How to softmod your Xbox and install XBMC for free

witnessmenow

I think you need to go back to the drawing board

This will bring you back to stock (I'll have you linked to every page of my website, before im done with you :pac:)

Would you let me know how you find the guide, its pretty rough at the moment.

EDIT: as for your problem, I havent done the hotswap method in ages, but did you make sure to use the right kernel?

Stuxnet

witnessmenow wrote: »

I think you need to go back to the drawing board

This will bring you back to stock (I'll have you linked to every page of my website, before im done with you :pac:)

Would you let me know how you find the guide, its pretty rough at the moment.

EDIT: as for your problem, I havent done the hotswap method in ages, but did you make sure to use the right kernel?

hi thanks for reply, bingo, i think you hit nail on the head, after reading back first post, i never entered my kernal anywhere, it was 1.04 or something, thats where i messed up so, i will try out your guide tomo and get back to you, thanks alot

Stuxnet

hey doc your guide was perfect got my dash back to stock

eta: got it all up and working it & boots into xbmc now, sweet

someone posted on first page it doesnt work with dash 4034
i'd just like to verify it does !! thats what i was on

witnessmenow

You were on dash 4043, after you installed my cd you were on the latest dash so they were probably still right

Good to hear you got sorted though

Stuxnet

witnessmenow wrote: »

You were on dash 4043, after you installed my cd you were on the latest dash so they were probably still right

Good to hear you got sorted though

oh right, maybe so
although i think i inputted 4043 into the ndure.exe
anyway whatever i did kudos to you !!

daederauoy

Nick_oliveri wrote: »

All i am getting when i try to xbrowser is:

root@Xbox-HDM:/1 xbrowser
Looking for CD-ROM in /dev/hda...
Looking for CD-ROM in /dev/hdb...
No disk drive found on /dev/hda
Please connect a drive and try again!

We will now search /dev/hda for an xbox partition table.....

No xbox-partition table found on /dev/hda

Done!!!
root@Xbox-HDM:/3

:pac:

Edit: this is what happens when you miss a step and dont check your kernel version. I am stupid.

I'm getting this same error. My PC's bios detects the hard drive, I'm plugging the hard drive into the primary ide cable, I've edited the bios in almost every way I can think of, and still nothing. HELP ME PLEASE!!!

Hangover

Looks like your cd/dvd rom is either not on the secondary ide cable or is not jumpered as master.

Also i am in the middle of trying to softmod a V1.6 box, i get unleashx loaded but i want to swap the hdd for a 160gig drive. I have tried chimps but the menu wont work on 1.6's and i cant get a connectin thru lan port, also tried using auto intaller but i dont know the steps to use the prepare lge hdd option ? The xbox i did is brilliant now that wifi is working, i have even taught my 6yo how to browse all the kids movies thru XBMC using the dvd thumbs- working so well i bought a 3rd xbox cheap to mod .

Nick_oliveri

daederauoy wrote: »

I'm getting this same error. My PC's bios detects the hard drive, I'm plugging the hard drive into the primary ide cable, I've edited the bios in almost every way I can think of, and still nothing. HELP ME PLEASE!!!

From the same post you quoted:

Edit: this is what happens when you miss a step and dont check your kernel version. I am stupid.

daederauoy

I've got the CD drive on the secondary IDE cable, I've got it jumpered to master. My secondary IDE cable has 2 different connectors on it, and my primary cable has 1. I'm using a 2000/2001(?) Dell desktop, I had to put a new CD drive in it because the old one refused to recognise the xboxhdm disk. The drive is working fine, I don't think thats the problem. Is it possible that my xbox's hard drive isn't unlocked? Or would that not cause that type of error? I'm kind of a newbie when it comes to stuff like this. Oh, and my xbox is v 1.1.

pts

daederauoy wrote: »

I've got the CD drive on the secondary IDE cable, I've got it jumpered to master. My secondary IDE cable has 2 different connectors on it, and my primary cable has 1. I'm using a 2000/2001(?) Dell desktop, I had to put a new CD drive in it because the old one refused to recognise the xboxhdm disk. The drive is working fine, I don't think thats the problem. Is it possible that my xbox's hard drive isn't unlocked? Or would that not cause that type of error? I'm kind of a newbie when it comes to stuff like this. Oh, and my xbox is v 1.1.

