Free xbox 360 software for linux

In an effort to be able to play Halo 2 with some out of state friends, I wrote an xbox system link proxy that would essentially bridge only xbox network traffic across across layer 3 networks using UDP.

Written in C and uses libpcap and libnet. A later update added multicast support so Apples Rendezvous (mdns) protocol could span subnets and networks.

xboxproxy project a very simple program that simple takes certain packets and forwards them to other known xbox proxies.

The xbox system link bridge will let you essentially bridge the broadcast and multicast traffic across multiple networks using these proxy bridge-points.

The xbox system link uses ethernet addresses (Layer 2) to indicate destination address and UDP (Layer 4) to send data. If you arent familiar with the OSI model, then the layer information wont help you here. Basically, the 3 layers we care about for this system link proxy are ethernet (layer 2) and udp (layer 4). Theres a special mention for the ip layer (layer 3) but that will be explained shortly.

System link packets come in two flavors: broadcast and unicast. In Halo 2, when you go to look for system link games, your xbox will send ethernet broadcast packets probing for available games.

Broadcast packets are received by every network device on your layer 2 segment, this usually means your subnet or immediate network. Other xbox systems who are hosting games will respond directly to your xbox using your xboxs ethernet address (MAC address) as the destination.

This process is called "discovery." After the discovery process completes and your xbox knows about other xboxes hosting games on the network, it begins direct communication to the known xboxes. When you try to join a game, your xbox sends packets directly to the other xbox you are connecting to. Direct communication continues until you quit the game.

A special note needs to be made, becuase you cant simple skip over layer 3 (the ip layer). We know now that addressed communication uses ethernet addresses, and we also know that the payloads are inside UDP packets, but what about the IP layer?

The IP layer has addresses of its own, among other kinds of flags. Xboxes use the IP of 0.0.0.1 to communicate. This is nothing *too* special, but if you want to sniff only your xboxs traffic, then you can simply filter for that ip and youll get it.

The proxy works by listening for broadcast packets from any xboxes on the immediate network. Any broadcast packets are forwarded to any known proxies over UDP. The proxy also keeps track of ethernet addresses by proxy. So if a packet from "my" xbox wants to talk to another xbox, the proxy will know which proxy that target xbox is on, and only forward the packet to that proxy.

This is a very simple system, and I dont have to know anything about the system link protocol beyond what the underlying layers are used for communication.
I later did some investigating into iTunes music shares. iTunes uses mdns (Apple calls it Rendezvous) for "discovery" of other iTunes music shares.

The discovery is done over a protocol called multicast. Adding mdns support to the proxy/bridge program was quite trivial, and I have tested that it does in-fact work. You can use it to listen to iTunes music shares which are not on your immediate network.

Gentoox Linux is an adaptation of the popular source based Linux distribution called Gentoo. Gentoox Home retains all the features of the original (portage, sysvinit etc...) but has a patch system created from the ground up, by myself, which is specifically designed for Gentoox.

"Magic" (as I have labelled it) allows users to install new software, upgrade their kernel and fix bugs. To learn more about magic, run "magic usage" once you have installed Gentoox.

Gentoox runs along side games - you get 3 choices during installation: E, F and Native. Both E and F create a loopback filesystem meaning that none of your drives are formatted during installation (except for cache partitions). If you choose "Native", then your F: partition is formatted to ReiserFS (making it inaccessible to Xbox applications).

Gentoox can be loaded via a .xbe file, or from a Cromwell based BIOS (which can be flashed to your modchip during installation). When using E or F installations, you are totally risk free - if you dont like Gentoox, simply delete all the files it installs (about 7 in total) and its gone.

There are three versions of Gentoox: Pro Edition, Home Edition and Media Center Edition. All three are 100% free and opensource, the difference between Home and Pro is that the Home Edition has many software packages preinstalled and preconfigured for instant usablity straight out of the box where as Pro doesnt even have a graphical user interface let alone any "useful" applications.

Pro is a bare minimum installation for booting the system, the entire customisation of the OS is left in the users hands with Pro. Media Center edition is more of a "Plugin" than a separate distribution. It allows you to have a Media Center along with Gentoox Home or Pro.

Gunroar is a 360-degree gunboat shooter. An abstract shooter; Shoot in any direction, as you race through the levels.
Keep near the top of the screen to increase your score. Destroy the enemy fleet. Comes with a soundtrack and effects.
Enhancements:
- Added -enableaxis5 option. (for xbox 360 wired controller)
- Added mouse mode.
- Changed a drawing method of a game field.
- Fixed a problem with a score reel size in a double play mode.
- Increased the number of smoke particles.