Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

blatny93 · Joined: 17 Dec 2009 Posts: 5

I hope this is not completely nuts but I have a couple of old xbox's (original) on which I have xbmc, xdsl etc. My question is does anyone know how they originally compiled dsl for the xbox and would that be possible with a tiny pup or not - resource restraints (60mb ram max) etc? Would anyone know how to do it? It's incredible that my machines are still going strong after all these years!

PupGeek · Joined: 06 Sep 2009 Posts: 388

I have been attempting to run linux on an old xbox lately and have been studying it in depth. Aside from the RAM restrictions in the original xbox, there is the issue of FATX support. While I'm sure its possible to make a puppy with a tiny main .sfs with other apps in an additional .sfs, it is the other obstacle that still needs to be overcome. That other obstacle is the kernel. While the 2.4 kernel supported xbox's FATX filesystem with stability, the 2.6 kernel does not. There are patches available for the 2.6 kernel but they only go as far as 2.6.16 and puppy begins at 2.6.18, so a new patch would have to be coded. Bear in mind, though, that with the limited RAM, any linux os will run very slow in live or frugal mode. Sure, you can use one of the temp partitions on the xbox drive as a swap, but too much dependence on swap doesn't give you any speed advantage. Another limitation worth mentioning is its display resolution (640x480). I have not yet been able to set up a vnc server on my xbox either. Even though an old xbox is really a pc with a 733 MHz Celeron processor and the gameports, simply usb, it is still at the moment kind of a dud for computing with. It doesn't even have normal RAM slots, the RAM is soldered in. These limitations may not be applicable to the Xbox 360, but I have read that that is based on PowerPC archetecture, which makes it a whole different animal. I'm not sure (I never checked, due to my lack of need) if there is a puppy that runs on PowerPC hardware.

issarad · Joined: 24 Jun 2006 Posts: 36

It's the PS3 that is PowerPC based. The Xbox 360 uses Intel Xeon processors, I believe.

An Xbox 360 would make one hell of a Linux box, if you could get it to work properly.

Lobster · Posted: Mon 07 Feb 2011, 00:34 Post subject:

Even though I have an xbox, for various reasons I would be more inclined to get Puppy running on my ARM based Wii

For xbox I would use this Slax based CD and have done with it.
Sxb uses Firefox, mtpaint, abiword and other programs familiar to Puppy users
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sxb/
Just tried it on my Athlon dual processor and it run on that . . .
Might burn a CD and try in on my Xbox Cool

If I wanted Puppy integration I would start with trying to merge this Slackware compatible Puppy 301
which will boot on a PC with 48MB of ram
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Puppy300
and asking Big_bass for advice as he maintains a modern Slackware Puppy or 01micko who is developing spup
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Spup