Launching an ISO from the Hard Drive

[Rocky5]

I do not trust custom made ACL files, especially those that delete files.

Do you realise that DVD2Xbox doesn’t remove files/folders by default. You need to turn that feature on in the settings > general menu

[bengalih]

This works with M8Plus ( for M8Plus you need the eject fix or it reboots the Xbox every time press eject ) ind-bios 5003, these are the only two that work 100%.

Thanks Rocky5.
I didn't want to derail this thread too much - but I have some questions on how to load multiple BIOS onto my X3.
I've created a new thread here:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7340

I'm hoping you or someone else here might be able to help.

thanks!

[bengalih]

I just read your post, you can use this (link) and edit the xbe paths.asm that’s in the source folder in the my setup folder to point to your dashboard xbe, then use the batch file to build the patcher.xbe.

That will give you XISO loading from the HDD on specific hacked bios.

This works with M8Plus ( for M8Plus you need the eject fix or it reboots the Xbox every time press eject ) ind-bios 5003, these are the only two that work 100%.

I have a setup that uses a patched M8Plus with eject fix via a BFM bios so anyone can use it, you fire a folder on C and point your bios to load the default.xbe file inside.
M8Plus_Eject_Fix_BFM_Setup.zip

Dashloader.xbe will look for 15 different dashpaths, so should find your dashboard. This is what the patcher.xbe launches.
( default.xbe > bios > patcher.xbe > dashloader.xbe > your dashboard )

You will need an attach.xbe from discdriveutilites or you can use the script I done for XBMC that parses a folder you select and extracts the default.xbe from the XISO patches the attach.xbe with its certificate information ( so trainers work with the XISO ) and renames and folderizes your XISO I ages. It’s a batch process, will do multiple XISO one after another.

Hey Rocky5 -

So I figured out how to get IND 5003/5004 loaded to my X3 - was actually really simple with the X3 chip.
I tried the M8Plus_Eject_Fix_BFM_Setup folder/link you sent and things worked very well. I had 2 issues though:

1) When launched it turns the ring light orange. Is there a way to modify this?
2) In game reset buttons don't seem to work (properly)? I tried the triggers with back+start but what it did was relaunch the game from the logo screen instead of exiting to the dash. This isn't how I'm used to this working. Is there another IGR combo I'm missing?

Also - I was a bit confused by your post...especially the first paragraph with the link to the "CDROM modchip.zip."
It almost reads to me that there are two ways to set this up. The first being the way I got it to work with the "M8Plus_Eject_Fix_BFM_Setup" and another more manual way with the editing of the "xbe paths.asm" and manually building the patcher. Do I understand that right?

In trying to fix the 2 issues I detailed above I went ahead and built a patcher.xbe pointing to my dash (c:\xbmc.xbe).
I then boot up with IND 5003 which is configured to load patcher.xbe which then boots xbmc.
That is all well and good, but when I try to run the attach.xbe (the same one that worked in the other scenario), all I get is a reboot of XBMC.

If I can work out the issues with the M8 bios you have pre-configured, I guess I don't mind just using that. But, OTOH, I feel it a bit superfluous (confusing?) to have to run IND 5003 only to launch your BFM *M8* BIOS. IOW, why not just keep everything one BIOS.

So is my only option your hardmod directory from "M8Plus_Eject_Fix_BFM_Setup" or can I create a patcher to be launched like:
IND 5003 > patcher.xbe > dashboard
and then run the attach.xbe to launch the ISO.

Appreciate your help!

[Rocky5]

Triggers + Black + Back should reboot to the dashboard. But if you want it to reboot you need to use metoos version of EVTool to edit the LED and IGR type, it’s set to quick instead of compatible. Quick IGR doesn’t restart the Xbox, also you cannot change the key combo for IGR, triggers + black + start is used to reload an inserted disc if the bios supports it. Like a softmod uses that combo.

The ind-bios won’t auto load the ISO, you need to select the ISO your dashboard will reload and then you need to start it like you inserted a disc. You can enable auto load game disc in XBMC, that way it boots straight away.

[bengalih]

Triggers + Black + Back should reboot to the dashboard. But if you want it to reboot you need to use metoos version of EVTool to edit the LED and IGR type, it’s set to quick instead of compatible. Quick IGR doesn’t restart the Xbox, also you cannot change the key combo for IGR, triggers + black + start is used to reload an inserted disc if the bios supports it. Like a softmod uses that combo.

