Hacking (vWii) - Tri-Core Linux

[Maxternal]

Just because we'd be running in Wii U mode, doesn't mean things would improve. There are things we can get working in the current mode that would improve things much more, such as SMP support, wireless, and better graphics drivers. Remember, now that we have access to the hardware, we need to do more than just turning it on.

Mostly true.
While it's not just a copy and paste fix (just running Linux in Wii U mode and you're done) since I'm sure the memory map is shuffled around a little and you'd lose video support until someone gets around to porting the existing radeon graphics drivers ... the FIRST things you could get a hold of are a whole bunch more RAM and that roughly 3 to 5 ratio increase on the CPU clock speed so it's still definitely worth persuring, even at this point.

EDIT : also rumblpak , in vWii mode you should be able to get your missing USB support if you were to switch back to the old v2.6 Wii kernel (WiFi and BT are the ones that would need a new driver port). If you wanted to also take some of the first few patches I made to Deltaresero's 3.X versions and apply them to that older v2.6 kernel you could probably get some of those benefits as well.
https://code.google.com/p/gbadev/source/list?repo=kernel
Just be selective about it, the later edits on there are a little more experimental

I'm sure there would be some adjustments that would have to be done to the distro you use as well as I'm sure some parts of it will complain that they want a newer kernel version.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Hey all,

Just dropping by for a quick update. School is back in session for me (I'm an enginnering student, so I'm crazy busy) however, I'm going to keep working on this whenever I can, its just that my studies have to come first.

That being said, today I was experimenting with an external dvd drive 8 had lying around to see if trinux would pick it up. Unfortunately, the wii u can output enough "juice" for the drive to function correctly. Sadly the only Y-cable I have lying around has the wrong type of connection on it (microusb) which the drive doesn't have. All is not lost though :-). I have an external power brick lying around for that drive somewhere for rare cases like this, I just need to find it XD. I'm hoping ubuntu will have some generic drivers that will work with my drive and it will just be plug and play. I will keep you all posted :-)

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Mostly true.
While it's not just a copy and paste fix (just running Linux in Wii U mode and you're done) since I'm sure the memory map is shuffled around a little and you'd lose video support until someone gets around to porting the existing radeon graphics drivers ... the FIRST things you could get a hold of are a whole bunch more RAM and that roughly 3 to 5 ratio increase on the CPU clock speed so it's still definitely worth persuring, even at this point.

EDIT : also rumblpak , in vWii mode you should be able to get your missing USB support if you were to switch back to the old v2.6 Wii kernel (WiFi and BT are the ones that would need a new driver port). If you wanted to also take some of the first few patches I made to Deltaresero's 3.X versions and apply them to that older v2.6 kernel you could probably get some of those benefits as well.
https://code.google.com/p/gbadev/source/list?repo=kernel
Just be selective about it, the later edits on there are a little more experimental

I'm sure there would be some adjustments that would have to be done to the distro you use as well as I'm sure some parts of it will complain that they want a newer kernel version.

Of course, its not going to "magically work" with all the Wii U hardware rumblpak. Lol, I'm sorry if I wasn't very clear on that. There is a ton of work that would need to be done to utilize everything fully. Maxternal is correct however though, the increased clock speed and RAM "should" be picked up immediately, if its ported correctly. As for the wifi hardware and access to the GPU in Wii U mode, all three processors (NOT CORES, but processors) in the Wii U, as well as the Wii U gamepad and many other features would require a lot more coding.

I never meant to imply that things would just work instantly without writing the proper instructions to make them work XD. Sorry for the mix up.

 

[Marionumber1]

all three processors (NOT CORES, but processors)

What is this supposed to mean? The Wii U has one processor with three cores.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

What is this supposed to mean? The Wii U has one processor with three cores.

I was referring to the Espresso, Starbuck and the other processor (sorry drawing a blank at the moment).

While the Espresso processor may be the Main CPU for the Wii U, we may be able to utilize the additional processors for other uses on a very low level (ASM or MATLAB perhaps). Of course in order to do so we would need to run Trinux as a total replacement for CafeOS etc. What I mean by a total replacement is all aspects of CafeOS etc become completedly terminated when Trinux is launched ("wii u mode" so to speak), then we would need to code everything on "bare metal" to work, but in theory this could allow us to do w/e we want with the Wii U hardware under Trinux.

This is all just in theory, but I'm throwing it out there

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Today, is one of those rare occasion, that I actually have a lot of free time to work on Trinux related stuff . I'm going to see if I can find my power supply for that external dvd drive (or a similar power supply that will suffice, I have these lying around everywhere XD #nerdlife). I just need to make sure that the voltage and current ratings are close enough to what it needs, otherwise I could "cook" my drive XD.

