FreeBSD Ported to XBox

NetFiber writes "FreeBSD has been ported to the XBox. "Over the last 2 weeks, I have been working on a port of FreeBSD for the XBox. The port is fully functional. The framebuffer is fully supported, same goes for sound and USB devices (such as an USB keyboard). Only ethernet is missing, currently." The FreeBSD on XBox website is here, downloads included." Update: 07/27 14:50 GMT by T : Rink Springer writes with a request that you use the primary mirror instead.

Comments

But does

[mboverload]

But does FreeBSD on Xbox run Linux? Yeah.

Re:But does

[Anonymous Coward]

It certainly does. I installed gentoo on it at over 2 years ago.

Re:But does

[.sig]

Bah, get OSX on it and you can have your very own iBox...

Re:But does

[WushuJim]

Actually, you can run Linux binaries with the Linux binary compatibility module.

Re:But does

[Anonymous Coward]

Hang in there it will be done emerging real soon now.

Re:But does

[Elranzer]

Great. Now how about finishing porting FreeBSD to PowerPC ??

Re:But does

[bovinewasteproduct]

Great. Now how about finishing porting FreeBSD to PowerPC

Have you taken a look at the updated PPC Project Page? It has came a long way from where it was even 6 months ago. Give it a couple more months I would say and it'll be a first class port...

I just wish it supported 7300 series machines and not just New World stuff...:(

BWP

Re:But does

[Shanep]

Read his question again.

It may not be a hoax...

[MaestroSartori]

...but:

"This XBE file hasn't been tested, as we don't have a modchipped XBOX."

Anyone out there with a chipped xbox know if this works at all? :)

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[pcmanjon]

Why do people bother porting this stuff to oddball platforms anyway. Talent like this could be used elsewhere in the OSS community instead of wasting time porting stuff to platforms like Nitendo DS.

I know people like to make 'media centers' and other stuff with their xbox, but it seems like it's a waste of time from a developer standpoint. People need to work on things to increase the userbase of the community -- not porting Linux and BSD distros to platforms intended for one purpose and one purpose alone (gaming)

That's just my opinion on it, I feel that it's a waste of time.

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[DrSkwid]

my xbox gathers dust, fbsd on it would be a nice toy

> platforms intended for one purpose and one purpose alone (gaming)
do you know what a turing machine is ?

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what people do in their free time...it's a hobby. People do hobbies for enjoyment. Why do some people feel that OSS needs to have a real use?

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[Anonymous Coward]

What something can and what something is intended to do are very different things.

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[awesomo4000]

i purchased a nintendo ds _specifically_ because there was a linux porting project for it. i certainly don't think its a waste of time.

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[Baramin]

My xbox stopped gathering dust the day I got xbmc installed on it.

Now it's on almost every evening playing my favorite DIVX movies (or xvid, ogm, etc... plays everything and anything), and almost every day playing relaxing music for my baby girl.

now if only it could also do time shifting with an external TV receiver...

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[Tongo]

Hey, if you want to clear some space for the floor to gather dust, you can send your xbox to me.

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[bradkittenbrink]

Why do people bother porting this stuff to oddball platforms anyway. Talent like this could be used elsewhere in the OSS community instead of wasting time porting stuff to platforms like Nitendo DS.

This is why the OSS movement is crap. It's all about free software. Using the term OSS makes you forget that this is all about increasing freedom in the first place, not about increasing some arbitrary standard such as the "userbase of the community", especially when said community is ill-defined. Yes the talent of these developers could be used to do more "productive" things, but it's their time to waste, and if they were coerced into doing that then it wouldn't be a very nice community to be a part of, now would it? And remember if you want free software improved in certain ways, you're always free to pay someone to do it.

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[chris234]

"I know people like to make 'media centers' and other stuff..." Well, sounds like you answered your own question. I've got an Xbox, and have yet to play games on it. I got it because the platform was a nice, cheap option for a MythTV frontend.

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[Sj0]

The x-box is a thriving hobbyist platform with a ton of apps(some even being legal to distribute thanks to OpenXDK) and tons of users, some of whom hardly ever use their x-box for commercial games(pirated or otherwise). Don't assume that just because you don't do anything on it nobody does.

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[Sj0]

For the same reason why people don't see why you'd want to fly model airplanes or race cars or ride motorbikes or drink fine wine/beer: some people just aren't that swift.

I ported FreeBASIC to x-box. The port is broken at the moment because of some internal changes, but not before I managed to get a groovy screenshot of Star Phalanx running on the x-box.

I'm working with the core devs on getting it working again. :)

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[Sj0]

While I'm pimping my wares, here's the demo itself. :)

Star Phalanx for X-box (needs usb keyboard. Sorry!!)

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[oldwolf13]

Reading your opinion was a waste of my time.

Maybe you should volunteer to write some documentation for the OSS community, instead of wasting it whining on a forum where nobody cares about your opinion.

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[shutdown -p now]

This is why the OSS movement is crap. It's all about free software. Using the term OSS makes you forget that this is all about increasing freedom in the first place, not about increasing some arbitrary standard such as the "userbase of the community", especially when said community is ill-defined.

Haven't you thought that maybe - just maybe - the goals of people participating in the OSS movement (as opposed to the FSF movement) are just somewhat different from yours?

Sheesh, even Stallman of all FSF people does understand that! Surely any random FSF fanboy should?

