Audio Exploit Installer/remover., Putting the final touches on it now Options

[Mordenkainen]

I have put together a package that is combination gamesave hack/audio expliot. I am currently polishing it up.

To use it you transfer the gamesave hack using whatever method is best for you to the HD, it is under 8 meg so it will fit on a memcard.

Once you boot to evox using the gamesave exploit you have the option to install and remove the audio exploit as well as swapping in and out the original ST.DB.

Also a stub program has been provided to make sure that your original ST.DB is there when you launch a program (if you want).

NO CHANGES ARE MADE TO C:\!

What does this mean..

1. A simple way to install/remove the audio exploit.
2. Virtually the same footprint as the gamesave.
3. No "reset on eject" problem unlike the gamesave exploit.
4. You do not lose the ability to rip audo, or play your rips as BGM in games.
5. Easily removable and copied to a mem card for playing on LIVE with no signature for M$ to scan for.
6. Easy to bring to a friends house and take with you when you leave.
7. No need to play with font files or change the M$ Dash.
8. Only loads when you want it, so no time problems or worrys about no longer being able to boot the Xbox.
9. Only thing you need a PC for is getting the gamesave to the X....

Anyone interested?

Morden.

This post has been edited by Mordenkainen: Aug 3 2003, 11:17 PM

[peskypescado]

I'm sure there will be a ton of people interested in this. It sounds a ton easier than anything else. Especially once you get it on a memory card. You could change any XBox very quickly.

pesky

[Ridley]

Sounds great.

[mnm6687]

QUOTE (Mordenkainen @ Aug 3 2003, 08:17 PM)

9. Only thing you need a PC for is getting the gamesave to the X....

...and you would need the original game to perform the hack

[brute_force]

Nice

I am available for beta testing

[closer013]

This sounds very cool, in fact if you get this going I might restore my Xbox to factory and use your installer.
Can't wait to see final product.

[deleeuw]

Yup, can't wait to try it.

[daviefresh1775]

after showing my best friend my hacked xbox he went out and got him one so i could do it to his too. and i think this would save me a lot of time!!!

[Jonester]

Sounds good, would be interested in taking a look.

[Mordenkainen]

Ok there seems to be some interest in this so I thought I would give you guys a staus update:

All install/removal scripts work, but need some polishing. They do not provide any display at all, so you won't know if somthing goes wrong. I would like to update them to at least give an error message if something fails.

I have not yet completed the stub program mentioned above, but it should be done soon. Usage would be something like:
1. Rename the games default.xbe to orig.xbe.
2. put my stub default XBE in it's place.
3. Optionally use a tool to change the name of the new default.xbe so it shows up in the evox menu as something other than "Morden's Stub Program"

When you run your game from the evox menu, it will call the stub. This will copy over the DB containing your music if needed, then launch the game.

In addition, I am trying to write another stub that will load before your dashboard to copy the hacked DB back automatically when you are done playing your game and you return to the dash using IGR or a homebrews "return to dash" feature. (I don't even know if you can do this... It may be a pipe dream)

Known Issues/Limitations:

1. Sometimes the IGR and "return to dash" fails, nothing I can do to prevent it. When this happens you will be left with whatever DB was loaded. If it was the Music DB, you will need to use the gamesave to put the hacked DB back. Not a big deal but annoying.
2. It will only work with Evox right now. I am new to C++ programing so took the easy way out (translated: lazy). In the future I will try to make it configurable so it can work with whatever you want to use.
3. And as noted above you will need an original game (007, MA) to load the gamesave (DUH!)

If you're not scared off yet, keep reading.

I have no way to distribute this. It is about 5 meg right now so too big for email and such. I don't think I can put it on "the usual places" as they have been pulling a lot of stuff for legal reasons (that and they haven't returned my emails. )

Also, I do not have 007, so cannot test this with it. There are code differences between the two so they will have different XBE's. I have written XBE's for both, but can't test the 007 version. So if you have 007, and a way for me to get the stuff to you, let me know and you can be my beta tester (translated: Guinea pig).

Morden.

[Mordenkainen]

OK... Another update...

The MechAssault version of the package is complete!!!!!!


It doesn't have the fancy error messages mentioned above, but it works!

It's almost like not having the Audio exploit on there at all, it's there when you want it, not there when you don't!

I am currently writing up some documentation for it (you know that stuff developers hate!) and will let everyone know when it is done.

Distribution is still a problem! I cannot run a FTP server or email this to everyone. I know XBins won't host it....

If anyone has or can set up a way to distribute this package let me know!


BTW - It currently uses Phoenix BIOS Loader 1.2 - I will look into updating to 1.3 when I am done with the doc.

A big thanks goes to evryone who's hacks I used to make this work... you will get credits in the doc!

Morden.