The ind-bios won’t auto load the ISO, you need to select the ISO your dashboard will reload and then you need to start it like you inserted a disc. You can enable auto load game disc in XBMC, that way it boots straight away.

Thanks... I meant triggers+black+back is what I used and it was just restarting the game...not the dash.
Took me a bit to track down the metoo evtool version but I was able to find it and modify the LED color and change IGR to compatible.

So now, triggers+black+back does reboot to the dashboard and triggers+black+start doesn't seem to do anything - I guess that "disc reload" feature isn't available on the hardmod.

The only thing I don't love is that when I reboot to dash it seems it is more like a full/cold reboot since it goes back to the ind-BIOS splash screen and seems to take a few seconds prior to loading XBMC. I wonder if this is because it is loading your M8 BFM BIOS again?

I would be curious to try and not use the BFM and either:
a) Flash M8+ directly and use your patcher to that
b) Patch my installed ind BIOS as I mentioned in my last thread.

I'm not 100% sure on your instructions on how to mount the ISO in XBMC with IND BIOS. Do I not use the attach.xbe file then?
I'm going to try to Flash M8+ directly and see if that works...but could you offer any guidance here - I'm still not sure this scenario is possible or if I need to use your whole BFM folder structure.

thanks.

[bengalih]

Ok -

Some more updates on my issues/questions above.

As mentioned my biggest concern was speed when doing IGR to get back to dash.
I timed this on my native X3 bios and when I issue the IGR combo in game it takes ~14 seconds to get back into the XBMC dash.
And by this I mean back to the actual menu screen and not just the splash screen.

When using the IND BIOS this is ~22 seconds. This is true whether I use your BFM folder which does, as you state:
a) TSOP IND BIOS > \BFM\default.xbe > \BFM\bios > \BFM\patcher.xbe > \BFM\dashloader.xbe > xbmc.xbe
or if I simply do
b) TSOP IND BIOS > patcher.xbe (made with your batch file) > xbmc.xbe

Note I am still not able to get the b option to launch ISOs when I run attach.xbe - it just relaunches the dash.

When flashing an M8+ bios to my chip I am able to get the ISOs to launch with attach.xbe in basically the same order as b) above:

c) TSOP M8+ BIOS > patcher.xbe (made with your batch file) > xbmc.xbe

So, I'm definitely missing some step on how to get this to work with the IND Bios. However, I'm not sure I want to get the IND Bios working now because the IGR speed when booting the c) method is ~20 seconds - or approximately 2 seconds faster than the IND method.

I notice that when doing the IGR from either the IND or M8+ Bios it seems to churn the DVD drive a few times. The X3 doesn't do that and I'm thinking that might account for the extra time required. The IND may take longer as well since the config file is not injected? (though I don't know if that would account for 2 whole seconds?).

I'm thinking that there probably isn't a way to speed this up - like somehow stop that DVD checking? But if you know a way, please advise.

Unless your answers have some revelation - I think I might stick with the c) method - using the M8+ TSOP and not the BFM.
My only problem here is that I can't seem to find an M8+ with the eject fix that isn't a BFM one.
Can anyone help here?

Interestingly enough - when I do press the Eject button in game and it resets the box it actually doesn't to the same boot sequence as the IGR does...it actually seems to go quicker and is closer to the ~14 seconds that the native X3 bios has. This gives me some hope that there is a way to skip this via IGR.

thoughts/help on any of the above?

thanks

[Rocky5]

Triggers + Black + Back should reboot to the dashboard. But if you want it to reboot you need to use metoos version of EVTool to edit the LED and IGR type, it’s set to quick instead of compatible. Quick IGR doesn’t restart the Xbox, also you cannot change the key combo for IGR, triggers + black + start is used to reload an inserted disc if the bios supports it. Like a softmod uses that combo.

The ind-bios won’t auto load the ISO, you need to select the ISO your dashboard will reload and then you need to start it like you inserted a disc. You can enable auto load game disc in XBMC, that way it boots straight away.

