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Linux@XBOX
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How to install an initial bootable Linux system on your XBOX
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- tutorial and files by conFB
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Preface
This is a small howto on how to install an initial bootable Linux
system to start modding your Xbox from, without the need to buy
any fancy equipment like mod chips, memory sticks, usb stuff or
games like MechAssault or Agent Under Fire.
You'll need:
- Linux bootdisk available through this site
- knowledge of the exact type of network interface card (nic)
on your PC
- Torx 10 and 20 screwdrivers to open your Xbox
- a bit of Linux knowledge never hurts :-)
Warning
- You might not be able to run any Xbox games anymore after
finishing this modification!!!!
- Warranty will be void, because you have to open your Xbox!!!
- Use all the information on this guide at your own risk!!!!
- The initial Linux system, you are going to install on your Xbox,
will only boot as long as the Dashboard clock is correctly set.
Make sure to set it before you start with this guide and do not
disconnect your Xbox from power for more than a few minutes until
you've finished with whatever you want the initial Linux system to
do (I've only used it to flash cromwell).
1 Prepare Linux bootdisk
The bootdisk is a MSDOS formatted disk. It allows easy access to
all the named config files and nic driver files through any
MSDOS/Windows operation system and also from Linux using the
VFAT filesystem.
1.1 Copy nic drivers to the disk
Your first task is to copy nic drivers for your nic into the
modules drawer of the bootdisk. If you own a RTL8139 based card
(RealTek, quite common low price 10/100 MBit card in Germany),
you can skip this part, because the disk is set up for this
particular card already. Otherwise delete mii.o and rtl8139.o
from the modules drawer on the bootdisk, then find the files
you need for your nic from the nic driver list below and copy
these files from the nicdrivers.zip archive to the modules
drawer of the disk. Then edit the file nic.sh in the cfg
drawer of the disk and change the insmod parameters to match
the files, you've just copied into the modules drawer. Delete
one or insert more insmod commands if necessary. The order of
the insmod commands is important so make sure to use exactly
the same order as shown in the nic driver list below.
1.2 nic driver won't fit on the bootdisk
In that case delete all files in the modules drawer of the
bootdisk and delete nic.sh in the cfg drawer of the bootdisk.
The disk will then boot without any Ethernet support. You may
then load your nic drivers manually from a second disk your
use the startup.sh file in the root directory of the bootdisk
to do it. Knowledge of Linux and shell scripting is required
for this. To mount any MSDOS formatted disk, enter "mount /mnt"
on the console after the bootdisk finished booting.
1.3 Configuring IP address and Internet access
Edit network.cfg in the cfg drawer of the bootdisk. IP sets the
IP address the Linux system on the boot disk will use after
booting. Optionally you can configure Internet access for the
Linux system on the bootdisk, either through an Internet router
of you have one, or through a broadband internet connection
using the PPPoE protocol like T-DSL in Germany for example.
To be able to use an Internet connection set INTERNET=yes in
network.cfg and then set INTERNET_TYPE=ROUTER if you'd like
to connect through an external router or set INTERNET_TYPE=PPPoE
to dial an Internet connection directly from the Linux system
of this bootdisk.
1.3.1 Internet access through external router
Set INTERNET_TYPE=ROUTER in network.cfg as described above,
then enter the IP address of your router under GATEWAY and
enter the IP address of the DNS server to use under DNS.
1.3.2 Internet access through PPPoE
Set INTERNET_TYPE=PPPoE in network.cfg (case sensitive),
then enter your username for the Internet connection under
USER, enter your password under PASS and set the MTU to the
correct value for your Internet service provider. For Germany
that's MTU=1492 for T-Online and other service providers that
use the backbone of Deutsche Telekom and 1454 for all service
providers using the Telefonica (ex Mediaways) backbone.
Internet connection dialup will occur automatically, when
you send any packets to any Internet address, disconnect
will occur after 5 minutes of inactivity. Keep that in mind
if you have to pay your Internet service provider by the
minute!!!
1.3.2.1 Using the Linux system on this bootdisk as an
Internet router
You can even use this bootdisk as an Internet router. Set
any gateway and dns (or nameserver) parameters on your client
PCs or Xboxes to the same IP address, you've entered under IP
in the network.cfg file of the bootdisk. This can also be used
to connect several Xboxes to the Xbox live service
simultaniously through a single Internet connection.
2 First boot of the bootdisk
Try to boot from the bootdisk. Make sure there are no error
messages at the end of boot process. If there are, something
probably went wrong with nic configuration in step 1, so
doublecheck everything. If you see any "Unresolved symbol"
messages, you've probably forgot a nic driver module or
loaded them in the wrong order. Fix all error messages, do
not continue until all errors are fixed, otherwise some or
all of the features described in the next steps won't work.
3 File access methods supported by the Linux system on the boot disk
3.1 ide hard drive partition mount
You can mount ide harddisk partitions from the Linux system
on the boot disk:
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mount /dev/discs/discX/partY /mnt |
File systems supported are ext2, ext3, FAT16 and FAT32.
