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Problem When Updating UnleashX


Alessandrol
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Hello everyone here,

I recently got an original XBox which seems to be soft modded with an UnleashX 0.38 release.

I tried updating it to V0.39 using FTP creating an Old folder where I copied all the already present file in the /E/dashboard folder.

Afer uploading the files I tried rebooting the XBox and I'm getting the MS animation and then a black screen and Unleash never loads.

My question is : is it possible to somehow acess the drive and copy back the old files in place in order to unlock the situation ?

How would you do that ?

Thanks in advance

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Updating UnleashX is a simple and relatively safe matter and that's the sad thing - chances are the main dash the softmodded Xbox had has now been rendered unbootable or removed entirely. All that was needed was to replace the main dash XBE with a v0.39 one. But first you needed to know exactly what path your main dash was using and the XBE name being used.

Secondly never to do this directly by FTP, its Russian roulette. Unless there is no other solution always FTP to a temporary folder first. Rename it to default.xbe or something different from what your existing main dash XBE is called. This is the published boot priority order:-

avalaunch.xbe
unleashx.xbe
xbmc.xbe
evoxdash.xbe
xboxdash.xbe
default.xbe
msdash.xbe

I've never tested it but this is what I was told and the Xbox wiki says are the XBE names softmods look for.

Test that it actually works from the temporary folder using the UnleashX file manager.

If all OK copy the XBE into its correct location alongside the existing main dash XBE. This is the only dangerous part: carefully rename the existing main dash XBE to one of those other names and rename the new one to exactly the same name as was being used by the other .XBE. Job done.    

How to fix the current problem:-

You should have the game exploits used to softmod the Xbox still available so if you cold boot the appropriate original game getting to an installer dash should mean any easy fix. Maybe the softmod isn't gone and it will cold boot and installer disc like AID or HeXEn. Worth a try.

Otherwise, whilst Lenox is completely wrong about how to update UnleashX, softmod or not, the hotswap, if you can get it to work, is your next best bet unless you had the foresight to backup the eeprom to your PC. In which case there are other options.

 

 

Edited by HDShadow
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Hello,

First of all thanks for all your answers.

Unfortunately I don't have an eeprom backup (I was planning to do one and I didn't think this would mess up so far).

I think I will try to hotswap it and if I succesfully gain access to the E  I will try to

   - first backup eeprom if present

    - second try to load back the previous files that were in the /E/Dashboard (before replacing I saved them into a newly created "Old" subfolder).

If this doesn't work I will try to redo the softmod (I think I still have the saves in the hard drive).

If no sucess it will be the hard mod.

I will try that later today (it's 5 AM here) after work and see if I can gain access to the hard drive.

 I will update this later when I tried that.

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3 hours ago, Alessandrol said:

Hello,

First of all thanks for all your answers.

Unfortunately I don't have an eeprom backup (I was planning to do one and I didn't think this would mess up so far).

I think I will try to hotswap it and if I succesfully gain access to the E  I will try to

   - first backup eeprom if present

    - second try to load back the previous files that were in the /E/Dashboard (before replacing I saved them into a newly created "Old" subfolder).

If this doesn't work I will try to redo the softmod (I think I still have the saves in the hard drive).

If no sucess it will be the hard mod.

I will try that later today (it's 5 AM here) after work and see if I can gain access to the hard drive.

 I will update this later when I tried that.

If you want to stick with the softmod you can make an eeprom reader for a couple of dollars/pounds/euros/your local currency with this method thanks to Ryzee. https://github.com/Ryzee119/ArduinoProm
Install python and arduino, update via cmd, read eeprom. Then use xboxhdm2.3 to rebuild your hdd. The only other bit of hardware is a usb adapter to attach your hdd to your pc.

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8 hours ago, HDShadow said:

Secondly never to do this directly by FTP, its Russian roulette. Unless there is no other solution always FTP to a temporary folder first. Rename it to default.xbe or something different from what your existing main dash XBE is called. This is the published boot priority order:-

avalaunch.xbe
unleashx.xbe
xbmc.xbe
evoxdash.xbe
xboxdash.xbe
default.xbe
msdash.xbe

I've never tested it but this is what I was told and the Xbox wiki says are the XBE names softmods look for.

