softmodding from HDD copies of mechassault and the exploit

[fox]

Is this even something you can do? Or would I waste my time trying?

I have two xboxes waiting to softmod>tsop, the disc drives in both are fugged so I can't use my mechassault disc. I'm wondering if the softmod can be performed from a digital copy of the game on the hard drive + hard drive copy of the exploit game save, all while running on a modchip.

Edited September 7, 2023 by fox

[sweetdarkdestiny]

With a temp modchip you can run the softmod right away without using any game. Just copy the softmodfiles to the HDD and launch the softmod installer from a filemanager.

[Bowlsnapper]

21 hours ago, fox said:

Is this even something you can do? Or would I waste my time trying?

I have two xboxes waiting to softmod>tsop, the disc drives in both are fugged so I can't use my mechassault disc. I'm wondering if the softmod can be performed from a digital copy of the game on the hard drive + hard drive copy of the exploit game save, all while running on a modchip.

Wait, are you trying to softmod, or TSOP?

[sweetdarkdestiny]

1 hour ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Wait, are you trying to softmod, or TSOP?

First softmod and then going from there to TSOP. 

[Bowlsnapper]

4 minutes ago, sweetdarkdestiny said:

First softmod and then going from there to TSOP. 

Oh, now I understand what his arrow meant. Your post makes sense now. Thanks, sweet.

I guess that would work well if you don't have the soft modding drive, adapter and game. That's one way to do it! I didn't even think of that.

[fox]

On 9/6/2023 at 9:42 PM, sweetdarkdestiny said:

With a temp modchip you can run the softmod right away without using any game. Just copy the softmodfiles to the HDD and launch the softmod installer from a filemanager.

yeah, just tried that with sid 5.11, it tells me something like "modded files already present" and refuses to work, then I accidentally clicked on delete ms backup and hobbled this xbox with error 13, lol

I managed to get the second xbox's disc drive working somewhat and reached the menu on mechassault but upon clicking "run linux" it goes to a black screen and hangs there, and trying with its hdd copy of splinter cell results in a freeze, this was not helped by setting the xbox's date/time as I've seen recommended on other websites

so...back to work

[Bowlsnapper]

8 minutes ago, fox said:

yeah, just tried that with sid 5.11, it tells me something like "modded files already present" and refuses to work, then I accidentally clicked on delete ms backup and hobbled this xbox with error 13, lol

I managed to get the second xbox's disc drive working somewhat and reached the menu on mechassault but upon clicking "run linux" it goes to a black screen and hangs there, and trying with its hdd copy of splinter cell results in a freeze, this was not helped by setting the xbox's date/time as I've seen recommended on other websites

so...back to work

God that sucks, man. I'm sorry. Keep trying.

[sweetdarkdestiny]

4 hours ago, fox said:

yeah, just tried that with sid 5.11, it tells me something like "modded files already present" and refuses to work, then I accidentally clicked on delete ms backup and hobbled this xbox with error 13, lol

I managed to get the second xbox's disc drive working somewhat and reached the menu on mechassault but upon clicking "run linux" it goes to a black screen and hangs there, and trying with its hdd copy of splinter cell results in a freeze, this was not helped by setting the xbox's date/time as I've seen recommended on other websites

so...back to work

Use rockys SMT. And you dont need any game when A chip is present to launch the exploid.  

Copy the 21585554 folder to E:\UDATA (IF the folder is already there delete it first!). Then navigate to " E:\UDATA\21585554\000000000000\softmod files\ and launch the UX.xbe which is in that folder. 

[Fringle]

If you have a spare rp pico or 2040 board laying around you can use Arduinoprom and use it to snag your eeprom so you can create a softmodded hdd with FatXpolorer that will allow you to at least boot up and flash your tsop.  This is how I was able to tsop 3 old xboxes without any save game exploit.  Converting the Arduino files for the pico and determining which pins to use can be a bit of a pain though.

