V1.6 Softmod odd behavior and results

[nerdbombing]

As the name suggests, I have some odd things happening, and I'm not sure how many are to be expected, and which ones are par for my rocky modding adventures.

After softmodding a recent purchased box with SID, splinter cell exploit (successfully done 12 or more times so far), here's some weird stuff:

• Can not access original MS dash to change the time zone. I explain this more below.
  • I followed @KaosEngineeradvice in a past post, and picked up the "stock" C and E drives. I copied the xboxdash.xbe over, naming it something else as to not overwrite the current one. Once in file explorer on console, I entered this renamed xbe dash. It did indeed take me to the MS dash, however, it's altered something else to only allows MS dash. After powering down and on several times, I can only get the MS dash, it loads as if's it's not softmodded. While in this mode, trying to re-softmod just get's me a frozen or black screen or reboots itself, and never loads.
• The ring always resets to solid orange, no matter what I set it to. I just want default, I then change it within Unleashx as I have before (12+ other mods successfully), I then save, and the color changes to green. After turning off/on it's orange again. I've input my own config.xml which I know has my desired settings, but the problem is the same.
• The clock resets occasionally when power is removed: maybe I'm wrong in thinking that the clock retains itself after short periods of no AC input.
• Even after changing settings for Date and Time SNTP on the console, the config.xml sometimes changes but sometimes it does not. I changed the port there to 80, and it registers in the config.xml, but on restart, in the menu it returns to the stock "123" port, but the config.xml says 80.
• Restarts/"Reboot" always end up with error 7, I must shutdown and then hit the power button. This occurs on several softmods I've done. They all have 80 wire IDE cables with generic SATA-IDE adapters... basically all the parts I have in my 1.6 mods is also what I have in my TSOP mods, the TSOP mods however reboot w/o issue.
• I've emptied the cache.
• I've deleted ALL files on C and E using xboxHDM23usb to unlock, and FATXplorer to mount drives. I used the same programs to copy my original C and E, along with several others thereafter because even the originals had the same persistent issues. While I had the originals in, the TDATA and UDATA folders I completely wiped to make sure there wasn't some settings in there that related to stuff.
• I inserted a know working link and port for SNTP clock stuff, into the config.xml. It worked, but I was behind an hour. This is what spurred all the above attempts at reaching the stupid MS dash: to change the time zone. I couldn't reach the MS dash.... (start reading bullet points from the top again to see this viscous circle),
  • Except now the SNTP doesn't register (it's showing stock settings on the menu, and the time doesn't update), even though it IS in the config.xml, quadruple checked and reentered. Settings say it's enabled and allowing HTTP.

Aside from trying to get the clock to sync, ring color, and reboot issues, everything else seems ok: games play, and that's really all i use it for. So it's not a "please help me, I'm begging for help now" type of deal, but I am curious to learn more, and see why some of this occurs. Thanks for the input folks!

(Ebay #8)

[KaosEngineer]

12 minutes ago, nerdbombing said:

The ring always resets to solid orange, no matter what I set it to. I just want default, I then change it within Unleashx as I have before (12+ other mods successfully), I then save, and the color changes to green. After turning off/on it's orange again. I've input my own config.xml which I know has my desired settings, but the problem is the same.

The softmod sets that color.  If using Rocky5's Xbox Softmodding Tool softmod, you can change the color in the NKPatcher Settings application, menu option 6. LED colour.

[KaosEngineer]

16 minutes ago, nerdbombing said:

The clock resets occasionally when power is removed: maybe I'm wrong in thinking that the clock retains itself after short periods of no AC input.

Even with a good working clock capacitor in the Xbox, it is only able to keep the time for a few hours when AC power is disconnected.

As well, some of the old softmods will reset the time to a set minimum value if the current date/time is after june 2019 when the console is rebooted.

[KaosEngineer]

19 minutes ago, nerdbombing said:

Even after changing settings for Date and Time SNTP on the console, the config.xml sometimes changes but sometimes it does not. I changed the port there to 80, and it registers in the config.xml, but on restart, in the menu it returns to the stock "123" port, but the config.xml says 80.

