How to softmod your Xbox and install XBMC for free

matt_lethargic

Ok so firstly, I'm not an idiot, I have worked in IT for ten years, got an MCSE or two working in Net administration, then developed software for the last five. I'm not trying to boast either, I just don't want anyone to think I can't follow instructions, but, ITS DEAD!

I did everything then rebooted xbox and now when I power on normal xbox logo, then xbmc logo briefly then blank screen! If I power on with eject button I get to xbox live screen select things from there but can't back out to any other screens.

I've just tried hot swapping into spare pc and have managed to load ndure installer.... this is where I am at, anyone got any ideas what to do now? Should I install ndure again and start from that point, or maybe Restore C: and start from scratch?

All suggestions and laughing accepted!

PS I only bought the xbox yesterday for £20 just to do this, so not unhappy about that it hasn't worked, just have to keep trying

*** UPDATE ***
ITS ALIVE!

Ok so I did a restore and its back to being boring old xbox, score 1 for logic!
Will start over. Any ideas where I went wrong though would be appreciated.

Black_Knight

Dead seems a bit of an overkill (no pun intended). Its working, just not properly, yet.

Just my own 2 cents worth here. But if XBMC is loading its splash screen and then dieing, my first guess would be a dodgy copy of XBMC. Maybe it didnt FTP over properly, maybe the extracted download got corrupt in all the wrong places.
Download a new copy of XBMC, and FTP it over again.

Its the least drastic solution and if it doesnt work then youve only wasted about 20 mins (depending on your internet connection).

On a side note, that must be the most selfsatisfying introduction to boards.ie ever! Welcome.

matt_lethargic

Black_Knight wrote: »

On a side note, that must be the most selfsatisfying introduction to boards.ie ever! Welcome.

Lol, thanks I'm not really that smug in real life!

Got it working now, looks like it was dodgy ftping, was using a different client, tried filezilla and worked. I set it up so that its an application, just to be on the safe side. Is there an easy way to get it to load xbmc straight off?

From what I gather I need to set it up as default dashboard, but how is this done?

Black_Knight

matt_lethargic wrote: »

Lol, thanks I'm not really that smug in real life!

Got it working now, looks like it was dodgy ftping, was using a different client, tried filezilla and worked. I set it up so that its an application, just to be on the safe side. Is there an easy way to get it to load xbmc straight off?

From what I gather I need to set it up as default dashboard, but how is this done?

To load straight to XBMC put the contents of the XBMC folder into the E:\dash\ folder.
It will load the xbox splash screen and then load XBMC, no way around that as far as I can see.

ongarite

matt_lethargic wrote: »

From what I gather I need to set it up as default dashboard, but how is this done?

See this post to setup XBMC as default dash when you have it boot with another dash.
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=57969999&postcount=4

wcullen

Does anybody know where I can get an xbox to try this mod? I really dont want to pay over the odds for one.

slewis1972

HI

Sorry, not gone through the whole thread but getting a xbox this weekend to have it setup as a media centre as having a readnas coming.

Anyway - which file do I add the network shares to my music and video directories?

Scott

vibe666

matt_lethargic wrote: »

All suggestions and laughing accepted!

first things first, I know you got it back in the end, but I keep saying it and nobody listens.

BACKUP YOUR EEPROM!

once you have ftp access to the xbox it's the one thing you should always do which is the only thing that will guarantee to save your bacon if it all goes titsup. if you have a\n eeprom backup you can take practially any hdd and build it for your xbox from scratch using xbox hdm and you'll be grand, no matter how badly you cock it all up.

i know the temptation is to keep going when you feel like you;re doing well, but it takes 2 minutes to do and can and will save you hours of frustration.

i know an xbox is only 20 now but they're not all that easy to come by any more so it's only 20 quid but you can't just pick one up anywhere whenever you want one and at the end of the day, there's a recession on and 20 quid is still 20 quid.

slewis1972 wrote: »

Anyway - which file do I add the network shares to my music and video directories?Scott

it's all done via the (very straightforward) GUI these days Scott, *no need to edit any files manually, not for a good couple of years anyway.

