Geek Speak.

PLEASE NOTE

This tutorial is provided for informational purposes only and is pretty out-dated. You're really better off using my bootable CD and building your Xbox hard drive with that. This method does work, but there are really easier ways now. So use this tutorial at your own risk!

Step By Step Guide For A SoftMod EvoX Install and Hard Drive upgrade
By Nate Rice

Part 1 (Swap Trick and Font Exploit)
v1.02 (07/13/04) - Minor changes reflecting the new downloads section.
v1.01 (06/10/04) - Added Links to FAQ Section
v1.00 (05/25/04) - Original Release

WARNING! As always, perform this modification at your OWN RISK. We have done our best to ensure that the information in this tutorial is accurate, but we can not guarantee that it is. We will not take any responsibility for any damage to your Xbox, your computer, or yourself by performing this modification.

This tutorial has only been tested on Xbox versions 1.0-1.4. It has not been tested with versions Xbox's beyond that. If you don't know your Xbox version you can figure it out by visiting the Xbox-Linux website at the following URL: http://www.xbox-linux.org/docs/versionsfinding.html.

This tutorial has not been tested with Xbox Live. There are known issues with modified Xbox's and Xbox Live. Xbox Live has been known to update the dashboard when logged on. Use Xbox Live at your own risk. If you don't plan on using Xbox Live with this Xbox, you can safely continue with this tutorial.

Buttons, icons, menu items, and other things you click or double click on your computer will be formatted like this within the tutorial:

[Okay]

This is simply a visual indicator to you that you should be clicking somewhere on your computer.

1) Requirements

Hardware:

• Xbox
• Xbox Power Cable, Video Cable, and One Controller
• Torx 20 Screwdriver
• Computer Running Windows XP (SP-1 is optional)
• Minimum of 10GB of free space

Optional Hardware (These were helpful for me but are not required):

• Cup (drinking glass)
• Torx 10 and 15 Screwdriver(s)

Software:

• HDD Driver
• Bert & Ernie Reloaded Fonts
• Evolution X (EvoX) Dashboard
• 4920 Dashboard
  (You can check your dashboard version by going to the settings "tab" on your Xbox dashboard then down to system info.)

If you meet all these requirements you are ready for step 2! Obtain ALL of these requirements before you move on to step 2. Trust me on this. You will save yourself a TON of time by simply meeting all these requirements before you start poking around inside of your xbox.

2) Opening Your Xbox

Most guides over look this step but I feel that it is important to explain how exactly to open your Xbox without damaging it in anyway.

2.1) Create a work area where you will have enough space to work comfortably with your Xbox.

2.2) Grab a cup (yes I mean a cup you drink out of). We will use this to store our screws so that we don't lose them. Grab your Xbox and unplug anything that you have plugged into it (Power, Video, or Controllers). Turn it over so that you are looking at the bottom of it. We are going to remove 6 torx size 20 screws from the bottom. Four are located under the rubber feet located in the corners of the Xbox. Two more are located under stickers closer to the middle of the Xbox. Feeling around the stickers will reveal their locations. Peel back the feet and the stickers and remove the 6 screws. Toss them in the cup so you don't lose them.

2.3) Carefully turn over the Xbox and you should be able to remove the top cover.

2.4) Some people optionally remove their hard drive from the mounting bracket but I did not find this to be a necessary step. You can do this now if you think that it will be helpful. Otherwise skip to step 3.

2.4.1) OPTIONAL: Now we will unscrew the hard drive mounting tray from the Xbox case. We will need a torx size 10 screw driver to perform this step. Looking down on the open case of your Xbox you should see 1 small screw near the center of your Xbox. This is the only screw holding the hard drive mounting tray in place. Remove this screw and place it in your cup.

2.4.2) Remove the tray from the case and unplug the IDE cable and the power cable from the back of the hard drive.

2.4.3) Now remove the 4 torx 15 mounting screws that are securing the hard drive to the mounting tray (can be done with a torx 10 but might mess up the bit) and place them in your cup. Now set the mounting tray to the side and reconnect the hard drive to the IDE and Power cables on the Xbox (NOT THE COMPTUER!).

3) Open Your Computer

I won't go into details on this step. If you can't do this step you should take your Xbox to someone with more computer experience. Or have someone assist you with this mod.

3.1)Setup your computer so that you have your hard drive on the PRIMARY IDE channel and have the SECONDARY channel available for your Xbox hard drive. You will be plugging your Xbox hard drive into this channel later while both your Xbox and your computer are powered on. So, make sure it is long enough that it will reach your Xbox with out coming unplugged from your system board.

(Note: You can put a CD-Rom on your primary slave if you feel that you may need it during this process but that is not necessary. Your only requirements are that you can boot to Windows XP and that you can connect your Xbox hard drive later on in this tutorial.)

4) Hot Swapping (Also known as the Swap Trick)

This process has caused a lot of problems for people as it is foreign to most. I, personally, have been repairing computers for nearly 7 years and have never run into anything like it. So I can definitely see how people could have problems. It took me 2 days to figure out how to successfully complete this step, probably for 2 reasons. The main reason being that all of the tutorials I read SUCKED ASS. Hopefully this will be a less painful process for you.

INFO: A little background information on the "swap trick". You may be asking yourself. Why you have to do this step in this particular order. And why you can't just simply plug your Xbox hard drive into the IDE channel and boot up your computer like normal. Well, there is a good reason for this. Microsoft has taken advantage of a little used feature of the IDE standard that allows them to "lock" read and write requests to the hard drive. This is locked with a password that is located within the hard drive firmware. Without providing the proper password to the hard drive when it requests it we will be unable to perform any read or write operations. This password is known only to the Xbox and the hard drive so we are unable to read information directly from the hard drive in the typical manner until we have completed PART 1 of this guide, hence, the need for the "swap trick". You cannot take a hard drive from one xbox and place it into another xbox without updating the password.

