Xbox Linux Issues - Revision history

VannevarKush: /* IDE to SATA Adapter Issues with Cromwell */

2022-07-09T09:29:55Z

‎IDE to SATA Adapter Issues with Cromwell

VannevarKush at 08:54, 9 July 2022

2022-07-09T08:54:20Z

VannevarKush: /* Cromwell incompatibility with OpenXenium */

2022-07-09T06:03:16Z

‎Cromwell incompatibility with OpenXenium

VannevarKush: /* IDE to SATA Adapter Issues with Cromwell */

2022-07-09T06:02:05Z

‎IDE to SATA Adapter Issues with Cromwell

VannevarKush at 06:00, 9 July 2022

2022-07-09T06:00:14Z

VannevarKush at 21:06, 8 July 2022

2022-07-08T21:06:51Z

VannevarKush: /* Cromwell incompatibility with OpenXenium */

2022-07-06T00:26:24Z

‎Cromwell incompatibility with OpenXenium

VannevarKush: /* Cromwell incompatibility with OpenXenium */

2022-07-06T00:25:46Z

‎Cromwell incompatibility with OpenXenium

VannevarKush at 00:25, 6 July 2022

2022-07-06T00:25:08Z

VannevarKush at 00:24, 6 July 2022

2022-07-06T00:24:56Z

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 ==IDE to SATA Adapter Issues with Cromwell==
-The SATA to IDE adapters (Startech and the "PATA TO SATA" ones) are sensitive to electromagnetic interference, and these can be unreliable with Cromwell.  They might work when the cable is in one position, and not when it's in another position.  This may account for reported issues with Chimp where it simply refuses to run on an Xbox.
+The SATA to IDE adapters are sensitive to electromagnetic interference (Startech and the "PATA TO SATA" ones were tested), and these can be unreliable with Cromwell.  They might work when the cable is in one position, and not when it's in another position.  This may account for reported issues with Chimp where it simply refuses to run on an Xbox.
 The difficulty here is that Xbios environment can be completely stable, but Cromwell and its variants freeze, fail to load, or work unreliably.  Is this an issue with DMA mode detection?  It should probably be fixed, although it is avoidable by following some best practices..

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 ==IDE to SATA Adapter Issues with Cromwell==
-It was found testing on a stock and a 1.4 GHz Xbox, that there may be issues with IDE to SATA adapters.  The PATA to SATA adapters tended to work, with or without a DVD drive, but did not work with a CF card on HDB.  (this does work if hda is an IDE drive.)  Cromwell never got to the boot menu with the Startech adapter.
+The SATA to IDE adapters (Startech and the "PATA TO SATA" ones) are sensitive to electromagnetic interference, and these can be unreliable with Cromwell.  They might work when the cable is in one position, and not when it's in another position.  This may account for reported issues with Chimp where it simply refuses to run on an Xbox.
-The quickness of the failure seemed to depend on the adapter and drive used.  With one SSD, Cromwell would  boot to a black screen, but not always, and it would sometimes detect an SSD before freezing.
+The difficulty here is that Xbios environment can be completely stable, but Cromwell and its variants freeze, fail to load, or work unreliably.  Is this an issue with DMA mode detection?  It should probably be fixed, although it is avoidable by following some best practices..
-It appears there may be some kind of synchronization issue, but the nature of it is currently unclear.  The main practical issue is supporting Startech adapters as they are faster and more reliable than the cheaper ones.
+The solution for users is to use shorter cables (possibly placing the hard drive in the DVD area), and to try adjusting the cable position.
-Also, it was found that two adapters together (one on hda and one on hdb) in any combination did not work with Cromwell.
+==Cromwell Initramfs Limitations==
 ==Native Boot Partition Filesystem Compatibility with Cromwell==

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:03, 9 July 2022
Line 5:		Line 5:

	"VERY IMPORTANT: As of 2004/10/27, v1.0 Xboxen with Xenium ICEs can only use Cromwell BIOS 2.30 and BELOW. This limits you to using 2.4 verison kernels. Cromwell 2.31 and higher changed the memory map so that 2.6 BIOSs can be be used. The problem with the Xenium on v1.0 boxes is believed to be a CPLD issue. The problem shows up when trying to start the 2.31+ BIOS. The box will power cycle twice, and then FRAG (Flashing Red And Green eject button). This may or may not be fixable. If you have a v1.1 or higher XBox, you won't have to concern yourself with this issue."		"VERY IMPORTANT: As of 2004/10/27, v1.0 Xboxen with Xenium ICEs can only use Cromwell BIOS 2.30 and BELOW. This limits you to using 2.4 verison kernels. Cromwell 2.31 and higher changed the memory map so that 2.6 BIOSs can be be used. The problem with the Xenium on v1.0 boxes is believed to be a CPLD issue. The problem shows up when trying to start the 2.31+ BIOS. The box will power cycle twice, and then FRAG (Flashing Red And Green eject button). This may or may not be fixable. If you have a v1.1 or higher XBox, you won't have to concern yourself with this issue."
		+
		+	(is this only on 1.0 Xboxes?)

