Re: Nintendo Wii U support added to -current

[Brad <brad%sbktx.com@localhost>]

Great work! Does SMP work on it? I've heard that the implementation is a bit broken on wiiu's cpu

Jan 10, 2026 9:54:50 AM Jared McNeill <jmcneill%invisible.ca@localhost>:

> Yesterday I committed support for the Nintendo Wii U to NetBSD -current.
> 
> The Wii U is a very nice upgrade from the Wii:
> 
>   * CPU is a 1.24GHz tri-core PowerPC (IBM 750 derivative)
>   * 2GB RAM
>   * GPU is AMD Radeon (probably R7xx)
>   * HDMI / composite / component video out
>   * 4x USB 2.0 ports
>   * SD card slot
>   * SATA Blu-ray drive
>   * Touch screen, buttons, camera integrated into the controller
> 
> To get NetBSD up and running, you need a homebrew-enabled system. You can do this with an SD card and internet connection, no additional hardware required. Follow the instructions for installing Aroma on https://wiiu.hacks.guide to prepare the system for installation. This only needs to be done once.
> 
> Once the system is homebrew-enabled, prepare an SD card with the NetBSD install. I _strongly_ recommend using an A2-class microSD card for this.
> 
> Files required:
> 
>   * https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/HEAD/latest/evbppc/binary/gzimg/nintendo.img.gz
>   * https://github.com/wiiu-env/fw_img_payload/releases/download/v0.2/fw_img_payload_v0_2.zip
>   * https://gitlab.com/linux-wiiu/linux-loader/-/jobs/artifacts/master/raw/fw.img?job=loader-build
> 
> To setup the SD card:
> 
>   1) Uncompress nintendo.img.gz and image the SD card using your
>      favourite image writing software (dd, balenaEtcher, etc).
>   2) Mount the new FAT file-system that was written to the SD card. You
>      should see a directory named "linux" and a file named "netbsd" in the
>      root directory. Make a new directory named "wiiu".
>   3) Uncompress fw_img_payload_v0_2.zip and copy "payload.elf" to the
>      "wiiu" directory.
>   4) Copy linux-loader to the root directory as "fw.img".
> 
> The final layout of the FAT file-system should look something like this:
> 
>     fw.img
>     linux/boot.cfg
>     netbsd
>     wiiu/payload.elf
> 
> (There will be other files present, those are to support the original Wii).
> 
> Power on the Wii U with this SD card installed and the system should boot automatically into NetBSD. On first boot, it will grow the FFS file-system to fill the entire SD card and reboot once, this is expected. Once it boots a second time, you can login as "root" and use the system as any other NetBSD install.
> 
> Take care,
> Jared