Another BUG in UnleashX

 

[KaosEngineer]

20 minutes ago, nerdbombing said:

Restarts/"Reboot" always end up with error 7, I must shutdown and then hit the power button. This occurs on several softmods I've done. They all have 80 wire IDE cables with generic SATA-IDE adapters... basically all the parts I have in my 1.6 mods is also what I have in my TSOP mods, the TSOP mods however reboot w/o issue.

The generic adapter is too slow initializing itself after a reboot.  The BIOS is not able to access the Xbox when it tries and throws error 7. 

Fix:

Use a better IDE-to-SATA adapter - Startech IDE2SAT2 or DeLock #62510.  They use Marvell's 88SA8052 IDE-to-SATA bridge.

[KaosEngineer]

35 minutes ago, nerdbombing said:

I copied the xboxdash.xbe over, naming it something else as to not overwrite the current one. Once in file explorer on console, I entered this renamed xbe dash. It did indeed take me to the MS dash, however, it's altered something else to only allows MS dash. After powering down and on several times, I can only get the MS dash, it loads as if's it's not softmodded. While in this mode, trying to re-softmod just get's me a frozen or black screen or reboots itself, and never loads.

Oops I should have replied to this one first.

The stock MS dashboard consists of more than just the xboxdash.xbe file.  There are hundreds of files and folders. 

The latest release 5960 consists of 167MBs of content stored in 208 files across 20 folders and subfolders. 

Root directory contents on the C drive:

[nerdbombing]

20 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

The softmod sets that color.  If using Rocky5's Xbox Softmodding Tool softmod, you can change the color in the NKPatcher Settings application, menu option 6. LED colour.

I'm not sure I follow you here. I'm using SID511.installer.usb and the SID511.Loader.SplinterCell.NTSC files for softmodding. Is this the same as Rocky5's?

Broadly speaking, I've always been able to change, and retain, LED color settings by means of the UnleashX dash. I find it weird that this one xbox constitutes 8% of my modded xboxes, and I've never needed to use NKPatcher. But you've taught me a lot over the past couple years, @KaosEngineer....

20 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

Even with a good working clock capacitor in the Xbox, it is only able to keep the time for a few hours when AC power is disconnected.

As well, some of the old softmods will reset the time to a set minimum value if the current date/time is after june 2019 when the console is rebooted.

Acknowledged.

20 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

Another BUG in UnleashX

 

I hear ya. Not sure if it's UnleashX as a whole, or just this one case. As I checked on another box, and when I change a setting for SNTP, it's immediately changed the config.xml, and hasn't reverted to stock settings at all.

19 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

The generic adapter is too slow initializing itself after a reboot.  The BIOS is not able to access the Xbox when it tries and throws error 7. 

Fix:

Use a better IDE-to-SATA adapter - Startech IDE2SAT2 or DeLock #62510.  They use Marvell's 88SA8052 IDE-to-SATA bridge.

Man, I may seem to be non believing here, but why do my TSOP reflashed boxes not suffer from the same affliction even though they have the same hardware?

19 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

The stock MS dashboard consists of more than just the xboxdash.xbe file.  There are hundreds of files and folders.

Absolutely, you're correct. I forgot to mention I did replace the entire C with the complete contents, but it would lock me into MS dash. I then reset verything with PC, restored the original C after softmod, but I couldn't get into the MS dash, it would just freeze. I then replaced just the xboxdash.xbe but still got locked in MS dash even after rebooting(powering down and on again).

To add to my previous stuff: I notice on my softmods, once in UnleashX, I select the "Games" menu item where it loads all my games for viewing. On my softmods, those game populate the list in a second, very fast, and they also (almost) all have icons that appear. Whereas on all my TSOP flashes, it takes upto 20 seconds for the games list to populate and I have NO icons unless I manually add icon.png/jpg's to the specific game folder. I thought it was a HDD thing (maybe) so I threw an SSD into one of the TSOP flashed boxes, but it still takes a while to populate the games list, and still no icons. Obviously there are icons assigned to the games/within the game folder somewhere else, and only the softmods find them.... (Same amount and exact same games on all my xboxes, regardless of the type of mod. Somewhere around 200 games. I thought that a small game list would change things, i.e. faster population of the list, but it doesnt seem to matter that much (maybe only 20% faster))

And thanks again for the input!