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[dossen]

Well, you assume that the people who do this could be "reassigned" to other projects, which might not be true, since they are not getting paid for it. If the choice is between people porting oss to odd platforms or no code at all, I'd prefer the porting.

Re:It may not be a hoax...

[bradkittenbrink]

Haven't you thought that maybe - just maybe - the goals of people participating in the OSS movement (as opposed to the FSF movement) are just somewhat different from yours?

Umm, that was my whole point. pcmanjon was criticizing people for not working towards his goals. I was pointing out an alternative set of goals. I'm not trying to stop people from working on the oss movement, I just think it's crap. He was telling people to stop working on what they want to work on.

Ethernet missing?

[coflow]

This is pretty cool, although from TFA: Only ethernet is missing, currently, as the binary only driver in /usr/ports/net/nvnet fails with an error 5, for some reason. Assistance there would be very welcome.

I suspect this is a feature that would be fairly important to most users.

Re:Ethernet missing?

[wormuniverse]

nah. all I ever do wil my freeBSD box is play GNUchess.

Re:Ethernet missing?

[zyche]

If all you whiners cared to actually RTFA you would have spotted "A lot of USB ethernet controllers" listed under hardware support. These doesn't cost much these days, and *BSD supports most of them.

Re:Ethernet missing?

[nxtw]

I'm sure they'd all work great with the Xbox's USB ports. That is, after you get an adapter for the controller ports. But why spend money on getting USB to work just to have Ethernet over USB 1, when there's already a builtin 10/100 Ethernet port right on the back?

Re:Ethernet missing?

[aXis100]

Whilst Im sure you put in alot of effort and should be commended, claiming "fully functional" whilst admitting that something *isn't* functional seems like asking for trouble.

"Almost fully functional" would have gotten you almost as much credit without the hastle.

Re:Ethernet missing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop saying "whilst", you douche.

Re:Ethernet missing?

[cbreaker]

You can't just plug in "a lot of USB ethernet controllers" because the XBox controller ports, albiet USB, are not a USB connection. You need a converter, and THEN the controller. And when all is said and done, you'd left with a crappy 11Mbit of USB Ethernet speeds whereas the onboard controller (e100) is actually very good.

I'm not whining - I really don't give a crap either way. But this isn't a solution by any means.

Re:Ethernet missing?

[Ezdaloth]

No shit this driver fails, it is supposed to support NVidia nforce2 chipset with AMD processors. Not the (also nvidia) network chip in the xbox. The ethernet chip is probably quite similar to the nforce chip, but the rest of the hardware isn't ...

The best bet might be to port the linux forcedeth drivers. They're the only OSS drivers for the chip.

Re:Ethernet missing?

[aXis100]

meh.

Re:Ethernet missing?

[Anonymous Coward]

No way man!

GLTron!

Re:Ethernet missing?

[Anubis350]

you can quickly and easily make a MS USB to normal USB adapter with a USB extension cord, a solder gun, solder, and an xbox breakwaway cable in about in 5 mins... Instructions are on the linux xbox website

Re:Ethernet missing?

[cbreaker]

Well no shit. But it's a pain in the ass. I'm not sure why you're intent on defending this lack of ethernet support like this?

I made my own USB - PS2 connector for the Xbox ports and that was enough for me. I don't need to spend more time on it then that. If BSD isn't going to run on the machine properly, it's not a big deal. I hardly run Linux on it anymore either (which, incidently, has always worked just fine with the network card.)

Re:Ethernet missing?

[Sj0]

You're probably going to want/need a usb adapter anyway if you're planning to use X-Box freeBSD or X-Box Linux. I mean, you want to be able to plug in a mouse or keyboard, right? Also, you practically require one to use either without being a chump and spending fifty bucks on a modchip(softmods are ambrosia. :) )

Re:Ethernet missing?

[Anonymous Coward]

You fucking moron.

My father is British born, and he says "whilst" all the time. Has it ever occurred to you that not everybody speaks according to the American standard?

Re:Ethernet missing?

[Anonymous Coward]

I fucked your faggot father in his ass

Re:Ethernet missing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, that'd make you a fag, too. Fag.

British people say "whilst". They invented the language. Calling people gay won't change your being wrong and ignorant.

Man, Americans are fucking idiots.

BSD vs. Linux (tm)

[Max Romantschuk]

The perfect way to prove BSD is more secure than Linux: no ethernet.

I'll go RTFA now...

Re:BSD vs. Linux (tm)

[Minwee]

Heck, with that kind of connectivity you could probably meet the orange book requirements for C2 security.

Re:BSD vs. Linux (tm)

[Anonymous Coward]

Ethernet DOES work, via USB.

No ethernet?

[matt21811]

How long till the get Ethernet working?

As soon as they can get the Ethernet working I can have the low cost, small form factor webserver I have been looking for.

Re:No ethernet?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think the Xbox can be considered small you know...

Re:No ethernet?

[Anonymous Coward]

Until you get slash-dotted, that is.

Then you'll have a firebox. Smoldering and smoking. Possibly even setting your entertainment center ablaze.

Re:No ethernet?

[Ours]

Specially if you count the controllers: http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php?date=2002-03- 25&res=l/

Er... why?

[tangledbank]

I don't see the point, other than "this can be done". It's going to less functional, clumsy to use and slower than on a computer. It won't be able to play games and requires modding. Are there any advantages?

