Question Regarding Settings & Eeprom

[Jademalo]

I've just installed SID 5.11, and I'm extremely happy. Backups are loading fine, and I've got a solid backup of the eeprom as well as the MS stock.
When I installed the Softmod, I chose not to install the Virtual C, which seems to have also not installed the Virtual eeprom. I'm not too concerned though, this was mainly to be able to load backups.

However, I have a couple of questions that are slightly confusing me, mainly to do with settings.

In the UnleashX dash, there is an option for settings. It has things like network configuration and video configuration. If I change any of this, then it sticks.
There is also the SID installer which you can access through UnleashX, which has that same set of options. However, it seems to save those independently of the UnleashX options. For example, I switched between Static and DHCP on SID but not on UnleashX, and the two ended up with different configurations that seemed to stick.


So... How exactly is this working?
Do those two dashboards have their own video/network settings that are independent of the Xbox's eeprom settings?
Do games booted through UnleashX retain the PAL/NTSC video setting specified in UnleashX's settings, or does it switch back to the Xbox's default while the game is being played? (In other words, are UnleashX's settings exclusively for that dash and not games)(I'm not able to test this at present as I'm using RGB Scart)
What settings exactly are saved on the eeprom?
Where are the Xbox's normal settings (Pal 60, widescreen, etc) saved?

In summary, I'm confused mainly regarding settings. As far as I was aware, you could only change between PAL/NTSC by using Enigma as that was a setting on the eeprom, but this menu has gotten me thoroughly confused. Is this purely for the dashboard and not the actual games?


Finally, I have one slightly unrelated question. When installing the softmod, there was an option for Normal, HD, and RGB. What exactly is the difference in chosing Normal and RGB? I have an RGB scart cable so I chose that, but I can't see any configuration that would change that, and as far as I was aware it output both RGB and Composite video if you were using a properly wired Scart cable.

Thanks

 

[Plstic]

1. Yes the dashboards have independent video/network settings.
2. I'm pretty sure it forces the video mode in games and dash.
3. Your mac address, your harddrive key, your dvddrive key. I don't have to worry about these setting since all of my xboxes either have their TSOP's flashed or have Xecuter 3 CE's in them.
4. I have no idea.

Personally I'd recommend having your xboxes TSOP flashed so you don't have to worry about the whole process upgrading your harddrive and if you mess up your drive you can always reformat it with AID. If you mess up your xbox harddrive with a softmod you're SOL.

 

[Jademalo]

1. Yes the dashboards have independent video/network settings.
2. I'm pretty sure it forces the video mode in games and dash.
3. Your mac address, your harddrive key, your dvddrive key. I don't have to worry about these setting since all of my xboxes either have their TSOP's flashed or have Xecuter 3 CE's in them.
4. I have no idea.

Personally I'd recommend having your xboxes TSOP flashed so you don't have to worry about the whole process upgrading your harddrive and if you mess up your drive you can always reformat it with AID. If you mess up your xbox harddrive with a softmod you're SOL.

Thanks, that clears it up a bit. It's incredibly inconsistent and strange compared to other consoles, lol.

I'm also extremely hesitant to TSOP flash my Xbox. I know it's a 1.1, but I've always been terrible at soldering (You should see my Cmoy) and I'm extremely cautious about doing it and potentially physically breaking the Xbox. To be honest, I'm not really sure if I care to replace the HDD, I'm not using it as a media centre and I can just burn games to disk. Is there any method to do it that doesn't require soldering and has a smaller chance of me permanantly destroying it?
I do have a backup of all the eeprom keys though as well as the official MS dash, so I'm fairly confident now that I've got some avenue of recovery.

 

[FAST6191]

The rest seems to have been taken. On the video thing though it should be the difference between 480i, 480p, 576i and the rest. Alas the rest (the usual suspects up to 1080i) were not unlocked for PAL model xboxes. Fortunately it was a software thing so get yourself a copy of enigmah video switcher and you can then use component cables (either make them or buy them, they should be available in the UK -- http://www.amazon.co.uk/COMPONENT-AV-CABLE-FOR-XBOX/dp/B000OF22LG/ ) to go up to 1080i for a few pieces of homebrew, also XBMC if you go that path.

 

[Jademalo]

What do you mean "The rest seems to have been taken"?

 

[chrisrlink]

to answer your RGB question I think it's for computer monitors if I'm not mistaken

 

[FAST6191]

Most of the rest of the questions appeared to have been answered, or answered better than my dim and distant memories of the odder parts of original xbox modding are up for right now. Of course I now see you already mentioned enigma and I had skipped over it. So as not to make it a complete waste I would say get a program called liveinfo I think it was, it was a nice eeprom reader for various things it contained.

 

[Jademalo]

Most of the rest of the questions appeared to have been answered, or answered better than my dim and distant memories of the odder parts of original xbox modding are up for right now. Of course I now see you already mentioned enigma and I had skipped over it. So as not to make it a complete waste I would say get a program called liveinfo I think it was, it was a nice eeprom reader for various things it contained.

Sweet, thanks. I'll give that a look.

to answer your RGB question I think it's for computer monitors if I'm not mistaken

Ooooh, so it's H/V sync support for VGA? That makes a lot more sense. Thanks!

 

[Plstic]

Sweet, thanks. I'll give that a look.



Ooooh, so it's H/V sync support for VGA? That makes a lot more sense. Thanks!

Certain bioses support VGA.

 

[FAST6191]

If we are doing VGA now then we really should link up
https://web.archive.org/web/20100617004143/http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Xbox_VGA_HOWTO

 

[Jademalo]

Right, I went ahead and TSOP modded my Xbox, thanks for the recommendation! Everything went well, and I've got a bigger HDD in there now. Thanks!

I do have one more question if anyone is reading though, spesifically regarding long filenames.
I've got Harry Potter POA, and that has ~42 long filenames on the disc. I couldn't FTP an extracted version over, however dvd2xbox worked. I've read that it gets by this by renaming the files, however I have a question regarding that. How exactly do the games work if some of the files have been renamed? Is something patched specially?
Also, can anyone tell me what the "acl rm/mv/ep" option in dvd2xbox does? I've tried searching but can't find a solid answer. Actually, if someone could explain acl patching in a bit more detail I would really appreciate it.

I also have read something about the .xbe needing to be patched to run off the HDD, but apparently UnleashX does that automatically. Is that correct?

Thanks!