Easy Wii Linux: Instant PC [size=large][b]Easy Wii Linux: Instant PC[/b][/size] Turn you homebrew enabled Wii into a full featured personal computer, with the installation of only two files. No special formatting or hardware required. [img]https://sites.google.com/site/linusfargo/Home/ewl.jpg[/img] Built with ease of use and the Wii's limited system resources as the bullet points. EWL begins with a Debian Squeeze core. Added to that is a selection of packages that fit the model. Finally many applications that aren't available in the Debian repository, where compiled specifically for this distribution. All of this is combined, to provide a seamlessly home computing experience, that can satisfy most needs. [size=large][b]Installation:[/b][/size] [b]Step One:[/b] install the Linux disk image. A zip archive(~340mb) containing the image can be found here: http://www.fileswap.com/dl/seksXdGWeY/linux.zip.html Decompressed the archive contains one folder named "linux", which contains one file "linuxdsk.img"(1gb). Copy this folder to the root of a FAT 16 formated SD card. [b]Step Two:[/b] install the executable kernel image. Copy this file to someplace easy to find from the BootMii menu: https://sites.google.com/site/linusfargo/Home/EasyWiiLinux.elf (~4mb) This kernel uses the auto video detection mode. It will correctly set you video mode if loaded from the BootMii menu. If you are going to direct boot, use a kernel with your specific video mode preset from this archive: http://www.mediafire.com/?ve6rh7cuhgp16kd (~22mb) [size=large][b]Usage:[/b][/size] 1. Start the kernel from BootMii. Press the power button to move the BootMii cursor forward, and the reset button to select. 2. When you see the wallpaper, or hear the start up sound. Press 1 and 2 on the wiimote simultaneously, to connect it for use as your mouse. When connected the LEDS will stop flashing, and only the first will stay illuminated. 3. Now select the "Virtual Keyboard" from the "Utilities" menu and you are ready to go. (When using the virtual keyboard first click the "Focus" button. Then click the text box or window, to which you want your input directed.) Plugging in a USB keyboard and or mouse will increase usability exponentially. [size=large][b]Setting up WiFi:[/b][/size] Select "Configure WiFi" from the "System" menu and answer the questions. If you are using the Virtual Keyboard. Remember for your inputs to be registered. First click the "Focus" button on the keyboard. Then click on the whiite-ez-wifi-config tool window. [b]Important Connectivity Information:[/b] If you are actively using a wiimote as an input device. It may take a few moments for WiFi to connect after wiimote first syncs. "wminput" the daemon that enables the wiimote to be used as a mouse, has a bug. If it is running and you don't have a wiimote synced WiFi may not work. If you are using a USB mouse; you can either connect a wiimote and let it sit eating batteries, or select "Kill Daemon" from "Wiimote" in the "System" menu. [size=large][b]Features:[/b][/size] [b]Desktop:[/b] Instead of using a resource hogging desktop environment. EWL employs Joe's Window Manager, to provide an experience most users will find familiar. JWM features a start button in the corner of the task bar at the the bottom of the screen. It also has a pager to change between one of four virtual desktops. [b]Internet:[/b] [b]Web browser/Dillo[/b] Dillo is a web browser built around the Fast Light Toolkit. Compared to other browsers it use a small amount of system resources. This means you can surf while using several other applications. Version 3.0.1 was compiled specifically for EWL. [b]Email/Sylpheed[/b] Think Outlook. [b]IRC/LostIRC[/b] LostIRC is a fast and simple GUI IRC chat client. [b]Instant Messaging/BitlBee[/b] BitlBee is a daemon that routes instant messaging protocols to an IRC client. Using BitlBee you can chat over almost any messaging service with LostIRC. [b]Torrents/bittornado[/b] Right click a torrent file in emelFM2 file manager and select download. A download status window will automatically open. Your torrent will be downloaded to the folder containing the torrent file. Press "q" when your download is complete. [b]Office:[/b] [b]Document Editor/Leafpad[/b] Leafpad is a very lightweight