Print

[bubun]

I have a first generation Xbox that I had modded with an OpenXbox about a year ago. At that time, I had flashed it with the BIOS "EvolutionX V2.5.bin" (as far as I remember)

I was out of touch with the Xbox scene since then and have *just* returned to join you guys again

Now I want to re-flash this chip with the latest BIOS that it supports, but I am not finding any information on what is the latest BIOS that the OpenXbox can be flashed with.

Does anyone know if the OpenXbox can be flashed with the latest Evox D6 BIOS ? Can I simply use BioXX Flasher v1.3 to flash this chip with the evox_d6.bin file ? If not, which of the newer BIOSes will work ?

Sorry if some of these questions sound lame, but trust me that I have done (at least a little bit of) my homework and I can't find a straight answer on this anywhere.

If it matters, I was able to successfully install EvolutionX 3921 dashboard and XBMP v2.4 last night and both are working fine.

One more thing - as far as I know that the OpenXbox can NOT be flased using the EvolutionX dashboard, and I'll need to use the PC Parallel port along with the BioXX Flasher program for that, right ?

Thanks for any help on this !  


This post has been edited by bubun: Sep 16 2003, 07:26 PM

[Tover]

You can use any bios as long as it is 1mb in size.  most releases (excluding the new xecutor) are 256k in size, so use something like xbtool to bring it to 1mb.  I have the same chip and currently have the 4978.03 bios on it.

Flasher 1.3 oe 1.4 will work, as long as you can get the programmer to recognize the chip,   and you do have to use the parallel adapter.  Evox can't flash the chip.

This post has been edited by Tover: Sep 16 2003, 07:45 PM

[bubun]

Thanks very much, Tover ! Your reply was very helpful.

The Evox D6 seems to be a 256K BIOS ... so I need to make it 1MB.

Is BioXX Flasher v1.4 stable enough ? The readme that comes with it is (unfortunately) in German, and from what I can make out it says something about ver1.4 being a "test" version.

The PC that I will be using for flashing is running WinXP Pro, if that matters.

[bubun]

Okay, after some research I decided to go ahead with the X2 4978.03 BIOS. My main reason for not using the Evox D6 right now is that it is just too new and hence may have some bugs, whereas the 4978.03 seems to have been debugged pretty well ... plus it contains pretty much all the features that I am looking for anyway.

Tover, just one question to you. The 4978.03 is a 512k BIOS. How did you convert it to 1MB ? Did you use XBTool or just plain DOS copy ?

Last time I had used the DOS copy method to make the 256k Evox 2.5 BIOS to 1MB, and would like to use it this time also (if it works)


Will something like this work for the X2 4978.03 BIOS to make it 1MB ?

copy    /b    x2_512k.bin    +    x2_512k.bin      x2_1mb.bin


Thanks !

This post has been edited by bubun: Sep 16 2003, 09:52 PM

[bubun]

Just a note of correction to my own post above - I was wrong in saying that Evox D.6 is brand new whereas X2 4978.03 has been around for some time. It seems to me that actually the original Evox D.6 and Evox D.6EjectFix are older than X2 4978.03 ... it is only the Evox D.6_MP that is newer than X2 4978.03.

Can someone confirm if what I said above is correct ?

[Tover]

Yes 4978.03 is the newest, but evox did release a new dash hence the possible confusion.

It really depends on what you want to do as to which bios to use.  I'm using the 4978.03 right now, just because I have a computer right next to the box that is always connected and running tunneling software to the server.  Since I had an ethernet hooked up, I went ahead and leave a parallel cable hooked up to the box as well.  I've had no problems with that bios.  I really like the built in ftp as its easier for me to back up my games that way to the pc quicker and still keep the original dash.

As for the copy command it really is easy

if the bios is 256k, just do

copy /b bios+bios+bios+bios NewBios

for 512k

copy /b bios+bios NewBios  The /b is the important part as it tells the copy command it is a binary file.

And the v1.4 software is fine as is the v1.3 they both work.

