Re: Wii SSH isn't working

Hi all,

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread. I wanted to update that this
patch: https://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-powerpc/2025/10/19/msg003717.html
seems to have fixed my previous issue with "no BBP id for device ID"
when I use the latest nightly build (as of a couple days ago - Oct
19?), but that unfortunately I am still seeing issues with SSH.

Here is what I have tried to debug so far:
* I am able to ping both the wider internet and other devices on my
local network from the Wii
* I am able to SSH between two other devices on my local network, both
using OpenSSH 8.x
* I am able to SSH from my Wii to itself successfully (presumably this
doesn't touch the nonworking part of my networking stack?)
* I am not able to SSH from my Wii to other devices on my local network
* I am not able to SSH from other devices on my local network to my Wii
* I also tried installing OpenSSH 10.2 on an Arch Linux docker image
and using that to SSH, it also did not work which I think rules out
version issues. (I used Arch because it was quicker than finding a
NetBSD docker image that I could get working on my Apple Silicon mac,
and I haven't tried on my linux machine yet. For what it's worth I was
also unable to get NetBSD running on the Wii Dolphin Emulator. I have
not yet sourced a second Wii to test SSH between them, though I think
I will be able to borrow a friend's if it comes to that.)
* I installed Wireshark on my Mac and turned up the Wii-side sshd
logging to DEBUG1. I am not an expert with Wireshark but it appears to
me that the server side prints "expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_INIT
[preauth]" but the client side never receives the previous step and
therefore does not find out that it's time to send that part of the
negotiation (i.e. the last thing the client prints with -vvv is
"debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent" -- when I do a working SSH between two
other devices, it prints that it receives SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT and then
continues negotiation. Overall the Wireshark capture has a lot of
retransmissions, they seem to be at the same places every time when I
retry, which makes me wonder if it is not just that my Wii wifi is
flaky but that it is some other network issue.

Let me know if there is more information I can provide (I saved the
Wireshark captures but I don't know if they contain information I
shouldn't attach here). And thank you for this port, it's fun!

Thanks,
Anne


On Tue, May 6, 2025 at 10:09 AM Anne DeCusatis <anne.decusatis%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:

Hi,

I found a workaround for the issue but neglected to mention it here;

I have an update after trying this which I am even more confused by. I
tried to remove all the wifi settings I'd configured in the Wii System
Menu and reboot into NetBSD after reading the last email on this
thread. I am now seeing that the wifi interface bwi0 is no longer
listed in ifconfig (and of course, as a result there is no internet
connectivity anymore). dmesg | grep bwi gives me the following:
bwi0 at sdmmc1 function 1: Broadcom Wireless
bwi0: autoconfiguration error: no BBP id for device id 0x044b

This error is persistent across reboots, reimaging the SD card and
re-setting-up the drivers and wpa_supplicant with the tar link, and
even after re-adding my network configuration in the Wii system menu
and getting a successful connection test there.

I am worried about bricking my Wii if I do the wrong kind of system
reset but presumably something needs to be reset that hasn't been,
since it was working before. I am perplexed about how the Wii System
Menu can interact with NetBSD in this way at all though. I also don't
know what BBP is -- so I have a lot to learn.
I have previously installed: IOS v50, Systemmenu v385, Priiloader
v0.10.0 (r0x02b70b36). I believe that my Wii is on a pretty old
version of system menu and of Priiloader but it seems like the setup I
have is all versions which are comparably old to each other. I could
upgrade it all if that would help but I'm not sure it would be worth
the effort.

Thanks,
Anne