Adding WiFi to the Gizmondo...

[drgoldie]

hi all,

i'd be interested in adding WiFi capabilities to the Gizmondo game console.

while adding the hardware (using an SD Wifi Card) would be trivial, i assume that there is not WiFi support in the ROM at all. so just installing the drivers will not be enough, won't it?

can anybody of the ROM hacking gurus around here give me an educated guess how difficult it would be to add the missing WiFi capabilities?

the Gizmondo uses Window CE 4.2, so i assume most of the missing stuff should be available in the Window CE Platform Builder, right?

thanks a lot,
Daniel

[vijay555]

drgoldie: you might want to check out dedicated gizmondo forums for this kind of hacking.
Platform Builder is good for reference, but not very useful for implementing things on a real device, without a full BSP for the device in question.

In this instance, what you're lacking presumably is the wifi card drivers (by the wifi card's manufacturer), irrespective of whether the device can support the external expansion (which it probably can).

V

[drgoldie]

hi V,

i am in contact with the Giz hacker guys, but is seems nobody is working on this yet.

the wifi card drivers would probably come with the wifi card, wouldn't they?

my question is more about if there is something missing the OS besides the card drivers. shouldn't there be a WiFi stack in order to do WiFi...?

Daniel

[vijay555]

If they're using a standard CE build, you might just be lucky and wifi is built in - subject to the driver. However, given how modular CE is, you might be unlucky!

The driver - well, presuming it's a mainstream wifi card, you've probably got WinMobile drivers, but I'm not sure about cross-compatibility with CE. So, obviously you're in luck if your OEM provides CE drivers, but if they don't - writing your own wifi drivers for the card might be ugly.

However, my advice would be - just stick the card in and see what happens! The OS could lack wifi support, a compatible driver, or both! But before re-implementing wifi in the OS, consider availability of your card's drivers first.

V

[drgoldie]

well, i don't have any sd wifi card yet.
i was planning to buy this one
http://www.socketcom.com/product/WL6207-600.asp
because it comes with a lot of software...

any recommendations for specific WiFi cards?

Daniel