I'm not an expert in the area, so please don't hold me responsible if it doesn't work. However I managed (with a little help from my friends) to mod my one. We struggled for a long time to get it working, getting the exact same error you are. We checked and double checked all the settings but couldn't figure it out. Eventually we found this post on how to unlock a xbox hdd.
Following that guide we got it working. The steps from the guide are:

• Connect an available power connector from the PCs power supply to the XBOX HDD.
• Connect the IDE cable from XBOX to the the XBOX HDD.
• Power up the PC and hit the "Pause" key before it autotypes the drives.
• Power up the Xbox to the idle Dashboard.
• During the Xbox startup, the Xbox transmits the password via the ATA Unlock Command, and the drive is unlocked.
• Now, carefully disconnect the Xbox IDE cable from the Xbox hd.
• Plug the PC IDE cable into the Xbox hd.
• Hit any key on the PC keyboard to let it continue to boot.
• Now the drive is unlocked and reconnected to the PC, ready for read(/write?) operations.

Hope it helps.

daederauoy

Still nothing. Half tempted to give up on the whole thing. BTW, I've seen this one method of unlocking the hard drive that involves using an dos boot disk. Can anyone tell me how to make one of those, or point me to a tutorial that shows how to make one? Thanks. And thank you to everyone who has helped me so far and anyone who might help me in the future.

daederauoy

BTW, my error message was slightly different than what I quoted earlier. I thought they were the same, but i was wrong.

root@Xbox-HDM:/1 xbrowser
Looking for CD-ROM in /dev/hda...
Looking for CD-ROM in /dev/hdb...
Looking for CD-ROM in /dev/hdc...
No disk drive found on /dev/hda
Please connect a drive and try again!

We will now search /dev/hda for an xbox partition table.....

No xbox-partition table found on /dev/hda

Done!!!
root@Xbox-HDM:/2

daederauoy

Had to rebuild the hard drive, and now when I hook it back up to the xbox i get error code 5. Did I screw up bad, or can this be fixed?

Hangover

Try rebuilding it again, if you have the eeprom all is not lost. I just modded a V1.6 box and added a 160gig hdd , once i had the eeprom its so much easier to mess with it. Only problem i have now is i cant get xbmc to install as my dashboard, i ftp the folder contents to e\dash and say yes to overwriting but i just get a black screen i have to softmod again ? I also lost the MS dash but thats no big deal as i dont use it anyway.

Hangover

Hangover wrote: »

Try rebuilding it again, if you have the eeprom all is not lost. I just modded a V1.6 box and added a 160gig hdd , once i had the eeprom its so much easier to mess with it. Only problem i have now is i cant get xbmc to install as my dashboard, i ftp the folder contents to e\dash and say yes to overwriting but i just get a black screen i have to softmod again ? I also lost the MS dash but thats no big deal as i dont use it anyway.

All fixed, i rebuilt the hdd using XBOXHDM and my eeprom and now have it working perfectly, now to do the other 2 .

daederauoy

I don't have my eeprom, but I'm building an eeprom reader right now. Will I still be able to get it off of my motherboard when my xbox is gutted beyond recognition? (Had to remove the dvd drive and the hard drive so I could gain access to the eeprom chip.)

Hangover

daederauoy wrote: »

I don't have my eeprom, but I'm building an eeprom reader right now. Will I still be able to get it off of my motherboard when my xbox is gutted beyond recognition? (Had to remove the dvd drive and the hard drive so I could gain access to the eeprom chip.)

