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[GoTeamScotch]

QUOTE(ldotsfan @ Apr 20 2010, 07:09 AM)

@GoTeamScotch:
CONFIG_IDE_TASK_IOCTL may not be needed and this avoids the need to recompile the kernel. If hdparm in a recent version of Ubuntu is able to unlock the hdd with the known master password, it means SG_IO ioctl is working in hdparm. I've already did a quick hack on hdparm's sgio.c/sgio.h code to prepare for integration against hdtool.c. Please let me know if you are able to verify if hdparm works.

At a glance, it seems as though hdparm that is shipped by default with the latest official 9.10 (Karmic) release of Ubuntu is able to modify a HDD's security status and even work with master and/or user passwords.

QUOTE( DebianAdmin.com)

       ATA Security Feature Set

       These switches are DANGEROUS to experiment with, and might not work with every kernel.

       -F, --security-freeze
              Freeze  the  drive's  security  settings.  The drive does not accept any security commands until next power-on reset.  Use this function in
              combination with --security-unlock to protect drive from any attempt to set a new password. Can be used standalone, too.

       --security-unlock PWD
              Unlock the drive, using password PWD (DANGEROUS).  Password is given as an ASCII string and is padded with NULs to  reach  32  bytes.   The
              applicable drive password is selected with the --security-mode switch.

       --security-set-pass PWD
              Lock  the  drive,  using password PWD (Set Password) (DANGEROUS).  Password is given as an ASCII string and is padded with NULs to reach 32
              bytes.  The applicable drive password is selected with the --security-mode switch.

       --security-disable PWD
              Disable drive locking, using password PWD (DANGEROUS).  Password is given as an ASCII string and is padded with NULs  to  reach  32  bytes.
              The applicable drive password is selected with the --security-mode switch.

       --security-mode MODE
              Specifies  which  password (user/master) to select, and which security mode (high/maximum) to set.  Only useful in combination with --secu-
              rity-unlock, --security-set-pass, or --security-disable
                      u       user password, high security
                      U       user password, maximum security
                      m       master password, high security
                      M       master password, maximum security

I have yet to experiment with hdparm and it's locking/unlocking features. At this point I have no reason to doubt its ability to lock/unlock hard drives. Its nice that hdparm is installed by default in Ubuntu 9.10. That will make things slightly easier on the end user.


I am curious what the current xboxhdm 2 GUI looks like. I think I'll check it out sometime soon. I downloaded XboxHDM 2 to play around and see how it works a while back but changes have since been made so I'll take a fresh look.  

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(GoTeamScotch @ Apr 21 2010, 03:58 PM)

At a glance, it seems as though hdparm that is shipped by default with the latest official 9.10 (Karmic) release of Ubuntu is able to modify a HDD's security status and even work with master and/or user passwords.

It only works with ASCII passwords. A xbox hdd needs hexadecimal passwords though.

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(scullc @ Apr 22 2010, 04:24 PM)

The core of xboxhdm2.1 remains so there are no changes there

The micro edition is in the making.   No GUI at all, good old telnet interface.

QUOTE(scullc @ Apr 22 2010, 04:24 PM)

One thing I'd like to report that i 'accidentally' discovered during my rebuild/testing of xboxhdm2.2 was this:
I turned off IDE detection in the BIOS. My locked XBOX HDD booted into Slax under <2mins!! Compare that to 12mins + which was I was used to. Hope that helps someone else.

Great. So SLAX booting time is the same as under FreeDOS?

[ldotsfan]

Documenting xboxhdm3 progress:

1. Add devfs=nomount to the qemu kernel boot option was the key to booting the xbpartitioner-style partition table aware kernel with ldots' initrd.gz. Minor modifications to /etc/rc.S to account for the kernel version no.

2. xboxhdm3 will thus recognize xbpartitioner created non-stock partition tables and mount the partitions at /dev/hda55 , /dev/hda56 and so on. xbrowser to be modified to account for the partitions.

3. To be done: to solve the hdd disk size bug in xboxdumper2 so that xboxhdm3 will correctly write to a xbpartitioner compliant partition table with 32k / 64k clusters. Eventually to eliminate the need for xbpartitioner for softmod hdd upgrades  

4. To look into SG_IO ioctl to improve hdd locking compatibility with SATA hdd and remove dependency on CONFIG_IDE_TASK_IOCTL in 2.6 kernel. This opens up the possibility of running xboxhdm3 under Ubuntu and other modern Linux distributions without any kernel recompiling. hdparm already provides the sample code.

