[mythtv-users] Dedicated x-box frontend? (xbox newbie question)

[Kirby Vandivort]

Getting slightly off topic here..

But the basic answer to your questions is that there is no simple answer.

If you have a modchip:

   you can typically turn it on or off.  If off, the
   xbox's normal bios is used and games still work.

   If you have the modchip enabled, the games vs linux thing "depends".  If
   you have the linux bios, it isn't capable of playing games.  If you have
   one of the other bios that are floating around out in cyberspace, most of
   them are capable of playing games, as long as you aren't on xbox live.
   xbox live detects the unsigned code (of the new bios) and will likely
   ban your xbox.

   If you get one of these other bios' floating around the net, you
   can install a different dashboard that will let you load things
   like GentooX.


If you don't have a modchip:

   All of the non-modchip methods mentioned below require you to get
   a special save game to the xbox somehow.  This can be either via a
   special memory card or hard drive swapping methods, etc.

   Until recently, you had two basic options:  you could boot 007
   (and more recently mech assault) and load a special saved game that
   exploited a buffer overflow each every time you wanted to run linux.
   or, you could solder a couple of points on the motherboard, boot 007
   and load a special saved game and then reflash the on-motherboard bios
   with the linux bios.  This effectively made your xbox uncapable of
   playing games.  If you flashed it with one of the other bioses out
   there, you could still play games, with the xbox live restriction
   (and no way to turn the special bios off)

   Recently, a font exploit (and later an audio exploit) were discovered
   that, once activated via the 007 hack, would allow you to boot to
   a special dashboard that then lets you get to linux.  This special
   exploit can be run once, and it stays active.  By using this, you
   can still play games, but can also do linux.

I would suggest http://www.xbox-linux.com and http://www.xbox-scene.com.
They are both excellent sites to learn from, especially scene.

K



On Wed, Jul 16, 2003 at 01:19:24PM -0500, Dane Kantner wrote:
> I've been following these threads... and I'm a bit of a newbie to the Xbox
> ( I don't have one--I am hoping to buy one soon kinda thing) so please
> excuse my ignorance... Anyway, my understanding of modding the xbox to run
> linux was that you basically modded it and redid the OS, and at that point
> you couldnt really use it as it originally was intended (a game platform).
> I vaguely remember reading that, but these seems wrong... Are people just
> redoing the boot sector and doing some sort of bootloader to choose (evox
> dashboard?), or what exactly is going on?  Are you still able to use the
> xbox for games *and* running linux?  I'd imagine so, or I don't see why so
> many people would be jumping this route (other than to have a very cheap
> 'pc')?
> 
> -dane
> 
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at snowman.net
> http://lists.snowman.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

-- 

Kirby Vandivort                      Theoretical and Computational Biophysics 
Email: kvandivo at ks.uiuc.edu          3051 Beckman Institute
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~kvandivo/    University of Illinois
Phone: (217) 244-5711                405 N. Mathews Ave
Fax  : (217) 244-6078                Urbana, IL  61801, USA