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Xbox Modchip Featuring Onboard Operating System

Posted by timothy on from the that-and-a-pawnshop-visit dept.

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.'"

41 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Utility computing by ddent · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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).

    --
    SSL Certificate
    1. Re:Utility computing by SeaDour · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think people want to mod their XBOXes less for the value factor and more for the cool factor.

    2. Re:Utility computing by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the ease and versatility of it is what makes it a good choice now. of course, this being the real world, people also play copied games.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    3. Re:Utility computing by G27+Radio · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    4. Re:Utility computing by zakezuke · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

      --
      There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
    5. Re:Utility computing by NMerriam · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      I would argue it pretty hard. The main advantage to the Xbox is that it's a ubiquitous, standard hardware platform that has a standard software layout.

      If you want to add a remote control to a homebrew PC, you have a dozen different choices with 3 or 4 different technologies, some of which are supported directly by your software and some of which require extensive configuration. Some will never work at all, though you have no way of knowing this until you've spent $$ and hours of your time.

      If you want to add a remote control to an Xbox, you go to Target, pay $30, and buy the remote. Plug in the IR reciever and all of the modded software is usable by remote -- you can use it to navigate through any third-party launcher, file manager or media player. No configuration, no setup, no troubleshooting.

      When the guys work on the Xbox player software, they know exactly what hardware its going to run on. It's going to be a certain processor with a certain amount of RAM, etc. So they can tune the heck out of it, and if it runs choppy they know they need to work on the code, not just tell people to buy more RAM.

      --
      Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
    6. Re:Utility computing by abresif · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

    7. Re:Utility computing by OneDeeTenTee · · Score: 3, Funny

      Now all we need to do is figure out how to get our money back for the operating system we're not using.

      --
      Stop the world; I need to get off.
    8. Re:Utility computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Would it be feasibly possible to use an Xbox + Modchip as a TiVo?

      Yes.

  2. Slashdotted already! by tajmorton · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hope they're not running the website off this! If so, that's a bad sign ;).

    --
    Tell the truth and you won't have so much to remember.
    1. Re:Slashdotted already! by Jicksta · · Score: 3, Informative

      Shallax, creator and leader of the xbox Gentoox linux project runs his website on a legally hacked xbox.

      This is an option more people should really consider when shopping for a capable machine to run a dedicated server. The total cost of a first-rate modchip (like the Xenium or, better yet, the brand new Xecuter3) and an xbox bought on ebay could easily be under $200.

      The xbox comes with an 8GB HDD, so, unless you'll host media, this is perfect. Why pay more for a bigger HDD if it'll never be used? The front xbox controller ports are standard USB 1.1 with different plugs, so it's very easy to fashion your own xbox linux keyboard and mouse.

      As a very proud owner of an xbox, I'd recommend one to anyone.

  3. A new way to fight piracy by Lord+Graga · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdot the webpage with the links to the shops so that no-one can order anything!

  4. Web Server by with_him · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

  5. Google Cache by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google Cache

  6. Switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Switch by CatDogLordOfTheRoot · · Score: 5, Informative

      This table should be helpful in answering that question...

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      ---------
      In the end we are ALL disconnected....
  7. applications such as Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "... unlock the power of the xbox and run applications such as Linux ..."

    I better get me an OS, I'm running an application without one!

  8. All links dead.. by kagaku · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All links in the story are dead. Any chance the Slashdot editors could put a little notice on the submit page saying something to the effect of "If you think this page will be slashdotted, check this box to make all links point to the Coral Cache"", then it would append ".nyud.net:8090" to all links in the story, or a [Cache] link: "Check out blah blah's site [cache] for more info".

    This would take care of the 'Slashdot can't cache stories because it would rob people of ad profits' thing, because it'll give the submitted the option to cache the pages, and it would still provide an uncached link.

    --
    everyday is another shooter.
  9. 1.35 million lines of code? by 21st+Century+Peon · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's two-thirds of the Jurassic Park system! "This is an Xbox system! I know this!"

    --
    "Knowledge, sir, should be free to all!"
    ~Harcourt Fenton Mudd
  10. Re:But... by kryptkpr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Your comparison is terrible..an athlon64 CPU alone would cost more then a whole xbox system.

