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From: "Jukka Aho" <jukka....@iki.fi>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.xbox
References: <g82stq$dq3$1@aioe.org>
Subject: Re: Linux Distros
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Message-ID: <LQ%vk.60872$_03.27067@reader1.news.saunalahti.fi>
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 04:21:37 +0300
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davisr wrote:

> I was thinking...If the xbox is an IBM computer, why can't it run any
> old 'nix distro?

Primarily because the hardware has some special quirks in it. For 
instance, there is the watchdog chip (PIC) which needs to be dealt with, 
and the system timer runs at a different tick rate than its equivalent 
in a normal PC. Probing for PCI peripherals causes the system to hang... 
so that should be avoided. The video hardware needs some special 
initialization, and even when initialized, you cannot change the video 
modes as freely as on a normal PC, because all video is piped through a 
special video encoder chip (a "TV out" chip, if you will) whose settings 
must be kept in synch with the current video mode, etc. Here's a page 
which lists all those things where the Xbox (ever-so-slightly) differs 
from a normal PC:

 <http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Porting_an_Operat
ing_System_to_the_Xbox_HOWTO>

Secondarily, the Xbox cannot boot "normal" Linux distributions because 
it does not come with a "normal" PC BIOS... Unlike on a "normal" PC, 
there is no (PC-style) boot code on the Xbox that would try and find the 
master boot record from the HDD and run a bootloader contained 
therein... much less probe for removable drives for "normal" boot 
blocks. Neither the original MS BIOS nor the hacked versions of thereof 
do any of those things, but rely on (Xbox-specific) custom methods and 
conventions for booting.

The Xbox Linux project has come up with something called "the Cromwell 
BIOS" which allows booting the Xbox free of any MS code, but that's no 
ordinary PC BIOS, either, and does not support the conventional boot 
block-based boot mechanism...

> I guess my question is this: if you boot from a standard xbox-linux 
> distribution into the xbox's RAM, such as X-DSL,
> and eject the disc, can you input a standard linux live cd and install 
> it to the hard drive?

Nope. "Normal" Linux distributions won't run on the Xbox, for the 
reasons described above. They can be _modified_ to run on the Xbox, 
though.

Here's a guide which lists what needs to be done in order to make a 
random Linux distribution run on the Xbox:

 <http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Making_a_Linux_distri
bution_Xbox_compatible_HOWTO>

-- 
znark