DISCLAIMER: THIS SOFTWARE IN ITSELF DOES NOT MAKE PERMANENT AND/OR IRREVERSIBLE MODIFICATIONS TO Wii AND THEREFORE SHOULD BE THEORETICALLY SAFE TO INSTALL AND USE. HOWEVER, THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS AND WITH NO GUARANTEE OF ANY SORT WHATSOEVER. THE USER IS ENTIRELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY POSSIBLE DAMAGE TO HARDWARE AND/OR DATA AS A RESULT OF INSTALLING, USING OR MISUSING THIS SOFTWARE !


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks going out to the GameCube Linux team, the GeeXboX team, the Team Twiizers and those users who have kindly provided feedback about previous release(s).



Summary:

  'GeeXboX' is an open-source media center software package built on linux and 'GeeXboX for Wii' is GeeXboX ported to run on Nintendo Wii game console.

  This is GeeXboX for Wii version 0.1alpha1. The main changes from previous version are related to display aspect ratio issues and wiimote connection.

  The 0.1 series of this application are based on the GameCube Linux team's whiite-linux-0.1a kernel patch and GeeXboX team's devel version around the time 2008/07.  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.

  Major new features compared to prototype release: bluetooth (remote control, obex file push, networking and audio partially working), USB storage, USB ethernet, http/telnet/ftp server, netstreaming, image viewer, goom visuals for audio playback, .... Most of the new features are fully or partially tested, some are not, yet.

  More features bring more bugs. Some bugs are carried over from mainstream GeeXboX, some are particular to the Wii port and some are inevitable results of hardware/software limitations of linux-based Wii homebrew. These bugs will be addressed differently in future releases.


Requirements:

  Wii;
  SD card (non-SDHC, formatted in FAT/FAT32);
  One of these: wiimote;
                USB keyboard (theoretically any model supported by linux 2.6.24.4 should work, including wireless ones);
                Bluetooth mobile phone (MIDP 2.0-compatible with AT+CMER implementation).

  Optional: USB ethernet adapter/PC-to-PC link cable (theoretically any model supported by linux 2.6.24.4 should work);
            USB storage (flash disks, card readers, external enclosures, etc. Nearly all major *nix/Win/Mac partition types are readable and most of them, except NTFS/UFS, are writable);


Usage:

  Homebrew channel users just need to copy everything into the root directory of your SD card and select GeeXboX in the channel.

  TP hack users have to copy or move apps/geexbox/boot.elf to the root directory of your SD card and start the hack.

  Other homebrew loaders that support front SD might also work. Consult their documentation for how.

  Regardless of the loader, the GEEXBOX file tree MUST reside in the root directory of SD card.


Control:

  Wiimote: this is the default remote control.

    You can specify the bluetooth MAC of your wiimote in GEEXBOX/settings. If you do, GeeXboX will try to connect to the specified wiimote (and the specified one only) after booting up; if you don't, GeeXboX will try to connect to any wiimote available. In the former case, connection and reconnection is possible anytime while GeeXboX is running; in the latter, connection is only possible within several minutes of OSD menu coming up, which should be more than enough, and once connection has been established, reconnection is possible anytime while GeeXboX is running.

    To make the connection between wiimote and GeeXboX, press '1' and '2' on wiimote SIMULTANEOUSLY. If the wiimote is found and connected, all four LEDs will light up and wiimote will rumble for 2 seconds and bluetooth MAC of connected wiimote is now shown in OPTIONS -> INFO. If not, press '1' and '2' to retry after LEDs stop flashing.

    After getting connected, use arrow keys to navigate OSD menu/move image, 'Home' to toggle OSD menu display/autozoom image, 'A' to pause playback/start, pause and restart slide show/directory playing, 'B'+arrow keys to navigate DVD menu, 'B'+'A' to select in DVD menu/view image in original size, 'B'+'Home' to stop playback/quit slide show, '-'/'+' to control volume/scale image, 'B'+'-'/'+' to seek forward/backward during playback, '1'/'2' to play previous/next item in playlist/slide show, 'B'+'1'/'2' to unmount and mount front SD, 'B'+'A'+'1'/'2' to reboot or shutdown. (No, you don't have to point your wiimote at the sensor bar, which isn't powered on anyway.) Holding down button(s) will NOT send repeated commands. You have to press as many times as needed. To add or change button definitions, edit GEEXBOX/etc/lirc/lircd_wiimote.conf and lircrc_wiimote. 

    If the connection is broken by pressing the red 'power' button or by wiimote falling into battery-saving mode, reconnect by pressing '1' and '2' again. 


  USB keyboard: use arrow keys to move around in the menu. For more detailed 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).


Formats and protocols:

  All a/v formats supported by MPlayer (yes, rmvb included), with the exception of WMV9 audio;
  Http/udp/rtp/rtsp network streams (shoutcast, icecast, lan unicast, multicast and VOD)


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);
  Network streams (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!

  Keyboard layout: default to qwerty. To change,  edit GEEXBOX/settings and change the value of 'KEYMAP' accordingly.

  Remote control device: default to wiimote. To change, edit GEEXBOX/settings and change the value of 'REMOTE' accordingly.

  Wiimote MAC: edit GEEXBOX/settings and change the value of 'WIIMOTE' accordingly. The format is xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx as shown in OPTIONS -> INFO. Setting a wrong value will make GeeXboX not connectable by wiimote.

  Language and font: default to 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.

  Widescreen mode: if your Wii is set to 16:9 display mode, you can edit GEEXBOX/settings and change the value of 'WIDE' to 'yes'. This is optional and only affects the OSD menu background video.

  Aspect ratio: GeeXboX will automatically scale the video to fill up the display area as much as possible while keeping the original aspect ratio. However, due to reasons out of GeeXboX's control and a bit too complicated to detail here, the scaled image is either horizontally or vertically stretched depending on different display devices and different Wii display modes (NTSC or PAL, 4:3 or 16:9, etc.), resulting in wrong aspect ratio. To compensate for this, you can set the PIXELASPECT value in /GEEXBOX/settings. Note that this aspect adjustment is done by software,  so if you are fine with what you see without changing this setting, then don't. 

  Themeing: 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 (or background-wide.avi if you set WIDE to yes). 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.


A few notes:

  USB performance: 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. Note that when GeeXboX is searching for or trying to connect to wiimote, some bluetooth functions may be temporarily unusable.

  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 static 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.



Changelog

20080730:  0.1alpha1. Feature improvement release.
           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.

20080717:  0.1alpha0. Feature addition release.
           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.
           'Bugs' (keypressing and OSD color) in previous version no longer there.
20080624:  Prototype release.