    Besides..which video cards have component outputs? Which sound cards have digital audio outputs? Support AC3, Dolby, DTS? Where do I get a nice interface that you can navigate with controller, keyboard, or remote? This is all pretty much standard once you drop your xbox off to someone who knows what they're doing for a couple hours.. after that, it's plug in and go.

    And oh.. on more thing.. it plays some killer games. (*drool*Fable*drool*)

    --
    DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
  11. What a minute? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 4, Informative

    So Linux is not an os but an application that runs on the operating system?

    Anyway, I would love to install WindowsXP Media Center in addition to Linux on mine. If I could also run Xbox games it would be a pure orgasm.

    Does anyone know if you can add additional hard drives or bigger ones?

    If I were Billly gates I would port Windows Media center to the Xbox2 and turn it into a PVR/Video game system. PS/2 and Nintendo would have their asses majorily kicked in!

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
    1. Re:What a minute? by Stevyn · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not entirely true. The hard drives that ship with xbox are locked when they are turned off. When you turn on an xbox and you see the green blob on the screen, that is when the hard drive is unlocked.

      That is why you can't just pop these hard drives into a computer and modify the contents of them. There is a trick where you turn on the xbox, it unlocks the hard drive, and then you unplug it while the xbox is still on and then plug it into a computer and you can gain access to it. It's very risky though and not something I'd recommend.

      However, you're right that you can replace the xbox hard drive with a larger one and the mod chip won't have any problems seeing it.

    2. Re:What a minute? by DanglingDongle · · Score: 4, Informative
      There really is no reason to use WindowsXP Media Center on it (which you can't) unless you need to play DRM'd music/movies which the much better Xbox Media Center can't play. http://xboxmediacenter.de/

      This player will play almost any format you can throw at it, and in addition, will play/record shoutcast streams, can connect to SMB/Samba servers, and various other networked devices for streamed media. Hell, it even gives you a weather forecast at the click of a button, and the ability to check the IMDB database about a movie before you view it. Also you can use sync correction for any files that are slightly out of sync. All of these things are just off the top of my head, but there are many more such as HDTV support, etc. And all you need to do is add a on/off switch to the modchip and you can play any xbox games, including on Xbox Live.

      To answer your question about larger harddrives, the xbox can handle any size hard drive you want to throw at it. It was once limited to 137GB but this has since been corrected in the newer bioses.

      Other good resources for information: http://xbox-scene.com/ http://www.xbox-linux.org/

      Now please clean up your mess ;)

      DD

  12. Solderless is not the way to go by kaosrain · · Score: 5, Informative

    You do not want to use a solderless modchip, they suffer from the same problem they did back in the Playstation days: They WILL eventually get bumped out of where they need to be. Then you need to shut everything down, open up your Xbox, realign all of the points, and close it again. It is well worth the price to get an installer to install a soldered modchip. You can find installers at the forums on xbox-scene.com

    1. Re:Solderless is not the way to go by dfn_deux · · Score: 3, Informative

      I also have a "modded" xbox, however I simply jumpered the write protect on the onboard bios and reflashed it by utilizing a buffer overflow exploit in an older game.... The xbox is definately the cheapest multi-purpose piece of equipment in my entertainment center, also it's ability to stream video/audio over my lan using several different protocols including samba means that it easily extends both my GF and my music and video collection to the living room from our office. The MAJOR flaw with the XBOX IMHO though is that the fans on it are god awful loud, making it a far cry from an ideal solution for HiFi applications. I often find myself watching movies at ridiculously loud volumes on 5.1 system because the fan tends to drown out the dialogue from the fron 3 channels..... But, I must say, if that is it's only major flaw then it is definatly the best 149.00 addition to a home entertainment center that I can think of...

      --
      -*The above statement is printed entirely on recycled electrons*-
  13. I actually have one of these..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I got it hot off the presses... and it even has a cool little LED light on it that changes colors with the different BIOS's that you can choose.

    It has an awesome FTP program out of the box... and plans to run BIO's straight from the harddrive instead of from the TSOP.

    The only downside to the whole thing is that it seems the website for xodus is not currently up anymore, so lord knows if the improvements will actually come through... and the little solderless adaptor has been a horrible pain as it doesn't really sit well on the board, and so I had to keep opening it up over and over until I got a bigger screw to hold the thing down. Other than that it's been a total boat.

