How to softmod your Xbox and install XBMC for free

Supercell · 17-03-2008 7:33pm

weeder wrote: »

im having probs myself, just gonna wait for splinter cell

Your not that far away from me weeder, if you're stuck and have transport your welcome to pop over here and I'll give you a quick tutorial (I'm on hols this week with time to burn) and get you set up.

Supercell · 17-03-2008 7:34pm

Nick_oliveri wrote: »

Its working now. Longfield is the master, what my drive should have been set to.

Good stuff

, if you've got the hdd detected your almost home.

weeder · 17-03-2008 7:37pm

where ya located? im guessing it has to do with the dell bios splinter cell is ordered anyway but im bored myself

Supercell · 17-03-2008 7:46pm

Once you are installed lads, i'd recommend setting up the share user and pass (another words the username and pass you gave access to in windows, if unsure about network stuff just put your windows username and password), because typing username and pass for network browsing is a PITA on the Xbox.

On XBMC go to settings and then network..

And put your Windows share logon username and pass..

Now you can browse your home network without constant prompts for username and password..

Supercell · 17-03-2008 7:54pm

weeder wrote: »

where ya located? im guessing it has to do with the dell bios splinter cell is ordered anyway but im bored myself

You have PM

weeder · 17-03-2008 8:12pm

replied.

i really cant stress enough to have the 2 chassis connected by a bit of wire,seen some static and felt some too today until i did it, its a lot riskier if you dont do it

Oracle · 17-03-2008 9:40pm

I'm kinda new to all this, but looks really cool, very interested. But I'm gonna ask a obvious question,

If I do this what happens to the original Xbox interface? Is it gone forever or can it be recovered? (i.e. is this mod permanent or reversible?)

Supercell · 17-03-2008 9:53pm

The simple answer is nothing!

As its a softmod everything is reverseable (not that you will need to reverse anything).

If you want to boot your Xbox normally, press the eject button.

If you want to boot into Softmod mode then press the power button.

Its elegant in its simplicity, the buttons work as normal once the console is booted up.

If you want to put it back to the way it was originally you can too.

Nick_oliveri · 17-03-2008 10:49pm

The two triggers and the back button and the black button pressed at the same time in softmod mode will reset your console.

Thanks again longfield. Im going to sort a couple of people out with this. Legend.

Bodan · 17-03-2008 10:55pm

Hey longfield , could you explain step 11 again as its not clear how you install xbmc. Is it done from cd or do you have to connect your computer directly to the xbox.

VanZan · 17-03-2008 11:01pm

you have to ftp into the xbox.

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/213943

Bodan · 17-03-2008 11:20pm

thanks for that VanZan. In the afterdawn guide it said you can also use a router. Has anyone ever done it with the netopia 3347 eircom router?

Oracle · 17-03-2008 11:27pm

That's cool thanks for the reply Longfield. I'm definately gonna give this a try, thanks for the instructions.

o1s1n · 17-03-2008 11:36pm

Gave this a go tonight over the last couple of hours and no matter what I did, I just couldn't get it to work

Boot disc worked fine, but that's where it ended. I tried so many times but it just refused to find the Harddrive. After the primary IDE didn't detect it, I tried every other possible IDE setup.

Had to give up in the end after having a couple of freak out moments -

'OMFG why wont my PC boot?!'

And

'OMFG why won't the xbox boot?!' (Seems an xbox doesn't like to boot properly with the DVD IDE disconnected)

So I've restored everything to working order and decided to leave it alone and go the memory card route.

Nick_oliveri · 17-03-2008 11:55pm

The xbox wont boot with the IDE's disconnected, DVD Drive or Hard Disc.

You need to make sure that the CD Drive on your PC is on the secondary IDE controller and has its pins/jumper set to master. Leave the pins/jumper on the xbox hard drive alone and make sure its on the primary IDE controller with nothing else attached.

Edit: Dont bother with the memcard trick. Longfield has kindly offered his help to me and seems to know a lot about what hes talking about. And i will also try and help the best i can.

o1s1n · 18-03-2008 12:24am

Nick_oliveri wrote: »

You need to make sure that the CD Drive on your PC is on the secondary IDE controller and has its pins/jumper set to master. Leave the pins/jumper on the xbox hard drive alone and make sure its on the primary IDE controller with nothing else attached.

Yep, that's exactly what I did. All that was running was the CD drive set to master from the secondary IDE and the XBOX harddrive from the primary.

I Paused the XBOX on a song. Connected the Harddrive it to IDE primary. At the same time the pc was booting up with xboxhdm. Enter 1. It starts running through a list of things and then stops with the option to input xbrowser.

I put that in and get an error that it can't find the Xbox harddrive.

Tried this many many times but I always get the same error.

Nick_oliveri · 18-03-2008 12:41am

Thats strange. Id ask you did you remember to input your kernel version only this problem isnt really associated with the error you are having.

Whats it showing up as in the bios? Did you make sure both IDEs are functional?

o1s1n · 18-03-2008 12:54am

Nick_oliveri wrote: »

Thats strange. Id ask you did you remember to input your kernel version only this problem isnt really associated with the error you are having.

Whats it showing up as in the bios? Did you make sure both IDEs are functional?

Kernel is correct yes - 5838.

IDEs are both function fine as I tried switching them around and the cd drive booted up from each.

