Suprjacob Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Hello, I am Suprjacob. I have been to this InsanelyMac forum for quite some time, but just now created an account because of this freak idea I had. Mac OS on the Wii. Older Macs are PowerPCs. The Wii is a... crappified PowerPC. So, how can this work? Simple Wii Specs: CPU - IBM 'Broadway'. 729 MHz. GPU - ATI 'Hollywood'. 243 MHz. 3 MB eDRAM. 24 MB RAM. Memory - 64 MB GDDR3 RAM (More detailed here: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Wii_Hardware ) Now, OSX requires a 800-something MHz CPU and obviously more RAM (only 64MB availble here). Is it possible to 'dumb down' OSX or even use OS 9 on this kind of architecture? Booting the Wii Mac? There is homebrew software now possible on the Wii using an SD card and a USB drive. Check out the wiibrew.org wiki. There is a working LINUX (Debian-based) distribution available for the Wii, so I thought, why can't there be a Mac OSWii? What are everybody's thoughts on this? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolied Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Well, right off the bat there would be a HUGE problem that would probably prove to be insurmountable. The graphics chip has no equivalent in the MAC/PC world. It is custom designed for the Wii, so i'd be willing to bet it doesn't even support VESA graphics modes. You might be able to boot the Darwin kernel on a Wii, but i'd be willing to bet the GUI wouldn't work. Most graphics support on Hackintoshes use existing MacOS kexts; the "Hollywood" GPU isn't close enough to anything else to work with any of the ATI kexts. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-829731 Share on other sites More sharing options...
(MoC) Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 I'll tell you one thing, unless you know a good bit of C and assembly code as well as how that CPU works, you're not going to get very far. It would be a feat to circumvent the Wii and actually boot OS X. Then it would probably panic or not even boot from not being able to flash the open firmware. Your best bet is some kind of emulation, and don't try OS X for that one. Sorry for the discouragement. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-829765 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollcage Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 After you get it to work, can you do the same with my Gameboy Color? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-829775 Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankOS_Scripting Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Why I can't install on my Sega Saturn. Where is the dvd drive?! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-829836 Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbetts Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 It may only have 64mb of main ram, however for system ram, gddr3 is pretty nice. Bandwidth is pretty decent for it. Hollywood is basically a higher clocked version of the gekko gpu in the Gamecube, which best resembles the Radeon 9700. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-829908 Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolied Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 Why I can't install on my Sega Saturn. Where is the dvd drive?! He said it supports USB drive, which i'm sure includes DVD-ROMs. I'm assuming it would be installed to SD card (dunno how though, i'm almost sure Wii doesn't do SDHC); I think 2GB is the biggest non-SDHC available. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-829909 Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankOS_Scripting Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 I'm kidding but for PPC, it's more complicated. Include trying to boot on the DVD drive whitout open the firmware, moded it and flash. You can try the boot-132 with a USB thumbnail. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-829918 Share on other sites More sharing options...
REVENGE Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 You should try to familiarize yourself with getting arbitrary code to run on the Wii first. Look for this on the warez scene. Otherwise, you'd probably need to look at ways to emulate a bootloader for OS X, though you might get help from something like PearPC. And finally, wrong forum. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-830064 Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbetts Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 To be honest, it took long enough for osx86 to really develop into a big platform(and it could still grow) on the Pc platform, I doubt that there will be anything like this. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-830090 Share on other sites More sharing options...
antst Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 It can be more fun to run OSX on new IBM's Power6 systems OSX on quad-cpu/dual-core Power6 at 6GHz - sounds nice Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-830290 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 Meh.. this project faces some of the same issues as putting OS X on the PS3... the main issue being the lack of drivers. Anyone willing to code an entire set of OS X drivers for the Wii? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-830487 Share on other sites More sharing options...
