WARNING
This guide hasn't been updated for a long time. Since its release, XBOXHDM and the UDE, UDE2, or UXE exploits have far surpassed the aformentioned data. Do not expect any support from the Xbox-Scene forum concerning these exploits because they are outdated, buggy, and can total your Xbox.
RiceCake...

Guide to installing Free-X/EvoX on an unmodded Xbox with the Bert is cheating on Ernie Hack with XLinux

This guide will guide you through installing the Bert is cheating on Ernie hack to your Xbox so you can run unsigned code on

it. If a moderator or admin likes this I would love for them to sticky it so it can be shared with everyone to help out.

OK, disclaimer first:
What you do to your Xbox is your business and I simply give you this information for educational purposes only and I will not be held responsible for what you do to your xbox or anything that is a result of this procedure.

This is my first tutorial ever so bear with me.
I am writing this after having a hell of a time getting my xbox to run unsigned code without a mod chip. I couldnt get the HDD Driver or the compiling a new Linux kernel method to work so I decided to try XLinux and it worked flawlessly. I will share my experiences here and just let you know how to do it so you dont have to go through all the headahce I went through for this. With this tutorial you wont need to go buy 007 or Mechassault or go get a Mega-x to copy the files to your xbox.

Ok this is what you will need Xbox-wise prior to starting tutorial:

NOTE: These are what i used. If somebody else gets it to work on something else let me know and I will edit this info.

XBox v1.0
Kernel 4034
Dash version 4920 (Use a Live enabled game to upgrade to this. I used Return to Castle Wolfenstein.)

This is what you will need software-wise:

Bert is cheating on Ernie.rar (or .zip i have seen both)
XLinux iso burned onto a cd

NOTE: I am not sure of the policy about posting where to get this software so I wont post it for the time being. If someone will let me know what I can post about it that would be great.

I will edit later how to use the new reloaded hack instead of the original because the reloaded one has yet to be completely tested and I have been told it will not run originals.

OK here goes the procedure:
1. Opening the Xbox and removing the HD
First off make sure that the xbox is unplugged. If not bad things can happen to you or yourself.
You will need a torx 10, 15, and 20 size tools. You can buy them normally in a set together at Lowes, Home Depot, True Value, Fry's, or any other hardware or computer store.

a)
Use the torx 20 tool to open the xbox. There are 6 screws holding it together on the bottom, 4 under the "feet" and two under the stickers. After that just lift the top of the xbox off.


Next we will remove the HD out of the xbox. Underneath the IDE ribbon is a screw, use the torx 10 to remove it. Lift the HD tray up and out, you may have to pull the power cord from the tray first to lift it.

c)
Now we will remove the HD from the tray to make it easier to take out the IDE cable. There are 4 screws on the sides of the tray (2 on each side) remove them. Your HD should be able to be lifted out of the tray now.

d)
Move the HD with the tray out of the xbox and set it to the side with both the power and the IDE cable still connected. We will use this in a second.

If you have problems opening it read this tutorial up until you remove the HD: http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/open1.php
It has some great pictures and can help out a lot with this part.

2. Prepping your computer for the Exploiting of the Xbox
a)
You will need to burn the XLinux iso to a cd using nero, roxio, cdrwin, or whatever burning software you use.


Unzip the Bert is Cheating on Ernie hack to a directory on your HD. Preferably to one at the root directory on your first HD, this will make it much easier later on.

Ok now you are ready to hot swap the drives and put the exploit on the xbox.

3. Hot Swapping the Drives
a)
Connect your xbox near your computer. And turn it on.


Let the it boot into the dashboard and let it sit for a good 5 or 10 minutes just to be safe that the HD isnt accessing data.

When this time is up then go to the next step.

c)
Insert the XLinux cd into your CD-ROM drive. And shut down your computer. At this point take everything off of the second IDE cable and just let it dangle outside of your computer and within reach of the xbox HD. Now turn your computer back on.

d)
Before continuing make sure that the CD will boot on your computer. If needed then go into your bios and set the boot order so that the cd will boot.

NOTE: As of right now the XLinux cd doesnt support USB keyboards so make sure that you have a PS/2 one. This was a problem I had and had to borrow a keyboard from my roommate.

e)
Right AFTER the IDE detection of drives occurs hit the Pause/Break key on your keyboard. Its on the upper right above the Page Up key if you dont know where it is.

