Cromwell is a replacement

firmware In computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, h ...

for the

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

gaming console that has been developed by the Xbox Linux Project. If programmed onto the onboard flash chip of the Xbox or a

modchip A modchip (short for modification chip) is a small electronic device used to alter or disable artificial restrictions of computers or entertainment devices. Modchips are mainly used in video game consoles, but also in some DVD or Blu-ray players ...

, it can boot the

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

operating system and practically convert the Xbox into a full PC. It is unusual in that it is a legal firmware (because it does not use any of

's code to function) and was developed primarily through reverse-engineering of the original Microsoft BIOS and its boot process. In light of this, many Xbox

manufacturers ship this firmware with their chips to avoid

litigation A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. ...

and

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...

claims. The main function of this firmware is to load the Linux operating system, although it also supports other features, such as the ability to reprogram the hardware with another firmware image, lock and unlock the hard disk, and change video mode (

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

NTSC NTSC (from National Television System Committee) is the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. In 1961, it was assigned the designation System M. It is also known as EIA standard 170. In 1953, a second ...

). Unlike the vast majority of Xbox firmware images, it is not able to load Xbox games (either original or otherwise). This is because the original Microsoft firmware image contains the kernel of the Xbox operating system (widely believed to be a stripped-down

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...

derivative) - that is, the firmware is the operating system. As Cromwell does not contain this, it is not able to allow games to load and function. Cromwell includes code from other open source projects, but combines them in a unique way. This is a list of components that can be found in Cromwell: * a Linux 2.6-derived USB stack in a standalone version (i.e. it runs without Linux) * Linux kernel-derived JPEG decompression code *

Etherboot gPXE is an open-source software, open-source Preboot Execution Environment, Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) client firmware implementation and bootloader derived from Etherboot. It can be used to enable computers without built-in PXE support ...

networking code *

GRUB GNU GRUB (short for GNU GRand Unified Bootloader, commonly referred to as GRUB) is a boot loader package from the GNU Project. GRUB is the reference implementation of the Free Software Foundation's Multiboot Specification, which provides a use ...

filesystem support and bootloader code The standalone version of the Linux USB stack from Cromwell has been ported to the

ReactOS ReactOS is a Free and open-source software, free and open-source operating system for i586/amd64 personal computers that is intended to be binary-code compatibility, binary-compatible with computer programs and device drivers developed for Wind ...

operating system.

External links

Cromwell Manual
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cromwell (Computing) Custom firmware