Xbox original as kolibri os platform?

Post here questions, problems and suggestions in English language
  • I have one laying around so might try it someday. First step is flashing other firmware in the XBOX, like I told you before viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2663 .
    The hardware seems like a good platform for KolibriOS, yes.
    "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." Albert Einstein
  • Oh, quite some time ago! I have some spare time as I need to get down on my plus work hours. I will try to find which methodes off getting linux on the xbox are available. Perhaps it is easier than we think. If linux runs on the xbox, we would only have to get the bootloader pointing to the kos.img file. Might be a good project for our next retro meeting.
  • One step closer! I got 2 old xbox classic consols, 2 controllers, 1 set for connecting 1 xbox for 55 Euros yesterday. Now I need to find some time to get one softmodded and install linux on it. After that I can test kos on it.
  • Now I have xbox original with softmod and one with a chip. Both can run the dsl linux distro cromwell is used as bootloader. So no grub bootloader. Is there a way to load kolibri os from within linux like in dos/windows?
  • According to wikipedia, the cromwell bios has grub integrated. I'd try to get into the grub menu and load kolibrios from there. Cross your fingers this system has VESA support..
    "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." Albert Einstein
  • Would that be the linuxboot.cfg?

    title 640x480
    kernel linux24
    initrd minirt24.gz
    append root=/dev/ram0 init=/etc/init rw video=xbox:640x480 dsl lang=xbox utc mydsl=hda50 joy quiet kbd-reset

    title 800x600
    kernel linux24
    initrd minirt24.gz
    append root=/dev/ram0 init=/etc/init rw video=xbox:800x600 dsl lang=xbox utc mydsl=hda50 joy quiet kbd-reset

    title 480p
    kernel linux24
    initrd minirt24.gz
    append root=/dev/ram0 init=/etc/init rw video=xbox:480p dsl lang=xbox utc mydsl=hda50 joy quiet kbd-reset

    title 720p
    kernel linux24
    initrd minirt24.gz
    append root=/dev/ram0 init=/etc/init rw video=xbox:720p dsl lang=xbox utc mydsl=hda50 joy quiet kbd-reset


    Is on the dsl.iso (https://sourceforge.net/projects/xbox-l ... SL%20v0.6/) what would I have to insert there?
  • linuxboot.cfg?

    title 640x480
    kernel linux24
    initrd minirt24.gz
    append root=/dev/ram0 init=/etc/init rw video=xbox:640x480 dsl
    lang=xbox utc mydsl=hda50 joy quiet kbd-reset

    and change to:

    title KolibriOS
    root (hd0,2) ?!? also without hd?
    kernel /memdisk would be needed to be copied?
    initrd /kolibri.img would be the floppy image?

    what does the append root do?
  • I believe memdisk is a program responsible for the virtual floppy drive, so if you dont have that, copying it from another x86 system might work..
    "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." Albert Einstein
  • Than I will give it tomorrow a try with these settings:

    title KolibriOS
    kernel /memdisk (need to find it but should be no problem)
    initrd /kolibri.img

    Xbox has a somewhat Nvidia like grafic card. So vesa should be present. But I was told that some pci accesses must be blocked because of incompatibilities of xbox vs x86 hardware.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_tech ... ifications

    xbox original would be a nice dev plattform for kolibri os
  • I changed the iso linuxboot.cfg, but no the new disc I burned is not recognized linuxboot.cfg not found :oops: :cry:
  • Try to make a bootable iso image that boots in any emulator for the first.
  • I installed dsl linux on the hda2 partition and than there is linuxboot.cfg under /boot. I add the following lines, but it seems to hang after reading:

    title KolibriOS
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/memdisk
    initrd /boot/kolibri.img
    append root=/dev/hda2 init=/etc/init ro video=xbox:640x480 quiet kbd-reset

    Image
  • Oh there seem to be some hardware differenced, but should they interfer so early?

    https://web.archive.org/web/20100617011 ... Xbox_HOWTO
  • Spoiler:Video Driver
    Fully supporting the Xbox video hardware could mean a lot of work (or at least a lot of copying from the Xbox kernel). But there is no need to implement a complete video driver. Both bootloaders provided by the Xbox Linux project set up a 640x480 screen (32 bit colour, RGBX), which is useful for many setups. This linear framebuffer lies at the top of memory (around 60 MB) and can be used by your operating system without ever touching any video registers. This just works like the VESA modes supported by most operating systems, which get set up by the boot loader (using BIOS functions) and never get switched afterwards. Have a look at the bootloader section to learn how to find out where this framebuffer is located.
    If you want full support, you can reuse driver code for nVidia video hardware, as the Xbox video hardware is fully nVidia compatible. The problem is just that the Xbox does not have a VGA RAMDAC, but a PAL/NTSC video encoder (which is connected through the SMBus), so you always need to make sure when you set up a new mode that the video encoder is also correctly set up, or else you will get garbage on the screen.
    Unfortunately, there is one of three incompatible video encoders in every Xbox: The first Xboxes used Connexant chips (1.0 to 1.3), later ones used Focus components (1.4 and 1.5), and 1.6 Xboxes include an integrated Xcalibur unit. That is why you might have to copy a lot of code from the Xbox Linux kernel and have others with different Xboxes test your code. You can find all this code in drivers/video/xbox/*.
    Somebody has to make a present of NVidia videocard to Serge ))
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