Xbox Into Main Comp Options

[Ultomato]

Ok basically, my other computer died, so in replacement ive decided to convert my xbox into a linux box.

Ive installed Gentoox and it is working fine.
I have a USB adapter for keyboards/mice etc...

All i need now is a VGA adapter and a wireless card.
What composite toVGA adapter do you guys recommend for a 17 inch LCD?
And does gentoox work with wireless B? which adapters does it work with?
How to i get my speakers to work with the xbox?

also are there any tutorials for installing more RAM? i have a sticks of PC133 256mb ram and PC100 128 ram

This post has been edited by Ultomato: Mar 15 2005, 04:28 AM

[Ultomato]

sorry ..edit button was gone..

one more question:
what is the max resolution of gentoox?

[Trevante]

Hmmm.... would you happen to be the old Ultomato from the official Xbox forums?

Anyways, DO NOT get a composite to VGA adaptor. Those things suck, and usually aren't much cheaper than component to VGA adaptor. I'd highly recommend the Vdigi VD-Z3. Not does it display a better picture than a composite signal, but if you have a 1.0-1.5 Xbox, then you can increase the resolution up to 720p.

As far as wireless B, yes it works, but the drivers (or at least the ones I used) don't support WEP, so you may have to disable WEP on your network. Personally, I use the MS MN-510 USB Wireless B adaptor with the linux-wlan-ng drivers. A list of other compatible devices can be found here.

As far as your speakers, that will depend on what kind of connector you're using. If they're using optical inputs, then you'll have to run magic and patch the ALSA sound drivers. If it's using 1/8th miniplugs (the kind you find on headphones and CD players), then you can buy a cheap RCA to miniplug adaptor at radioshack. Alternatively, if you do decide to buy the VD-Z3 like I suggested, then that also comes with an RCA to miniplug adaptor.

Yes you can add RAM to the Xbox (you can add another 64MB for a total of 128MB, I'd recommend this is you're going to be using your Xbox as your main computer), but you can't use PC RAM in the Xbox. You have to buy specific RAM chips and solder them onto the mobo (or have someone else do it, I heard Perplexer is a good guy to do business with, or you can also send it to Friendtech). Search around and you'll find out more about upgrading Xbox RAM. There's even a thread somewhere with videos.

As far as Gentoox's resolutions, see the video chart here

This post has been edited by Trevante: Mar 15 2005, 06:05 AM

[Ultomato]

Yea I am the old Ultomato from the xbox forums..


so, i have a PCI Trendware Wireless B adapter from my old computer, but i dont know how i would use that. So i guess i will be buying a USB hub and the MS USB wireless B adapter orthis

and for the ram problem, im most likely gonna switch to the Damn small Linux distro, it looks promising.

but im wondering if it supports wireless lan

[Trevante]

Ahh yes I remember you...

That JAHT adaptor won't work, at least not according to the list I linked you to. I recommend you just look for the MS adaptor on Ebay, or pick one from the list that has a picture beside it (those are the ones that are confirmed to work).

I think DSL supports wireless LAN, I saw some options related to wireless networking in it, although I couldn't really get it to recognize my wireless B adaptor. But I think you should be able to download and install the linux-wlan-ng adaptor anyways.

[Ultomato]

how do u install those drivers on DSL?

[Trevante]

Well, the linux-wlan-ng drivers don't work under DSL, I couldn't get the make file configured and thus I couldn't compile the drivers.

You might want to also take a look at Gentoox or Xebian. DSL is pretty cool, but if you want to use your Xbox as a main computer, I think you should look into more mature Xbox-Linux distro's. Plus I Know those wlan drivers work with Gentoox. I think I tried to compille them under Xebian once and it wouldn't even let me do "make config", so I couldn't compile them in Xebian. You should also try sXb, it's a live CD so you can run it from the CD to test it out (note: don't ever use a live CD to judge the speed of a distro, things always load slower off CD than off the HDD. If you want to see the real spead, test it out first and then see if you like it or not)

[Ultomato]

i already tried gentoox, its a little slow to be a main computer, maybe cuz im using KDE?

sXb... is that faster than gentoox?

how do i compile the drivers?

This post has been edited by Ultomato: Mar 17 2005, 05:32 AM

[Trevante]

Yes, a huge part of it is KDE... KDE is too slow for a stock Xbox. You need to have 128MB of RAM before KDE will run decently. Switch to xfce, and then after that, install and switch to IceWM IceWM uses up ess RAM than XFCE or KDE. I haven't really tried sXb off the HDD, so I don't know how fast it is, although I heard it was faster than Xebian. You should give it a try, they just released version 2 of it.

EDIT: If you don't know how to switch to xfce, here are the instructions from the Gentoox Home 3.2 Manual:

CODE

toKDE and toXFCE
------------------

In the KDE menu under "System" you will now find an icon called "toXFCE", click this when you want to switch your Window Manager to XFCE. When you click this icon, a terminal window will appear and in this terminal xbvset will run. Basically, just fill out the details as you would normally then your Xbox will reboot to XFCE.

In XFCE, there is a menu item called "toKDE" which functions in exactly the same way as "toXFCE" only it switches from XFCE to KDE.

As for compiling the drivers, the drivers come with a readme file that tells you everything you need to know to get them running. The only thing you should do differently, is that instead of assigning the IP manually (the part where it says "do ifconfig wlan0 <IP address>"), use the dhcpcd daemon to retrieve an IP automatically (do "dhcpcd wlan0" and then do "ifconfig wlan0" to check if you got an IP or not)

This post has been edited by Trevante: Mar 17 2005, 05:36 AM

[Ultomato]

wait i dont get it... where do u put the folder "linux-wlan-ng-0.2.1-pre9"? In E?
and what do i use to run "make config"? the terminal?

[Ultomato]

Is that even the right driver file?

[Ultomato]

Im gonna try to use ndiswrapper instead.. i downloaded it (via emerge) but i dont know how to open it?