How to softmod your Xbox and install XBMC for free

Hangover

bugoy8 wrote: »

Hey guys,

Need your suggestions with component video. Basically, I cant seem to get it to work!

For the softmod done on the xbox, I followed everything on the first page of this thread. I've got XBMC installed and could watch video using composite.

I'm trying to use component but not having much luck. I've installed the Enigmah video switcher. I get to the menu, choose B for NTSC. After the hard reboot though, I seems to revert back to PAL.

Since then I've created a blank EEPROM_off.bin and placed it on the E root dir. No luck.

Further research made me create an E:\NKP11, where I placed EEPROM_off.bin file. Still no luck.

Using Ndure-3.1 if that helps.

Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Best suggestion i can make is to go to the XBMC online manual , i followed the guide there to get HD and NTSC modes working. Here it is -

http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=HOW-TO_enable_HD_%28High-Definition%29_on_a_softmodded_European_PAL_Xbox

bugoy8

Hangover wrote: »

Best suggestion i can make is to go to the XBMC online manual , i followed the guide there to get HD and NTSC modes working. Here it is -

http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=HOW-TO_enable_HD_%28High-Definition%29_on_a_softmodded_European_PAL_Xbox

Thanks Hangover. I followed that same manual, step by step, still no avail.

Read somewhere else that you could perhaps do the following:

Launch Ndure
- Advanced settings: Disable virtual eeprom.bin
- Launch Enigmah
- Change your parameters in Enigmah
- Launch Ndure
- Advanced setting: Enable virtual eeprom.bin

I dont know how to get into Ndure though because I copied XBMC straight to E:\dash. Would you know how to get to Ndure?

Hangover

bugoy8 wrote: »

Thanks Hangover. I followed that same manual, step by step, still no avail.

Read somewhere else that you could perhaps do the following:

I dont know how to get into Ndure though because I copied XBMC straight to E:\dash. Would you know how to get to Ndure?

Dont worry about Ndure, i also had to add a file to E\NkP11 but i cant remember exactly what i did.. Ok i just found what i did, open notepad and type 0 then save as video.bin and add this to E\NKP11 .

bugoy8

Hangover wrote: »

Dont worry about Ndure, i also had to add a file to E\NkP11 but i cant remember exactly what i did.. Ok i just found what i did, open notepad and type 0 then save as video.bin and add this to E\NKP11 .

Thanks! Will try what you suggested.

What about the EEPROM_off.bin file? Would I still to create that?

Hangover

bugoy8 wrote: »

Thanks! Will try what you suggested.

What about the EEPROM_off.bin file? Would I still to create that?

Yes, follow the guide and add the file i posted above.

Joe Musashi

I'm only getting back to this now.

Would this USB stick work with Vista?

It says in the description - "Compatible with Windows 2000, SP4 and XP"

I'm confused.

Hangover

Joe Musashi wrote: »

I'm only getting back to this now.

Would this USB stick work with Vista?

It says in the description - "Compatible with Windows 2000, SP4 and XP"

I'm confused.

Its not so much as if it is compatible or not and more of if it will work with xbox/xbmc, i just bought a cheap generic no name stick and it works fine.
It should work but there is no guarantee that it will just because it is windoze compatible or a known brand.

vibe666

Joe Musashi wrote: »

It says in the description - "Compatible with Windows 2000, SP4 and XP"

I'm confused.

any stick should work with any windows based OS, but it won't be any good for putting XBMC on an xbox as you need a stick of less than 2gb to use on an xbox due to the USB stack not supporting bigger sticks. at least that's what i've read but that was a while ago so maybe something has changed since then.

pretty much any 2gb or smaller stick should work though, but i'm sure theres a compatibility list somewhere in the xbmc manual or elsewhere online..

Mantez

Hi,where is the problem?
Problem:

http://www.ipix.lt/desc/21983292/

My xbox settings:
K:1.00.4817.01
D:1.00.4817.01

Could be that my Xbox is old version ?
If there is that problem,how can I update it ? I don't have orginal games...

hevsuit

Mantez wrote: »

Hi,where is the problem?
Problem:

http://www.ipix.lt/desc/21983292/

My xbox settings:
K:1.00.4817.01
D:1.00.4817.01

Could be that my Xbox is old version ?
If there is that problem,how can I update it ? I don't have orginal games...

You can update ur xbox by doin the following:
1-Disconnect ur xbox from the network
2-insert a relatively new game which is live enabled( halo 2 worked for me) and click on the xbox live option on the main menu screen
3-The xbox should prompt you and update from the disc.

note: if this does not happen then your xbox is already fully up to date

Other questions:
What are you trying to do with your xbox?
Is your drive set to primary master?

timmeke

when i boot up my pc and select option 1 than i dont cant type xbrowser ? why is it dont works

Mantez

No problems,i softmod my xbox wihout updating ;D But how can i conect to the ftp ? when i conect xbox to router and pc to router my xbox ip show 0.0.0.0....

hevsuit

Mantez wrote: »

No problems,i softmod my xbox wihout updating ;D But how can i conect to the ftp ? when i conect xbox to router and pc to router my xbox ip show 0.0.0.0....

