GeeXboX Wii

GeeXboX
GeeXboX
General
Author	farter
Type	Media player
Version	0.1beta3 IOS/MINI
License	Mixed
Links
	Download
	Website
	Source

GeeXboX for Wii is GeeXboX ported, UNOFFICIALLY, to run on Nintendo Wii game console. This has been made possible by the exellent work of Wii ‘hackers’ and homebrewers, especially TeamTwiizers and the gc-linux team.

Installation

[IOS version] This document assumes that Homebrew Channel (HBC) is used for loading homebrew applications. For other loaders, please consult their documentation and make necessay changes to what is written here.

[MINI version] Bootmii should be installed as either boot2 or IOS, or if you wish, both.

Setup

SD card

[IOS version] Both SD and (some) SDHC cards can be used. Whether a particular card can be used mostly depends on whether it can be recognized by your version of HBC. For instance, HBC beta 9 or higher is required for SDHC booting. (Note that SDHC support in HBC is achieved in a somewhat hackish fashion and as a result, not all SDHC cards are usable. A list of user-verified compatible cards is available here.

For non-SDHC, it is probably better not to use cards larger than 2GB.

[MINI version] Both SD and (some) SDHC cards can be used.

The card should be formatted in FAT/FAT16 or FAT32. It is not necessay to use ‘special’ formatting software, unless media defect is suspected or the card has been previously manipulated by certain boot managers, in which cases the Panasonic tool could be tried. If a digital device (mobile phone, DC, DV, etc.) that can use the card in question is available, formatting the card in such a device sometimes gives the most reliable result.

Extract to SD card

The downloaded package is usually a compressed archive. Open the archive and extract ALL the contents to the root folder of the SD card. There is NO need to manually move any file or folder around. If you have a previously installed GeeXboX for Wii version on the SD card, it is STRONGLY advised that the GEEXBOX folder is deleted before extracting a new version to the card.

Boot GeeXboX for Wii

[IOS version] Power up Wii, insert the SD card, launch HBC and GeeXboX for Wii (IOS) application banner will be displayed (among other applications if there are any on the card). Select the banner and click on ‘OK’ to load GeeXboX for Wii (IOS).

[MINI version] In Bootmii GUI, choose the SD card icon, browse to the /bootmii folder and select geexbox.elf file. Video modes other than 480i(NTSC) are untested. If the elf file fails to boot into GeeXboX for Wii splash screen, you might consider hex-editing the elf file to change the gcnfb parameters (see this link).

If you wish to make MINI start GeeXboX for Wii (MINI) automatically instead of going through Bootmii GUI, where wiimote is not supported, you could hex-edit the geexbox.elf file to set correct gcnfb parameters and rename it to ppcboot.elf.

Debugging booting problem

[IOS version] GeeXboX for Wii not loaded by HBC

Typical symptoms include: GeeXboX for Wii banner not displayed by HBC; HBC refuses to load GeeXboX for Wii after the banner is clicked; HBC loads GeeXboX for Wii but HBC progress bar (NOT the GeeXboX splash screen progress bar) stalls midway.

All of the above are caused, almost without exception, either by a card that has not been properly inserted in place, or by corruption of GeeXboX for Wii files in /apps/geexbox folder, which is usually fixed by re-extracting the files.

Please note, it is absolutely NOT necessary to convert the boot.elf file to dol format, whichever version of HBC is being used. Doing this can result in HBC refusing to load GeeXboX for Wii.

[IOS version] Black screen after HBC loading success

It has been noted that with recent HBC versions (post-1.0.5), sometimes HBC loads GeeXboX for Wii boot.elf fine (progress bar reaches 100%) but GeeXboX for Wii boot screen fails to come up, only a black screen is displayed.

How this happens is not very clear at the moment, but one possible solution to try is using an older version of HBC. Yes, it IS possible to have two different versions of HBC installed side by side, as long as they have different title IDs. For instance, HBC 1.0.1 (HAXX) alongside HBC 1.0.6 (JODI) works fine. It is mandatory to install JODI version first, otherwise HAXX version will be removed during installation. Note that GeeXboX for Wii will always return to, or launch, to be exact, the JODI version if it is installed.

GeeXboX for Wii booting aborts or stalls

Here ‘abort’ refers to those situatiosn where GeeXboX booting process stops before completion and drops into console (text) mode, whereas ‘stall’ refers to those situations where GeeXboX boot splash progress bar stalls midway, but without dropping into console mode.

Such problems are caused, almost without exception, either by corruption of GeeXboX for Wii files in /GEEXBOX folder, or by corruption and/or errors in the SD card file system. If re-extracting the files does not fix the problem, re-formatting the card should be considered.

