Topic: Pbl-lite. The Fast Barebones Version. (Read 660 times)

ldots · « **on:** July 04, 2004, 05:31:00 AM »

PBL-Lite
Below you will find a stripped down version of PBL based on the official 1.3 version. This is not an official Team Phoenix release! I just borrowed the code from PBL and modified it slightly to my needs. Hope Team Phoenix doesn't mind.
This version was inspired by the Pbl Should Be Fixed thread by Tomilius. Although his an my version were developed as parallel projects, I thank all people contributing to this thread, and especially Tomilius, for information and ideas.
While my goal was to make a barebones version, Tomilius is working on a version that is more configurable and therefore has the functionality of my version, while giving the user the possibility to switch on some of the features I removed from the official PBL. Keep an eye on his thread for this PBL-fat version...

What and Why?
I wanted a PBL version that did nothing but load a bios. No animations, no multi-bios selection menu etc. Reason was that I would gladly give up those features to speed up boot-time.

To sum it up the features are :

Pros

No problems using severel controllers. No USB initialization.
No Focus chip screen flicker. Screen stays black.
No S-Video screen flicker. Screen stays black. All AV cable should be supported.
As fast booting as possible. No animations or text.

Cons

No animations or text Some people might like that.
No multi-bios setup. To change bios you need to replace xboxrom.bin or edit the boot.cfg

How?
This PBL version is available from the Memcard UDE installer. If you want to install it manually you can either :

get the package from 'the usual places' with everything included
Extract the bios loader (default.xbe) from the code section below.

The Code section below contain a habibi signed default.xbe. Copy the code section to a texteditor and save it as default.b64. Extract with an archiver that supports uuencoded files. Like Iceows.

This PBL version requires 3 files to work :
1) default.xbe (from code section below).
2) boot.cfg (the configuration file, see below)
3) xboxrom.bin (the bios image, most be Bootable From Media (BFM)

This PBL is built on the official 1.3 meaning that all the three files above should be in the same directory. Later PBL versions required the bios images to be in a 'Bioses' folder.

The boot.cfg only contains 4 lines :

adil786 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 04, 2004, 05:57:00 AM »

many many thanks idots!

mkjones · « **Reply #2 on:** July 04, 2004, 06:22:00 AM »

man, you amaze me

Testing it now, if it works well then I will be saying "see ya" to v1.4.1

-BlazinKhan- · « **Reply #3 on:** July 04, 2004, 07:13:00 AM »

This is why your the man

RiceCake · « **Reply #4 on:** July 04, 2004, 07:17:00 AM »

Awesome, no need to see that debug crap anymore!

Angerwound · « **Reply #5 on:** July 04, 2004, 07:33:00 AM »

Beautiful, I was working on basically the same thing before I left for Mexico. I definately didn't get this far however. Too bad yoshihiro doesn't have his source lying around so you can include Focus Support..
Thanks much ldots!

Tomilius · « **Reply #6 on:** July 04, 2004, 07:43:00 AM »

Angerwound, I think there is Focus support. I've had someone with a Focus chip try my and Ldots' fat and thin versions... They work. The secret is never getting to the point of initialization where the chip or cable matters... Just getting far enough to initialize the framebuffer. That's all that's really needed.

Yoshihiro does have his 1.4.1 source lying around in the 'usual places.'

Nice job, ldots! I'm starting to remember that my original goal of modifying PBL was to make a Lite version like yours... but making a fat one kind of corresponds to my own size, and my curiosity.

Happy 4th!

This post has been edited by Tomilius: Jul 4 2004, 02:46 PM

adil786 · « **Reply #7 on:** July 04, 2004, 07:53:00 AM »

ldots · « **Reply #8 on:** July 04, 2004, 08:26:00 AM »

As Tomilius says, the trick was to not do anything video chip or av cable specific in the code. So to say disable video completely (as in my version), or just set up a simple framebuffer as in Tomilius' version.

The screen should stay black with no flicker no matter what chip or AV cable you use.

Edit : You should check out the thread by Tomilius for the history of this development. Good reading

total_ass · « **Reply #9 on:** July 04, 2004, 08:41:00 AM »

hi idots, i have a question. what is the easiest way to get from

your ltools memcard ude 1.5 --->-- latest version + this.

without using a gamesave exploit.
thanks.

TheAgedGamer · « **Reply #10 on:** July 04, 2004, 09:15:00 AM »

This is great. Many thanks Ldots for this incredible package. I just did the install with the v1.6 package (on one of my xbox's that has a focal chip) and it worked perfectly. Just what a somewhat newb like me needs. Thanks so much for your and those who help make this awesome and easy to use installer.

adil786 · « **Reply #11 on:** July 04, 2004, 09:23:00 AM »

yo idots, just tried the new version 1.6, works great, i got my hdd key/password/info all on my pc! w00h0000 thanks idots for that feature.

secondly, i installed pbl lite and it works as in no text comes, only black screen but i find it only a second faster than pbl 1.4.1 with 000000 timeout. is this normal?

Thanks idots!

Angerwound · « **Reply #12 on:** July 04, 2004, 10:55:00 AM »

{later} · « **Reply #13 on:** July 04, 2004, 11:20:00 AM »

wonderful job you did with this!

finally no phoenix logo anymore and very fast booting

thanks alot

Here are 2 movies, 1st one is with the normal pbl 1.3 and the second one is with pbl-lite. Both with same bios and a packed 120gig HDD.

http://members.lycos..... {later}).avi

http://members.lycos..... pbl-lite.avi

uberx · « **Reply #14 on:** July 04, 2004, 12:04:00 PM »

Alright, I hate to be the first to say that I can't do it. I have the doubledash exploit that boots default.xbe on the E:\drive. Everything worked fine with 1.4.1 and I thought this would be a faster way to do everything. So I used the program to get default.xbe and I put that in my E:\ drive erasing my previous 1.4.1 default.xbe. Next I moved my bios from the bioses folder to the root of E. So in the root of my E: drive I had my lite default.xbe, boot.cfg, and xboxrom.bin (a 4981.67 BFM that worked before and is set to boot C:\evoxdash.xbe). I turned on the xbox and tried to do the exploit, but after I clicked on the xbox live tab, it faded away and the screen went black. I figured that was what it was supposed to do, but it never got away from the black screen. I don't have a newer video chip so thats not the problem. I next decided to try and resign the default.xbe. I resigned it with the fonts, but that just gave me error 21 after I triggered the exploit. Any ideas on what I did wrong?

Author Topic: Pbl-lite. The Fast Barebones Version. (Read 660 times)