If I have time later on I will also play around with that Trinux start page I mentioned previously for firefox/iceweasel. I already started it about a week or so ago, but its too demanding for our Trinux beta (even with iceweasel!) so I need to dumb it down quite a bit. It just "loads forever" and never actually pulls up that page. Its likely running out of RAM/Swapspace. I did strip a lot of the images out, but still the same problem, other simple websites load fine. Could be an issue with my webhost too. They force me to use their site editor and I can't write any of my own code *bashes head against a wall* and the code it generates is HTML5. Its possible HTML5 is causing the issue. If that's the case, I will just have to switch webhosts and write from scratch (which is what I prefer to do anyways XD).

 

[Ray Lewis]

I was referring to the Espresso, Starbuck and the other processor (sorry drawing a blank at the moment).

While the Espresso processor may be the Main CPU for the Wii U, we may be able to utilize the additional processors for other uses on a very low level (ASM or MATLAB perhaps). Of course in order to do so we would need to run Trinux as a total replacement for CafeOS etc. What I mean by a total replacement is all aspects of CafeOS etc become completedly terminated when Trinux is launched ("wii u mode" so to speak), then we would need to code everything on "bare metal" to work, but in theory this could allow us to do w/e we want with the Wii U hardware under Trinux.

This is all just in theory, but I'm throwing it out there

Marcan posted about this same idea over a year ago. There was a specific reason it would not work.
Without smp the rest is at best minor advancements. People have talked a great game with 360 Linux porting and programming skills...yet it never gets done. Seeing interest is refreshing though :-)

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Marcan posted about this same idea over a year ago. There was a specific reason it would not work.
Without smp the rest is at best minor advancements. People have talked a great game with 360 Linux porting and programming skills...yet it never gets done. Seeing interest is refreshing though :-)

where there's a will there's a way

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Today, is one of those rare occasion, that I actually have a lot of free time to work on Trinux related stuff . I'm going to see if I can find my power supply for that external dvd drive (or a similar power supply that will suffice, I have these lying around everywhere XD #nerdlife). I just need to make sure that the voltage and current ratings are close enough to what it needs, otherwise I could "cook" my drive XD.

If I have time later on I will also play around with that Trinux start page I mentioned previously for firefox/iceweasel. I already started it about a week or so ago, but its too demanding for our Trinux beta (even with iceweasel!) so I need to dumb it down quite a bit. It just "loads forever" and never actually pulls up that page. Its likely running out of RAM/Swapspace. I did strip a lot of the images out, but still the same problem, other simple websites load fine. Could be an issue with my webhost too. They force me to use their site editor and I can't write any of my own code *bashes head against a wall* and the code it generates is HTML5. Its possible HTML5 is causing the issue. If that's the case, I will just have to switch webhosts and write from scratch (which is what I prefer to do anyways XD).

And it looks like I just cooked my dvd drive XD. I tried an overrated power supply, hoping that the drive would have a voltage/current regulator inside XD. I got ancy, and this is what happens when you get ancy, stuff blows up XD. Luckily the safety mechanism in the Wii U seems to have skirted any damage to the console itself.....

 

[the_randomizer]

And it looks like I just cooked my dvd drive XD. I tried an overrated power supply, hoping that the drive would have a voltage/current regulator inside XD. I got ancy, and this is what happens when you get ancy, stuff blows up XD. Luckily the safety mechanism in the Wii U seems to have skirted any damage to the console itself.....

That really sucks, uh, where does this leave us?

 

[air2004]

where there's a will there's a way

You mean a Wii U

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

That really sucks, uh, where does this leave us?

No worries . It just means I'm down an external dvd drive atm XD.

Since I lacked one of those to work with, and seeing how I have two dead phat xbox 360s lying around, I decided to scavenge the hdd out of one of them (which is just a simple notebook/laptop hdd in a fancy shell). Okay so my next thought was, can I use THIS (its a 250gb hdd so for use with trinux this would be massive for extra storage) with trinux . My only problem with that was that I don't own a USB enclosure XD. At that moment, I realized I have an old x360usb adapter for flashing/repairing 360 drives huzzah! Sadly, the only SATA connection for that is DATA not power rats. So instead of going out and buying a USB enclosure, like a normal human being would, I made myself a custom cable to power the sata hdd using a usb cable XD.

Now the harddrive reads perfectly fine on both my laptop and desktop (windows and linux), the issue is i've been bashing my head against a wall trying to get trinux to see it. After battling with this for many hours (lol) I realized that it isn't seeing ANY usb mass storage devices at all. I think something became broken after that last beta was released. It must've been some package I installed that didn't play well with mass storage devices. Long story short, stuff got broken software wise XD. I figured this out by trying other usb mass storage devices (that work fine on my computers) and none of them would read under trinux. Fun fact though, I could view the hdd and other devices fine using Wiixplorer via the hbc, so I know this issue is isolated to trinux.

I'm rewriting the 1.4b image to my sd card right now, heres to hoping this resolves the issue



UPDATE: Having the same issue after rewriting the 1.4b image to my sd card . Is anyone else experiencing this problem? It could be that something broke between betas 1.0 and 1.4

 

[gudenau]

I take it I should refresh my tutorial, was that ever put up?

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

I take it I should refresh my tutorial, was that ever put up?

