- edit 10/16/2004 - A quick note that it's been reported to me by an external party that leaving your DVDROM unplugged will both unlock the harddrive on boot and spin down or otherwise making hotswapping the HD into the PC easier and quicker. I have not tested this, but if you have troubles with the hotswap process, give this a try!
How To Flash Your TSOP (007:AUF) (Any Make/Model XBOX)This guide is designed to be as clear and to the point as possible, while still covering all revisions of the XBOX. The idea is that a total beginner (such as I was when I started) can open this tutorial, print it out, and use it to cover each and every step of TSOP flashing their XBOX and subsequently replace their dashboard, install new programs and applications, and otherwise make more of their XBOX.
So, this is your first time?
Before you start, here's what you will need handy before you get started.
- An Original copy of 007 : Agent Under Fire (Not Platinum Hit!)
- A Torx 10 and Torx 20 screwdriver
- 30watt Soldering Iron, or thereabouts.
- Solder, and perhaps de-solder braid if you think you may goof up.
- A CD pre-burnt with xLinux on it.
- A CD containing the 007auf savegames appropriate with bios for your xbox (or both)
- A computer to boot to xLinux to do the HD swap / insert.
- A router set to run and assign IP's on the 192.168.0.x range of IP's (if yours is 192.168.1.x, change this only temporarily for the purpose of this guide). Or a computer to hook up peer-to-peer with a cross-over cable and your XBOX. If you do this, also make sure that your computer is given a temporary IP address of 192.168.0.x.
Now you need to find the appropriate software to do this with. For legal issues surrounding the ability to publicly provide anything made with the MS XDK, these are not and will not be found on this or most any other website. If you use your brain, ask around, and go look with the good folks at xbins (or various newsgroups, irc, etc) you will find the below and above listed software.
- 007withraincoat (you can sub in 007withevox, mechassault with either, or in the future splinter cell too, but for the purpose of this guide I will refer to 007 and raincoat exclusively to make things easier. I know they work, and it's what I'd recommend!).
- EvolutionX dashboard (yup, they make chips, bios's, and dashses... but all we're concerned about is the dash for now. You can always change this dashboard to something different later, don't worry!).
- A bios to put on your XBOX. At the time of this tutorial, the most recognized is the Xecutor2 (or x2) bios revision 4891. For the purpose of this guide, I do suggest using x2.4981 to make things easier. Again you can reflash later if you want. Also, if your using a harddrive replacement, and it's under 130gigs or something around that range, use 4981.06, but if it's any bigger than that please use 4891.67. That is the version that supports larger HD addressing, and if you use the small one but put in a big drive, you will end up not being able to format to the proper size.
- A copy of xISO. This program will allow you to create properly (or at least close enough for these purposes) XBOX bootable images, as well as being able to extract data from pre-made XBOX images (which otherwise most mounting software can't read).
Now, you will want to make a bootable CDRW, DVD+-R, or DVD+-RW disc containing nothing but EvolutionX dashboard on it. The reason is that we want to be able to run Evox (EvolutionX) in order to be able to FTP in easily and add it as your default Dashboard, as well as install other stuff. To do this, use xISO (I told you to get it up above) and extract Evox to a directory. Then load xISO, and find that Evox directory, choose it as your source, then pick a name to save your new ISO (that will have everythinig in the Evox directory) to. Then you can burn this new ISO using Nero, or the burning software of your choice, and set it aside!
- Note : You may want to edit/view the evox.ini before you finalize the above step, maybe set a static IP address so you know where to FTP to, etc. Don't need to, but incase your networking unsavvy, I thought I'd let you know.
Get all these things ready, and let's go!
1) First step, open up your XBOX. Follow the instructions found
(here) to open the box up, gut it, and otherwise strip it down in preparation of soldering.
2) Oh wait! What version XBOX do you have? Follow this guide
(here) (and I do recommend double checking your Serial # found in the same link as above) to figure it all out.
2) Got it all in peices? Ok, now it's time to solder. Depending on which version XBOX you own, you will need to follow one of these guides to solder the appropriate points. I will assume you are moderately skilled or even willing to wing it with your soldering iron. If your not, there's a boatload of other tutorials on how to solder, what solder / iron to use, etc kicking around. Go read those first, then come back. To find the appropriate points to solder, check
(here)!