[fox]

On 9/8/2023 at 7:54 PM, sweetdarkdestiny said:

Use rockys SMT. And you dont need any game when A chip is present to launch the exploid.  

Copy the 21585554 folder to E:\UDATA (IF the folder is already there delete it first!). Then navigate to " E:\UDATA\21585554\000000000000\softmod files\ and launch the UX.xbe which is in that folder. 

did all that, now this xbox is borked

the installer pop-ups were saying that everything went well, the system rebooted, the flubber animation did its stupid thing, then I get a black screen with solid orange front panel lights

okay, I'm going to bed...

[Bowlsnapper]

38 minutes ago, fox said:

did all that, now this xbox is borked

the installer pop-ups were saying that everything went well, the system rebooted, the flubber animation did its stupid thing, then I get a black screen with solid orange front panel lights

okay, I'm going to bed...

This is how I feel when I fuck up a RAM install. You've had some bad luck lately. I'm sorry to see it. Hang in there, buddy.

[Fringle]

1 hour ago, fox said:

did all that, now this xbox is borked

the installer pop-ups were saying that everything went well, the system rebooted, the flubber animation did its stupid thing, then I get a black screen with solid orange front panel lights

okay, I'm going to bed...

Just grab yourself a cheap rp2040 or pico and dump the eeprom so you can either null the hdd key or build an hdd with FatXplorer and use the eeprom to lock the drive.  If you do this and happen to get either a pico or a waveshare rp 2040 zero and don't want to go through the hassle of making the uf2 file yourself just let me know and I can send you mine and let you know which pins to use.  It's only a 3 wire install and takes less than 5 seconds to dump with the Arduinoprom script.

[fox]

On 9/10/2023 at 6:05 PM, Fringle said:

 

I don't know if all that is necessary yet, I can still run discs (if they're spotless), so burning a rescue disc or something seems to me the logical next step. But thanks for the offer.

[sweetdarkdestiny]

56 minutes ago, fox said:

I don't know if all that is necessary yet, I can still run discs (if they're spotless), so burning a rescue disc or something seems to me the logical next step. But thanks for the offer.

Let me get this strait. 

You have softmoded the console which was before stock. Do you still have the modchip in? The solid amber/orange light indicates that the softmod works but it may is in conflict with your modchip. 

[fox]

3 hours ago, sweetdarkdestiny said:

Do you still have the modchip in?

no, I see now that my earlier post was confusing, sorry for that

the behavior I described (after the installer part) is with the chameleon removed from the xbox

I will figure out how to fix this

[Fringle]

2 hours ago, fox said:

no, I see now that my earlier post was confusing, sorry for that

the behavior I described (after the installer part) is with the chameleon removed from the xbox

I will figure out how to fix this

Seems that if it still boots disc's, you could just create an iso of the evox dashboard, burn it and boot it, backup the eeprom, dump it to your computer via ftp, pull the drive, unlock it with fatXplorer, create a new soft modded hdd and lock the drive with the eeprom.  Or, boot the cerbios install disc and flash the tsop, pull the drive and create a new one and not having to worry about locking or soft modding it.  Not sure I know what you mean by spotless disc's though.

[fox]

I just mean its optical drive is so old and picky it won't read a disc that has a little tiny scratch. There was admittedly no use in mentioning that part. I don't even know how to find cerbios by the way. Is xbins still an irc channel or did it move to that trendy discord thing? I don't know what discord is but from the stories I've heard I don't think I wish to know.

Edited September 13, 2023 by fox

[Bowlsnapper]

9 minutes ago, fox said:

I just mean its optical drive is so old and picky it won't read a disc that has a little tiny scratch. I don't even know how to find cerbios. Is xbins still an irc channel or did it move to that trendy discord thing? I don't know what discord is but from the stories I've heard I don't think I wish to know.

