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Building a Linux XBOX Cluster
Hack Jandy writes "Getting Linux to work on an XBOX became relatively easy a few years ago, and building an XBOX render farm became the next logical solution. Anandtech bought 8 XBOXes and clustered them into a neat project any hardware hacker could appreciate. Check out the results as Anand pits his 8-way cluster against some Xeon and Opteron workstations as well."
Here.
Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/cluster.php
i think this was on slashdot a few years ago.
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wasnt this done last year??
here?
An XBox mod chip is essentially just replacing the BIOS with another one.
So the hardware itself is just commodity parts. Even if some crazy US law says you cant sell it for the "intent" of piracy, you can get the parts legally at the local electronics shop. Kind of like smart card readers are perfectly legal - unless you use them to pirate satellite, then DirecTV drops "da hammer".
Microsoft hasnt really raised a stink about it and has pretty much left the modding scene alone.
Of course, the BIOS image you use may or may not be illegal. It'll either be a XBox bios hacked to play warezed games (illegal, copyright MS code), but theres the Cromwell bios, a GPLed replacement to boot linux up (legal). Chips either ship blank or with Cromwell.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
There are very stable software-only hacks to get a hacked BIOS installed. The best one is called UDE. I uses a buffer overflow in the font handling calls of the Xbox dashboard (actually a replacement dashboard). Then it installs its own BIOS and runs its own software.
Here is the skinny. I use this to launch XBMC and turn the xbox (w/ remote) into a very nice media center for every tv in my house. Plus, it plays games.
You don't need a mod chip to run linux. Thanks to a few buffer overflows in the dashboard, you can get it up and running without violating your warrenty and opening it up.
Scope out the xbox-linux project on sourceforge. All you need is a usb->xbox controller cable and 007 (or MechAssault)
His point, though, was that one wouldn't build a cluster like this for performance, but for the technical experience and knowledge when under a strict budget (hence his suggestion that vocational schools might have an interest in this).
I would think, however, that commodity hardware would be a better idea; the total-cost for each XBox was around $180 (mod chip included), while an extremely low end system could be built for less (using old Durons, for instance, coupled with a few megs or RAM). It certainly wouldn't compare very well to most other clusters, but it would provide the builder with a lot of "hands-on" experience that would be difficult to obtain otherwise.
See this guy's Mini-ITX cluster for more information.
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Except that the Xbox GPU can't do floating point. It's a DX8(Pixel Shader 1.x) class GPU, so it's limited to short pixel shaders in the 32bit(RGBA) integer space. Future consoles will no doubt be able to make use of the GPU like you anticipate, but the GPUs in current consoles predate the modern technology needed.
1. That's how that one XBOX emulator works, CXBX.
2. Yes, I have heard of it, can't recall the name of the group producing them.
Moll.
What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
There's only 3 reasons you'd buy a modchip for an Xbox (pick one).
1. You have an Xbox version 1.6 or higher.
2. You want to turn it off to play on Live.
3. You like wasting money.
ALL Xboxes prior to the 1.6 have a reflashable BIOS chip (referred to incorrectly by Xbox modders as a "TSOP" due to the packaging of the IC itself). There's several ways to do exploits to run Linux to run the Raincoat reflashing software, the easiest of which is a gamesave exploit. You can build a memory card reader/writer (to transfer the gamesave) in about 5 minutes by splicing together an Xbox joystick extension cable and a USB cable. You can find an exploitable game at a used game shop, at Blockbuster or on eBay. Solder two points together on the motherboard to enable the write lines and you're good to go. I've lost count of how many Xboxes I've modded this way. Works perfect every time.
All this info is on Xbox-Scene, it truly surprises me AnandTech made a $75 X 8 mistake.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.