Edited August 27, 2022 by nerdbombing
typo

[KaosEngineer]

1 hour ago, nerdbombing said:

I hear ya. Not sure if it's UnleashX as a whole, or just this one case. As I checked on another box, and when I change a setting for SNTP, it's immediately changed the config.xml, and hasn't reverted to stock settings at all.

Are both Xboxes running the same version of UnleashX?  There are many releases of it available.

v0.39.0528A Build 584 is the latest but have a bad FTP server bug.  It will list extraneous data/time string text in the top-level drive letter directory listing.  This extraneous text prevents you from double-clicking on the drive letter to cd into it to see its content.

I prefer using version v.0.39.0522A Build 572 when FTPing since it does not exhibit that bug; however, it doesn't support the additional features in the latest release's skinning engine.

[KaosEngineer]

1 hour ago, nerdbombing said:

To add to my previous stuff: I notice on my softmods, once in UnleashX, I select the "Games" menu item where it loads all my games for viewing. On my softmods, those game populate the list in a second, very fast, and they also (almost) all have icons that appear. Whereas on all my TSOP flashes, it takes upto 20 seconds for the games list to populate and I have NO icons unless I manually add icon.png/jpg's to the specific game folder. I thought it was a HDD thing (maybe) so I threw an SSD into one of the TSOP flashed boxes, but it still takes a while to populate the games list, and still no icons. Obviously there are icons assigned to the games/within the game folder somewhere else, and only the softmods find them.... (Same amount and exact same games on all my xboxes, regardless of the type of mod. Somewhere around 200 games. I thought that a small game list would change things, i.e. faster population of the list, but it doesnt seem to matter that much (maybe only 20% faster))

Check the settings on the Game's <List> line in UnleashX's config.xml file.  Are they the same for the softmodded and TSOP'd Xboxes?

Edit: As well, are the versions of UnleashX the same on the softmodded and TSOP'd Xboxes?

[nerdbombing]

4 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

Check the settings on the Game's <List> line in UnleashX's config.xml file.  Are they the same for the softmodded and TSOP'd Xboxes?

Yes, well there's a minor difference, you can see below. I'm going to remove the paths for E and G since I only put games on F, and try to keep the HDD from searching in other spots; maybe that'll speed things up. The lower set of codes is for the TSOP'd, and it has the Paths indented/tabbed over one more compared to the softmod code...

<List Text="Games" Sort="Off" Auto="On">
			<List Text="XBOX" Sort="On" Auto="On">
			<Path>E:\Games</Path>
			<Path>F:\Games</Path>
			<Path>G:\Games</Path>
			</List>
			<List Text="Retro" Sort="On" Auto="On">
			<Path>E:\Emulators</Path>
			<Path>F:\Emulators</Path>
			<Path>G:\Emulators</Path>
			</List>
			<List Text="Ports" Sort="On" Auto="On">
			<Path>E:\Ports</Path>
			<Path>F:\Ports</Path>
			<Path>G:\Ports</Path>
			</List>
		</List>

<List Text="Games" Sort="Off" Auto="On">
			<List Text="XBOX" Sort="On" Auto="On">
				<Path>E:\Games</Path>
				<Path>F:\Games</Path>
				<Path>G:\Games</Path>
			</List>
			<List Text="Retro" Sort="On" Auto="On">
				<Path>E:\Emulators</Path>
				<Path>F:\Emulators</Path>
				<Path>G:\Emulators</Path>
			</List>
			<List Text="Ports" Sort="On" Auto="On">
				<Path>E:\Ports</Path>
				<Path>F:\Ports</Path>
				<Path>G:\Ports</Path>
			</List>
		</List>

Here is what I'm going to try next:

<List Text="Games" Sort="Off" Auto="On">
			<List Text="XBOX" Sort="On" Auto="On">
			<Path>F:\Games</Path>
			</List>
			<List Text="Retro" Sort="On" Auto="On">
			<Path>E:\Emulators</Path>
			<Path>F:\Emulators</Path>
			</List>
			<List Text="Ports" Sort="On" Auto="On">
			<Path>F:\Ports</Path>
			</List>
		</List>

*EDIT: The last section of code above didnt change anything, still took a while to populate the list.

