How to softmod your Xbox and install XBMC for free

randombar

Excellent tutoiral, fair play and thanks a lot.

Just one or two points: a graphical representation of where the primary and secondary cables should be etc might be a help

Also I had to have the computer hard drive plugged in first on start up and then did the hot swap.

Moojuice

Damn, didn't work for me. Booted from the Linux CD, worked fine. But the Xbox drive was never detected. I had the music copied to the drive, played it and paused it but to no avail. I guess Ill have to try another soft mod, using Splinter Cell or something .

johnnyboy4711

looks like the xbox hdd is fried alright!
no joy with it at all!
rang gamestop Athlone,Limerick and Galway and none to be had!
oh well looks like one less piece of machinery taking up space under my tv!
wheelie bin now!
It looks like the xbox game and memory card option might be the safest way!
slan
j

ongarite

adverts.ie is your best bet along with splinter cell & memory unit.
(which you are trying to do)

mayto

johnnyboy4711 wrote: »

looks like the xbox hdd is fried alright!
no joy with it at all
j

does the hdd spin up at all when you boot up the xbox?. give me a shout if you are passing through Athlone and i will have a look at it. I have done alot of hotswop softmods myself and all worked out fine.

randombar

Moojuice wrote: »

Damn, didn't work for me. Booted from the Linux CD, worked fine. But the Xbox drive was never detected. I had the music copied to the drive, played it and paused it but to no avail. I guess Ill have to try another soft mod, using Splinter Cell or something .

Hi Moojuice
It was the same for me, I just tried again.

A couple of things to note:

Set up the cables so you're using the primary end for the swap.

Your computer's hard drive must be plugged in before you make the hot swap.

If it doesnt find it you have to go through the pausing the music thing all over again

Oracle

Just had a thought that a poll could be useful on this thread. Something like;

I tried Longfield's XBox softmod as instructed and ....

* It works perfectly.
* It works but with minor issues.
* It works but with major issues.
* It doesn't work at all.
* I couldn't follow or carry out the instructions so I couldn't finish the softmod.

It would give an idea as to how many people have successfully softmodded their XBox using the instructions on this thread.

johnnyboy4711

a bit late when the horse has bolted but could be good anyway!
j
http://www.thermonics.com/products/esdnote.pdf

johnnyboy4711

thanks for the offer but not heading through athlone in the next while
might be heading to limerick this afternoon.
thanks
john

witnessmenow

Longfield wrote: »

Hmm, i wonder if the backup includes all the xtra stuff and is taing up the space?

Can you boot it normally ..ie by the eject button and delete all the old gamesaves and music in there too?
The softmod though is what boots of e:\dash though I think so thats surely gotta be the place thats short of space?
I would try copying stuff from one of your other softmodded boxes, but would make backups first.
If ongarite's blood pressure has returned to near normal levels he might have some suggestions too, maybe PM and ask really nicely , he does know his stuff.

Is dual booting a XBMC only thing? I've been away from the xboxes for a while but when they had unleash on them they werent dual booting. If i start the xbox with a game it goes straight to the game but the only way i was able to get into the dashboard on any of the consoles was the option on unleash(I've only moved XBMC to one xbox , which i dont have in front of me)

Poor aul ongarite sent me a pm alright, i'll give his suggestion a go !

Cheers for the help!

BaconZombie

Ok, I've just started to mod my 2nd XBOX, the first went fine with no issues and is booting into XBMC no problems.

But the 2nd one is giving me trouble, it's running Kernel 5838 and I've got "Ndure-3.1\xboxhdm" installed and booting but the NIC seem to do be working

I get a link light on both the NIC and Switch but it's not taking a DHCP address and when I try and set one manually after I press Ok it revert to 0.0.0.0, I've tried reboot and it the same. I finally got it to take a Static IP by disabling the network from the menu, rebooting, setting the static address, rebooting, and then re-enabling the network. I now show the IP on the main page but I can't even ping it.

The Muppet

BOFH_139 wrote: »

Ok, I've just started to mod my 2nd XBOX, the first went fine with no issues and is booting into XBMC no problems.

But the 2nd one is giving me trouble, it's running Kernel 5838 and I've got "Ndure-3.1\xboxhdm" installed and booting but the NIC seem to do be working

I get a link light on both the NIC and Switch but it's not taking a DHCP address and when I try and set one manually after I press Ok it revert to 0.0.0.0, I've tried reboot and it the same. I finally got it to take a Static IP by disabling the network from the menu, rebooting, setting the static address, rebooting, and then re-enabling the network. I now show the IP on the main page but I can't even ping it.

