Getting Started with Xbox Linux
written 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 will 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. There's 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.
CanÂ’t you change it so that drive F: with my pirated games doesnÂ’t get overwritten?
No. And by the way, this is not a Linux issue; the BIOS that supports the F: drive doesnÂ’t 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 don't 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.
