I asked the Xbox linux folks (whom I'll probably meet next weekend) about
booting non-linux on an Xbox, see below. Question is now (for the non-mbr
solution), is there an easy way to make a NetBSD kernel look like a Linux
kernel that a bootloader expecting a Linux kernel can boot?

Of course the mbr approach looks much nicer to me, but that would need
some work (that I won't/can't do).


 - Hubert

-- 
Want to get a clue on IPv6 but don't know where to start? Try this:
* Basics -> http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2001/05/24/ipv6_tutorial.html
* Setup  -> http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2001/06/01/ipv6_tutorial.html
Of course with your #1 IPv6 ready operating system -> http://www.NetBSD.org/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 00:58:39 +0200
From: Michael Steil <steil@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>
To: Hubert Feyrer <hubertf@netbsd.org>
Subject: Re: non-Linux on XBox?

> I saw your will be at the Karlsruhe Linuxtag, doing Linux on Xbox mods
> and
> installs. What I wonder is, is it possible to put anything else than
> Linux
> on the machine? I'd be most interested if it works with NetBSD. :)

Please, please do the port. :-)

> How do you modify the machine to boot - will it do a "normal" mbr boot,
> reading 512 bytes and executing whatever's there? Or do you write a
> special bootloader into the BIOS/ROM/whatever that's equivalent to
> lilo/grub and will only load Linux?
>
> I'll probably be in Karlsruhe too (at least on saturday and sunday),
> and
> maybe we can talk about NetBSD on Xbox there if you want. (I don't have
> any Xbox experience... :)

Cool! I'd love to talk about it!
There are two ways to boot Linux:

* Hacked MS ROM
We have a Linux bootloader that looks like a game executable and gets
loaded on an Xbox with a hacked ROM so that the kernel doesn't care
about the RSA signature. This bootloader is quite similar to the old
DOS Loadlin: Is escapes the Xbox kernel environment and jumps into the
Linux kernel
* Replacement ROM
Our ROM initializes the machine, loads a Linux kernel from a FATX,
ISO9660 or ReiserFS filesystem and runs it.
The two bootloaders have been integrated into a single bootloader that
can be compiled either way.

You can easily run any other kernel if you either convert the kernel
into Linux kernel format (easy) or by creating a plugin that looks like
a Linux kernel and contains a NetBSD bootloader...

We don't have MBR boot at the moment, but we do have code that *should*
do it in the CVS, but it is unmaintained. This might be an easier way,
you might want to work on this one, too.

   Michael

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Content preview:  > I saw your will be at the Karlsruhe Linuxtag, doing
  Linux on Xbox mods > and > installs. What I wonder is, is it possible
  to put anything else than > Linux > on the machine? I'd be most
  interested if it works with NetBSD. :) [...]

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