    My xbox now just has become my own personal media center... and houses a 40 GB harddrive, all my mp3 albums, runs Slayer's Evox install, and comes with loads of great apps for doing just about everything a XBOX could do; but microsoft was too whipped by the industry to include.

    Best part? Playing DVD's without a remote... something the xbox should have been able to do in the beggining.

    I still get a kick out the the glow my xbox emits letting me know that it's running my favorite *legal* bios.

  14. Re:Solderless is *now* the way to go by DitchTheUserGuide · · Score: 5, Informative

    The new Xenium adapter that allows you to connect the chip to the board is a much better design than the PS or even older Xbox ones. It can take a little more punishment and still remain connected. This is the real deal for those ham-fisted soldering iron amateurs who want to run unsigned code on the xbox.

    --
    After 3 beers and 3 espressos, there's a 20-minute period where you can climb anything.
  15. Legal issues? by BillyBlaze · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It will be very interesting to see if Microsoft tries to shut this down. On the one hand, it damn well ought to be legal - there's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be, not even some form of copyright infringement on the firmware. But on the other hand, Microsoft is selling XBoxes very cheaply to push games, so they don't want people using them as general purpose machines. I fear this will prove my pessimistic theory that only money matters in court, but i hope not.

  16. Xeniums aren't the greatest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have modified a few XBoxes in my time, and the Xeniums are very expensive compared to other chips, and I must say, the coding standards of these guys is rather low.

    In particular, they have done something weird with the hard drive partitioning/copying utils, and hard drives made using the Xenium tools actually *prevent* the XBox being used to play original games.

    The way to remedy this situation is to format the hard drive using EvoX, and build the file system from scratch again.

    GG guys, release a modchip with tools that prevent the original legal purpose...

    I would suggest going for a far cheaper modchip, and not having to put up with the strange behaviour the Xenium brings about.

    1. Re:Xeniums aren't the greatest by DarkElf109 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, with the release of XOS 2.0.0, this has been fixed. On top of that, it includes a repair utility to undo the problem on HDD's that had been previously formatted with OS 2.0 Beta 1

      --
      "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
      -Arthur C. Clarke
  17. I dunno about that... by Rooked_One · · Score: 4, Funny
    Some people might want to mod their xbox's for the highly illegal factor. Say, for instance, a person wanted to try out the game Fable - which was very hyped up, and excited a lot of people. And then say, none of their friends had the game so as the person could try it out first hand. But, what if the person had a mod'ed xbox and downloaded a "trial" version from the internet, played the game for a couple hours and decided that the lack-luster storylines, hack and slash bordom, and horendous loading times - even when loaded from the hard drive - as a "trial version" would be loaded, were just too intolerable for said person to actually justify paying 50 dollars for?

    Oh wait a second... I was saying why "some people" mod their xbox. For... uh... someone I know, its much more of a value factor than a cool factor, especially.. uh... when the person I know doesn't know anyone else with xbox's.

    AND SO WHAT IF I'VE GIVEN MY XBOX A CUSTOM PAINT JOB??!?!?! ITS ONE OF A KIND DANGIT AND ITS COOL!!!!!! ;)

    1. Re:I dunno about that... by erasmus_ · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Maybe this person should have legally rented a copy of the game from Blockbuster for $4 or GameFly, or actually read reviews from trusted sources that told the person whether or not the game is worth buying? I'm pretty sick of justifying piracy with the "I needed to try it" excuse. As far as I can tell, no one who actually likes a pirated game on their modded Xbox runs out and buys it. It becomes more of a "I'll get around to buying it eventually" thing, which of course never happens.

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  18. this isn't new by ginotech · · Score: 4, Informative

    modchips have been out for a while. team xodus hasn't done anything new. in fact, when the Xecuter 3 is release this week their chip will be the best, not Xodus'. http://www.teamxecuter.com.nyud.net:8090/ check them out.

  19. Here's a mirror by niteice · · Score: 5, Funny

    Games: Xbox Modchip Featuring Onboard Operating System

    Posted by timothy on Sunday September 26, @04:30PM
    from the that-and-a-pawnshop-visit dept.
    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.'"

    ( Read More... | 52 of 53 comments | games.slashdot.org )

    --
    ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
  20. This has been out for a WHILE (but it does rock) by Gregoyle · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --

    "He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil."