Re:Er... why?

[metternich]

The Hardware on the Xbox is sold at a lost by Microsoft. (They make their profits off the games they sell.) Therefore, if you can mod an Xbox to be a regular computer, you can get better performance/$$ than you would otherwise be able to get.

Re:Er... why?

[Anonymous Coward]

• Cheap server to play with
  
• Play any media the likes of mplayer can play
  
• Act as a jukbox
  
• Browse, email etc on the TV
  
• A backup server for rsync
  
• Other uses for other people
  

Just because you can't cope with the thought others have imagination and enjoy these things, doesn't mean people should stop because of your opinion!

Re:Er... why?

[bass_ackwards]

As soon as they can get the Ethernet working I can have the low cost, small form factor webserver I have been looking for.

Thats why. Also, throw in a bigger hard drive and you have a great backup server or file server.

Just don't try hosting any slashdot stories. Even a cluster of these things couldn't handle that.

Re:Er... why?

[Chaos Engine]

Gee, what a BSD zealot. They've had full linux distros available for the seXBOX for years.

Re:Er... why?

[LurkerXXX]

That was certainly true at the time of the Xbox launch. But it's been a while since. Prices on the cpu's hard drives, etc, etc, used in it have all dropped significantly since. I wonder how much of a loss the sale of a new one actually costs them these days.

Re:Er... why?

[aderusha]

The price of the components has certainly come down, and if you open up a recent (version 1.6) xbox and compare it to an earlier version, you'll find that they have greatly streamlined the number of discreet components inside.

However, the xbox originally sold for $399 and now retails for $150. Who knows if they're still loosing money on these, but I'd guess they still are subsidizing the software/online business by taking a loss on the hardware.

Re:Er... why?

[BuddyJesus]

What's wrong with porting BSD over to the Xbox? As far as I know there's only 1 distro of Linux available for the XBox and Microsoft has tried to repeatedly quash it. So what's wrong with another OS on the Xbox?

Re:Er... why?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are at least two Linux distros for the xbox. Gentoox mentioned above and also a Debian based one. I gave up following the scene a long time ago, so there maybe newcomers.

Personally, once the hack factor has passed, I think people get bored and move on.

Re:Er... why?

[Zerbs]

but the specs of the XBox are fairly poor except for the graphics card. you can get a used computer with the same or better processor and memory for the price.

Re:Er... why?

[zackeller]

Sure, except most of those require ethernet, as do most uses for a server operating system. And there's nothing that can be done now that couldn't have been done before with Linux or a whole host of other apps.

Microsft now know that..

[speights_pride!]

..the original Xbox is dead. They better release the next one quickly!

Yay!

[mboverload]

What exactly is this good for if you don't have a network connection?

I mean, yay, we did it, super, but....what now?

Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[ReformedExCon]

It's simply amazing the amount of progress two dedicated youths can make in such a short time.

One thing I used to have a lot of time to think about was how much time I was wasting, having forced myself into a very uncomfortable place. It's quite heartening to see these kids doing great work, even if it is just for themselves as a hobby (even moreso, in my opinion).

I'm not sure that the thing is useful, but it's definitely a cool hack.

Is anyone offering them a job yet?

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

(Score:-1, Condescension)

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

Is anyone offering them a job yet?

Microsoft?

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

You modded him down because he has water droplets forming on his windows?

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

"The port is fully functional....Only ethernet is missing, currently."

Sounds like they'd be great in the marketing department.

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Marc2k]

having forced myself into a very uncomfortable place. ..like the back of a Volkswagen?

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[elrous0]

..like the back of a Volkswagen?

Stare at this reply long enough, and you'll see a sailboat.

-Eric

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah right, young people without a degree or 'real' experience in the corp world. Their resumes get throw in the trash instantly. I was like these guys at that age (helped with the linux on mac port) and I'm just now getting to a point in my profesional life where I was when I was a teen at home.

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

He said Condescension, not Condensation.

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

It's been 5 mins of staring. I see no sailboat.

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[tsume]

I can't wait to finish all my programming projects and port them from *BSD to Linux after their initial release. I've been on computers since I was the age of 2 starting with a C64, and I've learn much more than just computers. I've learned to deal with the likes of you and your other buddies who feel like you have to try dragging down people who are more fortunate and have accomplished much more than you. I'm only 20 and have my own company. I'm pulling in 10k a month by myself programming and consulting. Get a grip. I don't have a degree, and I program much better than most people out there. I think you need to understand you don't need a degree when you spend time reading books and studying hard in school. I'm the type of kid you probably picked on in primary and secondary school. My turn to be the boss. Even making me more happy is I'm going to go through college without any type of financial aid, and I'm doing it all by myself. You're just some looser kid who became an adult and try to knock people down while you go to your grave. Get a life, thanks. Now I'm off to go find some decent kids on IRC to hire out on some of my projects for Opensource. Maybe you'll hear about some works here and there in the future.

My best wishes to the fellows who made the Xbox patchset for FreeBSD. I hope you prosper in life, you are the seeds of the future. Please continue with your development, as your efforts are appreciated. What most people don't realise is productivity is more worthwhile than arguing over which OS is better. Godspeed.

Thanks,
Fellow doing well without degree

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a schooner.

