Slashdot Mirror


GNU/Linux bootable CD on XBOX: dyne:bolic

jaromil writes "The dyne:bolic bootable CD distribution is almost getting to its final 1.0 release, includes a whole bunch of multimedia applications making it easy to edit and stream audio and video, encrypt mails, share p2p and of course play games, all with a fancy GNUStep desktop. download the 1.0 alpha 5 ISO (~350Mb) and try it on your PC or XBOX!" One more reason to mod an xbox.

49 of 261 comments (clear)

  1. best of both worlds? by sweeney37 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    would this work with the 007 Hack?

    Mike

  2. FIRST POST!!!! by AlexMax2742 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Thanks, but I would rather wait until the "Xbox Live 2.0" comes out.

    Just in case they figured out how to foil current mod chips this time. I still would prefer to use my Xbox for online gaming *gasp* than as a Linux box.

    --
    I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
    1. Re:FIRST POST!!!! by /ASCII · · Score: 3, Informative

      Most modern mod-chips come with the option of switching to the original BIOS instead. Microsoft can still check you HDD for strange-looking software, and out of spec HDDs, but the bios mod should be fine.

      --
      Try out fish, the friendly interactive shell.
  3. And just IMAGINE by zedmelon · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's quite invigorating browsing interactive pr0n with the Xbox controls.

    sweeeeeeeeeeet.

    --
    Mom says my .sig can beat up your .sig.
    1. Re:And just IMAGINE by calethix · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "It's quite invigorating browsing interactive pr0n with the Xbox controls"

      I saw a gamecube controller at gamestop last night that has a fan/ventilation holes in it to keep your hands cool. You might try finding one for your xbox to keep your hands cool/dry. ;)

  4. To all Linux supporters, This is our chance. by HanzoSan · · Score: 3, Interesting



    These new live CDs finally give us the chance to introduce Linux to the masses. Recently I emailed dozens of my friends, and I will attempt to introduce them to Linux in a way thats safe, with these new CDs you dont have to actually install Linux, It also gives us the ability to introduce Linux to the gamers. So the question here is how many of you people have actually used this to show people Linux? I wish we had a Redhat live-CD, or Mandrake because those are my favorite brand, but a Lindows promotion CD(Thats what I will start calling these CDs) should be given away in stores and to college students.

    How about a grass roots program? I plan to do something like that. I hope through these new live-CDs that it can act as a type of marketing where people who are interested in Linux can try it without actually installing it. The easy way to get them to try it is to give it to them for their Xbox game console, a Console with no OS such as the Xbox would actually be perfect for the gamer who wants to do more than just play games on their Xbox. I also wonder if something like this could be brought to work or run on computer labs in college campuses, I havent tried it so I dont know. But yes, I have ideas for marketing.

    People are going to read this and think i'm some kinda Linux zealot, but the truth is the best thing we can do for the computer industry right now is create competition, Linux is competition, competition fuels growth.

    So all who are with me, please post a reply/response about how you plan to actually use these live CDs for marketing purposes, perhaps it would be wise to put these live CDs in some videogame magazine if possible, or even get Linux to run on the PS2.

    --
    If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
    1. Re:To all Linux supporters, This is our chance. by the_consumer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Linux has been available on the PS2 for quite a while now.

      --
      "If you're thinking what I'm thinking, you're right." -
    2. Re:To all Linux supporters, This is our chance. by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Linux for Playstation requires the addition of a hard drive and whatnot, which can not then be used for gaming, and which is not (yet?) upgradable to a larger disk. It's an inanely crippled system. On top of that you don't get to treat VU0 and VU1 as different processors or anything, so you're stuck with a single 300MHz processor, which is way too slow, and 32MB of ram, which is way too little.

      By contrast the Xbox may not have a 128 bit processor, but it does have a 733MHz one, and it has 64MB of ram, which is still well on the lean side but more than twice as useful as the 32MB in the PS2. In the $130 price for a used console plus another $30 for a memory card with a serial interface, you can hack that mofo and have what ends up being a much more open system than the PS2. That might not be intentional, but it's still more useful.

