As many should now, the X-Box made by M$ Corp, is nothing but a disguised PC with more or less this setup:
P3 Class CPU Running at 733 Mhz (Supported in R5 for example)
NVidia Mobo (Supported as well in R5)
Graphics : NVidia Core between GF2 and GF3. (Supported as well)
Sound : NVidia Soundstorm based (AC97 Drivers already available).
LAN: NVidia LAN (Not supported AFAIK).
HDD: 10 Gb or more if using modchip\exploit.
Can use a Keyboard and Mouse (USB Ones) provided the special cables (around €7 each).
It costs around 180 Euros (I’m europen) and there are Linux Distros already for it and M$ can’t do a shit about it as it does not use any kind of M$ code for it to run.
The booting process is done by 1 of 2 tricks:
-1st:
Taking advantage of a game exploit and using it to flash the TSOP (read bios) with Cromwell (Opensource Bios).
-2nd:
Using a modchip to do that. Modchips afaik are only illegal (and recently) in the UK.
Think about it…
What could prevent (legally or technically) Haiku to run on the X-Box?
And as the XBox 2 (aka Xenon or *insert your guessed name here) is coming on the next year or so… the current Xbox will rapidly be discontinued… and it’s a nice way of using it.
Legally - recent EU court ruling that modifying consoles in any way is illegal. Look at where the main kernel developer lives. Yes, in the EU...
Link? The only thing I heard was about UK specifically.
I mean there are fully-legal shops in Portugal that mod consoles (altough with Linux only).
MYOB wrote:
The bootloader trick is semi illegal, the Raincoating a new BIOS onto it is illegal and the modchips are illegal
So does it mean that If I buy, lets say… a TV set, that I can’t open it and fiddle with it as many as I want without breaking the law?. If I can do that with a TV why not with a console (as long as I don’t alter any proprietary code).?
MYOB wrote:
Plus, when the XBox 2 comes out they're be feck all of them around to use.
When X-Box 2 comes out, I believe that this would be a nice way of still using the XBox 1.
I’m up for any console modding personally. I have a PS2, GameCube, DreamCast, N64, SNES, NES, and Genesis all waiting to go =).
I really don’t think console modding violates any laws, but I could be completely wrong (oh well). If this does happen though, it’ll be someone’s personal project, I can guarantee this area is way too grey for an official organization to dabble into.
Oh ya, someone wanna buy me an xbox so I can mod it? My friend got linux running on his =P.
I'm up for any console modding personally. I have a PS2, GameCube, DreamCast, N64, SNES, NES, and Genesis all waiting to go =).
The only console I ever owned was, almost 25 years ago, an Atari VCS 2600 upgraded with some kind of keyboard that would allow for some programming. Which I used to write 1337 programs like
Are you saying I cant do whatever I want with hardware that I have legally bought and own?
Increasingly no, you can't. What you can and can't do varies greatly depending on where you live and how much the local authorities care.
In the US there is the DMCA which effectly took away fair use rights of the person that bought the product and has reduced the amount of research in a number of areas. See http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20031003_unintended_cons.php for a whole slue of interesting things on this horror of a law.
I’m not sure of the status of these sorts of laws in Canada and the rest of the world though. But, does it really matter?
I say, do what you want, leave it in your basment and don’t tell anyone you don’t trust. After all, what are the authorities going to do? Charge into everyones house looking for such things? I just love laws that are effectively un-enforcable, don’t you?
And if you want to publish, find an anonomous way to do it This is the internet after all