Black screen or wrong color

[IOS version] Interlaced mode over progressive-capable component cables does not work. In other words, display devices set to 480i and connected to Wii using component cables may display black screen (loss of signal), garbled colors or split screen when GeeXboX for Wii is booted. This is caused by wii-linux kernel forcing 480p display when progressive-capable cables are detected. Set the display device to 480p or use S-video/composite cables to work around this. Note that this issue may have been fixed since 0.1alpha7.

Black Screen after boot success is usually caused by corrupt or incorrectly modified /GEEXBOX/etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf.

USB keyboard

The default keyboard layout is qwerty. To change, edit GEEXBOX/settings and change the value of 'KEYMAP' accordingly. For more info on keyboard controls, view help in menu, consult GEEXBOX/etc/mplayer/input.conf or the GeeXboX site (http://www.geexbox.org/en/controls.html, some info is outdated though).

Bluetooth mobile phone

Not all bluetooth-enabled phones are usable. For an incomplete list of usable models, see http://anyremote.sourceforge.net/devices.html (GeeXboX for wii does not use anyremote though). Models listed as working in bluetooth AT mode should be usable. You have to specify the bluetooth MAC of your mobile in GEEXBOX/etc/bluez. When GeeXboX boots up and finds your mobile, you will be prompted for password. The default password is '0000'. Key definitions in this release are based on Benq-Siemens S68. To use other models or to customize key definitions, you many have to edit GEEXBOX/etc/lirc/lircd_bluemobile.conf and lircrc_bluemobile. Some (Sony)Ericsson models can also be used with the 'bte' driver (GEEXBOX/etc/lirc/lircd_bte.conf and lircrc_bte).

Gamecube Controller

GCN analog input is read, though NOT supported. For example, there is no way to get the menu back once it has been cleared from the screen and response to analog input is spotty and erratic.

Supported Formats

All audio/video formats supported by MPlayer (yes, rmvb included), with the exception of WMV9 audio.

Supported Media Sources

Front SD (to swap, use the Wiimote/OSD menu and follow the messages)
USB storage (hot swappable. Card readers must be disconnected before swapping cards)
Network shares (NFS/Plan 9 shares must be added manually before boot, uPnP shares are auto-discovered and mounted after boot, Samba/Windows shares can be used either way)
HTTP/UDP/RTP/RSTP network streams (Shoutcast, Icecast, LAN unicast, Multicast and VOD) (addresses manually defined before boot)

Customization

Customization requires manual editing of files in the GEEXBOX folder. It is probably better to edit files on harddisk and then copy them to SD card, as opposed to editing files on SD card directly. Windows users are also advised to use *nix-compatible editors such as UltraEdit, rather than Notepad or Wordpad. Please remember that corrupt or incorrectly modified file may cause boot failure!

Language and font

The default language is English. To change, edit GEEXBOX/settings and change the value of 'MENU_LANG' (for menu language) and 'SUB_CHARSET' (for subtitle language) accordingly. For some languages/charsets, for instance east Asian languages, you will have to provide necessary fonts for the settings to work. Consult GEEXBOX/etc/lang.conf for the correct font file name and make sure corresponding file is saved in GEEXBOX/usr/share/fonts. Alternatively, you can edit lang.conf to match the name of your font file. Please try not to use large size font files as they take up precious memory and affect playback quality.

Boot into console mode: edit GEEXBOX/settings and change the value of 'RUNLEVEL' to 'debug'. Enter "exit" in console to start GUI.

Themeing

The boot splash is hard coded into boot.elf and therefore not easily customizable for most users. To change the default background image/video, replace GEEXBOX/usr/share/mplayer/background.avi. Again, avoid using large file for your own good.

Other customizations

Bluetooth, obex, network, netstream, net shares and so on are customized by manually editing corresponding files in GEEXBOX/etc. Simple explanations are included for almost all the settings. You can also find more detailed help on some of these settings from http://www.geexbox.org/en/doc.html or by visiting the forum.

Extra Information

This is based on the GameCube Linux team's whiite-linux-0.1a and a recent devel version of GeeXboX. Whiite-linux-0.1a includes support for Wii USB host controller, however, support for native wifi and DVD is still missing, and USB host controller support is imperfect, making some USB-related functions unusable.

In short, this is a full-featured GeeXboX port. Nearly all GeeXboX features available in current mainstream GeeXboX devel version and within current Wii linux capabilities are incorporated, with added bluetooth and obex support.

USB performance

The Wii USB interface is supposedly 1.1, meaning the max speed is 12Mbps, or slightly over 1MB/s. So as of this release, front SD is probably still faster than any other storage media usable, including network shares, although not by that much. In addition, USB is resource-costly and current implementation of USB in linux for Wii is buggy. So don't expect performance of USB devices on Wii to be comparable to what you get on your PC. Nevertheless, USB 2.0 devices are still preferable.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth audio and networking only work partially in this release, most likely a result of imperfections in USB implementation. Bluetooth headphones can be connected but audio is broken. Telnet over bluetooth works, although some commands seem to hang the session. Http and ftp can't seem to get past the initial data transfer. Pushing files to Wii is working, although speed is slow. Pushing files from Wii to other devices is unstable. Sometimes small files get pushed successfully, sometimes transfer halts midway.