Thanks... I meant triggers+black+back is what I used and it was just restarting the game...not the dash.
Took me a bit to track down the metoo evtool version but I was able to find it and modify the LED color and change IGR to compatible.

So now, triggers+black+back does reboot to the dashboard and triggers+black+start doesn't seem to do anything - I guess that "disc reload" feature isn't available on the hardmod.

The only thing I don't love is that when I reboot to dash it seems it is more like a full/cold reboot since it goes back to the ind-BIOS splash screen and seems to take a few seconds prior to loading XBMC. I wonder if this is because it is loading your M8 BFM BIOS again?

I would be curious to try and not use the BFM and either:
a) Flash M8+ directly and use your patcher to that
b) Patch my installed ind BIOS as I mentioned in my last thread.

I'm not 100% sure on your instructions on how to mount the ISO in XBMC with IND BIOS. Do I not use the attach.xbe file then?
I'm going to try to Flash M8+ directly and see if that works...but could you offer any guidance here - I'm still not sure this scenario is possible or if I need to use your whole BFM folder structure.

thanks.

Do not flash’s BFM bios to your system.

You point your ind-bios to boot the patched.xbe and then you tell that to boot your dashboard. That’s all you need to do for the patching side.

Now you use the same attach.xbe as you did with M8 bios. Like I said ind-bios won’t auto load the attached xbe file, it’s due to how it stores the dashboard in memory, it requires a patched attack.xbe. But the one included will just crash your system.
( to get ind-bios to auto boot the attached.xbe, set your dash1 path to cdrom0\default.xbe )

There isn’t much else to tell you, I have said everything you need to know.

Have a look here.
http://www.emuxtras.net/forum/viewtopic ... =50#p72101

[bengalih]

Do not flash’s BFM bios to your system.

You point your ind-bios to boot the patched.xbe and then you tell that to boot your dashboard. That’s all you need to do for the patching side.

Now you use the same attach.xbe as you did with M8 bios. Like I said ind-bios won’t auto load the attached xbe file, it’s due to how it stores the dashboard in memory, it requires a patched attack.xbe. But the one included will just crash your system.
( to get ind-bios to auto boot the attached.xbe, set your dash1 path to cdrom0\default.xbe )

There isn’t much else to tell you, I have said everything you need to know.

Have a look here.
http://www.emuxtras.net/forum/viewtopic ... =50#p72101

Thanks Rocky - yes I know not to load the BFM to my system BIOS
Sorry for the scattered questions, I have read everything you've written here and at EMU and on Reddit several times trying to figure this out.

I thought I understood for the most part how everything was working but after doing a bit more experimentation it appears I misinterpreted your original instructions to me which have caused a lot of confusion (and extra work) on my part.

When you said:

This works with M8Plus ( for M8Plus you need the eject fix or it reboots the Xbox every time press eject ) ind-bios 5003, these are the only two that work 100%.

I thought that meant that I actually had to be running either the IND or M8+ BIOS on my actual chip. So I have been experimenting with both of those BIOS either trying to directly load the patcher.xbe or by calling your BFM folder.

What I just realized is I don't actually need to be running either of those ALL I need to do is launch the default.xbe from the BFM folder!

So I can continue to use the X3 Bios and either tell it to launch \BFM\default.xbe when the system starts OR, if I don't want to use the patcher all the time I can simply run \BFM\default.xbe from within XBMC and it will relaunch with your BFM Bios.

This is really handy...it is strange though because I can tell your BFM is launched (both because the ISO works and the LED color), but XBMC still reports that I'm running the X3 bios...somehow the BFM Bios is not reporting to it.

I still can't get it to work natively on the IND BIOS, but I this seems to be because I need that special attach.xbe which you mention here and on the EMU link. Unless I'm mistaken I'm not actually seeing a copy of that one distributed anywhere and I wasn't even entirely sure you or headphone actually got one compiled. If you do have it, I would love to give it a try - otherwise I think I will be happy with the M8 BFM.

My only real issue at this point is the IGR reboot times. As mentioned when using X3 bios and standard dash my reboot time is ~14 seconds. Using the BFM patches it is more like 20 seconds. I'm convinced this has to do with the DVD drive seeking on reboot because when I run M8+ on my chip without the Eject Fix and I press the eject button the reboot time is ~14 seconds as I mentioned earlier. The reason for this is because the drive tray is open and so it doesn't try to read a disc!

really appreciate all your assistance.

