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LinuXbox Boots
ducker writes: "Finally Xbox is ready for some real fun! Linux can be booted now ... just check out http://www.xbox-scene.com - Linux boots into a network-enabled state, running a web server and telnet, which allows you to log into the box from another machine. It can be booted either from flash memory, or (more easily) from a CD inserted into the machine. (The Xbox still needs to have a modchip fitted to allow it to run unsigned code)."
How much is an XBox today and is it still worth the effort to make it run Linux, compared to throwing an equally powerful system together from of-the-shelf parts? Or has Microsoft succeded in delaying the abuse of their console long enough to make hacking it financially uninteresting?
By adding new features to the XBox via modchips you are in fact helping MS to make more profit and to push competitors like Sony etc out of the market. /.)
Why were the other operating system features of the XBox blocked ?
Because MS is under attack of the justice departments and anti-monopoly investigators, being accused of building up monopolies with illegal measures.
If MS tried to push Sony etc out of the market with a cheap, versatile, all purpose gaming computer they would be sacked.
But they can't be blamed for building a normal console. That's fair business. And if h4x0rz turn it into a real computer, they can't be blamed, really ? They threatened some legal action but this is just to make the scam really complete. And, in fact, they didn't sue the real XBox hacker at MIT. (? Caltech, look up yourself at
Oh, we don't want to sue little cute grad students. Hahaha. Nobody is so foolish to believe this.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
Basically this is a micro distro that fits either on 1MByte of flash in the xbox / in a modchip, or is also able to boot from an unsigned XBE on a CD. After booting web services, telnet, etc are available. We added a small precooked default website on the box; after booting visiting http://192.168.0.64/ (the default IP for the box) brings up this page direct from your box.
We hope to issue a full distro that boots into X in the next couple of releases, with video, USB and audio up.
I believe the terms were that it run on an *unmodified* xbox.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
It would be nice to see a comparison between Sony PS2 and XBox running Linux. Same kernel, services, etc, and benchmark them to see what they offer for the average user using web, email, and word processing.
PS2 needs a kit a Xbox needs a mod. Anyone game? Fire up the Weller temp controlled soldering iron, ma I'm goin in!
I may be bad with names, but I'll never forget your IP address
xbox-scene.com or xboxhacker.net should provide you with a detailed spec of the currently availible mod chips. There are strong rumors around that there is to be a new one relased soon that requires no soldering and is very easy to fit.
Suggest that you get one that is flash upgradable however. the pc-xbios chip that liksang just bought the rights to seems a good bet currently.
Why not ask MS to sign the linux kernal on the X-Box?
I'm not sure what it takes to ask for a signing but it would provide interesting fodder for the Dept of [in]Justice.
It'd be the perfect Catch-22 to put Micro$oft in. If on the 1 hand they deny it then it looks bad for the predatory practices they've been doing. If they allow it, then it'd be good all around but not so good for M$ as they'd have to bump up their prices to a self-sustaining level and wouldn't be able to leverage their cash cow.
There's a gorilla from Manilla whose a fella that stinks of vanilla and has salmonella.
The X-Box is at the confluence of several bad trends in the world.
1) The trend towards evolving a 'perfect customer', a sheeplike animal which only consumes and offers money. Such creatures may never contribute, it would be competition for the attention of the other sheeplike creatures.
2) The introduction of extraordinarily overzealous punative Intellectual Property laws. The patent laws again are designed to stop people being able to contribute by making a land-grab of concepts on behalf of established interests. You are just not allowed, by dint of fines and imprisonment, to contribute in the areas these corporate barons have fenced off.
And if you try to go around that, the barons are ready with the copyright law, EUCD, DMCA.
3) The cross-ownership of Intellectual Property driven corporations and Media companies, which leads to...
4) The meekness of our representatives in government. They are there to represent the interests of the people that voted them in. Instead they represent their own interests by pandering to the powerful media corporations, who hold out the dreadful stick of public humiliation in their outlets (or worse, no coverage at all), and who knows what kind of porkbarrel carrots
5) The sleight of hand that takes money but delivers no ownership. Evil licenses. You buy software - but do you own it? What happens when that extends to physical hardware like the xbox itself? Already MS issue licenses that deny you the right to print comparitive benchmarks. You want things to extend down that path, controlling your rights to utilize physical objects that you paid for, with punitive laws enacted by your own gutless government to back them up?
6) Palladium. With the force of the DMCA/EUCD.
Consider these reasons, and then consider the act of Tux occupying the Instrument Of The Beast and telling people that they can be free.
Does this answer your question?
Now, however, it's going to be at the back of everybody's minds that there is some sort of erosion of the userbase going on. Even if claim to know the unknowable and put out an estimate that only 0.009% of Xboxes are Linuxed, developers will disregard that and come up with their own estimates that err heavily on the side of safety... it's their development costs after all.
Running Linux on an X-Box in no way prevents a normal game from non-concurrently running on the same X-Box. An X-Box sold is an X-Box that can run an X-Box game.
Also, it is highly doubtful that any more than about 47 X-Boxes sold to end users will never run an X-Box game in its lifetime.
I don't know about anyone else, but when I look for a box to run as a dedicated server, I want a something that can be easily repaired on site by swapping standard components, or something which comes with a decent service contract. The X-Box fails on both these fronts.
Because since MS has a monopoly on the PC market it is subject to different laws than a normal corporation. One of these means it cannot use it's monopolistic position in one market to leverage itself into other markets. I would call creating a game console using commodity PC components, created by companies which MS has a very strong relationship with in it's PC market, using a cut down version of the OS from that PC market, and using money gained from that market to sell the console at a loss in the new market leverage.
Therefore the DOJ should care. Although it won't since the other major players are not American, so they're unlikely to give a fuck IMHO.
He who defends everything, defends nothing. -- Fredrick The Great