WARNING: Before attempting this you should back up your Xbox Hard Drive. This can be done using the HDD Driver tool (can be found on megagames.com in their xbox tools section) in Windows. To do that just boot into windows and run it. It will tell you that it found a xbox HD. Hit OK on any error messages that may pop up. Now go to tools and Backup HDD and set a location. Go take a break and come back and it will be backed up. Now just restart 3. and continue on. If you dont do this and fry your xbox dont say that I didnt warn you.

f)
Now is the moment of truth!!!!
Be very careful and unplug the IDE cable from the xbox HD and plug in the one from the computer into it. Dont touch the bottom of the HD where all the chips are or you might fry it. Make sure you pull the cable out fast or else the HD will remain locked.

NOTE: Keep the xbox on from now on until I tell you to turn it off.

g)
Now hit a the space bar or enter on your computer and it will continue to boot up and load the XLinux boot loader. Now continue on.

4. Copying the data

a)
Hit enter at the boot loader screen and it will boot into linux. You should not see any error messages during the boot. If you did then turn off the computer and over the hot swap from 3. above until it works correctly. This means that you didnt do it fast enough or for some reason the HD remained locked.


After the booting is complete then you will be at a prompt. This is the Linux prompt for you Linux newbs out there.

c)
Type the following commands and hit enter after each:

much props to this tut.. I actually had to balls to try it on a 4034 dash too!! hehe but overall this tut pretty much gave me enough to know what to do especially one who never used linux commands before but at least dos gave me a good direction on which commands do what..

once again thanks man.. now i gotta figure out how to run emus on here.. so far i've gotten xbmp to work.. but not too sure how i'll get dvd movies to play though..

What XBox-linux do i use? "Debian", "Gentoox", "Mandrake" or "Xbox Linux Live Plugin System"?

XLinux man. Its one specially made for this with all the stuff u need. I am not sure if I can post on here how to get it, but just email me and i can tell u.

dude.. when it says xlinux.. there's only one xlinux iso out there..

email sent

do u have to solder and flash the tsop to be able to play backups??

no u dont have to solder the points and flash the tsop. this uses the free-x exploit so its not needed to flash anything, so technically all u have to do when u open ur xbox is to hot swap it.

Thanx for your guide Man!!
I think this one should be a sticky since you explain a lot about Xlinux and everything.
This really helps people that for some reason cant get HDD Driver to run or just get the infinite File Size Error

For those who dont know abput Xlinux
Xlinux come in a rar file and is a 20 MB ISO image that can be burned with Discjuggler and booted through the CDROM.
Just make sure you modify your BIOS so it will boot from the CDROM.

So Khirok you used the Ernie and Bert Reloaded Font hack with the Free-X default.xbe?
Please could you tell me how do I setup my PC`s IDE Cable so it will recognize my PC and Xbox HDD at the same time?
I have my main HD in Primary Master..my CDROM as Primary Slave and finally my Xbox HDD as Secondary Master..
Is that setup OK

ok let me hit up ur questions one at a time:

QUOTE

So Khirok you used the Ernie and Bert Reloaded Font hack with the Free-X default.xbe?

ok, i am glad u brought this up i made a mistake in my guide and i will fix it. u need to have the original bert is cheating on ernie hack also and included in there is a default.xbe and u will need that one to boot up evo-x.

QUOTE

Please could you tell me how do I setup my PC`s IDE Cable so it will recognize my PC and Xbox HDD at the same time? I have my main HD in Primary Master..my CDROM as Primary Slave and finally my Xbox HDD as Secondary Master.. Is that setup OK

yes that setup is the exact same one i used when i did mine so it should work correctly. if u have any problems with it post it and i am sure either me or somebody else will get on here and post a reply to u.

ok, i modified the guide. i was just informed that the new reloaded patch cannot run original games. so i have made the guide back to its original form so that it does not include the new reloaded hack. i will edit it and put in the information for the reloaded hack once a suitable release is released.

Thanks a lot Khirok!
I hope this thread becomes Sticky!
I will do the XlinuX procedure tomorrow because I havent got time now..
I`ll report back later so you can Update your guide

Salud man

im too tired to read everything(its 4:15am) but you go through a hellof alot of extra steps to swap the hard drive. i mean all i gotta do is pause as fast as possible(so it happens BEFORE detection) and then switch the ides without taking anything out of the xbox(i already have evox booting so there is no need to wait 5 minutes)
i think this tutorial is great though

QUOTE

Right AFTER the IDE detection of drives occurs hit the Pause/Break key on your keyboard. Its on the upper right above the Page Up key if you dont know where it is.