[bengalih]

So Rocky I'm trying to do something kind of cool here with your work that you might have not thought of as a use case.
I've got it pretty much working, but was interested if there was a more efficient way to do this.

Your BFM setup works very well - from a technical level, and if one wanted to store all games in ISO format it works great to simply set the BFM as your main boot an launch all ISOs this way. I was strongly considering doing this, but the 25% increase in IGR reboot times using the BFM BIOS is kind of keeping me away from this.

I'm trying to set XBMC to be as foolproof as possible for someone who is looking to launch a game. This means that if I store most of my games as flat file (normal way), and then just use ISOs for the games that have problems loading from FATX, e.g.: Harry Potter - Prisoner of Azkaban.

So, what I have done is take your files and set them up like this:

BFM\default.xbe > BFM\bios > BFM\patcher.xbe > BFM\shortcut.xbe > F:\Harry\attach.xbe > F:\Harry\default.xbe

Couple notes on the above:
The BFM\patcher.xbe is one I compiled from your source to launch the shortcut.xbe. Effectively I removed your dashloader for this exercise.
The shorcut.xbe is a shortcut that loads the attach.xbe from a game folder on the F:.
The reason I did this shortcut is because your "xbe path.asm" states that it doesn't support F:. Honestly I didn't try to see if it would but took it on its face value and decided this was a way around it.

So, basically - what I can do now is be launched under my normal BIOS as always, but if a user chooses an ISO "problem" game from the list of sources configured in XBMC it will launch right into the game instead of having to first relaunch the BFM to a dash and then launch the game.

When they are done and issue the IGR then it relaunches back to normal BIOS (and thus any future IGRs for non-ISO games go much quicker).

It seems to be working fine, I'm just curious if I can streamline this method anymore.
There will only be a dozen games or so I need to fix up like this, but it looks like I should be able to make a "BFM" folder for each one on the C: giving each one its own name and using EVTool to modify the bios to change C:\BFM to C:\Harry, etc... I haven't tested this yet but it is my next experiment.

I haven't tried your script yet for parsing the ISOs (still looking for where I can grab it) - but it sounds like with my method I won't be able to use trainers, etc because I am not launching the attach.xbe directly...but I can probably live with that.

My main issue left is that it seems all the files in the BFM folder pretty much have to be in the same folder - which means that in each folder I have:

default.xbe
patcher.xbe
shortcut.xbe

So when this shows in the dash when I add the "BFM" as a source there are 3 programs here.

I believe I can get around this by abstracting this BFM folder once more with some shortcuts...so basically have one folder with shortcuts to each "BFM" folder I make (1 per ISO game).

Yes, this seems like a lot of work - but as I said it is only for maybe 1-2 dozen games at most and will give me the best of all worlds.

Do you have any suggestions to simplify what I'm trying to do?

I'm going to look at your script when I have the chance and see if it will at all be possible to patch the shortcut.xbe like you do for the attach.xbe so I can get the trainers working too - but I'll be starting ground zero there.

thanks.

[pir8man]

I suffered a hdd loss in my xbox, so I was stuck re-loading everything again. I have xbox 1.6 with X3 Pro setup. I installed a nice 2TB drive and am doing the same as discussed above... Loading all games and want to iso load the 4 titles that do not have long filename patches available. By reading this thread and a similar one on epforums, i successfully got it working properly.

As stated, I have Xecuter 3 modchip and I left the X3 bios in the first 1MB bank. I then loaded M8+ into both banks 3/4 512kb. As IND-5003/4 is not compatible with my v1.6 xbox, I did not bother with it. I use UnleashX as my dashboard and M8plus is configured to load evoxdash.xbe before unleashx.xbe (also of course support partitions 6/7 F/G). I then used the sources as Rocky5 suggests to edit the path to my default dashboard (unleashx.xbe). I then took the compiled output patcher.xbe and placed it on my xbox drive C as xboxdash.xbe. I then use attach.xbe to simply attach and launch the few necessary ISO titles.