I really should have taken a capture of the screen. It was more or less saying no harddrive was found immediately after I entered the command Xbrowser. Then it would give me the option to try looking again, with a different number attached to the beginning of the command line. (2, then 3 etc)

The only thing I can really think of is that I'm somehow making a mistake when disconnecting the harddrive. Is there a certain limit to the amount of time before you have to have it connected to your pc? Although, I'm getting it on there pretty fast.

I thought this was strange myself. It seems like a pretty straight forward thing to do.

Supercell · 18-03-2008 9:06am

There is a time limit, you have five minutes to switch over the drive which should be more than enough usually.

o1s1n , the hotswap sequence is very important, it must be done in the following order:-

1) Play music track on Xbox hdd (make sure no cd in Xbox cdrom drive or it wont lock the drive) , pause track
2) Boot pc off xboxhdm cd, when at the screen where you have to input a number..hotswap the drive and THEN press 1 then input xbrowser

Also make sure your drive is actually unlocked, easiest way to do this is to choose the option to go to hd utilities, it will tell you right away if the drive is locked or not, if its locked you'll get the issue your describing also.

encryptix · 18-03-2008 6:41pm

Hey, great guide but ive got a problem at this step, when i get here there is no "/ndure" in the directory, did i burn the cd wrong?

Also to those people having problems getting the hard drive as master, make sure your cd drives jumper isnt set as master (It took me a good 10 min to figure out why it wasnt being detected!)

Supercell · 18-03-2008 6:53pm

Yep, you need to reburn the cd - see point 3) "When the wizard prompts you where to save to, choose the xboxhdm\linux folder you unpacked in step one above."

If you at least get that far sounds like your almost home free.

encryptix · 18-03-2008 7:44pm

Got past my previous problem, thought i got it installed but now when i boot the xbox i get the intro but then a black screen! :eek:

It did say something when installing about not being the latest dashboard??

Ive tried a few things to get it working again, but nothing has helped.

weeder · 18-03-2008 7:47pm

http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Unlocking%20Seagate%20Xbox%20Hard%20Drive.htm
drive unlocking without hotswapping. some methods blank the drive which you do not want.

does the seagate flashing the firmware work without erasing? ive got a jacketed once and cant make it hotswap

and how can ya relock it after

i know i can use some tool to read the eeprom but whats it called?

Supercell · 18-03-2008 8:36pm

encryptix wrote: »

Got past my previous problem, thought i got it installed but now when i boot the xbox i get the intro but then a black screen! :eek:

It did say something when installing about not being the latest dashboard??

Ive tried a few things to get it working again, but nothing has helped.

Hmm if you have a really ancient dash like 4034 this may be a problem (didn't think anyone would have an Xbox these days that hadn't been online in years),
What happens if you boot by pressing the eject button - it should go into the normal screen?

Worst case scenario boot of the xboxhdm cd and choose the option to restore, this is a softmod so should be totally reverseable.
Once you have your system restored check out your dash version :-

My dash in the pic above is 5960.
If yours is 4xxx then you need to either play one of the later Xbox games (will auto update the dash) or go online which will update it too.
I'll update the original post with this.

weeder · 18-03-2008 9:49pm

hmmmm crap

i did a backup with the ndure script then i selected option 2 which i dont think i shouldve and it made another backup and copied the contents od ndure on the cd over my c drive then i pressed restore backup and it restored A backup but i cant for the life of me findthe eeprom.bin i need to relock the drive ( and for the xbox to not complain)

were is it usually?

Supercell · 18-03-2008 10:15pm

weeder wrote: »

hmmmm crap

i did a backup with the ndure script then i selected option 2 which i dont think i shouldve and it made another backup and copied the contents od ndure on the cd over my c drive then i pressed restore backup and it restored A backup but i cant for the life of me findthe eeprom.bin i need to relock the drive ( and for the xbox to not complain)

were is it usually?

I think you need to use the hdd tools to sort out your hdd weeder, I never got into your scenario.
The eeprom.bin can only be gotten using hardware or once you have unleashX installed which will dump it for you.

I can give you an eeprom.bin if you want as I've zero interest in gaming on my Xbox 1's (dual boxes with same eeprom = m$ ban) ...but am only prepared to do this at my place as I want to make sure everything is done right and you end up with a working system. Consider this as a chance to install a new big drive!

weeder · 18-03-2008 10:23pm

there should be an eeprom.bin file on the disk somewhere, afaik its needed for it to boot and has to mach the one on the motherboard

encryptix · 18-03-2008 10:27pm

Hmm if you have a really ancient dash like 4034 this may be a problem

Yep, it is definitely a problem

I'm 99% sure my xbox had the dashboard and kernel as 4817, although i cant check.

Heres my current situation:
1)It didnt go into the normal screen when i tried booting the way you said.

2)I also restored the drive using the backup but then when i rebooted i got a message saying "System Error. Contact Xbox Customer Support with a 17 in the corner!

3)Next step i decided to do was to reinstall the thing on the cd, this kinda worked. I dont get the error message when its turned on but the screen goes black after that. This lets me load games but ive no dashboard.

Update the dash

How will i go about updating it, i only have one really old game and no dashboard?

Supercell · 18-03-2008 10:28pm

weeder wrote: »

there should be an eeprom.bin file on the disk somewhere, afaik its needed for it to boot and has to mach the one on the motherboard

No, there won't be, not unless you deliberately backed one up.

weeder · 18-03-2008 10:32pm

oh poo!
all this for a tsop flash lol, consdiderin buying a chip at this stage

How to softmod your Xbox and install XBMC for free

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