Network sources

If you want to use shoutcast/icecast etc., remember to set long blacklist or short white list in GEEXBOX/etc/netstream. Better still, just define a few netstreams pointing to the broadcasts you desire and disable shoutcast/icecast scan. The reason for this is because every broadcast url obtained by GeeXboX from scanning the server is saved in Wii memory as a playlist file. Thousands of such small files soon eat up all available space. For uPnP shares over lan, avoid exporting huge and complex directories.

Aspect ratio

By default, all video will scale to 640 pixel width while keeping the original aspect ratio. If the scaled height exceeds the screen height (for instance 480 pixel for NTSC Wii), the video won't play. This means for NTSC Wii, all video must have an aspect ratio of 4:3 (640:480) or greater. If your video happens to have the 'wrong' aspect ratio, you may consider editing the 'xy=640' option in /GEEXBOX/etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf. For details, consult MPlayer's online documentation at http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1.html.

Changelog

2010-02-28: 0.1.3b

Updated linux to 2.6.32.9
Updated ffmpeg to r21465
Updated MPlayer to r30437
Fixed compatibility with certain charset encodings

2009-12-25: 0.1.2b

Updated linux to 2.6.32.2
Fixed compatibility with multi-channel audio
Fixed issues with device mounting/unmounting

2009-10-16: 0.1.8a

Updated linux to 2.6.29.6
Updated MPlayer and ffmpeg to 2009-10-03 snapshots
Added fuseiso to handle more disc image formats
Fixed OSD and aspect ratio in FBI image viewer
Added compatibility with new HBC title ID

2009-04-23: 0.1.7a

Updated linux to 2.6.29.1
Support for reading exFAT partition
Fixed wiimote (re)connection

2009-03-21: 0.1.6a

Updated linux to 2.6.27.19
Updated MPlayer to r28852
Map seeking to arrow keys too
Fixed mounting usb storages at bootup
Fixed unmounting disc images

2009-03-14: 0.1.5a

Updated linux to 2.6.24.7
Support for SDHC (partial)
Updated MPlayer to r28184
Fixed boot from SD cards with no partition table
Support for SD cards with multi-partitions
Use built-in unrar
Dropped support for non-open binary codecs
Disabled most playback-unrelated services by default

2008-10-18: 0.1.4a

Reverted libswscale to fix GOOM audio visual rendering
Improved GOOM audio visual performance
Improved performance in lowering subtitle mode
Made lowering subtitles work with DVD-VIDEO
Made lowering subtitles work with on-the-fly aspect ratio change
Support for optional mounting .nrg (DVD only) and .iso image file
Display CPU version number in OPTIONS -> INFO
Updated GCC to 4.3.2

2008-10-01: 0.1.3a

Implementation of optional 'vsync' to improve screen tearing in certain cases
Support for on-the-fly aspect ratio change
Fixed DVD-VIDEO aspect ratio error when switching between menu and movie
Disabled libass to fix lagging and freezing caused by text subtitles
Disabled colored spu to fix DVD-VIDEO/vobsub subtitile display
Support for vobsub subtitles in rar archive format
Support for optionally lowering subtitles into blackbars
Fixed subtitle charset conversion
Updated to MPlayer r27630

2008-08-08: 0.1.2a

Simplified wiimote connection and reconnection
Auto-repeat wiimote commands when buttons are held down
Updated Kernel patch
Updated to MPlayer svn snapshot 2008-08-06

2008-07-30: 0.1.1a

NTSC/PAL autodection (supposed to work)
Improved support for widescreen mode
Aspect ratio software compensation support
Improved Wiimote connection/reconnection routine
User-friendlier handling of boot failure

2008-07-17: 0.1a

Based on whiite-linux-0.1a which has USB host controller enabled
USB and network related functions of GeeXboX are therefore included in this release
Fixed keypressing and OSD color bug in previous version

2008-06-24: Prototype release

Bugs and Support

Please note that GeeXBox Wii is not an official GeeXBox port and is considered an "unofficial hack".

Please use the sourceforge tracker to report issues. Additionally, you may find this forum thread useful for support.

Unofficial Versions

Builds from independent developers go here. Diffs must be included since the GeeXboX code is GPL.

0.1Alpha04 modified by Tulkas

Tulkas made some minor modifications to add support of additional filesystem types and also accidentally fixed a loading bug.

Download:MediaFire

Diffs and further info: [1]