Bios Question

Discussion about Modding the XBOX, including hardware and software hacks.
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blighty
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Bios Question

Post by blighty »

Is there a bios that can have a memory card as the primary boot then say the hdd as a fallback?

I am going to try and finish off my 360 cased xbox but am not sure if I can be bothered to try and make a dvd drive fit in there as I will need one if i can't find another simple way to format and partition 360 hdd's as and when i get them.

i am hoping i could just drop a bios on the tsop and have it boot to memory card where i could have a app to format the hdd's stored and have a normal dash boot when no memory card is present, even better if i could name exactly which mem card slot i want it to be like 3 or 4 to make it harder to do by accident.

Edit: Hope you don't think I am being lazy by asking but every time I search for xbox bios memory card all i get is miles and miles of softmod related stuff that is no help to me
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Rocky5
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Re: Bios Question

Post by Rocky5 »

Why not try? Tsop flash your xbox & download my softmod & extract the dashloader.zip in there is an xbe that can load multiple xbes.

Then just put the correct partition & see if it loads off the memory card. (I'm not sure if they have set partitions at kernel level)

ie,

[XBE]
Path1=L:\dashboard\default.xbe
Path2=C:\dashboard\default.xbe
Path3=E:\TDATA\rescuedash\default.xbe
Download Xbox Softmodding Tool & Extras Disc
XBMC4Kids Mod


Xbox Gamertag = Connxtion
PSN ID = JCRocky5
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blighty
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Re: Bios Question

Post by blighty »

Im fairly confident this wont work for my ends as i need the bios to be able to detect a memory card dashboard/program when i plug in effectively a brand new hdd or am i missing something Rocky5?
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xman
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Re: Bios Question

Post by xman »

Have you tried booting an install disc with a spare formatted HDD, pull out that HDD after the disc has booted, put in the 360 HDD and use the disc to format it?
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blighty
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Re: Bios Question

Post by blighty »

Currently I am using my Trusty to format the drives as that has a Sata adapter as well, but ultimately for the 360 cased Xbox to be viable it needs to be able to prepare the 360 drives itself, so I either need a bios that is capable of booting to the memory card or i need to start making a Dvd drive fit.

I've not played about with to many bioses over the years and so far not come across one that would let you inject a custom boot path, if there is one out there it could save me a massive ball ache :D
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Rocky5
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Re: Bios Question

Post by Rocky5 »

You can't load dashboards off the memory card, so its pointless, just tried to make sure.
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blighty
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Re: Bios Question

Post by blighty »

Edit/ wow! your right Rocky5, gotten so used to how my jtag works, lol, nothing boots from the memory card as far as i can see.

No one ever made an ODD for xbox did they?
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Re: Bios Question

Post by psyko_chewbacca »

blighty wrote:Edit/ wow! your right Rocky5, gotten so used to how my jtag works, lol, nothing boots from the memory card as far as i can see.
USB stack implementation is pretty limited on the Xbox.

One thing you could try is use nkpatcher to try and boot from an alternate location. config.inc file contains the following configurable parameter to specify xbe to boot:

Code: Select all

;;;---------------------------------------------------------------------------
;;;   default Dashboard path (and tray boot closed) 2=C 1=E 6=F 7=G
;;;---------------------------------------------------------------------------

%define DASHBOARD_PATH	'\Device\Harddisk0\Partition1\Prep\default.xbe'
%define DB_PATH2	'\Device\Harddisk0\Partition8\nkpatcher\dashloader\default.xbe'
;%define DB_PATH3	'\Device\Harddisk0\Partition1\UDATA\21585554\000000000000\install.xbe'
%define DB_PATH3	'\Device\Harddisk0\Partition8\DualBoot\default.xbe'
Maybe you could try to find the logical map of a single inserted USB device and try to boot using nkpatcher?

