[mythtv-users] MythTV on Xbox, again

Fri Oct 14 18:10:50 EDT 2005

               Getting Linux to Boot

In order to get Linux to boot you need either Cromwell or 
xbeboot.  I personally use Xromwell (xbe version of
Cromwell).  They are very similar in their configuration, 
but I'll stick to Xromwell here on out.  Xromwell is a grub
type boot-loader so its configuration file (linuxboot.cfg) 
is similar to grub's. Check out:
http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Cromwell_Manual#Linuxboot.cfg_syntax
for syntax.

I personally use the UXE to run Xromwell. UXE will take
control of the xbox and look for E:\debian\default.xbe to boot.
Xromwell is hardcoded to look for E:\linuxboot.cfg.  If 
Xromwell finds your linuxboot.cfg a FATX option will appear.
Xromwell also allows you to load your kernel over bootp; I've
never done this so I'm not sure how good this is.  Instead I
compiled a kernel and copied it to E:\ and netbooted the 
filesystem but not the kernel.  

               Compiling your kernel

I'm a big fan of the 2.6 kernel (not to say that I'm not of
the 2.4 kernel) so I compiled a 2.6 kernel for my xbox.  At the
time of setting up my xbox the most recent was 2.6.12.  However
as of now (10/14/05) there are xbox patches up 2.6.13. Download
the patches:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=54192&package_id=147485

and patch your corresponding kernel version.  Then load up your 
kernel with Xromwell, if your kernel is working, you should see
"Unable to mount root=...".

                    Kernel Options

FATX - FatX is not needed if you don't plan on manipulating the
harddrive, but I'd recommend compiling it as a module as it is
experimental and I have seen some problems with it.

ReiserFS,ext3,ext2 - Not needed since there will be no mounting
of any of these filesystems.

ALSA - I would disable this.  I didn't and ran into some problems
with alsa 1.0.19b.  Make sure you install 1.0.18 as I know this
works.  

Processor Type -> Subarchitecture -> XBOX - I'm pretty sure this is
enabled by default when you run the xbox patch, but just make sure.

i2c - This is required to be able to control your fan speed and
your led.  More on this Later.

                         Gentoo

Gentoo's emerge is a very nice utility that just wont run on 60megs
of RAM.  If you are netbooting, you can just chroot on the NFS server
and run the emerge from the NFS Server.  If you aren't nebooting, 
make an NFS server on the xbox, and chroot from another machine that
has mounted the xbox harddrive somewhere.  Before you emerge make sure
you are using the xbox make profile. See:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/Gentoo_for_Xbox                                          

                              i2c
GentooX's Shallax wrote some very nice utilities to control the 
hardware on the xbox.  They can be found at 

http://cvs.xbox-linux.org/viewcvs.py/xbox-linux/shallaxs_i2c_stuff/

Feel free to email if you have more questions.

Vic

ctd at minneapolish3.com wrote:

> Vic,
>
>  
>
> Can you pass along any info on your process of getting your xbox up
> and running?  I have focused on the xebain world, so I am not too
> familiar with getting gentoo on a xbox.
>
>  
>
> From http://www.mythtv-xbox.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=23, I assumed it
> was a little more troublesome to go the gentoo option.
>
>  
>
>  
>
> Thanks
>
> Mike 
>
>  
>
>  
>
>
>
>
>
> *On Thu Oct 13 11:45 , Victor sent:
>
> *
>
>     I have gentoo running on my xbox not gentoox. I've had no problems
>     (except for the new alpha version of alsa). Is there a reason it must
>     be xebain?
>
>
>     Vic
>
>     greg at nodecam.com
>     <javascript:top.opencompose('greg at nodecam.com','','','')> wrote:
>
>     >>I may not be intelligent enough, however. Currently I'm trying to
>     >>determine which X11 dev library is needed to compile and then,
>     how to get
>     >>X working again once the lib is installed (X dies on reboot with
>     this
>     >>message repeated: agpgart: Unsupported NVIDIA chipset (device
>     id: 02a5),
>     >>you might want to try agp_try_unsupported=1 ). Slow going.
>     >>
>     >>
>     >
>     >I get that message once every time I start X up, and it works
>     fine. You
>     >might have to look elsewhere for troubleshooting.
>     >
>     >Also, for those of you trying to compile from source...I recall
>     reading
>     >somewhere that the compile will fail partway through because of
>     the memory
>     >contraints of the XBox, but that restarting compilation will work. I
>     >don't have the details handy, but IIRC it was in a thread
>     somewhere that
>     >people were using Gentoo (not Gentoox) and trying to compile.
>     >
>     >Sorry I couldn't be more help, but I thought I'd throw in what
>     little info
>     >I've got.
>     >
>     >Greg
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