Im About to Send Linux to my Xbox, I would like to use A distribution that best fits my purposes, talking on instant messenger, FTP, updating my web pages, some gaming if possible AKA mugen on linux, web browsing.

Gentoox looked very promising when I saw in the tutorials due to constant updates.

But some one else mentioned raincoat was good, theres alot to choose from, which one would you see me being best to have for my purposes?

Raincoat is a utillity for flashing the tsop within linux, it's not a linux distro. Either way, I do recommend gentoox. It's very simple to install new software (for the most part, you can just type "emerge nameofsoftware" and it'll do all the work for you. It will allow you to do all the things you mentioned, although I don't know about mugen or gaming.

What would be the best tutorial for installing Gentoox onto my xbox, Im using avalaunch as a dash but i also have 3 other dashboards, evo-x, media-X, MSDASH.

Depends on if you want a TOTAL linux box or not. If you still want to play XBOX games, or run .xbe then just get the Gentoox distro you want(Home, Pro, or MCE) And place the extracted ISO files on your E: drive. then run gentoox.xbe and it will boot.

If you want a true linux box, use raincoat(or someother method ) and flash the TSOP with Cromwell or the Gentoox Loader, you can completely re-partition and re-format the HDD. The tuts on Gentoox's forums can help with this.


Hope this helps,

DSLTech_Dude

If I were to go this route, would I still be limited by the length of file names? (fatx limiter)

I'm looking into getting another XBOX, making it a true Linux box, and using it as a server.

I have over 2000 albums I'd be moving to it, and I really don't want to have to rename them.

If you flash the TSOP with Cromwell, you can remove the DVD drive, have two HDD without a switch, and yes, it will format ext3 which has no limit on filenames(AFAIK, more than FATX at least). For a dedicated linux box, this is the easiest and best way to go.

DSLTech_Dude

Oooooo, I like the way you're thinking.

Is this possible with any version Xbox?

Except 1.6 and up. The do not have a TSOP to flash. but every 1.0 - 1.5 can do this.

Good luck!

DSLTech_Dude

Word. I appreciate all the info.

I've got a friend with a busted Xbox. I think I'll see what he wants for it. It's a couple years old. So I think it's safe to say its <1.6

In reading up a bit, (and maybe I read it wrong), you can do this on a 1.6, but you have to flash said BIOS to your mod chip. Right?

Correct

Just want to say that there is also a rather smart dualboot(softmod or chipped) way(on power up) :

DVD trayin- > linux
DVD trayout-> dashboard

And I don't see the need to flash cromwell(the main advantage of being boot without DVD) especially there are very large HD available now. I have a 80G with the first 8G untouched as original and the rest managed with LVM that I can slice in whatever way I want for linux.

So it is basically a dedicated linux box with 8G HD reserved but can still be used as Xbox console. If you intend to run those "hacked" games/apps, you can reserve more space for FATX, just get a bigger one like the 250G+.