Greetings from Xbox Linux

Anything before or after the GameCube!
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emu_kidid
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Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by emu_kidid » Sat May 09, 2015 3:30 pm

Hi all,

I'm just writing to you from a original xbox that was headed for the bin until I "rescued" it.

It features:
Xbox 1.0 mainboard (64MB RAM, 733MHz Celeron powah!)
Aladdin XT Plus2 running IND-BIOS
Xbox 1.6 PSU hardwired
120GB IDE WD HDD
2008 DVD RW IDE Drive (with custom split molex cable for power and external eject switch)
X-DSL aka Xbox Damn Small Linux

Upgraded linux as far as it'll allow me, but next time I might try the 2009 release of GentooX to see if it lets me do anything more than I currently can :)

Screenshots: (attached later from screen capture)
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andre104623
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by andre104623 » Sat May 09, 2015 6:06 pm

Very nice, I made a post in the marketplace looking for a Xbox Modchip just so I can get this beast of a console up and running with some cool mods and homebrew

Edit: do you think you can take some console pics as well. I didn't know you can put any DVD-RW drive into the original Xbox and it plays Xbox games?
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emu_kidid
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by emu_kidid » Sun May 10, 2015 1:42 am

Well, it can't read original game discs with this drive. I'll take some pictures at some point.
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andre104623
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by andre104623 » Tue May 19, 2015 6:40 pm

I wanted to ask you (since the xbox scene is dead) instead of buying one of those china made Xbox controller input to female USB connector for a USB stick can I just buy this:http://www.showmecables.com/product/USB ... Avcd8P8HAQ and solder it to say the wires going to port 3 of the xbox?
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by dilav » Tue May 19, 2015 8:07 pm

andre104623 wrote:I wanted to ask you (since the xbox scene is dead) instead of buying one of those china made Xbox controller input to female USB connector for a USB stick can I just buy this:http://www.showmecables.com/product/USB ... Avcd8P8HAQ and solder it to say the wires going to port 3 of the xbox?
Yes, google search for 'xbox usb mod -360' and you should see some info on it.
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by andre104623 » Wed May 20, 2015 1:44 pm

dilav wrote:
andre104623 wrote:I wanted to ask you (since the xbox scene is dead) instead of buying one of those china made Xbox controller input to female USB connector for a USB stick can I just buy this:http://www.showmecables.com/product/USB ... Avcd8P8HAQ and solder it to say the wires going to port 3 of the xbox?
Yes, google search for 'xbox usb mod -360' and you should see some info on it.
Thank you I found a very old diagram
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MockyLock
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by MockyLock » Wed May 20, 2015 2:13 pm

Could you share this diagram please ?
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by andre104623 » Thu May 21, 2015 1:42 am

Sure
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MockyLock
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by MockyLock » Thu May 21, 2015 5:11 am

Thank you !
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by emu_kidid » Fri May 22, 2015 5:54 am

I've tried getting GentooX on it but it turns out my DVD-RW drive is having issues reading the disc or something, I'll try another burn of the disc (maybe on CD-R) and see how I go.
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by andre104623 » Mon May 25, 2015 7:36 pm

OK next question how to upgrade ram to 128mb from 64mb. I can see the ram chips on the motherboard ( one on ether side ) I guess you solder two 32 mb chips on top of one another right?. I guess homebrew should run better with this mod right
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by novenary » Mon May 25, 2015 8:40 pm

It's mostly for Linux I think. Like, 64MB is a bit tight for multitasking but with 128 you have more headroom.
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by andre104623 » Mon May 25, 2015 9:25 pm

Streetwalker wrote:It's mostly for Linux I think. Like, 64MB is a bit tight for multitasking but with 128 you have more headroom.
Oh OK so no real benefit for homebrew or Xbox games then. I might install linux on it and play around with it but I have a ps3 with Linux installed and its great but I haven't used it in over a year.
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by novenary » Mon May 25, 2015 9:42 pm

Yeah, pretty sure the homebrew and games won't use more than 64MB ram since they probably use pretty hardcoded memory management.
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by Duhasst0 » Wed May 27, 2015 3:46 am

Yeah from what I have read there is no real gaming benefit and only a handful of homebrew should see it.