[bubun]

Thanks very much for your help, Tover ! I successfully flashed 4978.03 last night and upgraded the hard disk to 60GB

[Pacman]

Tover,

Do you have the Lik-Sang version of the OpenXbox modchip?

I always thought it only supported a 256 kb bios.  How would the modchip know whether it has 4 x 256 or 2 x 512?
No switches were implemented for this (unless you modified yours)

Thanx in advance for your info.

[Tover]

I have the Lik-Sang and it is 1mb in size.  It can't run extra banks (ie 4x256,2x512) Naturally.  However, a hardware hack is available to make it switch selectable to two 512kb banks, but never felt the need to do that.

[Pacman]

So you're saying Lik-Sang's version can run either 4x256K, or 2x512K, or even 1x1024K bioses, as long as they're all identical?

How does it know it's dealing with a 256K size bios, or a 512K size bios, or when the bios is 1024K?

Do you understand what I'm trying to say.

[Tover]

No I said it can't run different banks, unless you do the hardware hack, which requires you to solder to the bios, cut a trace and install a switch.  The newer versions might, but I do not own one to know for sure, nor am I an expert.  

But I do know my chip will hold a single 1mb bios without any modification.

 

QUOTE

It can't run extra banks (ie 4x256,2x512)

[Pacman]

Tover,

You did say...

 I have the same chip and currently have the 4978.03 bios on it.

Now, in order to use that bios, you had to flash it as 2x512K to your Lik-Sang modchip (I have the exact same one).

How can the modchip use that bios, if it was designed to only read the last 256K of the 1024K chip.
Or maybe I'm confused here.....

[Tover]

Yes it is a 512k bios, but the first Xecutor and Evox bioses were 256k.  Even the original Xbox bios is 256k, its just copied 4 times.

Look at the post, I tell how to use the copy command in dos to combine the original file into a 1mb bios

copy /b bios1+bios1 1mbbios

the /b is for binary

the bios1+bios1 means to add together

the 1mbbios is the new file that is created.

So for the one that I have I copied it to a folder went into to dos (or pseudo dos under XP) and type

copy 4978.03.bin+4978.03.bin 1mb.bin

and now I have a 1mb bios to flash to the Openbox chip, no seperate banks, just one 1mb file.

(and now can be done a lot easier with the wonderfulXbtool)

Please, from now on look in the tuturial section about the bios to learn more

[Pacman]

Dude, I know all that and more.

My only question was how does the modchip know where to start reading the bios inside the chip.
I always thought it only read the last 256K part.  Capiche?

Now, if you can't understand plain english then I'll stop right here.

[Tover]

Dude I do understand english, you're the one not following.

lik-sang openxbox is 1mb
a 512k bios stacked together in 2 identical copies to make 1mb works, a 256k bios stacked together in 4 identical copies to make 1mb works.


It all has to do with the logical addressing of the bios chip, BIOS stands for basic input/output system, it is in essence a very small/stripped  operating system that executes a finitie amount of instructions to ready the hardware then points to the main boot file for the operating system (for the xbox case either default.xbe on the dvd or xboxdash.xbe on the hard disk).  Expand that to windows.  If you had four/two windows directories on the main drive exactly identical does it matter?  No, the first one to load will know where its home directory is and all the necessary programs are at.  The other would just sit there.  Now, lets say you have a boot menu (bank switch in the modchip world)  and you selected the second copy of windows, it would now boot and run all necessary functions completely oblivious of the first one.  But you need the switch/menu to tell which OS/BIOS to load.

http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/beginnersguide.php (left this one out in first posting, must read)

http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/multibios-tsop.php (definitely worth a read)

http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/pc-biox...bank-switch.php (the openxbox tutorial)

http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/flashbios.php

http://dwl.xbox-scene.net/%7Exbox/xbox-sce...h_swap_BIOS.pdf

http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/split-bios.php

http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/homemademod2.php



Ok, if that doesn't answer your question, then I don't know what else to say.  Best bet, if you are still confused then start a new thread "How does Lik-Sang OpenXbox know that I have a 256k or 512k bios on it?"  and maybe someone can explain it better than me.

TIA

This post has been edited by Tover: Sep 23 2003, 02:51 AM