Dont know about the m/board, if you have to go to that extreme i'd just buy another. I got the eeprom off the hdd after i softmodded and then just built a fresh drive using xboxhdm.

vibe666

we keep saying it. just make sure you back up the eeprom before you start messing around, it might not be needed if all goes well, but in my experience it's when you don't prepare that things tend to go badly.

it takes a couple of minutes before you finish doing the softmod to backup your eeprom, but it will save you hours (and possibly money) if and when things go pear shaped.

if you have your eeprom backup up and you totally destroy your drive you can still build a fresh one with xboxhdm and the eeprom in about 15-20 minutes.

xbnubi

Hi!


Followed the instructions here and got the softmod done, but XBMC, and videos show a very odd colour shift...

The XBMC logo (and most other instances of green) show up as a dull orange colour! If I boot the MS Dash, all the background imagrey is orange(ish)!

The bootstrap (POST) XBOX animation/logo is the correct green though, so it looks to be some sort of software issue.


Is there any distinction in NDure or any of the other tools between PAL and NTSC? (I have a Canadian NTSC box...)



Ideas?


UPDATE: Got a second XBOX (virgin), and connected it to the HD cable, and everything looks fine. Also, connected the "odd" orange-plagued XBOX to an ordinary composite video cable and it looks 100% fine!

Somehow this issue only affects the HD (component) cable. As before, the affected XBOX showed the MS dashboard perfectly right up until the softmod, now it's all orange!

See:







Thanks.

Hangover

I had/ have the same problem except my xbox is pal system, i got a green colour shift when using component cables and couldnt get enigmah to work correctly so i'm just using composite cables. I picked up another xbox and modded it as well for my brother and it came with the advanced av pack so i will see if that is any better.

evo007

Hangover wrote: »

I had/ have the same problem except my xbox is pal system, i got a green colour shift when using component cables and couldnt get enigmah to work correctly so i'm just using composite cables. I picked up another xbox and modded it as well for my brother and it came with the advanced av pack so i will see if that is any better.

hey all,

do you guys thinks its possible to softmod (hotswap) if you dont have a PC with IDE drive? I only have a SATA hard drive in my PC, however i do have 2 CD/DVD drives. Could i boot the "Xbox HD Maker and recovery tool" CD from the slave CD/DVD drive and hotswap the xbox HD onto the master CD/DVD IDE cable in my PC?

I actually gave it a go, but got to the point where you type "xbrowser" (as per the softmodding tutorial from "Supercell"), yet when the program started, i got the message: "No xbox-partition table found on /dev/hda"

is that something to do with me setting up the boot CD incorrectly?

appreciate all your help if possible? thanx

evo007

evo007 wrote: »

hey all,

do you guys thinks its possible to softmod (hotswap) if you dont have a PC with IDE drive? I only have a SATA hard drive in my PC, however i do have 2 CD/DVD drives. Could i boot the "Xbox HD Maker and recovery tool" CD from the slave CD/DVD drive and hotswap the xbox HD onto the master CD/DVD IDE cable in my PC?

I actually gave it a go, but got to the point where you type "xbrowser" (as per the softmodding tutorial from "Supercell"), yet when the program started, i got the message: "No xbox-partition table found on /dev/hda"

is that something to do with me setting up the boot CD incorrectly?

appreciate all your help if possible? thanx

Ok ive sorted that part by playing the music track on the xbox HD and pausing it and then swapping out the IDE cable from my PC master CD/DVD drive, so answered my own question which is good hey?!

Next question is:

I get to stage 2 of 3 on the Ndure install onto the xbox, when i get this message - "CP: /CD/ndure/E/NKP11/*: no such file or directory"

i presume when i originally set up Ndure for the CD boot ISO i didnt choose all the right selections in the drop down boxes under "softmod Nkpatcher options"?

Hangover

evo007 wrote: »

Ok ive sorted that part by playing the music track on the xbox HD and pausing it and then swapping out the IDE cable from my PC master CD/DVD drive, so answered my own question which is good hey?!

