Jump to content
OGXbox.com

Attempting to get old softmod up and running...


Kevin G.
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hey guys, new member...but not new to the scene. I have been a member over at XBMC4XBOX for years. I initially modded this box in 2010/2011-ish. I had run XBMC on it for my daughter for a number of years, with the help of the fine folks over at X4X, have updated it several times...added some SNES ROMS and had quite a bit of fun messing around with it and the scene. As it got to be a little longer in the tooth for HD streaming, and several devices that are smaller and much more powerful that can do much more, I packed it away.

My son is now 15, and loves all things gaming. I would like to get this back up and running with more ROMS that he and his friends can enjoy. Several months ago, I updated the dash with Rocky5 1.17 disc, but could never get anything to boot off of it. I only got Rocky5's gray dash, and the downloader working. XBMC would boot to a red error screen, and XBMC Emustation/XBMC4Gamers would not do anything...no matter how much I tried. I posted over at XBMC4XBOX several times to get some help, but really received no answers. In the last few weeks I have found this site, and have been reading as much as I can.

I got the box out today, and had forgotten that in a fit of desperation, I tried HEXEN 2018 to try to wipe the mod and start over. It still had UnleashX as the main dash, and booted right up to it. XBMC 3.5 was still in the E: folder, but still booted to the red printed error screen. When I tried to switch to it as a dashboard I couldn't get UnleashX back. I put HEXEN back in and ran through some tools and kept getting more errors. Just dug Rocky5 out again, and ran through the softmod updater. 

It is a stock (other than the softmod) 1.4 that I believe was warranty repaired by Microsoft at one time. I purchased it from a friend at work, and it had previously been opened up, but no mods had been done. Booted fine to stock dash with all his game saves. I had done the original mod with the Replay card and 007 with Krayzie's, I believe. It worked great, and I was constantly reading and messing with updates and dashboard appearance for it when it was in my daughter's room.

I would really like to clean this thing up. Rocky5 is now updated, and I installed the XBMC4Gamers, and booted to the dash...it worked! Now that I am a little more encouraged, I want to get this as clean as possible before adding ROMS, etc...

I feel all of my attempts have left junk behind, and I want it gone...Is there a utility or anything that will get my softmod to a point that it has only what it needs to run? Then I can begin again. Like a "fresh install" or "refresh"? I have old XBMC builds, and who knows what else cluttering up the disk. Or possibly a folder structure diagram that I can follow, and clean up manually? I had incorrectly assumed that the softmod updater or HEXEN would wipe everything for me, but that was not the case. I've poured through both discs and have not seen anything like this in any menus.

 

Thanks in advance...love the site

Kevin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You’re going to need to burn a copy of Rocky5 extras disc or transfer it from your PC. That will allow you to remove the mod entirely and start from scratch. You can get that here
 

Edit: He has really cleaned things up a lot in 1.8. Seems to leave less of a trace after the install. You can always empty your Cache now and again to tidy things up a bit. 

Edited by MadMartigan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Kevin G. said:

Sorry...guess I'm missing something. I thought I had redone the mod via Rocky5... Is that something different? I ran the disc (burned) and "upgraded old soft mod" installed 5960 dash and backed up eeprom...

I now have it working, but want to dump all the extraneous files...

FTP to the console and post pictures showing the root directory listing for the C, E and possibly F and/or G extended partitions of a larger than stock Xbox hard drive.

After seeing the top-level directory structures, we can dig deeper into where extraneous content lies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks @KaosEngineer

Sounds great! Will do that later today. (hopefully...it is a beautiful day here in NC...one of the last few for a while)

No larger drive...yet. Up to this point, all the extra work to get a drive in there is past my pay grade. My eyes start to glaze over when I start reading tutorials on it. (and I do PC repairs and builds on the side, as a hobby...)

I do have a Maxstor 80 gig IDE that I salvaged from a ditched machine just for this purpose. The compatibility chart I looked at some time ago lists it as one of the best direct drop in's, but I never researched beyond that.

Edited by Kevin G.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Kevin G. said:

Sorry...guess I'm missing something. I thought I had redone the mod via Rocky5... Is that something different? I ran the disc (burned) and "upgraded old soft mod" installed 5960 dash and backed up eeprom...

I now have it working, but want to dump all the extraneous files...

Maybe I’m the one that misunderstood what you were asking. I was just giving the option of a clean install since I took it that you had concerns of junks files from the conversion and updating. KaosEngineer will get you sorted out. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, MadMartigan said:

Maybe I’m the one that misunderstood what you were asking. I was just giving the option of a clean install since I took it that you had concerns of junks files from the conversion and updating. KaosEngineer will get you sorted out. 