3) Got it soldered properly now? You might want to make sure that you got a clean job using a magnifying glass, and then go plug it back into your TV (whoops.. put it all back together first!) and make sure it behaves normally.
4) Works? Good! Now it's time to get those 007auf savegames (with raincoat or evox, but I'd say use raincoat as that's what I've been using religiously!) on your XBOX harddrive. You can use a USB key device (X-key or whatever its called) or a memory card already containing the savegames, or you can do what I did and harddrive swap them.
5) Go get your copy of xLinux. Put it in your CD drive, and also plug your XBOX harddrive into the IDE cable from your computer. Turn the XBOX on to provide power to the XBOX HD, and boot your computer. I'd suggest using the primary IDE cable (the one your normal harddrive would normally be on the for the computer. This keeps it all as hda under linux, and for the purpose of this guide I will subsequently refer to it as "hda". If for some reason you use another channel, or the same cable as another drive (optical or HD) you may have to look for it under hdb, hdc, hdd, hde, etc).
6) When you get to the BOOT: screen for xLinux, hit PAUSE/BREAK. At this point, your bios should have recognized your XBOX HD as whatever it may be, you've got the CD booted but not loading linux.
NOTE!!!! - MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR A/V CABLES PLUGGED IN HERE, EVEN IF YOU DO NOT HAVE IT CONNECTED TO A TV OR TV-TUNER!!! THIS MAY BE WHAT IS CAUSING A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF YOU TO BE HAVING ISSUES WITH XLINUX AND HOTSWAPPING THE DRIVES (read only errors, etc). Now back to your regularly scheduled tutorials (had to make sure everyone saw this).
7) Turn off your XBOX. Replug your IDE cable from your XBOX into the XBOX HD, and turn it back on. Now here's the tricky part! Give it a count of 4-5 seconds (I wait 4 seconds from when I hear the XBOX HD start to make noises) and carefully unplug only the IDE ribbon from the XBOX HD. If done right, your XBOX has now unlocked the XBOX HD, and you can plug the IDE ribbon from your computer back in (yup, this is done while both are powered on!).
Continue booting linux (hit enter twice). If at any point during the xLinux boot process you see I/O errors, or multiple failed attempts to unlock your XBOX HD (it should be unlocked by the XBOX remember) go back to step 1 for the HD swap and try again. It takes a bit to get used to, but once you have it down pat it's easy.
9) You're now in xLinux I hope!? If so, lets go check a couple of things.
- Type "ls /dev/hda*". This should list things like "hda50, hda51, etc". If you only see hda, then you didn't unlock it properly and go reboot and try again. If you see them, then progress to the next step.
- Type "mkdir xbox" in the root directory you started in to make a new temporary directory.
- Take your xLinux CD out of the drive and replace with the CD you made containing your 007auf saves.
- Type "mount -t auto /dev/hdc /cdrom" to mount your cdrom (assuming it also is hdc, but may be hda, hdb, hdd, hde, etc).
- Type "mount -t fatx /dev/hda50 /xbox" to mount your xbox to that directory we created.
10) If all went as planned (my fingers are crossed for you) then you should have your cdrom drive and your xbox mounted to appropriate directories that you can access. Now I am going to assume that you have not played 007 : Agent Under Fire before, but if you have, do me a favor and get rid of them or back them up to your memory card or something. It's a horrible game anyways, so you won't be losing much.
11) Now I want you to type "cd /cdrom" and go to your CDROM mounted directory. In there, change directories until your sitting in whichever directory contains 4541000d (usually UDATA). If you see 000000000000 or anything else held within 4541000d, back up until your looking at 4541000d (the name of the 007auf savegame folder).
12) Now type this. "cp -R * /xbox/UDATA". If you've followed the above directions, this should copy 4541000d to your UDATA directory, thusly inserting the savegame you need onto your harddrive.
13) Oops! Almost forgot. Because you copied these off a CD, they were set to "READ ONLY" permissions. Also type "cd /xbox/UDATA" then when in there type "chmod -R 777 *" to change all the permisions of that directory, and all within it to not READ ONLY.