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[hahiss]

Not so amazing, given the advantages of young people over old people*:

1. Can stay awake for days on end without any noticeable impact on their consciousness.

2. Are able to get sustainence from a steady diet of caffeinated beverages (and mints and soaps, etc.) and delivered pizza (fresh or left out overnight).

3. Are capable of boundless enthusiasm for their projects.

Young people rock. Well, at least some of them do.

*N.B.: I am an old person.

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[NastyNate]

Yeah? Well there's no such thing as the Easter Bunny!

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

WHOOSH!

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously. Who the fuck would waste a mod point modding this "overrated?" (We won't even get into the fact that it was "rated" in the first place)

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Enrico Pulatzo]

Damn, I only see a schooner :(

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. That's one of the most creative trolls I've ever seen.

What made you decide to pretend that you're an ex-convict?

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one agree 100% that you do not need a college degree to be successful in life. Just look at all the successful people in the world today. So to say that a resume gets thrown in the trash is, IMHO, a crappy thing to say as well as not an accurate statement. On the flipside of the coin though is that it says well of a person that has been to college. They worked hard to graduate and that tells an employer that this person is more likely to be a reliable employee. I myself did not go to college and I think it was harder for me to get to where I am today than if I had gone to college. So I can see both sides of the opinion. I will say this though, TSUME - keep up the good work, and I applaud you for being so successful at such a young age and yet you are still going to college. BRAVO!!

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[kace]

I think you may have missed the point of the parent post, which I read as "the corporate world doesn't understand or appreciate the value of raw talent as demonstrated in this type of non-professional accomplishment." I think that's usually true, too. Most job postings I see these days are more interested in how many languages or architectures you know.

Whatever the AC really meant, I think you'll enjoy life a lot more if you remove the large chip from your shoulder.

K.C.

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

What's so impressive? This was a "cut 'n' paste" job from work done on another operating system.

Nothing original. No engineering skills. About as challenging as slicing up a roll of Pillsbury cookie dough and baking it.

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Geekboy(Wizard)]

haha, you poor bastard. its a sailboat.

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[tsume]

The corporate world was ready for me. I've jobs in the past with a couple larger companies I felt really small while working. Not only do you need to know your knowledge, but you must be a polite show off during the interview, its the only way to get hired. They are looking someone who can do the job, and provide the best methods of making money to the company. If I ever hire somebody, it sure damn well won't by by degree or certification. One of the two companies I worked for a while said they don't hire people who are certified, and the other I quit because I moved. Its all in the talk. If you've agood sales pitch, then theres no doubt you'll get the job over some college kid with his degree. Large businesses are ready for even the people without degrees and generally I couldn't care what people think of me on how much I charge my customers. :D I love production!

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

holy hostility batman!

good thing you have your own business going because no one will ever hire you with that shit attitude.

did you forget a decimal point when you recorded your income? are you sure it isn't just $100.00 a month?

reguards

someone > you

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Anonymous Coward]

How is it a troll? Check out his posting history, dude. Moderators would beg to differ.

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Waltre]

Cool, what's your companies URL? How did you build a business to become an incorporated company so fast? You must be up with the greatest businessmen/businesswomen of all time to do that.

I'm also curious to know why if "you don't need a degree when you spend time reading books and studying hard in school", you still plan to go to college?

It's also remarkable to know you could program when you were 2, since most of us can't even recognise patterns at that age. Did your parents make any specific institutions aware of such an amazing phenomonon?

or is it that you're full of shit?

Re:Two guys, ages 19 and 21

[Ruud Althuizen]

I know them personally, and actually they got a job offered quite quickly after this article got posted. And FYI, he is working on the ethernet support, just a matter of time. Even direct booting from hdd is starting to take shape.

No internet???

[jmcmunn]

"Only ethernet is missing, currently"

Wow, isn't this what we all need? I mean with no ethernet, you get no webserver, so web browser, no FTP...this would be a disfunctional computer if you ask me. Everything I use a computer for these days requires a speedy connection to the web.

Once that is working though, this will be a pretty sweet install from the sounds.

Re:No internet???

[gatkinso]

Well, you would have a very very fast 1991 vintage PC.

Re:No internet???

[Anonymous Coward]

nowonder they say bsd is dying . it kills verything it touches

Re:No internet???

[elasticwings]

Mmm, maybe you could get Space Quest running on it and replace your aging Tandy?

Yes, release Xbox 360 quickly...

[SimilarityEngine]

...and then we can get straight to work on hacking that little beauty, too :-)

Re:Yes, release Xbox 360 quickly...

[makomk]

I don't expect the Xbox 360 will be as easy to hack as the Xbox. The Xbox was a bit of a rush-job (Microsoft were a latecomer to the party as it was) and it shows - unused buses still brought out to pads (probably for testing purposes), etc...

Re:Yes, release Xbox 360 quickly...

[FauxPasIII]

-nod- The fact that the first generation had 4 times the flash memory they needed, complete with
exposed pads to boot into any of the 4 quadrants of the chip, has always amused me. It's like they
were asking for it.

Now wait just a minute!

[Anonymous Coward]

Has Netcraft confirmed any of this yet?

Daemon/Devil??

[Khyber]

A couple of kids got the Daemon running on the Devil's hardware???

Smartass comments aside, I'm actually curious on the bechmarks for this latest computer OS on a console system. The specs on the XBox basically make it a mid-range Pentium 3 box. With the heager 64 megs of onboard RAM, though, that might be a bottleneck.

