Linux on Xbox 360: it won't be easy

by Conrad Quilty-Harper { Nov 28th 2005 at 8:30AM }

Linux Penguin Quake 3 rocket launcher 225px

Xbox360-Hacks.com is reporting on a list of features that may be part of the Xbox 360's anti-hacking technology. The list comes from the Free60 Project: which has the aim of porting GNU/Linux and Darwin to the Xbox 360.

Apparently the following techie information will be useful to any budding 360 hackers:

The flash is encrypted with a per-box key
The key is stored inside the CPU
The boot ROM is stored inside the CPU
Also inside the CPU is a hypervisor that verifies the running state of the kernel, making sure there is no modification (RAM checksums), else the Xbox 360 panics and blows up!
The CPU contains RAM inside of it to store the checksums
All interrupt/exception handling is done by the hypervisor
All code runs in kernel mode
The emulator for first generation games can be updated via an official Microsoft download burned to CD by the user, though the CDs' content will be encrypted and signed with public key cryptography. The boot ROM is stored inside the CPU.

The list certainly sounds daunting!

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

hardwood2001 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

yes now i can play a hack free halo3 for about 3-5 years!!!

ByeLaw @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

#1 No offence, I know you are only trying to do some good in the world but what has that to do with the above article? Do you think this is a suitable platform to air your views? And does this mean I will be getting Linux on a XBOX 360?

Scythe @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

WTF! #1 needs a good old fasion As$ Kicking! Get the Fu@k off this site you dumb hippie retared.

Can the Mod Please remove that Stupid Post or atleast ban him from here.

So back on topic, if I open it up does that mean my 360 will really fry for trying to tamper with it?

hardwood2001 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

yes!!! that means i will be able to play a hack free halo3 on xbox live for about 3-5 years.

The1 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

GOOD......

kingmanor @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

Obviously the first post has been deleted for whatever it said but now it looks stupid when other posts refer to a nonexistant post.

Anyway I think this is more of a list of what must be overcome to produce a viable mod-chip rather than just linux. If all you wanna do is run Linux, the original Xbox is still a cheap decent computer. The fact that it was really just a Pentium3/GeForce4 PC made it easily hackable, and it seems Microsoft learned its lesson this time around.

As there are still so many current generation games I've yet to play, I am in no rush to get a 360. I'll buy it in 2 years when its half-price and there are enough platinum-edition games at $20, just like I did with the original.

Dean @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

Maybe now we can have less cheating.

ByeLaw @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

I totally agree with you #4 (kingmanor just in case someone elses post gets deleted :) ). Why don't they just overright the post with "Misappropriate content deleted" or something??

Back on topic, looks like Microsoft putting the boot code/key into the processor will make it pretty difficult to crack... they sure are serious :)

kingmanor @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

Even with the original Xbox, the mod-chip is great but will get you banned from Xbox Live. But considering how Live-centric the 360 is, Microsoft wants the whole system secure end-to-end.

By the way, I hate saying "original xbox" and "xbox 360". PS2 and PS3 is shorter but technically its PlayStation 2 & 3. Everyone complains about how many game sequels there are but we forget the system sequels. At least Nintendo calls each system a distinct name. Except for the GameBoys. Damn.

Jon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

I hope all hacking attempts fail! These hackers and moders are the reason Halo2 Live play got ruined after a few months. People with modded Xboxes screwed around with maps and all sorts of weird exploits. Halo2 now is riddled with issues and it seems like theirs nothing more Bungie can do to fix these problems.

I hope 360 technology keeps these fools at bay. I pay $60 a year for Xbox Live because I want a cheater / modder free environment to play games online.

Jon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

bouncicles @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

#5 This isn't hacking for game-cheat purposes, this is hardware hacking to either install an alternative OS or improve physical components (using a larger, cheaper hard drive, for example). This has nothing to do with cheating online.

v1p3r @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

#7 - Having a modchip does not ban you from live.

emehrkay @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

#7 i never thought about the naming of the consoles like that. i feel the reason why its xbox 360 is to make it on par with playstation 3. if they would have named it xbox2, it would appear to be a generation behind playstation to the uneducated consumer. interesting, i wonder if im right

bouncicles @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

#11 It was:

http://benheck.com/Articles/Alternate_Console_names.htm

Jon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

#10 reguardless of your intentions, if you think that modding the Xbox in any way for any reason does not assist those that would use this information to creat mods/ cheats for games,
you are fooling yourself. You may not want to screw with games, but there are 10 other joes waiting in line that will use modding to take advantage of any exploit they can and mod a game for cheating.

This is a direct effect of modding that I won't let you ignore or dismiss so easily. The work of modders / hackers will ruin the quality of online gaming! Reguardless of your intent.

rick @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

Microsoft and Sony do not make profit on their consoles why not? because of copying. Nintendo made profit with their gamecube, because it was harder to mod, it took a few years, so they could profit on the game sells.

