Ideas For Linux Based Dashboard Options

[ldotsfan]

There hasn't been a linux based dashboard for the xbox as Linux lacks a crucial capability - the ability to launch a XBE. Once cromwell/xromwell loads the kernel , there is no way back and it's full linux OS from that point onwards. Or is there?

I have an idea which is based on PBL Metoo source and this thread for PBL-Should be-fixed and libxbox's xbox_reboot_fast function and finally openxdk's sample XBE launcher:

Just like xboxhdm2.2 which is a 2-stage hdd preparation process, we split the dashboard into 2 stages: Stage 1 which is a free-xdk based XBE (compiled and built on linux) and cannibalized parts from PBL - Yes the references thread confirmed that PBL is a free-xdk app. Stage 2 is regular xromwell.xbe which launches linux kernel. If a linux process wants to launch a XBE, it will write the XBE's path in this format to a text file in scratch partition \Device\Harddisk0\Partition3

CODE

\Device\Harddisk0\Partition2\ = C:\
\Device\Harddisk0\Partition1\ = E:\
\Device\Harddisk0\Partition6\ = F:\
\Device\Harddisk0\Partition7\ = G:\

and then execute a xbox_reboot_fast function via libxbox. Control will pass to Stage1.xbe since that is the effective dashboard file via either the softmod or the bios for chipped consoles. The magic occurs in Stage1.xbe. If Stage1.xbe detects the scratch file on partition3, it will read the file contents and use xLaunchXBE from openxdk's sample to launch the XBE and thus achieving the end effect of Linux 'launching' a regular XBE!. If no scratch file is present, Stage1.xbe will pass control to xrromwell.xbe which launches linux kernel as per normal.

This is an idea at the moment - I hope I can find the time to test out the idea soon.

This post has been edited by ldotsfan: May 28 2012, 02:16 PM