Questions about Linux on Wii U

[diamantaeres]

Hello!

Lately I'm considering to try to use Linux on my Wii U, but since it seems a bit complex, before wasting a lot of time on it, I want to be sure it matches with what I actually want, so I need some info that I'm struggling to locate.. I would appreciate if someone here who have experiences it or has knowledge of it may answer to my questions.

The first one, I want to be sure it won't be something permanent.
Will my Wii U still run the native operating system after installing it?
My idea is that I want to keep using my console as usual with its native software and switch it to Linux only occasionally.

The second one is that as far as I couild read, at the moment it doesn't support the native Wifi integrated in the console and currently you need a USB Wifi Adapter.
Do you think in future updates this will be resolved?


If it's not sure they will manage to make the native Wifi work, will any USB Wifi Adapter do the job or should I specifically buy one of a specific set of models?

The third is about the gamepad (inputs and screen):
Will the interface run on the gamepad screen too or just in the external screen?
Do I actually need a usb keyboard? Or will the Gamepad provide an alternative (eg: on screen keyboard in the touchscreen).
I saw in the latest update they added touchscreen support, this means I can use the touchscreen to double tap on the objects in UI to interact with them? (It would be a great thing for me)

Last one is about the installation of software, I don't want to put much things in it, just a couple: Firefox and scrcpy essentially. If someone tried Firefox, can they confirm if it works? After its installation, will it persist after restarting Linux after some time? (eg: after using the console with its native software for months).

Thank you in advance for your time.

 

[birbhorse]

Hey there, happened to stumble upon this while lurking, I used to use Wii U Linux a bit (though I currently don't have it installed) but I can answer your questions.

1. It's not permanent, you use a firmware image file to boot into a USB drive that you create for linux; meaning you have to use a spare USB drive you have lying around to boot into linux.

2. Maybe some time in the future? Depends on if someone feels like developing kernel drivers for this, in which considering recent developments, it might just happen, but I wouldn't hold my breath. EDIT: Also, I'm not sure if a Wi-Fi USB thing will work. Try to seek out one that you know works with Linux (don't trust amazon listings that claim they are, i made that mistake once before).
EDIT 2: I just remembered, the way I did it was I used my Android phone to do wired tethering. You can use your phone's wi-fi, connect it to the wii u via USB cable, and set it to wired tethering, and linux treats it like a wired ethernet connection. Would be much easier to set up since you don't have to worry about setting up wi-fi via command line.

3. The Wii U screen is essentially non-functional, it displays a little graphic but that's about it, you can't use it for anything. You will absolutely need to use a USB keyboard, any one will do, a wireless keyboard works just as well.

Last one: I haven't gotten GUI apps to work properly, but from what I know, running Firefox at usable speeds will be a pipe-dream until they can figure out how to get multi-core support working (as of right now, linux only uses 1 out of the 3 cores the CPU has). That isn't to say you can't run GUI apps at all, it's just you won't have a fun time, especially since hardware acceleration will most likely never happen. And since this is all installed on a USB drive, it will be of course persistent, it's not like LiveCD or anything of the sort, you're directly installing it as if you did a regular hard-drive install.

Overall, Linux running on the Wii U is more of a novelty thing, though you can use it as a really weird server if you wanted to, since CLI apps will run just fine. Assuming you're using a distro that supports the Wii U's CPU architecture, which has been thinning out in recent years because it's a 32-bit CPU, and distros are rightfully considering ditching 32-bit architectures altogether, due to lack of users.

Void Linux used to be the one distro you could use with the WIi U, but they're dropping support for it's CPU soon; your last hope is to get Adelie Linux working, though they don't provide a raw image to flash to a hard-drive I don't think, so... good luck is all I can say, unless you can somehow get an obscure version of Debian to work.

 

[diamantaeres]

Hello and thank you for your answer!

In the past days I managed to get in touch with the developers of the project and sort out my doubts.

Just to give you some insights of what I want to do, that's just one thing: I want to display and control my Nvidia shield into the Wii U gamepad, which is something that is possible to do with great performances under Windows and Linux with a software named scrcpy (which means screen copy) that uses the ADB drivers and under Linux can be used regardless if you are using a GUI distro or not (which at this point I guess it's better if I skip the GUI at all)

Now I used it directly via wireless, but the developers made me notice that it can work also without it, via USB connection.

The problem is that Linux on Wii U doesn't have the ADB drivers and they don't plan to port them, still I may try to find and install some version of the same for existing similar architectures, but they can't guarantee it will work, I just have to try.

Concerning the option to display the os just on the gamepad screen, maybe it was not an option in past but they told me it's possible to do it and in the latest release they managed to make the touchscreen work.

If I manage to make the whole thing work, I won't need to have an internet connection or any other advanced feature directly on the Wii U, since all I need runs already on the Shield itself and wii u job is just going to be to work as its screen and input.

If this is not going to work, I managed to make the whole thing work in another way, using the PC as bridge among the two: Nvidia shield screen is copied on PC with scrcpy and pc screen is displayed in the gamepad with moonlight streaming, performances are pretty good and just the inputs have some occasional lags (but I can use the shield controller directly to skip the problem).

Still, I want to try Linux on the console so to skip the PC and have a direct connection without involving other devices which is annoying and maybe I can also obtain better inputs performances.. and if I'm really lucky, the gamepad touchscreen may work as a touch on the shield screen transforming the Wii u gamepad into a Nvidia shield gaming tablet.

Regards

 

[Norris]

Linux on the Wii u is more of a poc it's fun to mess around with but overall kinda useless maybe in the future with stuff like wifi and Bluetooth you could use it for a music box you can use gimp which is pretty cool but not that much.

 

[Antho27mellilium]

Linux on the Wii u is more of a poc it's fun to mess around with but overall kinda useless maybe in the future with stuff like wifi and Bluetooth you could use it for a music box you can use gimp which is pretty cool but not that much.

I think the wii u is a Power PC inside take a look https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/debian-sid-installation-guide-powerpc.2146795/