Apologies if I,m asking the obvious. Did both consoles have the same kernel? If not did you make a new linux.iso disk?

BaconZombie

Both were different Kernel and yes I did use different .ISO for each with the correct kernel settings.

The Muppet wrote: »

Apologies if I,m asking the obvious. Did both consoles have the same kernel? If not did you make a new linux.iso disk?

Moojuice

Thanks GaryCroc, Ill have to try again next time I have access to a desktop pc with an IDE cable . I was not restarting the play and pause thing on the Xbox after each attempt.

ongarite

BOFH_139 wrote: »

Ok, I've just started to mod my 2nd XBOX, the first went fine with no issues and is booting into XBMC no problems.

But the 2nd one is giving me trouble, it's running Kernel 5838 and I've got "Ndure-3.1\xboxhdm" installed and booting but the NIC seem to do be working

I get a link light on both the NIC and Switch but it's not taking a DHCP address and when I try and set one manually after I press Ok it revert to 0.0.0.0, I've tried reboot and it the same. I finally got it to take a Static IP by disabling the network from the menu, rebooting, setting the static address, rebooting, and then re-enabling the network. I now show the IP on the main page but I can't even ping it.

I presume the NDURE is installed successfully and you are now trying to install a new dashboard? You can dual boot to the MS dashboard and delete the network settings and reset settings.

BaconZombie

NDURE is install, I planning on just running this box as a XBMC frontend running media from my NAS, so I don't need the old dash.

I have tried reinstalling NDURE but no joy, I problem is with out network access I can't FTP XBMC onto the box. I know I could do it via hot-swap and manually copy the files but then the a Streaming Media box with not network is useless to me.

ongarite wrote: »

I presume the NDURE is installed successfully and you are now trying to install a new dashboard? You can dual boot to the MS dashboard and delete the network settings and reset settings.

ongarite

You still need the original MS Dash to set all the settings on your XBOX even if you are never going to use it.
As I mentioned above you need to run the original MS Dash, set your TV & audio settings and then go to Network settings and check and reset them to defaults, DHCP connections.
Until you have done this, your network settings will not work.

Did you get rid of the original MS Dash in C: drive. Did you install XBMC in E:\ or C:\ ??

BaconZombie

Ok, the old dash is still they and it runs fine when select from the NDURE menu.
Will check it again tonight.

ongarite wrote: »

You still need the original MS Dash to set all the settings on your XBOX even if you are never going to use it.
As I mentioned above you need to run the original MS Dash, set your TV & audio settings and then go to Network settings and check and reset them to defaults, DHCP connections.
Until you have done this, your network settings will not work.

Did you get rid of the original MS Dash in C: drive. Did you install XBMC in E:\ or C:\ ??

johnnyboy4711

hi all!
fundamentally is the memory unit and splinter cell/mech assault etc way of modding giving the same results as hotswap?
mediacentre divx playback etc?
thanks
john

Nick_oliveri

johnnyboy4711 wrote: »

hi all!
fundamentally is the memory unit and splinter cell/mech assault etc way of modding giving the same results as hotswap?
mediacentre divx playback etc?
thanks
john

Yes, and memory unit way is time consuming and costs money too. Ive done three/four boxes this way.

johnnyboy4711

Spent all of good friday trying to hotswap my xbox and in the end fried my hdd so a lot of time a some money already spent,peeed off with it!
I think that if i do get the nuts to go at it again i would prefer the "cleaner install" that the memory unit might bring.
thanks
john

o1s1n

johnnyboy4711 wrote: »

Spent all of good friday trying to hotswap my xbox and in the end fried my hdd so a lot of time a some money already spent,peeed off with it!
I think that if i do get the nuts to go at it again i would prefer the "cleaner install" that the memory unit might bring.
thanks
john

The xbox I tried to hotswap is still stuck on an error 6 every time it boots. I Cant find a solution anywhere. Logically, it shouldn't be stuck on an error 6 as I haven't locked the harddrive with any other password.
Coming to the conclusion it's more or less a nice big brick.

Bought a memory card with the Splinter Cell saves pre loaded and a copy of the game from a guy on ebay for a grand total of €15. Got it this afternoon and had my 2nd working xbox modded 30 min later.

This is a great guide if you can get it working. But if you can't, give up before you break your xbox and just go with the memory card way. To make it even easier, check ebay to see if there's anyone selling a memory card with the saves pre loaded.

The Muppet

mayto wrote: »

does the hdd spin up at all when you boot up the xbox?. give me a shout if you are passing through Athlone and i will have a look at it. I have done alot of hotswop softmods myself and all worked out fine.

