Legal X-box Mod
DOOManiac
Worst. Critic. Ever. Join Date: 2002-04-17 Member: 462Members, NS1 Playtester
Worst. Critic. Ever. Join Date: 2002-04-17 Member: 462Members, NS1 Playtester
<div class="IPBDescription">I want a media center...</div>Mods: I tried to search for this, but the search just went to a blank page. If this topic is a no-no, please feel free to nuke/delete away.
I've decided I want to try to do the whole x-box mod chip thing and get an x-box that can be a media center. However, I really don't feel like doing it all myself. Is there any place I can legally obtain a legally modified x-box? Note the word legal.
If possible, I'd like to get one that already has a bigger hard drive in it too.
I don't really care about it being region free, have no desire for it to play so called 'backup' games, nor do I care about x-box live support. Hell, I wouldn't even be that upset if the thing didn't play x-box games at all. Mainly I want XBMC because it means I can update it whenever new codecs come out, something I can't do w/ a hardware based divx/mpeg4/whatever player (plus those don't support WMV)
So it'd be like a media center PC, but several hunded dollars cheaper. :P
If I can't do this I guess I may be getting a low-spec media center PC just for playing wmv/divx/whatever (no tv tuning/dvr capabilities)... But that's pricey and I'd rather avoid it if possible...
I've decided I want to try to do the whole x-box mod chip thing and get an x-box that can be a media center. However, I really don't feel like doing it all myself. Is there any place I can legally obtain a legally modified x-box? Note the word legal.
If possible, I'd like to get one that already has a bigger hard drive in it too.
I don't really care about it being region free, have no desire for it to play so called 'backup' games, nor do I care about x-box live support. Hell, I wouldn't even be that upset if the thing didn't play x-box games at all. Mainly I want XBMC because it means I can update it whenever new codecs come out, something I can't do w/ a hardware based divx/mpeg4/whatever player (plus those don't support WMV)
So it'd be like a media center PC, but several hunded dollars cheaper. :P
If I can't do this I guess I may be getting a low-spec media center PC just for playing wmv/divx/whatever (no tv tuning/dvr capabilities)... But that's pricey and I'd rather avoid it if possible...
Comments
If you do get one, Good luck on the whole "Getting on xbox live without being banned" thing.
Hint hint.
Aside from that little point-out, I have no clue, Doomeh. Sorry.
buy a ussed 1st gen xbox (as I think those are the best to do this with) and from there you can do most of the stuff rather simply (including just installing linux and having a linux box right there).
I will email my bro and get the guides that he ussed to make his ultimate xbox
list of things he ahs done:
Install Linux
Set it up as an IRC server
set up a media center
installed a larger HDD
spliced a xbox plug onto a usb hub so he can use his flash drives
never reinstalled the ability to play xbox games.
I like using XBConnect, have to pay a one time fee however, but any game that allows systemlinking*even those without xbox live enabled* you can play online with others
<a href='http://www.xbconnect.com' target='_blank'>http://www.xbconnect.com</a>
What you need is UDE. <b>U</b>ltimate <b>D</b>ashboard <b>E</b>xploit. Take a look over at <a href='http://www.xbox-scene.com/' target='_blank'>xbox-scene.com</a> and browse their forums on xbox exploiting. This basically enables you all the perks of a modchipped xbox, but without any of the a) risk b) having to physically take apart your xbox and c) money. Also, it's entirely viewed as a legal grey area, last time i saw, kinda like anime fansubs. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
UDE is created in a way that it (to the best of my knowledge, at least) exploits a flaw in some of the xbox's code in certain games (Splinter Cell, Mechassault, Agent Under Fire, etc) and allows you to run your own code instead, enabling you to get around the Xbox's dashboard (OS) and do what you like with it.
The basic process is this (Ok, it might sound complicated, but it's really very very simple to do in practice):
1) Download the UDE installer and exploited savegame file (Chose an exploitable game you can either borrow or rent, saves you money).
2) Put the savegame and the UDE installer onto a memory card, either using someone else's modded xbox or by using a USB memory card.
3) Load the game, run the exploited savegame which will in turn run the UDE install program. When you do this, before anything, backup your HDD just incase, there's a menu option to do so. If / when you do backup, it'll have to restart the xbox, just load the game and run the exploited save again to get back to the menu.
4) Once you've gone through the installer (As to which options you pick, read the readme and such, i can't remember them offhand, there's also good tutorials on xbox-scene) restart your xbox and it should boot into whichever dash you installed (I use MXM personally, but i'm thinking of changing the main dash to XBMC). When it does this, it will by default enable ftp on the xbox too, MXM defaults the IP to 192.168.0.3, which you may want to change in the config, the username and password is xbox.
5) Upload XBMC to the biggest partition, which is drive E: IIRC, and then add it to the menu (xbox-scene should also have guides and tutorials to show you how to do this for your chosen dashboard replacement), or you can just run it manually from the file explorer (Something like BoxPlorer) by going to the directory you uploaded it to and running default.xbe.
