Softmod Mess, Help me fix my softmod mess. Options

[XboxWare]

History:
I just got an Xbox this past January with the plan to hack it and run XBMC and to store a few games on the HD. I did a lot of reading and read many different tuts and ended up using some Linux boot CD and hotswaped to install the hacks of which I can't remember the name. Later I used the Slayer CD to install the Apps and I guess it installed some hacks also (more later).

Since this time I have removed all the Apps I didn't want, got the latest xbox2dvd and XBMC cvs build and have tons of video on it.

The Box:
The box is v1.6 ( not B ) and kernel 5383

Today:
I wanted to change my hacks to boot directly to XBMC and move to UXE and the latest nkpatcher. I also did not have a working Xbox dash which I was hoping to use to enable 720p. For some reason avalaunch and exox would not let me.

My plan was to use the uxe-complete then compile my own after that was working. I have a shadowc.img of my orginal C before it was hacked so I wanted to enable the shadowc when I recompiled.

Problem:
I tried to clear out C-drive but nothing would let me delete the files. I tried evox, xbmc, avalaunch file managers and ftp. I found I could not even delete the shadowc.img off the E-drive. So I can't delete what I need to and I'm not sure if I might be using shadowc right now. I tried using the detacher I found in the uxe-complete mix but still the same thing and I se the same files. I'm not sure the current hacks I am using even.

My c-Drive:
+Audio
+f0nts
+fonts
-bert-generic.xtf
-ernie-xtf
+xboxdashdata.185EAD00
+xodash
mxboxdash.xbe
XBox Book.xtf
Xbox.xtf
xboxdash.xbe

ernie.xtf:
In the C-Drive I do see ernie points to \Device\Harddisk0\Partition1;bios\default.xb and when I look there I see that it looks like I am using PBL Metoo.

Help:
Now I am stuck.
Am I using shadowc now and looking at the wrong data?
What can I delete C-drive files or shadowc.img?

Comment:
I hacked my Tivo without an install CD. Why in the hell did I use one on my Xbox? Yes I did many searches. Maybe I didn't use the right keywords so I don't know why I have not found my own answers.

This post has been edited by XboxWare: Apr 27 2005, 06:35 PM

[cmiz]

my guess is that your shadowC drive in enabled because that would explain why you can't delete the shadowc folder and why changing your C drive isn't doing anything.

you'll need to run a bios loader in order to disable the shadowc drive. where is your dashboard loading from currently? is there an E:\dashboard folder? in that case, just put XBMC there in order to get it to run correctly (note: don't just put the CVS build there, you need the compiled binaries.)

in order to gain access to the msdash with a shadowc drive, just unmod your virtual C drive.

it would probably be helpful if you told us which method you used to mod your xbox. if you used kingroach's UXE installer for xboxhdm, and installed nkpatcher 10 with shadowc drive, then you really don't need to update anything and can just replace the dashboard and unmod the C drive if you'd like.

[XboxWare]

my guess is that your shadowC drive in enabled because that would explain why you can't delete the shadowc folder and why changing your C drive isn't doing anything.

Actually I can't change any files on C-Drive. Files will not delete and trying to overwite a file gives an error.

you'll need to run a bios loader in order to disable the shadowc drive. where is your dashboard loading from currently? is there an E:\dashboard folder? in that case, just put XBMC there in order to get it to run correctly (note: don't just put the CVS build there, you need the compiled binaries.)

I have E:\bios (default.xbe,bios.bin,boot.cfg) that apperas to be PBL-METOO do you think that will let me stop the shadowc so I can fix it?

I do have an e:\dash that I think the current dash exov is being started from now.
I'll try that and see if it works. And I am already running the compiled CVS binaries so I did manage not to screw that up.

in order to gain access to the msdash with a shadowc drive, just unmod your virtual C drive.

I have an image of the orginal drive I would like to put there, but it will not let me delete or overwrite the one that is there. But that might be because it's currently in use like you say.

it would probably be helpful if you told us which method you used to mod your xbox. if you used kingroach's UXE installer for xboxhdm, and installed nkpatcher 10 with shadowc drive, then you really don't need to update anything and can just replace the dashboard and unmod the C drive if you'd like.

Now that I look through all the stuff I have dl'ed I think I used the "SOFTMOD INSTALLER FOR XBOXHDM"

After looking in the readme I think I remember doing
-1: INSTALLS UXE+ PBL-METOO + EVOX-M8 BIOS
and it not working and then trying
-2: INSTALLS UXE+ NKPATCHER WITH SHADOWC IN E:/shadowc/ FOLDER
and that worked.

So I must already be using UXE and NKpatcher.
Is there a way to verify this?

BTW, Thanks for the help so far.

This post has been edited by XboxWare: Apr 27 2005, 08:23 PM

[cmiz]

ok....kingroach made that package so he'd probabyl know more about it than me....but here's what i THINK is happening.

you're using nkpatcher 10. you have shadowc enabled. i know that linux written files are often read only because of a bug in the linux kernel when writing to fatx partitions (can be seen in the E drive writing on xboxhdm). this would possibly make it so that you can't read/write files to the shadowc.img file. my guess is that you should run a bios loader. make sure that the bios is set to point to your dashboard (edit it with evtool or xbtool). this will disable shadowc.img. now delete your shadowc folder on E. now download driveimage tools from the nkpatcher folder under exploits at the usual places. put shadowc creater in your apps folder and run it. you should now be running a virtual C drive that you can edit. now delete everything on it and FTP a over your stock C drive.

another idea that may work is: follow above but BEFORE deleting shadowc folder, FTP it to your computer. now delete it from your xbox and then FTP it back over to the xbox. it should now be writeable and you can edit it.

again...these are ideas....perhaps kingroach will be around with some better info. i suppose you can't really harm your xbox running a biosloader then FTPing the shadowc folder and then deleting it and copying it back...though i've learned that anythings possible!

[XboxWare]

You were right cmiz. nkpatcher was running with shadowc.

After downloading 20 different things I found metoo-m8pack-v1.0 which had a bios I could edit with evtool and would load. This finally gave me access to my REAL C-drive and released the lock on shadowc.img. I copied the shadowc.img I had of my orginal C-drive onto it and now I have access to my orginal dashboard! Thank you, thank you.

Now I need to do some searching and figure out why my settings for enabling 480p and 720p do not stay after a cold boot. I thought I had read you just need to put an eeprom.bin in e:\shadowc\ but that does not seem to be working.

[cmiz]

nkpatcher has the ability to allow and disallow shadow eeprom writing. my guess is that currently it's disabled. you'll need to recompile nkpatcher with writing enabled for the shadow eeprom. otherwise, you won't be able to edit the virtual eeprom.