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XBox Linux HOWTOs
killmenow writes "Following up this slashdot story from a few days ago, today The Register is reporting that the XBox Linux folks have released a HOWTO for getting SuSE 8.0 running. Cool...I may have to go buy an X-Box now." There's also a HOWTO for Debian if that's your style. All of these require an XBox with modified hardware... There's also a story about the XBox online gaming service that implies Microsoft will be scanning your machine to make sure you haven't modified it, but we can't link to it since silicon.com has some sort of stupid registration requirement. Anyone find the story elsewhere? Ah, News.com has a story about XBox Live.
but to do anything with this I would really need a WHYTO.
sulli
RTFJ.
Now I have linux on my XBox.
It was cool bringing a BASH prompt.
But now I really wanna play some Halo, but I can't?
It really sucks. I bought it for a gaming console, and now its just like a computer...
If I recall correctly wasn't some Anonymous Coward running a $250k award to the first group to get this done?
MS has the right to block any one form its networks. However, if they pursue the X-box owner (most likely by lawsuit) this is a different story. While X-box live is their network, the X-box is the consumer's personal possession. With that said, the person who owns it has the right to do anything he wants to it, modding included.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
Bah! All you need to do is add another mod to hide the mod they look for. Remenicient of the ever popular radar-detector-detector.
Linux on the X-Box? Suuuuure, next some high up at Microsoft will admit that windows isnt secure, or that someone landed on the "moon"...
:P
humor folks, enjoy it
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
Could someone please post the EULA for the Xbox. I'm 99% certain that it said, essentially, "you can't use the software that comes with the xbox for anything but your xbox." That is, you can't use their software on another computer (making Xbox-emulators pretty difficult). I don't think it said anything else.
Furthermore, this restriction was only printed in a small box on one side of the product's shipping box -- nowhere did I see any EULAs on the unit itself, when I booted it up, or on any kind of sticker when I opened it up.
I'm just curious if they've since made it more restrictive. I know I was VERY surprised not to find a typical Microsoft EULA attached to a big red sticker pasted over the power supply, or somesuch.
That said, the "live network" could certainly deny access two whomever it wants -- be they people from another timezone, another country, or people using modded xboxes. But Microsoft shouldn't have any leg to stand on to prevent people from modding their boxes, except for the obvious one of avoiding copy protection on duplicated games (which wouldn't apply to 3rd party software, and *shouldn't* apply to backups). And Microsoft shouldn't go telling game companies that you've got a modded xbox and save folders on the hard driver for games X, Y, and Z (infering that they're illegally copied games).
Of course, what's right and legal is irrelevant when they've got more laywer money than most geeks with modded xboxes....
I'm betting there will be a new generation of stealth mods and hd swap kits for those who want to make the box 'clean' to get on XBL. I don't really feel like playing cat-and-mouse every day to stay ahead of the game. Online play has historically been one of the most effective (not 100% mind you) means of copy protection.
I don't really mind double posts on
And don't give me the line about how every xbox sale is a loss to microsoft. A sale is a sale on a quarterly earnings report, which is all the stockholders care about anyways.
For less than the price of an xbox you can get a really nice little motherboard Via technologies is putting out now for $130 or less.
http://www.via.com.tw/en/Products/eden.jsp
Now sure it doesn't have a 10 gig hard drive ($20 bucks?) or a dvd drive (+$40) or ram (128 +$20) or a case (+20) but so far for an Eden based system we're at $200, far less than the $270 you would expect to pay for a modded xbox.
Since UltraHLE i've never bought a console system. Why? If I put that $200 into my system, in a couple of years someone will write an emulator that can play it.
If you really want M$ to lose money, figure out a way around their copy protection, write an emulator, and watch how fast ISO images of the games start floating around IRC and p2p networks. Don't feed the beast by buying another xbox please!
--toq
Although some people will take the conspiritorial mindset that this was done solely to Microsoft's advantage and being anti-consumer, it was most likely done not to prevent silly things like Linux running on the box, but to prevent cheaters from modifying their boxes in such a way as to ruin the online experience for others.
It wouldn't take all that many cheaters with modded boxes to tank any online network's value to the average casual gamer.
Of course, there's the side benefit of punishing those who mod their boxes for copyright infringement purposes.
Microsoft may lose more money on a per unit basis to build the xbox, but Sony wasted more in R&D just to arrive at the PS2,3, 4, etc....
Yes, but Microsoft unfortunately doesn't have the first f**king clue about the electronics market. Sony does, in fact Sony are the biggest electronics manufacturer in the world. The reason that Sony don't just throw a bunch of off-the-shelf components into a box is because they understand their business better than Microsoft do.
Give it a couple of years and I'll bet you'll see Microsoft giving up on the X-Box.
Funny, I've heard the opposite.
FUD. The PS3 is at least two years out from now, if not more. Sony is simply trying to do to Microsoft what they did to Sega (ie, when the Dreamcast started doing well, they began flooding the media with PS2 announcements, even though you wouldn't see the console for another year and some months).
