NetBSD

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Revision as of 23:23, 17 October 2026 by Waterpear (talk | contribs) (update for 11.0; more detailed hardware support comparison)
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See also: Official NetBSD Website

NetBSD is one of the BSD operating systems, descended from the Berkeley System Distribution. Starting with version 10.0, NetBSD supports the Wii as a first class platform, with further enhancements to hardware support added in version 11.0.

Comparison with Wii-Linux

  • When NetBSD starts from the Homebrew Channel, it can only use MEM2. Wii-Linux is able to use part of MEM1 as system RAM, as can NetBSD if started from BootMii.
  • NetBSD's init system is much simpler and lighter than systemd.
  • The Wii-Linux ArchPOWER image has better menu-driven configuration tools. While NetBSD's sysinst can be used for tasks like network configuration, it is not as easy to use as tools like nmtui or ConfigMii.
  • NetBSD's package manager is not included as part of the base system, and has to be installed using sysinst.
  • The framebuffer driver in both Wii-Linux and NetBSD emulates RGB colors, so graphical software doesn't have to be rewritten for the Wii's YUYV framebuffer. NetBSD's driver does this via the GX GPU, using a scratch framebuffer in memory, copying into the EFB (via the CPU) every frame, and then using GX to do the conversion + copy back to the XFB. Linux does this via software math. Both approaches have similar performance.
  • Wii-Linux has more complete hardware support in some areas:
    • Recent versions of Wii-Linux present the EXI bus as SPI, allowing the use of SPI drivers (most notably using the mmc-spi driver for SD Gecko support). NetBSD has a bespoke SPI stack, with driver support limited to the RTC and the USB Gecko.
    • Because NetBSD has no general "game pad" or "joystick" input abstraction, the SI driver simulates a USB hub and presents GameCube controllers as USB game controllers.
    • NetBSD has no GameCube support whatsoever.
  • NetBSD has superior hardware support in other areas:
    • There seems to be a wider array of USB drivers enabled in NetBSD, so many devices will work on NetBSD but not Linux.
    • The NetBSD driver for the Wii's BCM4318 Wi-Fi has been reported to be faster and more stable than Linux's driver (although performance is still not good.)
    • NetBSD has support for Hollywood's AES engine. Allegedly, this is used for accelerating WPA as well as disk encryption.
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