How to run a custom OS for the Xbox 360

[Buddered Toast]

I have an Xbox 360 that has been collecting dust for a while now. The Ethernet cable is shot so anything online is out the window (I am not willing to buy a wireless adapter for reasons too long to explain). I was wondering if I could run some type of Linux (or any OS) on it. I know it's possible I just can't seem to figure out how the free60 project did it. I have the original Xbox 360 running a very old version (earlier than 2.3).

-If someone can help me out at all (including ideas) that would be greatly appreciated.

[Nettly_]

Well, hate to break it to ya.... I have been trying for MONTHS... on three different 360's... and got it to work once.... Free60 is okay, and it works.... sometimes.... but it is lengthy and painful and did not even work for me. However, not all is lost just yet. This is the way that worked once and it is semi-dangerous. Imma still tell you (even though it worked by fluke, still pretty cool to learn )(also do not yell at me for capitalizing Hard Drive it is for reasons) I also will be doing 3 ways, hard way first, then the easiest also an oddly easy sounding one that almost never works for me.

 

HARD WAY:
Step 1. Take apart the 360 you have and locate the Hard Drive (this is the 3rd most painful step as some of the screws are exact fits and you prolly won't have the tools to do so buuut if you do the rest should be more or less simple.
Step 2. Take out the Hard drive

Step 3. Make sure you have Linux ready on a PC
Step 4 (why this is dangerous). Put the Xbox 360 Hard Drive with the other Hard Drive in your PC
Step 5 (prolly the most painful). Boot from the 360's OS, but do not erase anything (this is to make sure it works)
Step 5 explained. This is the most painful as trying to get this to work is a pain the buttocks. The reason being most PC's would not like that, but possibly by pure luck or fluke you could get this to work.
Step 6. Remove your other Hard Drive
Step 7. Use your Linux/BSD/Other OS flash drive or external storage that has been flashed (with a USB flasher like Belena Etcher)
Step 8. Install your Distro to the Hard Drive
Step 9. If step 8 worked, then just put the Hard Drive into the Xbox360

 

Easy (but oddly hard to work around way due to hardware)
Step 1. Do step 1/2 in the hard way
Step 2. Have the EXACT SAME type of Hard Drive as the 360 but make sure it is wiped clean (not the one in your 360 (so you can still use it if you f*** up)
Step 3. Take out old hard-drive
Step 4. Put in new one (the blank one (MAKE SURE THERE IS NO OS PRE-INSTALLED)
Step 5. Boot, if:
a. An error pops up, you are good (this is when you WANT any error (means the hardware prolly sees the Hard Drive and boots, I never ran into a problem with the errors
b. Nothing pops up, prolly mean bad news (Xbox no likey the new Hard Drive and refuses to boot)
Explanation: F*** if I know why errors are better in this situation. Look out for some errors as they can be a pain in the ass to work around (but most are fine) (if it says No bootdrive or bootloader found, that is FANTASTIC news as there should be NONE)
Step 6. Put in a flashed Linux/BSD/Other OS storage device (flashed with something like Belena Etcher or Rufus)
Step 7. Play around with the OS before installing to test for hardware issues
Step 8. Install

Oddly simple but this solution never works:
Step 1. Flash and OS to external storage

Step 2. Install to 360
This does not work because.... computers... I am 16 with no college so do not blame for me not knowing the WHY

Which one to do?
Obviously not the oddly simple one that works on PC. Between the hard and easy one, it all depends on how much time/effort/money you wanna put into this. No money but a lot of effort is your style: hard. If you want an easier system that might cost some money but is faster. Now when I said "only got one to work" I meant on one Xbox for both systems of installation. I say to do this you need some luck and some tech savvy skills, other than that it should work prolly closer to 50% of the time with my friends tests. I only did 3 so data might be off. So if you want to this is what I recommend. Prolly all I can do for ya so if it doesn't work keep looking, what you are doing IS COOL AF and Xbox runs (Some) distros very well so I feel like I should mention that you need to research your 360's hardware (for the generation it is in) (where I prolly failed most) because just like you need a distro that is built for the Raspberry Pi's hardware, you need one that works with the hardware for the 360 YOU HAVE (there are multiple generations of 360 with slight hardware changes)

Best of luck to ya

[kakivozek]

Hello!

Could you make a more specific guide on how to install free60 on my xbox 360 falcon.

Also i didn't understand, how you are going to install the os. If you remove the extrnal hard drive on xbox 360 phat, it still boots into xbox os. Is there an internal hard drive or any other form of storage?

Thanks for the guide so far.

[theMarble]

Actually no. The 360 has a hypervisor which basically overlooks everything security and executable wise. It would require soldering a modchip to the 360 which is alot of work and hard to get at the moment. The reason that it boots into the dashboard when the is no drive plugged in is that there is that 'default.xex' (The Dashboard / explorer.exe equivalent) and accompanying XGD2/3 filesystem is actually stored in the kernel BIOS, which is stored on a BIOS ROM chip inside the system. Most OS's wont work on the 360 due to the PowerPC architecture's death in the late 2000's. There are some older versions of Debian and Arch Linux (ArchPPC) ports that work; Other PPC OS's will work but Windows and macOS will never run due to Windows only being complied for x86 and macOS using BSD/OPENSTEP bases which aren't compatible with the 360's BIOS. There is softmodding which has been used on the OG Xbox, PS2, GameCube, PSP and IIRC PS3 too. Softmodding gets the same result as hardmodding (soldering a chip) but exploits the OS and firmware using different techniques such as save game exploits, DNS/IP redirects... The 360 doesn't have a softmod at the moment, but one might come around soon, just like how 19 years after the PS2's release, we can finally run anything without modding the system (soft or hard). I doubt that would happen until the 360 servers and support is shut down for good, as it would be stupid to release a patched firmware when Microsoft can force-update and patch the system. Plus the eFuses in the 360 are blown every time you update the kernel so no down-grading either.

 

Flashing an OS onto the drive would be tricky as it would 1. Erase the XGD2 file structure and 2. Erase the physical hypervisor bus codes from the system, leaving the entire hard drive bricked even if you put the old firmware back on it.

 

The only way to get it working without soldering at this point is to find an exploit in an app within the system. Heck for the PSP, it was a wallpaper, for the OG Xbox it was a font.