And yet, the XBox library is growing quite well. The first run of games (Halo, Gotham, Amped, DOA3, etc) did quite well, with a number of them topping sales of 1 million. The next round was mostly filler (like all consoles, there is always a lot of filler -- even more so if the console is looking to increase its library size. the PSX has a bunch of filler crap, as does the PS2), with a few gems like Rallisport, Gunvalkyrie, and Crazy Taxi 3. There are a number of great games being released this month now, too. Sega GT 2002, Sega Soccer Slam (yes, a Gamecube port), the next rev of sports titles (NFL Fever 2003 in August, Madden 2003, NFL 2K3, etc), Dead to Rights, Quantum Redshift, and more. What's my point? A console can develop a great library even if it doesn't have the benefit of being backwards-compatible with something else. Hell, the SNES did quite well, even though it wasn't backwards-compatible with the NES. Same for the Genesis and SMS (though there was an adaptor there). And of course the PSX did quite well, even though it was Sony's first machine (after Square decided to get on board, of course).
You just like making stuff up, right? Did you forget the 10+ years of backwards compatibility in Windows? The backwards compatibility in Office (new Office versions can read old Office files)? The simple truth is, Microsoft has proven that they value backwards compatibility in their other products, so why would you even think that they wouldn't with the XBox and theoretical XBox2?
First off, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being "100% anti-Linux". It's simply not comparable to being "anti-competitive". (hell, for Microsoft to be anti-linux, that means they're acting competitively, so they can't be both anti-linux and anti-competitive, right? anti-competitive != anti-competition, since the goal of being competitive is to wipe our your competition.) Anyway, once again you've failed to apply past evidence to your argument -- namely, Microsoft generally uses the courts as a very last resort (unlike some other companies *cough*ORACLE*cough*, *cough*SUN*cough*, *cough*NETSCAPE*cough* who run to court if Microsoft bats an eyelash at them). In other words, I doubt you'll see Microsoft taking anybody to court over Linux on the XBox unless things start to get really bad.
It simply amazes me that you can call Microsoft "the man" while at the same time praising Sony. Sony is just as "bad" as Microsoft, if not worse, but because their name isn't "Microsoft", I guess that doesn't really matter, does it?
In a recent Fry's ad, I saw an ad for a AMD Duron 1Ghz processor and motherboard for $79, and the motherboard had on board sound / video. Add some RAM, a hard drive, etc, and you can build a more powerful machine for probably around $300, and you don't have to solder in anything or void your warranty.
Anyone have a really compelling reason to run Linux on an XBOX? I'm sure there's at least one... maybe small machine footprint? XBOX is huge for a console compared to PS2 / Gamecube, but it's still small compared to even a midtower PC.
And yes, I'll accept "Because it's fun" as an answer :)
Two points, really. First, you could see this one coming miles away. Microsoft controls all the cards. They control the hardware you're getting, the software you're using and the network you're surfing. Given the fact that they created a closed box for a reason, it's no huge leap to imagine they'd use one or all of these paths to dissuade people from modding their box. And you won't see me minding too much either. One good thing that will make the X Box live a decent experience is conformity (yes, that evil, evil word). Knowing that the person who just fragged you has exactly the same hardware and connection. Sure, I might miss a multi region DVD mod or something, but not that much. Besides, I don't think anybody who mods for Linux is really worried about the games or X-Box Live. On that note, I can see MS being paranoid of Linux users trying to hack or otherwise use/abuse the Live network. I'd ban modded boxes too. A real, uncrippled OS is a dangerous tool in that environment. Too much temptation for you rabid, salivating Linux fan-boys. Finally, it's my opinion that Ps2 networking is probably going to blow because your going to have just as many surfing/playing problems as you did on your PC back in the Doom/Quake days... Y'know-- When that 56kb connection actually equalled out to 31.5kb if the planets were aligned and the wind was blowing south at 6kph? Maybe you'll get 42kb tommorow...
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Cool...I may have to go buy an X-Box now.
Do us all a favor and please don't. Microsoft may lose money if you buy one, but it loses more if you don't. A console's fate is decided on how many are sold, it has nothing to do with sales of games. So when geeks start making Xboxes fly off the shelf, just to install Linux, it still makes the Xbox look like a high selling success. If the Xbox is seen as a viable console with high hardware sales, Microsoft will have have the last laugh. Then we'll see Xbox 2, 3, and 4, a prospect no one around here wants to see. Let the Xbox sit on the shelf , and then MS may get the hint and get out of the console business when it sees that they aren't selling.
Nanite
Yeah, Small.
God is real unless declared integer.
This is to try and convince the SETI@Home people to produce binaries for the Dreamcast and PS2 linux enviornments, isn't it?
If we hack the X-Box to run linux, won't that be an i386 platform console that can run seti@home? And then we can say, "See! People *DO* want to run seti@home on their game consoles. When can we get dreamcast and PS2 binaries to download?"
" How much energy and effort has been expended to get linux to run in some marginal fashion on the Microsoft Xbox? Imagine if instead that effort had been used to improve linux. Which end result is better?"
Well, you see, the situation where people tell you what to code (because it's useful) rather than you coding what you want to is called having a job.
Coding what you want to is a hobby.
If I want to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get freeBSD running on a kitten then that's between me and the kitten (and possibly the RSPCA...).
Who are you to tell me what to code ? I'll code what I damn well want to, motherfucker!
graspee