 

Edited August 27, 2022 by nerdbombing
tried changes, didnt work

[nerdbombing]

5 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

Are both Xboxes running the same version of UnleashX?  There are many releases of it available.

v0.39.0528A....

My TSOP's are using the 0.39.0528A Build 584, which would explain why when I FTP'd large amounts, I would get freeze ups...

All my softmods have UnleashX Ver: 0.39.0222A Build 572

Maybe I'll try the older version on my TSOP reflashed boxes.

[nerdbombing]

15 hours ago, nerdbombing said:

Maybe I'll try the older version on my TSOP reflashed boxes.

What exactly should I do to accomplish this? I've looked at C and E drives comparatively between a TSOP re-flashed HDD and my softmod HDD, I'm not sure how and which files control that stuff. Such as, in my C on Tsop re-flashed, the C drive contains my config.xml, and I would assume the dash is run from there, however in my E drive, there is a Dash folder, but I'm fairly certain the UnleashX and EvolutionX folders there are NOT running unless I go to "Select Dash" within the console. As if the main UnleashX that boots is NOT the same UnleashX in mentioned folder on E drive. (My TSOP boxes have config.xml's in the main E folder, in the Dash folder, then again within UnleashX folder and none in the EvolutionX folder. But only the config.xml on C is what effects changes to my dash.)

Whereas on my softmod box, I don't have a Dash or Dashboard folder and my config.xml is located on the E drive folder.

Is there any TDATA or UDATA files/folders that are included in the dash running? Sorry for my ignorance, I'm still learning here, and thanks again for the input!

[KaosEngineer]

1 hour ago, nerdbombing said:

As if the main UnleashX that boots is NOT the same UnleashX in mentioned folder on E drive.

When the console boots into UnleashX, you can find out where it was loaded from by looking at its System Info page.  Press the (Y) button to display it then scroll down to the UnleashX section.  There you will find two entries, Path and Phy.Location, that show you exactly where the running dashboard is located on the hard drive.  Phy.Location is in device path format for the file.  The actual XBE filename executed is displayed in it.  Everything but the xbe file name is equivalent ot the value shown in Path:

As seen below, \Device\Harddisk0\Partition2\ = C:\.  Other partition number to drive letter values are:

• Partition1 = E
• Partition6 = F
• Partition7 = G
• Additionally, app/game data cache drives X, Y and Z are Partition3, Partition4, and Partition5 respectively.

[nerdbombing]

Thanks,

8 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

  There you will find two entries, Path and Phy.Location, that show you exactly where the running dashboard is located on the hard drive.  Phy.Location is in device path format for the file.  The actual XBE filename executed is displayed in it.  Everything but the xbe file name is equivalent ot the value shown in Path:

As seen below, \Device\Harddisk0\Partition2\ = C:\.  Other partition number to drive letter values are:

• Partition1 = E
• Partition6 = F
• Partition7 = G
• Additionally, app/game data cache drives X, Y and Z are Partition3, Partition4, and Partition5 respectively.

 

SOFTMOD:

0.39.0222A Build 572

Path: E:\

\Device\Harddisk0\Partition1\evoxdash.xbe

TSOP re-flashed:

0.39.0528A Build 584

Path: C:\

\Device\Harddisk0\Partition2\evoxdash.xbe

So is it as simple as: just take a copy of the evoxdash.xbe from it's E:\ partition on the softmod, and replace/overwrite the evoxdash.xbe file on the TSOP'd C:\ partition, and badda bing, the TSOP is running the older UnleashX?