The beauty of my setup is I simply push one button on the X3 pro to swap from 1MB bank 1 (the X3 BIOS) and an M8plus BIOS. That way, if I need the X3 BIOS for any reason, it's one button away. The X3 BIOS is not affected by patcher.xbe (named evoxdash.xbe), and that is ok, as it will simply move past it and look for unleashx.xbe. And when booting from the M8plus, it patches the bios to support the virtual-cd and then loads my default dash automatically. Once the dash comes up, I am free to play any HDD loaded game or one of the ISO loaded games.

I wanted to post this because my googling for answers kept pointing to evox dash based solutions. and I much prefer unleashx myself. But with fully moddable BIOS' and an editable path for patcher.xbe, one can setup just about anything with any dash you like.

Does any of that help you out bengalih?

[Uplinkpro]

Sorry to necro but I also have a 1.6 running with an Aladdin XT is there a method to get this working on a setup like that?

[Rocky5]

Sorry to necro but I also have a 1.6 running with an Aladdin XT is there a method to get this working on a setup like that?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzRN8P ... p=drivesdk

Point your bios to C:\BFM\default.xbe or create a shortcut to launch it. (evoxdash.xbe)

This will load a BFM bios (M8Plus with eject fix) that will then load the patcher xbe that will then load my dashloader and finally that will load one of 24 dashboard paths.
Dash Paths

[Coldly-Indifferent]

I'm interested in this from another perspective. Just how far over the FATX character/folder limits are those game's file paths or is it something else causing the trouble?

I have a number of games, please forgive me this one, like Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball where simply because the ridiculously long title it won't display in full in the menus using many UnleashX dash skins. You have to use a skin specifically designed to accommodate it.

With that DOA 'game' I've simply shorten both the folder and XBE name to DOAXBVB and in fact I shorted all the DOA titles I have likewise to DOA eg. DOA1, DOA2, DOAU etc. That way they're all helpfully grouped together alphabetically too.

I do not know the games mentioned earlier in the thread that provoke the problem described but is it not possible in those cases too just to edit the title pre-install by unpacking the ISO using Qwix or the C-Xbox Tool and modifying the game's title? I think you can rename the XBE using them as well and there is the XBE Renamer 0.8 tool you can still find very easily too.

Once done create a new XISO or FTP the edited game to the Xbox. Don't both Qwix and the C-Xbox Tool resolve FATX character issues when creating a XISO anyway?

[bifftaz]

Sorry to necro but I also have a 1.6 running with an Aladdin XT is there a method to get this working on a setup like that?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzRN8P ... p=drivesdk

Point your bios to C:\BFM\default.xbe or create a shortcut to launch it. (evoxdash.xbe)

This will load a BFM bios (M8Plus with eject fix) that will then load the patcher xbe that will then load my dashloader and finally that will load one of 24 dashboard paths.
Dash Paths

Hey Rocky5. Do you still have this link at all? Great work btw!!

[TonyGwhak]

Finlay figured out away to boot .ISO with a long game name. from HDD Softmodded with Rocky5

if the .ISO defult.xbe is not patched i used QWIX to "convert iso" into a game folder.
Then in Tools menu in QWIX Patch the defult.xbe
Go to "Create ISO" in QUIX and buld a .iso from the game folder to pack the files back to .ISO
(keep a copy of the default.xbe file to get artwork later on)

driveimageutils-v1.0.1.zip

detacher, isoripper, shadowcmaker

(114.33 KiB) Downloaded 598 times

Unzip driveimageutils and in the Component folder there is a attach.xbe but i just used the one included
in the "/E/XBMC4Gamers/system/scripts/XBMC4Gamers Extras/XISO to HDD Installer"

Paste the detacher, isoripper, shadowcmaker folders into the Extras folder with the script "XISO to HDD Installer"
im not sure if detacher, isoripper and shadowcmaker are needed but i added them.

inside the "XISO to HDD Installer" folder the "attach.xbe file is there. put it in to a folder with "WHATEVERGAME.ISO" i used harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban.

paste the folder in F:/games now you can launch the game from xbmc4games menu.

if you want artwork add the default.xbe from the game so the game cover downloader picks up on what game it is. after you got the art delete default.xbe and rename the attach.xbe to default.xbe

Thats how i got ISOs with artwork to boot from my F:/games drive. Im not sure if its the right way to do it but it works with no messy files.

https://imgur.com/ZVVKCKs