Xbox Linux Tips and Tricks - Revision history

VannevarKush: /* Unpacking and Repacking an initramfs/initrd */

2022-07-05T10:14:29Z

‎Unpacking and Repacking an initramfs/initrd

2022-07-05T03:12:59Z

‎Unpacking and Repacking an initramfs/initrd

2022-07-05T03:12:20Z

2022-07-05T03:12:05Z

‎cramfs

2022-07-05T03:11:14Z

cramfs

2022-07-05T03:02:52Z

Added cramfs for initramfs extraction

2022-07-05T00:04:36Z

‎hdb as Swap

2022-07-05T00:03:55Z

2022-07-03T23:34:08Z

2022-07-03T00:30:25Z

‎See Also

@@ Line 100: / Line 100: @@
 <code>mkcramfs [INITRAMFS_CONTENTS_DIRECTORY] [OUTPUT_FILE]</code>
 ==See Also==
 *[[Xbox Linux Issues]]
 *[[Xbox Linux]]

@@ Line 86: / Line 86: @@
 ===Unpacking and Repacking an initramfs/initrd===
 The initramfs files provided with Xbox Linux can come in multiple formats.  To check what format it is, type
-<code>file [initramfs filename]</code>
+<code>file [INITRAMFS_FILENAME]</code>
 ====cramfs====

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:12, 5 July 2022
Line 98:		Line 98:

	Compressing cramfs:		Compressing cramfs:
		+
	<code>mkcramfs [INITRAMFS_CONTENTS_DIRECTORY] [OUTPUT_FILE]</code>		<code>mkcramfs [INITRAMFS_CONTENTS_DIRECTORY] [OUTPUT_FILE]</code>

@@ Line 90: / Line 90: @@
 ====cramfs====
 If the result of the <code>file</code> command is "Linux Compressed ROM File System data", the format is cramfs.  It should be little endian.
-'''Extracting'''
 <code>fsck.cramfs --extract=[DESTINATION] [TARGET]</code>
@@ Line 96: / Line 97: @@
 The destination will be created if it does not exist.
-'''Compressing'''
+Compressing cramfs:
 <code>mkcramfs [INITRAMFS_CONTENTS_DIRECTORY] [OUTPUT_FILE]</code>

@@ Line 86: / Line 86: @@
 ===Unpacking and Repacking an initramfs/initrd===
 The initramfs files provided with Xbox Linux can come in multiple formats.  To check what format it is, type
 <code>file [initramfs filename]</code>
-'''cramfs'''
+====cramfs====
+If the result of the <code>file</code> command is "Linux Compressed ROM File System data", the format is cramfs.  It should be little endian.
-If the filetype is "Linux Compressed ROM File System data", the image type is cramfs.  To extract:
+'''Extracting'''
-<code>mkcramfs [extracted initramfs directory] [destination filename]</code>
+<code>fsck.cramfs --extract=[DESTINATION] [TARGET]</code>
-'''gzip'''
+The destination will be created if it does not exist.
-'''Gentoo igz'''
+'''Compressing'''
 ==See Also==
 *[[Xbox Linux Issues]]
 *[[Xbox Linux]]

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ===hdb as Swap===
-Swapping to the same drive as data is being read from is far from ideal.  If instead of a DVD drive, a hard drive is connected hdb, it can be used exclusively (or primarily) for swap.  An unlocked stock Xbox hard drive could be used for this (back it up first!) but better performance will be obtained with an SSD.  Small SSDs are not very expensive, and if it's just used for swapping, it can be easily replaced if it dies.  (and do you really plan to use it for swap all day every day?  It would only incur wear on the storage while running Xbox Linux.  Does Linux have any sort of write levelling support for swap?)
+Swapping to the same drive as data is being read from is far from ideal.  Instead of a DVD drive, if a hard drive is connected on hdb, it can be used exclusively (or primarily) for swap.  An unlocked stock Xbox hard drive could be used for this (back it up first!) but better performance will be obtained with an SSD.  Small SSDs are not very expensive, and if it's just used for swapping, it can be easily replaced if it dies.  (and do you really plan to use it for swap all day every day?  It would only incur wear on the storage while running Xbox Linux.  Does Linux have any sort of write levelling support for swap?)
 ===USB Stick as Swap===

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 ===CPU Upgrade===
-Although a more advanced/expensive mod, upgrading the CPU will cause Linux to run that much faster.  (when it's not bottlenecked on swapping, that is).  Gentoo compilation was tested on a 1.4GHz 128MB Xbox and was much faster than on a stock Xbox.
+Although a more advanced/expensive mod, upgrading the CPU will cause Linux to run that much faster.  (when it's not bottlenecked on swapping, that is).  The 1.4Ghz Tualatin with a 256KB cache will result in >2x performance.  Gentoo compilation was tested on a 1.4GHz 128MB Xbox and was much more than 2x faster than on a stock Xbox.
 ===hdb as Swap===

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 ===128MB RAM Upgrade===
 Yep, it helps here too.  Any modern Linux distro that isn't built for lightweight hardware is probably going to assume there is a lot more memory available than the Xbox has.  The more memory and the more non-lightweight services in use, the more swapping is going to happen.  With 64MB of RAM a lot of swapping is going to take place during any memory-intensive operation, slowing Linux to a crawl.  So the 128MB of RAM can give Linux some more breathing room.  More minimal distros may be able to run fine with a (very) lightweight desktop with 64MB.  The vanilla Gentoo LiveCD command line environment worked fine until compiling.  But even operations like extracting files take forever and could be done faster with less disk access with more RAM.
 ===hdb as Swap===