aylamrin Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 I wonder why exactly why you want to do this... just for fun? I mean the OSX86 had an objective and that is to run this OS X on a PC like platform that may be close an actual Mac hardware wise. The ultimate goal is to enhance its working/functionality so that it gets as close to real Mac as possible... On the other hand with the stunted hardware the Wii has... I just wish it were a little more close to the PC hardware available nowadays... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-830709 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suprjacob Posted July 24, 2008 Author Share Posted July 24, 2008 Answering your encouraging questions.... It would be a feat to circumvent the Wii and actually boot OS X. Then it would probably panic or not even boot from not being able to flash the open firmware. Your best bet is some kind of emulation, and don't try OS X for that one. Sorry for the discouragement. Now, I'm not much of a tech-guy here, but how much different is booting Linux from OSX, apart from the EFI? 'Cause my Wii can already boot a fully functional Debian Linux distro (non-GUI) and I can use the terminal with just a USB keyboard. (Please, no Linux bashing here. I know it's a useless OS, but it works.) After you get it to work, can you do the same with my Gameboy Color? Well, not with OSX, no. You might be able to get a Mobile OS platform going on it if you get one of those Flash cartridges for it. Or maybe those are for the GBA. I dunno. Haven't looked into it. Don't really care, honestly. He said it supports USB drive, which i'm sure includes DVD-ROMs. I'm assuming it would be installed to SD card (dunno how though, i'm almost sure Wii doesn't do SDHC); I think 2GB is the biggest non-SDHC available. Heh, actually I've seen 4GB SD cards (non-SDHC). That would be really slow though. USB drive might be easier/faster? Meh.. this project faces some of the same issues as putting OS X on the PS3... the main issue being the lack of drivers. Anyone willing to code an entire set of OS X drivers for the Wii? Well, don't need a mouse. There are already Wiimote drivers for OSX already using a bluetooth thing. I haven't looked into it, though. The keyboard would just be a USB one. The only thing I can see a driver creation issue is with the Graphics and EFI. There is a list of currently working and non-working hardware for WiiLinux here: http://www.gc-linux.org/wiki/WL:whiite-linux#Hardware I wonder why exactly why you want to do this... just for fun? I mean the OSX86 had an objective and that is to run this OS X on a PC like platform that may be close an actual Mac hardware wise. The ultimate goal is to enhance its working/functionality so that it gets as close to real Mac as possible... On the other hand with the stunted hardware the Wii has... I just wish it were a little more close to the PC hardware available nowadays... 1) Mostly for fun, yes 2) Because Linux... is useless. Except for GRUB. 3) Because OSX... rules. 4) With #2 and #3, the Wii homebrew project/community needs a different OS than Linux. Details about WiiLinux (same as GC-Linux) here: http://www.gc-linux.org/wiki/Main_Page and here: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_apps/Wii_Linux . I guess I just don't understand why this isn't possible. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-832115 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synaesthesia Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 I guess I just don't understand why this isn't possible.Because...everyone already told you why...there are no drivers. Now, I'm not much of a tech-guy here, but how much different is booting Linux from OSX, apart from the EFI? 'Cause my Wii can already boot a fully functional Debian Linux distro (non-GUI) and I can use the terminal with just a USB keyboard.Exactly. And that's Linux, which runs on everything. And you still just have a terminal. And you want OS X with a GUI. Bit of a tall order. It's not gonna happen, sorry. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-832240 Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolied Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Hollywood is basically a higher clocked version of the gekko gpu in the Gamecube, which best resembles the Radeon 9700. Actually, it doesn't resemble the 9700 much at all, it's a completely foreign design to the PC world, with eDRAM on die and a whole lot of architectural differences. From an IGN article: ""The 'Hollywood' is a large-scale integrated chip that includes the GPU, DSP, I/O bridge and 3MBs of texture memory," a studio source told us." doesn't resemble ANYTHING in the PC world; although it's a similar idea to the old Cyrix MediaGX processor, minus the actual processor core itself. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/117141-apple-mac-oswii/#findComment-840580 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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