Ideas/thoughts?

There can no longer be any doubt

[ectoraige]

BSDNews confirms it, the Xbox is dying...

Well somebody was going to say it, may as well be me.

Simple

[Weaselmancer]

Because things don't just fall together 100% working. It wouldn't make much sense to port the Ethernet driver before you got the basic functionality working, right?

The Ethernet driver will come in time, I'm sure. If you're desperate, get some sort of USB solution until then - USB is reported to work just fine.

Wait a few months

[Iriel]

And they'll already start working on Linux for the Xbox 360, though. Take your pick ;)

In seriousness though, I applaud the effort. Maybe with this knowledge of what had to be changed and a quick port of Linux to the 360, maybe FreeBSD can be ported to the 360 with a much quicker turnaround.

Re:Wait a few months

[thryllkill]

I doubt any leasons learned in porting either Linux or FreeBSD to the XBox will help with the XBox 360. The 360 has a significantly different architecture than the original.

In other news...

[MustardMan]

BSD ported to new Asus motherboard chipset.

I really fail to see how this is news, they ported BSD to what amounts to a hacked up x86 pc. While it's certainly an accomplishment for a couple of young guys to get framebuffer drivers and whatnot working, I don't really consider this news, as the xbox is so close to a PC.

Re:In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's troll posts like this that make Slashdot great.

Of course this is news. Do you think you can just fire BSD into your xbox and everything will run fine and dandy?

Maybe you should read the xbox linux contest rules:
Project A
Project B

This, by the way, was a *contest* to get linux running on xbox, the prize for which was a total of $200K donated by Michael Robertson of Linspire fame.

Strange that he should offer so much for running Linux on "what amounts to a hacked up x86 pc"...

Give credit where credit's due, please. This is super work.

Re:In other news...

[tomstdenis]

The prizes are mostly to get things BOOTING once you get past that ... it's just another PC.

I doubt these kids invented a new boot procedure. If anything they'll do what everyone else does and use a game exploit or a modchip.

Whoopy.

Of course when I was 16-17 I was writing 8051 software [this is ca. 1998] on a 80C32 eval board I borrowed from a friend. It had no OS, 8KB of ram and a 12Mhz processor. Nobody gave me a slashdotting for that ...

The xbox has a 700Mhz processor, 64MiB of ram [which despite all other claims is a lot for just getting an OS to boot], two IDE channels, video, ethernet, etc...

It's a PC.

I've been booting Linux on my PC for several years now. Big deal.

Tom

Re:In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been booting Linux on my PC for several years now. Big deal.

Me too - and I don't expect a slashdotting every time i boot it.

My objection was to the parent's tone and lack of respect / support for this accomplishment (and I feel it is an accomplishment).

Re:In other news...

[tomstdenis]

It's neat but nothing spectacular. This "oh look at what a 19 yr old kid can do!".

You know what I did when I was 19? Started writing LibTomCrypt. Admitedly it sucked then but now it's a hell of a lot better and used throughout the industry. You can literally buy things in electronic stores that use my software.

And I've never been paid a dime to distribute LibTomCrypt. Though I've gotten other things which is why I don't complain [e.g. free books, tshirts, occasional donation, stipend to conference, etc].

Point is it's neat what they did, certainly more constructive then sitting around doing nothing. I'm glad they're doing it...

Tom

Re:In other news...

[dknj]

Are we forgetting the tons of slashdot posts when Linux was made to run on the xbox? Or when Linspire was ready to pay someone a hefty prize for getting Linux to boot on an xbox without a modchip? I think this is news for nerds. If you don't like it, don't waste your time reading it.

Re:In other news...

[MustardMan]

I gave credit for writing device drivers for the framebuffers and whatnot, so don't act like I didn't give any credit. I simply said it wasn't newsworthy. Writing device drivers is far from easy, and well beyond my sphere of knowledge, but we don't post every time BSD supports a new motherboard, which is essentially what this is. These kids are to be congratulated for a superb job, no doubt, but that doesn't make it news.

Hacking the xbox WAS news, the first time it was done. Now, it's old hat. It doesn't make the technical accomplishment any less, but it's still not news.

Re:In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hacking the xbox WAS news, the first time it was done.

Touché.

Re:In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

There is nothing impressive here at all. All the hard work and heavy lifting to do this had already been done by others years ago. If you want to see what FreeBSD will be doing two years from now, just look around and see what others have already done two years ago.

This is about as awe imspiring as a paint-by-numbers rendition of Da Vinci's "The Last Supper".

Re:In other news...

[Brandybuck]

But porting Linux to the XBox is news, because it's Linux. Duh! I don't know why Slashdot keeps posting BSD stories, because all that does is draw attention away from Linux. This isn't about freedom dammit, it's about world domination, and BSD is just getting in the way of that!

</sarcasm>

Re:In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey dickwad, read the fucking article. It's a live CD boot and they haven't even tested it on any modded Xbox.

Whoopy.

You mean "whoopsy".

Of course when I was 16-17 I was writing 8051 software [this is ca. 1998] on a 80C32 eval board I borrowed from a friend. It had no OS, 8KB of ram and a 12Mhz processor. Nobody gave me a slashdotting for that ...

And I've written OS's/monitors for embedded systems running on 8 and 16 bit processors. But, that's more common than porting a whole system to an obscure piece of hardware.