The boot order list all depends which softmod you are using.  Rocky5's Xbox Softmodding Tool does not use the list you posted but the following one:

  • C:\XBMC-Emustation\default.xbe
  • E:\XBMC-Emustation\default.xbe
  • F:\XBMC-Emustation\default.xbe
  • C:\XBMC4Gamers\default.xbe
  • E:\XBMC4Gamers\default.xbe
  • F:\XBMC4Gamers\default.xbe
  • C:\XBMC4Xbox\default.xbe
  • E:\XBMC4Xbox\default.xbe
  • F:\XBMC4Xbox\default.xbe
  • C:\XBMC\default.xbe
  • E:\XBMC\default.xbe
  • F:\XBMC\default.xbe
  • C:\dashboard\default.xbe
  • E:\dashboard\default.xbe
  • F:\dashboard\default.xbe
  • C:\dash\default.xbe
  • E:\dash\default.xbe
  • F:\dash\default.xbe
  • E:\default.xbe
  • E:\dashboard.xbe
  • C:\evoxdash.xbe
  • E:\evoxdash.xbe
  • C:\XBMC.xbe
  • E:\XBMC.xbe
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That's a useful list thanks.

Yes, I'm not surprised it is dependent on the softmod what the boot priority and paths are supported.

I would suspect the ones I quoted are for SID/AID (C:\ and E:\ locations) which were the primary modding tools of choice before Rocky5 created his softmod. 

Edited by HDShadow
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Thanks again for all your suggestions.

I think I will try first to reinstall the softmod using a game save (I saw that several game used for exploit had a savegame in the HDD before doing my mistake)

If this doesn't work I will probably try the suggestion from Ging3rguy except that I saw the same is possible using Rpi (that I already have in spare)

10 hours ago, Ging3rguy said:

If you want to stick with the softmod you can make an eeprom reader for a couple of dollars/pounds/euros/your local currency with this method thanks to Ryzee. https://github.com/Ryzee119/ArduinoProm
Install python and arduino, update via cmd, read eeprom. Then use xboxhdm2.3 to rebuild your hdd. The only other bit of hardware is a usb adapter to attach your hdd to your pc.

If this doesn't work either I will try hotswap to correct my mistake and if not it will be hardmod.

Again thanks for all your inputs it helped me a lot.

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21 hours ago, Lenox said:

woah, just because you dont know how to do it doesnt mean i'm wrong dude :)

Actually I do know how to do it as I've done it countless times since I replaced my first UnleashX dash in 2004, v534 with v543 I think. I described the safest method in my post which I had explained to me by Heimdall at the Xbox-Scene forum, the guy who created HeXEn. I've honed that advice since then adding my own extra safe practice steps to it. 

If you were just talking about backing up the C:\ and E:\ drives first then OK - good idea, no argument with that. But updating an UnleashX main dash XBE is really a simple, if slightly risky, replacement job. You just have to identify where and what it is first and make damned sure not to make any mistakes when renaming. It is vital to test it before install too. If you just FTP into place, as you seemed to be suggesting, you're asking for trouble.  

Alessandrol was trying to replace a UX v0.38 series dash which must be a v565 one or earlier. That suggests an old softmod too and even better advice might have been to update that using Rocky5's XBSMT which would also have installed the last version of UX as part of that process.  

 

Edited by HDShadow
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2 hours ago, HDShadow said:

If you just FTP into place, as you seemed to be suggesting, you're asking for trouble.  

You will have no problem replacing the whole C files and then the ones on the E root, you can even "update" from evox to unleash lol

Edited by Lenox
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Hello again,

I was able using a raspberry-pi to dump my eeprom (now it is saved on 2 different computers in case of).

After burning a xboxhdm including this eeprom.bin I was able to unlock the hdd.

Unfortunately after changing the content to restore the original content (I can use a linux terminal and mounted manually the partition) I cannot lock the drive again (confirmed by error 05).

I'm pretty sure it is because it an old Compaq PC (with PATA connection) but I'm pretty sure I have another PC with PATA connection.

So I 'm now going to grab this PC to try to lock again the drive.

Again thanks for all your support.

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Hello again,

 

Quick update : I was able to lock again the HDD using the other computer and I am now able to boot back to the UnleashX dashboard.

My only concern is that it tries to load several time before succeeding (it flash then black screen some times before staying on my screen).

I will now try to create another HDD for my xbox using xboxhdm and my working hdd as a base.

I don't know if there is a way to close the topic but for me I consider it solved.

Thanks again

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