Linux On Unmodded Xbox, Improved

An anonymous reader writes "It looks like pSyCo from XEmulation.com Has found a way to boot Xbox Linux Live on an unmodified Xbox with nothing but an Xbox and Linux PC (no memory card of any kind, etc). Also a guide to using this method to flash your Xbox's onboard TSOP with the bios of choice, making the Xbox modded without an actual mod-chip. $5 to rent 007 to mod my xbox sounds nice =) Check it out at: XEmulation.net Forum or XboxHacker.net BBS. *Wonder what the DMCA would think about this...*" This builds on the "007"-based method discussed earlier. Update: 04/15 01:11 GMT by T : XEmulation.com, not .net. Sorry.

Comments

no mods?

[alwsn]

What you'll need:

"Soldering Iron + Solder (and torx screw drivers)

Now you must open up your Xbox *which I don't think I need to explain how to do*, take out the motherboard, and solder the 2x2 jumpers. Now put everything back together, but leave the case top off, and keep the Xbox near your pc!

While this method might not require you to use a mod chip, it definately requires you to mod the xbox in that you have to take it apart, and solder stuff. The only think that will make me run linux on my xbox is if I can install a working system withou touching a screw driver.

Re:no mods?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, you misunderstand.

You can run Linux without flashing the TSOP.

You flash the TSOP so you can put on the hacked BIOS to play pirated (excuse me, "legitimate backups").

The BIOS is write protected, and can be made flashable by bridging a couple of solder points. This wont be overcome with any sort of sofware trick or backdoor. The BIOS just aint writable.

Of course, all you budding warez kiddies (excuse me again, Linux enthusiasts) need know that if you leave it bridged, your bios can be flashed at any time, like say from some joker who puts bios-destroying code in a file called "Halo 2.ISO" and uploads it to your favorite gene6 ftp.

If all you want to do is run linux, all you need is a copy of 007, and do the trick every time. Or, you can flash the linux bios onto the TSOP.

A smart person would realize that constant updates to the TSOP for different linux bootloaders is just asking for trouble. One bad flash and your xbox is a brick. You're much better off getting a mod chip, which required no soldering, or very dead-simple soldering to the LPC points (preferred, the no-solder ones jiggle loose).

Then you can switch it off.

Anyways. Dont think the majority of the chatter on these forums is really about running linux. It's about using linux as a "legal" front to getting a hacked bios on the box that allows warezed to be played. There are "fair use" backups, sure. You can use linux, sure. But 99.999999% of the posts on the forums are of the nature of "how do u copy renterd gamez?"

Oh yeah, buy a copy of 007 NOW if you want to do this, as an updated version of the game will no doubt be silently released (if it hasnt been already).

Re:no mods?

[MoonBuggy]

Anyways. Dont think the majority of the chatter on these forums is really about running linux. It's about using linux as a "legal" front to getting a hacked bios on the box that allows warezed to be played. There are "fair use" backups, sure. You can use linux, sure. But 99.999999% of the posts on the forums are of the nature of "how do u copy renterd gamez?"

You're right, I'm sure, for the sites that this was originally posted on, but I would think that most /. users actually do want to run linux on their Xboxes. It may be a front, but it's a front that benefits alot of us around here (spare computer, multi-use DVD player, file storage etc.) and it'd be unfortunate if people thought that ALL modders simply wanted to playe warez.

sure..

[Anonymous Coward]

[l337 kid returning xbox]

kid: g1bb0r m3 my m0n3y b4ck, f4gg0rz. My k-r4d Xb0x0r 15 fux0r3d.

clerk: Ok.. let's see.. Hmm.. the screw heads are worn, indicating you've opened this XBox up. Oh, I see solder splattered on the board.. wait a sec, this isn't even an XBox board, it's from an old Betamax!

"Wonder what the DMCA would think about this..."?

[RLiegh]

Whatever Microsoft TELLS THEM to think about this.
(I may get an -1 redundant since that is the whole reason for the DMCA. Oh well. )

Still need 007.....