Yeah...that's essentially what I wanted, however the install was not "clean" which surprised me. After re-doing it several times with several methods, I still have an old copy of XBMC4Xbox 3.5.3 that I FTP'd years ago. It crashes now that I have done Rocky5's update. Plus who knows what else...never got the chance to mess with it yesterday (yardwork and cleaning up for the holiday). Hopefully  this weekend.

Edited by Kevin G.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Kevin G. said:

Yeah...that's essentially what I wanted, however the install was not "clean" which surprised me. After re-doing it several times with several methods, I still have an old copy of XBMC4Xbox 3.5.3 that I FTP'd years ago. It crashes now that I have done Rocky5's update. Plus who knows what else...never got the chance to mess with it yesterday (yardwork and cleaning up for the holiday). Hopefully  this weekend.

Well you have a few options.
1. You keep do as I mentioned and just remove the soft mod all together, clean up drive and then reinstall with only Rocky5. 

2. You can use your 80GB drive as a clean install of the mod, assuming you’re able to grab your eeprom backup on your pc or have nulled it to 0s or 1s. 

3. You can take the pictures as Kaos suggested and wait for his assistance in sorting through the junk files. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok now I see what you meant...restore to factory then redo the mod. Sorry, I missed your intent. If I restore to factory, do I lose all aspects of the mod? or will I still be able to install from Rocky5 disc?

 

So here is my current state. I plugged in my ethernet cable and it asked me to update XBMC4Gamers...I did, and now getting the same crash error for XBMC. I can read Rocky5 disc, and it will boot to it. not sure if I have something more going on.

xbox.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Kevin G. said:

So here is my current state. I plugged in my ethernet cable and it asked me to update XBMC4Gamers...I did, and now getting the same crash error for XBMC. I can read Rocky5 disc, and it will boot to it. not sure if I have something more going on.

How much artwork for games do you have installed for XBMC4Gamers?

If not much, I'd run a different dashboard (e.g., UnleashX or Evoxdash), then completely delete the current installation of XBMC4Gamers - E:\XBMC4Gamers and if present the E:\UDATA\09999990 and E:\TDATA\09999990 folders. Start over with a clean install to E:\XBMC4Gamers by uploading the content extracted from the latest release's archive - XBMC4Gamers.zip.

Edit: Note: Don't install XBMC4Gamers into a sub-sub folder on E.  XBMC4Gamers default.xbe file and other its other subfolders should be in E:\XBMC4Gamers, not E:\XBMC4Gamers\XBMC4Gamers or install it on the F drive (F:\XBMC4Gamers) if you have upgraded to a larger hard.

Edit 2:  I don't see anything that really requires deleting the E:\UDATA\09999990 and E:\TDATA\09999990 folders.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahhh Crap....so I didn't see your post @KaosEngineer I pulled the trigger on the clean install, via my Rocky5 disc. I chose clean install, and could see (and Rocky5 walked me through) that the files I needed would be installed for the softmod. I pulled out my old 007, and attempted to load the file, but it would crash to a black screen. (several times)

I then dug out my old replay card with the original mod file and loaded it up. It loaded to original EVOX, and I can FTP...but the box crashes to Error 21 when I select "Load DVD" to start the softmod tool.

It boots to stock dash just fine, but Rocky5 is not recognized...

 

This is what i currently have. I feel like we are ok since i can still FTP. Just not sure what to do from here.

 

xbox.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

UPDATE: Found instructions to restore via the "music" files, I enter the "Eggsploit" and it reboots the dash and immediately tells me console can't read disc/incompatible. I then try to reproduce the second half with button presses, but I keep getting

Quote

Unable to create new sound track You have reached 100 tracks

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks to all for the information supplied in this thread. I've successfully updated my softmod, and am up and running. Added a couple emulators. (FTP'd SNESXbox over and it was up and running momentarily). Kudos to SNEXbox developers. It just works.

I added Atari 5200 via the downloader app, as well as PCSXbox. Adding ROMS to these seems to present a problem ...looking for any assistance.

I can add files to the 5200 games, and they drop in to the game start menu. I can select single player or two player "easy/normal/hard" but cannot start a game. (Defender) I can't find anything on a search for a ROM location on PCSXbox. I added the .cue and .bin files in to the general folder, but nothing shows anywhere in the menu.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Kevin G. said:

Thanks to all for the information supplied in this thread. I've successfully updated my softmod, and am up and running. Added a couple emulators. (FTP'd SNESXbox over and it was up and running momentarily). Kudos to SNEXbox developers. It just works.