No I'm sorry, I'm afraid it got "lost in the shuffle" so to speak. I had forgotten all about it, I'm sorry .

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

I'm going to see if this works on beta 1.0 next time I get a chance too. I'm thinking this is just a bug with the latest beta, because usb mass storage devices were working just fine before

No worries . It just means I'm down an external dvd drive atm XD.

Since I lacked one of those to work with, and seeing how I have two dead phat xbox 360s lying around, I decided to scavenge the hdd out of one of them (which is just a simple notebook/laptop hdd in a fancy shell). Okay so my next thought was, can I use THIS (its a 250gb hdd so for use with trinux this would be massive for extra storage) with trinux . My only problem with that was that I don't own a USB enclosure XD. At that moment, I realized I have an old x360usb adapter for flashing/repairing 360 drives huzzah! Sadly, the only SATA connection for that is DATA not power rats. So instead of going out and buying a USB enclosure, like a normal human being would, I made myself a custom cable to power the sata hdd using a usb cable XD.

Now the harddrive reads perfectly fine on both my laptop and desktop (windows and linux), the issue is i've been bashing my head against a wall trying to get trinux to see it. After battling with this for many hours (lol) I realized that it isn't seeing ANY usb mass storage devices at all. I think something became broken after that last beta was released. It must've been some package I installed that didn't play well with mass storage devices. Long story short, stuff got broken software wise XD. I figured this out by trying other usb mass storage devices (that work fine on my computers) and none of them would read under trinux. Fun fact though, I could view the hdd and other devices fine using Wiixplorer via the hbc, so I know this issue is isolated to trinux.

I'm rewriting the 1.4b image to my sd card right now, heres to hoping this resolves the issue

View attachment 10263View attachment 10264

UPDATE: Having the same issue after rewriting the 1.4b image to my sd card . Is anyone else experiencing this problem? It could be that something broke between betas 1.0 and 1.4

 

[Ninja_Carver]

hi folks. for the latest trinux iteration, I did not rebuild the kernel zImage, I had one precompiled that we were able to use. You could, theoretically strip my kernel config thats currently in use by:

zcat /proc/config.gz > running.config

 

[Ninja_Carver]

hi folks. for the latest trinux iteration, I did not rebuild the kernel zImage, I had one precompiled that we were able to use. You could, theoretically strip my kernel config thats currently in use by:

zcat /proc/config.gz > running.config

then you could rebuild the kernel from Delta's source, linked previously. Keep in mind that since the vWii has such limited resources, I was very selective about which drivers to compile support for. I was trying to keep the image as small as possible.

I recall Delta speaking about bugs with USB Mass Storage in his 3.x branches. I presume he had fixed them at some point. Its a lot of trial and error from this point on. Everyone is going to have different peripherals they want to use on their Wii's and I didn't see the value and supporting everything "out of the box".

I will say, however, that I *DID* have success with external USB HDD's and this kernel version. It may not automount, but check 'lsusb' to see if the system picked it up at all, may need to be manually mounted.

 

[Ninja_Carver]

I think the most instrumental patch I used was from Farter's blog, which can be found here. This is for the framebuffer hack.

http://fartersoft.com/blog/2011/06/22/hacking-up-an-rgb-framebuffer-driver-for-wii-linux/3/

 

[Ninja_Carver]

I'm looking into why the majority of the devices on the Wii U are not exposed to linux. The only usb nic I have (which works with the Wii) doesn't work in Wii linux without either modifing the kernel to add the driver or modprobing the driver at every boot. I'd appreciate if you could share the patches that you made to the kernel, even if all it is, is a diff patch. According to most of the teardowns, the major bus in the Wii U is USB, but the only hub detected by linux is the external ports. Meaning, we need to change the hardware locations to the locations in the Wii U. I'm also looking into adding the additional CPUs to trinux on a better support basis by comparing the current kernel support to the x360 linux build, which should help. No time-table on when this all will happen but I have some extra time right now so I can at least look into it.

[Edit]
We're going to have to make some additions here unless you already have: https://github.com/DeltaResero/GC-W...rnel-3.0.y/arch/powerpc/platforms/embedded6xx

Definitely need some work here. Max and I had reviewed this briefly at one point, but I lacked the skill and he lacked the resources to make the necessary adjustments. It would be fantastic if you made some headway with the code there.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

I tried this method with both the external hdd (using the funky cable I built, because its actually an internal notebook drive), as well as my usb flashdrive. Neither were being reported under lsusb sadly :-(

then you could rebuild the kernel from Delta's source, linked previously. Keep in mind that since the vWii has such limited resources, I was very selective about which drivers to compile support for. I was trying to keep the image as small as possible.

I recall Delta speaking about bugs with USB Mass Storage in his 3.x branches. I presume he had fixed them at some point. Its a lot of trial and error from this point on. Everyone is going to have different peripherals they want to use on their Wii's and I didn't see the value and supporting everything "out of the box".

I will say, however, that I *DID* have success with external USB HDD's and this kernel version. It may not automount, but check 'lsusb' to see if the system picked it up at all, may need to be manually mounted.