This post has been edited by Mordenkainen: Aug 5 2003, 11:33 PM

[Mordenkainen]

And the read me:

QUOTE

The All In One save hack. ============================================================================ Description:   This file contains everything you need to allow your Xbox to load unsigned applications while maintaining the ability to easily remove/restore this exploit.   It has the advantages of the standard audio exploit without losing the ability to rip and play music CD's.   It does NOT suffer from the clock issues, and leaves the Xbox HD (with the exception of the UDATA directory) unchanged after running the uninstall. If MS begins scanning for HD changes, this save game can be deleted and no traces should be left on the system (as long as you also delete any other changes you have made!). Use of the original MS Dashboard is supported without modification (A small modification is required if you wish to use the stub to launch it, this is detailed below). Requirements: - An Xbox (DUH) - MechAssault Instructions: Basic steps: 1. Boot the MechAssault save. 2. Install the Audio Exploit. 3. Boot the Audio Exploit. 4. Update games with Game Stub. (Optional, but I think you will want to!) Before you start: - If you already have ripped some music, check to see that you do not have a soundtrack named "Soundtrack 1". If you do, rename it to something else before even attempting this! Booting the save game: - Copy the 4d530017 to the e:\UDATA directory. (Including folders.) (Several methods of doing this are mentioned below, also see the excellent forums at www.xbox-scene.com) - Boot MechAssault - Select Campaign - Select the "Run Linux" save game. (Doesn't work if I change the name, don't know why!) - You should see the Phoenix Bios loader screen then Evolution-X Installing the Audio Exploit: - Select the "Audio Hack -> Install" menu item from Evox. - When done it should return to Evox. (It somethime hangs when restarting Evox, but it's no big deal) Booting the Audio Exploit: - Boot Xbox with any music CD in the DVD Drive. - When music starts playing, hit B-DOWN-A-Right-Right-A-A-A - Evox should boot. Updating games (and the MS Dash) with the Game Stub: The gamestub is an application that dynamicaly copies your original ST.DB into place before launching your game. This allows you to play ripped tracks in your game as if you did not have the audio exploit installed. It can also be used to listen to/rip music in the MS Dash. For Games: - Rename the games default.xbe to orig.xbe. - Copy the gamestub.xbe from the util directory in the archive to the games directory. - Rename gamestub.xbe to default.xbe - (Optional) Use XBE Renamer (from xbox-scene) to rename the new default.xbe to whatever name you would like the game to be displayed in the Evox menus as. If you skip this, the name displayed will be the same as the folder the game is in. For MSDash: - COPY (THIS IS IMPORTANT!) the c:\xboxdash.xbe to c:\orig.xbe. - Copy the gamestub.xbe from the util directory in the archive to the c:\. - Update Evox.ini to point the NSDash to c:gamestub.xbe. Removal:   - Boot to Evox. (use either the audio exploit or the gamesave, it doesn't matter) - Select the "Audio Hack -> Uninstall" Menu Item. - Poof! All gone.... Well mostly. If you used the gamestub on anything, it will be left behind, Before running the Uninstall command, delete these and rename your orig.xbe's back to default.xbe. - Also, anything you have loaded on the box is still there. So if you want a clean system, just remove these first! Known Issues: - Sometimes when using IGR, or if you just turn the xbox off while playing a game, you are left with the music BD in place. If this happens just boot using the gamesave and select "Audio Hack -> Install Hacked DB" Menu Item. This should make everything all better! Contents: - MechAssault save game exploit. - Phoenix Bios Loader 1.3 - habibi signed - Evolution-x 1.8.3752 - Xecuter-2 4977 BFM BIOS (Modified) - Phoenix skin - Audio Exploit ST.DB - A bunch of program of my own making. Configuration: - Phoenix is configured to set the LED to gggg (Always green) - Evolution-x is almost the default configuration. Changes are:   - Phoenix Skin   - No static IP set (DHCP only)   - All flash commands removed from .ini. (Who needs them with this?) - Xecuter 4977 BFM Bios   - Reconfigured to boot evoxdash.xbe in the save game directory. And a second BIOS   modified to boot a specail app to restore the DB when needed. Getting this on the Xbox: Only follow the below links until the point of actually copying the save game to The xbox, then just load up the save game and follow the above directions. Method one: HDD Swap trick. http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?act...ST&f=45&t=73720 Method two: Action Replay & Mega-X Key. http://quikboard.com/xboxxx/part1.html Method three: Build your own Action Replay. http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?act...ST&f=44&t=79198. Method four: Use a friends Modded xbox. http://quikboard.com/xboxxx/part1.html Thanks to: The Phoenix Team The Evolution-X Team The Xecuter Team Whomever discovered the game save exploits in MechAssault and 007: AUF. Whomever discovered the Audio Exploit. (But no thanks for making only boot Linux!) Adso58 for getting the Audio Exploit to boot whatever! TieDyedGuy for all his help in getting me on my feet writing the XBE's. Xbox-Scene for all the useful info Xbins for getting this stuff out to all of us No thanks to: M$ for making so damn hard to get the XDK! Support:   I just put this package together, so I can't give much support on it. But you can always leave a message in the forums at www.xbox-scene.com Disclaimer:   I, nor any of the teams listed above, are responsible if you kill or damage your box using this. You have been warned! License: Phoenix BIOS Loader is released under GPL. To honor the wishes of the Phoenix team, full source code for the Phoenix BIOS Loader is included. Enjoy! -Mordenkainen

[underthebridge]

awesome, I wish I could help you host it, but noone can give out the link on the forums...

This has to get on xbins! PM Iriez, I think he might be able to help.
Great work!

Can you also change the button sequence (B-DOWN-A-Right-Right-A-A-A) to something simpler ?

[Mordenkainen]

Unfortunatly not.

That is the way the audio exploit works. Even though I wrote a few "helper" apps to go with it, it's the same exploit.

[deleeuw]

A question:

I don't quite get what your readme is refering to when it says, "For Games" and "For MS Dash". Are you saying we'll have to go through the process described under the "For Games" heading for every game (or app) we put on our X-Boxes?

This post has been edited by deleeuw: Aug 6 2003, 03:48 AM