I added Atari 5200 via the downloader app, as well as PCSXbox. Adding ROMS to these seems to present a problem ...looking for any assistance.

I can add files to the 5200 games, and they drop in to the game start menu. I can select single player or two player "easy/normal/hard" but cannot start a game. (Defender) I can't find anything on a search for a ROM location on PCSXbox. I added the .cue and .bin files in to the general folder, but nothing shows anywhere in the menu.

Which replacement dashboard are you using: XBMC-Emustation, UnleashX, XBMC4Xbox, XBMC4Gamers, Evoxdash?

Is this the Atari 5200 emulator that the downloader app installed:

  • Atarixlbox Version: v8b05, an Atari 800/5200/XL/XE Emulator port for the XBox by Madmab?

PCSXbox

I believe PCSXbox's ROMS (.cue and .bin files) go into the psxcds subfolder where the emulator is installed.

Make sure that the .cue file's entry to access the dot bin file actually matches the dot bin file's filename.  Many of the old archives have incorrect names in these locations so the dot cue file's info that the emulator reads is not able to access the disc image data stored in the dot bin file.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

Which replacement dashboard are you using: XBMC-Emustation, UnleashX, XBMC4Xbox, XBMC4Gamers, Evoxdash?

Is this the Atari 5200 emulator that the downloader app installed:

  • Atarixlbox Version: v8b05, an Atari 800/5200/XL/XE Emulator port for the XBox by Madmab?

PCSXbox

I believe PCSXbox's ROMS (.cue and .bin files) go into the psxcds subfolder where the emulator is installed.

Make sure that the .cue file's entry to access the dot bin file actually matches the dot bin file's filename.  Many of the old archives have incorrect names in these locations so the dot cue file's info that the emulator reads is not able to access the disc image data stored in the dot bin file.

 

Doesn't seem to be a psxcds folder in this version. I've searched all I can find on adding ROMS to PCSXbox...and there's no tutorial out there that says where to install the image files. Only trying one game in each Emulator right now to get each one working, and perfect what I need to do to get the emulators running before I install others.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Kevin G. said:

Doesn't seem to be a psxcds folder in this version. I've searched all I can find on adding ROMS to PCSXbox...and there's no tutorial out there that says where to install the image files. Only trying one game in each Emulator right now to get each one working, and perfect what I need to do to get the emulators running before I install others.

You need to go into your options menu, then go into Downloader. You can download the emulator from there as long as you’re connected to your local network. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, MadMartigan said:

You need to go into your options menu, then go into Downloader. You can download the emulator from there as long as you’re connected to your local network. 

That's how i installed it...(both of them actually)

I actually re-installed it yesterday, thinking some files might not have transferred or had errors.

Edited by Kevin G.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Kevin G. said:

That's how i installed it...(both of them actually)

I actually re-installed it yesterday, thinking some files might not have transferred or had errors.

Then maybe you’re not putting the Roms into the correct folders. 
can you post a pic of the files you’re transferring within file manager?

Edited by MadMartigan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, MadMartigan said:

Then maybe you’re not putting the Roms into the correct folders. 
can you post a pic of the files you’re transferring within file manager?

Sure...

There seems to be more information for PC (PCSXbox) than Xbox out there, and what is there seems to point to a defunct website...

I looked up some videos, one was a review...and I'm starting to think the file is missing something. There is no icon when selecting the actual emulator. Atari and Zsnexbox both have a game icon. this one just has a "play" arrow and a black background. Also, when you start the emulator, there is no splash screen. It looks like a DOS cmd prompt...The video review I watched had some splash screens that looked like an old PS One controller.

 

xbox.png

xbox.png

Edited by Kevin G.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, MadMartigan said:

Did you make that Emus folder or was it already there? 
 

I could be way off but I’m thinking you need to actually install xbmc4gamers into the F: partition and then put the Roms into the correct folder within. 

I created the folder. Everything I have done in the past, heard, or read have said to create XBMC in the E: drive. A tutorial on XBMC4Gamers had said to create the Emus folder on the F: drive, point to that when installing emulators, or ROMS...

Still would have to create the Emus folder if it were within the C : drive. There is not one created by X4G itself.

As mentioned, ZSNESXbox just works when setup this way. Atari kind of works. I just can't start a game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

Board Life Status


Board startup date: April 23, 2017 12:45:48
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.