XBox pwn3d

[spaztech]

All obvious jokes aside, this is an awesome job by these young up-and-comers. Porting FreeBSD to a Microsoft gaming console, what a task.

1: Load FreeBSD on XBox
2: Install nMap, Nessus & Metasploit, hack CitiBank
3: ??
4: Profit!!

When the F.B.I. shows up just play dumb and say, "I don't have a computer."

Re:XBox pwn3d

[rbarreira]

It's "???", not "??".

Re:XBox pwn3d

[Anonymous Coward]

They usually take your gaming boxes and tivo.
And never returne it, even if you are proven innocent.

Re:XBox pwn3d

[Anonymous Coward]

No they usually return tivo and consifcate your ipod, even if it's ported to WindowsCE

Re:XBox pwn3d

[Bob The Cowboy]

It's "It's '???', not '??', you insensitive clod". not "It's '???', not '??'."

Re:XBox pwn3d

[rbarreira]

Oops. I totally apologize!

(I hope I got it right this time...)

Re:XBox pwn3d

[rbarreira]

And yeah, I did notice the "." instead of "," in your post but I didn't feel like complaining ;)

This is all wonderful but...

[Devir]

only if they'd invest the energy used porting to 300 obscure pieces of hardware and work on functionality and features instead.

Re:This is all wonderful but...

[setagllib]

This is FreeBSD. It's the second-least portable BSD (second only to DFly) and yet one of the most functional, depending on what you need. It was ahead of Linux with many features for a time and still has things it doesn't (e.g. clean tty snooping). You should try using systems before assuming they focus on the wrong things. Obscure hardware? FreeBSD has trouble running on some MAINSTREAM hardware, saying nothing of obscure.

my head asplode

[justforaday]

A secure Microsoft machine? Now I've seen it all...

More games. . .

[ducttapekz]

If they could make it run windows then it could rum games. An XBox with a wide game selection. . . That would be nice.

Re:More games. . .

[mancontr]

Yeah, it's so easy to port anything without the source code...

Re:More games. . .

[Anonymous Coward]

while it is not windows they do have the one os (react os ithink) working on xbox or you could just install wine. personally i cant wait to see open bsd on xbox. a truely secure microsoft machine. go get em puffy.

Netcraft confirms

[krell]

Netcraft now confirms. The X-Box is dying.

Re:No ethernet? - Gentoox been going years

[trancemission]

I have happily been running web/mail server on my xbox for over a year: http://gentoox.shallax.com/ This guy is dedicated and has an interesting history with the 'offical' xbox project. This distro kicks ass.....oh and he's done all this whilst at uni and just got his results A1/A1/A1/A2 :)

Back To The Future...

[__aaclcg7560]

Has anyone tried to a mod an XBox to play Atari 2600 games? Now that would be retro. :)

Re:Back To The Future...

[aderusha]

You can get info on emulators for the 2600 and about 30 other retro systems on the xbox here.

Re:Back To The Future...

[aNonniMouse]

Aaaactually, there's a whole load of emulators for running on an Xbox, including Atari, NES, SNES, Commodore 64, Game Gear, PSX, DOS, etc., etc... http://xbox-emulation.dcemu.co.uk/

So, how long until....

[Anonymous Coward]

...they get OS X working on the Xbox?

Re:So, how long until....

[rc3105-Riley]

ages ago,

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~ranma1/mac_install.html

shoot, was even mentioned here on /. last fall...

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/ 06/1321243&tid=222&tid=203&tid=179&tid=211

But will it..

[Anonymous Coward]

That's great in all but will it save you a bunch of money on car insurance?

Only!?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Only ethernet is missing"

For sale '94 Pontiac Grand Prix 150,000 miles. No engine.

Re:Only!?

[Nimrangul]

You analogy is flawed, it's more like having no built in phone. It still can do anything a computer is supposed to do, you just cannot communicate with others with it.

Hardly the be all and end all of computers or cars.

Just imagine...

[ballstothat]

A beowulf cluster of Xboxes, calculating the physics of Breast Jiggle(TM) featured in Dead Or Alive!

Re:No ethernet? - Gentoox been going years

[matt21811]

Just what I was looking for. Thanks.

YuQo fai7 it

[Anonymous Coward]

be7ween each BSD

In related news...

[NotFamous]

I have ported NetBSD to run on my toaster. I have full support for quad-processing (requires four slots), hyper-breading and hot swapping. Unfortunately, fork() is not currently implemented...

Re:In related news...

[databyss]

fork() was originally implemented but it would randomly kill -9 the parent process.

Re:In related news...

[bergeron76]

Unfortunately, fork() is not currently implemented...

That's probably a good thing. Because then you prevent users from having to "call emergency_room();"

Re:In related news...

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried fork() on my own toaster, and I ended up dumping core!

I installed this on my XBox....

[Dogtanian]

...and it started malfunctioning shortly afterwards; even when I wasn't running FreeBSD on it.

Then I realised the sad truth; my *Box was dying.... Netcraft confirmed it.

Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week...

(Sorry, but I had to get that one in, and yeah, I really have just finished installing FreeBSD, albeit on my PC, so I can make jokes about it now (^_^)....anyway, what *is* that with all the CD changing... would I "like" to change the CD now?? Are you saying I *have* to change the CD, or that you can install the stuff on the other CD later.... no, I would *not* like to change the CDs round 347 times.... aaaawwwrgh!)

