Changes

The Wii's Broadway CPU is a standard PowerPC architecture chip developed by IBM. As a result, standard PowerPC code can run on it (once homebrew has been enabled). The team at GC-Linux.org have taken this opportunity to expand their GC-Linux operating system to support the Wii as well. Almost all the hardware on the Wii is now well supported under Linux with the latest kernel patches, with only the Wii's optical drive not working at all and the internal Wi-Fi only working when the Wii Linux kernel is run under mini, an IOS replacement by Team Twiizers. The currrent status of Wii Linux has allowed programs that run under Linux but cannot easily be natively compiled for the Wii to run on the Wii through compiling for the powerpc-linux target and then running it on Wii Linux.

The Wii's Broadway CPU is a standard PowerPC architecture chip developed by IBM. As a result, standard PowerPC code can run on it (once homebrew has been enabled). The team at GC-Linux.org have taken this opportunity to expand their GC-Linux operating system to support the Wii as well. Almost all the hardware on the Wii is now well supported under Linux with the latest kernel patches, with only the Wii's optical drive not working at all and the internal Wi-Fi only working when the Wii Linux kernel is run under mini, an IOS replacement by Team Twiizers. The currrent status of Wii Linux has allowed programs that run under Linux but cannot easily be natively compiled for the Wii to run on the Wii through compiling for the powerpc-linux target and then running it on Wii Linux.

SRB2Wii follows this approach. It always uses the latest Wii Linux kernels for the most advanced features. SRB2Wii was forked from the Kobo Deluxe for Wii 0.5.1 sources. In its current stage, though, it looks nothing like the original source on which it was based. SRB2Wii is a heavily simplified and modified version of GC-Linux.org's whiite-linux operating system, although they otherwise now have no similarities whatsoever. It only includes and loads the programs, libaries and services necessary to run SRB2 and related programs, and exploits Busybox to consolidate most of the required programs into one executable for simplicity.

SRB2Wii follows this approach. It always uses the latest Wii Linux kernels for the most advanced features. SRB2Wii was forked from the Kobo Deluxe for Wii 0.5.1 sources. In its current stage, though, it looks nothing like the original source on which it was based. SRB2Wii is a heavily simplified and modified version of GC-Linux.org's whiite-linux operating system (older version based on Debian etch), although they otherwise now have no similarities whatsoever. It only includes and loads the programs, libaries and services necessary to run SRB2 and related programs, and exploits Busybox to consolidate most of the required programs into one executable for simplicity.

SRB2Wii's boot process is relatively simple (compared to other Linux distributions):

SRB2Wii's boot process is relatively simple (compared to other Linux distributions):

6. The /sbin/init program follows the commands laid out in the /etc/inittab file, which sets up virtual terminals, and executes the /etc/init.d/rcS shell script.

6. The /sbin/init program follows the commands laid out in the /etc/inittab file, which sets up virtual terminals, and executes the /etc/init.d/rcS shell script.

7. /etc/init.d/rcS initialises the udev and networking services (if enabled, disabled by default in SRB2Wii's config), starts the swap file and the extended swap file if found, and then executes the /launch-srb2wii script.

7. /etc/init.d/rcS runs /sbin/ldconfig to make Linux aware of the installed libraries of the system, and then initialises the udev, procps and networking services (if enabled, disabled by default in SRB2Wii's config) and starts the swap file and the extended swap file if found. /sbin/init then executes the /launch-srb2wii script.

8. /launch-srb2wii starts the Wii Remote, sets some necessary environment variables and then finally starts the SRB2Wii launcher.

8. /launch-srb2wii starts the Wii Remote, sets some necessary environment variables (and resets some) and then finally starts the SRB2Wii launcher.

All this happens in a period of less than 7 seconds.

All this happens in a period of less than 7 seconds.