To summarize, xboxhdm3's objectives:
1. Reads and writes to 32k/64k FATX partitions from a PC.
2. Reads and writes to all partitions created by xbpartitioner, including those beyond F and G.
3. Runs off any modern Linux distribution like Ubuntu.
4. Improved compatibility with SATA hdd.

Will take a while to reach these goals  

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(ldotsfan @ Apr 24 2010, 09:44 AM)

Documenting xboxhdm3 progress:

1. Add devfs=nomount to the qemu kernel boot option was the key to booting the xbpartitioner-style partition table aware kernel with ldots' initrd.gz. Minor modifications to /etc/rc.S to account for the kernel version no.

2. xboxhdm3 will thus recognize xbpartitioner created non-stock partition tables and mount the partitions at /dev/hda55 , /dev/hda56 and so on. xbrowser to be modified to account for the partitions.

Steps 1 and 2 are done. Changes uploaded to sourceforge. To use
1. 2.1 Lite edition as baseline.
2. Replace hdmboot's initrd.gz. Copy vml to hdmboot folder as well.
3. Delete Slax modules folder's ltools-new.lzm and replace with ltools-xboxhdm3.lzm.
4. If you need the GUI, recycle Full edition Slax base folder's 002-xorg.lzm and 003- desktop.lzm and copy it to Slax's base folder.

Testing is needed.

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(scullc @ Apr 25 2010, 04:30 AM)

All sounds superb and i look forward to a release & will test when I can/able. Love the point 3. Doing this in Puppy Linux would be great (if thats possible).

Will look at that in due course & thanks for the continuous development.

Will test with Puppy. SLAX's SG_IO support is not working for me.

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(ldotsfan @ Apr 24 2010, 09:44 AM)

4. To look into SG_IO ioctl to improve hdd locking compatibility with SATA hdd and remove dependency on CONFIG_IDE_TASK_IOCTL in 2.6 kernel. This opens up the possibility of running xboxhdm3 under Ubuntu and other modern Linux distributions without any kernel recompiling. hdparm already provides the sample code.

An ugly hack of hdparm source onto hdtool uploaded to sourceforge: source and binary. Will use SG_IO by default if supported and fallback to HDIO_DRIVE_TASKFILE. It should work in a kernel without CONFIG_IDE_TASK_IOCTL if libata with ATA Pass-thru is enabled, ie how a modern distribution should see SATA hdd.

Testing is needed.

[scullc]

QUOTE(scullc @ Apr 25 2010, 10:59 AM)

That sounds great.
I am 'testing' Lucid Puppy 111 - Alpha Beta - 04/19 Ubuntu + Woof 04/16 currently which gives me full resolution 1280 x 1024 on my Intel g41 chipset & monitor. That's a rarity with Puppy. I believe it uses Ubuntu repositories. Maybe that will help you too?

link above not working - here it is again
Lucid Puppy 111 - Alpha Beta - 04/19 Ubuntu + Woof 04/16

[reddwarffan]

QUOTE(ldotsfan @ Apr 24 2010, 02:44 AM)

To summarize, xboxhdm3's objectives:
1. Reads and writes to 32k/64k FATX partitions from a PC.
2. Reads and writes to all partitions created by xbpartitioner, including those beyond F and G.
3. Runs off any modern Linux distribution like Ubuntu.
4. Improved compatibility with SATA hdd.

Will take a while to reach these goals  

Well impressed and appreciative of your work to date and am continually amazed at how you are making soft modding as easy as possible.  I like the idea of being able to run from any linux distro - Puppy linux would be a personal favourite of mine too.  I have a sata to ide converter but no spare sata hd, but I could be pursuaded to get a one for testing    -   I am very interested in developments and am watching with keen interest.

BTW, Xbox rig ordered     Should be good to go on testing within the week.  Need a few days first to get up to speed on soft modding and hot swapping etc.  

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(ldotsfan @ Apr 24 2010, 09:44 AM)

Documenting xboxhdm3 progress:

1. Add devfs=nomount to the qemu kernel boot option was the key to booting the xbpartitioner-style partition table aware kernel with ldots' initrd.gz. Minor modifications to /etc/rc.S to account for the kernel version no.

2. xboxhdm3 will thus recognize xbpartitioner created non-stock partition tables and mount the partitions at /dev/hda55 , /dev/hda56 and so on. xbrowser to be modified to account for the partitions.