* with the possible exception of changing the rss feeds in the ticker tape to something more to your liking.

there's a wealth of info out there on the official forums and wiki, nothing you might want to do with it is going to be anything that hasn't been covered a thousand times before already, so it's all in there.

witnessmenow

witnessmenow wrote: »

Oh your going to love this... I have another problem for ye!

Done the 5th one i had to do there and it doesnt boot into the softmod section, a screen comes up and says that it

"could not load all resources, this is normally caused by no disc space on E: and X:. Try ftping (some address)"

Or something to that effect. Any idea what cause this?
There did seem to be a good bit of music on the xbox so i ftp'd it and took a good load off, only thing is it still aint booting. i was thinking of ftping all the important stuff off one xbox and putting it onto another, two questions

1. will this work?:p

2. What is the important stuff?

Cheers for the help in advance.

Just to let people know it was a faulty hard drive that was causing this problem

Redisle

Hey guys, I spent about 4 or 5 hours today trying to get this working to no avail.. Just wondering if anyone has any other ideas..
Firstly I have Kernal 5838 and Dashboard 5960. I followed all the instructions, made my iso etc, that was all fine.

Anyways opened up the xbox and started trying my hot swapping..
I tried all the ways I could find on the net to unlock the drive.. Music pause, disconnect dvd drive, disconnect at startup logo, etc..
So I try an unlock method and hotswap the drive, press 1 and hit enter on the pc..
It goes through a load of text and shows a few I/O Errors that you can see here:



Then on the next screen when I type xbrowser this is what I get:

So it finds the hard drive fine but never the xbox partition..


I tried connecting the drive to my primary ide and secondary ide, end of the ribbon and middle of the ribbon, powered by the computer and powered by the xbox, drive set to cs and drive set to master etc.. And I tried all this on 2 different pc's... and I tried different unlock methods on all these cable setups.. I also tried a few different IDE cables

Each time it picked up the drive fine but couldn't find the partition.. and I always got those I/O errors..
At this stage I have no idea why it won't work..

im tempted to just buy that game and mem card instead cause this is annoying me now..

Appreciate any other ideas,
Thanks

Nick_oliveri

Its something to do with the M/S settings. Maybe the CD or DVD drive on the secondary IDE is set to Slave or CS.

Motherboard=====primaryide===Xboxharddrive
Motherboard=====secondaryide===CDdrive

Im sure they should be both in master. Dont put anything on the middle of either IDE. I got the same shiite and it was all down to the CD drive being slave or CS. Wrecked mah titties it did, i spent a lot of time cracking up and losing hope like yourself.

Same I/O errors and same problem finding hard drive. If its not the CD drive then try going into your BIOS and see if theres some settings that is forcing slave or master for the IDE's. (Last resort)

Edit: if that fails and there is no weird BIOS shiite, then do the disc from scratch. Make sure the right kernel is selected. Im not saying you done it wrong, it could be anything even corrupted CD data. Better to rule it out.

witnessmenow

You can right to the hard drive ok yeah? As in can you put a cd in and copy it to the drive?

I had a really weird problem before , the one i descirbed a few posts up. I couldnt get any dashboard to load on it other then the stock MS one. It would not let me copy cds to it or boot games. I had to extract the eeprom from the motherboard and replace the hard drive

EDIT: Also 9.5/10 the cable setup nick describes is right, but 120_minutes brought his xbox down to me after he was having bother with it and I could only mod it when it was the opposite way around

Redisle

Yeah I can write to the hd fine, and games are working fine.

Motherboard=====primaryide===Xboxharddrive
Motherboard=====secondaryide===CDdrive

Yeah this is how I had it setup.. I didn't check the jumpers on the cd drive though so it could be the cd drive is secondary slave rather than secondary master..
The xbox drive was set as default to cs but I changed it to master and still got the exact same problems..

I seriously doubt it's a bios issue since I got the exact same errors on two different pc's..
Im actually on my second disc too.. did another yesterday to make sure I did everything right... same problems

Il give it another shot later on, and il try setting both to master..
Otherwise I think il be buying splintercell and hacking together an actionreplay..

Nick_oliveri

Have to be honest man if its giving jip on the two pcs then im sure its the jumper settings. Let us know anyways.

Redisle

Ok no luck,

I just tried it on the one pc today, The cd drive was set to slave so i changed it to master and I set the xbox drive to master.

