Thread: Linux on an XBOX for CarPC

I would consider myself an active member in the xbox modding scene having modded 25+ xbox's and i personally wouldn't see this as a practical carputer for the following reasons:
1. It's extremely bulky, if you open up and xbox its a full size mobo with a fairly big psu, full dvd-rom and full-size hdd, by purchasing the parts or even a case here you can create something much smaller.
2. The xbox isnt that fast of a pc, only 733 Mhz I believe, most of the carputers people are running here are 1Ghz+.
3. Poor compatability. Its true that you can run linux on the xbox, but as far as I know its far from a full distro, I haven't check it out in a while though so it may have changed, but I would imagine you would have some issues getting it to work with the appropriate drivers and such required in these carputers. I run windows 2000 on my carputer and still have issues with my drivers.

I guess if your goal is to do a dual boot on the xbox meaning have the xbox be playable (modded) and also be able to boot to linux this would be a pretty interesting idea. 1 box 2 functions. But personally I feel the xbox would be a pain to turn into a carputer. I'd fork up the cash and get some real PC parts, and go with a windows distro to save headaches. If you've never purchased carputer parts before im going to recommend not straying from this site. I've order elsewhere thinking i was getting a deal and I've always came back and bought the same part again here...

Hope this helps

Chad

I've looked into this and I am still kicking around the idea, in the end not the best answer like posted above. BUT... Some of the things I do like, the features of Media Center are KICK ***, album art, good cataloging, playlists, big icons.

You really have to determine what you want to do with it. And how much you want to spend, if you want a cool media center and game system the xbox would be the way to go. Relatively cheap, can be controlled by controller or dvd remote, can use cheaper TFT monitors (don't need the high end VGA touch screen, but then again you don't have a high end VGA touch screen).

Now with Linux you may be able to get the VGA touch screen to function and use some other apps. Like I said this is the battle I am having with myself right now, the xbox has no where near enough ram to run the GPS and other functions of most of the carputers here. At the same time you could probably buy a xbox, mod it, get an inverter, controller to usb adapter (for whatever usb devices you may want to run) and be able to run this setup for under $200 then just pick what kinda monitor you want to use. It will never have all the features of a Carputer but you would have one heck of a setup for low cost..... and you can still play xbox games, and take it out if you want to use it in the house or somewhere else (drive to a show, pull out the box and take it into the hotel room for the over night stay).

Yeah, the dual boot option would be nice. However, the xbox is cheap! You can get one for $50 modded for a total of $150. then a simple screen, $100-1000...

Not a bad option for playing movies and music, maybe some games. No Navi though ... And its ok to turn these off without shutting down.

It depends on what features you can live without. You can also run it W/Out a dvd drive. Just the power supply, mobo and hdd. That will cut down on space.

NOPE bad idea - with out a X2VGA adaptor you dont get true VGA

I have tried the cheap ones - they suck big time - fuzzy

you will want a mod chip - softmods work and work good
- but there is always a chance it will get messed up, mod chips
always work - if installed good

I had a softmod mess up on me - if I had not backed the harddrive
key and XBOX os - it would have been a big black paper weight
- always do backups - and keep that harddrive key handy

you can put linux on it - except for lack of support for hardware,
like a touch screen - and you cant use a VGA screen without a
X2VGA any way

it has a 8 or 10GB harddisk - so you need to up grade that

you need and inverter - car pc power supplys dont work - maybe
they could if re-wired

its only got 64mb mem - no easy upgrades

is a 700mhz computer - you could get a used 700mhz computer
for less than $50

I have moded the living crap out of my xbox - takes a long time
and money - just get a desktop or laptop - cost less and is easy,
works better

hmmm I modded my xbox for free, you can get a 30-40 gig HD for next to nothing now. Really the only thing you can't do is GPS.... touchscreen is probably possible with some work, the few threads I have found on it were of people who just plugged it in, and it didn't work.... there is major homebrew development for XBOX, if you have the skill you really could do it all for next to nothing.

I just don't get how you say a Carputer does not cost a lot of money, but a modded box does? Sure you could buy a crappy 700 mhz PC for about the cost of an XBOX..... you still would have a big *** desktop you would have to cram into your car, and you would not have any of the positives of the xbox.

Like I said above, figure out what you really wanna do with it... then go from there. I personally like XBMC better than any of the mp3 player interfaces I have seen for a carputer. A lot of the people on these forums want the top of the line do everything carputer.... if you want a box in your car that can hold all of your music, movies, etc, play games and cost you less than $200 + monitor. I say rock it and see where the limits are. If you really want GPS, you could give it a try, but probably not worth it.

For the guy talking about windows.... the only windows that has been run on a xbox was thru emulation from linux. Can't remember the specific reason why, but windows is a no go on the xbox and even when it has been ran it is not stable and is slow due to lack of ram.