4.1) Position the Xbox and the Computer so that you are close enough to connect the Xbox hard drive to the computer IDE cable.

4.2) Plug in the Xbox power and video cables. Note that the video cable is REQUIRED to be in the back of the Xbox but it does not have to be plugged into a TV or other video device. I would, however, recommend that it is, as this will make this process a lot easier.

4.3) Boot up your computer, when you get to Windows, open the Device Manager. This is located in [Start] -> [Settings] -> [Control Panel] -> [System] -> [Hardware] -> [Device Manger]. Close any other open windows.

4.4) Now boot your Xbox without a disc in the DVD drive and wait for the dashboard to appear (Note: your Xbox hard drive should be plugged into your Xbox IDE and power cable). As soon as the dashboard appears your drive will be unlocked and ready for the swap. Some tutorials say to wait for 5 or 10 or even 20 minutes but I found that this is NOT necessary. Once it gets to the dashboard you will be ready for the swap.

4.5) Quickly remove the IDE cable from the back of the Xbox, DO NOT REMOVE THE POWER CABLE. Now plug the IDE cable from your computer into the Xbox hard drive.

4.6) On your computer, click the [+] (plus sign) beside [Disk drives]. It should show your computer hard drive. Right click on [Disk drives] and then [Scan for hardware changes]. If you successfully unlocked your hard drive it will now appear in device manager. If not go back to step 4.4 and repeat the process.

4.7) If you are on this step then you have successfully completed the hard drive swap trick. Congratulations, this took me 2 days to figure out, and probably took you less than 30 minutes. Next we will back up your Xbox hard drive.

*WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING*

DO NOT SKIP THIS NEXT STEP! IF YOU SKIPPED EVERY OTHER STEP IN THIS PROCESS DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. TRUST ME WHEN I SAY DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MODIFY YOUR XBOX HARD DISK WITHOUT A BACKUP. YOU WILL BE SORRY. ODDS ARE YOU WILL SCREW IT UP AT LEAST ONCE AND WILL HAVE NO WAY TO RESTORE IT AND YOU WILL HAVE EARNED YOURSELF A FANCY $150 PAPERWEIGHT.

*WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING*

Note that the HDD Driver is really buggy, so when it crashes, just reopen it and finish the step you're working on or verify that it completed properly.

Launch HDD Driver and perform a backup of the hard disk. Providing you completed all the previous steps, HDD Driver should start and recognize your drive. You will probably get some errors when starting HDD Driver. This is fine, simply ignore them and use the application in the background. Backup your hard drive. This will take approximately 30 minutes.

5) Uploading the Exploit and EvoX dashboard.

5.1) Great, hard drive is backed up. Now no matter how bad we screw it up we can restore it from our image. Phew, takes the pressure off of getting this exactly right the first time.

Browse to the System\Fonts directory. Right click on [Xbox Book.xtf] and rename it [Xbox Book.xft]. Do this for [Xbox.xft] also.

5.2) Now right click on the [Fonts] folder and select [insert] your Bert.xtf and Ernie.xtf files from the bert and ernie exploit folder. Note that you do not rename these files after you upload them.

5.3) If you haven't already, download and extract. You will see a file called "xbedump.exe" and "sign xbe.bat". Now copy the default.xbe file from the Evolution X folder (it may be named "evoxdash.xbe", if it is you'll have to rename it to "default.xbe") and paste it into the xbedump folder. Run "sign xbe.bat" (double click on it). A black window will flash up and run. After it finishes your default.xbe file will now be signed.

5.4) Now upload the font signed default.xbe of EvoX to the "System" folder. Note that this file MUST be named default.xbe or your Xbox will receive error 13 after a reboot. Do not forget to font sign the default.xbe (step 5.3) or you will receive error 21 after reboot.

6) Reassembly and Xbox Reboot.

6.1) Verify that all of your files have copied correctly to the Xbox hard drive. If they have, feel free to unplug the Xbox hard drive and reattach it to your Xbox. Reassemble your Xbox and reboot it. Providing you followed all the steps correctly, your console should boot into EvoX. You now have a soft modded Xbox, congratulations.

6.2) From here you can ftp into your Xbox. Once you have FTP access to your Xbox you can upload pretty much any other software that you want to your Xbox.

*END TUTORIAL PART 1*

INFO: If you are interested, specifically, in why this works or more detailed information on this exploit read this section. If not continue to PART 2. I included this section as it would have helped me enormously to know why I was getting certain errors and to figure out where files were supposed to go in the directory structure.

Your Xbox only requires 3 files on the Xbox hard drive for it to load the EvoX dashboard instead of the Microsoft dashboard. These files are bert.xtf, ernie.xtf, and default.xbe.

Why does uploading these files to the Xbox and renaming the other font files cause the EvoX dashboard to load? When you boot your Xbox it will still attempt to load your normal Microsoft dashboard, this file is called xboxdash.xbe. As it attempts to load, it accesses the files that are located in the "Fonts" directory and then attempts to load them. The fonts that we uploaded into the "Fonts" directory take advantage of the poor error handling of the Microsoft dashboard and send it information that intentionally crashes it. After the Microsoft dashboard crashes, the exploit fonts can then attempt to load a specifically formed default.xbe located in the system directory. This is a fonts exploit signed XBE. If it is there the application will launch and you will be looking at your new dashboard.

If for some reason it cannot find the default.xbe or the default.xbe that is there is not fonts signed. The Xbox will crash completely and will display error 13 if it cannot find default.xbe or error 21 if it finds default.xbe but it is not fonts signed. Error 13 is telling you that the Xbox is missing system files. Error 21 tells you that an application crashed and returned this error as its output.