Tutorial - For Using The Xbox As A Server, using xdsl Options

[green_beetle]

How to run a web server from an Xbox
By green_beetle

Introduction:
An Xbox is basically a fully equipped pc that’s includes a Intel Celeron 733 MHz CPU, an NVIDIA geforce 3mx, 64mb of RAM, 8GB hard disk, 10/100 Ethernet and a DVD drive.
With some minor adjustments you can setup Linux on your Xbox and dedicate it as a web server. In this tutorial I will be demonstrating how to do this using XDSL (Xbox damn small Linux) running the monkey HTTP daemon.

What you need:
1. An Xbox! (modded of course)
2. USB keyboard + mouse (optional)
3. A website to host
4. Some patience

Step 1 Install XDSL
- Download xdsl from http://www.x-dsl.org/wiki/Download
- Install xdsl on your Xbox using one of the various methods located at: http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/XDSL_HOWTO

Step 2 Find your Xbox’s IP
Open Xterminal and type in Ifconfig
Your IP is listed under ‘inet addr:’
Write this address down to refer to later, or memorise it.


Step 3 setting up VNC for remote access
(Optional, good for when your PC is in another room to your Xbox)

Installing VNC on the xbox
- Open MyDSL on the XDSL desktop
- Click on ‘net’ then scroll down the list and find nvc4x-1.4.6.dsl.info. This will then display some info, hit download and it should download the VNC server and install it to your desktop.
- Open Vnc4x0 on your xdsl desktop.

Installing the VNS client on your PC
- Download realvnc from http://www.realvnc.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi
- Once installed Run VNC viewer
- Type in your xbox ip (found in step 2) as the server and hit ‘ok’
- This should then open up a window displaying the XDSL desktop

From here you can control your xbox without needing it to be connected to your tv or any controller, keyboard or mouse etc.


Step 4 Install PHP on the Xbox (optional if you want to host PHP files)
Open MYdsl on the xdsl desktop
Open ‘System’ and scroll down to ‘ php-4-monkey0.9.1.info’
It will open a info box with some details, hit download and it will install PHP on your Xbox so you can host php developed websites.

Configure monkey websever to open your PHP index file. Open emelfm as a super user by right clicking the xdsl desktop
Apps>tools>emelFM> emelFM as super user
In emelFM open the dir /opt/monkey-0.9.1/conf/ open the file monkey.conf and edit the line
Indexfile: index.htm index.html

Add to the line index.php and hit save.

*Note: from monkey.conf you can also set the port that monkey server listens on.
Useful if you ISP blocks port 80, you can use the alternative port 8080.

Step 5 Start the monkey HTTP daemon
Right click the xdsl
System > Daemons > Monkey web server > Monkey Start

Test that web server is running by typing your IP address into firefox and it should display an image and say monkey server is running.

*Note: Disable any proxies that are configured in firefox otherwise you won’t be able to connect.

Step 6 setting up FTP to upload files
Right click the xdsl
System > Daemons > FTPd > betaFTPd start
Using your favourite ftp program (I suggest flash fxp) connect to your Xbox using the ip we found earlier in step2
Once connected open the directory /opt/monkey-0.9.1/htdocs/
And delete the default “index.html” from here you can upload your own website files.

*Note: port 21 may need to be opened on your router to access ftp on your network to your xbox.



Trouble shooting the monkey server
Do it in this order
1. Connect to your website from the Xbox found in step 4
(If you cannot, the monkey HTTP daemon is not running)
2. Connect to your website from another computer on your Local network.
(If you can’t access your site your port 80 may be blocked, please open this port on your router)
3. Connect to your website from a computer across the internet
(If you can’t access your site from the internet your public ip may not have port 80 opened, open this port for you public ip)


If you need any help or find any flaws in the tutorial you can find me on xbox-scene or email me at greenbeetle@gmail.com. You can visit my website hosted from my xbox of course at markkram.dyndns.org (copy and paste into browser)

Cheers.

This post has been edited by green_beetle: Dec 23 2005, 12:57 PM

[awal]

thanks for the tut

Ive been trying to find a good tutorial on this

Just a hints:

All of the linux's I have tried dont show up on my component pack (high def)



This post has been edited by awal: Nov 1 2005, 04:29 AM

[atrizzz]

i am stuck at step 6. i can connect to xdsl using flashfxp and end up in the directory /home/dsl/. when i get to the index.html file i cant delete it or transfer anything over. got any suggestions?

