Hey all.
My girlfriend is moving into a new flat so can't take her family PC cos, well, it's needed by the family and can't afford to buy a new PC.
So I was thinking that I could get her an Xbox and install Xbox Linux on for her. Since she isn't so good with computers and probably doesn't have the time to learn Linux (nor do I have the time or expertice to be a sys admin for her) I was thinking of installing the least packages I need from the Linux distro and install SheepShaver for general computing use on it.
Would this be viable?
I have only used SheepShaver very briefly in Virtual PC so didn't have a chance to test all it's features out.
What kind of speed could I expect (considering the Xbox is a 733MHz Pentium III with 64Mb RAM and no 3d acceleration under Linux)
Would I be better served using Bochs or VMWare to install Windows 98 or such?
Thanks for any opinions. Much appreciated.
SheepShaver on XBox Linux
Moderators: Cat_7, Ronald P. Regensburg, ClockWise
Man, that would be SO slow. Xboxes can barely do Windows 98, and that's native. Mac OSX or even 68k emulation would be like using a 386 with Windows xp. What were you thinking?
On a positive note, the next Xbox will have a PowerPC processor (though a special breed of one) and that may be able to be hacked in to a mac. But they are incorporating their trusted computing crap right into the processor, so hacking an Xbox like that will be tough going. It will probably take a long long time for them to crack it. But then again, there is such a large Xbox hacking community now that they might figure it out pretty quick... ie holes/exploits in microsoft software hehehe.
On a positive note, the next Xbox will have a PowerPC processor (though a special breed of one) and that may be able to be hacked in to a mac. But they are incorporating their trusted computing crap right into the processor, so hacking an Xbox like that will be tough going. It will probably take a long long time for them to crack it. But then again, there is such a large Xbox hacking community now that they might figure it out pretty quick... ie holes/exploits in microsoft software hehehe.
There is no way to run Windows 98 on an Xbox, as far as I know (and I looked into this a lot)
The Xbox uses a customised version of Windows 2000 as it's OS with no memory protection or other nice bits. You can load Linux on it and use that as a PC OS.
The Xbox would definatly be fast enough for 68k emulation. I used to use Fusion on a P166 with 64MB RAM, and it worked very well. Xbox has a 733MHz PIII, so should be good enough for 68k emulation.
Also, many websites report that if you use Windows 2000 in VMWare on Xbox Linux, you can watch an MPEG4 file at fullscreen without any framedropping.
The Xbox uses a customised version of Windows 2000 as it's OS with no memory protection or other nice bits. You can load Linux on it and use that as a PC OS.
The Xbox would definatly be fast enough for 68k emulation. I used to use Fusion on a P166 with 64MB RAM, and it worked very well. Xbox has a 733MHz PIII, so should be good enough for 68k emulation.
Also, many websites report that if you use Windows 2000 in VMWare on Xbox Linux, you can watch an MPEG4 file at fullscreen without any framedropping.
/me points to http://gentoox.shallax.com/modules.php? ... le&artid=9
Sorry for the late reply, really you're only choice is linux. Use gentoo home edition and she should be fine for web browsing and document creation, KDE is a piece of piss (A little slow with only 64meg of ram but still very usuable).
She should never have to go near a command prompt (You will though to st it up).
Sheeshaver runs ok on the the xbox (I tried it in xebian) but ram is the big issue.
Basilisk would indeed fly faster than any ever released 68x processor. If she could get by use basilisk otherwise stick with linux just make sure it's all setup nice for her.
If she has a vga monitor you might be able to connect the xbox to the monitor using this cable
http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/vga-cable.php
Check if the monitor supports sync on green here
http://playstation2-linux.com/sog.php
you'll probably need a special bios ask in the gentoox forums.
There's 2 (Possibly 3) hacked M$ bios's with vga support (Ind-unofficial, pixel8 and maybe another) but you might need to boot cromwell bios (A linux M$ code free bios).
I've had a usb printer working in gentoox (And M$ word using crossover office) IE would probably work as well but firefox is a much nicer browser anyway.
USB camera's work fine as well and my archos MP3 HD player.
She should never have to go near a command prompt (You will though to st it up).
Sheeshaver runs ok on the the xbox (I tried it in xebian) but ram is the big issue.
Basilisk would indeed fly faster than any ever released 68x processor. If she could get by use basilisk otherwise stick with linux just make sure it's all setup nice for her.
If she has a vga monitor you might be able to connect the xbox to the monitor using this cable
http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/vga-cable.php
Check if the monitor supports sync on green here
http://playstation2-linux.com/sog.php
you'll probably need a special bios ask in the gentoox forums.
There's 2 (Possibly 3) hacked M$ bios's with vga support (Ind-unofficial, pixel8 and maybe another) but you might need to boot cromwell bios (A linux M$ code free bios).
I've had a usb printer working in gentoox (And M$ word using crossover office) IE would probably work as well but firefox is a much nicer browser anyway.
USB camera's work fine as well and my archos MP3 HD player.