  21. TIAJ by pjt33 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Actually the space bar on the lead developer's keyboard is broken, so he had to use newlines to separate tokens.

  22. Dubious, Am I by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 5, Insightful
    a fully legal operating system that was coded by the team from scratch..features a massive 1.35 million lines of code

    Dubious, am I, of such an achievement. I speak from the experience of writing code myself for many years. That is just a whole lot of code simply for the purpose of selling a mod chip to a soon-to-be obsolete product. Any coding team this good could be making a lot of money working for any major software vendor.

    I would accept that they modified a block of existing, open source code, and be impressed by that achievement alone. But that's not what the summary says.

    As for what the article says, well, I'll have to read that directly after the /. tsunami passes.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  23. This is cool except... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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...

  24. Hardware? We don't need no stinkin' hardware. by Ashinberry · · Score: 3, Informative
    In the midst of all this discussion, I must mention that a modchip isn't needed to run unsigned code. A few enterprising coders have exploited various buffer overflows and gaps in the trusted computing nature of the xbox to allow this. Called the "Ultimate Dashboard Exploit" (UDE) and some related projects (UDE2, PBL, nkpatcher), it is possible to buy an xbox, take it home, insert a memory card with a save from a friend who's already done the procedure (there are several alternatives if you don't have friends), load up a certain game, and voila, open xbox.

    The only hardware changes I've made to my xbox are a larger hard drive and an ATA/133 cable, but using the UDE it boots to linux on power-on for a nice, low-cost set top entertainment center.

    For more pertinent information, see:
    http://xbox-linux.org/
    http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=2 43341
    http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=2 43893
    http://forums.xbox-scene.com/

    --
    I have no .sig
  25. Overhyped... again by flat235 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sorry, this is overhyped crap.. a.) Mod chips have been around for a long time. They've been solderless for a long time. b.) We've been able to run Linux on our xboxes for a long, long time. c.) The "Onboard OS" is an *application* stored on the chip's flash, which allows users to flash different bios images. It is an OS in that is does not require the stock xbox kernel. No more. This is absolutely nothing new. Recent Xecuter bios images have supported packing .xbe files into the bios (simple ftpd was a good example). Looks like your admins have been duped by an "anonymous" poster from the company who make this. As for those of you who talk about wanting to use the MS media center thing and stream from Linux - check out XBMC (sourceforge) - it is one of the best pieces of "homebrew" software ever created. TD

  26. Just to clear some things up.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Just to clear up a few misconceptions and false statements that people have made here....

    1.35 million lines of code for an operating system, including kernel, drivers, libraries, applications, etc etc etc... is not at all unbelievable. And, like they said, that includes library code. Pull in SDL, there's quite a chunk of code for 5 minutes work. Pull in some other libraries, and there's more big chunks of code, and so on. Considering they must have drivers for all of the hardware, as well as lots of various libraries for their networking, UI, httpd, etc... i'm suprised the number isn't higher. I'd be interested to see a count of the lines of sourcecode that go into a small linux distribution, including everything from kernel to user space apps, just for comparison.

    Also... yes, linux is an OS, of course... Their wording was a bit poor. However, to run Linux on the xbox, the user *must* run an application... the loader, whether that be cromwell, xromwell, or xbeboot.

    The claim that XOS2 is based on OsKit is rather ill founded, and goes back to some discussions about a year ago. I happen to know one of the Team Xodus developers, and he tells me that although Oskit was considered for the project, it was quickly decided against.

    These "rival modchip makers" need to find some better reverse engineers, who stop making assumptions based on political and social forces.

    Also, the source for all of the components which were based on cromwell (the old "os") are available for download from their site.

    It has also been stated here that this is "nothing new"... that smartxx and x3 and x-chip all have OSes too. Well, smartxx's "os" is based on cromwell, a GPL platform, and they have not released any source, or made any efforts whatsoever to comply with GPL, and have even publicly said that they would not do so. X3 and X-chip's "OS"es are both based on illegally modified and redistributed microsoft kernels. Really, the big acheivement here is the first and only LEGAL os, written from scratch, for the specific purpose of xbox modding. Yes, IMHO that is quite an acheivement, and worth of /.

    Finally...
    "Besides, if these guys are that good they should be coding a real operating system and throw it in the mix with Linux and Windows. "

    Who ever said they havn't? Most of these programmers work on embedded platforms besides the xbox, as well.