Other than that, the only other way I see you could boot from a USB device would be to modify Cromwell. Get it to load Xbox executables(xbe) and map your USB device to a fixed location based on it's UUID or something else that is unique.
Both task are really really hard and even if someone manages to do that, I fear it wouldn't even work well.

blighty wrote:No one ever made an ODD for xbox did they?
The only mod that allows backup launching without a hacked BIOS is a custom firmware by C4Eva which was only made for the Samsung DVD drive. It was more a proof of concept and wasn't supported for long. I think that like it's 360 counterpart at the time, you require to burn your games on Dual Layer DVD-R and I know for sure that you'll need to inject the matching SS.bin for your game.

So no ODD for Xbox original.
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Re: Bios Question

Post by xman »

Question, how can you boot an OP from a memory stick, (USB port on the Xbox), when you need an OP to enable the USB?
For this reason I think your chances are nil. I would really love to be proven wrong however. As for your 360 machine, why not just hang the DVDrive out of the case of the 360 till everything is installed and then disconnect the DVDrive when all is done. This is how I do slims. Just use a non DVDrive bios and the machine will run nicely without needing to hack the 360 case and the Xbox original DVDrive. No big deal. To tell you the truth, I would say it has been years since I last used a DVDplayer in an Xbox for anything other than running an install disc when I build the machine. Why, just FTP everything onto the HDD and play it from the HDD. If you do go this route, always leave the DVD .xbe in your bios list just in case you ever need to use an install disc ever again but don't enable the DVD check in the bios settings. That way if a DVDrive is plugged in and a disc inserted, it will read and boot from the disc. If you take out the DVD .xbe from the bios list, it will not ever read a disc again.
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Re: Bios Question

Post by bigkidoz »

The best way to use the dvd drive is to get 360 HD DVD DRIVE (external case ) and extend the cables.
I cant see what you are trying to achieve using 360 hdd ?
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blighty
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Re: Bios Question

Post by blighty »

Im using the 360 hdd slot because i can have a stack of different hdd's all with different dashboards, different games, different emulators, different linux installs dam even kiddie locked hdd's all with 1 xbox. i am trying to thin out my collection of xbox's but without losing the functionality I have gained with each new build.

I wonder if there is an easy way to get the 360 to prepare the drive? that can boot freestyle of a usb hdd no probs.
thats got to be better than taking the trusty apart every time :D
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Re: Bios Question

Post by Rocky5 »

Why not just null the EEPROM HDD key? Make it 32 0's then have a spare Xbox you do the same to & use that to prep HDDs & then all you need to do is swap them out.
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blighty
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Re: Bios Question

Post by blighty »

Im not softmodding them, I just want to buy a 360 hdd from store say (optionally, instal bigger hdd into hdd case ) plop it into something, format hdd & drop a dash on there and be done everything else can happen with ftp after that.

Thanks for all the help so far fellas, given me a few things to think about and a few things to try, I will let you know how this works out :)
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Re: Bios Question

Post by bigkidoz »

blighty wrote:Im using the 360 hdd slot because i can have a stack of different hdd's all with different dashboards, different games, different emulators, different linux installs dam even kiddie locked hdd's all with 1 xbox. i am trying to thin out my collection of xbox's but without losing the functionality I have gained with each new build.

I wonder if there is an easy way to get the 360 to prepare the drive? that can boot freestyle of a usb hdd no probs.
thats got to be better than taking the trusty apart every time :D

FSD can be booted off USB either a flashdrive or hdd, its as simple as editing the launch ini file.
You can even had 2 FSD's in different locations.

Are you trying have an xbox and 360 mobo in the same case ?
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blighty
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Re: Bios Question

Post by blighty »

freestyle boots anything from usb which is nice, the jtag normally sits right next to this xbox. it's just a classic xbox in a 360 case although it's almost identical apart from the colour. busy painting panels for my car today will have a look at it tonight when im done.

*Off Topic: Have you tried the new dash yet Bigkidoz? Aurora or something? wondering if it's any good?
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Re: Bios Question

Post by bigkidoz »

*Off Topic: Have you tried the new dash yet Bigkidoz? Aurora or something? wondering if it's any good?

I havent , must look into it for my jtag which is in the spare room. I'l leave the kids RGH slim alone just in case.
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