There are empty spots on the board front and back where you can see a foot print of where the ram is supposed to go if you do. Shouldn't be too hard, I just wish my Xbox hadn't gotten stolen recently.
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by andre104623 » Wed May 27, 2015 9:51 pm

OK so no ram upgrade then. I got the pin headers soldered in already since I had to replace the laser in the DVD drive. That clock capacitor was leaking electrolyte all over the board so I removed it and cleaned up the mobo. Is there a replacement for the clock cap that isn't a capacitor like a battery replacement. The Xbox runs fine without it but setting the clock all the time is annoying. I made a USB cable from a old 3rd party controller this is when I realized that the Xbox isn't compatible with a lot of USB sticks. I didn't have any sticks that would work but I found a really old 4gb class 2 micro SD card so I plugged it into a transcend SD/micro SD USB 2.0 adapter and guess what it works! Now if I want to backup say a game save from the HDD to the SD card it will fail but from SD card to HDD works fine so I downloaded some hacked GTA San Andreas saves and transfered over to the Xbox now I'm really kicking ass in GTA.

Still waiting for the Aladdin xeno FX plus2 to come in the mail it will be sometime about 3 weeks till I see it. I had to get 2 so I might sell the other one in the marketplace. Now this Modchip has a LCD feature how does this work and where do I get the LCD screen? Does it have to be special? Thanks for any info
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by badsector » Thu May 28, 2015 7:49 am

FATX (or how it is called) does not support any USB devices larger than 4GB. So this would explain why only this device works.
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by andre104623 » Mon Jun 08, 2015 1:52 pm

Got the modchips today . I put one for sale here and I will report back on progress of my system
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by emu_kidid » Mon Jun 08, 2015 11:35 pm

Great, looking forward to it :)
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by andre104623 » Tue Jun 09, 2015 1:15 pm

Well everything went well. Just a basic install into a 1.0 xbox.
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Now lets try to grab some old computer parts to make this thing a media center :) 250GB 7200RPM Sata HDD (Was being used for my IDE-EXI)
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Now I'm going to see if it works OK. I need to find my 80-pin IDE cable and I have a 1.6 xbox that is getting softmodded with a rare hitachi dvd drive that I will put into this xbox later today. The DVD drive you see in the pic sucks balls. It can't read shit but at least it reads the hexen disc
Last edited by andre104623 on Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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badsector
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by badsector » Tue Jun 09, 2015 1:39 pm

Why do you need a 80 pin IDE cable? I only needed one when using SATA HDDs with a converter.
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by andre104623 » Tue Jun 09, 2015 1:44 pm

emu_kidid wrote:Great, looking forward to it :)
How is everything going on your end. Did you get the drive to read the tool disc? I was confused at first but I think I'm getting it. When I first turned on the system the LED's do a little light show then I see the purple EVOx in the corner. At that point I could put copied games and they would boot but this DVD drive is balls. So I burned the Hexen disc and installed evo-M8 I think? Now I have a cool Dash with a lot of options but there asking me for a password!? I don't have a password and now when I put a game in copy or not the system will start to read the game then it kick back into the Dash. I don't know what I'm doing wrong here. So I put the SATA 250GB HDD in but I'm at work now so I can't test got to wait till lunch
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by andre104623 » Tue Jun 09, 2015 1:46 pm

badsector wrote:Why do you need a 80 pin IDE cable? I only needed one when using SATA HDDs with a converter.
Well if you look at the pic that's the reason. I heard it's faster and better then 40-pin
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by andre104623 » Tue Jun 09, 2015 1:59 pm

badsector wrote:Why do you need a 80 pin IDE cable? I only needed one when using SATA HDDs with a converter.
Do you know why my xbox is asking me for a password when I enter hexen settings in the dash menu? What is the password or how the hell do I turn it off.

Last night when I first installed the modchip and already ran the hexen disc I installed surreal64 6.0 and played some goldeneye 007 and wow this system is great for n64 games. Not as good as my JTAG 360 but that died years ago
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Re: Greetings from Xbox Linux

Post by badsector » Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:21 pm

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