3.2 Network file system (nfs)
If you have more than one PC, you can run a nfs server on one
of them and the bootdisk on the other:
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mount -t nfs -o nolock nfsserver:path /mnt |
##
Don't forget the nolock parameter, if you do, mount will hang.
3.3 internet/wget
Connect the bootdisk Linux system to the Internet as described
in step 1. Use the wget command to access any http or ftp
downloadable files on the Internet:
You have to know the exact URL of course.
4 Get and extract all needed files
4.1 Xbox dashboard exploit
On the Internet google for a mailing list message with "When
full disclosure is the only way" in the subject. Attached you'll
find a file called dayX.tgz. It might be base64 encoded, so you'd
have to base64 decode it first. dayX.tgz contains three files:
ernie.xtf, bert.xtf and default.xbe. Extract all of them using
gzip and tar and put them in any location you will be able to
access from the Linux bootdisk later.
4.2 Initial Linux system
Get MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-Images.zip from
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=54192
and extract MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-8MB-to-32MB.img from the zip
file. Boot the bootdisk. Use any of the above described file
access methods to access to file MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-8MB-to-32MB.img.
Mount it via the loop device:
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mount -t fatx -o loop MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-8MB-to-32MB.img /mnt |
Go to the 4d530017/E8FF68C9193B subdirectory and copy vmlinuz,
initrd and linuxboot.cfg to the same location as you put ernie.xtf,
bert.xtf and default.xbe in step 4.1. You can also try the ernie &
bert files you you find in the 4d530017/E8FF68C9193B directory,
I don't know if they'll work too. They didn't work for me, but that
might have been because I didn't know about setting the Dashboard
clock at the time.
5 Open your Xbox and remove the hard drive (HDD)
There are six screws hidden on the bottom side of your Xbox: One
under each foot, one under the warranty sticker and one serial
number sticker. Unscrew all of them using a Torx 20 screwdriver,
then lift up the top of your Xbox. To remove the hard drive, you
have to remove the hard drive's plastic tray first. Take a look
on how the Xbox hard drive is jumpered, jumper it to primary master.
Mine was originally jumpered to cable select.
6 Copy the initial Linux system to your Xbox HDD and make the
Xbox boot it
Reconnect the removed hard drive to your Xbox and boot into the
Dashboard. Make sure, you have a Xbox live enabled Dashboard,
otherwise you may experience different directories on the
Xbox C: (system, part51) partition as described below. Disconnect
the IDE cable from the Xbox hard drive while the Xbox is in the
Dashboard. Be very careful with this, try not to shake the hard
drive while doing it to prevent damage to it through a head crash.
Leave the power cable from the Xbox connected to the hard drive.
The Xbox hard drive mustn't power down during this hot-swap,
otherwise you have to start over. On your PC remove primary master
IDE drive from your IDE cable. If this is your PCs hard drive (it
usually is) and you'll need it to access the files prepared in
step 4, reconnect it to some other IDE port. Start booting the
boot disk. Once you see the LILO prompt, but before the kernel
booting messages appear, connect your Xbox hard drive to the
primary master IDE port of your PC.
ONLY THE PRIMARY MASTER IDE PORT WILL WORK!!
After your PC finished booting from the bootdisk and if there
were no error messages, you can now mount your Xbox system
partition (drive C:)
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mount -t fatx /dev/discs/disc0/part51 /mnt |
Also mount either your PCs harddrive partition or nfs server on
some other mount point. Move your Xbox font directory out of
the way and make a new one:
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mv /mnt/fonts /mnt/fonts.old
mkdir /mnt/fonts |
Copy ernie.xtf and bert.xtf to the new fonts directory:
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cp ernie.xtf bert.xtf /mnt/fonts |
Copy default.xbe, linuxboot.cfg, vmlinuz, and initrd to /mnt
(the root directory of the Xbox E: partition):
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cp default.xbe linuxboot.cfg vmlinuz initrd /mnt |
Unmount the Xbox partition:
Power down both Xbox and PC and swap the Xbox HDD back to the Xbox.
Boot up the Xbox and it should boot the initial Linux system now.
At this point you should still be able to run any Game CDs. You
can now either tailor the inital Linux system to your needs or
use raincoat and cromwell to transform your Xbox to a Linux only
system at which point Game CDs will not work any longer!!. See
http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net
for more information. The initial Linux system has IP address
192.168.0.3 and will accept telnet connections on port 23
(root/xbox) or ftp connections on port 21.