Paused music and connected up like this:
Motherboard=====primaryide===Xboxharddrive
Motherboard=====secondaryide===CDdrive

No good, exact same problems as before, I also tried plugging out the dvd power to get error 12.. same again. It finds the hard disk but not the partition.

I did manage to get a different response one time, I went into the "Memory" section on the xbox dashboard and deleted some game saves, then I immediately hot swapped. These are pics of some of the original text after choosing option 1 at the start..




In my haste too I was a bit of an idiot and left the plastic hard disk case to one side.. got myself a nice shock from a capacitor

witnessmenow

If you are ever up in athlone I'll do the softmod for you.

Redisle

Thanks for the offer but I won't be near Athlone anytime soon.. I don't really know why this won't work, I have followed all instructions etc.. And it's not like im blindly following instructions.. I know plenty about pc's, build em etc, worked in IT.. and still can't get this damn thing working.I may just go into gamestop and see if they have any more xboxes lying around.. maybe the reason this won't work is because it is a relatively knew console?

Id guess it's a v1.6 since it was bought towards the end of life of the console and has Kernal 5838.. i think I read somewhere that 1.6's were harder to mod than others?

Nick_oliveri

The firmware that you use on the modchips is different than the ones you would use from V1.5 downwards. Some modchips arent compatible with 1.6. Thats about it. Im sure i have used the hotswap method on a 1.6 and a 5838 kernel.

I seriously doubt it's a bios issue since I got the exact same errors on two different pc's..

With two different CD/DVD drives? Worth ruling out. But dont go buying another one!!

Redisle

Ok I have officially lost hope of modding this using a hotswap.
Just tried it on my second pc, I set my dvd drive to master and put it on secondary ide, hotswapped xbox to end of primary ide and no good.. same damn problem.. tried the music method and the pulling out dvd ide method (pulled hd ide just when light flashed red).. exact same problem as before..

Update: In the process of this I somehow managed to break my primary ide port of the better computer.. the secondary works fine.. strange one.. Update2: Nvm, a bios reset fixed that.

sornypanafonic

has anyone experience a weird color distortation with xmbc?? i just installed it, it has a purple tint all across. everything. video as well. every screen has a purple tint to it. its very bizarre.


im going to try to reinstall and see whats going on. i just messed up my default.xbe file, the isntructions are awesome, but the just dumping xmbc in e:/dash didnt fare too well.


UPDATE: i tried this method of installing it http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=As_a_Dashboard#Option_1_-_Using_the_Team_XBMC_Shortcut.xbe_.28Recommended.29 :::OPTION 1::: but it didnt install as a dash and when i boot it as a application its all green, everything is green. haha, its ridiculous. before there was a tint of purple, now theres nothing but green everywhere. its like St. Patricks day.

well another update, i removed it as an application. did it again as a dash, again purple all over, the movies when played have purple and suffer from heavy color distortion. i dont know what to do. ive tried nothing and im all out of ideas! (line from the simpsons, which sadly are also unwatchable.)

ill see if i can do anything else, perhaps install an old version instead of the latest. ill update as i go along. thanks again for the instructions. hopefully someone has an answer to this.

tetsujin1979

Could it be a cabling, or connection issue? Did you try connecting the XBox to a different TV?

sornypanafonic

yes i did, 2 different tvs. and actually i just noticed right now, maybe because i was sleepy as hell last night, but my MS dashboard comes up purple as well.

i had a lot of problems retaining my MS dashboard, I had originally tried UXE or something else, failed with it, switched over to NDure, got what i needed from the HD, then created a new HD. the original hd also had the purple problem. everything seems to be running smooth, its just that its purple. prince would love this sh*t.

UPDATE - the games run purple as well, everything seems to be purple. as for the wires, theyre MS HD component cables. theyve never given me problems before and the green start up screen is dead. i figure everything would be in the crapper if it was the cable. i noticed someone else had the same problem but for xbmc for mac - http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=36742&highlight=ATI - anyone know how i can make these changes? the path they describe is throwing me off, that and it seems to be an old built for a different platform. hmm

sornypanafonic

i dont mean to bump this up, but has anyone ran into something similar? been reinstalling it and i cant seem to shake the color distortion on all screens. anyone think its the unleashX?? the main screen matches the screen posted up in the instructions by OP. thanks in advance.

