XboxHDM 2.2 (USB Edition) Options

[ldotsfan]

40) Type cd MHDD and press enter
41) Type MHDD and press enter
42) In MHDD, type PORT and press enter.
43) Press the number corresponding to the xbox hard drive and press enter.
44) Type PWD, press enter.
45) Type 0, press enter.
46) CAREFULLY type the 20 character hdd code generated for that specific hard drive by using the method in step 25c. DOUBLE CHECK your number. Ensure that there's twenty characters on the line. Press enter to lock the hard drive.
47) Type EID to verify that it's locked.

Good work but why do we need MHDD (and switch to FreeDOS) ? Doesn't lockhd and unlockhd commands work in linux console mode? Typing in password manually is error-prone I also made hdparm available.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, what changes were made to ndure script?

This post has been edited by ldotsfan: Feb 2 2010, 03:48 PM

[rmathiot]

HARD DRIVE ISSUES
With my particular hard drive (Seagate ST9100824A 100GB 2.5"), no other tools (Linux and/or Dos) could lock it properly.
- ATAPWD doesn't allow extended ascii characters so I couldn't enter in decimal numbers past 127.
- LOCKHD said "Device Not Ready" (I made the properly changes to my BIOS and put it on the ide cable at boot menu).
- LOCKHD (linux) said "Done!" but the drive status said the drive wasn't locked and I verified that indeed it wasn't locked.
- I tried all of these on multiple machines... same errors received and the different computers had different chipsets.
- I spent a week of free time trying to lock my hard drive

+ MHDD was the only tool that could lock my hard drive successfully, because it doesn't have to go through the BIOS to access the Hard drive.
+ MHDD supports extended ascii code, which allowed me to enter in the hex numbers to ascii up to decimal 255.
+ I used it to lock my hard drive on a PC with the Intel 875 Express chipset, a chipset that has been reported to have trouble locking hard drives.
+ UNLOCK (linux) was able to unlock my Xbox retail hard drive with the Intel 875 Express chipset PC.

NDURE SCRIPT CHANGES
1. Deleted the checks for the xbox hard drive and the cdrom at the top (XboxHDM 2.1 already checks for us).
2. Replaced every instance of the directory "xbox" with "xbox2" so it wouldn't interfere with the Flash drive mount to the "xbox" directory. In other words, I found that it was installing the ndure files to my flash drive because of the "xbox" mount point.
3. Replaced every instance of the directory "CD" with "xboxhdm" so that it would point to the correct mount point.

HARD DRIVE BACKUP
+ Used XboxHDM 2.1 to backup the files from my Hard drive to my Flash Drive (16GB) using Midnight Commander (xbrowser). It froze part of the way through, because there were some errors in copying certain files.
+ Used Xplorer360 in Windows Vista with Administrator Privileges. Froze on the same files that xbrowser did, but worked great otherwise.
+ Instead of using xbrowser, I tried using the linux copy program, "cp" with:

CODE

umount /dev/hdc1
umount /xboxhdm
mkdir /flash
mkdir /E
mount -t vfat /dev/hdc1 /flash
mount -t fatx /dev/hda50 /E
mkdir /flash/backupE
cp -Rp /E /flash/backupE

Froze on the same files, but worked nonetheless for the rest of the files.

- dynebolic 1.4.1 (LiveCD) distro didn't work, because it couldn't find the fatx type
- xUbuntu (LiveCD) could've possibly worked, but didn't with my computer setup.

[ldotsfan]

NDURE SCRIPT CHANGES
1. Deleted the checks for the xbox hard drive and the cdrom at the top (XboxHDM 2.1 already checks for us).
2. Replaced every instance of the directory "xbox" with "xbox2" so it wouldn't interfere with the Flash drive mount to the "xbox" directory. In other words, I found that it was installing the ndure files to my flash drive because of the "xbox" mount point.
3. Replaced every instance of the directory "CD" with "xboxhdm" so that it would point to the correct mount point.

I hope you don't mind, I've uploaded your ndure script to xboxhdm2.1 sourceforge. I'll take it down if you do mind and drop me a PM.