Re:I installed this on my XBox....

[B3ryllium]

You installed it from the CD? How did it go? I've only ever done network installs ... or the miniinst.

Re:I installed this on my XBox....

[Dogtanian]

You installed it from the CD?

CDs.

Hence the changing over; and I still had trouble with some packages failing to install using dependencies for reasons that aren't entirely clear.

I had Freesbie beforehand (live FreeBSD-based CD with option to install); that was easy to install, but it lacked some ports stuff I needed to get my printer working, yadda yadda. So I've literally just finished installing 'proper' FreeBSD. Can't say how well it's worked yet...

Aww Right!

[blueZhift]

Cool, now my Xbox has a bright future once I get tired of playing games on it! Nice work, I'm sure the ethernet problem will be solved eventually.

Re:Aww Right!

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux has been running on the XBox for a few years now.

Re:Aww Right!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure he knows that. Maybe he thinks Linux sucks and would rather use FreeBSD?

fully functional

[Anonymous Coward]

The port is fully functional. ... Only ethernet is missing, currently.

Yeah... fully functional.

Ask yourself this question :

[DrSkwid]

Ask yourself this question : What is the purpose of the XBox ?

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[computerdude33]

Xbox's purpose: collect dust. Or put *NIX on it and make it useful.

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't need to. Someone else already answered this. Its purpose is for playing games. It isn't intended to be a web server or a way of running OOo or whatever else you might have in mind.

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[DrSkwid]

Do you think someone sat in Redmond and said "hmm, we don't have a way to play games, let's make a console"

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[wuice]

Ask yourself this question : What is the purpose of the XBox ?

The purpose according the Microsoft? If I had an xbox, I'd use it for whatever I damn well please.

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[KDR_11k]

No, they thought "Console gaming looks really profitable" but I don't think it's meant to be used by the end user for making profit.

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[Anonymous Coward]

If the answer isn't "To move bits from one location to another while performing logical and mathematical operations on them" then what is the answer?

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[Hatta]

Ask yourself this question : What is the purpose of the XBox ?

To make Microsoft money.

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[snuf23]

To play Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games obviously!

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[KillShill]

it's a computer.

just like the playstation 1/2, the nes, snes, genesis, dreamcast, n64, ad nauseum.

it's a computer.

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[xenoandroid]

Paperweight?

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[antsquish]

There is no XBox.

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[Orrin Bloquy]

The purpose of the XBox is to flip out and kill people.

Re:Ask yourself this question :

[ResidntGeek]

Hehe... CAD rules.

Funny...

[jimbonics]

I had FreeBSD on my Dreamcast and the one thing it lacked was ethernet support for the broadband adapter.

And if you have an xbox that isnt modded...

MOD THAT SHIAT! If only for Xbox Media Center alone...

How goods the video support?

[zzqzzq_zzq]

Just out of idle curiosity, is the video support any better than Linux? (Or expected to be?)

Linux is unusable on my Modded 1.6 w/ Component video cable. (the 1.6's pretty much only support the composite video cable. :-( )

Required Redundant Joke

[Andrewkov]

FreeBSD Ported to XBox

Further proof that BSD is, in fact, dying.

Fully(!) working Linux distro

[trancemission]

http://gentoox.shallax.com/

Great developer, have had my mail/web server running for over a year. it's magic [pun ;)].
Installation/configuration is a breeze - and emerge works :)
feel free to congratulate him to his exam results

also

http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/
but seems to be down - haven't checked that out for some time.

I love gentoo and Freebsd and I have an xbox - my life is now complete.

Re:Fully(!) working Linux distro

[Stevyn]

I put this on my xbox one night when I was bored. It worked fine with a USB keyboard and mouse. XFCE4 worked fine. Internet worked out of the box and I was able to use firefox and gaim without any problems. What makes it slow and unusable as a desktop replacement is the limited 64 MB of RAM. There are ways to upgrade it to 128 MB, but that involves surface mount soldering something I'm not an expert on.

Since I'm used to Gentoo, I decided to run an emerge sync and upgrade firefox. It took all night and into the morning which based on the lack of memory was expected.

Other than proof of concept, I'm not sure most people will find a good use for these types of hacks. However, people gain intimate knowledge of the systems they are porting when they undertake these projects, and that is always valuable to the community. All large OS project started from "hello world" so the roots are always important.

Linguistic note...

[pegr]

The framebuffer is fully supported, same goes for sound and USB devices (such as an USB keyboard).
 
Interesting that the submitter choose "an" rather than "a" before USB. This implies he pronounces USB "usby" rather than "yoo-ess-bee". I've never heard that before. Anyone else? Do I sound square pronouncing each letter of USB?
 

Re:Linguistic note...

[slothjammin]

That is funny. You know in college they called Electrical Engineering students, "double e's". I made up my own for "C++" calling it "see double plus" just to mock it. Funny thing was that it caught on in our small group of friends.

Re:Linguistic note...

[88NoSoup4U88]

Isn't the rule that once a word starts with a vowel, you have to use 'an' : It doesn't have anything to do with how you pronounce it, does it ? [/non native english speaker]

Re:Linguistic note...

[Dwedit]

Actually, it is whether it's pronounced with a vowel or not.
If it's pronounded oo-sub, then it's an USB keyboard.
Pronounced Yoo-ess-bee, then it's a USB keyboard.

