Re: Anyone going to try NetBSD on the GameCube?

On Wed, Jan 19, 2005 at 12:06:10PM -0700, Andy Ruhl wrote:
> I don't know the right place to ask this, so I'll ask it here.
> 
> There is a way to boot code on a GameCube now with no modifications to
> the box. It's not really cheap to do it, but it's do-able.

I currently know of three ways of running arbitrary code on an
unmodified GameCube.  One involves exploiting a bug (or perhaps a
hole in the online protocol of the game) in Phantasy Star Online,
and it requires the game and a Broadband Adapter.  Note that
doing this might be illegal, depending on your local laws, since
it appears to violate the EULA of the game.  The other way uses
the Action Replay tool by Datel and works by making the Action
Replay boot code from an SD card.  You can buy SD adapters for
the GameCube, or solder one yourself.  Finally, the third
solution is to use Datel's Action Replay MAX tool.  The
disadvantage of this solution is that it's not available :-).


> There is a linux site at www.gc-linux.com, but it's not very well
> documented for a user. As a matter of fact, it appears that useful
> information about booting Linux is being withheld from this site, as
> far as I can tell.
> 
> I don't know what hardware is in a GameCube other than PPC processor.
> Don't know if NetBSD drivers already exist for the stuff in it. If so,
> it might be easy (for someone who knows this stuff) to get it
> working... Wish I knew more about hardware hacking...
> 
> Andy

While I don't have all too much experience in low level things,
I've been thinking of this for quite a while.  I actually tried
out booting a vanilla evbppc kernel on the various GameCube
emulators just yesterday, however with no success.  I might play
around a little with this in the near future, and try getting a
kernel to do at least _something_, but since I'm in the middle of
my final exams, I probably won't have all too much time for this
in the next two months.  I'll keep you updated if I achieve
anything.


bye,
  Harold