Homebrew Older versions of DevkitPPC and Libogc?

[fledge68]

I just discovered that all old versions of DevkitPPC and Libogc have been removed from devkitpro on SourceForge.

What a stupid move. how are we supposed to compile old wii homebrew? I really don't feel like having to update every homebrew to the latest PPC and Libogc. especially if its running fine the way it is.

so are we screwed or does anyone have any idea on where or how to get older versions when we need them?

edit: ok i just realized that libogc on github you can download older versions. but still what about PPC?

 

[Cyan]

I have some old versions on my computer (for windows only?), but not all of them.
if you ever need one, ask me and I'll see if I have it.

we could upload them to filetrip/download manager here for archival and historical reasons. but I don't have all the files from sourceforge, that's too bad.

 

[fledge68]

I have some old versions on my computer (for windows only?), but not all of them.
if you ever need one, ask me and I'll see if I have it.

we could upload them to filetrip/download manager here for archival and historical reasons. but I don't have all the files from sourceforge, that's too bad.

thanks Cyan. i found i still have ppc r27, r28, r29 before wintermute switched to pacman. i also see in usbloader gx sourceforge downloads there's still some old libogc and portlibs.

i sure wintermute is trying to get everyone to use the latest but sometimes that's not always applicable. hosting older versions on filetrip sounds like a good idea.

 

[Cyan]

I have no idea what pacman is. Apparently, it's using msys to grab packages?
these packages must be hosted somewhere, why can't we get them manually ? I always installed and updated my sdk manually to keep multiple versions at the same time, I don't want to update and overwrite old versions.

would you have devkit_ppc30/31/32 for windows? maybe libogc too.
I can upload the old one I have to filetrip.
PPC 17 to 29-1
ARM 24 to 44 (for example, lot of IOS building require r32, d2x, neek, etc.)
libogc 1.7.1 to 1.8.17 (missing some)

 

[fledge68]

I have no idea what pacman is. Apparently, it's using msys to grab packages?
these packages must be hosted somewhere, why can't we get them manually ? I always installed and updated my sdk manually to keep multiple versions at the same time, I don't want to update and overwrite old versions.

would you have devkit_ppc30/31/32 for windows? maybe libogc too.
I can upload the old one I have to filetrip.
PPC 17 to 29-1
ARM 24 to 44 (for example, lot of IOS building require r32, d2x, neek, etc.)
libogc 1.7.1 to 1.8.17 (missing some)

all the libogc i believe are still available on devkitpro on github. it's just ppc and arm i'm not sure about.
i believe i'm currently using ppc r30. and if i update it will go straight past 31 to 32.
thankfully the last time i updated i renamed my devkitpro folder so as to make a backup. because i ran into some coding issues with r31 that i didn't know how to fix.

here's a post about pacman - https://devkitpro.org/wiki/devkitPro_pacman
it sounds like pacman is mainly for linux users.
as for windows users he makes a installer which uses a custom msys2 which includes the packages to be installed.
too bad their isn't an option to choose which release you want.

I'm sure @GreyWolf probably knows more about this stuff than i do.

 

[fledge68]

i just figured out how to download ppc r30, r31, and r32.

use this link - https://github.com/devkitPro/buildscripts/releases/download/devkitPPC_r32/devkitpPC_r32-win64.tar.xz

change both r32's to r30 or r31 and it works. but anything below r30 doesn't.

 

[Wiimpathy]

This decision to not keep older devkit is very annoying. The only choice is to build them from source with the buildscripts. For some homebrews it's a real pain to do all the necessary changes and debugging for no real benefits. What's worse is Wintermute's answers : https://github.com/devkitPro/buildscripts/issues/29
and
https://devkitpro.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8754

Oh and the latest libogc has bugs that can completely break some homebrews. You have to add the fixes in the pull requests : https://github.com/devkitPro/libogc/pulls

 

[Cyan]

thank you.

That's a shame the way he answers, like "there's no version" ... except there are. look, they are numbered and there are major releases, not only nightlies and revisions.
and dropping devkitpsp just because it's not maintained is odd too, at least existing project relying on it could be built. I didn't need it, but I'm sure some people still use it.

some old project which would need only few changes to mod and recompile now require a full rewrite to comply with latest "version" of ppc/arm, which would require too much work for a non official project dev.
wanting to do a little "mod" is now too much work, like adding argument launching to old emulators.

 

[Wiimpathy]

That'd be a good idea to upload pre devkit 30 somewhere. I have some old linux ones. The issue is there are multiple version 32/64 bits, windows/linux...

 

[Cyan]

yeah, I didn't keep all versions. Usually only the ones for my system (windows 32 or 64 bit)
and about "not allowed to share the binaries, see the copyright", it's GPL. as long as you can direct someone who asks for the sources to it, it's fine. of course, it's better to provide them directly with the binaries, or at least a link so nobody need to ask for them. it's an official release, not a mod, so it's not hard to find the official sources if someone really needs to. therefore, I think it's fine to archive them, unless they also plan to delete old sources.

 

[Wiimpathy]

It's always funny to read these licenses. This devkit is a disassembly, partial rewrite of a copyrighted SDK. And every homebrews rely on this. It's a bit peculiar and hypocrite. That's why I generally don't give a damn about licences for homebrews. Well, except for the very low level and warez free homebrews. But we can count them on 1 hand.

 

[GreyWolf]

USB Loader GX only requires about 3 actual fixes for the latest libogc/GCC. There are a bunch of warnings for string buffer sizes and truncation but those issues were already in the code. The newer GCC just points them out where the older one didn't. You can use compiler flags to ignore them if you don't want to mess with them.

