Linux on XBOX (legally)

[GaMMa]

Well looks like they've got linux fully up running, there's an article at slashdot.org about it, they've got KDE, Gnome, Star Office, X and Tux Racer working... Tuxracer only gets 1 FPS though . http://slashdot.org/articles/02/09/0....shtml?tid=106

Just started using linux about a month ago and it rules. Nothing EVER crashes, no freezing EVER, nothing... it's stable, fast and everything is free, plus it can run almost every Windows program using wine. For linux users out there I'm on Gentoo w/ fluxbox, and I don't ever want to go back to Windows XP. I'm on linux now.

[bwn82k]

That have successfully gotten SuSe 8.0 Linux running on Xbox LEGALLY (with mod chip). Today they released a tutorial to help you install SuSe 8 on your Xbox. You can get it at xbox-linux.sourgeforge.net. It says you do need some good knowledge of Linux in order to get it up and running. I suggest the rest of you wait a little more for them to perfect the process of installing Linux on the Xbox. They're taking baby steps right now. Give them some time and I'm sure you start to see vast improvements.

[Xmun]

Originally posted by bwn82k
That have successfully gotten SuSe 8.0 Linux running on Xbox LEGALLY (with mod chip). Today they released a tutorial to help you install SuSe 8 on your Xbox. You can get it at xbox-linux.sourgeforge.net. It says you do need some good knowledge of Linux in order to get it up and running. I suggest the rest of you wait a little more for them to perfect the process of installing Linux on the Xbox. They're taking baby steps right now. Give them some time and I'm sure you start to see vast improvements.

Wich raises the ultimate question: Why?
Why put so much time and effort into something so useless?

(And "Just because........." is not an acceptable answer. )

[GaMMa]

If you can't afford a PC you can make one for about 270 dollars, with a Geforce 3, P3 700mhz (Xbox processor proven to run at 777mhz...), and a 8GB HDD... Sounds too good to be true if you ask me, plus you can hook it up to a TV. It performs all the functions Xbox does, and can download Mp3s and browse the internet. Of course I don't see how you could get this working if you don't have a PC... seeing that if you didn't have a PC you couldn't find out about it.

[jschelm]

The thing that keeps cracking me up is this whole legality deal. Do you guys really think modding the XBox is legal? No way. Why is it that all of the companies that manufacture mod chips are overseas? Maybe because it is harder to sue them. The simple matter is that in order to mod an XBox you have to do two things a) break MS's encryption which is highly illegal and b) use some of thier code from the bios in your mod chip which is also illegal. Now I am not against modding the XBox by any means. I Think MS should have put MP3 playback on it to begin with, but at least if you are going to do it, don't try and pretend that there is nothing at all wrong with it.

[Xmun]

Originally posted by GaMMa
If you can't afford a PC you can make one for about 270 dollars, with a Geforce 3, P3 700mhz (Xbox processor proven to run at 777mhz...), and a 8GB HDD... Sounds too good to be true if you ask me, plus you can hook it up to a TV. It performs all the functions Xbox does, and can download Mp3s and browse the internet. Of course I don't see how you could get this working if you don't have a PC... seeing that if you didn't have a PC you couldn't find out about it.

With no input device other than the controller and communicator and a graphics and sound card made specifically for the console how would the PC substitute idea work?

They couldn't legally produce or distribute any programs to work in that regard without breaking the law by not paying MS the proper licencing fees for using it's hardware.

Any such attempt would be shut down much like the Mod chip makers today.

Once again this seems more like a pack of Linux loons (...a la Indrema/Tuxbox.) overestimating their self worth and losing perspective in their strange obsession with Microsoft.

[GaMMa]

They've actually made a modified USB keyboard/mouse combo that any idiot could make. Also they will eventually be able to utilize the graphics card.. it'll take a few weeks... look at the games out there now... doom, quake, pong, space invaders... it's using the graphics card, but obviously not pushing the hardware. The sound card has already been put into use, users can go online and download MP3s and play them in linux... Give them time they'll get the graphics portion working.

[Xmun]

Originally posted by GaMMa
They've actually made a modified USB keyboard/mouse combo that any idiot could make.

I severely doubt that.

Idiots are quite the dull lot if the word on the street is to be believed.

As well as bypassing specific proprietary MS USB designs would be them hitting that whole "Legality" thing again.

Which sort of squashes the whole "Legally" tag they are throwing around.

Originally posted by GaMMa
Also they will eventually be able to utilize the graphics card.. it'll take a few weeks... look at the games out there now... doom, quake, pong, space invaders... it's using the graphics card, but obviously not pushing the hardware. The sound card has already been put into use, users can go online and download MP3s and play them in linux... Give them time they'll get the graphics portion working.

Ah, so all that work is so they can make a port box for REALLY old games.

Neato!

Nice to see they set their ambitions so high.
Even if they manage to harness the hardware they can't distribute anything on a large scale without running into that whole "Legality" roadblock.

(Not to mention harming the very industry they are trying to "free" from the clutches of "Teh Ev0L MIcr0Sux!" by pirating their software to run on it. )

It will remain strictly the domain of a handful of Linux rubes with too much free time on their hands.

"Why play brand new fully functional Xbox games like Doom3 when we can sort of port the original Doom! Huzzah + Excelsior!"

