How do I Install Linux on my Xbox?

For hardcore gamers, the Microsoft Xbox is one of the top consoles ever created. The hardware itself is on par with many desktop computers of just a few years ago, which gave a great idea to many hackers to actually make their Xbox into a practical computer fully equipped with a DVD ROM drive, keyboard, mouse and monitor (in this case your TV screen). If you have always wanted to own a Linux computer, you can now simply create one using your Xbox. Here are some tips.


The Xbox is a real bargain, at $150; this console is packed with lots of power to play top rated video games. Included in each Xbox are the following quality components:

Computer Chip: Intel Celeron 733 MHz
RAM: 64 MB
Graphics Card: 300 MHZ Nvidia Geforce MX3
Hard Drive: Usually 10 GB's, however there are earlier models with just 8 GB's
Optical Drive: DVD/CD Drive (read only)
USB Capability: 4 USB Ports
Networking Capability: 10/100 Mbit/sec Ethernet Port
It should be noted that although Xbox is sold by Microsoft, an Xbox computer is unable to use any Microsoft operating system; instead in order to turn this hardware into a fully functional PC you will need to load Linux.

Installing Linux onto an Xbox is not technically difficult, but it requires that you load a small amount of software onto the Xbox first. Since Xbox has made it difficult to load additional software onto the Xbox, you will have to trick the system into thinking that the small amount of software is part of a game. In addition, you will need a cable adapter that can plug directly into the Xbox device and a USB memory device to transfer the software to the computer. The good news is that many USB cable adapters that either work with computers or digital cameras will fit into the back of the Xbox.

About Xbox
Xbox does contain a small operating system; however it is just enough to load a small number of drivers and to display the Dashboard, which is the user interface. The Dashboard allows users to interact with the Xbox to select games, copy and save information about games to the hard drive or additional memory units and copy music CDS. You usually control the Dashboard via the Xpad, which is a gaming controller.

As stated above, to gain access to the Xbox, you just need to trick it into thinking that Linux is an Xbox game- which thankfully is not that difficult to achieve. However, before you can load the entire Linux operating system onto the Xbox, you will need to load a small version of it- which will load the important drivers. These drivers are very important and necessary in order to allow you to load the entire version. One of the important drivers that you will be loading first onto Xbox is the telnet session.

Step 1: Use a Special Cable to Attach a USB Memory Device to the Xbox Console
In the first step, you will need two things, a USB memory drive and a cable that connects directly from the USB memory drive into the Xbox console.

Step 2. The USB cable:

It should be noted that any OEM product that directly connects to the Console uses standard USB connectors. However, it may be hard to see these standard USB connectors underneath the shielded cable. There are several ways to go about creating a USB connector for the Xbox console. The first way is to make a special USB cable by using a female USB connector and USB extension cable. Chop the female USB connector in half and separate the four wires (each of them colored), chop the USB extension cable and separate the four wires. Now splice the wires together and apply electrical tape. Two other methods include buying a USB cable adapter that connects to the memory device. And the third option is to purchase from other modifiers a home made USB adapter for the Xbox.

Now that you have the cable adapter, you will need a memory device. The good news is that there are many USB memory devices that will work well with the Xbox. Two are:

Kingston DataTraveler 32 and 256 MB.

Lexar JumpDrive Secure 128 and 256 MB

Once you have your cable adapter and your USB memory device, plug the device into the USB cable and then the cable into the Xbox. Now start up your Xbox console. When the Xbox is powered up, the USB device will be discovered and reformatted. Once it is reformatted, your USB memory device should show up on the Xbox Dashboard.

Step 3: Acquire a Bootable Image for the First Transfer of Linux to Xbox
Once your newly formatted USB device is shown on the Dashboard, you will want to start the Linux process by first loading a small Linux operating system, which includes essential drivers such as telnet to the memory device and then onto the Xbox console. However to load even this small Linux software you will need the help of an Xbox game and an image called a "Savegame". Many people use the Savegame image from MechAssault. You can download this image from the web. One web site that offers the image is SourceForge.net. It should be noted that the size of your memory device should determine the size of the image you download. For instance, if your memory device holds 128MB, download the image file that is 128MB.

Step 4: Copy the Savegame Image to Your Xbox
Plug in your cable to the Xbox that is attached to your memory device that includes the image. Now start up your Xbox(??). On the Dashboard you should be able to view the contents of the USB memory stick. If everything is working properly, you will see three choices: Emergency Linux, Remove Linux and Install Linux. At this point, you will want to transfer all files from the USB memory disc to the Xbox's hard drive, you can accomplish this by using the usual methods to save games to the hard drive.

Step 5: Start up Linux
Once the image is saved to the Xbox console, you will need to run the image, however to do so, you will need a game DVD. Again, MechAssualt is used. Since your Savegame image was Mechassault, you will need the Mechassault game. If another game image was used, you will need that game DVD to launch the image. It should be noted that you only need the game once, so you can easily rent it for the day.

Insert your game DVD into the Xbox. From the Dashboard, you should see the Emergency Linux that you saved to the hard drive. Select Emergency Linux. Once the image has been selected, Xbox will restart and instead of a Dashboard screen, you will see a black screen with white scrolling letters. This means that Linux is booting.

Now that the small version of Linux is running on your Xbox, you can use telnet. Use telnet at its default address of 192.168.0.3. From here you can log in with the username: root and the password: Xbox. Once logged in type in the command: xbox_tool-a This command shows you the hard disk key. You will need this key because the hard disk is encrypted in the memory of the Xbox (EEPROM).

Once you have the hard disk key, insert the Mechassault DVD into the Xbox again. This time you will select Install Linux. Once Linux is installed, you will no longer need to use Mechassault game to gain access to the Dashboard. From this point on we can go ahead and load the full version of Linux.

Step 6: Load the Full Version of Linux onto the Xbox Console
Since the minimal version of Linux is fully loaded onto the Xbox console, the next time you start Xbox, you can choose Linux and it will start automatically without the need for any DVD's memory devices, etc. Now we will load a full version of Linux onto the Xbox console. While there are many different versions of Linux such as RedHat and Gentoo, you do have a choice, however the best version for Xbox is called Ed's Debian. Ed's Debian is modified especially for the Xbox, making it the perfect choice. You can download it from the web or request a CD ROM of the files. However if you download it, you can make a simple bootable CD and install it directly into the optical drive. There is a virtual keyboard included with this version making it extremely easy to load without the use of a keyboard or mouse. For more information please visit the following link: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=54192&package_id=57509

Once installation is complete, you can enjoy a fully functional Linux computer created from your Xbox. It should be noted that you can easily add a keyboard, mouse or other USB devices via the Xbox USB ports.