Wii U Linux

A port of Linux 4.11.6 to the Wii U baremetal.

Getting Linux

Prebuilt Download

You can download a prebuilt image here. See linux-wiiu/linux-loader for your next steps on setting it up.

Compiling (Docker)

If you're the type to compile things yourself, you can use our Docker image to sort everything out for you. (Quick warning: the image is ~250MiB on disk)

#Download linux-wiiu
git clone https://gitlab.com/linux-wiiu/linux-wiiu #or however you want to do that
cd linux-wiiu
#run the docker container
#--rm (clean up after us); -it (use a terminal)
#-v $(pwd):/linux-wiiu (mount the current directory as /linux-wiiu)
docker run --rm -it -v $(pwd):/linux-wiiu quarktheawesome/linux-wiiu-builder
#You should now be in the container - your shell prompt will change
#Configure Linux - the needed make flags are in $LINUXMK to save typing
make wiiu_defconfig $LINUXMK
make -j4 $LINUXMK
#We're done! Exit the container and get back to the host OS
exit

Once this completes, you should find dtbImage.wiiu at arch/powerpc/boot/dtbImage.wiiu. Check out linux-wiiu/linux-loader to get this running on your Wii U.

Compiling (from scratch - not recommended)

You'll need a PowerPC toolchain. It seems devkitPPC will not work. Assuming your chain is powerpc-linux-gnu-:

#clone repo however you'd like
make wiiu_defconfig ARCH=powerpc CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu- CROSS32_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu-
#if you'd like to make some changes, do menuconfig here
#add -j4 if you'd like
make ARCH=powerpc CROSS_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu- CROSS32_COMPILE=powerpc-linux-gnu-

This'll build arch/powerpc/boot/dtbImage.wiiu. From here, check on linux-wiiu/linux-loader for your next steps. There are no kernel modules to worry about, unless you build your own.

Booting

The kernel commandline is hardcoded (for now) with root=sda1 rootwait. This means you'll need to use a USB flash drive as your rootfs. Format it however you'd like (yes, ext4/gpt works) and throw a distro on it - see below for Debian instructions. Plug it and a USB keyboard into the Wii U. Run linux-wiiu/linux-loader (as described in that repo's README) and enjoy your Linux!

Device Support

As it stands, we've got:

• USB OHCI/EHCI (back ports only)
• Framebuffer graphics (no acceleration or DRI)
• SD card
• Bluetooth (tether a phone to get internet)
• Some ARM interaction (for poweroff/reboot)
• 2GB of RAM (0x80000000, reclaimed from ARM)
• One PowerPC core (core 0?)
• Both interrupt controllers (this is a big deal for us)

Some of our TODOs can be found on the boards.

Distributions and Programs

While we started off developing with Gentoo, we swapped to Debian unstable (everything's precompiled) so that's what we recommend you do too. Debain stable/testing is unbearably outdated on PowerPC so yes, you should use sid/unstable. To make a system, you can use debootstrap or our prebuilt option:

1. Be on Linux. Get a USB (512mb bare minimum) and format it with a single ext4 partition. This will be your rootfs, so make sure it's a decent quality one (speed is important)
2. Download this archive, we'll call it "debian.tar.xz"
3. Mount and cd into your new USB.
4. Run tar -xvpf <path/to/debian.tar.xz>. The p is important, you could skip the v.
5. Eject the drive and plug it into your Wii U. With any luck, it'll boot Debian! Log in with username root and password root.

Notes

• This version of Debian is set up to keep the kernel up to date - it'll mount the SD whenever it does this. Remove deb.heyquark.com from the apt sources to disable this.
• X.org works (w/ software rendering) but there's some kind of caching issue that puts lines on moving sections of the screen.
• If you can come up with a better guide (esp. one including steps for Windows users) feel free to PR it in.