It's obvious you know what you are doing and it's always good for the scene to have an alternative way of locking and unlocking the xbox hdd.

I'm still dreaming of the day the equivalent of Textbook's tutorial of softmodding with hotswapping and xboxhdm2.1 comes along

[rmathiot]

I'm still dreaming of the day the equivalent of Textbook's tutorial of softmodding with hotswapping and xboxhdm2.1 comes along

I'm sure it will. I love xboxhdm 2.1, and you did a great job making it. Floppy discs are not found in new pcs and cd-roms are becoming obsolete. That makes it difficult to use the older version on xboxhdm (v1.9). Also, it's harder to use because of the different kernel versions (with Ndure). You have to reburn the cd for every different kernel version. With xboxhdm 2.1, you don't have to waste cds and you can use a flash drive and just switch out the kernel versions (in Ndure). Thanks for the great work!

You're free to upload my ndure script to sourceforge. I took two semesters worth learning the history of unix/linux and I'm familiar with the basic linux commands. I was somewhat disappointed to find that the linux copy command, "cp," doesn't include the v switch, or verbose switch. In the newer versions of the cp command it's included and it allows you to see the files being transferred on the command line.

+ I'd like to request that the flash drive be properly mounted as "vfat" instead of "msdos" on startup in qemu so that the user doesn't have to unmount and remount everytime. (If you want me to do this, I can).
+ Secondly, a more flexible way to switch from slax, qemu, and FreeDOS for those that wish to use MHDD so that you don't have to restart the computer so much during the process. (One way to do this is to be able to launch any of the tools (Dos or Linux) from slax and be able to exit those to return back to the slax login.
+ Thirdly, a linux program that generates an mhdd script (to lock or unlock) based on the key to lock the hard drive from the eeprom analysis done in "lockhd", to avoid mistyping the lock and unlock keys and also to save time.
+ Fourth, a choice between grub4dos, syslinux, and the modifications to add to a flash drive that has other bootable programs on it with grub4dos or syslinux installed.
+ Finally, a one-click program to automatically generate the bootable flash drive (For Windows and Linux).

I could do these modifications myself if I had access to the algorithm that generates the hdd key based on the eeprom (ie. "lockhd" from linux). I would also like the source code for fatx mount type. Let me know if you're interested.

[ldotsfan]

I'm sure it will. I love xboxhdm 2.1, and you did a great job making it.

I didn't do it alone. scullc and fwz came in with critical pieces to solve the puzzle together and we had to rely on many others along the way.

I could do these modifications myself if I had access to the algorithm that generates the hdd key based on the eeprom (ie. "lockhd" from linux). I would also like the source code for fatx mount type. Let me know if you're interested.

Please feel free to make modifications as you see fit. The development thread documented my thought processes and source code is available on sourceforge. AFAIK ldots never released his modifications to hdtool (I gathered he made changes for the xbox 1.6/1.6b eeprom based on his posts). However the hdtool source is available. I also attempted to modify hdparm source to accept hexadecimal passwords but never completed the modifications as I realized I could simply reuse the hdtool binary from ldots's xboxhdm.

Xbox linux documented the algorithm for the xbox hdd locking mechanism.

At this stage of the xbox life cycle, I think it will be a challenge to find testers for your proposed modifications but nevertheless good luck for your endeavours xboxhdm2.1 actually took more than a year to complete and today I still don't own a rig with the necessary requirements to test it myself but that didn't deter me at all from attempting

[rmathiot]

I didn't do it alone. scullc and fwz came in with critical pieces to solve the puzzle together and we had to rely on many others along the way.

Well, tell them thank you as well, and send them free beer for me!

Xbox linux documented the algorithm for the xbox hdd locking mechanism.

Thanks for the link!

I learned about grub4dos and syslinux when I participated in UBCD4Win. I learned so much about USB booting. I should be able to whip something up. Thanks for your help everyone.

[skypnd]

Hello, I have spent the last couple of nights reading up on how to correctly setup and test.
Due to my current (and only) desktop hardware, I can not use xboxhdm 1.9 because isolinux complains about my bios at the very beginning and then fails to detect the cdrom drive after completely booting(the very one it booted from ).