 

[newo]

Yeah, same thing happening to me with my 32 bit hardware. Auto updating software has become a pain in my ass. Everything wants to take over your dev process and lead you down a path. I just want to write some for loops man! I have too many hobbies to be chasing down everything and all the requirements of the modern web ( http://owensoft.net/v4/item/2475/ ) .

I dont really need support as much as I need stability. This support trap culture is just new ways to write old stuff.

 

[Wiimpathy]

Yes it's a pain. With some homebrews, it's not only 3 fixes. And sometimes, it's very hard or impossible to debug(cf. the libogc pull requests).
I agree with your article about modern web. But it's a global issue. We're almost forced to buy new hardware because of bad operating systems/inefficient softwares and planned obsolescence.

 

[Coto]

It's always funny to read these licenses. This devkit is a disassembly, partial rewrite of a copyrighted SDK. And every homebrews rely on this. It's a bit peculiar and hypocrite. That's why I generally don't give a damn about licences for homebrews. Well, except for the very low level and warez free homebrews. But we can count them on 1 hand.

I used to not to give a damn about licenses, until my work was marked as "unacceptable", that led me to relicense and rewrite a whole toolchain for NintendoDS. So I can port and relicense as many DS homebrew as long the original author agrees to use a GNU GPLv2 (or later) license. So the only thing I appreciate, is that being an "unacceptable" developer I ended up doing a lot of rewrites, and now DS devs are free to move their work from other toolchains into ToolchainGenericDS if they feel like doing so. And GPLv2 will ensure your work to be always like that.

This is a fully 4 year of daily work. I have linkers, makefiles, filesystems drivers and everything else. So if you feel like creating a toolchainGenericGC or ToolchaingenericWII just PM me and I will provide tools and / or instructions. The onlything is that you will be on your own at first. Well I've been there.

 

[newo]

Yes it's a pain. With some homebrews, it's not only 3 fixes. And sometimes, it's very hard or impossible to debug(cf. the libogc pull requests).
I agree with your article about modern web. But it's a global issue. We're almost forced to buy new hardware because of bad operating systems/inefficient softwares and planned obsolescence.

Hey I like new stuff just like everyone else but I dont see the need to upgrade my entire dev setup when the thing that I am targeting is a static piece of hardware like the wii. Stuff is changing all around me and none of it is helping me to write better games or code faster. Its just more of the same loops without any interesting new ways to code. Yeah these things have been happening for years now and its clearly nothing new ( http://owensoft.net/v4/item/2246/ ) . I am not even sure which version or what files I have for libogc but I guess I am stuck at the version I currently have which is fine by me as long as my machine doesnt crash.

 

[Cyan]

talking about ECMA? (or is emca a thing?)
obsolescence and forced coding style is why I couldn't maintain my firefox addon. all firefox ended dropping addon if not done the way they want, and mine just can't do it, I have to edit the interface which is now forbidden, I have to use workaround communication between two asynchronous sandboxed processes when I could just set a sync private variable before, my addon doesn't work async at all and I would need to freeze all processes until a variable is transmitted. Or maybe it's possible, but require a full rethink and rewrite of the addon over new API, etc.
it worked fine, now it doesn't work at all, and nobody seems to care to fix it or update it, even though it's open source. it's too complicated to comply with updates and evolution when you don't have enough time and it's just a hobby, not your full time work.

I feel like small dev and small project will not be seen anymore, it's making things complicated to learn and understand for new comers. (and old ones too, sometime)

 

[Wiimpathy]

I used to not to give a damn about licenses, until my work was marked as "unacceptable", that led me to relicense and rewrite a whole toolchain for NintendoDS. So I can port and relicense as many DS homebrew as long the original author agrees to use a GNU GPLv2 (or later) license. So the only thing I appreciate, is that being an "unacceptable" developer I ended up doing a lot of rewrites, and now DS devs are free to move their work from other toolchains into ToolchainGenericDS if they feel like doing so. And GPLv2 will ensure your work to be always like that.

This is a fully 4 year of daily work. I have linkers, makefiles, filesystems drivers and everything else. So if you feel like creating a toolchainGenericGC or ToolchaingenericWII just PM me and I will provide tools and / or instructions. The onlything is that you will be on your own at first. Well I've been there.

Wow. This is surely very interesting but I'm not sure such a huge task is worth it. Who decided it was 'unacceptable'? I mean writing homebrews is an amateur, underground work and most of the time it's for free. Who can prevent you from going on? And I can't imagine how hard it would be to rewrite some parts. And it's just the compiler and essential libs, but what about libogc?
Thanks for offering your help. It's too much for me but I'll look at your source just out of curiosity.

 

[newo]

Oh dont get me started on API dev traps that lead devs around with a carrot on a stick. Everything is open source nowadays as long as you follow the fat complicated hand holding API. There are not enough programmers out there that are able to jump into a complicated open source project. And the ones that do jump in, just want to make everything more complicated/generalized.

Thats one reason I havent open sourced my own wii stuff because 1. I am not doing anything special 2. no one really cares 3. it would just add to the mountain of open source clutter.

 

[Coto]

Wow. This is surely very interesting but I'm not sure such a huge task is worth it. Who decided it was 'unacceptable'? I mean writing homebrews is an amateur, underground work and most of the time it's for free. Who can prevent you from going on? And I can't imagine how hard it would be to rewrite some parts. And it's just the compiler and essential libs, but what about libogc?
Thanks for offering your help. It's too much for me but I'll look at your source just out of curiosity.

You can guess who said it was "unacceptable" (hint, the reason this thread exists). Also, I remember other devkitpro maintainers were kind or helpful, so I thought it was worth mentioning that difference.

Just give it a read, I would give a hand or two if some other missing functionality must be added back (but this time using gpl v2 licenses). If your properly license your work, no one has the right to take it from you or forbid your to distribute the software in any way except in the way you want and the license says