Xbox Modchip Featuring Onboard Operating System

An anonymous reader writes "A group of talented coders known as TeamXodus, have released an xbox modification chip with a difference, the 'Xenium' is a modchip which features a fully legal operating system that was coded by the team from scratch. The mod can be installed Solderlessly and will allow the end user to unlock the power of the xbox and run applications such as Linux on their Xbox. The onboard Operating system currently stands at version 2.0 and features a massive 1.35 million lines of code and was recently reviewed by HomeCinemaChoice whereby they declared the Xenium 'The creators of the easiest Xbox modification - the complete package.'"

Comments

Utility computing

[ddent]

So, people are always wanting to use these things as general purpose computing devices. Is the math still such that it is a good decision (as compared to purchasing standard PCs).

Re:Utility computing

[G27 Radio]

My X-box is hooked into my entertainment center, so it'd be handy to be able to use it to play music and video off my linux server. Being able to ssh into it (or control it otherwise) from my workstation or notebook is an additional bonus.

Other than that, there is the cool factor you mentioned.

Re:Utility computing

[zakezuke]

So, people are always wanting to use these things as general purpose computing devices. Is the math still such that it is a good decision (as compared to purchasing standard PCs).

You would get more bang for the buck with a true blue PC. This is true, can't argue this. The only xbox benifit is that it's small, and has good tv output.

A laptop is also small, often has TV output, but would likely cost you $300-$400 or so on e-bay for the same CPU class as xbox.

The x-box I believe is $150 new.

Someone else will have to find prices for things like the shoebox sized flex-atx style PCs, but for a new device the x-box is still reasonably priced.

Re:Utility computing

[abresif]

I just bought a refurb xbox from EB, with the intention of modding it. The primary reason I want to do this is to run xbmc (http://www.xboxmediacenter.de/). I really just want access to my media (photos, movies, music) from my living room. Earlier this year, I bought the Go Video D2730 Networked DVD Player for $120 from eCost. It works fine, but doesn't support every codec I want - and can't play media from disk (cd/dvd). I also purchased the Philips DVP 642 ($75) from Best Buy. The Phillips unit is not a networked unit, but it does play DIVX/XVID from disc. Nevertheless, after tinkering with these two units, I decided that I wanted something a little more extensible. The obvious solution is to grab an Xbox and mod it. With xbmc, I can do everything these other players can, plus more (games, emulaters, etc). The total cost will be under $200 - I'll throw in an old 40GB HD and access all the media through the network. The alternative is to build a dedicated machine for this purpose, which would cost much more. However a dedicated machine could support PVR/burining a la MythTV (http://www.mythtv.org/) or the like. I don't intend to pirate games, although that'd be one use for the system. I think you get a lot of bang for the buck even without the games.

Web Server

[with_him]

Good I have been looking for a cheap file server and since I don't have time to play my XBOX much anymore it can do the job.
Suppose I switch between XBOX gaming and file serving?

Switch

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm interested in modding up my Xbox, but curious as to whether any chip allows the mod chip to be turned off via something like dashboard(for the purposes of using Live!), rather than a physical switch.

This has been out for a WHILE (but it does rock)

[Gregoyle]

This chip isn't new, it's been out for a long time. I got mine about 6 months ago and it had been out for a few months then.

But it still does rock. You can do things right out of the box that normally take a lot of searching and downloading with other chips, e.g. format an enormous hard drive to FATX and copy over all the old partitions and information, all with one push of a button.

As a bonus it includes Cromwell in its own memory bank on the chip. This is the BIOS that's usually used to start linux distros. I use it for my MythTV XBOX. To tell the truth I've never even had to add an extra BIOS to it, because all I use the XBOX for is for MythTV and to VNC for Linux apps.

Oh, it's also really easy to turn off so you can use your XBOX for xbox-live, if that's your bag.

This is cool except...

[Anonymous Coward]

when recently, a couple of weeks ago, this female customer returns an X-Box to Wal-Mart (I work in electronics) and said she couldn't get it to play any games. She said this weird menu kept coming up and she couldn't get it to do anything useful.

So we fired it up there in the store and lo and behold this menu comes up for Xenium by TeamXodus. I knew it was a modded X-Box but didn't know why she would have one or why she would want to return it. Apparently she had purchased it from another Wal-Mart and someone returned the modded X-Box there.

She kept asking me why someone would do this and I tried to explain the coolness factor of being able to control your own X-Box. She wasn't getting it. So, she returned it and got a regular ol' X-Box that does what she wants.

However, I'm confused as to why someone would successfully mod an X-Box and then return it! Is this Xenium thing not all that its cracked up to be? Was it too powerful for someone to handle and they had to bring it back? I don't know, but it really makes me wonder...