73 MB of RAM, ouch
this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2024
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And not even continuous ram! The wii had 2 bits, 24MB fast memory ( mem1 ) and 64 MB of slower memory (mem2) haha
Please keep telling us Wii facts, this is important
Most of what i know is from year and years of working on the console and are found on wiibrew.org haha
Damn Small Linux can run a graphical desktop environment with as little as 16 MB of RAM (although 24 is recommended).
That really makes me want to see a Wii with a mouse and keyboard plugged in displaying a spreadsheet or something. Unfortunately DSL only supports x86. Theoretically it could be ported to PPC like Void Linux was, though I don't know if all the tweaks they did to make the kernel and pre-installed packages as small as possible would make that harder.
Here's the website, I have nothing to do with this. I should have thought to post that initially.
Does the wii have a keyboard add-on?
It has two USB ports. The stock OS can even access keyboards.
And USB LAN too!
Oh yeah, I'd forgot
Hostname: Mercur-Wii
Nice
I've been wanting to try this for ages, but never got round to it. How long did it take to get installed? Do you recommend it, even if just for the memes.
The Linux portion wasn't long at all, it's just a matter of putting files on an SD and unpacking other files to a second SD or flash drive with Linux, then it just boots (if you already have BootMii installed). Probably about half an hour.
Installing HomeBrew Channel and BootMii is another story, I did that last year and don't remember how long it takes. I can look for the guide I used and post it here when I find it (Pretty sure it was this). This part is also pretty straight forward iirc, but I'm not sure if/how things have changed.
I would totally recommend it! It's shockingly responsive / usable and it seems like the devs have a ton of packages compiled for it in the repos.
I've been hoping/mildly trying to get a terminal on a CRT TV for years without buying hardware and this is an awesome implementation, especially with the component cable. Gonna turn it into a jukebox with CMUS or something.
I've already modded my wii with bootmii etc, was just wondering about the linux part! Thanks! I'll have a look soon
Cool! If you have any questions or problems I'll help ya out too
that's not a lot of dadotaded wam I don't think
Nice! Doesn't it have a weird architecture?
It does, the CPU happens to be a PowerPC G3 which was also used in a slew of Macs
Fyi: Its not a g3, but it does have similar features.
Also, thats just the processor, the wii architecture is very complex but fun :')
Oh cool, one of us should go update the Wikipedia then haha
Idk, wikipedia looks correct. Its microarchitecture is like the g3, but its a full custom cpu ( called broadway ).
Specially on the wiiu, where it now has a bootloader that verifies and decrypts what its suppose to run :)
But can it run crysis?
Neat
Wow