Why:
Why do you want to hack the Sega Mini? Well, it’s fairly obvious we want to play more games than what the console came with. Thankfully, the tools needed make this task super easy and cheap. There are a million articles on how to do it on a Windows Laptop/Desktop, but as an avid Linux User there are additional challenges to this. As all other article have pointed out, we will have to use Windows. I will NOT be covering where to get rom’s from, nor will I respond to such requests so don’t even bother.
Prerequisites:
- Linux Install in the past decade that supports KVM
- libvirtd ( Service Started and Enabled )
- virt-manager
- Windows VM – Can be Windows 10 or Server 2016 and up. I am using a Windows Server 2019 Data Center Edition.
- You can get a FREE trial of Windows Server 2019 from Microsoft here. And yes you only get 180 days for your trail but you can always run ‘ slmgr.vbs /rearm ‘ to extend you system past that 180 day mark without a reinstall up to 5 times.
- I highly recommend having a Windows VM and there is all kind of things you can do!!! Especially with USB pass-though support!
- You can get a FREE trial of Windows Server 2019 from Microsoft here. And yes you only get 180 days for your trail but you can always run ‘ slmgr.vbs /rearm ‘ to extend you system past that 180 day mark without a reinstall up to 5 times.
- USB mini-b data cable – Sadly the USB cable that came with the Sega Mini only provides power to the system. You can find the proper USB Cables under 10 bucks USD or you probably have some laying around already.
Steps:
- First, we need to download the latest release of Hakchi2 CE (currently 3.8.0 at the time of writing) to our Windows VM from the following URL: https://github.com/TeamShinkansen/Hakchi2-CE/releases
- Run the Hakchi2 CE installer inside the Windows VM.
- Once we have Hakchi2 CE installed fire that bad boy up so we can start modding our console.
- Attach the USB cable to the console… but NOT to the computer!
- Turn the power switch to the ON position on the console (while not connected to the computer). Press and hold the RESET button as we attach the USB cable to your computer. You should see the power light blink for a moment. After the power light has blinked you can stop holding reset button. The console is now in recovery mode.
- Now we need to enable the USB pass-though of the Genesis to our Windows VM.
- Go to Virtual Machine tab at the top menu.
- Click on Redirect USB Device and Select ‘ Allwinner Technology sunxi SoC OTG connetor in FEL/flashing mode ‘ from the menu
- Go to Virtual Machine tab at the top menu.
- Click on Kernel menu and click on Install/Repair
- You should now have a popup box asking if you want to flash custom firmware. You want to click Yes.
- This next step you need to be quick!!!
- While the device is at the rebooting stage we need to go back into the Redirect USB Device menu and select ‘ hakchi classic ‘.
- The software will now do the rest of the flashing to the Sega Mini.
- Congrats!!! You have successfully flashed you Sega Mini and have fully unleashed the FULL POWER of you Sega Mini!!!!!!
Thank you! I have just started this project with my son. We will let you know as soon as we are done. Super excited to test it out.