Next question is:

I get to stage 2 of 3 on the Ndure install onto the xbox, when i get this message - "CP: /CD/ndure/E/NKP11/*: no such file or directory"

i presume when i originally set up Ndure for the CD boot ISO i didnt choose all the right selections in the drop down boxes under "softmod Nkpatcher options"?

As long as the cd and the hdd are on seperate ide cables it will work (with jumpers set correctly) , sounds like you didnt check the boxes below the kernel selection box.

evo007

Hangover wrote: »

As long as the cd and the hdd are on seperate ide cables it will work (with jumpers set correctly) , sounds like you didnt check the boxes below the kernel selection box.

Cheers mate. Is it all boxes (shown below, or just some or 1)?

Install Ndure basic
Use Nkpatcher .06
Boot XBL dash with eject
Boot XBL dash with UDDAE
Enable clock check
Use Nkpatcher RGB

Didnt need separate IDE cables, worked with just the one, with CD drive going on slave and the HD going onto the end at Master (in place of my other CD drive).

Hangover

evo007 wrote: »

Cheers mate. Is it all boxes (shown below, or just some or 1)?

Install Ndure basic
Use Nkpatcher .06
Boot XBL dash with eject
Boot XBL dash with UDDAE
Enable clock check
Use Nkpatcher RGB

Didnt need separate IDE cables, worked with just the one, with CD drive going on slave and the HD going onto the end at Master (in place of my other CD drive).

All need to be checked, without expanding the options just tick all the boxes except choose the kernel that you have on your xbox, i think the key was just to have the cd/dvd rom on master so glad that worked ok for you.

xbnubi

xbnubi wrote: »

Followed the instructions here and got the softmod done, but XBMC, and videos show a very odd colour shift...

The XBMC logo (and most other instances of green) show up as a dull orange colour! If I boot the MS Dash, all the background imagrey is orange(ish)!

The bootstrap (POST) XBOX animation/logo is the correct green though, so it looks to be some sort of software issue.

Arrgh!


This issue is caused by selecting ALL the Ndure 3.1 options (as instructed in this tutorial), particularly the "Use Nkpatcher RGB" selection, which you DON'T want if you intend on using a component video cable!

You can work around it in this manner, after the fact:

----
try putting a file with just a zero "0" called VIDEO.BIN

in the root of E:\ for NDURE 3.0

or E:\NKP11\ for NDURE 3.1
----


Very annoying!

mikekay

What version of XMBC should I use, is the new build 100% compatible with the instructions provided? Im getting an xbox for the sole purpose of making it a sick media station

Help a noob out

Mike

Hangover

mikekay wrote: »

What version of XMBC should I use, is the new build 100% compatible with the instructions provided? Im getting an xbox for the sole purpose of making it a sick media station

Help a noob out

Mike

The xbox hardware hasnt changed so just use the latest build of xbmc.

daederauoy

SUCCESS AT LAST!!! I got the eeprom off of my xbox motherboard and fixed my hard drive. I've got everything working the way it should be and then some. If I get my hands on a larger hard drive, could I upgrade my xbox with it? And if so, could I potentially upgrade it with a 1 Terabyte hard drive? I'm not sure they make 1tb hard drives with IDE connections, but if they do, could I use it? I'm not sure if there is a limit to the size of hard drive you can put into an xbox, but if there isn't, it might be very fun to have an xbox with virtually limitless data storage.

Hangover

daederauoy wrote: »

SUCCESS AT LAST!!! I got the eeprom off of my xbox motherboard and fixed my hard drive. I've got everything working the way it should be and then some. If I get my hands on a larger hard drive, could I upgrade my xbox with it? And if so, could I potentially upgrade it with a 1 Terabyte hard drive? I'm not sure they make 1tb hard drives with IDE connections, but if they do, could I use it? I'm not sure if there is a limit to the size of hard drive you can put into an xbox, but if there isn't, it might be very fun to have an xbox with virtually limitless data storage.

Now that you have the eeprom, using xbhdm burn a lock/unlock disc so that you can build a new hdd and lock it, i have seen up to 750 gig IDE hdd used in an xbox.