Wii Linux

Noticing how the Gamecube Linux crew hasn't been pumping out many updates I feel this community needs to have some type of its own production of linux, starting from something very basic and structure it out to its fullest capacity for the wii. I don't have the room to complain since I really haven't contributed much but I just feel if some type of team formed from us we could do something better. Isn't that how most good things happen? Don't think something is as good as it needs to be? I'll post back tomorrow or friday with some more information about this.

http://www.tehskeen.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=9530 is way ahead of you. Muzer is on it :P

Well I still feel this should be done. I would like to reword my post so that I am saying that I am looking for help and team members not just someone to do it for me. That is the only way I will learn. I am in the midst of creating a wiki article with more information in it.

EDIT: Here is the link to the page. Please check it out: [wiibrew.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2008 02:53AM by pinball Wizard.

ask muzer if you need a hand there is a few of us already doing this but im sure people will happily help.
when you get it underway though remember the wiis limitations, you will probably want a lightweight Window Manager (http://xwinman.org/ check here for one) and then all the apps need to be lightweight as well...
video driver is here http://www.tehskeen.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9322 as for an on screen keyboard... you need to look around thats a problem muzer is having with his... they take up like 1/2 the screen...
also look for a login manager that allows auto logins.

Well it might help me out. First I guess we need to come up with a small set of goals to strive toward before I go off and start to look at this. If you check the wiki page, then you could see what to add. I want to consider your thoughts on it, not just design it for me. Lastly, If someone is creative enough for it, could you come up with a better name? I also would like a logo. It is only cosmetic but a name really is what inspires me to head towards a goal. Again, just suggest some goals if you all could.

Hey, I went ahead and made a logo using your "Wii Live" title. It's not complete in any fashion but maybe it'll give you some ideas. Yay boredom!

Thanks. This literally just inspired me!!! Should we pronounce it as "We Live" as in the state that I am alive or "We Live" as in the football game is live? If we get rid of the Ubuntu logos we will be a little safer. So if you turn the dots into something else I will use your logo! Thanks though, time to run off with ideas in head.

The ubuntu system is no longer for the PPC processor so if you have a decent distribution available please fess up will ya?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2008 03:32AM by pinball Wizard.

Awesome, I shall make it to your specifications. I think "Wii (a)live" would be a better pronunciation but maybe we should consider a different name as it might, as blooper said on the talk page, bring down the wrath of Microsoft :P . I wish I could actually contribute to something like this in a programming aspect but regrettably I'm just barely getting around to learning C++ : /

So, should I remove the logos and replace them with appropriately colored dots or should I ditch the colors altogether since it sounds like Ubuntu is out of the picture?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2008 05:19AM by Notsogr8one.

I say, find some type of outlined dot to match the text for the letters.

Well with even more conflicting name issues with Wii Live I have decided on WiiMeet if no one disagrees.

Quote
pinball Wizard
Well with even more conflicting name issues with Wii Live I have decided on WiiMeet if no one disagrees.

Sounds like a good name, just curious what it means? Also is it resemblance to miight, the next anticipated version of wii linux, intentional?

The name came from this: the goal is to Meet the best of 2 worlds: 1)Multimedia on tv and 2)basic computer tools. Not intentional at all.

Regarding the GUI, there is one based on SDL and OpenGL which claims to almost work on the WII:

http://libagar.org/portable.html

Firstly I have a couple of questions

From what I understand and the system the Wii operates on, most of it's limitations are due to quite small RAM (Anyone know what size exactly?). So to enable, a functionally stable, and reasonably responsive interface you really need to deal with memory constraints.

I have some ideas on this myself; Using a 2GB SD card as a /root partition, then attaching an external hard drive via usb as /home partitions. For extra memory perhaps you could use a 2 GB pendrive and format it's filesystem as Swap partition. Supplementing the Wii with 2 GB extra RAM.

I don't know that it would actually increase performance at all though..

If you really want something stable, it'd be worth using a framework such as LFS (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org, which involves building a custom Linux system from the ground up, using their guide to cross compiling for power-pc architecture as a basis - which would give at least a text-based console to build from.

With current status of gc-linux, the Wii also loads files slowly and inefficiently, due to using usb 1.0, a driver still needs to be written. I'd consider this component relatively crucial really.

A graphics driver already exists, although I don't recall exactly where.

As far I understand it no driver yet exists for the internal wireless card, which would be really useful to have.

Only my initial random thoughts, GL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2008 10:21PM by coolion65.

I had the idea to do some type of SWAP partition. The only thing is that we need to note the HD based swap is slow as can be and also that remember don't do any government activity with a swap partition active as it is hacker prone ;) Your other ideas I like too. I am still researching slowly so soon hopefully a more sketched out plan.

Really any chance of using an external hard drive at any kind of reasonable speed, is restricted until a usb 2.0 driver is written.
The system itself is easy to make, just cross-compile with gcc...

Compress the file system and transfer to SD. None of it could physically interfere with the Wii's functions.
The problem arises when using say ext2 on usb 1.0 in a system with a very small amount of RAM

They're the two most obvious bottle-necks



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2008 01:10AM by coolion65.

Yeah. Again lots of research and development to do here to put this to the max of its potential.

Is there any reason we couldn't simply create a live cd/dvd tailored to the Wii, and use something like WiiGator's Backup Loader (although it would need modifications). The DVD drive I presume would have far superior read speeds.

You could still incorporate external HDD's for the /home partition. Maybe even get KDE running.

First off there, the SD card would be better there and developing a USB 2.0 driver would be better. I want this as a non-tied-into-piracy type of thing. A lot of people (including myself) shun that kind of connection.