Xbox Linux

The first Xbox Linux releases were in 2003, and Xbox Linux reached its peak of popularity in 2003-2006. To read more about it, see Historical Xbox Linux. Today, Xbox Linux has more of a hobbyist appeal.

The former kernels of 2.4 and 2.6 were woefully out of date. To save the day, haxar has patched a modern kernel (5.8) with everything needed to run a terminal-based instance of Xbox linux. This kernel can be used as the basis for setting up modern Xbox Linux distributions.

It would be possible to use Xbox Linux to bundle Linux setups and individual Linux applications, once the proper functionality is set up. Linux also has applications as a platform for investigating the Xbox hardware.

Current Status

A CD-installable distro is currently being worked on.

For a list of the current issues that are blocking functionality on Xbox Linux, see Xbox Linux Issues.

For some guides and information that might help you get Xbox Linux up and running, see Xbox Linux Tips and Tricks.

Links

• Haxar's modifications to the 5.8 kernel
  • A basic initramfs for use with that kernel
  • The busybox setup used in that initramfs
• mborgerson's FATX library, including a FUSE driver for FATX support in Linux
• Ubuntu Cosmic with FATX, DON'T USE THIS, there is no actual FATX code in this repo. It appears to be just a starting point for a FATX implementation in Linux. Posted here to save you the time of figuring that out for yourself.

Inspiration

• In the beginning... Was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson
• The Night Watch by James Mickens
• The UNIX Hater's Handbook Some catharsis, from before the dawn of time
• kill -9 by Monzy (parental advisory: explicit content)

See Also

• 17 Mistakes Microsoft Made in the Xbox Security System by Michael Steil, the founder of the Xbox Linux team