[green_beetle]

login as root for the ftp
user: root pass: xbox
or
user: dsl pass: dsl

[atrizzz]

if i try to login as user: root pass: xbox i get:

[R] Connecting to 192.168.0.101 -> IP=192.168.0.101 PORT=21
[R] Connected to 192.168.0.101
[R] 220 BetaFTPD 0.0.8pre17 ready.
[R] USER root
[R] 331 Password required for root.
[R] PASS (hidden)
[R] 530 Login incorrect.
[R] Connection failed
[R] Delaying for 120 seconds before reconnect attempt #1

when i login as user: dsl pass: dsl i can connect, and transfer files over but i cant leave the directory /home/dsl/. if i do i usually get a connection lost error. when i can go into different directories i cant transfer anything over or delete anything.

[atrizzz]

sry about all the questions but im new to this.


i fixed my problem with ftp. now my only question is how do i make a name for my website. right now i go there by using the ip address. your website is http://greenbeetle.no-ip.org i cant figure out how to make one for myself.

[green_beetle]

no-ip.org
register
and download the client that updates your ip to the no-ip address that you set.

so far i have only been able to get the client working on a PC and not on the xbox. This is a problem if you want to leave your webserver on 24-7 as the PC has to also be on to update your ip if it changes.

This post has been edited by green_beetle: Dec 12 2005, 01:08 AM

[Potato Bob]

we could always just strip down dsl and just have appache with ssh and samba and ftp mysql etc...

[Keo-Keo]

In my tutorials i have XAMPP working for XDSL check it out.. After downloading apache mysql perl and php are running in seconds.. No Linux Knoledge Needed.

[LonelyMind]

if i try to login as user: root pass: xbox i get:


QUOTE
[R] Connecting to 192.168.0.101 -> IP=192.168.0.101 PORT=21
[R] Connected to 192.168.0.101
[R] 220 BetaFTPD 0.0.8pre17 ready.
[R] USER root
[R] 331 Password required for root.
[R] PASS (hidden)
[R] 530 Login incorrect.
[R] Connection failed
[R] Delaying for 120 seconds before reconnect attempt #1


when i login as user: dsl pass: dsl i can connect, and transfer files over but i cant leave the directory /home/dsl/. if i do i usually get a connection lost error. when i can go into different directories i cant transfer anything over or delete anything.

i am having this exact same problem...
atrizzz, what did you do to get FlashFXP to allow you to write to other directories?

and will backing up hda50 save everything that was done in this tutorial? or is there somthing else i need to do for dsl to remember the settings? lol...kinda scared to turn off my xbox...

[ximmortalxxkingx]

i am having this exact same problem...
atrizzz, what did you do to get FlashFXP to allow you to write to other directories?

and will backing up hda50 save everything that was done in this tutorial? or is there somthing else i need to do for dsl to remember the settings? lol...kinda scared to turn off my xbox...

i can get it to write in everything EXCEPT http docs....so weird, i even gave all permissions

[ximmortalxxkingx]

i can get it to write in everything EXCEPT http docs....so weird, i even gave all permissions

nevermind, i realized i didnt give permissions, that was the problem. works fine now..check it out

http://ecclan.servecounterstrike.com

[awal]

Nice work I really like the layout, but the first page loaded awefully slow. (could be my crappy connection, who knows)

[LonelyMind]

Nice work. Glad to see someone got this working.
I still can't seem to get the permissions right.... everytime i change them they default back...(in the command line and in emelfm as root)
And also it won't accept a php page...even tho i have index.php in the config file it just displays the code. Any ideas?
Oh...and does anyone know how to set it up so that the server starts right when you start linux?
Any help would be appreciated. Thx.

[ximmortalxxkingx]

Nice work. Glad to see someone got this working.
I still can't seem to get the permissions right.... everytime i change them they default back...(in the command line and in emelfm as root)
And also it won't accept a php page...even tho i have index.php in the config file it just displays the code. Any ideas?
Oh...and does anyone know how to set it up so that the server starts right when you start linux?
Any help would be appreciated. Thx.

the only reason my php works is because i decided not to use monkey webserver, i simply went to myDSL, click "net" then click download apache. it downloaded and installed in under a minute, with full php support .
I couldnt get php working with monkey for some reason.

The pages were loading really slow today cuz ive been downloading dev stuff all day, sorry...That, and my connection ic pretty crappy lol. Im currently working on getting mysql to work... thanks for all the replys