Soft-modding an Xbox. How?

[kobykaan]

Thanks, forgot it was already used before so it was most likely formatted. Should I update to 1.40?

yes you can update it to 1.40

 

[Devil May Cry]

Sorry, didn't notice the "and update" part of your post. I installed and updated but I'm still getting nothing. Not even in the AR menu.

 

[Devil May Cry]

Noticed FAST mentioned this in a post of his, might as well update the status.

I still do not have an Xbox to mod. I have done everything I believe possible at this point though with what I got. I still have MechAssualt, the MC transfer cable and the MC itself. On the MC is the SAV and NDure Installer and I have the update on my computer for later. Anything else you think I would need? Also, most of the Xbox's I have been finding are broken or missing cables/controllers. However, one is complete, but already modded. Is there an easy way to fully un-mod an Xbox so I can start from scratch?

 

[xist]

Might i ask what the differences are between Krayzie's ndure installer and DJB's Softmod Installer Deluxe? How do they actually differ? Pro's and Con's of each would be great!

 

[FAST6191]

I could probably drop tech (although I would have to do some reading to make sure I do not miss any specifics) but would you settle for both are extremely reliable, the same level of complexity and ultimately there will be no difference between the two when all is said and done?

 

[xist]

But that's what i don't understand...there's vociferous support for Krayzie's installer over SID, and it seems that it's important to actually know which installation method you've used for reinstalls since the process differs in some way. Plus i've read the SID is less noob friendly and it's more likely to cause problems....and then there's both EEPROM and MC backups offered by SID but only EEPROM by Krayzie.

I'm swinging back and forth like a pendulum! And to further complicate things someone said that i should use the enigmah disc first to enable HD and then after the mod use AID. And then i read AID can cause massive problems in soft mods....

I never thought coming into this so late on would prove such a headache....

 

[Devil May Cry]

But that's what i don't understand...there's vociferous support for Krayzie's installer over SID, and it seems that it's important to actually know which installation method you've used for reinstalls since the process differs in some way. Plus i've read the SID is less noob friendly and it's more likely to cause problems....and then there's both EEPROM and MC backups offered by SID but only EEPROM by Krayzie.

I'm swinging back and forth like a pendulum! And to further complicate things someone said that i should use the enigmah disc first to enable HD and then after the mod use AID. And then i read AID can cause massive problems in soft mods....

I never thought coming into this so late on would prove such a headache....

You and me both

 

[velocity37]

But that's what i don't understand...there's vociferous support for Krayzie's installer over SID, and it seems that it's important to actually know which installation method you've used for reinstalls since the process differs in some way. Plus i've read the SID is less noob friendly and it's more likely to cause problems....and then there's both EEPROM and MC backups offered by SID but only EEPROM by Krayzie.

I'm swinging back and forth like a pendulum! And to further complicate things someone said that i should use the enigmah disc first to enable HD and then after the mod use AID. And then i read AID can cause massive problems in soft mods....

I never thought coming into this so late on would prove such a headache....

I've read some of your posts and you seem fairly knowledgeable. I once had someone ask me whether they should choose NTSC or PAL on a SID install, and I told them to stop what they were doing immediately and go with Krayzie's. Krayzie's is more "noob friendly" because you literally can't do anything to it unless you install the additional support tools. Both will effectively function the same way, just that SID makes it easier to access settings that shouldn't be changed for no reason. Virtual EEPROM is just so that somebody doesn't do something stupid like unlock their no-key-backed-up hard drive and nuke their xbox. If you back up your "true" (not virtual) drive key, you're safe pretty much no matter what you do. If you end up making your drive unbootable, you can just hook it up to a pc and use xboxhdm to unlock it, reformat it to stock M$, and relock it.

No matter which you choose though, you're ultimately going to end up with either EvolutionX or UnleashX to start. Since softmod saves are made to fit 8MB cards, you're going to end up with a pretty bare menu to begin with. Auto-Installer deluxe isn't necessary, you can just manually transfer over anything you want via FTP. If you open the config file for your dashboard (EvoX/UnleashX) in a text editor, you can customize your menu to your liking.

The only other concern is if you have a large hard drive. In that case, you should run XBPartitioner and reformat your extended partitions. The xbox has a limit to how many clusters it can address, so large partitions can become corrupted if filled. XBPartitioner reformats the partitions with appropriate cluster sizes.

 

[xist]

Thanks for the compliment velocity, i'll take "fairly" as a good thing....

