Building a recent Linux kernel

Discussion for GC-Linux on Gamecube & Wii
Post Reply
User avatar
ItalianUruguayan
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 24, 2020 8:55 pm

Building a recent Linux kernel

Post by ItalianUruguayan » Fri Jan 24, 2020 9:09 pm

Hello guys,

I stumbled upon this forum after days of Google searches. Sorry if I'm too much of a noob.

I am running Linux on my Wii, thanks to the wii-linux-ngx project. But the stable kernel there is 3.15 (EOL). And I have been trying to build a more recent kernel for days without success.

I have downloaded the 3.16.81 source from kernel.org, and built it with:

Code: Select all

make wii_defconfig && make -j2 zImage
I have been compiling this on the Wii itself. The mainline kernel is supposed to have SD and Wi-Fi support. However, when I run the newly-buiilt zImage from MINI and gumboot (with root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 hardcoded in the kernel, exactly where the root filesystem is located), the screen turns green and nothing happens. No flashing DVD light, no ssh connection, no Wi-Fi connection, nothing. The kernel does not even seem to boot.

I just want to have a newer (3.16.x or 4.4.x) kernel with SD, Wi-Fi and USB support. A framebuffer would be nice, but even that would not be that big of a deal. Is there anything I could do, other than spend some months learning C?

Thanks!
Last edited by ItalianUruguayan on Fri Jan 24, 2020 9:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
ItalianUruguayan
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 24, 2020 8:55 pm

Re: Building a recent Linux kernel

Post by ItalianUruguayan » Fri Jan 24, 2020 9:28 pm

My kernel boot parameters (as seen on an hex editor) are:

Code: Select all

root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait udbg-immortal
Maybe I'm missing something here?
User avatar
emu_kidid
Site Admin
Posts: 4927
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:06 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: Building a recent Linux kernel

Post by emu_kidid » Mon Jan 27, 2020 7:43 am

Try to raise an issue on the issue tracker of one of the wii linux distros and see if someone there can shed some insight on what you might be missing. Green screen = fails to load for some reason, I'd check some sane things first like what size is the resulting DOL/ELF, I'm assuming it's valid but you'd have to start from the very basics to debug something like this. I've not compiled a kernel myself targeting wii before but in all likelihood I'm assuming new things creep in to mainline that break compatibility with Wii defined config and would need to be configured and perhaps even patched.
Image
Post Reply