      The only edge PS2 linux has over Xbox linux is the lack of a need for hacking, but it's still cheaper to buy a hacked Xbox than it is to buy a PS2 with the Linux kit.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:To all Linux supporters, This is our chance. by dnoyeb · · Score: 2, Funny

      Perhaps we can mail 1-2 CDs per month to each address in the continental US!

    4. Re:To all Linux supporters, This is our chance. by X86Daddy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here's a good way to have a bootable Linux CD at all times, ready to demo whenever the opportunity shows:

      Buy a Bootable Business Card from the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Shop! You get to spread the word of Linux while sending $5 towards a wonderful cause!

    5. Re:To all Linux supporters, This is our chance. by HanzoSan · · Score: 2, Insightful



      The goal is to build mindshare, you cannot get people to try Linux on their mission critical desktop PCs unless they trust you, truely trust you.

      You can however get a stranger to run a CD on their gaming console, people dont have to trust you for that. The goal is to get the average person to know Linux exists, once they know it exists then you can market Linux to these peoples PCs.

      Actually I'd do it in this order, consoles, college campuses(laptops), computer labs, and finally desktop PCs.

      People after they see others running it on their laptops in class will get jealous and be more likely to try it, people dont mind experimenting on a laptop, most laptop users are the only ones using the laptop, a desktop PC however is mission critical, their whole family might use it, they may not trust you enough to even investigate Linux.

      Like I said start small and build up to critical mass before you market it to Desktops.

      --
      If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
    6. Re:To all Linux supporters, This is our chance. by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "These new live CDs finally give us the chance to introduce Linux to the masses."

      *Cough*karmawhore*cough*

      Sorry, this is not going to get Linux out to the masses.

      1.) Playing around with the XBOX on a fuzzy TV is not going to impress people to the point of installing a new OS.

      2.) If they've got an XBOX, they're likely a gamer. They're not going to dump Windows for Linux. Bad audience to target.

      3.) More people have PCs than XBOXs, so why target a niche product anyway?

      " Recently I emailed dozens of my friends, and I will attempt to introduce them to Linux in a way thats safe, with these new CDs you dont have to actually install Linux."

      I have a better idea, use Knoppix. (Slashdot also recently had an article about Knoppix MAME which comes with MAME...) You burn an ISO, leave the Knoppix CD you just burned in your drive, reboot computer, wait for a minute and Linux comes up. No fuss. No installation. Completely useful.

      Here's the best part: Knoppix can access NTFS. So, the big bonus here is that if anybody ever fries their Windows system, they can just pop this disc in and get back to their files. Heck, if they really feel like tinkering with it, it's like having their workstation on a CD. Bitchin.

      "People are going to read this and think i'm some kinda Linux zealot...."

      Actually, I was thinking karma whore. ;)

      "... or even get Linux to run on the PS2."

      It's there, but it's not free.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  5. and in related news... by bytes256 · · Score: 5, Funny

    SCO sues Microsoft because the X-Box is "capable of illegally running SCO IP"

    --

    Slashdot, the site where everything's made up and the points don't matter
  6. Heres some ideas by HanzoSan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why cant we try to use Wine or something like it to trick the Xbox into running the Microsoft gaming live software from withinn Linux?

    Second, if its done right people might use Xbox Linux, if its useful, it depends on how its done. Overall though I'd use it to promote Linux, as a marketing technique.

    Linux needs marketing, so that when the time comes a year or two from now, when Longhorn is released, Linux can take the market or at least be competitive, people have to actually know what Linux is though, as of right now people either dont know what it is, or they believe a bunch of myths about it being a hackerOS.

    --
    If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
    1. Re:Heres some ideas by hobbesmaster · · Score: 4, Funny
      Why would you want to mod the XBox to run Linux so you can run Windows and play games the games you could without the MOD?


      You must be new here.
    2. Re:Heres some ideas by rsheridan6 · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you don't understand, you probably have a girlfriend.