[Another AC]

with nothing but an Xbox and Linux PC

Um, no!

It's true you don't need a memory card, but you still need 007 Agent Under Fire to do this.

I think it's less work and easier to do it with a memory card though. This method requires hooking the xbox drive up to your pc and a lot of recompiling kernel stuff.. the other way just requires you putting some files on a memory card (you can do it with a previously modded xbox or a couple of other ways) and that's it. Once you've got that memory card you can reuse it on each xbox you want to mod too. It takes about 90 seconds to get an unmodded-xbox to run linux with the memory card:

• Turn on xbox with no cd in drive, but with memory card in controller.
• Use the MS dashboard to copy the 007 save game to the harddrive.
• Put in 007 Agent Under Fire and reboot.
• Wait for lots of annoying intro stuff.
• Choose "Load Mission", pick the game off the hard drive.
• Linux boots!

Another problem is

[chadamir]

that you still can't use the xbox to play unsigned code without modifying it. So yeah you can boot linux, but I can't just bring some software I wrote over to my friend's house and pop it in and show him. He needs to have it modded which is still a big problem.

Shows Palladium is not going to work

[captaineo]

This wonderful example shows how even hardware-enforced media protection schemes aren't going to work, as long as there are any vulnerabilities in the "trusted" software.

e.g. say you have a DVD player program that is "trusted" and prevents you from taking a screenshot or recording anything from a DVD. If you can find a buffer overflow or any other kind of exploit in the program, you can just have it execute your own code (rip the whole DVD) at its super-trusted privilege level.

Given that MS has a hard time keeping its HTTP server secure, I don't think buffer overflows will be too hard to find in typical razzle-dazzle media player programs :)

*Wonder what the DMCA would think about this...*

[csteinle]

Not very much, I would imagine. Given that's it a law. It's not even an object, let alone an animate one capable of thought.

Re:I still hope

[Ikeya]

At a bare minimum, he earns my respect as a hacker. Holes like this can often lead to great developments. Look at the TI calculators. Holes were found in the ROMS in order to get to the Z80 assembly layer and produce some of the greatest games (and useful applications) that have been published on calculators.
This was so much a success that TI eventually starting allowing access to the Assembly layer natively (ala the TI86 and TI89/92+)
Besides, it's so much fun hearing about all of these cool holes and backdoors. Like the TI82 was cracked through the Matrix variable named "Q" (which doesn't really exist).
Anyway, kudos to all involved!
ikeya

Re:What is the point?

[MoonBuggy]

But what, exactly, does this do for me, besides letting me put a finger in M$'s eye?

You're a slashdot reader, shouldn't annoying Billy boy be enough for you? ;-)

I can tell u what�s the point!

[dark-br]

"Why Xbox Linux?" Well I have a legitimate reason for wanting Linux on an unmodded Xbox.

My Xbox is going back to MS as they have attempted to fix a problem several times and have so far been unsuccessful. This time, they're considering swapping systems for a new one, which I'm fine with except for one thing: Loss of saved games.

They will not just swap drives as it would save them at least 5 minutes of work, so I will lose all of my info on the HD.

With Linux running on my unmodded Xbox, I could possibly FTP the data elsewhere and restore it on the new system. This makes so much sense to me that I wonder why there is no way of doing it by default.

Microsoft's idea is to purchase their Memory Units and backup this way. Problem is, since each Xbox comes with a hard drive, no developer tries to make the smallest possible size save file. I would need several MUs to backup my data. Plus, some files cannot even be copied to a MU which means they cannot be backed up at all.

Why I'm doing this

[BigDish]

The most common question here seems to be why? Well, for my, XBMP is the answer. Few months ago, I installed a mod chip in a friend's Xbox. One of the first things he did was get XBMP running. Wow, all I can say is XBMP is the killer application for the Xbox. Just to run XBMP, I picked up a used Xbox and DVD remote just before the initial exploit was discovered, and I grabbed 007 off ebay for like $10. Though when trying to bridge the 2 resistor pads, I knocked another resistor off the board, so I need to obtain a replacement resistor (soldering iron I was using was WAY too big) to finish this project Really though, if you haven't seen XBMP, look at it. It is a killer app-ESPECIALLY for college students. For $150 or so I have a box that will play damn near any media file I through at it, off CD, DVD, or SMB share, and is designed to be hooked to the TV, with an interface designed for it too. To me, the Xbox with XBMP is the media PC Microsoft has been trying to create.

