Linux

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When it was announced that the specifications of the Xbox were known to be very similar to an X86 PC, Xbox Linux was quickly considered as a possibility. Michael Robertson, the CEO of Lindows.com, offered two $100,000 prizes with the vision of getting cheap Linux PCs into the hands of the masses. One of the prizes was for a demonstration of Linux running on an Xbox (with a $55,000 "subprize" for writing a BIOS) The other prize was for an exploit capable of getting Xbox Linux to run without hardware modification, ideally by using just a CD-ROM. (was this claimed? the prize deadline was extended here) The first Xbox exploits were created to make Xbox Linux possible, and were quickly repurposed by modders, while Linux remained a more niche application on the original Xbox. In the years while the Xbox was still being manufactured, it could function as a cheap daily driver Linux PC, and some users modded the controller ports into permanent USB ports. But, as with all PCs they eventually became obsolete as cheaper, smaller hardware became available with similar processing power.

Today, Xbox Linux has more of a hobbyist appeal. It would be possible, though, to use it 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 Xbox Linux

The former kernels of 2.4 and 2.6 were woefully out of date.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.

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.

Historical Xbox Linux

Xbox Linux reached a point of stable releases around 2003, and the development continued thereafter, providing support for 1.4 Xboxes and their Focus encoder chip, and even support for 1.6 Xboxes and their changes in architecture. The 2.4 kernel was primarily used for Xbox Linux. The 2.6 kernel patches that were developed appear stable and quite usable, but scattered functionalities from the 2.4 kernel were never ported over.

Distros

A number of distributions were released, built around the Xbox Linux-patched kernel.

  • GentooX - GentooX, unlike vanilla Gentoo, provided precompiled binaries to the user via a custom repository. These were binaries compiled specifically for the Xbox. GentooX had both Home and Pro editions, the Home edition built around a desktop environment and the Pro edition built around the CLI. GentooX was a popular and developed Xbox Linux distro. The website is still being archived, although it appears broken in Chrome. The latest release of GentooX Home is 7.1, and the latest release of Pro was 5.1, in 2009.
  • X-DSL - Based on Damn Small Linux, X-DSL was a lightweight Linux build. It used Knoppix patches to be able to boot to a desktop environment from small (<100MB) loop devices from FATX. It can also make a "native" install to the hard drive, or install to a larger loop device for a permanent setup. X-DSL is an easy version of historical Linux to try out today, since it can be launched and run entirely from drive E and that avoids some incompatibilities of Xbox Linux with larger hard drives. (if your hard drive is 3TB in order to get that extra .1TB of space, it may not work). The latest official version of X-DSL is 0.6, although there is an unofficial 0.7 floating around, among various other unofficial builds.
  • Dyne:bolic Linux - This is Rasta software! Dynebolic Linux is a multimedia creation, editing, and streaming focused distro that could boot as a liveCD on many systems, including original Xbox. Original Xbox was support was ended in Dyne:bolic 2.x, but that uses the 2.6 kernel so it could theoretically be supported if someone felt like it. The latest version compatible with the Xbox is 1.4.1, available here.
  • xUbuntu - "xUbuntu" is a specific distribution built on top of Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution. xUbuntu" is based on Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badgar) distribution without graphical environment. "xUbuntu" linux system can be run from CD or installed to a PC or Xbox hard drive. The install process, the kernel, the kernel modules and the desktop are customized for PC and Xbox (i386)." The latest version is 0.9.0, available here.
  • Ed's Xebian - Not related to the distro more commonly known as "Xebian". Does not appear to have a website. From the original Xbox Linux wiki, "With superb flexibility and ease of use, it can run live off CD/DVD or it can be installed onto the Xbox hard drive in either the free space or the saved game area. The OS includes support for all versions of the Xbox, including those with Xcalibur video chips. Based on Debian stable (Sarge) with backports for newer software." The latest version is 1.1.4, available here.
  • xFedora A port of Fedora Core to the Xbox; essentially Fedora Core with Xbox patches. The latest version is 0.7.41, available here.
  • sXb - Slackware for the Original Xbox. The versioning is a little unclear, but the most recent ISO on sourcefore is in the iso.gz file here.
  • Mandrake
  • live-linux were spotted on the usual source
  • xboxhdm is a tool made by Idotsfan for softmodding locked Xbox hard drives, it's a PC-based CD-bootable set of Linux tools
  • FreeBSD - Not Linux per se, but it's a port of FreeBSD to the Xbox. The patches were officially merged into FreeBSD. An iso can be found here here with the offically supported patches.

Links

Historical links

Much of the old Xbox Linux information now lives on archive.org. It is helpful if you come across anything useful, to add it here!

See Also

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