Slashdot Mirror
Mac OS X Running On Xbox
PasteEater writes "The good people over at XBox Scene have the scoop. Mac OS X has been successfully installed on a modified Xbox. What does this mean? Well, it's no Xbox Media Center, but it does prove that nerds are at the forefront once again!"
I'll wait till Xbox2.. it's supposed to sport a PPC processor
Clearly Linux, as OS X was only able to be installed on the Xbox by running PearPC on a Linux installation. :)
"You're older than you've ever been, and now you're even older."
It's just PearPC PowerPC Architecture Emulator installed on Xbox and it's painfully-as-hell slow atm, and especially on Xbox. Nothing to see, move on.
Apple had its own gaming system once, called Pippin.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
(Posting AC to not kharma whore)
.3.1.tar.gz. As of this writing, 0.3.1 is the most recent version. ./configure -enable-ui=x11 && --enable-cpu=generic. Even though the Xbox is an x86 processor, compiling with -enable-cpu=jitc_x86 will likely result in a failed compile. To explain, as of this writing, Xebian includes gcc 3.2 and gcc 2.95.4. PearPC will exhibit odd errors when compiled with any gcc between 2.95 and 3.3, so gcc 2.95.4 must be used. Unfortunately, gcc 2.95.4 does not work with the inline assembly used in PearPC when the jitx_x86 option is specified. /usr/local/bin on your computer should now contain a file called ppc. This file is the compiled binary.
PearPC and Mac OS X Installation
Downloading, configuring, compiling and installing PearPC
* You have software modded your Xbox and put Xebian Linux on it. You have purchased a copy of Mac OS X and made an image of it.
* Download the source code for PearPC at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/pearpc/pearpc-0
* Use tar to decompress the file with tar -xzvf pearpc-0.3.1.tar.gz. A directory called pearpc-0.3.1 will be created.
* Go into this directory configure PearPC by running the configuration script as
* Type make && make install. If all goes well then
If you are unable to get a successful compilation of PearPC or do not understand the above instructions, you may download a precompiled version for the Xboxhere.
Editing the PearPC configuration file and formatting the hard drive image
1. Download the following: a blank hard drive image filehere, a Darwin image file at http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/image s/darwin-701.iso.gz, a PearPC configuration filehere, and a PearPC video driverhere.
2. Decompress the image file using gunzip macosx_2gb.gz. Note that this file expands to approximately 2 gigabytes. Additionally, use gunzip to decompress the pearpc video driver and configuration file. Decompress the Darwin image with the command tar -xzvf darwin-701.tar.gz.
3. Make a directory called macosx. Move the decompressed hard drive image, Darwin image, video.x video driver and macosx.pearpc configuration file into it. Then, go into the macosx directory, run the command pwd and write down the full path to it.
4. Open the macosx.pearpc configuration file with the plain text editor of your choice. Xebian by default comes with both vi and nano. If you have never used vi before, you definitely want to use nano.
5. I will refer to the path that was written down in step 3 as PATH. Make the following changes to the macosx.pearpc configuration file:
* a. Change ppc_start_resolution = "800x600x15" to "640x480x15".
* b. Change redraw_interval_msec = 40 to 200.
* c. Remove the # in front of #memory_size=0x8000000.
* d. Change pci_ide0_master_image = "test/imgs/linux.img" to "PATH/macosx_2gb.img".
* e. Change pci_ide0_slave_image = "/dev/cdrom" to "PATH/darwin-701.iso"
* Save your changes and exit.
6. Start PearPC by typing ppc macosx.pearpc. You should see the following screen:
7. Soon after this screen disappears messages will begin appearing in the PearPC window and you should eventually see the following:
8. Mirror what is typed in this screenshot. Then, type: q, q, and finally reboot. PearPC should exit.
9. Start PearPC again. Eventually you should see the following screen:
As in step 7, mirror what is typed in this window. In addition, when you see "Uncompressing Apple16X50Serial," shut down PearPC.
Your hard drive image is now properly formatted, and you are ready to install Mac OS X.
Installing Mac OS X
1. Once again, open the macosx.pearpc configuration file. Change pci_ide0_slave_image = "PATH/darwin-701.iso" to the location of your Mac OS X image. Save the changes and exit out of the text editor.
2. Start PearPC in the us
Development xboxes have 128 to hold the debug tools, and (most) retail models have the empty solder pads to very carefully add another 64 megs of RAM. Games won't benefit, or even know about the extra RAM. But linux and other homebrew apps (emulators) will.
At least one company is selling xboxes with modded CPUs, that you can adjust from 1400MHZ to 700MHZ by flipping a switch.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
How's this for getting your info straight:
They're emulating PPC hardware, they're not emulating OSX.
The Statue of Liberty is America's lawn jockey.
£200-£300 UKP will get you a crap G3 from a second hand shop, and will be much faster.
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
I also thought TechTV had made it pretty clear that pearPC was almost unuseable on a machine below 2.5 GHz.
May have been true once, but PearPC has made significant enhancments. I use it for testing websites under Mac IE quite successfully (and more or less usably) on my lowly 1.2 Ghz Duron machine.
NZ Electronics Enthusiasts: Check out my Trade Me Listings
http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/
Actually it's not.
Xbox (as used in this article) with a modded 128MB RAM and larger/faster hard drive + $300 retail (+ mod time)
Xbox = $149
HD = $100
Memory and mod kit = $50
Mac OSX 10.2 (as used in article) = $50
Keyboard = $20
Mouse = $10
Other materials such as soldering iron, wiring, CDs to burn Linux and Pear PC onto = $50
17" Screen or 19" TV $75 (minimum)
At this - you don't get easy wireless, iApps, a combo drive that burn CDs AND view DVDs and minus a whole host of other features.
You can get a nice refurb eMac 1Ghz and sometimes 1.25GHZ directly from Apple for $529 shipped on a regular basis in the special deals section.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
How about one thousand? E.g. $799 (eMac) $1099 (iBook) $1299 (iMac)
All they did was install OS X via PearPC on Linux running on the XBox. As far as I know:
...
1. Linux has been running on the XBox for a while.
2. It has already been demonstrated that PearPC can emu PowerPC on x86 and run Mac OS X (albeit slowly)
All they did was give instrux on how to compile PearPC for the XBox, which any seasoned Linux user could have figured out if they tried. Beyond that, wouldn't this be SLOW AS DIRT?!?! Even on a very fast x86 desktop machine, PearPC crawls like a gimp sloth w/ no hind legs. And wouldn't most XBox-Linux users probably also have a faster x86 PC that they could run OS X thru PearPC on?
I fail to see how this is interesting in the slightest. Maybe I'm jaded, but to me it seems there's nothing new here. Please move along
But PearPC has enormous overhead beyond the virtual memory itself. Not only the available memory for PearPC, but also the resident code pages for PearPC, and then also the resident code pages for the JITC emulation.
So, even if the box had 128MiB of RAM, it's still going to be thrashing hard.
It's still COOL though.
I am unamerican, and proud of it!
"That is like me telling people I got my Xbox to play SNES Games when all I am really doing is pulling up an SNES emulator on my xbox with Linux."
So, your X-Box _WOULD_ be playing SNES games. Are you confused as to exactly how emulation works?
I am unamerican, and proud of it!
Nope. Speaking as student at Georgia Tech's College of Computing (where the page in question is being hosted), I can say with confidence that we will easily survive this slashdotting, just as we have the many in the past. The network's not even feeling slow.
Actually, I recall hearing some years ago that Tech actually routes about 25% of the data that passes through Atlanta, so it would take a lot more than slashdot to pull us down, bandwidth-wise.