GoKawiilPorting Mac OS X to the Nintendo Wii
Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah) running natively on the Nintendo Wii
Since its launch in 2007, the Wii has seen several operating systems ported to it: Linux, NetBSD, and most-recently, Windows NT. Today, Mac OS X joins that list.
In this post, I’ll share how I ported the first version of Mac OS X, 10.0 Cheetah, to the Nintendo Wii. If you’re not an operating systems expert or low-level engineer, you’re in good company; this project was all about learning and navigating countless “unknown unknowns”. Join me as we explore the Wii’s hardware, bootloader development, kernel patching, and writing drivers - and give the PowerPC versions of Mac OS X a new life on the Nintendo Wii.
Visit the wiiMac bootloader repository for instructions on how to try this project yourself.
Feasibility Investigation
Before figuring out how to tackle this project, I needed to know whether it would even be possible. According to a 2021 Reddit comment:
There is a zero percent chance of this ever happening.
Feeling encouraged, I started with the basics: what hardware is in the Wii, and how does it compare to the hardware used in real Macs from the era.
Hardware Compatibility
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