hi, i made the fateful mistake of clicking on download new levels with softmod turned on, and now i have the 'connect to xbox' live for a dashboard, not the xbox memory manager that came on my box originally. i'm unable to get to the memory manager (usually acessable without a disk loaded in drive) so im unsure how to load the linux installer back to the hard drive, thanks for any help, inkee

You should be able to use the AUF installer or Splinter Cell one. That's what I always did to get the Linux or Evox installer to pop up.