Hacking (vWii) - Tri-Core Linux

[Ninja_Carver]

You have not answered my question...

 

[Dr.Hacknik]

You have not answered my question...

Actually i have, didn't you get the Memo! ;-)

 

[Marionumber1]

The Wii U OS (Cafe os) is linux based. Which makes the idea of running linux on it easier, since it nativily runs a linux based firmware.....

I'm pretty sure you're a troll, but I'd like to go on record and say that's completely wrong.

 

[obcd]

The wii isn't using an OS, so how could it's OS be linux based?
The Ioses use a microkernel architecture, but that's not linux based.

 

[psvpwner]

The Wii OS was also linux based. Even the 3DS. You can download the ROM for the Wii U, and lots of the code and files are linux (.sh .bin .raw, etc)

Such evidence could just as well point to it being BSD based (I'm not saying it is), which would be more likely anyway since Nintendo probably don't wanna open source their code or violate the GPL.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

The only similarity between linux and the Wii U os that I'm aware of is that they're both OS's that have a kernel, end of discussion lol.

Moving right along, for those who didn't see my status update yesterday, I found my copy of brawl . Softmodded the vWii on my new Wii U a few minutes ago, dumping the vWii NAND as we speak (safety measure)

 

[jammybudga777]

what was you going to attempt after you have that installed and a backup?

 

[FaTaL_ErRoR]

Wii is linux? Wii u running linux? If that were the case then why is everyone having such a hard time porting linux to console?
I see some unix triggers but thats about it. (which hell most operating systems contain some parts of unix instruction, just part of it)
There may be some things that use programming like linux, but if so it's all closed source. (I think the only open part of it that is open source is the web browser and some of TVII)
You may find things that resemble linux and may help with writing in homebrew.

But, now we've strayed a bit off topic.
I'm afraid I haven't been following this thread much, have you been successful in communications to usb ports? And if so have you been able to make use of the full amount of ram avail. on system? And (yes another and) can you use said usb ports to extend storage on the U via external hd or usb stick?
(I have followed enough to know it's still stuck in vwii but curious if these things have been figured out on vwii)

 

[Ninja_Carver]

depends on the usb drive. i was able to boot it off of a hard drive in vWii

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

what was you going to attempt after you have that installed and a backup?

When I get a chance, I'd like to swap out the kernel for one of the later ones that delta made like 3.10..... As the later kernels are marked as having fixed the incompatibility with most usb mass storage devices . That and playing around with maxternal's race attack some more to see if I can get it to take. If we can implement SMP in vWii and the linux kernel SMP code delta added to his latest kernels (including the one we're currently using 3.086) as a proof of concept can handle it okay, then we know it will also work in U mode. Also more people will be able to "jump in" and try out Trinux without wanting to put their head through a wall, as its so crippled right now XD.

Also furthermore, according to Delta's repo, he's abandoned the Wii-gc linux project, so all his source code will need to be mirrored elsewhere before its gone. I have his entire archive on my desktop that I'm typing this very message from, so I will get it mirrored somewhere ASAP. Its a massive archive, considering its Wii linux, but its literally everything he's ever released..... His repo can be found here along with all his source code for every kernel he's put out there: https://github.com/DeltaResero/

 

[Ray Lewis]

When I get a chance, I'd like to swap out the kernel for one of the later ones that delta made like 3.10..... As the later kernels are marked as having fixed the incompatibility with most usb mass storage devices . That and playing around with maxternal's race attack some more to see if I can get it to take. If we can implement SMP in vWii and the linux kernel SMP code delta added to his latest kernels (including the one we're currently using 3.086) as a proof of concept can handle it okay, then we know it will also work in U mode. Also more people will be able to "jump in" and try out Trinux without wanting to put their head through a wall, as its so crippled right now XD.

Also furthermore, according to Delta's repo, he's abandoned the Wii-gc linux project, so all his source code will need to be mirrored elsewhere before its gone. I have his entire archive on my desktop that I'm typing this very message from, so I will get it mirrored somewhere ASAP. Its a massive archive, considering its Wii linux, but its literally everything he's ever released..... His repo can be found here along with all his source code for every kernel he's put out there: https://github.com/DeltaResero/

You have good intentions I believe, but....