I'm not overly worried about making too major a screw up, i just wanted to get a good start to the scene that wasn't too basic as i don't want to spend ages reading up on things and making changes when the other option could have done it for me...i'm also intelligent (and careful) enough to read all the documentation, ask on a forum and use Google before i change anything. However are the EEPROM and Drive Key separate things? I see the option to back up the EEPROM but nothing on Drive Keys unless they're synonymous...and is the restoration to the stock M$ standard a complete restore or a best attempt but not quite 100% back to normal? Is there anywhere that lists the HDD contents of the partitions on a stock Xbox drive before anything is really added or changed?

Seems to me there are only really a couple of differences....SID gives you a menu and you pick what happens whilst Krayzie's is a one route pathway that forces you to the end result with little to no choice. Krayzie's backs up C: and EEPROM, whilst SID can do that and offers to back up the MS Dash (which Krayzie's doesn't appear to). Actually SID doesn't really look to offer more than Krayzie's once the Extra's folder is added into the mix.

SID seems like a nice comprehensive package and a good learning experience. Plus as i understand it if by some idiotic cock up i unlock the HDD in the process, i just need to whack a chip in and that'll take care of that. Oh, and would you agree it's best that i run the enigmah disc to switch my PAL machine before i properly install the softmod?

I've taken a look at the config of EvoX and editing it looks pretty straight forward, and it certainly seems the more feature rich of the two dashes (although from what i gather it seems a little unstable compared to Unleash). I'd probably opt for the most stable and launch the others as apps....Avalaunch looks like a nice choice of main dash but the corruption reports bother me. There just seems to be an awful lot to learn with respect to placement of stuff, what stuff i should actually be using that's not outdated and bad things that i shouldn't do.....ftp however i have down pat and it seems like a nice quick and easy way to fiddle about with the HDD.

To be honest i'm more worried about using xboxhdm for the first time and accidentally formatting my PC's HDD instead of the Xbox's intended drive....now that would be a catastrophe!

 

[FAST6191]

EEPROM contains the drive key and some other stuff: http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Xbox_Hard_D...cking_Mechanism as for the chip then yes most chips bypass the need for locking (about the only advantage to a chip).

Return to stock? There are fairly simple ways (although I suggest backing up your dash* rather than pulling one together from other sources), frankly I would spend the money on a new xbox though (original xboxes go for hardly anything these days). If you mean for live or something first there is a dual boot method and secondly xlink kai is part of XBMC (and functions with other dashboards).
Re: how close, without an electron microscope/similar nobody will be able to tell.
*this is part of most installs/guides or later setup methods.

Re dashboard: I suggest XBMC over all others. All play games and homebrew as well as each other but XBMC has multimedia capabilities too.

Formatting the PC drive: any good tutorial will have you booting from a CD and disconnecting your PC drive(s). If you manage to break physics then I will pay for a new setup.

In all truth you softmod once per xbox and then forget about it, all current versions automatically load and use much the same methods (earlier softmods needed some buttons to be pressed and/or were more risky).

re: "enigmah (video mode switcher)", it does not touch the EEPROM so do it whenever. The only real reason to do it though is to use the HD cables on a PAL xbox or if you have an ancient TV/video setup*, dashboards should be region free and homebrew does not care.

*my VGA box is one of these, most PAL region TVs that have scart/RCA will not break a sweat on any region. Remember that non-"HD" NTSC is a noticeably lower resolution which may make a difference for text.

 

[velocity37]

Thanks for the compliment velocity, i'll take "fairly" as a good thing....
Sorry, I wasn't trying to be rude, I just meant I wouldn't expect you to make a stupid mistake like confusing PAL and NTSC.

is the restoration to the stock M$ standard a complete restore or a best attempt but not quite 100% back to normal? Is there anywhere that lists the HDD contents of the partitions on a stock Xbox drive before anything is really added or changed?
It's a complete restore. XboxHDM will automatically partition your drive properly for an xbox, you just have to supply the files to store on those partitions. You should be able to FTP your xbox while it's in the softmod install menu if you set the IP to match your network (xbox is the username and password). The C: and E: partitions are the only thing you should worry about. C: contains the Microsoft dashboard files. Savedata is stored in E:\TDATA and E\UDATA.

Actually SID doesn't really look to offer more than Krayzie's once the Extra's folder is added into the mix.
Yep, pretty much. As I said they're effectively the same, just that there's an additional step to access the dangerous parts.