Imp @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

That's not the only reason Rick.
MS and Sony pour gobs of money into RnD and prodcution, and sell systems at a loss.

epobirs @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

#15

You seem confused. Sony and Microsoft do not make profit on their consoles because they sell them for less than the wholesale of the package to reatilers. This is in service of maximizing the base for software sales, where all of the profit resides. Nintendo claims never to have sold for below cost on hardware but that is little help to the GameCube since it trails badly in software sales and the highly lucrative due to manufacturing royalties third party publishing. The great majority of Nintendo's profits in recent years have been driven by their portable platforms. The GameCube's software sales have been disappointing at best with just a few bright spots like Super Smash Brothers Melee generating excellent numbers.

The GameCube was not especially difficult to mod. The disc format was inconvenient but Chinese pirate factories had that covered in a few months. It just attracted the least interest. The PS2 was the most attractive due to piracy of its massive library while the Xbox offered a lot of potential for added applications on top of piracy. For all too many the GameCube had only a handful of exclusive items of interest that easily obtained for low price either used or as Player's Choice with a bit of patience. Sometimes honesty is just less of a hassle even for those inclined to steal.

mike @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

There was a guy who mosted a message on the ign forums entitled 'Xbox360 already hacked' i alughed and he was shot down in flames what was his proof, a gamertage called xbox360hacked and stats for halo2, one problem the gamertag had never logged onto live for 360 lol

i hope they never hack it, it just spoils the experience for ither but anyway now ther is a feedback system you can give the negative feedback and that will give you less chance of being matched with them again using the trueskill system :-)

epobirs @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

I would suggest X360 as convenient shorthand for the Xbox 360. Same number of characters as Xbox, which is already short enough to not need abbreviation.

It is impossible to say what the exact numbers are but I'm sure Microsoft believes a lot of Xbox units got sold for use as PCs and never resulted in any software sales. This could account for a big chunk of their failure to achieve profits for most quarters since launch. If every Xbox sold had a software attach rate sufficient to break even on the unit than it would be an acceptable sacrifice that not every machine became a profit center. But with many units sold at an unrecouped loss it doomed the business model. They are understandably doing what they can to sharply limit that factor this time around.

Despite the desires of homebrew hackers, the world does not owe them cheap high powered machines. They should follow the tradition of learning to do the most with what they can afford. That is what produces highly valuable skill sets applicable to serious work. Getting Linux running on a game console that is obviously more than capable of the task is just wanking rather than an accomplishment. Open hardware platforms are readily available. So you ran an OS on a closed system. So what? This makes the world better how exactly?

ZeroCorpse @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

#7: We've recently taken to calling the Xbox 360 the "X-360" for short. It makes sense, and it sounds like something Marvin the Martian would use to blow up the Earth.

Tommymang @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

Looks like every xbox360-owner is going to have to "buy" a game to play on the 360... for now ;-)

OffTopic Man @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

With the Xbox I want to be able to watch vcd/divx and Microsoft doesnt allow that, so I won't buy the Xbox360 unless there is a way to work around that.

phez @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

so um...how'd they figure all this out?

NuTcAsE @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

#22. Get a media center pc and run emulation software to stream divx / xvid videos to the X360. I have a few friends who have done it and say that it works without a glitch! (although it helps to have a high end pc as decoding+encoding while streaming the video would stress out the machine).

De3S HEat0r @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

U know what the problem with the PSP is?? All and all it's not FUN to play with. I have one and sure it's really good and all but the DS just looks so fun. (That's why I hate it:) It looks like you'll have a good time with it even if the graphics are not all that. I wish the PSP was that fun. It should have more things out of the box to do when connecting to other PSPs. I've been trying to come up with reasons not to get a DS but I think I'm gonna break down and get one...soon.

De3S HEat0r @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

^^Opps^^, sorry guys wrong blog:(

Sam @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

Man, this is worse than Slashdot. The source of this information is "I met someone on the IRC the other day who told me the following." Take all these items with a big grain of salt. I'm sure some may be true, but it is probably more guess work than fact.

syco @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

Wow. That's pretty impressive. A lot more locked down than the first Xbox.

And yet I'd give it a year at most before they have SOME sort of unsigned code running. Maybe not a straight up mod chip or functional Linux, but they'll get something. That list probably has hackers slobering all over themselves for a chance to be the guy who cracks this.

I would think printing each chip uniquely would be prohibitively expensive but I guess not.

It's going to be a while before we get homebrew as good as the XBMC running on this thing, though.

It's too bad that the Xbox only streams stuff from Windows Media Center boxes. That software is CRAP. You have to hack it 5 ways to sunday to get it to play simple things like oggs and MKV's. Not to mention quicktime files.

DrumRBoy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

wait, just replace the processor, and your in... might be costly, but as i see it, all protection lies there.

Jeff @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

#29 sure! i bet its easy to find a 3 core powerpc chip that will run on that bus! ;) doesnt the video supposedly have encryption that calls checksums off the processor?

Harley @ Dec 18th 2005 9:42PM

#14 those "ten other joes" who would cheat would have to know enough to modify it more to cheat you know. Even without that they'd find a way. So I say go for it. Mod whatever piece of hardware you can find!

James @ Dec 24th 2005 2:57AM

listen, the only reason i want it hacked is because i want to stream my xvid movies from my pc. thats not a crime. its something ms should have put on the software anyway. this is a major point for a lot of 360 users and one of the main reason the is going to be a chip made. dont fool yourselfs halo fans, enjoy it while you can cause in about 2 months is all going to be gone.