For Nintendo fans, it gets confusing when someone talks about a NES, or an NES.

Re:Linguistic note...

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one pronounce USB "usbi", but then again im finnish...

Re:Linguistic note...

[mborland]

Exactly. You don't say 'We all live in AN yellow submarine.'

Re:Linguistic note...

[pegr]

Post: The framebuffer is fully supported, same goes for sound and USB devices (such as an USB keyboard).

pegr: Interesting that the submitter choose "an" rather than "a" before USB. This implies he pronounces USB "usby" rather than "yoo-ess-bee". I've never heard that before. Anyone else? Do I sound square pronouncing each letter of USB?

88NoSoup4U88: Isn't the rule that once a word starts with a vowel, you have to use 'an' : It doesn't have anything to do with how you pronounce it, does it ? [/non native english speaker]

AC: I for one pronounce USB "usbi", but then again im finnish...

Ah! So does this more likely mean that the submitter is not a native English speaker? Not to make you uncomfortable, NetFiber, but are you a native English speaker?

For anyone not otherwise aware, it is always how the word is pronounced, not spelled.

Sorry to wander so far off-topic, but I find this observation to be fascinating.

Re:Linguistic note...

[Gandalf_007]

There is some variation among dialects, e.g. between British and American usage. In Standard American English, the initial sound is what determines the usage of a/an, i.e. "an honorable profession" or "a USB controller" (assuming you pronounce it U-S-B). I've seen "an" occur more often in British usage, but I'm not sure exactly what their rules are.

Re:Linguistic note...

[Deviant Q]

Nah, you just sound weird saying "square."

Re:Linguistic note...

[88NoSoup4U88]

Ahright, I've seen the "an honorable profession"-example before, but never really realised it was an exception to that rule. Thanks for the explanation.

Re:Linguistic note...

[KillShill]

thankfully you didn't call it doubleplus c.

Re:Linguistic note...

[Tooky]

British English is vowel sound as well.

Sometimes, when written, you will see an or a used in front of an abbreviation, where if the full words were used in place of the shortened letters the abbreviation would start with a vowel sound.

e.g. A MSc - meaning A Master of Science.

but that doesn't follow in this case as it's A Universal Serial Bus.

I tend to do this as I abbreviate to save writing.

Re:Linguistic note...

[Anonymous Coward]

Netcraft confirms it... English is dead.

waste of time

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know why people waste time on such things. Atleast, we can spend time on making Linux get into mainstream...

Way to go FreeBSD!

[Orlando]

Try porting Windows to the XBox! Ha! ... Wait..

DragonFlyBSD port

[Anonymous Coward]

This is great! I can't wait to use this port as a basis to port DragonFlyBSD, an advanced version of FreeBSD, to the Xbox.

Greasemonkey to the rescue!!!!

[/dev/trash]

Automatically do I have, the links to MirrorDot and CoralCache inserted.

+++
http://www.drudgereport.com for the truth.

Couldn't resist the obvious and obligatory

[Attackman]

So not only can the XBox be used as a media center frontend, a Linux device and a game console, but now it's a coffin too?

Sniff, sniff? Something burning? Ooops ;)

Re:Couldn't resist the obvious and obligatory

[davidsyes]

Anybody working on turning HexedBox into pyroclast? Or an autoclave?

Then, it could be modded into an autoclast or a pyroclave...

Failing that, just open it up and insert some RRMs (Raid Roach Motels) boxes, so roaches "check in but they don't check out...".

Next Apple will announce the OS XBox

[WareW01f]

... and claim that thanks to Darwin being BSD based, it's been "running on the XBox for years". Rumors on SlashDot will surface about pirated versions on the upcoming 'Liger' release ('bred' using GAs for its magical cross platform qualites) all ready being available in Torrent form.

Oh and of course Marathon will replace Halo as the defacto multiplayer game on the XBox... Did I miss anything? Oh the rumors of the upcoming Amiga port.

Re:Next Apple will announce the OS XBox

[ken95357]

Oh and of course Marathon will replace Halo as the defacto multiplayer game on the XBox... Did I miss anything?


No, no, no. NetTrek. :-)

Re:Linguistic note... Clouda Bin

[davidsyes]

jsut wrod slection, or a tpyo...

(anti-script word image: harmony)

(I guess the /. admins changed the word images to dictionary words possibly due to typo-complaints?)

numbnut

[Anonymous Coward]

people work on projects such as this out of passion, they do it for fun. they usually do not do it because they want to contribute something usefull. in the act of porting freebsd to the xbox they are learning and practicing... linux itself started the exact same way.

some of these things become little toy projects, and some of them topple and exceed the capabilities of the best technologies we have today. if you want talented developers to work in a targeted way to improve the user base and the user experience of XYZ, you could to pay them to do what you think is productive a la ibm/hp/novell/etc.

Re:No ethernet? - Gentoox been going years

[oldwolf13]

or if you want linux with a GUI that's actually usable on the xbox, try xdsl... with the xbox's limited RAM, xdsl is the most usable one I've tried.

http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/XDSL_HOWTO

wow...

[layer3switch]

What took so long??? Hey, someone let FreeBSD folks know that XBox 360 is coming out pretty soon.

Re:wow...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow! Someone let layer3switch know that he's gay.