I would guess Tracking Gain, so the intensity pot. Which I've only adjusted successfully once.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Acg0EjnwAJUiatkRm7qSO3wRQYj_bY9X/view?usp=drive_link

There's 2.3.1 UDMA6.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mLG7-wDvXTxwU29e0et2StN7F1pVef1s?usp=drive_link

There's everything Cerbios you would want. including UDMA2 through 5. Cerbios tool is also included.

[fox]

alrighty then, I'll try those eventually (no fresh discs yet)

[Fringle]

8 hours ago, fox said:

alrighty then, I'll try those eventually (no fresh discs yet)

Burnable ISO.  Just grab OGXBox Cebios Flasher Disc v2.3.1 build 005 (02.07.2023).rar from one of the links

Flash with Evox or if it's a sharp you'll have to either use xblast or this method:

 

Edited September 13, 2023 by Fringle

[Bowlsnapper]

2 hours ago, Fringle said:

Burnable ISO.  Just grab OGXBox Cebios Flasher Disc v2.3.1 build 005 (02.07.2023).rar from one of the links

Flash with Evox or if it's a sharp you'll have to either use xblast or this method:

 

Damn it Fringle. You one-upped me. Nice post.

...I love that my retro rig is basically the cover photo for that thread. That is so cool!

[Fringle]

1 hour ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Damn it Fringle. You one-upped me. Nice post.

...I love that my retro rig is basically the cover photo for that thread. That is so cool!

Not my intention. haha Just figured it would be easier to burn an iso that was created just for this purpose than creating one manually.

That's a pretty slick looking Xbox. 

@fox

I've also read that xblast os doesn't resize bios files when flashing so remember to flash the correct size for your tsop if using xblast on a 1.0 or 1.1.

[fox]

4 hours ago, Fringle said:

I've also read that xblast os doesn't resize bios files when flashing so remember to flash the correct size for your tsop if using xblast on a 1.0 or 1.1.

wut

I saw like a dozen old threads this past week saying it does resize them

[Bowlsnapper]

1 hour ago, fox said:

wut

I saw like a dozen old threads this past week saying it does resize them

Actually it DOES resize them automatically. I've used XBlast to flash everything lately. It'll flash 1028kb and 512 on its own. It duplicates things the way they need to.

Fringle aughta know!

6 hours ago, Fringle said:

Not my intention. haha Just figured it would be easier to burn an iso that was created just for this purpose than creating one manually.

That's a pretty slick looking Xbox. 

@fox

I've also read that xblast os doesn't resize bios files when flashing so remember to flash the correct size for your tsop if using xblast on a 1.0 or 1.1.

Yeah, I like discs. Makes things simpler than ftp in a lot of cases. That is why I wholeheartedly support the optical drive! All you need is a file browser.

Yeah I had a NOS control panel and I got some good clean casing and restored that X3 box. It's my main system.

That's the old Control Panel. Needs some TLC, but I will clean it up and get another X3 when one becomes available

[Fringle]

25 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said:

Actually it DOES resize them automatically. I've used XBlast to flash everything lately. It'll flash 1028kb and 512 on its own. It duplicates things the way they need to.

Fringle aughta know!

Yeah, I like discs. Makes things simpler than ftp in a lot of cases. That is why I wholeheartedly support the optical drive! All you need is a file browser.

Yeah I had a NOS control panel and I got some good clean casing and restored that X3 box. It's my main system.

That's the old Control Panel. Needs some TLC, but I will clean it up and get another X3 when one becomes available

To be fair I've never had a chance to us Xblast OS though due to it not working with my 3rd party controller.  I was just reading up on it the last couple of days since I was trying to figure out if I could install it to my tsop temporarily while attempting the ram upgrade so I would be able to run the test and I read somewhere that it didn't resize them.  Must have been old info.  I've ordered an OEM controller though so that should hopefully be here in a week or so and I'll be able to try it out with reflashing the Sharp tsop.  Might have to eventually buy a flashable mod chip.