XBox 360 Linux Bootloader Released


[XanTium] let me know that there’s finally an Xbox 360 linux boot disc. It takes advantage of the hypervisor vulnerability, and It takes some effort – compiling, executing over a serial cable, after loading some modified files, etc. It took long enough, but now you can roll your own if you want. (Personally, I just use an Ubuntu box with DVI and optical audio.)

22 thoughts on “XBox 360 Linux Bootloader Released

  1. It’d be cool if someone developed a GPL board and firmware with a 64bit quad core CPU, and a couple of Nvidia 7800 chips directly interfaced to the CPU like PCIe.

    I’ve seen some modders do firmware hacks and surface mount systems just as complex.

    To tell you the truth commercial consoles are limited by budgets(IMHO.) If people posted improved schematics it would be to consoles what Linux is to operating systems.

  2. to #5, as far as linux, i really don’t see a reason other than to use it as a web server (though these days, for the same price, you could build one from scratch), but if you’ve seen what can be done with the origional xbox, you’ll know why i (and most people I beilive) are excited to see this.

  3. Why can’t microsoft just be cool about people wanting to put their own OS or moding the one that comes with the 360 like Sony is?

    The ps3 is very open source and they even help you get alternate Os’s installed, they provide all of the necesary tools and its been shown that SATA 3.0 non hard drive disks work fine with a little modification to fit it in there.

  4. What was the point of that comment, Hooker? Anyway, this is pretty cool, but what libraries are needed to compile the source found on CVS, and what equipment is needed to use the binaries produced?

  5. Are the current units on the shelf patched or not?

    As for the PS3, I have been told that even running Linux on it you’re in a hypervisor and nto able to get right to the metal. Allow me to run something like XBMC in full HD on a PS3 and I’ll eat my hat – then buy one.

  6. #9 I was just suggesting instead of wining about licensing and obscureness why not develop a open source 3D capable platform for GPL 3rd party developers!?

    One reason Microsoft and other Corporate developers don’t try to go overboard with there security models is because mods and hacks for there platforms make them billions of effortless free income and the 3rd party’s just go on arm chair advocating openness totally ignorant to the fact they’re working for the big evil corporations just without an office and paycheck.

  7. 7. Why can’t microsoft just be cool about people wanting to put their own OS or moding the one that comes with the 360 like Sony is?
    Posted at 6:53PM on Mar 21st 2007 by pavlo

    You want to know why? Its very simple if they alow people to install linux on the xbox it will hurt them because Microsoft is 100% against linux because they make WINDOWS duh

  8. #14 You honestly believe the crap you say? More people buy the unit if it’s more flexible. Microsoft makes a big bank roll whenever someone boots a Linux system on there proprietary hardware.

    Like I said until GPL developers have an open 3D gaming platform they’re all just workers on big corporations ant hills.

    A lot of the money and labor that goes into manufacturing mod chips, ASIC’s, and reverse engineering firmware could go into producing a competitive open platform.

  9. tjhooker:
    microsoft loses money on each xbox360 sold, and needs to recoup that lost money on game sales. that is why they DO put a lot of effort into their security model. Go read about xbox1 and xbox360 security mechanisms. In other words your post #13 is 100% incorrect, and in actuality the exact OPPOSITE of what you said is true.

  10. I also agree with #16 the thing is that the price of the hardware used in the 360 might not be covered by the selling price.
    Well that does not really matter because Microsoft wants to get money out of the games so making sure that only certified games from companies who pay license fees to ms run on their Xbox is not a bad idea…

  11. Another reason is if someone could easily put another OS on a semi-bad machine(PPC 3.2ghz Tri Core in the 360 each core at 3.2ghz). Then people would start putting more time into dev. linux games for the xbox and completely undermine MS. Watch I bet once the ball gets rolling behind Linux games for PS3, sony will come out with a new system w/o that feature or increased security.

  12. this hack is useful to use the 360 with boxee. but the question is… is this hack easily reversible and is there a way to do it without playing with serial cables and coding. microsoft, if they’re smart, will just open the 360 for internet browsing and get boxee to make a version that can run on 360, that they can just download to us in their next update. if they do that the 360 will be da bomb. if they don’t do that, apple tv is the next killer-device.

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