Wiiather

A WeatherStar 4000 for the Nintendo Wii.

Wiiather is a homebrew port of ws4kp that fetches live National Weather Service (NWS) data over HTTPS and shows it in the style of The Weather Channel's 1990s local forecast.

Warning: Do not rely on Wiiather in life-threatening weather situations. Its data can be incomplete or out of date. Use NOAA Weather Radio or official NWS channels for alerts.

Features

• Current conditions, latest observations, local and extended forecasts, and an almanac, rotating like the original
• A scrolling bottom bar with conditions and active NWS hazard alerts
• ZIP code lookup, with a suggestion based on the Wii's public IP address
• Optional background music from your own MP3s
• Signed certificate authority updates, so HTTPS keeps working after release

US locations only, since all data comes from the NWS.

Install

Wiiather requires a Wii with the Homebrew Channel and a working internet connection set up in the Wii's system settings.

1. Download Wiiather-X.Y.Z.zip from GitHub Releases, or build from source.
2. Extract the zip and copy its apps/ folder to the root of the SD card.
3. Launch Wiiather from the Homebrew Channel.

Music

To add background music, copy .mp3 files to apps/wiiather/music/ on the SD card. They play in random order, and the Wii Remote's A button turns music on and off. ws4kp's royalty-free tracks in server/music/default work well.

Getting started

On first launch, Wiiather asks for a ZIP code. It suggests one based on the Wii's public IP address, looked up with ipinfo.io, which sees that address. Change digits with the D-pad's up and down, move between them with left and right, and press A to save. Press + at any time to pick a new location, and B to back out.

The location is saved in apps/wiiather/settings.ini. To use exact coordinates instead, for example for a place without a ZIP code, edit the file:

lat=38.8951
lon=-77.0364

Certificate updates

Wiiather checks each server's HTTPS certificate against a bundle of trusted certificate authorities (CAs) built into the app. Authorities change over time, so once a day Wiiather also checks this repository's ca-bundle branch on raw.githubusercontent.com for a newer bundle. It installs one only if the project's signature verifies and the bundle is newer than the one it has, and saves it to apps/wiiather/cacert.pem for the next launch.

If a Wii sits unused long enough that the weather servers move to an authority its bundle doesn't know, Wiiather can no longer verify them. It then fetches the signed bundle without checking GitHub's certificate, since the signature alone proves where the bundle came from, and resumes once a newer bundle installs. Until then it shows "Wiiather may need updating."

Important: Certificate updates depend on this project continuing to publish signed bundles from a public GitHub repository. If publishing stops, the repository goes private or the signing key is lost, Wiiather will eventually be unable to verify the weather servers, and only a new release will fix it. Certificate checks also fail if the Wii's clock is wrong, so keep its date and time set correctly.

Build from source

Install devkitPro with wii-dev and the PowerPC portlibs for jansson, FreeType, libpng, libjpeg-turbo, bzip2, brotli and zlib, then run:

git clone https://github.com/WolffTech/Wiiather.git
cd Wiiather
scripts/build-deps.sh
make dist

scripts/build-deps.sh builds GRRLIB and a Wii-configured mbedTLS. make dist writes the Homebrew Channel app to dist/apps/wiiather/.

For development:

make        # wiiather.dol
make test   # host-side unit tests (needs a native C compiler)
make run    # send to a Wii running the Homebrew Channel with wiiload

Dolphin can also run wiiather.dol directly.

To publish a release, create a GitHub release with a new vX.Y.Z tag. The release workflow builds it with make clean dist VERSION=X.Y.Z and attaches the Homebrew Channel zip, the libogc source (for libmad's GPL) and SHA256SUMS. Local builds report their version as dev.

Forks that distribute their own builds should replace CA_BASE_URL and the public key in source/net/ca_update.c with their own bundle location and signing key. Otherwise, those builds will depend on this repository's certificate bundles.

Disclaimer

The WeatherSTAR 4000 name and design belong to The Weather Channel. Wiiather is a free, non-commercial fan project and is not affiliated with The Weather Channel, the NWS or Nintendo.

License

Wiiather is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later. Third-party attributions are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.