Wii-Linux Developers Blog ------------------------- Blog Post --------- Back to list Title: State of Play(ing Linux on PowerPC game consoles) Date: Feb 12, 2026 By: Techflash So, I was recently curious just how Linux is doing on the PowerPC game consoles recently, since it had been a while since I had taken full inventory of the scene. I did so, and was quite shocked at what I saw. So shocked, in fact, that I decided to make this blog post about it. So, without further ado, here it is:
| Device | Can run Linux? |
Needs hardware mod? |
Description | Maintainer | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nintendo(R) GameCube(TM) |
Kinda[1] | Maybe[2] | I'm working on it, but it's just not ready yet for general-purpose usage. For the brave, compile from source or ask Techflash. |
Techflash | wii-linux.org |
| Nintendo Wii(TM) | Yes | No | Works flawlessly, try it out! You're already here after all :) |
Techflash | wii-linux.org |
| Nintendo Wii U(TM) | Yes | No | Works flawlessly, just needs the ability to load an fw.img[3] |
Quarky, Loganius, Techflash, CompuCat |
linux-wiiu.org |
| Sony(R) PlayStation(R) 3 |
It's complicated[4] |
It's also complicated[5] |
So this one is.... weird. It will kinda work if you have really ancient OFW with "OtherOS" functionality, otherwise you need to install CFW (which isn't even possible on all models). If you can get into OtherOS, the pain doesn't stop there. The only modern distro that offers any PS3 support is ArchPOWER, and it's PS3 support isn't doing particularly great at the current moment. |
damiandudycz (kernel, seemingly abandoned) Fancy2209 (ArchPOWER packaging) |
damiandudycz's abandoned repo ArchPOWER |
| Microsoft(R) Xbox 360(R) |
Yes | Not anymore![6] |
So how this happened is actually a really funny story. I was pretty curious about trying to revive Xbox 360 Linux back around September of 2025, and I happened to be public about this around the right people at the right time. Quarky picked up on it at the same time that she was interested in doing her own revival, so she ended up talking to Emma (IPG) about it, who happens to not only have contacts to some of the previously-active Free60 members, but even had merge access, and authority to make a community for everybody. That was never really my goal, but it was far better than what I could've hoped to do on my own. Since then, progress across all Free60 projects (Linux, libxenon, XeLL, etc) has been going excellently. I've helped here and there with some things, like somewhat porting the Linux kernel fork up to newer versions, fixing some DT stuff in libxenon+XeLL, and packaging, but much of it was the rest of the community that formed and/or returned. Currently, ArchPOWER has linux-xenon packaged, and ISO building support is present in a draft PR, but no final builds are ready yet. |
Cancerous1, Emma (IPG), Juvenal, Quarky, realweezerfan93, sk1080, Swizzy, Techflash, tuxuser |
free60.org ArchPOWER |