Press Release 2007-05-08
From Free60 Project
Xbox 360 catching up on Linux support despite Microsoft's locks
Lübeck/Sunnyvale/Tokyo - Tuesday, May 8th 2007
The free60 project today announced the release of a new Live CD enabling users to try out the GNU/Linux Open Source operating system on Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming consoles. The new Live CD supports all Xbox 360 consoles with firmware versions 4532 and 4548 and can be run without affecting the console's normal functionality. It contains the latest free60 patches against the Linux kernel 2.6.21 and ships with a full Gnome desktop environment, including applications like Firefox and Evolution. It also offers an entire 64-bit PowerPC compiler toolchain for developers.
"We are quite happy that so many things are already working flawlessly", said project founder Michael Steil this morning referring to the full support for the console's networking, USB, SATA and framebuffer chipsets within the kernel. "But we are still far from where we want to be." On his opinion, especially the lack of accelerated X11 graphics drivers and missing sound support prevent GNU/Linux on the Xbox 360 from being superior to the version of GNU/Linux for its competitor, Sony's PlayStation 3.
"We are hard-working on both graphics and sound, but the lack of documentation of the chips used is giving us a hard time.", states Felix Domke, who made the first set of kernel patches available in March this year.
The free60 project is especially proud that all this has been achieved in only 18 months after the inital release of the console, despite Microsoft's enormous efforts to lock out homebrew development on their platform. "It is very questionable how much Microsoft seems to be concerned about locking out the homebrew scene, fixing the homebrew vulnerability in just 10 days, while they haven't fixed the holes that have been allowing piracy for more than 12 months", says Axel Auweter from the free60 project. Meanwhile, the search for other vulnerabilities in the Xbox 360's hypervisor based protection is continued by various people in the scene to enable homebrew development on devices with newer firmware versions than 4548.
Domke's conclusion: "There will always be ways for homebrew development on gaming consoles. If the people at Microsoft had offered a legal way for real homebrew development, like Sony does, they would be facing a much smaller community of hackers and there would be no core hack on the Xbox 360 by today". Therefore, the free60 project again calls on Microsoft to open their platform for homebrew development.
For further information, please look up http://www.free60.org/ or contact Felix Domke <tmbinc@elitedvb.net>
About free60.org
Free60 is a project towards porting GNU/Linux, BSD, Darwin and related Open Source operating systems to the Microsoft Xbox 360 video game console. The project has been founded in 2005 by the people behind the Xbox Linux and GameCube Linux Projects. Free60 is an open project and heavily invites the community to contribute. Its legal status in the US is protected by the interoperability clause of the DMCA.
Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360 (and probably some more) are registered trademarks by Microsoft Corp. PlayStation 3 is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. No affiliation between the Free60 Project and Microsoft Corp. exists or is implied. All other trademarks and copyrights are property of their respective owners.