GUI editor that allows for some font selection. [b]Spread Sheet/fteapot[/b] fteapot is the FLTK GUI version of Table Editor and Planner. It is lightweight and has a large list of features. Including support for Lotus 1-2-3 WK1 file format. WK1 allows file transfer including formulas between fteapot and Excel. fteapot was built specifically for EWL. [b]Calculator/xcalc[/b] xclac is a full featured scientific calculator. [b]Graphics:[/b] [b]Pdf Viewer/epdfview[/b] epdfview is an easy to use lightweight PDF viewer. [b]Picture Viewer/xzgv[/b] xzgv is fast image viewer that supports most formats. [b]Image Editor/xpaint[/b] xpaint supports many image formats and has a lot of features. Think the little sister of GIMP or Photoshop. [b]Games:[/b] Freecell and Minesweeper. [b]Utilities:[/b] [b]Virtual Keyboard/xvkbd[/b] Launch xvkdb and you only need your wiimote. [b]File Manager/emelFM2[/b] emelFM2 is a lightweight mouse driven GUI commander style file manager. Built specifically for EWL. [b]Source Code Editor/Scite[/b] Everything you could want in an editor. [b]Terminal/rxvt and xterm[/b] rxvt is very lightweight and is used as the default terminal. xterm uses more resources and is included to allow proper display of whiite-ez-wifi-config. [b]System:[/b] [b]Configure WiFi/whiite-ez-wifi-config[/b] This tool comes from debian-lenny-5.0+whiite-1.10.tar.bz2. Some small changes where made to it for EWL. Using this tool and the virtual keyboard you can configure WiFi with only a wiimote. [b]Wiimote:[/b] Kill and Start the mouse emulation daemon with a click. [b]DVD:[/b] mount, unmount and eject disk with a click. Due to the experimental nature of the DVD driver. The DVD to be mounted must be inserted when EWL is booted. Also once it is unmounted, you will need to reboot before another disk can be read. [b]USB Drives:[/b] Thanks to usbmount, drives using most file systems are automatically mounted on insertion at /media/usb0-7. Remember to unmount you USB drives before removing them to prevent data loss. There is a handy unmount button in the system menu. [b]Extendability:[/b] Because EWL is built on Debian Squeeze, adding new applications is a snap. You have access to the entire Debian Package Repository with apt-get. [b]Other:[/b] [b]MP3 player/mpg123[/b] Right click a mp3 file in emelFM2 file manager and select play. [b]System Monitor/xload[/b] xload is swallowed by the task bar to provide a persistent display of CPU usage. [b]Fast Light Toolkit/FLTK[/b] FLTK a lightweight GUI toolkit with a growing number of applications. Version 1.3 was compiled specifically for EWL [b]Unnecessary Information:[/b] User: wii Password: wii User: root Password: easy To permanently disable the wiimote mouse daemon. Comment out the wminput line in /etc/rc.local. To access the rest of the SD card comment out the umount lines in /etc/rc.local. SD card will be at /initrd/mnt. Leaving the RAM disk mounted to access the SD card will cost 4mb of RAM. There are more applications installed then just the ones listed in the Features section. (Examples: SSH server, bluez, more solitaires, ntfs-3g, etc.) Check /bin, /usr/bin/, /usr/games, etc. [b]Thanks:[/b] Isobel @ http://www.gc-linux.org/wiki/Main_Page Farter @ http://fartersoft.com/ and all open source contributers.http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,68339#msg-68339Tue, 16 Jun 2026 01:13:22 +0200 Phorum 5.2.23 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,75125#msg-75125 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,75125#msg-75125[mega.nz]]]> LupintheThird Wii LinuxThu, 16 Jun 2016 06:38:57 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,74131#msg-74131 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,74131#msg-74131 q885 Wii LinuxWed, 15 Jan 2014 13:13:16 +0100 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,74130#msg-74130 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,74130#msg-74130 fishears Wii LinuxWed, 15 Jan 2014 12:09:04 +0100 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,74129#msg-74129 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,74129#msg-74129
Quote
tittybullshitty
I downloaded and installed Chromium browser via apt-get, but now where do I go to open it? There is icon and no search to find it.