As for the Online/MP3 thing, I really doubt anyone is going to go to all that trouble of converting a perfectly good Xbox to do what even a bargain bin old school PC can do.

As you stated earlier you would essentially need a PC to pull this off in the first place.

All in all, the whole thing is a joke.

[netranger6]

LInux, shminux. I have my current Kernel hashed out on this drive, but haven't used it since win2K kicks some major booty in my opinion. Quite frankly, how would Linux running on my Xbox make it any more efficient?? Don't see the reward here.

[DeathKnightMaF]

Xmun = teh winnar!!

[Xmun]

Originally posted by DeathKnightMaF
Xmun = teh winnar!!

I prefer to be referred to as "That guy who pees in other peoples pools."

[Dre]

Originally posted by netranger6
LInux, shminux. I have my current Kernel hashed out on this drive, but haven't used it since win2K kicks some major booty in my opinion. Quite frankly, how would Linux running on my Xbox make it any more efficient?? Don't see the reward here.

If you cannot see the reward, maybe you should open your eyes a little more?

2 words... homebrew software.

[Xmun]

Originally posted by Dre
2 words... homebrew software.

1 word....illegal.


Which subverts the "Legal" tag the Linux community is throwing around does it not?

Not to mention the reprecussions of supporting that sort of thing.
Expect them to suffer the same fate the Mod chip community is now at MS hands.

Which is to say a quick and severe stomping.

[netranger6]

Big deal on the "Home Brew" software! It would take 2 years for anything great to come of it, or anything worth playing for that matter, so why bother? Just pay up for you games, and compensate those who spend hours and hours making the hair stand up on end. Do you really think Halo could have been home brewed and released for free?? I think not.

[Dre]

Originally posted by netranger6
Big deal on the "Home Brew" software! It would take 2 years for anything great to come of it, or anything worth playing for that matter, so why bother? Just pay up for you games, and compensate those who spend hours and hours making the hair stand up on end. Do you really think Halo could have been home brewed and released for free?? I think not.

Holy crap.. how can you be so obtuse?

1. take 2 years?? There is already software available to play Divx movies, mp3s, emulators.

2. ..."or anything worth playing for that matter"? IF the linux community decides to develop Xbox games, whats your beef with it? But, home-brew games have NEVER been the focus of ANY modchips to ANY console., so I don't know why you even brought that up.

3. I do pay for my games. This isn't a question of me ripping off companies. Its a question of adding functionality to my Xbox.

4. Yes Halo could have been home-brewn and released for free.. why not? You said you have Linux on your box but yet you are obviously oblivious to the technology and its community if you can't grasp how people from all around the world can come together and produce great software. For free.

If you can't see the advantages, there is something wrong with you.

[Dre]

Originally posted by Xmun


1 word....illegal.

1 word. Misinformed. If the software was written WITHOUT an Xbox dev kit, it is totally legal. Read the ToA and maybe do a little www.google.com search next time.

[jschelm]

Originally posted by Dre


1 word. Misinformed. If the software was written WITHOUT an Xbox dev kit, it is totally legal. Read the ToA and maybe do a little www.google.com search next time.

Dre, just because the software itself is legal doesn't mean that the XBox required to run it is.

[Dre]

Originally posted by jschelm


Dre, just because the software itself is legal doesn't mean that the XBox required to run it is.

Since when is modding the Xbox illegal? Please point me to a respectable link that outright states this. If I turn my computer into a toaster is Dell allowed to sue me? Hell no. I paid for the Xbox and I own it and in turn am allowed to do whatever I like to it. However, if I start pirating games, then yes I agree THAT is illegal.

[jschelm]

Originally posted by Dre


Since when is modding the Xbox illegal? Please point me to a respectable link that outright states this. If I turn my computer into a toaster is Dell allowed to sue me? Hell no. I paid for the Xbox and I own it and in turn am allowed to do whatever I like to it. However, if I start pirating games, then yes I agree THAT is illegal.

There is a link on this board right now under the title of Read this before modding your xbox or something along those lines.

You can't draw that conclusion. IF you turn your XBox (or Dell computer) into a toaster, that is fine. If you have to sit down, reverse engineer it, crack through security and unencrypt codes, and then re-use those codes in your own program to make the toast then it isn't. There are many things in the XBox that are protected by copyrights so using those things (such as the bios inside a mod chip having chunks of the MS bios) is illegal. Also, there are laws against breaking anything encrypted. Be that Macrovision, Cable TV, Satellite TV, or your XBox bios. So even if you are able to find a mod chip that doesn't have the MS bios in it you are breaking the law because the installation of that mod chip is there for one reason. Defeating the security and the encryption that MS put into the XBox, not to mention the fact that there is no way that the mod chip could have been legally made in the first place.

If you need me to I can surf the web for the exact US law that these things are covered under.

[Dre]

Originally posted by jschelm
There is a link on this board right now under the title of Read this before modding your xbox or something along those lines.

I read that already and its a different issue altogether. Its a speculation that MS will not allow modded Xbox's on Xbox live and does not discuss the legality of the modchip.

If you need me to I can surf the web for the exact US law that these things are covered under.

I'd like that because I'm still not convinced its illegal although you do make a good argument. And it is just that... an argument. So was my opinion though and I don't deny its a 2 sided blade but I think the whole illegal issue has been polluted with internet rumors.