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XBox Chip With Legal BIOS
Lours writes "OzXChip, an Australian company, has a new Xbox chip which comes preinstalled with the new (Cromwell Linux BIOS. Previous chips came without (or simplistic) BIOS for obvious legal and hardware-related (HD-key) reasons you had to go through a lot of manipulations in order to install a patched version of the original Microsoft BIOS or ask the vendor to do it which obviously he was not willing to do for free (when he was willing to). Since the new Cromwell BIOS is fully open source it can be shipped with the chip without any legal risks, gaining you a lot of time, sweat and money. Plus the chip has a very useful feature: by using software based on Andy Green's -- one of the maintainers of the XBox Linux project -- Raincoat, it lets you flash a new BIOS very easily: burn the BIOS file onto a blank CD, put it in the Xbox, boot and you are done. With such beasts there is not much left in the way of want-to-be Linux Xbox hackers who might have been affraid until now to have to deal with delicate hardware intricacies or reluctant to run the whole town for a vendor willing to mod their Xbox at the smallest fee. With important linux distributions also incoming (Debian and Mandrake are underway if not completed) it won't be long before everyone can write code for (and on!) the machine only a few minutes after receiving the chip in his mailbox. Hopefully we are going to see a zillion things running on the machine that Microsoft would only have dreamt of making (and selling)." Update: 01/23 16:07 GMT by T : The company's name is actually OzXChip, rather than OzChip (as originally rendered); thanks to reader Michael Muir for pointing this out.
If you really want to get caught up in this addictive and fun hacking, check these sites for answers to all questions:
www.xboxhacker.net
www.xbox-scene.com
#xbins on IRC
By the way...the number of hacked xboxes surely runs into the thousands, if not more, and there are already enough robust applications to make it a full-fledged media device.
I doubt that they will make money out of Hardware. Most Game consoles are sole at just breakeven or below. Companies actually make money on Software and not on the box itself. Here is a sleisha old link abt m$s pricing strat.
.ACMD setaloiv siht gnidaeR
There are two big reasons why this is interesting.
1) Because modchips can now ship with a fully legal clean BIOS, it is very hard for MS to suppress or chill their development any more. Cromwell, the Linux booting BIOS, is only capable to boot Linux, there can be no copyright-based complaints. Ozxchips have made a micro-distro (~2MB ISO) which boots and reflashes the BIOS. In the future, I expect mods with multiple BIOSes in one flash, with Cromwell used to manage and reflash the other parts, but being itself read-only/protected.
2) Because Cromwell can boot off the Linux install CDs, perform the install and then subsequently boot direct into Linux, the increased availability of the BIOS suggests that more people will be encouraged to try Linux. And considering these are mainly kids who otherwise face a sterile, uncreative and useless relationship with games on the Xbox, that's a good thing. Again, in the future we can expect Cromwell to be a static feature of mods, the option to boot into Linux always being available.
You've been able to run Linux on the Xbox for some time now, this doesn't really change that. What's different is that you can now run Linux without using any MS code in the BIOS, whereas before Linux required the use of a hacked native BIOS to get it started. So the big difference is that you can run Linux without any copyright infringement.
That has ramifications for the MS trend to try to suppress modchips.
FYI, I already play accelerated video on my xbox using Debian and it runs just fine!!
The first projects that are implementing a jukebox/settopbox especially for the xbox have already started...
You'll never play xbox live online with a modded box. Theyre attitude makes sense: a service population with 5% cheaters will make 60% of normal gamers shy away from playing. Many people stopped playing CS because cheating is so prevalent.
As for killer apps, the XBMP - Xbox Media Player now in v2.2 is the ultimate app that is continually updated. DVD/mp3/ogg/m3u playlist/divx support, and the features keep getting better. Plus streaming support. right now, Xbox is the most cost effective media center available. Plus it has some great tech support in the dev scene. And Dreamix is a WIP PVR to complete the media center ideal
So did anyone ever win that $200,000 prize? Would this qualify?
Nope. This will not qualify. With this solution you still have to replace the original BIOS chip with a new one. Besides the prize was split half. The X-box hackers already got $100,000 by making Linux run on X-box with custom BIOS chip.
To get that additional $100,000 prize no hardware modifications can be done to make Linux work on X-box.
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There's a commercial program that plays MPEG/DivX on a PS2. No modchip required.
Most consoles do not lose money off the hardware, Microsoft is the exception, not the norm.
Yes, that is true, however, this chip, amongst others, can disable itself and revert to the original BIOS if needed.
Well you install a switch on the side so you can switch between BIOS chips. So whenever you want to use xbox live just flick the switch and run on the original BIOS
Normal people worry me!
Not MP3.
Proprietary WMA.
And no way to get your existing MP3s into the box, or the ripped WMAs out of it. MS don't want you to do that, so you can't. No way to play video media other than DVD either.
Only if you get either a hacked native BIOS, so you can run unsigned native apps, or you run Linux through cromwell or a hacked native BIOS, can you actually do what you want with the box you paid for.
There are some amazing unsigned native apps out there, like XBMP, but they are made with warez-ed MS tools. All respect to them for the quality of the results, but it sits badly with me that they are made with MS libraries, spreading MS proprietary APIs, and prepping the programmers really only for continuing the dominance of MS OSes. I hope as Linux on the Xbox gets more mature they'll consider moving over.
Maybe people who buy that as a media player want to actually hear the media instead of the CPU/PSU/HDD fan.
A Shuttle SB51G XPC is quieter than an Xbox. It's also not much bigger and is infinitely more capable. Agreed, on power consumption and cost, it loses.
Yes
Frankly there is little point getting an XBox except as a toy, or unless you have a vested interested in breaking the encryption to sell games without a Microsoft tax.
I built just such a box for about $250, which is about what you'd pay for an XBox + modchip. Athlon 850, plays everything just fine. If you shop carefully for components you can build a very powerful box for not much money.
The source code for xbplayer is now available, and has been for quite some time. Make sure you read up before posting something like this; everything seems to have been worked out for the most part between both parties.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Really the 1/0 logic aint much difference to what's on a NForce Athlon board, only its a GTL+ bus NForce chipset rather than a EV6 bus NForce chipset
Yeah, but if you forget to turn that switch off for Xbox Live, bye bye online gaming for you. M$ automagically bans you for life if you login while using a modchip. This is the problem with having a central online system like M$ does. They have TOTAL control of who can and can't play online - this is why I like Sony's approach much better, it's a like playing most computer games online with your PC. It uses the "internet" rather than a closed network and central servers for absolutely everything.