Felix Domke, the man who made the news a little while ago when he released kernel patches for Xbox360-specific hardware, has just released a bootloader which sets up a Linux environment on your 360. While the stuff available currently isn't very exciting for the common Linux user, the future holds a lot of promise if applications get ported to the 360-specific architecture. Here's what's in the readme:

This is XeLL.

XeLL is the Xenon Linux Loader. It's a second-stage bootloader and is usually run by an exploit. The method of booting this is not a part of this project.

XeLL catches CPU threads, sets them up (basically setting HRMOR to zero), loads an ELF file from either network (tftp) or CDROM, and launches it. It also contains a flat device tree for linux.

cdrom.c includes a very simple ISO9660 parser, which tries to boot the file named ""vmlinux".

lwIP (http://www.sics.se/~adam/lwip/) is used for networking. Network config is currently hardcoded in network.c (and main.c). XeLL also contains a HTTP server. It is not really used.

XeLL is licensed under the GPL v2, and no other version.

Xenon-specific stuff of XeLL was written by Felix Domke , other parts where taken from other free sourcecodes. No non-free hardware documentation was used for developing XeLL.

XeLL is in a very early stage, but is (most of the time) fully working.

In case you're wondering, you need an Xbox360 with a buggy kernel (version 4532 or 4548). Unfortunately, if you've been on Live or tried out new games, you probably have the latest kernel update (4552) which doesn't have any known exploits currently. If you're one of the lucky ones, grab the source from the cvs repository, compile it, and use it with the Crawler360 loader to load the linux environment on the 360.

Personally, I can't wait for more great stuff from these guys. With the speed at which these things are moving forward, you can be sure that the next few weeks will bring a lot more exciting stuff. It's gonna be a great ride, and we'll be there to cover every bit of it!

Too much gaming, as you all know by now, is bad, bad, bad for you. Video games are particularly hard on the eyes. According to an article by Andrew Bermam in Tech Zone, "Flash graphics, rapid-fire movements, and long hours at the console result in health problems like muscle and eye strain. Common ailments resulting from gaming are: lateral epicondylitis, tendonitis, bursitis, and carpel tunnel syndrome among others."

Among others? You mean there's more? If that didn't scare you, you must already be numb and cross-eyed from too much gaming. We posted an article called "Tips On How To Avoid 'Xbox Vision', 'Nintendonitis', And Other Gaming-Related Discomforts". We hope you didn't turn a blind eye to it!

Here are more tips to keep gaming safe, especially for your eyes.

• Blink your eyes to lubricate it. We doubt you could lose the game to blinking every now and then.
• Ask your eye doctor to prescribe artificial tears that will moisten your eyes. Or you can pull out a nose hair every now and then to make your eyes well up.
• At least 6-8 times a day, rub the palms of your hands together and press them on your eyes. Hold themthere for a few minutes. The warmth of your palms will relax the eye muscles. A warm hotpack may also do the trick if you rhands have turned into horrible claw-like things after hours of gaming.
• Greenery soothes eyes, so glance as often as you can at green trees, bushes, or plants. You can also watch the horror classic The Exorcist. Lots of green colored stuff streaming out of Linda Blair's throat there.
• Do simple Yoga eye strengthening exercises. Don't worry you don't have to sit, painfully, like a circus contortionist. Roll your eyes, focusing on your nose and then the area between your eyebrows. Shift your balls (you eyeballs, we mean, we never tire of that line) from left to right. Was that too hard?
• Get a qualified eye doctor (not your bestfriend) to check your vision and find out whether you need “computer glasses.” If you use contact lenses, doctors say take them off and use glasses instead.
• Bug your parents to buy you HDTV. Screens with sharper images and greater clarity are gentler to the eyes. If they say no, remind them that prevention of CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome) is a hundred times better than any cure after a problem occurs. Of course it could backfire, they could take away your console, instead.

Team Blackbolt has just released the new beta version of its much revered MC360 skin for Xbox Media Center.The MC360 Beta 0.98626 features over 100 fixes. As such, the team has packaged a change log and brand new readme file. It's bound to be a great read. It's easy to lose your way with such a long list of features, but here are the main things to look out for: the Extras are back on the guide blade; Xlink Kai has been moved back to the Orange home blade which gains the new title of 'XBMC Live'. That last bit of info is in preparation for the XBMC Live Marketplace (WIP title), which promises loads of features that will cater to Xbox users who are always online.

In addition to the feature-laden beta release, the site now has the Tutorials and FAQs section. New content will be added to it, starting with a Template zip that contains the entire England XPR Theme unpacked. You can create your own custom themes based on the sizing ideas included in the package. A readme.txt explains how to do background images correctly.

Before you download, better read this message from the team: You must use the latest T3CH release (9th July 2006) or newer CVS builds. Do not overwrite your old MC360 folder. Change to Project Mayhem 3 Skin in XBMC then FTP in and deleted the MC360 folder completely, then upload the newer one and restart just to be sure.

Download: [MC360 Beta v0.98626]

blackbolt/4315" id="tag" title="">Team Blackbolt is back with an improved MC360. Although a few days late away from the T3CH release, the team promises this latest version to be better than the first one. Before going into the changelog for MC360, let me explain what this application is for, in case other people are still in the dark. MC360 is a UI skin that can be applied with a modded Xbox so Xbox 1 users can use the Xbox Media Center (XBMC).

Although still a beta version, v0.98565 promises to be a must-try with the following changes:

• Personal Settings.
• Card Setups, choose from 1 of 3 types on each blade.
• Download Themes directly from the skin.
• Various Effects in the Skins Animation.
• More navigation and memory optimisation, the skin will respond faster due to animation work.
• Fixed Graphical Error with lighting on Blades.
• FileStacking.xml was not able to view stacked movies unless - GUI option treat as one was enabled.
• Disable Background Animations & Background Visualisations.
• Added Large Thumb under Buttons on the left when in list View, can be turned off in Personal settings.

...and BlackBolt says these are just the big changes; more has been added so don't be surprised if you stumble upon something wonderful not listed in here.

If you decide to try out this cool build, make sure you have the latest XBMC CVS or T3CH release. If you have that covered, just copy the MC360 folder to the XBMC/skin/directory, boot up XBMC and go to the Appearance Options. When you're already there, select the MC360 skin then XBMC will reload with the new skin. Using the Theme chooser, you are now free to choose from the Custom Themes.

What are you waiting for? Click the download link below and enjoy Team BlackBolt's latest MC360 version.

Download: [MV350 Beta v0.98565]