In the guide it says you got to pause AFTER the IDE Detections...mmm
Does it matter if it Before or After?

thanks man, yeah i had to pause it after the detection for xlinux though. not sure why this is, but it would not let me do it if it actually detected the drive cause that apparently locked it cause xlinux didnt like it at all.

with this tutoriali am just letting the drive sit there just in case cause i have blown up a few too many pieces of hardware in my day and am just a little over-careful when it comes to a $200 piece of equipment. and i am also assuming that it is just a "virgin" xbox with nothing done to it yet and it boots to the m$ dashboard.

Ok dude. The Bert & Ernie reloaded seems to load my original discs just fine. (Halo and Ghost Recon)

xilicio yes it does matter that you Hot Swap AFTER the pc goes through it's routine device detection. There's no way you'll know until you get a command prompt and through the first few commands.

Thanx Enigmus!

I will try the Bert & Ernie Reloaded (Bert.xtf/Ernie.xtf) with default.xbe from Bert is Cheating on Ernie.
I hope everything goes well.

What Kernel and Dash are you running xilicio?

Im have the following

Kernel 4034
Dash 4920

My dashboard was upgraded through XBL (it was recommended though)
From what I have read..those are pretty compatible with the Exploits..
What about Snake? what have you got?

Kernel 4034
Dash 4034

I know.. I took a huge risk with 4920 but it started out when i found out I can access hotswap via xlinux.. HDD Driver wasn't a option since i'm on WinME but I wanted to look at the the xboxhdd out of curiousity and decided to install Bert & Snuff when I saw the font files in the root folder.. might as well while i'm there.. to better the world by taking these risk and letting the community know I actually didn't need a live update.

Other than that. I just hex edited a copy of the old MS Dash to run through evox.. it works pretty well too.. so far.. everything works.. even against my odds.. very perculiar though..

Nice to hear a succes

BTW Could you give me a link to learn how to Edit the MS Dash through Hex?
I used HDD Driver and now I have a nice back up of my Xbox HD ..I have heard it could take 10GBs but it only took 4 hehe..

PD: If you have MSN you could add me so we can talk about this and I can help you and viceversa..
rovello17@hotmail.com <--- MSN

I figured you would have already seen it since its pinned.

but here it is anyways

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?act...ST&f=45&t=74036

ahh Ok..Yeah I have already seen it..
I will try this guide first then I will look into that one..

Anyway I`ll report back soon to tell you all how I did..I hope well hehe

please do i am interested to see how it goes

Hye Khirok!

Could you tell me please the Linux commands? So far I know these ones

ls: dir list
cp: ?
mv: ?
reboot: unmount and turn off
cd: dir change

What are the COPY and RENAME commands?

I'm not Khirok, but I can help:

cp: Copy
mv: Move, and it can also be used as a method of renaming files.

Just curious, could someone pm me the link to xlinux please? I despise IRC with all my heart...

look on efnet, #xbins then type: /msg xbins !list
then log into the ftp. It's in there

QUOTE (STKD @ Jul 13 2003, 12:09 AM)

"...I despise IRC with all my heart..."

Hence wanting a non-IRC involving pm.

@STKD

I really recommend you IRC for all your exploit/soft needs.
Go to #xbins..acces their ftp...there you will find everything up to date

Thanx Craptastic!

@Khirok

You should upgrade your guide Khirok..I found a little flaw
You said we need to put all the xploits in the root directory ©
I did that and when I insert this command ins xlinux
cp -rf * /xbox/
It copies all the subdirectories too...(Program Files/Docs/etc)

One Q here..
I have Xbox Book.xtf and Xbox.xtf both in /XBOX/ and XBOX/Fonts...what??why?
Also how do I move default.xbe to /XBOX/ you didnt explain that either..

Anyway your guide is great and probably the best for Xlinux!
Thanx alot

stkd, check your pm

let me address the previous concerns and questions real fast

QUOTE

You said we need to put all the xploits in the root directory

i said unzip it to a directory NEAR the root directory not the root directory. i will update the guide later and make this more clear.

QUOTE

One Q here.. I have Xbox Book.xtf and Xbox.xtf both in /XBOX/ and XBOX/Fonts...what??why?

ok it keeps a copy of those files in both places cause older games that use the files in the root directory. when u updated your dashboard it made that fonts directory. so they must keep it backwards compatible so they put it in both places. i am not sure if it is needed to keep it in the root directory or not, i have yet to hear of any problems with it not being there.

QUOTE

Also how do I move default.xbe to /XBOX/ you didnt explain that either..

thanks for pointing that out i wrote this at about 4AM and that was one minor but very important detail i forgot. i just updated the guide and it is in there now.

Thanx Khirok

I just wanted to tell you that so you can improve your guide..Its great though
Why doesnt the ADMIN makes this guide sticky? He/She should

I will do the procedure and I`ll tell you how I did.