14) Well, that step is now done. Now exit your directories under /xbox (cd.. cd.. cd..) until your back at the root of the disc, and type "umount /cdrom" and then "umount /xbox". This will unmount both the XBOX HD and the CDROM. Not really necessary, but can't hurt (say you forget to chmod the permissions, if you leave xLinux booted while you go to test, you can now just come back, replug, remount and chmod without having to hotswap drives again!).
15) Ok, unplug everything and put the IDE cable back into the XBOX harddrive. Plug in everything, INCLUDING your network cable from your router (or if from PC to PC, a crossed cable). See if you can boot up and load 007 : Agent Under Fire. If you can, choose to "Load Savegame" from your XBOX HD. If you've done all the previous steps correctly, you should see the screen go black, your eject light flash amber, and a variety of mighty annoying sounds playing on the TV. Beleive it or not, that's a good sign!
16) Ok, now hop back onto your computer (leave the XBOX running) and telnet into your xbox. I use Putty as my telnet client of choice
(here) but you can really use anything. We want to telnet into "192.168.0.64" which is the IP address that the savegame embedded linux will pick, and log in as "root" with the password defaulting to "xbox".
17) You in? Good! So now type "cd ../../media/E/UDATA/4541000d/000000000000/raincoat" (yup, it's a long one!).
18) Once in there, two commands. One is "./raincoat -r backup.bin -v" which will back up your existing MS stock bios to a file called backup.bin (-v means version, also makes it verbose and give you info if it fails, or if there's any problems!). If you get a READ ONLY anywhere when you do this, or otherwise it fails... it's time to go check your solder or go ask around concerning the problem in particular.
19) If that command works and your all backed up, then type "./raincoat -p bios.bin" which will then flash your bios with the new one! Yay! You're done flashing your XBOX bios.
20) So now you've got a flashed XBOX that can run unsigned code. Let's test this theory, shall we? Go grab that EvolutionX boot disc we made before we even started (you did didn't you?!?!), pop it in and restart your XBOX. If you boot to EvolutionX, then you know it worked!!!
21) Now go back to your computer, and FTP into the IP address that EvolutionX is grabbing (did you set one manually, if not check system settings and it will tell you what IP it has). Here, the login and password are both "xbox".
22) Copy everything from your Evox boot CD into your C/ drive on the XBOX HD, which will not replace the MS dashboard with evolutionX as your default dash.
23) Technically you're now done. You can then make folders called Games and Apps on your E drive (and/or F if you've already done a HD upgrade). Any subfolders within Apps for instance will be found by Evox, and put into Apps and Games on the dashboard. So for example, if you want to put in "dvd2xbox" to backup your own games to the harddrive for faster load times, make a folder e/apps/dvd2xbox, and drop all the dvd2xbox files in there.
24) Now as for HD upgrades, there are already tutorials out there to do this. I would go over this in detail, but really it's not required. Just grab a program called "hdpreparer" from your local neighbordhood files locale, and pre-prep it in windows. FTP in and back up your C and E drives to your computer. Swap it into the XBOX, boot from your EvoX CD/DVD again (see, told you it was handy!) and follow the other tutorial directions to format each partition into drives appropriately.
Then FTP copy back your C and E folders, and your done. New HD complete!
Ending Notes - I will upgrade this as I go, so if you see anything that doesn't make sense, please point it out (for example, I may have the syntax for cp and chmod out of order, as I wrote this at work while doing 1001 other things... if so, I'll fix later).
I may also update the HD upgrade to more detail, as well as add in adding additional mini-tutorials for different programs (Xbox Media Player, XBTools, Complex Tools, DVD2XBOX, etc..) but that's for another day.
Also, if for some reason this tutorial appears to cover everything in such a fashion that everyone should be using it, and it gets stickied, it will absolutely make my year. But otherwise, I'm just happy to give back to the folks who helped me so much, and continue the cycle of learning.
I wish you all luck, and please feel free to PM, email, ICQ or contact me with questions/comments.
- Lukano
This post has been edited by lukano: Oct 16 2004, 05:57 PM
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Topic: Lukano's Xbox Tsop Flashing Tutorial (007auf) (Read 298 times)