Is it a western digital hard drive? I ask becaus I modded one of these today. I had the same issue firstime but I noticed that the drive was spinning down when I unplugged it from the xbox.

I got a round this by plugging out the xbox. The I unplugged the ide cable from the hard drive. I tehn gently pressed teh ide cale a littly way into the connector so that it just made the connection but was not fully home.
I then powered up teh xbox and contnues as per ops instruction ie play track and pause it to unlock drive and the hot swap. It worked for me then.

@johnnyboy4711 make sure you are plugging the ide cable in the right way, I know they are keyed but some drives will allow them in both ways.

The red line on one side of the ide cable should be next to the power connector on the drive.

vibe666

seems like the old skool savegame softmod seems to be a more reliable method, looks like there's lots of hotswap bricks out there atm.

for the sake of a couple of extra quid (which I already spent a long time ago anyway) I'm sticking with what I know works. I've done in the region of 9 or 10 savegame softmods and not had a single dead one, so I know where I'm putting my money.

I've actually had 2 RROD's early on when I first started doing them and did a bit of experimentation, but even then I still managed to recover as once the initial savegame softmod is done you can mess around with it as much as you like and even if you make a complete mess of it you can still reboot and just re-run the auto installer deluxe dvd and its all good. not lost one yet. not irrecoverably anyway, and I've not even had to undo a single screw to do any of them.

The Muppet

I've done 4 using this method this week, no bricks, Backed up the epprom on each a soon as I had ndure+unleasex installed which means I can either rebuild the drive or put in a new one and install it from scratch if the need arises.

For me its not about saving the cost of a mod chip but the pleasure of making something useful out of an unused gaming console. If you brick one you're down the price of a couple of pints its no big deal.

A guy in Gamestop told me they had loads of consoles at their head office so even if your local store is out of stock they may get one in for anyone interested.

BaconZombie

There flag-ship store, Henry St Dublin is due to get +25 of them this week and that not going to be the final shipment.

The Muppet wrote: »

I've done 4 using this method this week, no bricks, Backed up the epprom on each a soon as I had ndure+unleasex installed which means I can either rebuild the drive or put in a new one and install it from scratch if the need arises.

For me its not about saving the cost of a mod chip but the pleasure of making something useful out of an unused gaming console. If you brick one you're down the price of a couple of pints its no big deal.

A guy in Gamestop told me they had loads of consoles at their head office so even if your local store is out of stock they may get one in for anyone interested.

johnnyboy4711

hi there!
flagship store with 2nd hand xboxs?
thanks
john

Black_Knight

johnnyboy4711 wrote: »

hi there!
flagship store with 2nd hand xboxs?
thanks
john

Doesnt help if your in loughrea but i jst got one in cork there today. If only id seen your message yesterday i could of picked up one for ya.
I could ask my bro to pick one up... but he knows nothing of the XBMC and im giving him one for his birthday this weekend. Id have to let the cat outta the bag before his birthday to get ya one..... oh the dilemma

Ron DMC

codan wrote: »

Firstly Longfeild ,
THank you for a beautifully simple guide, I have just completed soft modding 2 xbox :-)

After 4 hours straight working on why my hot swap wasn't working. I came across the solution I needed & the solution to other peoples problem.

"Why does xbrowser not find the xbox partition"

Solution:
Back to basic electronics.

Within a eletrical sytem if you want to send signals you must have a common ground.

Therefore when you are doing a softmod you must have the xbox hardrive being powered off the PC PSU.

OK now xbrowser is finding the hardrive but it wont work?? because your hardrives locked!

The paused mp3 trick did not work for me
I have kernal 5838.

So this is what I did to get the xbox soft modded:

1. xbox hardrive powered off pc PSU.
2. xbox ide cable connected to xbox hardrive.
3. disconnect ide cable from xbox dvd-rom
4. turn on pc & xbox. (service message comes up on the tv screen because the xbox cant find the dvd-rom)

*your xbox hardrive is now unlocked*

5. Do the hot swap & run the bootable cd follow longfields instructions & enjoy.

I think this might be what was going wrong for myself as well last night. I had the pc and xbox plugged into opposite sides of the room so they certainly weren't on the same ground. The hard drive was whirring away grand during the hot swap but the pc never found the partition.

I'm gonna try your method this evening codan, so fingers crossed.

johnnyboy4711

I am going into gamestop today to check if they can order one for me from HQ.
failing that i would like your bro to pick up one for me that would be great.
I also have a bid on adverts.ie
for one so fingers crossed something will show up!
also do you have the memory card option set-up thingymajig?
thanks
john