XBOX
EVOLUTION
This Article orginally posted on X-Box Linux
, all thanks and recognition go to them for a great article.
Getting Started with Xbox Linux
by Michael Steil, 8 October 2002
There are many files on the download page, ISOs, ROMs, distributions,
tools etc., so this article is supposed to show you the easiest
way to running the Linux operating system on your Xbox.
What you get
You can already install Linux on your Xbox. You can even run
Mandrake 9: We provide an installation CD that installs Mandrake
Linux 9 with Gnome, KDE and everything onto your Xbox hard
disk, with only slight modifications. This Linux installation
behaves exactly like every PC installation of Mandrake Linux
9.
You can browse the internet, write e-mail, work on text or
spreadsheet documents, listen to music, or, if you install
additional software packages from the official Mandrake 9
set or the internet, you can do a million other things.
Linux installs into unused space on your Xbox hard disk,
so you will still be able to play games. If you turn on an
Xbox with Linux in the unused space, the Xbox behaves just
like without Linux. But if you insert the Linux boot CD, a
Linux boot from the hard disk will be initiated.
Please note that the Xbox DVD drive does not read CD/Rs and
is very picky about CD/RWs. This is a problem in the Xbox
hardware and not the fault of Linux.
What you need
In order to run Linux, you need an Xbox with a modchip installed.
Any modchip will do, there is no difference between the mod
chips for this method. You will also need a keyboard and a
mouse connected to your Xbox. The Xbox has four USB ports
(the ports for the gamepads), but these have a non-standard
connector, so you need an adapter. Theres an article
on how to build such an adapter (it's trivial!) on this website.
If you want to connect a USB keyboard an a USB mouse directly,
you need two of these adapters. If you have a keyboard with
a built-in mouse, a keyboard with its own mouse connectivity
or the keyboard and the mouse connected to a hub, you only
need one adapter.
Of course you also need the file Xbox-Linux-Manrake-9.zip,
which contains the installation ISO and the boot ISO, both
of which you have to write to a CD/RW or DVD/RW. Please note
that the Xbox is very picky about CD/DVD media, slow CD/RW
(2x or 4x) have proven to be most compatible with the Xbox
drive. It is okay if you have only one working CD/RW.
How to install
As always, before installing a new operating system, you should
always backup your data! There is a tutorial on how to backup
your Xbox hard disk with a PC running Linux on this website.
You can also backup the hard disk contents through the network
connection when you have booted from the installation CD,
if you have good Linux knowledge.
To install Xbox Linux Mandrake 9, connect your keyboard (and
mouse) to the Xbox, insert the Boot CD into the Xbox DVD drive
and restart the Xbox. PAL users should not run the CD from
the dashboard, as they may get garbled screen contents. When
the CD has finished booting, enter "install8", if
you have an 8 GB hard drive, or install if you
have a 10 GB or a replacement hard drive. For details on where
exactly Linux will be installed on your hard disk, please
read the Xbox Linux Mandrake 9 README.
After about ten minutes, the installation will be finished.
Now replace the media in the DVD drive with the Xbox Linux
Boot CD. Again, PAL users should not run this CD from the
dashboard. Linux should boot now, and the login screen should
appear. Enter guest as login name with the password
guest. (The root password is xbox.)
Networking is set up as 192.168.0.64/255.255.255.0 by default,
but no method to login remotely has been enabled, just as
in the Mandrake Linux 9 stanard installation. You can change
all this in the Mandrake Control Center.
Small FAQ
Can I still play games and watch DVDs after installing Linux?
Yes.
Can I still store pirated games on the F: drive?
No.
Cant you change it so that drive F: with my pirated
games doesnt get overwritten?
No. And by the way, this is not a Linux issue; the BIOS that
supports the F: drive doesnt support any partitioning
of the additional space.
Can I mess up the Xbox partitioning with the tools included
into the installer?
No. The Xbox FATX partitioning is implicit, there is no partition
table for it. Whatever you define, this is only valid for
Linux. Of course you should watch out not to overwrite the
system partitions, if you partition manually.
Can I allocate 2 GB for root and the rest for /home on my
replacement hard drive/.
Yes. Just run sfdisk, create a 2 GB /dev/hda2, and /dev/hda3
as home, install Linux and edit /etc/fstab afterwards.
Can I boot Linux directly from hard drive?
Yes, if you copy the contents of the boot CD onto the C:
FATX partition and rename default.xbe to xboxdash.xbe. Then
Linux will start instead of the dashboard if no CD is inserted.
Though, this is not recommended (yet), and we dont provide
Linux binary modules yet that can access the FATX filesystem.
Can I boot Linux from my hard drive using some bootmanager?
If your bootmanager can load standard XBE executables, yes.
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© 2002 Michael Steil
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