If you want icons and full menus, then you need Ubuntu. If I'm not mistaken, Debian does not add icons automatically. Ubuntu does.

If you just want to launch Chromium, open a Terminal and type the following:
export DISPLAY=:0
chromium &
I should mention that I haven't tried this. I figured I'd just give you something off the top of my head. And I'm only assuming that the executable name for Chromium is chromium. If it's not, then I don't have any other guesses what it is.

If this doesn't work for you, let me know and I'll mess with it myself to figure it out for you.]]> q885 Wii LinuxTue, 14 Jan 2014 00:48:38 +0100 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,74127#msg-74127 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,74127#msg-74127 tittybullshitty Wii LinuxMon, 13 Jan 2014 04:39:26 +0100 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73905#msg-73905 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73905#msg-73905 bedouin Wii LinuxSun, 13 Oct 2013 18:18:44 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73826#msg-73826 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73826#msg-73826 WheatThins Wii LinuxFri, 04 Oct 2013 19:47:50 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73413#msg-73413 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73413#msg-73413
Quote
nick141
I had to use sudo chmod 777 to gain permissions in Ubuntu. I used the default archive manager in Ubuntu.

OK. You need to extract the archive as root. So in a terminal type "gksu nautilus" which will launch the file manager as root. Then browse to the archive. Then open it and extract to your SD or right click and choose "extract to"...
That will keep all the permissions as they should be. You should now be able to get into X.]]> fishears Wii LinuxSat, 27 Jul 2013 20:33:50 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73410#msg-73410 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73410#msg-73410 nick141 Wii LinuxSat, 27 Jul 2013 13:24:08 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73408#msg-73408 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73408#msg-73408 fishears Wii LinuxSat, 27 Jul 2013 10:27:17 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73404#msg-73404 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73404#msg-73404
I tried typing X, this is what happened:

/tmp/.X11-unix has suspicious ownership (not root:root), aborting.]]> nick141 Wii LinuxFri, 26 Jul 2013 22:01:04 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73401#msg-73401 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73401#msg-73401instructional video on how to partition an sdcard with Windows - there's a link in the description to the partitioning program used.

This guide describes how you can mount ext2 drives in Windows - with read/write access.

Should be all you need. Good luck!]]> fishears Wii LinuxThu, 25 Jul 2013 09:09:29 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73399#msg-73399 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73399#msg-73399
I'm still stuck though, I don't know how to create two partitions in Windows or Linux (Ubuntu Live Disk) and be able to access the second partition.]]> nick141 Wii LinuxThu, 25 Jul 2013 03:32:17 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73396#msg-73396 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73396#msg-73396The first can be fat16 or fat32 and needs to have been prepared for Bootmii (you should know how to do this).
Copy a kernel of your choice to this first partition (just like in the first post of this thread but don't use the easy wii linux kernel). I suggest you start with a standard Mikep5
The second partition needs to be formatted to ext2 - no, the wii system can not write to ext2 but the linux kernel can ;)
Extract the archive I uploaded to your second partition.
When you've done all that put your sdcard in your wii and boot into bootmii (any way you like) and choose the linux kernel elf from the sdcard.
It should boot into Easy Wii Linux.

BTW, I'm doing all this in an attempt to HELP you. Your replies seem to be lacking in gratitude. Just saying...]]> fishears Wii LinuxWed, 24 Jul 2013 22:48:11 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73395#msg-73395 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73395#msg-73395 nick141 Wii LinuxWed, 24 Jul 2013 19:45:35 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73394#msg-73394 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73394#msg-73394 nick141 Wii LinuxWed, 24 Jul 2013 16:15:00 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73393#msg-73393 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73393#msg-73393extracted filesystem packed in an archive]]> fishears Wii LinuxWed, 24 Jul 2013 15:53:48 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73392#msg-73392 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73392#msg-73392 fishears Wii LinuxWed, 24 Jul 2013 15:28:59 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73390#msg-73390 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73390#msg-73390
Would it be easier to send the extracted files in a zip?]]> nick141 Wii LinuxTue, 23 Jul 2013 22:55:31 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73389#msg-73389 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73389#msg-73389
Quote
nick141
I need a Windows guide for that.

