ROMs from a USB device?

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
0. Note: Wii already softmodded - various homebrew software and console 
emulators work fine.
1. SDLMame Wii installed on SD card.
2. ROMs loaded on USB hard drive.
3. Attempt to launch from SD card using Homebrew Channel.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
White-on-red "No games found. Please check the rompath specified in the 
mame.ini file." error screen.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
0.5(MAME 0.134u4) on softmodded Nintendo Wii.

Please provide any additional information below.
I'm not sure if this is an issue or simply that I have no idea what I'm doing. 
I promise I've done the requisite googling and have read everything in the Docs 
folder included with the distribution; I can't find an adequare answer either 
way. The only material I can find on USB drives is the WiiBrew entry for 
SDLMAME Wii, which (like almost every other reference I found via google for 
'sdlmame wii usb') says that USB drive support is enabled by running the app 
from the USB drive in question. That doesn't make sense to me; I see no way to 
do so (the only way I can find to run homebrew on the Wii is via the Homebrew 
Channel, which is as far as I can tell limited to the SD card).

For sake of comparison, I've got the FCE Ultra GX (NES) type emulators 
available through Homebrew Browser working perfectly; I suppose I sort of 
assumed that the MAME emulator would have a similar browse-to-device function. 
Is that assumption just wrong, or am I completely missing the proper 
post-download methodology to get this thing up and running?

Any help, including "here, read this, stupid" with an appropriate link, would 
be appreciated.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by adam.par...@gmail.com on 23 Aug 2010 at 6:16

[GoogleCodeExporter]

This is exactly the same question that i have. In the documention it says that 
the ROM search path defaults to first USB, second SD-Drive. But if i put the 
ROMs on the Harddisk connected to USB (same path as on SD-Card) no ROMs are 
found. Put on the SD all games work perfect. No really big issue - it's just 
that I prefer things tidy. As all ohter games (for WII) are on the Harddisk, 
why not putting the MAME-Games there, uh?
Please developers, supply us with the information or please fix it for the next 
version. Thank you. 

Original comment by io...@hotmail.com on 1 Jan 2011 at 11:59

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I think so too...
I want to use my hard disk...
because I have too many roms to save sd card...

I belive developers will fix this problem.....^^

Original comment by wylee7...@gmail.com on 26 Feb 2011 at 12:00

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I have this problem even when my roms are on the sd card. I tried to put them 
in the roms folder under the mame directory ie mame/roms than i tried to put 
the roms directory on the root of the sd card. Still get this "no games found" 
error. I don't know what else to try or what i'm doing wrong.

Original comment by terencew...@gmail.com on 10 May 2011 at 11:23

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I have the same problem and getting the error even I have created roms folder 
everywhere in mame, in apps/sdl-mame in sdcard root but cant run the mame 
getting erro on first screen and then the only thing its aske me to do is 
"EXIT" I cant run mame

Original comment by bilalag...@gmail.com on 23 Apr 2012 at 12:26

[GoogleCodeExporter]

FWIW you CAN run things from the HD from homebrew channel. You just have to 
change the device. I would think you could just install MAME to the HD and run 
it from there....but I too would like to do what you are saying. All my HB 
stuff is running from SD and it is an additional step to get it added to the HD 
separate from the rest. Perhaps one workaround would be to make your own WAD 
and channel on the main page that runs MAME from the USB HD...but that would 
take a lot of reading too.

Original comment by NimaMota...@gmail.com on 10 Jun 2012 at 9:04

[GoogleCodeExporter]

When you load the Homebrew Channel simply press "1" then select the USB Device 
as your load option. Then Homebrew will load all of your apps from the USB 
rather than the default front SD.

Original comment by jackhamm...@gmail.com on 14 May 2014 at 11:48