Re:Because

[stratjakt]

a powerful processor

A mobile celeron 733 powerful? A 1 gig tualitin celeron would be 40 bucks, with another 30 or so for a mobo.

enough memory

What's 64 megs of SDRAM worth? 10 bucks? I bet most of us have a DIMM collecting dust we could use. I know I have a dozen of 'em.

dvd drive

A crappy dvd drive, on which recordable media support is somewhere between terrible and none, depending on your luck.

high-end graphics card

To be fair, it's a GeForce 3 with another pixel shader. And with no real driver support past a plain-jane framebuffer. And I sincerly doubt nVidia is going to pony up some drivers for the xGPU any time soon.

and more

Yes, an 8, 10 or maybe 20 gig HDD depending once again on luck. A terrible (from a general use PC standpoint) bus configuration. No way to do key/mouse input without sacrificing a $40 control pad.

Seriously.

Cheap case + PSU = 40 bucks

mobo, 733mhz celeron, ram = 100 bucks

Crappy DVD drive = well, you cant buy one as crippled as the xboxes. But lets say 25 bucks for a used 8x.

Cheapest, smallest HDD you can get = 30 bucks.

Sound card and video = spend as much as you want. You can get xbox-linux functionality on anything with a framebuffer. But hey, spend the 10 bucks on a Riva TNT2 and you're already smoking X-linux. But I'll say 50 bucks for a SB PCI card and a cheapo video card with TV-out.

100+40+30+25+50 = 245 bucks for a similarly configured home-built machine.

Xbox would be the price of the box (200) + a memory card (40) + a copy of 007 (20?).

Impossible is done every day.

[Groo Wanderer]

There was an old quote on l0pht a while back, before they went corporate and scrubbed the site with the wire brush of PC-ness, that went something like:

"That problem is strictly theoretical" -Microsoft
"L0pht, making the theoretical possible since...."

What you are decrying is innovation, not MS style word corruption, but the real thing. My parents bought a building in the 70's. It was ~75,000 sq feet, 30 foot ceilings, and a HUGE air conditioner, but almost no heater. It was built in the 1950s to house a computer. I shudder to think what it cost, much less cost to run. Today, my $27 timex wristwatch has over 10x the computing power of that HUGE computer, runs for about 3 years on a button battery, and never breaks, can work under water to 100m, survive heat, cold shock, and me beating it.

Looking down the list of 'rediculous' things you mention, that is far and away 'more rediculous' than any of the things you mention.

For another example, my roommate has a bullet proof vest. Another friend makes plate mail armor. The plate costs ~$2500 and takes months to build. A .45 will put a hole in one side, a bigger hole in the soft squishy thing in the middle, and a bigger hole in the back. The bulletproof vest will stop it, and probably only leave you with a big briuse and possibly a cracked rib or 3. The vest cost less than 1/10th of the armor, weighs about 1/100th of the weight, and is more readily available.

Rediculous!

So, what is your problem with innovation. The very best things that you use came from the same spirit that the people doing XBox hacks have. I mean, why bother with things like transistors, antibiotics, lasers, nuclear power, and CIA mind control lasers. Oops, you aren't supposed to know about that one.

Rediculous!

Before you decry cool stuff that others do, I suggest you try the following in order.

1) Take a deep breath.
2) Try ignoring things that bother you.
When that fails
3) Don't bitch at people doing things you don't like.
4) Move out of your mother's basement
5) Do something usefull yourself.

Rediculous!, I know.

Seriously, the world needs more cool things, be they useful or frivolous. Strange things come from seemingly random events, and noone tends to see the next killer app ahead of time. Don't be a roadblock.

-Charlie