7 nic driver list
NIC driver files
3COM EtherLink 3c501 3c501.o
3COM EtherLink II 3c503 8390.o, 3c503.o
3COM EtherLinkPlus 3c505 3c505.o
3COM EtherLink 16 3c507 3c507.o
3COM EtherLink III 3c509/3c529/3c579 3c509.o
3COM ISA Fast EtherLink 3c515 3c515.o
3COM Vortex/Boomerang 3c590/3c900 series mii.o, 3c59x.o
AMD LANCE and PCnet (AT1500 and NE2100) lance.o
SMC WD80*3 8390.o, wd.o
SMC Ultra 8390.o, smc-ultra.o
SMC 9194 smc9194.o
Racal-Interlan (Micom) NI 5010 ni5010.o
Racal-Interlan (Micom) NI 5210 ni52.o
Racal-Interlan (Micom) NI 6510 ni65.o
T1700 (Fujitsu 86965) ISA at1700.o
DEPCA, DE10x, DE200, DE201, DE202, DE422 depca.o
HP 10/100VG PCLAN (ISA, EISA, PCI) hp100.o
Cabletron E21xx ISA 8390.o, e2100.o
EtherWORKS 3 ISA (DE203, DE204, DE205) ewrk3.o
EtherExpress16 ISA eexpress.o
Intel EtherExpress Pro/10 (i82595) eepro.o
HP PCLAN+ (27247B and 27252A) ISA 8390.o, hp-plus.o
HP PCLAN (27245, 27xxx) ISA 8390.o, hp.o
Intel Professional Workstation/panther 82596 lp486e.o
ICL EtherTeam 16i/32 eth16i.o
NE2000/NE1000 and clones, ISA only 8390.o, ne.o
AMD PCnet32 PCI mii.o, pcnet32.o
Adaptec Starfire/DuraLAN starfire.o
Ansel Communications EISA 3200 8390.o ac3200.o
Apricot Xen-II on board Ethernet 82596.o
IBM Etherjet, cs89x0 based Cards cs89x0.o
DECchip Tulip (dc21x4x) PCI tulip.o
Generic DECchip & DIGITAL EtherWORKS PCI/EISA de4x5.o
(Digital DE425, DE434, DE435, DE450, DE500)
Digi International RightSwitch SE-X PCI/EISA dgrs.o
Davicom DM910x/DM980x dmfe.o
Intel EtherExpressPro PCI 10+/100B/100+ mii.o, eepro100.o
or e100.o
Myson MTD-8xx PCI mii.o, fealnx.o
National Semiconductor DP8381x series PCI natsemi.o
NE2000 and clones, PCI only 8390.o ne2k-pci.o
RealTek RTL-8139 C+ PCI mii.o, 8139cp.o
RealTek RTL-8139 PCI (incl. RTL-8129/8130) mii.o, 8139too.o
SiS 900/7016 PCI mii.o, sis900.o
SMC EPIC/100 (EtherPower II) PCI mii.o, epic100.o
Sundance Alta mii.o, sundance.o
TI ThunderLAN tlan.o
Toshiba TC35815 tc35815.o
Via Rhine mii.o, via-rhine.o
Winbond W89c840 mii.o, winbond-840.o
Alteon AceNIC/3Com 3C985/NetGear GA620 acenic.o
D-Link DL2000 dl2k.o
Intel PRO/1000 e1000.o
National Semiconductor DP83820 ns83820.o
Packet Engines Hamachi GNIC-II hamachi.o
Packet Engines YellowFin Gigabit yellowfin.o
SysKonnect SK-98xx sk98lin.o
Broadcom Tigon3 tg3.o
3COM 3c589 PCMCIA 3c589_cs.o
3COM 3c574 PCMCIA 3c574_cs.o
Fujitsu FMV-J18x PCMCIA fmvj18x_cs.o
NE2000 and clones, PCMCIA only 8390.o pcnet_cs.o
Asix AX88190 PCMCIA axnet_cs.o
New Media PCMCIA nmclan_cs.o
SMC 91Cxx PCMCIA mii.o smc91c92_cs.o
Xircom 16-bit PCMCIA xirc2ps_cs.o
Xircom CardBus (DEC 21*4*-based chips/cards) xircom_cb.o
Xircom Tulip-like CardBus (DEC 21*4*-based) xircom_tulip_cb.o
STRIP (Metricom starmode radio IP) strip.o
AT&T WaveLAN & DEC RoamAbout DS wavelan.o
Aironet Arlan 655 & IC2200 DS arlan.o, arlan-proc.o
Aironet 4500/4800 aironet4500_core.o,
aironet4500_proc.o,
aironet4500_card.o
Cisco/Aironet 34X/35X/4500/4800 ISA & PCI airo.o
Hermes chipset 802.11b (Orinoco/Prism2/Symbol) hermes.o orinoco.o
Hermes PCMCIA hermes.o, orinoco.o,
orinoco_cs.o
Cisco/Aironet 34X/35X/4500/4800 PCMCIA airo_cs.o
Aviator/Raytheon 2.4 MHz ray_cs.o
Xircom Netwave AirSurfer netwave_cs.o
AT&T/Lucent Wavelan wavelan_cs.o
Aironet 4500/4800 PCMCIA aironet4500_core.o,
aironet4500_proc.o,
aironet4500_cs.o |
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