3. To be done: to solve the hdd disk size bug in xboxdumper2 so that xboxhdm3 will correctly write to a xbpartitioner compliant partition table with 32k / 64k clusters. Eventually to eliminate the need for xbpartitioner for softmod hdd upgrades  

4. To look into SG_IO ioctl to improve hdd locking compatibility with SATA hdd and remove dependency on CONFIG_IDE_TASK_IOCTL in 2.6 kernel. This opens up the possibility of running xboxhdm3 under Ubuntu and other modern Linux distributions without any kernel recompiling. hdparm already provides the sample code.

To summarize, xboxhdm3's objectives:
1. Reads and writes to 32k/64k FATX partitions from a PC.
2. Reads and writes to all partitions created by xbpartitioner, including those beyond F and G.
3. Runs off any modern Linux distribution like Ubuntu.
4. Improved compatibility with SATA hdd.

Will take a while to reach these goals  

Changes to hdtool, xboxdumper, mkfs.fatx, hdparm merged into initrd.gz and ltools-xboxhdm3.0-alpha.lzm.
No GUI or shell script menu for xboxdumper yet.

Also prepared a bzipped tarball of qemu, xboxhd2 , hdtool , hdparm, hdsecinfo, lockhd and unlockhd. Mix with initrd.gz and vml to execute in a non-SLAX linux distribution.  
Testing is needed.

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(scullc @ Apr 25 2010, 05:59 PM)

That's a rarity with Puppy. I believe it uses Ubuntu repositories. Maybe that will help you too?

I decided to just do a bzipped tarball and that will work with all Linux distributions so I don't have to mess with .deb , .rpm , .lzm

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(scullc @ Apr 23 2010, 05:24 AM)

A micro edition!? lol   Amazing.
That would be excellent for those stuck with prehistoric PC's - funny enough I have one of those somewhere!
Keep us posted

The basic idea is to strip qemu of the ncurses dependency and hence reduce the number of base SLAX modules to load (and reduce memory requirements) and run the initrd off a serial console. Edited inittab and did a soft link from /sbin/getty to /bin/busybox. Will upload modified initrd.gz.

Execute qemu with the following parameters

CODE

qemu -hda -hdc -kernel vml -initrd initrd.gz -append "devfs=nomount load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 rw root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=14000 pci=biosirq console=/dev/ttyS0" -nographic -serial telnet:127.1:4444,server,nowait

Then do a telnet to 127.1 at port 4444 and login with root. password is empty, just press enter.

[scullc]

I had a go at Ndure & xboxhdm2.2
Frustrating - would be the word. In the end I couldn't get the modded dash to boot but the XBOX live part did?!
I will be the 1st to admit i am no expert with Ndure.
Anyway followed the instructions (kernel, fontts etc...) on how to install with no luck...many times  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)
I always seem to get stuck with a blank screen & yellow led
searched around possible corrupt unleash.xbe - replaced that but no change.

Other issues (using xboxhdm2.2):

I followed rmathiot's 'walkthrough' and the unmounting code did not work for me in the GUI version. Clearly my device was sdb1 - but when i inputted the code - device not recognised. I ignored the warnings & rebuilt the HDD with the Ndure files at C & E - predictably filenames were truncated - so did not boot.

I copied the files over using Xplorer360 (Beta6) and this only booted to blank/screen - with no rescue using the 4 button IGR.

I tried rmathiot's walkthrough in the Console version but met a 'segmentation' fault when I ran xboxhd2 in the menu. I never saw that error before the release. Need to check that again.

I know Xplorer360 (Beta6) works as i easily rebuilt by just dragging into the Fatx HDD the basic dashboard that I have (K5838 & D5960) - booted no problem on my chipped machine. I even disabled the chip to try above but that didn't make a difference.

Using Frostys boot disc I can get FTP access. All files seem proper.

Outcome: Ndure probably works - but needs more volunteers/testing....and a write up.

[scullc]

QUOTE(scullc @ Apr 29 2010, 02:46 PM)

I followed rmathiot's 'walkthrough' and the unmounting code did not work for me in the GUI version.

...but met a 'segmentation' fault when I ran xboxhd2 in the menu. I never saw that error before the release. Need to check that again.

had another go...rmathiot's code appears to work!!  
I was unaware that the flash WAS mounted as hdc1. I executed the commands using that mount point & all seemed to go well...until I booted...blank screen again    HDD looks built properly. I will try a generic kernel next time to see if that helps.

'segmentation' fault - that was a new one. I put the Console edition on a 4gb stick (so that I could have 2 separate versions) & then that error appeared. When I put it back on the 1gb stick - the console version booted fine!

[scullc]

QUOTE(scullc @ Apr 30 2010, 09:30 AM)

 I will try a generic kernel next time to see if that helps.

...that failed too. I am outta time & patience on this one. Perhaps someone else can step forward & test?