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Installing linux ( Ubuntu) on xbox 360?

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  • Xbox 360
  • Ubuntu
  • Linux
Last response: in Linux/Free BSD
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October 9, 2013 9:15:37 PM

Well, recently I switched to PC gaming, so my old xbox 360 is gathering dust, and I herd that you can install Ubuntu on them, but the problem is, the disk drive on my 360 is broken, and every guide has you use a linux install disk. Im wondering if theirs a way around this, such as using the Xbox's internal SATA drive to flash the firmware, then installing linux on it's hard drive. I have the hard drive out of the case (it's a 60GB one), so it would be easy to connect to my PC to install stuff on.
If you're wondering, im just going to be using this as a mini-HTPC, for music and netflix and what not.

More about : installing linux ubuntu xbox 360

a b 5 Linux
October 10, 2013 7:16:39 AM

More trouble than it's worth if it is still indeed possible. There's not a whole lot of software for Xbox 360 Linux because of the peculiar CPU arch.
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a b 5 Linux
October 10, 2013 9:28:50 AM

There was Linux distro which used to work on the original XBox. I don't think there is anything available for XBox 360
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a b 5 Linux
October 10, 2013 11:08:35 AM

no you cannot install ubuntu on xbox...
the only linux available for xbox360 is a dead project called 'free60' and it only works on xbox manufactured before 2009.

besides xbox sucks as a htpc, has no hardware decoding chip and uses a ton of power. your better off buying a roku box or similar.
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March 23, 2014 2:28:24 PM

skittle said:
no you cannot install ubuntu on xbox...
the only linux available for xbox360 is a dead project called 'free60' and it only works on xbox manufactured before 2009.

besides xbox sucks as a htpc, has no hardware decoding chip and uses a ton of power. your better off buying a roku box or similar.


Since Reset Glitch Hack has been released, there is posibile to run unsigned code on every xbox 360. And definitely YES, you can install Linux Ubuntu or Debian on xbox 360.
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April 22, 2014 8:05:58 AM

sg43102 said:
skittle said:
no you cannot install ubuntu on xbox...
the only linux available for xbox360 is a dead project called 'free60' and it only works on xbox manufactured before 2009.

besides xbox sucks as a htpc, has no hardware decoding chip and uses a ton of power. your better off buying a roku box or similar.


Since Reset Glitch Hack has been released, there is posibile to run unsigned code on every xbox 360. And definitely YES, you can install Linux Ubuntu or Debian on xbox 360.


Is it possible to replace the Xbox 360 bootloader and/or OS so that the machine natively runs Linux from that point forward? (Without needing to rely on a mod to circumvent the bootloader on every boot)
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April 22, 2014 9:35:31 AM

intel352 said:
sg43102 said:
skittle said:
no you cannot install ubuntu on xbox...
the only linux available for xbox360 is a dead project called 'free60' and it only works on xbox manufactured before 2009.

besides xbox sucks as a htpc, has no hardware decoding chip and uses a ton of power. your better off buying a roku box or similar.


Since Reset Glitch Hack has been released, there is posibile to run unsigned code on every xbox 360. And definitely YES, you can install Linux Ubuntu or Debian on xbox 360.


Is it possible to replace the Xbox 360 bootloader and/or OS so that the machine natively runs Linux from that point forward? (Without needing to rely on a mod to circumvent the bootloader on every boot)

There is no need to replace the xbox bootloader because xell (xenon linux launcher) can be launched from dashboard as homebrew, or by turning the xbox on with eject button. Linux installed on xbox 360 hdd runs natively, you have acces to all hardware and you can do whatever you want...
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April 22, 2014 9:39:05 AM

sg43102 said:

There is no need to replace the xbox bootloader because xell (xenon linux launcher) can be launched from dashboard as homebrew, or by turning the xbox on with eject button. Linux installed on xbox 360 hdd runs natively, you have acces to all hardware and you can do whatever you want...


It'd be nice to be able to make that the default bootloader/launcher. Essentially I'd like to be able to treat this like a typical Linux machine, so that if I were to remotely restart the machine, I can ensure it reboots back into Linux, rather than require physical interaction to force it into the proper loader...
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April 22, 2014 10:00:26 AM

intel352 said:
sg43102 said:

There is no need to replace the xbox bootloader because xell (xenon linux launcher) can be launched from dashboard as homebrew, or by turning the xbox on with eject button. Linux installed on xbox 360 hdd runs natively, you have acces to all hardware and you can do whatever you want...


It'd be nice to be able to make that the default bootloader/launcher. Essentially I'd like to be able to treat this like a typical Linux machine, so that if I were to remotely restart the machine, I can ensure it reboots back into Linux, rather than require physical interaction to force it into the proper loader...

Unfortunately you can not remotely interact with this machine. The bad thing is the xbox sometimes have cpu spinlock durring boot, and have to mannualy restart the xbox. Maybe you could find a way to replace the bootloader, but this could be illegal, rather then using xell (legal homebrew).
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April 22, 2014 10:06:05 AM

sg43102 said:
Unfortunately you can not remotely interact with this machine. The bad thing is the xbox sometimes have cpu spinlock durring boot, and have to mannualy restart the xbox. Maybe you could find a way to replace the bootloader, but this could be illegal, rather then using xell (legal homebrew).


If it were hooked up on network, with linux running, you should be able to remotely interact with it at that point, unless I'm missing some larger point here.

I'm not concerned about legality, as I don't intend to [re]sell, distribute, or in any other way make this system available to anyone else. I rather just want to repurpose the hardware since it's basically a functional computer that's sitting unused currently.
I'd imagine legality would enter the equation if I went route of modifying the bootloader (reverse engineering / patching it), but it seems replacing the bootloader completely should fall into a category of it's own.

Dunno, I'll keep digging, thanks for the advice.
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April 22, 2014 10:26:21 AM

I just mean you can not wake on LAN (or other remote method) this machine. of course you can remote contol any running linux machine using vnc.
The "bootloader" in my opinion is dead end. Check libxenon.org for some tutorial in installing and running linux on xbox 360
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