	==IDE to SATA Adapter Issues with Cromwell==		==IDE to SATA Adapter Issues with Cromwell==

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 The quickness of the failure seemed to depend on the adapter and drive used.  With one SSD, Cromwell would  boot to a black screen, but not always, and it would sometimes detect an SSD before freezing.
-It appears there may be some kind of synchronization issue, but the nature of it is currently unclear.
+It appears there may be some kind of synchronization issue, but the nature of it is currently unclear.  The main practical issue is supporting Startech adapters as they are faster and more reliable than the cheaper ones.
 ==Native Boot Partition Filesystem Compatibility with Cromwell==

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:00, 9 July 2022
Line 5:		Line 5:

	"VERY IMPORTANT: As of 2004/10/27, v1.0 Xboxen with Xenium ICEs can only use Cromwell BIOS 2.30 and BELOW. This limits you to using 2.4 verison kernels. Cromwell 2.31 and higher changed the memory map so that 2.6 BIOSs can be be used. The problem with the Xenium on v1.0 boxes is believed to be a CPLD issue. The problem shows up when trying to start the 2.31+ BIOS. The box will power cycle twice, and then FRAG (Flashing Red And Green eject button). This may or may not be fixable. If you have a v1.1 or higher XBox, you won't have to concern yourself with this issue."		"VERY IMPORTANT: As of 2004/10/27, v1.0 Xboxen with Xenium ICEs can only use Cromwell BIOS 2.30 and BELOW. This limits you to using 2.4 verison kernels. Cromwell 2.31 and higher changed the memory map so that 2.6 BIOSs can be be used. The problem with the Xenium on v1.0 boxes is believed to be a CPLD issue. The problem shows up when trying to start the 2.31+ BIOS. The box will power cycle twice, and then FRAG (Flashing Red And Green eject button). This may or may not be fixable. If you have a v1.1 or higher XBox, you won't have to concern yourself with this issue."
		+
		+	==IDE to SATA Adapter Issues with Cromwell==
		+	It was found testing on a stock and a 1.4 GHz Xbox, that there may be issues with IDE to SATA adapters. The PATA to SATA adapters tended to work, with or without a DVD drive, but did not work with a CF card on HDB. (this does work if hda is an IDE drive.) Cromwell never got to the boot menu with the Startech adapter.
		+
		+	The quickness of the failure seemed to depend on the adapter and drive used. With one SSD, Cromwell would boot to a black screen, but not always, and it would sometimes detect an SSD before freezing.
		+
		+	It appears there may be some kind of synchronization issue, but the nature of it is currently unclear.

	==Native Boot Partition Filesystem Compatibility with Cromwell==		==Native Boot Partition Filesystem Compatibility with Cromwell==

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 ==Cromwell incompatibility with OpenXenium==
 This is overall a minor issue, in that Xromwell ([[Cromwell]] as an xbe) works fine as a workaround.  However, booting into Cromwell directly on Xbox boot would be (very) convenient for Xbox Linux development, and it would allow the user to easily boot into Linux from the OpenXenium BIOS menu.
 ==Native Boot Partition Filesystem Compatibility with Cromwell==

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 ==Cromwell incompatibility with OpenXenium==
-This is overall a minor issue, in that Xromwell (Cromwell as an xbe) works fine as a workaround.  However, booting into Cromwell directly on Xbox boot can be (very) convenient for development, and to allow the user to easily boot into Linux from the OpenXenium BIOS menu.
+This is overall a minor issue, in that Xromwell (Cromwell as an xbe) works fine as a workaround.  However, booting into Cromwell directly on Xbox boot would be (very) convenient for Xbox Linux development, and it would allow the user to easily boot into Linux from the OpenXenium BIOS menu.
 ==Native Boot Partition Filesystem Compatibility with Cromwell==

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:25, 6 July 2022
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	~~[[Link title]]~~Here is a list of issues that are blocking general functionality on [[Linux\|Xbox Linux]].	+	Here is a list of issues that are blocking general functionality on [[Linux\|Xbox Linux]].

	==Cromwell incompatibility with OpenXenium==		==Cromwell incompatibility with OpenXenium==