QUOTE(xist @ Apr 1 2009, 10:36 PM) I've taken a look at the config of EvoX and editing it looks pretty straight forward, and it certainly seems the more feature rich of the two dashes (although from what i gather it seems a little unstable compared to Unleash). I'd probably opt for the most stable and launch the others as apps....Avalaunch looks like a nice choice of main dash but the corruption reports bother me.

Dashboard selection is more of a personal preference. I've always used EvoX because it has built in trainer support, but UnleashX lets you change things like video settings and has a built-in file manager. XBMC would be nice if I didn't have a dedicated HTPC though.

QUOTE(xist @ Apr 1 2009, 10:36 PM)

There just seems to be an awful lot to learn with respect to placement of stuff, what stuff i should actually be using that's not outdated and bad things that i shouldn't do.....ftp however i have down pat and it seems like a nice quick and easy way to fiddle about with the HDD.

Placement of stuff shouldn't be much an issue. All you really need to worry about is where your softmod stores the dash files. You can find that out pretty quick by changing a string in a config file you find from something like "games" to "jjjjj" and see if it takes effect after restart.

After that you can just change where the dashboard looks for games and such by changing and adding paths in its config.
If you set a dashboard to look for apps in the path E:\Emulators you'd need a file structure similar to:
E:\Emulators\FCEUltraX\default.xbe
E:\Emulators\PCSXbox\default.xbe

There really isn't much in outdated and bad things either. Outdated things aren't usually harmful, just redundant. You wouldn't need a separate app for say, an FTP server, because pretty much every dashboard has that built in now. The only really bad things you can do are unlock your hard drive (with no modchip or proper EEPROM backup) or change your video mode without the ability to view the new video mode. Virtual EEPROM prevents both of these things unless you disable it. I forget whether it was Krayzie's or SID, but I purposefully deleted every single file I could find and it still booted to a blank EvolutionX dashboard so I could boot to a rescue disc. Current softmods make it really hard to do wrong.

But basically, like FAST6191 said, there's nothing to it.

 

[xist]

Wow! Thank you both for the very informative and comprehensive replies. If i may i'd like to ask one more thing....

SID offers to back up MS Dash and C: whilst Krayzie's just does C:. Are the files for the MS dash within that C backup? And is the fact Krayzie's doesn't offer that particular backup a bad thing?

I've also had a look at the extra's pack for Krayzie's installer...to me it reads that on direct comparison SID does more off the bat (Dual Boot, LED changes etc) but once you enter the Extra's Menu you actually get more options than SID, and in effect can give yourself more safety/restore options as well as far more dangerous ones too. Is that about right..that the sum of Krayzie's actually exceeds that of SID when everything is accounted for?

(Yeah sorry that was two.....)

 

[velocity37]

SID offers to back up MS Dash and C: whilst Krayzie's just does C:. Are the files for the MS dash within that C backup? And is the fact Krayzie's doesn't offer that particular backup a bad thing?
C: is the MS Dash, however, softmods offer "Virtual C:". The Microsoft dashboard doesn't like the C: partition being messed with, so softmods make a 300MB or so image of the MS Dash and mount it as C: after boot. I'd imagine that a C: backup is a backup of the true C: partition (softmod), while the MS Dash backup is the virtual C:.

QUOTE(xist @ Apr 2 2009, 01:45 PM) I've also had a look at the extra's pack for Krayzie's installer...to me it reads that on direct comparison SID does more off the bat (Dual Boot, LED changes etc) but once you enter the Extra's Menu you actually get more options than SID, and in effect can give yourself more safety/restore options as well as far more dangerous ones too. Is that about right..that the sum of Krayzie's actually exceeds that of SID when everything is accounted for?

I don't have two in front of me to compare, but for the most part the important features should be identical. You're really never going to go into the softmod menu once you have your xbox setup as you want. Like FAST6191 said, it's a set it and forget it sort of thing. There's only a couple reasons you'd need to be there, like if you needed to change nkpatcher for VGA out or upgraded hard drive space arrangement, or to uninstall the softmod.

I think you're building it up in your head, much like I did when reading about flashing my 360 liteon. Try them out for yourself and see which one you prefer, if any.

 

[xist]

Thanks....i'll probably go with Krayzie's. Now to find any form of documentation for the Extra's package....i'm happy setting up the Dual boot and modifying the LED's but am also well aware that going into that area and screwing around with things is 'bad' - but the Professional section is just too intriguing!