Devkitppc setup (Windows)
devkitPPC is the toolchain provided by DevkitPro for Wii and Gamecube development. This guide describes setting up such a system under Windows. A guide for Mac OS X 10.5.x users can be found here and a guide for Linux here
Contents
Introduction
This tutorial aims to:
- Show you how to setup the devkitPPC development environment on a Windows computer
- Run a hello world example on the included Gcube emulator
- Run a hello world example on the Wii using wiiload
- Set you on the road to creating your own homebrew software to be loaded with the Twilight Hack or Homebrew Channel
Installing devkitPPC
- Go to this page and download the latest Windows installer.
- Let it install to the C:\devkitPro\ to make it easier to follow the tutorial for now.
- When installing it, you can deselect devkitARM and devkitPSP
- Click next until it finishes installing
Setup your project folder
- Under no circumstances should you place projects within the devkitPro folder. The windows updater can and will overwrite/delete your files.
- Create a new folder outside the devkitPro folder, c:\projects\wii for example. This path should not contain spaces.
- Copy the folder C:\devkitPro\examples\wii\template\ to this new directory and rename it to "helloworld" so that the full path is c:\projects\wii\helloworld\
Compile the Hello World Example
- Assuming you installed Programmer's Notepad through the installer, double click the .pnproj file in your new project.
- Click on Tools->make or use the ALT+1 key combination
- The output window at the bottom will show the build progress
Note: If you are having trouble compiling some programs under Windows Vista (eg. libogc cvs), try unsetting PLATFORM variable. (in msys shell, "unset PLATFORM")
Run the Hello World Example on the emulator
- Now, browse to the helloworld folder. There should be a helloworld.dol file here now.
- Run the helloworld.dol in an emulator. As of 23-Feb-2019, emulators for the Wii are mostly compatible and feature complete. Dolphin can successfully boot all GameCube games, most Wii games and most homebrew. See the Dolphin page for more information. Another emulator is Gcube. Gcube does not run homebrew compiled in Wii mode, but can run homebrew if compiled for the GameCube mode. See the Gcube page for more information.
Run the Hello World Example on the Wii using wiiload
- For this to work, you need to have the Homebrew Channel installed on your Wii and a way to access the Wii via TCP.
- Get wiiload.exe from the Homebrew Channel archive (should be in wiiload\win32) and copy it to C:\devkitPro\msys\bin.
- Set the environment variable WIILOAD to something like "tcp:192.168.0.30" (replace the IP with your Wii's IP). This can be done via Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables. Then restart windows.
- Start the Homebrew Channel on your Wii.
- Click on Tools -> run or use the ALT+R key combination.
- The output window at the bottom will show the upload progress (so does the Homebrew Channel) and the example will be started on your Wii when it's done.
Edit the msys etc/profile file
The etc/profile file loads some settings at each launch of the msys shell. It can be used to set some environement variable for the compiler/linker
export CC=powerpc-eabi-gcc
export CXX=powerpc-eabi-g++
export DEVKITPRO=/c/usr/devkitpro
export DEVKITPPC=$DEVKITPRO/devkitPPC
export SDL_CONFIG=$DEVKITPRO/libogc/bin/sdl-config
export WIILOAD="tcp:192.168.1.57"
export PATH="$DEVKITPPC/bin:$DEVKITPPC/powerpc-eabi/bin:$DEVKITPPC\libexec\gcc\powerpc-eabi\4.4.3:$PATH"
export LDFLAGS="-L$DEVKITPRO/libogc/lib/wii"Set the $DEVKITPRO variable to the devkitpro directory and the WIILOAD with the Wii IP.
CC: C Compiler to use
CXX: C++ compiler to use (note: CPP stand for C preprocessor)
DEVKITPRO: Needed by the Devkitpro Makefiles
WIILOAD: Needed by the wiiload program
PATH: Search in bin and libexec in order to perform a gcc or g++ command without a makefile, followed by your Windows existing variables.
Some Code snippets
- See also: Developer Tips
libogc provides a jump back to the loader through the standard libc exit function. exit(0) will immediately return, all other values will display a console screen with the exit code.
