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Unknown soft mod


Tingle64
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Hello, I recently bought a used OG that was modified by its pervious owner. It appears to be a soft mod.

The Xbox first boots into the stock MS dash, but with the "Xbox Live" tab replaced with "Phoenix" 

Selecting it boots into the UnleashX dash. 

I like this setup since I think the stock dash is cool, and has a better game saves system than any of the dash big replacements. However, when I first tested it out it was fragging, and the HDD (which was replaced at some point via chimp with a 128gb one) seems to be in poor shape based on the sounds it was making. I am considering on giving it a tsop flash for the sake of keeping it alive, but It would be cool if I could keep the dash replacement. 

Any info on this "Phoenix" softmod and its viability as a hardmod dash replacement would be great.

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I don't recall ever seeing a softmod that changed the Xbox Live tab to Phoenix. 

There is a Phoenix BIOS Loader application that will load a Bootable from Media (BFM) BIOS.

Check the kernel and dashboard version in the stock dashboard's Settings > System Info scroller.  Note and post the K and D values displayed on the lines at the end before it repeats.

After using the Phoenix tab to get into UnleashX, press the (Y) button to display the system info page.  What is the version of the kernel seen there?

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1 hour ago, Tingle64 said:

This is what displays on the screen for a moment when Phoenix is selected from the boot dash 

Can you make a backup using FTP to download all the files from the C:\ and E:\ drives as well as the F:\Bioses folder. 

Edit: Then, share it.  I'm interested in determining how your console is softmodded. (edit 2, 3, 4, ...: Oh, so many typos!)

When in UnleashX, press the (Y) button on the  controller to display the System Info page.

What is the kernel version of the BFM BIOS that the Phoenix BIOS Loader (PBL) installed?

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33 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said:

Hmm, looks like the E drive has a lot of content stored on it - original size 4,895 MBs down to only 417.23 MBs free.

Looks like the original owner loaded it up with emulators and roms. They don't appear to be up to date, but since they off loaded it, they probably didn't use it for a while. 

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1 hour ago, KaosEngineer said:

Can you make a backup using FTP to download all the files from the C:\ and E:\ drives as well as the F:\Bioses folder. 

Edit: Then, share it.  I'm interested in determining how your console is softmodded. (edit 2, 3, 4, ...: Oh, so many typos!)

When in UnleashX, press the (Y) button on the  controller to display the System Info page.

What is the kernel version of the BFM BIOS that the Phoenix BIOS Loader (PBL) installed?

spacer.png

Here's what I got, Looks like the kernel version is absent from this version of UnleashX. I put the dash version just in case that's of any use. I'll ftp over the folders in the morning. I also poked around a bit more and found the softmod menu, Included a pic of that too. Also this is probably a hardware issue but the picture appears to be... wobbling constantaly. I KNOW its not the cables. Its the official Microsoft Component cables & they work absolutely fine on my main XBOX unit. This one introduces a constant slight wobble. I know that's a hardware issue but I just thought I'd throw it out there. One more thing, the PSU appears to be aftermarket since it has the plug for the 1.0 and 1.4 boards (this one is a 1.0)   

1_Proof_.jpg

1_mkjones_36.jpg

1_Dash_Version_36.jpg

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I found a bit of info about old softmods / font exploits that change the Xbox Live tab of the stock 4920 dashboard to Phoenix.

http://www.biline.ca/xbox_ude.htm:

Quote

...

The Fonts
The Font Hack works by exploiting the font 2 files "Xbox Book.xtf" and "Xbox.xtf" on the xbox Hard drive. There are many incarnations of this hack, such as "Bert and Ernie", "BigFonts", "Bert and Ernie Reloaded" and the "MechAssault" fonts. The most stable and newest incarnation are the MechAssault (MA) fonts.

These fonts were developed by the guys at "Xbox-Linux" and modded by some clever dude that has always remained anonymous! Then some guys called "Catfish" and "Pedro" got hold of them to make them work better as "non" Linux fonts.

These new fonts actually replace your dashboards XBOX LIVE tab with the word PHOENIX (as it loads PBL). To enable this hack, simply select the tab and PBL loads!

The problem with the Fonts is they can cause your xbox to go into a "Clock Loop" this is when your xbox cannot start because as soon as it does it gets stuck trying to re-set its clock!

This kills your xbox however it ONLY happens when you unplug your xbox from its electricity supply for a long period of time. As the xbox has no "battery" it cannot power its internal clock.

...

I emboldened the text that mentions the XBOX LIVE to PHOENIX tab change.

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Okay. After a bit more digging, I found that softmod lite package:

https://the-eye.eu/public/xbins/XBOX/Console Based Applications/exploits/_Packages/mkjones_packages/mkjones-softmodlite.zip

 

Edit: I've never used it.  I always installed a modchip on the consoles I modded back in the heyday of the xbox modding scene. 

I started installing a few of the more recent softmod packages such as SID (Softmod Installer Deluxe) [actually not released recently. It's been out for many years.] by xbox-hq.com or Rocky5's Xbox Softmodding Tool releases starting in 2016 IIRC to the present.

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Ah ha, found the source of the info on the font + audio exploit that was posted at biline.ca.

It was written by mkjones himself and posted at the now defunct forums.xbox-scene.com web site:

http://web.archive.org/web/20141025205854/http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?/topic/195972-what-are-the-font-and-audio-exploits/

Also, now available at forums.xboxscene.org - a web site built from a ton of archived data from the old web site:

https://forums.xboxscene.org/index.php/topic,90105.msg741629.html#msg741629

 

 

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7 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

I found a bit of info about old softmods / font exploits that change the Xbox Live tab of the stock 4920 dashboard to Phoenix.

http://www.biline.ca/xbox_ude.htm:

I emboldened the text that mentions the XBOX LIVE to PHOENIX tab change.

Well that explains the booting / fragging issue then. The clock cap is most certainly dead on this puppy so it goes into a boot loop trying to load the clock screen. It somehow powers through it eventually though. Oh the innocent early modding scene that thought an exploit that relied on the clock cap was viable.    

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5 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

Ah ha, found the source of the info on the font + audio exploit that was posted at biline.ca.

It was written by mkjones himself and posted at the now defunct forums.xbox-scene.com web site:

http://web.archive.org/web/20141025205854/http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?/topic/195972-what-are-the-font-and-audio-exploits/

Also, now available at forums.xboxscene.org - a web site built from a ton of archived data from the old web site:

https://forums.xboxscene.org/index.php/topic,90105.msg741629.html#msg741629

 

 

Cool, that seems like the hack alright! Do you still want the C, E and F bios drives, or would that be redundant since the hack is already archived elsewhere? Either way thanks' for all the help. 

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15 hours ago, Tingle64 said:

Cool, that seems like the hack alright! Do you still want the C, E and F bios drives, or would that be redundant since the hack is already archived elsewhere? Either way thanks' for all the help. 

No, I don't need the backups after discovering which softmod package it is.

Check the E drive for a Mimesis subfolder.  If there is one, its content needs to be backed up.

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