      --
      Don't drop the soap, Tommy!
    3. Re:Heres some ideas by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 2, Funny

      So the best way to dispell myths about it being a "hackerOS" is to show how hackers have broken hardware protection schemes to get it working?

      ...sounds good to me!

  7. Direction wrong, please try again. by tomstdenis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It isn't that we have to introduce *gamers* to Linux. It's that we have to introduce *game developers* to linux. Gamers don't write games [well some may but most don't].

    If you build it, they will come, etc, etc.

    Same can be said for hardware manufacturers. Some working CMPCI drivers would kick ass too.

    Tom

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.
  8. xine on the Xbox? by gooofy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    would be interesting to see what xine could do on this platform. maybe any xbox could be turned into a full-featured dvd player (including menu support) that way?

    --
    time is a funny concept
  9. For everything else there's... by johnthorensen · · Score: 5, Funny

    MicroSoft XBox: $169.00
    Mod Chip: $30.00
    CD to burn the latest distro to: $0.20

    Using the above system to call MicroSoft Tech Support via VoIP to complain about how bad KDE looks on a 20" black-and-white TV: PRICELESS.

    -JT

    1. Re:For everything else there's... by zapp · · Score: 4, Funny

      Getting sued for violating their copyright protection scheme by modding the xbox: life savings.

      --
      no comment
  10. Let's get this out of the way. by Prince_Ali · · Score: 5, Funny

    Me: If you don't like Microsoft, why buy their game system.
    You: They lose money on all of their systems.
    Me: Even if they lose money that doesn't mean that they sell them for below variable cost. You are just helping recover fixed cost.
    You: I don't understand your fancy moon language!
    Me: Why not get a Lindows computer?
    You: The X-Box has better hardware!
    Me: It has like 48 megs of ram.
    You: It has a nice graphics card!
    Me: Fine, it has a nice graphics card.

    1. Re:Let's get this out of the way. by orange_6 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Me: Why not get a Lindows computer?
      Because I can't play Halo on Lindows.

  11. Sounds Good by trublaha · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Over the past few months, I've been working towards getting a server up and running on my university network to provide streaming videos of club activities and music from uni-bands.

    The hard part has been scrounging up bits and pieces to create a half-decent server for all this as the Clubs & Societies deperatment of our Student Union has been rather tight-fisted. A cheap x-box preloaded with this software would be perfectly within budget.

    Now to convince the less practical members of the committee to drop their insistance on Win32 platform. Convincing them we can achieve our target with an off-the-shelf, cheap-as console rather than an expensive box will take some work... :-/

  12. Mod Chip? by siskbc · · Score: 4, Informative
    I emailed dozens of my friends, and I will attempt to introduce them to Linux in a way thats safe

    Um...you DO realize they have to mod the box first, right? Your friends are all handy with a soldering iron, I take it?

    --

    -Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat

    1. Re:Mod Chip? by Iscariot_ · · Score: 3, Informative

      Soldering not required. Check out The Matrix.

  13. For your girl... by lpret · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, I remember reading an article about in Japan where chicks were using the playstation controller to, um...well, dual-shock themselves.

    --
    This is my digital signature. 10011011001
    1. Re:For your girl... by bjschrock · · Score: 5, Informative

      There is a game that comes with an extra "controller". There's an article about it here. (Google cache).

    2. Re:For your girl... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's how Sony achieved market penetration in Japan...

  14. Re:Another Live-CD by beef3k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I see it first and foremost as a very efficient way of introducing people to linux without first having to convinve them that they need to repartition their box and install a new boot loader ("huh? boot loader?"), let alone install linux. With Knoppix etc. you can demo linux to someone in 2 minutes instead of 2 hours.

    It could also be useful if you do contracting of any sort and would like to work on linux instead of you-know-what (you'd need a USB pen drive or the like for your data).

