Mac-on-WiiLinux

[Jose64141]

I think this is interesting and maybe someone else likes it too or even makes it better.

I compiled Mac-on-Linux on Wii Linux and made it work.
The biggest problem is a bug causing garbled text on some parts. It's also kinda sluggish, but still usable. And idk how to get audio to work ;p
Right now it's using Linux 2.6.32 from the neagix repo, with some changes regarding the default config and the patch found here (and a symlink from arch/powerpc to arch/ppc). The MoL repo can be found here.

So, here's the source code (and config) of Linux I used, and here's the SD image with mostly everything ready to go.
It's expecting a disk image with classic MacOS on /media/usb/iMac.HFV. You can change this on /etc/mol/molrc.macos.
Then, you login (it's a Whiite 1.10 image, so the user is root and the pass is whiite), startx, then startmol, and you're done!

Just so you know, idk why but this setup wouldn't connect to any network (even tho it would connect to the WiFi access point), so to install this I just copied the repo of a Debian 5 DVD to a USB drive and added that as a source

I think those are all the packages I installed to build MoL:
sudo apt-get install autoconf automake bison binutils build-essential bzip2 coreutils flex gcc libasound2-dev libpng-dev libncurses5-dev libx11-dev libxext-dev libxx86fdga-dev m4 make xorg xserver-xorg-dev zlib1g-dev

EDIT:
A youtuber and I had a problem after flashing the image were BootMii couldn't locate the required images. In that case, what I did was backup the files on the FAT32 partition, format it and copy the files back.

 

[ootnes2]

This your doing or someone else? https://www.journaldulapin.com/2022/11/21/wii-mac-linux/

 

[Abdalnablse10]

The wifi does work.
You just have to edit the /etc/network/interfaces and change wlan0 to wlan1 after using whiite-ez-wifi-config

 

[nmac101]

Who also came here from MJD?

 

[egor1]

g

 

[Vishwa]

Who also came here from MJD?

me

Post automatically merged: Jan 8, 2024

Who also came here from MJD?

me

 

[Disorarara]

I have a theory that Mac OS 7.5.3 would have zero text corruption and would probably be a lot more usable, or 8.1. anything before 9

 

[frozencat]

I think this is interesting and maybe someone else likes it too or even makes it better.

I compiled Mac-on-Linux on Wii Linux and made it work.
The biggest problem is a bug causing garbled text on some parts. It's also kinda sluggish, but still usable. And idk how to get audio to work ;p
Right now it's using Linux 2.6.32 from the neagix repo, with some changes regarding the default config and the patch found here (and a symlink from arch/powerpc to arch/ppc). The MoL repo can be found here.

So, here's the source code (and config) of Linux I used, and here's the SD image with mostly everything ready to go.
It's expecting a disk image with classic MacOS on /media/usb/iMac.HFV. You can change this on /etc/mol/molrc.macos.
Then, you login (it's a Whiite 1.10 image, so the user is root and the pass is whiite), startx, then startmol, and you're done!

Just so you know, idk why but this setup wouldn't connect to any network (even tho it would connect to the WiFi access point), so to install this I just copied the repo of a Debian 5 DVD to a USB drive and added that as a source

I think those are all the packages I installed to build MoL:
sudo apt-get install autoconf automake bison binutils build-essential bzip2 coreutils flex gcc libasound2-dev libpng-dev libncurses5-dev libx11-dev libxext-dev libxx86fdga-dev m4 make xorg xserver-xorg-dev zlib1g-dev

EDIT:
A youtuber and I had a problem after flashing the image were BootMii couldn't locate the required images. In that case, what I did was backup the files on the FAT32 partition, format it and copy the files back.

do i just rename the mac os 8 .iso to .hfw? how do i get a .hfw

 

[SylverReZ]

me

Post automatically merged: Jan 8, 2024

me

Nobody really cares if you came from a YouTuber. All that should be cared about is how much effort has been put into this project.

 

[frozencat]

Nobody really cares if you came from a YouTuber. All that should be cared about is how much effort has been put into this project.

fr

 

[Jose64141]

I have a theory that Mac OS 7.5.3 would have zero text corruption and would probably be a lot more usable, or 8.1. anything before 9

That sounds interesting! I only tried MacOS 9 cause I was fixated on the latest as the Wii was modern
I still want to respect the G3 processor and treat it as an iMac as much as possible, so maybe 8.1 or 8.6 will be
Tho I can't test it now
Btw, can you explain more about your theory? ;o I would like to know more

Post automatically merged: Feb 10, 2024

do i just rename the mac os 8 .iso to .hfw? how do i get a .hfw

HFV is a file format used in various classic Mac emulators for disk drive images, like Basilisk and Sheepshaver
You can use the last one, a PPC emulator, on your computer to create the image and install MacOS on it.
Or you can do the installing in MoL. For that, the ISO has to be added, in the same file I mentioned the disk image path is set. I recommend you set the Installation Disc as a read-only block device instead of a CD. Don't remember by but I think that way it boots with no problems ;p

 

[Disorarara]

That sounds interesting! I only tried MacOS 9 cause I was fixated on the latest as the Wii was modern
I still want to respect the G3 processor and treat it as an iMac as much as possible, so maybe 8.1 or 8.6 will be
Tho I can't test it now
Btw, can you explain more about your theory? ;o I would like to know more

Post automatically merged: Feb 10, 2024

Earlier Mac OS versions didn't have font anti aliasing which is what I believe is broken or not working right.

 

[lampi_]

@Jose64141 do you believe it would be possible to run MoL on a Wii U (possibly via linux-wiiu) and make use of its faster CPU + bigger RAM + HDMI output at 1080p? If so, it could become the ultimate machine to run classic Mac OS software natively (which is becoming more difficult to do as the years go by and old machines die out / become scarce).

 

[Jose64141]

@Jose64141 do you believe it would be possible to run MoL on a Wii U (possibly via linux-wiiu) and make use of its faster CPU + bigger RAM + HDMI output at 1080p? If so, it could become the ultimate machine to run classic Mac OS software natively (which is becoming more difficult to do as the years go by and old machines die out / become scarce).

I had the same question, 'cause I'd like that point too
But I tried and on first try, it wasn't possible. The latest version of MoL worked on Linux 2.6, and linux-wiiu started with version 3.x, so that's a breaker change. There was a newer version of MoL that used KVM, so the kernel version shouldn't be a problem anymore. However, I tried that (on Linux 4.x, the latest stable version) and it always crashed or got in a loop :c
I couldn't do more testing 'cause 1) don't have that much time 2) I still need more knowledge 3) that was a lent Wii U so I couldn't do much and it was in a not so comfortable place for hacking XD
Not sure if I tried QEMU, but I have a fade memory I did with the same results ;p

 

[lampi_]

Thanks so much for reporting the Wii U attempt in detail, such a pity that it didn't work! But I'd say the information you gathered already works as a lead for future efforts, hopefully it can be achieved someday