Whiite-OE

Introduction

Whiite-OE is a project that builds on the Whiite Linux kernel patches and the OpenEmbedded project. The result is a system that allows developers to build complete embedded Linux distributions for the Nintendo Wii.

Status

Whiite-OE is currently capable of building the Whiite kernel. The tested environment so far consists of the Whiite kernel, plus a tiny initramfs based on uClibc and BusyBox, embedded inside an executable DOL.

There is still much work left to be done ironing out a useful base system tailored to the Nintendo Wii.

Requirements

To use Whiite-OE, certain tools need to be available:

See the required software page on openembedded.net.
In addition, you will also need a recent version of Bazaar.

The system has been tested on Ubuntu 8.04 and against revision 3e3e5c3190f2cb2e6fbed584c5049e73df49c04e of the OpenEmbedded metadata.

Using (short)

If you are already familiar with OpenEmbedded, the following should get you rolling: (otherwise, read ahead)

Whiite-OE is distributed as an overlay for the OpenEmbedded metadata. You can obtain it using Bazaar with the following command:
```
bzr branch http://stephan.kochen.nl/proj/wii-oe/ nl.kosinus.wii
```
Do not forget to add the overlay to your BBPATH.
A sample local.conf is located in nl.kosinus.wii/conf/local.conf.sample.
You can build a kernel with an initramfs using:
```
bitbake virtual/kernel
```
The resulting zImage in tmp/deploy/images/ will be in DOL executable format. The initramfs simply starts a shell.

Comments

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Using (long)

Following is a more detailed description of using Whiite-OE. These are tested on Ubuntu 8.04.

Start by creating the basic directory structure somewhere. We will use /stuff/ here as an example base directory, but this can be anywhere. Execute the following:
```
mkdir -p /stuff/build/conf/
cd /stuff/
```
Grab a snapshot of OpenEmbedded from http://wiki.openembedded.net/snapshots/ and save it as OE.mtn after unpacking. These snapshots are specific to your Monotone version. For example, if using Monotone 0.37:
```
wget http://wiki.openembedded.net/snapshots/OE-this-is-for-mtn-0.37.mtn.bz2
bunzip2 OE-this-is-for-mtn-0.37.mtn.bz2
mv OE-this-is-for-mtn-0.37.mtn OE.mtn
```
Now, update the snapshot database to the latest version using the command:
```
mtn --db=OE.mtn pull monotone.openembedded.org org.openembedded.dev
```
Create a working directory of the latest version by checking out from your local database:
```
mtn --db=OE.mtn checkout --branch=org.openembedded.dev
```

Now grab Whiite-OE using Bazaar:

bzr branch http://stephan.kochen.nl/proj/wii-oe/ nl.kosinus.wii

Create a configuration file for the build environment based on the sample configuration:
```
cp nl.kosinus.wii/conf/local.conf.sample build/conf/local.conf
```
Edit the file build/conf/local.conf to make sure the paths are correct.
Set an environment variable BBPATH to include all three directories in /stuff/. One way to do this is to edit your ~/.bashrc. (But only if you are using Bash as your shell.) Add the following line:
```
export BBPATH="/stuff/build:/stuff/org.openembedded.dev:/stuff/nl.kosinus.wii"
```
Now restart your shell for these changes to take effect.
Build the kernel with a tiny initramfs using the following command:
```
bitbake virtual/kernel
```
This could take up to a couple of hours.
When finished, you'll find a DOL executable in /stuff/tmp/deploy/images/zImage-wii-initramfs-shell-image.bin. Upload this to your Nintendo Wii, and you should be able to start Linux. By default, a shell will be launched from the initramfs.

If these instructions were not sufficient, try consulting the OpenEmbedded wiki, specifically the getting started page. Finally, you can try to consult in #gc-linux.