  15. wtf? Mpeg encoder and video-in recorder? by iainl · · Score: 5, Insightful

    OK, so turning my XBox into a Tivo with the aid of a modchip, a larger hard-drive and this bootcd would be great, but for one obvious thing. Where on earth is the video-in they plan to use this with?

    Similiarly, there is no audio-in for the sound recorders.

    And Blender is a nightmare of a gui in the first place, even when you've got a keyboard and mouse...

    At the end of the day, an Xbox version of KnoppixMAME would probably be more useful, I feel. Still, its an interesting experiment.

    --
    "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
    1. Re:wtf? Mpeg encoder and video-in recorder? by henele · · Score: 2, Informative

      The AV port on the back is labled 'Input/Output', I don't know if that just means sync signals come in or something useful to a MythTV style project...

      Any /.er out there got the schematics? Or are they also hidden by the DMCA?

    2. Re:wtf? Mpeg encoder and video-in recorder? by Sherloqq · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Apparently you can use it to power a PC, too, so given the right kernel support, you could prolly use a BT-based video acquisition board with this. I'll find out shortly, downloading ISO now :)

      --
      Have EVDO, will travel.
    3. Re:wtf? Mpeg encoder and video-in recorder? by Troed · · Score: 2, Informative

      No video-in there.

  16. Why the name dyne:bolic? by burgburgburg · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What is the genesis of the name? There is no mention in the FAQ (that I could see).

  17. go x-box! by ZipR · · Score: 4, Funny

    You're one step close to becoming a PC! Woot!

  18. Sounds like you need GNUBox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I am appalled at the excitment that the idea of running GNU/Linux on a closed and proprietary system such as the XBox has caused. We at the GNU Project have the answer, and have been working on connection with OpenCores to produce the GNUBox console for all your GNU/Linux and The GNU/HURD requirements.

    GNUBox version 0.14af2_1-1 is now available, and comprises of a blank sheet of mylar with a single -12v DC power line and a ground trace. We expect the hardware to be completed at around the same time as the Earths internal nuclear reactions cease and the planet cools and shrinks to a size of an Apple.

    Yours GNU'ly

    RMS

  19. Re:DVD playback? by rasteri · · Score: 2, Informative
    I'd really like to use my Xbox as a region free DVD player....two 'League of Gentlemen' DVDs that only get used on my TiPB :-\
    Just install Xbox Media Player, possibly EvolutionX too.
  20. What? by serial+frame · · Score: 2, Informative
    I'm afraid that distribution does not use GNUstep; Window Maker and GNUstep, though intertwined in certain ways, are completely different projects altogether.

    Window Maker a GNUstep desktop does not make, I'm afraid.

    --

    -
    And the Angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots! The cries of the carrots!"
  21. Re: work with 007 hack by dhm4 · · Score: 3, Informative

    sure it will. just set the write enable pin of the xbox-flash, run the savegame & flash the bios the way you like it.
    there is already a new savegame exploit for the M$-game MechAussault, that also updates the xbox-live runtime. perhaps the dashboard is exploitable too & linux gets _independent_ from a modchip or hardware modifications.

  22. own xbox distribution? by dhm4 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    you can already run different linux distributions on a xbox (debian, mandrake, redhat, suse, ...) with a few kernel hacks, _but_ why does nobody make an own linu-X-box? it should be based on debian . just add a few features from knoppix or XLLPS. make some individual skins for mozilla, gnome or kde (or even an special window maker), gaim, etc. that are optimized for TV-resolution & gamepad as input device, multimedia (divX, mp3, vcr features), emulators (gba, mame, snes, ps, n64, ... + VMware _g_) & if you have an easy disto (just put the cd in), that windows user can use without probs then a new hype is started. what do you think of that idea or is there already an _independend_ X distro?

  23. Re:I'll take you up on that bet by jpmkm · · Score: 2, Funny

    That card doesn't have component out. You lose.

  24. And why not? by timothy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There's nothing wrong (morally or legally) with experimenting with hardware you own.