Set your connection on your xbox to 'DHCP', also called 'automatic'
Then save changes and reboot. your xbox should now have an assigned IP address.e.g. 192.168.x.x
Copy this address into your ftp program( flashFXP is the best imo)
Username is 'xbox'. Pass is 'xbox'

PM me if any further problems:)

dmelchart

Hey I just followed this tutorial and now when I hotswap the drive and hit 1 to start the process of installing linux it goes okay and than freezes on usb.c:assiging a usb bus, bus number 1 assigned...something like that, does anyone have any guess as to what is going on?

dmelchart

Nevermind...I just had to unplug my usb mouse/keyboard was causing the trouble

nitz

dannyg120 wrote: »

Ok, so I overcame two problems:

1. No x-box partition table found on /dev/hba error - I changed the Xbox hard drive from 'cable select' to 'Master with a non-ATA compatabile drive' by adding another strap to the second pait of pins. Like the picture on the hard drive shows... yahoo.....

I'm having the same problem. I tried to do that.. and no luck.

I did find something odd. If I press 1 at the VGA mode. The begnning it goes through a lot of

Disk Error

Disk read error

reset successful

All of this runs for a minute and then it lets me type in the commands i want later.

It just can't see to find the partition on the drive.

I ran 4 the HD unlocking/locking tools earlier and all it showed was Disk Error Sector 00.

So is my xbox HD messed up? If I turn on the xbox it still works fine and plays/pauses music.

I just can't get past this step after trying a few things.

Just looking as to why this is happening?

My PRI Master is the xbox HD
My SEC Master is the cdrom drive.

nitz

Lucifer 2 wrote: »

I'm getting the error below when I try to launch xbrowser after hotswapping the drives.

It is the primary master. If I boot my PC with the drive attached from the start it shows up in the BIOS (as the primary master).

My best guess is one of two things is happening:
1. When i try to hotswap the drives the Xbox drive locks up for some reason.
2. The partition table on my xbox drive is damaged or there are bad sectors on the drive. I bought the xbox second hand (in gamestop for 20 euro

Is there a way to permantly unlock the drive - and still use it with the xbox?
Is it possible to repartion / reformat the xbox drive and still be able to use it?

the harddrive is an WD80EB-28CGH2

Note that if i actually boot the PC with the xbox HD connected, The HD is detected in linux but reports multiple read errors (status=0x51, error=0x04) during the boot process and reports "unable to read partition table". When I run xbrowser it still reports no xbox partition table found on /dev/hda.



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


Thanks for any help you might be able to provide !!

-Darragh

I have the same problem right now.. except my disk drive is found, just not xbox partition is found....

nitz

nitz wrote: »

I have the same problem right now.. except my disk drive is found, just not xbox partition is found....

Okay after visiting XboxScene.. someone mentioned pulling the dvd/cd cable and swapping the drives.

It didn't work either, so I took one last whiz at the play music/pause and swap. Well.. what ya know.. it worked!

BTW, if you are getting DIsk Errors or seek errors etc after you press 1 VGA. Then it means your HD is still locked. Also, if you get the xbox partition table not found. It's because your drive is still locked.

What I did later is I typed xboxhd instead of the xbrowser command. This way the xboxhd command will TELL you if the HD is still locked. If it says it is unlocked then exit and type the xbrowser command.

All I can say is keep trying if it doesn't work. It took me a day but its running now. I just installed XBMC too, but have to test it out now.

All the best! And thanks for the walkthrough!

aostex1

Hi and thanks for these cool tutorials. Also want to thank Unicorn i think and ponyprog (the eeprom people). Man, I managed to bring one of my XBOX's back to life thanks for his simple tutorial instructions on how to build you an eeprom reader. As bad as I am with soldering, this was my actually first successful project. I ruined 2 xbox's, or atleast I thought I did, until i gave this a try. I ran endure's makeiso with the eeprom.bin in the folder then makeiso. Only one problem though. When i finished and turned xbox on, it shows UnleashX as a dashboard. In Filezilla, I can not overwrite my E:\dash directory at all?? I really much like to transfer from Unleash dash to XBMC, due to it allowing me to quiet down my fan. XBMC allows me to bring it to level 10% don't know if this is really safe but it makes a big difference in having a really noisy XBOX if you have sensitive hearing. I just though I mention this and if some one could please reply if you experienced any of these difficulties especially why I can't overwrite E:\dash with XBMC from my F:\Apps\XBMC contents??