 

[FaTaL_ErRoR]

Personally would rather see inferno os or Nix os. (Honestly I think they would be a bit more useful) Just my thoughts i guess.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Personally would rather see inferno os or Nix os. (Honestly I think they would be a bit more useful) Just my thoughts i guess.

Honestly, I don't see Nintendo replacing the Wii U os, there's no point in rewriting the OS from the ground up and trying to debug all the games that are currently on the market to work properly with it. Imo the next OS will come with the next console. Completely different (or suped up) hardware, brand new platform altogether.

Nintendo would be shooting themselves in the foot trying to "reboot" the Wii U OS. The U is struggling enough commercially as it is, they can't afford to launch a new OS for it and risk all the bugs that could come with such a thing. I think they'll just keep building upon the current CafeOS until the next console comes along.

I'm wondering if whoever "leaked" the news of NX being a replacement OS for the Wii U was likely somebody who works for their IP/security/legal dept trying to use scare tactics to kill off the impending homebrew scene. They want people to think that all these efforts will essentially be for nothing and people will just forget about homebrew on the Wii U.

We're all tech savvy people here, realistically is Nintendo going to bother writing a brand new OS for the Wii U (reinvent the wheel) or just keep building on the current OS? What makes more sense? "Work smarter, not harder."
Economically writing a brand new OS for it wouldn't make any sense either. That would cost them big bucks to pull off.

ray lewis thanks for the support....I guess lol. I haven't had any time to work on this stuff, but I'll be working on it tonight. Been crazy busy with work and school.......

 

[uyjulian]

Honestly, I don't see Nintendo replacing the Wii U os, there's no point in rewriting the OS from the ground up and trying to debug all the games that are currently on the market to work properly with it. Imo the next OS will come with the next console. Completely different (or suped up) hardware, brand new platform altogether.

Nintendo would be shooting themselves in the foot trying to "reboot" the Wii U OS. The U is struggling enough commercially as it is, they can't afford to launch a new OS for it and risk all the bugs that could come with such a thing. I think they'll just keep building upon the current CafeOS until the next console comes along.

I'm wondering if whoever "leaked" the news of NX being a replacement OS for the Wii U was likely somebody who works for their IP/security/legal dept trying to use scare tactics to kill off the impending homebrew scene. They want people to think that all these efforts will essentially be for nothing and people will just forget about homebrew on the Wii U.

We're all tech savvy people here, realistically is Nintendo going to bother writing a brand new OS for the Wii U (reinvent the wheel) or just keep building on the current OS? What makes more sense? "Work smarter, not harder."
Economically writing a brand new OS for it wouldn't make any sense either. That would cost them big bucks to pull off.

ray lewis thanks for the support....I guess lol. I haven't had any time to work on this stuff, but I'll be working on it tonight. Been crazy busy with work and school.......

Maybe if Nintendo's new console will be PPC-based (very unlikely because of XBone/PS4), Nintendo might use some of the software they wrote for the new console on the Wii U. Very unlikely, however.

 

[FaTaL_ErRoR]

Honestly, I don't see Nintendo replacing the Wii U os, there's no point in rewriting the OS from the ground up and trying to debug all the games that are currently on the market to work properly with it. Imo the next OS will come with the next console. Completely different (or suped up) hardware, brand new platform altogether.

Nintendo would be shooting themselves in the foot trying to "reboot" the Wii U OS. The U is struggling enough commercially as it is, they can't afford to launch a new OS for it and risk all the bugs that could come with such a thing. I think they'll just keep building upon the current CafeOS until the next console comes along.

I'm wondering if whoever "leaked" the news of NX being a replacement OS for the Wii U was likely somebody who works for their IP/security/legal dept trying to use scare tactics to kill off the impending homebrew scene. They want people to think that all these efforts will essentially be for nothing and people will just forget about homebrew on the Wii U.