Like many things, this is not easy to accomplish in Windows - you'd need linux filesystem support as well as a clone of dd - both can be found on the web but its a whole lot easier if you download a LiveCD of something like Fedora or Ubuntu and then use it to perform the tasks in Linux.]]> fishears Wii LinuxTue, 23 Jul 2013 17:57:16 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73383#msg-73383 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73383#msg-73383 nick141 Wii LinuxMon, 22 Jul 2013 21:46:04 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73382#msg-73382 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73382#msg-73382
Quote
nick141
I have downloaded the Linux folder twice now and the .elf file doesn't find necessary files in the .img file, and when I inspect the .img file on my computer, I get a message saying the file is corrupted. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Will the DVD function work on the newer Wii's?

I couldn't get it to work as an img either so I recommend doing what I did: use dd to extract the .img to your ext2 partition on your sdcard ("dd if=linux.img of=/dev/sdb2" - replace with your img & device names) then boot it with whatever kernel you like (I originally used Farter's kernel and it worked well) - just remember to extract Farter's modules to /lib/modules on your ext2 partiton.]]> fishears Wii LinuxMon, 22 Jul 2013 21:35:47 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73374#msg-73374 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73374#msg-73374
Will the DVD function work on the newer Wii's?]]> nick141 Wii LinuxSat, 20 Jul 2013 23:42:27 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73163#msg-73163 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,73163#msg-73163Thanks for taking the time to set Squeeze up. I tried to upgrade my Lenny install but I got a lot of errors.
Might try upgrading this to Wheezy though... just to see if it will]]> fishears Wii LinuxMon, 01 Jul 2013 22:12:58 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,72836#msg-72836 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,72836#msg-72836 TheHackMii0 Wii LinuxSun, 14 Apr 2013 03:37:13 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,72799#msg-72799 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,72799#msg-72799
This topic must be pinned and mentioned in wiki.

update wifi is gone... (ill check iwconfig, looks like dhclient is not working)

P.S. I'll make small site with FAQ and my ideas how to use Linux on Wii (example: torrent server).]]> romanov Wii LinuxThu, 04 Apr 2013 02:08:11 +0200 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,72709#msg-72709 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Tutorials and help.http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,72709#msg-72709 Joelgp1 Wii LinuxWed, 20 Mar 2013 20:50:29 +0100 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,72708#msg-72708 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Tutorials and help.http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,72708#msg-72708 SifJar Wii LinuxWed, 20 Mar 2013 09:42:53 +0100 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,72707#msg-72707 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Tutorials and help.http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,72707#msg-72707
Quote
gamax92
I hope that this is of help to some people, and that this gets added to the main post or stickied.

Resize the disk image:
Note: Do not perform this operation on the linuxdsk.img EWL uses while it is running. Do it offline or on another copy.

Step One: expand the image.
dd if=/dev/zero bs=1024k count=1024 >> linuxdsk.img
In the above example, 1024k (bs) times 1024 (count) makes 1048576k (1GB) which gets added to linuxdsk.img resulting in a 2GB file. If you want to add more, repeat the command until desired size.
Remember, you MUST use >> on the above command.

Step Two: check the image.
resize2fs won't resize the filesystem until it is clean, so we have to force a check on it.
e2fsck -f linuxdsk.img

Step Three: resize the image.
After resizing the image, resize2fs shouldn't complain about the image being unclean, and resize to the new size.
resize2fs linuxdsk.img
If it does happen to tell you to check the disk again, repeat step two and then attempt to resize it. If it tells you to do it again, you can try to force it to resize:
resize2fs -f linuxdsk.img

Congrats! Your disk image should now be larger allowing for more program space. If this is still too small for you, you can attempt to do the program removal techniques by flits on the first page.

I attempted this under the Linux environment that exists in my Android phone (did an ADB shell command), those steps had absolutely NO effect on the linuxdsk.img copy I had put on the phone's SD card. What gives?]]> Joelgp1 Wii LinuxWed, 20 Mar 2013 04:10:42 +0100 http://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,72628#msg-72628 Re: Easy Wii Linux: Instant PChttp://forum.wiibrew.org/read.php?29,68339,72628#msg-72628 moebius Wii LinuxSat, 02 Mar 2013 21:35:52 +0100