 

[nerdbombing]

On 8/27/2022 at 12:04 PM, KaosEngineer said:

I prefer using version v.0.39.0522A Build 572 when FTPing since it does not exhibit that bug; however, it doesn't support the additional features in the latest release's skinning engine.

You say "additional features in the .... skinning engine", can you explain that to me? I'm not sure what skinning engine is, and what features the newer UnleashX offers over the version 0.39.0522A Build 572 like you use or the 0.39.0222A Build 572 I use.

2 hours ago, nerdbombing said:

So is it as simple as: just take a copy of the evoxdash.xbe from it's E:\ partition on the softmod, and replace/overwrite the evoxdash.xbe file on the TSOP'd C:\ partition, and badda bing, the TSOP is running the older UnleashX?

 

I tried, and it does seem that simple in so far as now my Games list populates instantly, and all the "built in" icons show.

*EDIT: I could have just as simply moved the evoxdash.xbe file that's already on my E:\ partition of the TSOP'd box, since there is one there because I had to softmod the console in the first place, and my softmod process uses the older UnleashX version.

Edited August 29, 2022 by nerdbombing
add to last answer

[KaosEngineer]

3 hours ago, nerdbombing said:

Thanks,

SOFTMOD:

0.39.0222A Build 572

Path: E:\

\Device\Harddisk0\Partition1\evoxdash.xbe

TSOP re-flashed:

0.39.0528A Build 584

Path: C:\

\Device\Harddisk0\Partition2\evoxdash.xbe

So is it as simple as: just take a copy of the evoxdash.xbe from it's E:\ partition on the softmod, and replace/overwrite the evoxdash.xbe file on the TSOP'd C:\ partition, and badda bing, the TSOP is running the older UnleashX?

 

Yes; however, to write over the file, you will need to be running a different replacement dashboard.  I don't think you can overwrite the file while it is running.

[KaosEngineer]

The skinning engine is the part of UnleashX responsible for displaying the elements of the currently active skin.  There are a wide variety of them available for UnleashX. (Edit: I made a My 10 Ten Skins archive a couple of years ago after looking through hundreds of skins for UnleashX.  Since then I have obtained even more skins that I need to try and create an updated Top 10 archive - to view preview images of all 10 skins take a look at the imgur.com album - UnleashX Skins - My Top 10 Picks - Preview Images.)

I'm not exactly sure what all of the new features are.  I simply recall Rocky5 mentioning that the 0.39.0528A Build 584 release has some additional features in its skinning engine.  IIRC, the latest release of UnleashX can draw figures on the screen: circles, boxes, etc. that the old skinning engine in older releases cannot do.  On an older release of UnleashX, a skin that uses these new items will not display them. 

The design of a skin is coded in each skin's skin.xml file.

[nerdbombing]

59 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said:

Yes; however, to write over the file, you will need to be running a different replacement dashboard.  I don't think you can overwrite the file while it is running.

That makes total sense, however it seems to have worked by ways of FTP. I have a folder on my PC with a few different Config.xml for either softmod or tsop since menu items are different. I have a test one that I used to test SNTP and found to work. I FTP'd to the console and transferred said config.xml . FYI, actual name on my PC is configTSOP2.xml, and once transferred I renamed the console's config.xml to configOEM.xml, and renamed the FTP'd configTSOP2.xml to config.xml. Rebooted and the config.xml loads as intended (except recent SNTP issues). ANYWAY, I did the same thing, for the evoxdash.xbe files. When I checked the system info, it shows the older version of UnleashX, and looks good so far.

51 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said:

The skinning engine is the part of ... skins for UnleashX. 

Essentially, it boils down to skins, so if someone doesn't care to update skins that utilize the newer UnleashX's features, it's a moot point then, right?

I'm familiar with your skins folder, you helped me iron out my current favorite, True MS dash2 Green, back here:  https://www.ogxbox.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1190-unleashx-skin-most-identical-to-msdash/&do=findComment&comment=20172 Thanks again for that!

 

[KaosEngineer]

3 minutes ago, nerdbombing said:

Essentially, it boils down to skins, so if someone doesn't care to update skins that utilize the newer UnleashX's features, it's a moot point then, right?

Yes.