Re: NetBSD on Nintendo Wii (PowerPC 750CL)

[Harold Gutch <logix%foobar.franken.de@localhost>]

On Fri, Jan 01, 2010 at 02:09:32AM +0100, Frank Wille wrote:
> BTW, what kind of bootloader/firmware does the Wii use? Uboot or something
> own?

The whole system is proprietary, but a lot of it (including the boot
process) has been reverse engineered.

However, I believe Linux it not booted "natively", but is instead run
(more or less) as if it was a game.  That means, the Wii goes through
the regular boot process, ends up running the system menu, which is
where you then usually do things like run a game or start Opera (the
official web browser for the Wii).  Here you then select to run Linux.


> And does Nintendo allow access to the complete hardware?

Officially, Nintendo does not even allow running *any* unofficial
code, so one would always have to rely on an unofficial way to run
code on the Wii.  There are however a few possibilities to do this,
even on the most up-to-date systems and even without opening the Wii.
These then grant (at least to my knowledge) full access to the
complete hardware.

See the WiiBrew wiki ( http://www.wiibrew.org/ ) for a full
explanation on all of the above (and lots more).


best,
  Harold