We're all tech savvy people here, realistically is Nintendo going to bother writing a brand new OS for the Wii U (reinvent the wheel) or just keep building on the current OS? What makes more sense? "Work smarter, not harder."
Economically writing a brand new OS for it wouldn't make any sense either. That would cost them big bucks to pull off.

ray lewis thanks for the support....I guess lol. I haven't had any time to work on this stuff, but I'll be working on it tonight. Been crazy busy with work and school.......

I completely agree. If nx is anything it will be a cloud based intercommunications among already existing consoles and maybe incorporate other devices being able to play your games away from console via cloud. And maybe some emulators for other devices.
Do you not know what inferno os is? Or nix os? Inferno os has really good compilers and ide software and makes things easier moving between two different operating systems without either one knowing it's happening. And nix os well just read up.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I completely agree. If nx is anything it will be a cloud based intercommunications among already existing consoles and maybe incorporate other devices being able to play your games away from console via cloud. And maybe some emulators for other devices.
Do you not know what inferno os is? Or nix os? Inferno os has really good compilers and ide software and makes things easier moving between two different operating systems without either one knowing it's happening. And nix os well just read up.

I believe he thought you meant "NX OS" as opposed to "Nix OS"

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

I believe he thought you meant "NX OS" as opposed to "Nix OS"

Yup TotalInsanity was correct lol. I thought you just made a typo @Fat

I was looking over Delta's github repo again and while looking through the read me's for his latest kernels, I noticed it states that usb mass storage device compatibility is still broken. Not sure why I thought otherwise before.... Must've been lack of sleep. At any rate, later on tonight, I'm going to play around with the later kernels and see if we're able to get Trinux to boot with any of them. Some of the later ones have POC support for SMP. No idea if the kernels work or not though. Also the race attack translated by Maxternal is going to need a lot of work as well, but until we start experimenting some more, we're not going to get anywhere with this....

 

[Marionumber1]

Even if a PowerPC kernel has SMP support, just running it won't be enough. It's probably a good idea to first find out what state the kernel expects the CPUs to be in (asleep and ready to be booted, started waiting for commands, etc.), and then base your kernel patches around that. If the kernel expects the CPUs to be asleep (and therefore booted by the kernel), find the kernel code responsible for booting them and add in the Espresso boot sequence that fail0verflow gave. If the kernel expects the CPUs to already be started, and just wait for kernel instructions from the master CPU, get them booted before going into Linux (I think Maxternal already does this). Then see how the kernel gives it instructions and make the CPUs wait for them.

-This coming from my limited knowledge of Linux, but slightly larger knowledge of operating systems

 

[FaTaL_ErRoR]

Well interestingly enough I thought the arm blocked access to the other 2 cores in vwii. I thought it dropped smp and ran emulated on one core of the ppc.
If I am correct in this then without getting out of vwii you will never enable multi core process. Someone should watch what instructions are being given while entering vwii. I am pretty sure it runs like a vm and is set to emulate single core processes.

 

[Marionumber1]

Well interestingly enough I thought the arm blocked access to the other 2 cores in vwii. I thought it dropped smp and ran emulated on one core of the ppc.
If I am correct in this then without getting out of vwii you will never enable multi core process.

It was made pretty clear in fail0verflow's talk that the ARM did not disable the other 2 Espresso cores. Not only that, but Maxternal has actually been able to start them (just not with Linux yet).

Someone should watch what instructions are being given while entering vwii.

Unfortunately, we can't do that without an IOSU exploit or hardware hacks.

I am pretty sure it runs like a vm and is set to emulate single core processes.

That's not how it works at all. Switching into vWii mode runs an ARM binary called cafe2wii. cafe2wii disables all the new Wii U hardware (extra memory, GPU, DRH). sets up some vWii compatibility shims, and starts vWii IOS, which just launches the System Menu. The System Menu is a PPC ancast image that just disables the other 2 Espresso cores. There's no emulation involved, everything is done through hardware.