest dump method used by FriiDump is not as fast as RawDump (but
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not that much slower, either, see the table below).
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Anyway, I'm sure that people who cannot use RawDump (i.e.: GNU/Linux, *BSD and
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MacOS X users) will be happy anyway. Besides, you get the sources, so you can
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improve them yourself.
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Note that FriiDump is only useful to dump *original* Nintendo discs. To dump
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backup copies you can use any DVD-dumping program (i.e.: dd under UNIX ;)).
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FriiDump came to existance thanks to the work by a lot of people, most of which
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are probably not aware of this fact ;). Please see the AUTHORS file for the
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credits.
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===============================================================================
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Supported drives
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===============================================================================
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At the moment the same drives as RawDump are supported. This is due to various
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reasons, explained in the README.technical file, which also contains
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information about what is needed to add support for more drives.
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Currently supported drives are:
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- LG GDR-8161B (untested, but should work)
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- LG GDR-8162B (ditto)
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- LG GDR-8163B (HL-DT-ST/DVD-ROM GDR8163B)
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- LG GDR-8164B (HL-DT-ST/DVD-ROM GDR8164B)
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Other drives might work, most likely those based on the Hitachi MN103
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microcontroller. If you find any of them, please report so that they can be
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added to the compatibility list.
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===============================================================================
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Installation
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===============================================================================
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If you are a Windows user, probably you will have downloaded the binaries,
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either zipped or together with an installer, so the installation should be
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straightforward.
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If you downloaded the sources, you will need to compile them. FriiDump uses
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CMake, for easy portability, so you will need to get it from cmake.org. On
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Windows you will also need a compiler like Visual Studio (the only tested one,
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so far) or CygWin/MinGW. On UNIX just do the following, from the directory
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where you unpacked the sources into:
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$ mkdir BUILD
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$ cd BUILD
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$ cmake ..
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$ make
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$ make install
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Linux-specific note: You need root privileges to issue certain commands to the
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DVD-ROM drive. Hence you have the following possibilities:
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- Run FriiDump as root: discouraged.
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- Run it through sudo: better but nevertheless discouraged.
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- Set the setuid bit on the executable: this is the recommended way to run
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FriiDump under Linux. This way, the code run with superuser privileges will
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be reduced to a minimum, guaranteeing a certain level of security (note that
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security-related bugs might exist anyway!!!). Also note that, even when the
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setuid bit is set, the attempt to open the drive for reading will be done
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after privileges have been dropped, so you will need explicit read access to
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the DVD-ROM drive. Usually having the system administrator add you to the
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"cdrom" group is enough. To set the setuid bit on the executable, run as
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root:
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$ chown root:root /usr/local/bin/friidump
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$ chmod u+s /usr/local/bin/friidump
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===============================================================================
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Usage
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===============================================================================
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FriiDump is a command-line program, so you will need to run it from a terminal
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or a command-prompt under Windows. The basic usage is as follows:
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friidump -d <drive> -a
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where <drive> will usually be something like "/dev/hda" on Unix-like systems,
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and something like "e:" for Windows users. With this command, the disc will be
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dumped to an ISO image file with an automatically-chosen name. Drop -a and use
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the -i option if you prefer to specify the filename yourself. If you want to
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resume an existing dump, use -s. If you want to dump the disc to a raw format
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image file, use -r. Note that you can create a raw and an ISO image at the same
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time.
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Other options you might want to use are -1 through -4, to set the dump method,
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although the default is method 4, which is the fastest one, so most likely you
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will not need them.
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Finally, use -h for a listing of all available options.
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===============================================================================
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Performance
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===============================================================================
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As stated above, FriiDump is not as fast as RawDump. On my PC (Athlon64 3200+),
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performance is as follows:
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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| Method | Dump speed | GameCube disc dump time | Wii disc dump time |
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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| 1 | Too slow ;) | Eternity | More than eternity |
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| 2 | ~570 MB/h | 2.5 hours | 8 hours |
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| 3 | ~740 MB/h | 2 hours | 6 hours |
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| 4 | ~1250 MB/h | 1.2 hours | 3.5 hours |
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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===============================================================================
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Support
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===============================================================================
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I'm releasing this program under the nickname of "Arep". This is because I am
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not sure about the legal status of the program, and I do not want to encounter
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any consequences. Actually, I'm pretty sure FriiDump goes against the DMCA,
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being a program that circumvents copy-protection, but it might be objected that
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the format used by Nintendo discs is not a copy-protection method, but just
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their own, undocumented, disc format. Although, I think it can be freely used
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in Europe and other coutries without laws similar to the DMCA.
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For the same reason, I am not putting an e-mail address here (that @no.net you
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find in the program is obviously a pun), but support will be provided through
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the forums of the Italian ConsoleTribe forum, at http://wii.console-tribe.com.
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If you need help, just open a thread in any section there, even in English: I
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will *not* reply, but you might stand assured I will read everything you write.
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FriiDump users are encouraged to help each other there ;).
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Patches are welcome, too: just attach them to your post, and maybe put
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something like "[PATCH]" in the topic subject, so that I can easily spot them.
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New releases will be announced on that forum, and also on QJ.net, if I find a
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good way to notify them.
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If you want to donate to the project, do not do it, and donate to one of the
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free Wii modchip projects out there, such as OpenWii, WiiFree or YAOSM.
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===============================================================================
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Disclaimer
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===============================================================================
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FriiDump is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2. See the
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COPYING file for details.
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This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
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WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
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PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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Also, please note that this program is not meant to be used to spread game
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piracy, but rather to be instrument to make backups of your own precious
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legally-bought games.
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