So I decided to give 2.1 a shot, the GUI was giving me errors trying to run rmathiot's modified ndure script ( something about cp couldn't stat. This is most likely from me incorrectly populating C & E), So I tried the command line version which worked for me, kinda, after step 2 , cp errors and says cannot copy because there is no more disk space, and then mkdir errors (I don't recall which files or directories but I mounted the drive and the /C was only 499MB?). I now have unleashx running as my dashboard, but I believe I need to be running evox? From all the tutorials I assumed it came with ndure, but it is no where to be found and I'm thinking it is because I ran out of space when running the modified ndure script. (It was a virgin Xbox I had laying in the corner of my room for who knows how long, XBOX 1.0, K:4032 I believe if that matters.)

I'm kinda stumped as to what to do right now. My goals were to get at the EEPROM so I could put in a bigger HDD. From reading, It appears that I can do that by making a installer disk for evox or maybe even FTPing it. But I would like to get this process down with out any kinks.

I have a bunch of music and old save games, I'm thinking of nuking those and then trying again.

Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated!

Also, I must apologize if I have missed anything in the tutorials or F.A.Q.'s. This community has an impressive amount of information that I've barely begun to digest, many Thank Yous to all those who have contributed their time and efforts over the years!

[rmathiot]

UnleashX is the default dashboard that comes with Ndure. Just download the latest Evox dashboard from the usual places. Extract it and ftp it over to your box in Binary mode. Run it as an app from UnleashX. One more thing. Rename the evoxdash.xbe to default.xbe. Once Evox is up, you can backup your eeprom.

[Heimdall]

For clarity, you only need to rename evoxdash.xbe to default.xbe if you want it to appear in your applications menu. You can just ftp it across as-is, and run it from UnleashX file explorer without renaming it.

[ldotsfan]

I'm kinda stumped as to what to do right now. My goals were to get at the EEPROM so I could put in a bigger HDD. From reading, It appears that I can do that by making a installer disk for evox or maybe even FTPing it. But I would like to get this process down with out any kinks.

Disable virtual eeprom with e:\ndts\default.xbe before making an eeprom backup. My sig has the details on the various methods for softmod hdd upgrades. xboxhdm2.1 can be used for that purpose as well.

[skydra]

I built my flash drive fine but and got this to boot fine also. The problem I have is after I open the terminal and run xboxhd2. I get to the select drive option but my mounted drive is on sda1. And it does not let me manually type in the location. So how would i change mount location or how would i fix it to allow a manual location to be typed in.

Thanks guys!

[skydra]

I wonder if i can get around this problem by using the lite version. Oh i can not use 1.9 because it is a sata hard drive(1tb) and from what I have read this is the best way to go about formatting it since it is a virgin drive and my xbox is soft modded not chipped.

I have a laptop but i have access to some desktops at work so I will try messing with it more later today and post my results. If anyone has any suggestions they would help alot.

[ldotsfan]

The problem I have is after I open the terminal and run xboxhd2. I get to the select drive option but my mounted drive is on sda1.

Are you referring to the select drive option for the various possible IDE connections that the xbox hdd is attached to? It has nothing to do with the location of your mounted usb drive. Or am I missing something here?

[skydra]

Yes and No
Yes I am referring to when xboxhd2 asks where your hard drive is located that needs to be formatted and than asks you to select a number 1-5. ex. hda1

Now where my usb drive is mounted does not matter, I understand that. But my hard drive i wish to format is mounted on sda1, and this is not an option(referring to the 1-5 options in the selection). I have tried to change where the hard drive is mounted by using the terminal and mount commands but that does not seem to be working and i can not put in a manual location.

Thanks for the quick reply idotsfan.

[ldotsfan]

Thanks for the quick reply idotsfan.

Actually there's the letter l and not the letter i in my nick

Type dmesg at the terminal and paste the output in pastebins and post the link here. Is the xbox hdd detected correctly? I'm not sure if locking will work through a sd? interface.