Nick_oliveri

Try going to unleashx settings and changing the video settings till the bitch works, though i assume you've done that already, try the original cable!

witnessmenow

Its very unlikely thats its unleash in my opinion, but to rule it out for certain return your hard drive to a stock one (ie complete remove the mod) so you can rule it out.


This will wipe any game saves you have so dont do it if you have something important on it

1. Download this ISO

2. Burn it to a cd. (no need to do anything with it, make sure you burn it with iso burning software, like the one in supercells guide or imgburn)

3. Boot it up the same way as the cd from supercells guide.(cd drive in the secondry IDE slot , with all other hard drives plugged out).

4. Turn on your xbox, when it gets to the green X screen Unplug the hard drive.

5. Plug it in to your pc when you have the xbox hd tools screen on your pc and chose option 1

6. Then type "xboxhd"

7. then select option 1

8. Then just keep typing "yes" at every option after that.

After a few mins it will say its done, then you should have your xbox working as standard again, IMPORTANT!!! remember to plug the hard drive back into the xbox before powering the xbox down.

You will now have a completely stock xbox

Let us know how you get on?

craze7

I'd imagine he is running the xbox in ntsc mode and the tv dosen't support it!!!

Try using enigma video switcher and changing it to pal!!!!

Redisle

Finally got this working today with splintercell and I have to say it is pretty damn sweet,
Just wondering what cables people are using for connecting everything up?

At the moment I have it connected to a cheap projector using composite cables but the pj has component inputs so I want to get a component cable for it. That will also help when I eventually get a HDTV.. the other thing I need is an optical out (since I bought a surround sound sys recently with an optical in).

Cable wise on ebay there isn't a huge selection, the only things I can find which has both component and optical are this one and this one.. strangely microsofts own "Advanced AV" kit only comes with composite+s-video and optical and no component even though the console can use it..
So how do other people have it hooked up??

sornypanafonic

@Nick_oliveri - i couldnt find the original (its been many years), will buy it today and test it out.

witnessmenow wrote: »

Its very unlikely thats its unleash in my opinion, but to rule it out for certain return your hard drive to a stock one (ie complete remove the mod) so you can rule it out.


This will wipe any game saves you have so dont do it if you have something important on it



You will now have a completely stock xbox

Let us know how you get on?

I have already done this a few times, it was purple on the xbox orginal hard drive.

In my first softmod, Unleash color didnt match the screen color of the OP, and from what I thought, I had fudged a few steps (the original dash was gone! - this has been a big problem, perhaps my constant reinstalling of this after the softmod it causes the color distortion? so i messed up the first install, i still made sure to get the eeprom and then i redid the whole hd and took it to a new state, re-softmodded it. unleash then looked exactly like the OPs picture. I then installed xbmc and it came out purple. it looked funky but i thought it was a color/skin difference but when i put a video to test it, everything was purple - heavy color distortion etc.

i created a new one (bought a 500gb hard drive to fill with tv shows and movies) and it came back purple (green when xbmc was installed as a application.) It wont hurt to try again tho. is there a way for me to NOT erase the 200gb of files I already FTP-ed over? Ignore the F drive? If not its no biggie, can always do it again.

@craze7 - i actually have a ntsc tv, im in the states. my tv is **** but it looks the same on my brothers tv. i also checked the settings in case it was on pal (xbmc/unleashx.)

thanks for the ideas and quick responses! sorry for the essay. trying to convey as much information as possible.

Nick_oliveri

Could be that if your original dash was deleted that your regional settings are gone, but thats speculation as that may be hardware specific. Try getting that enigma video mode switcher (software) that a previous poster suggested. Its well worth the shot and free too.

For now id advise trying enigma and getting an original cable. Btw, whens the inauguration?

Edit, Use Xbins for enigma

Found this link, kinda annoying that there is a renowned purple screen error for the 360 gettin in the way o mah search!!
http://www.avforums.com/forums/xbox/187974-xbox-rgb-red-purple-screen.html

witnessmenow

Download LIVEINFO BETA 3

and run your eeprom through it to make sure its still set for NTSC