Thank you.

m8

Have you checked the file permissions?

Connect with filezilla and right click on the folder/files and check the permissions

This could be the reason you cannot overwrite these files.

aostex1

Hi,

re: file permissions in filezilla..

I think it had something to do with the file permissions, also, if I created the ISO with makeiso-win.bat I noticed the files subfiles/folders were as well set as read-only to. I wonder if this had something to do with it so on my cd-rw, I just generated another makeiso-win.bat iso read-only files unchecked this time before making another iso from scratch again. I'm starting to learn what you can and can't do with ndure tools. It sort of makes things fun setting up your ISO to your needs. I'm making a second hard drive for this same xbox, just in case things go wrong again. It's going to be with the original 8 GB WD model. I guess I'll call it the xbox service drive. Thank you for your post. I could not have figured it out, I know now how to get it going. I like XBMC, it is like a neat little operating system. Hope they keep improving it, and allow further user customizations as well.

Tea_Bag

Hey guys ive just bought myself an old xbox to mod and want to put XBMC on it, but ive a few problems..

my PC only uses SATA connections, so i bought THIS converter, (still waiting on it to arrive)

would that suffice? also, i want to put this HDD into it, would that work?

thanks!

Hangover

Tea_Bag wrote: »

Hey guys ive just bought myself an old xbox to mod and want to put XBMC on it, but ive a few problems..

my PC only uses SATA connections, so i bought THIS converter, (still waiting on it to arrive)

would that suffice? also, i want to put this HDD into it, would that work?

thanks!

I dont think those sata converters work with xboxhdm, the hdd you linked is an ext. unit but a sata hdd with the correct adapter (on deal extreme for $4.45 ) will work. Most people have trouble with sata hdd's and softmodded xboxs, chip or tsop flash is preferred for them. There is a USB version of xboxhdm which may suit you needs.

Tea_Bag

ive taken the HDD out of its enclosure, and its an IDE HDD, so i figured it'd work fine..?

very noob when it comes xbox mods, but what does tsop flash mean?

Hangover

Tea_Bag wrote: »

ive taken the HDD out of its enclosure, and its an IDE HDD, so i figured it'd work fine..?

very noob when it comes xbox mods, but what does tsop flash mean?

I've never seen an IDE hdd over 750gig so if its ide it will work great, tsop is the onboard xbox bios. you re flash the tsop to get the same benefits as chipping.

witnessmenow

Is it a IDE hard drive? Thats fairly surprising that they would use a TB IDE hard drive in an external hard drive, IDE TB are super rare (and expensive)


Those sata converters wont work with xboxhdm, technically you can connect your hard drive to the PC with the convertor but xboxhdm is hard coded to look for hard drives on you IDE ports

Do you have any ball of crap computer in an attic or something? It doesn't even need to have an OS. If not you'd be better off paying someone to do it for you.

As for sata drives in the xbox (with a different adapter than the one you linked to), they can work, it seems to depend on the version of your xbox though. I was setting up an xbox one day and had a 500gb hard drive ready to go on 1.6 xbox and it didnt work, exact same drive (just changed the eeprom on it), same adapter, worked fine on a 1.1

Flashing the TSop is where you flash a modchips bios onto your xbox's own bios chip (afaik, i never do it. Softmodding for me all the way :P)

LukeV15

I'm as far as the xbrowser command, the drive's recognised and everything, but I don't know what to do next. When I go into Ndure, and then into the Ndure subfolder, I've got a C folder, an E folder, a chekid file and ndure.txt. What's the next step?

Hangover

LukeV15 wrote: »

I'm as far as the xbrowser command, the drive's recognised and everything, but I don't know what to do next. When I go into Ndure, and then into the Ndure subfolder, I've got a C folder, an E folder, a chekid file and ndure.txt. What's the next step?

You missed a step where you remove the .txt extension from the ndure text file but thats ok as it will still work, just arrow onto the ndure.txt (highlight it) and hit enter and follow the rest of the guide.

Tea_Bag

4) Now copy the ndure.txt file attached to this post to \xboxhdm\linux\ndure and remove the extension, just should be called "ndure", delete the ndure.htm file in there.

i got this far, and it hasnt generated the ndure.txt file... did a full search of my PC and everything... Help please!

PS: in the ndure3.1 setup i unchecked "kernel selection", but i did check the "kernel 5101" inside it. (which is what my xbox is running)

Hangover

Tea_Bag wrote: »

i got this far, and it hasnt generated the ndure.txt file... did a full search of my PC and everything... Help please!

PS: in the ndure3.1 setup i unchecked "kernel selection", but i did check the "kernel 5101" inside it. (which is what my xbox is running)

The text file is not generated, you need to manually add it at the required step in the guide.