    Note that this use (running a Linux distro) in particular has nothing to do with "stealing" as in running illegally copied games. I'm not going to debate whether playing illegally copied games should be called stealing, just pointing out that it's not part of running Linux on an Xbox :)

    The reason I bought an Xbox (and am shopping* for a mod-chip) is to use it as a music box for my car. That may sound silly to you (and it may *be* silly to you :)) but it's very similar in price to adding a low-end CD player to my existing car stereo. And I like my head unit (which has a line-in), so I don't want to get rid of it.

    A modded Xbox can also play Ogg Vorbis files, which is the format to which I've been ripping my CD collection for portable use. (Yes, many car decks now will play MP3s, but I don't have more than a handful of those.)

    timothy

    * Can anyone recommend an easy (no-solder), inexpensive, external-switch equipped modchip preloaded with the Cromwell BIOS? :) The external switch would be if I ever decide to buy, rent or borrow an actual XBox game ;)

    --
    jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
  25. Still the question: Why? by TheCabal · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Every time one of these "Linux on Xbox" stories pop up, I ask: Why?

    I've gotten a few vague answers, ranging from "it has a good graphics card, I can now do all that rendering I've been waiting to do!" to "Don't tell me how to use my hardware, you sancimonious pro-Microsoft clone!"

    I still ask: Why? Oh, yeah, there's that giddy little thrill of 'subverting' a Microsoft platform to run Linux, but you have to have actually purchased an Xbox to begin with, so you've already put money in Microsoft's coffers. With all the effort needed to get an Xbox to run Linux, there's tons of easier platforms so you fire up EMACS and check your email.
    Once you done it, what are you going to do with it? Compartively speaking, apart from the graphics controller, it's not that good of a computing platform.

    1. Re:Still the question: Why? by crashfrog · · Score: 2, Informative

      Every time one of these "Linux on Xbox" stories pop up, I ask: Why?

      Well, here's an idea: because I own one, and I'd like to fuck around with it, just for fun.

      Surprisingly, some people actually buy the Xbox because they like the games for it. I for one wouldn't spend the exact same money on a PS2 that doesn't come with a hard drive or space for more than two controllers. And I've been a Bungie games fan for almost forever and now the Xbox is the only way to play them.

      So, since I have the thing, why not see what else it can do? Maybe be a platform to view internet fansubbed anime on?

      --
      I never have frustrations, the reason is, to wit:
      If at first I don't succeed, I quit!
  26. Re:Not true by zog+karndon · · Score: 2, Informative

    hell even a new file system was involved so most people cant even access their old files.

    What are you smoking, and can I get some?

    XP runs on FAT32 as well as NTFS; it also has a filesystem conversion program to (transparently) convert FAT32 (or FAT16, I suppose, but I don't know anyone who still uses it).

    I've upgraded a half-dozen Win98 systems to XP, and every last one of them can access their old files.

  27. Re: work with 007 hack by robotbrain · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's on the front page of xbox-scene right now and here and you can download it here

  28. Answer about dyne by burgburgburg · · Score: 2, Informative
    From http://www.dyne.org/faq.php:

    One dyne is the force required to cause a mass of one gram to accelerate at a rate of one centimeter per second squared in the absence of other force-producing effects; A dyne is 100.000 times a newton.
    It's a concept defined by Heraclitus, a greek philosopher born at Ephesus around 540 B.C., which once also said that "much learning does not teach understanding".
    Panta rei.

  29. missing the point by Hatta · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The point is not that you would want to use linux instead of playing games, but that this makes the x-box an affordable and effective linux box for those not interested in playing games.

    From the Dyne:bolic User's Guide:

    I hope you enjoy using those beasts for something more useful than what they are made for: after all XBOX is about a CHEAP pentium celeron 733, 8Gigs of harddisk and nvidia chipset everywhere; dedicated to everybody who loves reusing hardware leftovers.

    I'm not a big gamer, but with this and Xbox Media Player an xbox is looking like a more attractive purchase. Especially considering M$ sells these things at a loss.
    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!