Hacking Is Linux still possible on Xbox 360?

[TotalBasshead]

Hello world! I wanted to come to a forum to ask people that have been in the Linux/Xbox 360 ecosystem. One of my cousins gave me an original Xbox 360 that should be "JTAGable". I heard back in 2012, there was a team called "Free60" working on a port of linux to the Xbox 360. But, it doesn't have essential stuff like, hardware acceleration. But, with the 5.11 kernel introducing a lot of new things, especially in the past almost 10 years at this point, like amdgpu, radeon, and much more. I feel like it'll be worth more trying to install linux on an Xbox 360. Is there any tips people would want to recommend? Any distros to consider? I had thought about Gentoo Linux, mainly because it's one of the few that still support PowerPC.

 

[DinohScene]

Linux is still possible yep, functional in today's world however...
It's been years since I ran Linux on the thing tbf

About your 360 tho, if it's actually vulnerable to JTAG then JTAG it, if it's not a Xenon (original model w/o HDMI port) and it's over 7371 then you can just update to the latest dash and RGH it.

 

[TotalBasshead]

Linux is still possible yep, functional in today's world however...
It's been years since I ran Linux on the thing tbf

About your 360 tho, if it's actually vulnerable to JTAG then JTAG it, if it's not a Xenon (original model w/o HDMI port) and it's over 7371 then you can just update to the latest dash and RGH it.

That is good news! I hope that i can get a bootloader that works with the install medium for Gentoo and I dont need the Disc Drive, since it's broken. Maybe I can use a USB Flash drive for it if it'll let me. I hope it works out, because having an Xbox with linux sounds really fun. Have a wonderful day!

 

[CompSciOrBust]

That is good news! I hope that i can get a bootloader that works with the install medium for Gentoo and I dont need the Disc Drive, since it's broken. Maybe I can use a USB Flash drive for it if it'll let me. I hope it works out, because having an Xbox with linux sounds really fun. Have a wonderful day!

Does it have no drive at all or is it just broken? Iirc you need to use the eject button to boot in to xell.

 

[TotalBasshead]

Does it have no drive at all or is it just broken? Iirc you need to use the eject button to boot in to xell.

It does have a drive, but from what my buddy told me, it doesn't work. When I JTAG it, i might replace it. Either way, what do you think about graphics support for the Xbox 360? Do you think the radeon or amdgpu drivers will work decently?

 

[godreborn]

There's a small button for eject connected to a ribbon shaped piece of plastic. It probably still works with broken drive.

 

[DinohScene]

Eject button is on the motherboard.
Technically seeing, you don't physically need a DVD drive

Idk, the tech in a 360 is 16 years old.
I don't even know if the latest linux kernel has been ported tbf.
What I can remember is that development on 360 Linux has halted pretty quickly after it came out.

 

[TotalBasshead]

Eject button is on the motherboard.
Technically seeing, you don't physically need a DVD drive

Idk, the tech in a 360 is 16 years old.
I don't even know if the latest linux kernel has been ported tbf.
What I can remember is that development on 360 Linux has halted pretty quickly after it came out.

Interesting, Im kinda interested in wondering why. But either way, I really would love to see linux with hardware acceleration running on something. It's better with newer hardware like the Switch, PS4, etc due to them just being newer. The PS4 does have Gentoo Linux with hardware acceleration as far as I know. Since the Xbox uses a "decent" PPC processor, Gentoo might not be too "painful" if I can get a decent bootloader working on the Xbox. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[godreborn]

I think you can change what opens xell with with xebuild and possible jrunner. I think I remember seeing that option, so I don't think it has to be eject. plus, dashlaunch has xell launch for it, which is an app that will open xell.

if you ever get a disc stuck and the eject button doesn't work for some reason, there's a small hole under the face plate that you can use with a paper clip to open the disc tray manually.

 

[DinohScene]

XeLL stands for Xenon Linux Loader.
It's basically included in every hacked 360, JTAG and RGH.
This looks for linux files or libxenon homebrew to bootstrap upon boot.
You could just drag Gentoox or w/e version you have to a USB and insert it, start the console with the eject button and it should auto load once xell has found vmlinuz or w/e is needed to boot it ;p

 

[godreborn]

I think there's an n64 emulator that only runs through xell. here's what I was thinking of:

by default, it's stuck on the eject button, but it can be changed when you flash the nand. I've never tried it though.

 

[DinohScene]

I think there's an n64 emulator that only runs through xell. here's what I was thinking of:

*snip*

by default, it's stuck on the eject button, but it can be changed when you flash the nand. I've never tried it though.

I used to have the secondary on the IR port.
But that was a decade ago...

 

[godreborn]

if I ever update again, I might try that. I'm already on 17559, which I think is the latest.

 

[Deleted member 668561]

Yes it is however all of the existing builds are verrrry old, and run outdated distros,

You can however build your own custom ppc distro, finding the gpu display driver will be fun

 

[mte90]

Yes I tried to use the old Free60 project and compile some of the stuff. The big issues is that everything is very dated so is not very suitable for a daily uses sadly....