Keep the great work

Xilicio

well thanks every little bit helps with it. i wouldnt mind the guide getting stickied, but i guess it just depends on the admins.

and good luck on getting it working.

well, I do I make a backup image of the HDD using xLinux?? I'm using linux cause HHD_Drive dn't work for me. I checked on the xbox-linux project homepage and they say:

QUOTE

With the Xbox hard disk conntected to your linux computer, you can just make an image by running the following line as root: dd if=/dev/hdc of=xbox-image.raw bs=1m

but I get an error:

QUOTE

dd: invalid number '1m'

help!!!

Hey Khirok!

Man it worked
I did everything as your guide and when I boot up my Xbox this happens..
Xbox is trying to boot the original dash the somehow it resets and it shows EVOX Blue Screen
Now to run my backups and APPS do I need to patch my xbe`s with xbedump...or it runs any unsigned code?
Also where should I put my APPS/Media? so they can run from the Xbox HDD

If anyone needs help..just ask..I will help

@BoomDivx

What your problem with HDD Driver exactly? details

well my device manager see the xbox HDD, but HDD_Driver doesn't http://eleves_tim.cmaisonneuve.qc.ca/e0068...help_please.jpg

congrats xilicio, a job well done

the exact same thing happened to me and i hotswapped it in windows and it worked backing it up and nothing else. i know its not that safe but it worked and i wouldnt recommend doing it, but if u have to then go for it.

that right there was the reason i decided to use xlinux after all because that didnt work

Now I have an odd problem..

EvoX shows up but my Xbox LED is flashing red constantly...
Is it because the Xbox is overheated? or I installed the Xploit the wrong way?
Khirok is it normal?..that red flashing light..also when I insert an original game(Splinter Cell) and i try to boot it from EVOX it gives me an error 21 ...
Do you have my same situation?

@BoomDivx

You gotta make sure the Xbox is the IDE SLOT #2 without any devices..
In IDE 1 you should have your PD HD as Master and CDROM as slave..
The Xbox must be Secondary Master

I know, it's the only drive on the IDE 2

Ok now do this..as I did

Boot your PC without the XBOX HDD connected
When XP boots..turn on your Xbox and wait 7-10 mins
Now do the Hot Swap trick...do it fast so the HDD wont get locked
Then go to Control Panel and try to find hardware.
If nothing happened dont worry..just make sure XP looks for the new hardware
Now open HDD Driver and it should say it found the Xbox HDD

that red led flashing means u messed the exploit up and will have to redo it or restore ur drive

Ok thanx Khirok...

I think you should add that info to your guide too hehe

I will redo it right now..but I will make a ltl experiment..
I will use the Bert & Ernie Reloaded with the Free Evox default.xbe

Hello,
I've done everything like you said, but when I try to copy the Bert files into the directory, I get
cp: unable to open 'xbox/(filename)': Read-Only File system
I get this for every file.
Why is it doing that? It's so frustrating.
Thank you

turok are you sure you mounted your xbox hdd??

xilicio glad you know now what to do..

TO EVERYONE TRYING TO HOTSWAP INTO XLINUX WITH THIS TUTORIAL

its fairly easy to hotswap if you know what you are doing.. i suggest the majority of you who are new to linux .... just hotswap into xlinux without using any "mv" or "cp" commands .. read this tutorial carefully and learn to navigate both xbox HDD and pc hdd and see how they are done and understand how they are done.. other than that have fun..

I think thats because your Xbox HDD is still locked..
To unlock it boot up your Xbox and wait for about 10mins..the the Dashboard goes dark your HDD is unlocked

Anyway..

Anyone knows how to copy a folder content to /xbox/?
Im trying to copy the xploit (folder) content to /xbox/..Im trying this command
cp /xploit2/ * /xbox/

Also how can I copy the SKINS folder to /xbox/? It doesnt have extension and xlinux says ommiting or something

khirok you didn't mention after copying over the font files that to umount /xbox you need to type in cd / to get out of the xbox directory.. took me a good 10 seconds to realize what the linux equavilent of cd.. in dos was.. to others possibly they'll try to umount and get drive is in use error and shut down without umounting..

The best way to exit xlinux and save your changes is to type REBOOT
These are some commands I know

cp: copy
mv: move
cd: change directory
ls: dir list

those are the most important

if i recall correctly the reboot command will unmount all drives it is executed. correct me if i am wrong on this though.

I really dont know Khirok..but in another tutorial I read it says I should use that..instead of

umount /xbox
umount /cdrive
halt

Hey Khirok do you know how to copy the Skins folder? I try but it says ommiting
Could you tell me which exploits you used?