Connecting a WiiU gamepad to PC (archlinux))

[jhogan93]

Hey guys, I recently acquired a WiiU gamepad. And I can't help but want to some how get it working on my SteamDeck box (holoISO). I saw this article

 

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Wii-U-Gamepad-Driver-v4

 

I have tried to find more on the driver but most of what I can find looks like matrix code. If anyone could point me in the right direction to some resources that are novice friendly I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

[AndreiArgeanu]

You can't really use it without the console. There are ways to use it as a simple xinput controller without a display, and there are ways to stream games from a PC to the console and as a result the gamepad too, but there aren't any ways as far as I know to natively connect a PC directly to the gamepad instead of the typical webserver that connects to the Wii U consoles which connects to the gamepad. If you're intrested in streaming to the Wii U then there's this video, but I'm not 100% if there are Linux alternatives to all the software used there.

 

[jhogan93]

i did see this video, but im trying to use the gamepad as a stand alone controller. bonus points if i can get audio and video on as well. but thank you as always.

7 hours ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

You can't really use it without the console. There are ways to use it as a simple xinput controller without a display, and there are ways to stream games from a PC to the console and as a result the gamepad too, but there aren't any ways as far as I know to natively connect a PC directly to the gamepad instead of the typical webserver that connects to the Wii U consoles which connects to the gamepad. If you're intrested in streaming to the Wii U then there's this video, but I'm not 100% if there are Linux alternatives to all the software used there.

 

 

[jhogan93]

i found this article but it feels kinda cancery


https://www.slashgear.com/1343071/use-nintendos-wii-u-gamepad-computer/

[AndreiArgeanu]

1 hour ago, jhogan93 said:

i found this article but it feels kinda cancery


https://www.slashgear.com/1343071/use-nintendos-wii-u-gamepad-computer/

That also requires a working Wii U. The tablet doesn't really work independently of the Wii U console itself. That tutorial requires access to a browser, which means you need a Wii U console. The tablet is pretty much dead weight without the console. You can find out more about the Wii U and it's architecture below. The Wii U communicates through a separate wifi chip to the tablet which takes the frambuffer from the GPU, alongside audio and IO from the console and communicates with the tablet over WiFi. It's complicated to no end. The tablet also runs very weak hardware, 32mb of storage and 4mb of ram alongside a H.264 codec, nevermind that there's 3 separate SOC's. No one has ever finished or possibly even started trying to reverse engineer this so they can stream games directly to the tablet. Nonetheless, you'd probably need an external device that connects to your PC if you intend to get full gamepad functionality anyway. Unless you're willing to go through the trouble of reverse engineering and writing software for the tablet, it ain't hapenning without a Wii U console as well.

https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/wiiu/