6) Fun.
It's all pretty simple really, and if you've done it before, you can easily do it in under 5 minutes. Also, a cool thing about XBMC that i've noticed, you can connect to windows network shares on your network and stream straight from your PC, which has saved me a whole bunch of time instead of uploading files to the xbox. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
His X-PS-Cube can now play X-Box games, PS 1 and 2 games, GameCube games, DVD's, CD's, BURN CD's, has 2 USB drives, a 80 gig HD, is connected via a cable modem to internet, and can use keyboard, mouse, and any of the 3 default system controllers (EG, X-Box, G-Cube, or PS 2 controllers)
I dunno HOW he did it... but it ALL works off of ONE disk slider... 0o' he has all 3 in there, top one does all but burn, middle is a DVD/CD only, and bottom is the burner 0o'
Oh, and it looks like ****... but it works great!
I have had my xbox softmodded for a number of years now, and for that reason alone it is miles better than a gamecube or a ps2. Rather than use a tivo card to get a video from my computer to the tv in crap quality, i can just ftp the video over and then watch it in full quality on the xbox. You can install all kinds of things on it, although most programs are either in the legal gray area or illegal.
Also, for all those worrying about not being able to play xbox live, just use a third party program such as <a href='http://www.xbconnect.com/' target='_blank'>xbconnect</a>. It has always has loads of servers for the more popular games like halo and such, but less for other, less popular games like splinter cell and outrun2.
As an extra, when you open your xbox to add in a hdd, you will be amazed at how damned clean the insides are. I wish my computer was as clean and shiny as that <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I'd go for a larger HDD, so you can backup games, store media and run emulators. Imagine having every console (and MAME) up to and including the N64, all in one box. Sounds good!
Yoda at <a href='http://www.rllmukforum.com/' target='_blank'>Rllmuk</a> is a great supplier if you're in the UK.
I'd go for a larger HDD, so you can backup games, store media and run emulators. Imagine having every console (and MAME) up to and including the N64, all in one box. Sounds good!
Yoda at <a href='http://www.rllmukforum.com/' target='_blank'>Rllmuk</a> is a great supplier if you're in the UK. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well when referring to most of these apps (UDE doesn't count, doesn't even use code compiled with the XDK) they're perfectly legal apps, until someone compiles them, then they're still perfectly legal, until you download or run it. But technically, XBMC, which you can find the source for over at their page, is perfectly legal.
You just can't download or compile it. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Looks like soft modding will be my only choice. The whole reason for wanting to purchase a pre-modded system was to not do all this crap myself. Really I wanted something I could just take out of the box, plug it in, install the software, and be done. Oh well, maybe if there's an official X-Box Next Media Center...
This will mean I can't put in a bigger hard drive too, which sucks.
My boss couldn't get it to work w/ his x-box (brand new one) but my roomate has an old one (like the first version), so I'll borrow his usb thingy to do the buffer overflow stuff. Hooray for decade old pc hax working on a console system.
P.S. last night my roomate was looking around and we found a very interesting little tip: The ATA cable inside the x-box (at least old ones like his) is an ATA33 cable. You get a very noticible speed boost in load times simply by opening up the case and swapping it out with a standard PC ATA100 cable. Hooray.
<a href='http://www.xbox-linux.org/' target='_blank'>http://www.xbox-linux.org/</a>
Steps my borther ussed:
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I performed a hardware modification of my Xbox by first applying a
software modification to modify the Dashboard and add a Linux
launcher. This required a custom memory stick which I manufactured
from an xbox controller cable and a usb hub, allowing me to plug any
usb device into the xbox, including USB thumb drives.
I then opened up the xbox, soldiered across a couple of jumpers to
make the TSOP (like the CMOS) flashable.
I then booted into linux and used "raincoat" to flash the TSOP with
"Cromwell," the Linux Xbox BIOS. From that point on, I had an xbox
that no longer plays xbox games, but instead will boot linux from any
of the devices (hard drive, cdrom, usb stick). I then replaced the
hard drive, and installed Xebian via CD.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
infact, that link I pointed you to has a list of people that are willing to do it for yah <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-site I posted+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (site I posted)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->The Xbox is a legacy-free PC by Microsoft that consists of an Intel Celeron 733 MHz CPU, an nVidia GeForce 3MX, 64 MB of RAM, a 8/10 GB hard disk, a DVD drive and 10/100 Ethernet. As on every PC, you can run Linux on it.
An Xbox with Linux can be a full desktop computer with mouse and keyboard, a web/email box connected to TV, a server or router or a node in a cluster. You can either dual-boot or use Linux only; in the latter case, you can replace both IDE devices. And yes, you can connect the Xbox to a VGA monitor. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
linux existed well before 733 mhz procesors, and much before a geforce 3. 64 MEGS of ram! wow!
hehe, yah, it can run linux with no problems
vga box
converts composite into vga <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
or they probably even make one that specificly has the xbox plug and then gives yah the proper out puts <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->