I haven't found any post on the internet about this which immediately indicates it's probably not possible

However...Is it possible to boot into Linux (be it Debian or Ubuntu which I suppose is just a derivative of this...) and flash the DVD drive with new firmware?

I know the likely answer to this one is probably not, but thought it was worth a shot. I only have a Laptop that's why and it doesn't have a PCMIA slot.

Thanks, Chris.

This is something I kind of wish were possible too, my desktop I used for flashing drived went up in smoke, and I have this wonderful jtag sitting here that you would think could do the job =p

Why wouldn't it be possible? The best way to find out is to try it honestly. Run linux from your HDD and probably try and run DOSflash through wine or something. Thats what is fun about playing with an Xbox360 you can just try these things and have fun with it even if you don't get it to work.

the 360 is a ppc system, normal wine wont work.
Also if you could get a software running in any kind of emulator it wouldnt work because they lack low level system acces which is needed for flashing.
Someone would have to write a program directly for the 360 so this could work, the exisitng software is for another architecture and will not work!