[rebulous]

I am attempting to mod my V1.0 XBox. My goal is to permanently load Linux and my plan is to use the MechAssault exploit (my game is the proper version). I have followed to the best of my ability all of the documentation I could find. I built necessary cables, soldered the bridge to enable writing the TSOP, downloaded and copied (via Action Replay) the savegame file to a XBox memory unit. Everything seems fine. I copy the savegame to my XBox, then start up MechAssault. The savegame image provides the "Linux" menu item. However, this is where I get stumped. When I select the "Linux" menu item, the XBox completely freezes and I have to power it off. It freezes with the savegame menu still showing on the screen so it doesn't appear to even attempt to start loading Linux. Any troubleshooting suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've search the forum and Internet, but can't find anything regarding this specific issue. Thank you.

[Chett]

The MechAssault exploit you are using, is it one or two folders that you transfer to your xbox UDATA ?
Does one of them contain a .xbe file or a bios.bin file or vmlinuz file ?

Do you have the game 007 Agent Under Fire ? ... I`ve just recently put together a TSOP flash exploit based on that game, one of the bioses i included was Cromwell, once you flash that to your TSOP it`ll boot any xbox compatible linux distro, i`ll PM you a download location if you are interested.

[rebulous]

Thank you for the reply!

I will get back to you on the files you asked about after I review what I had done - in my frustration, I tabled the project for a couple weeks and I don't recall the file extensions. All I remember is that there were three gamesave files I copied to my MechAssault XBox save area - a standard Linux load, an emergency Linux load and a Dashboard recovery load. All would freeze the XBox when selected.

My intent is to flash Cromwell once I get to the point that I can do that. I was very disappointed that everything was going according to documentation until my XBox froze on trying to load the gamesave.

I only have MechAssault. I don't have 007.

Once again, thank you for your help.

[Chett]

If your still visiting this topic i`ve put together a MechAssault based flasher with a Cromwell bios suitable for your version xbox, PM me for a download location.

[rebulous]

Thank you for helping me. I greatly appreciate it! I wish to tackle this project seeing as I don't like it when others can do something that appears so trivial while I run into a brick wall.

The two biggest challenges have been moding the cabling to allow me to connect the XBox gamepad to my PC so that I could use Action Replay to put the gamesave image on the MU in the gamepad, and connecting the bridge points on the motherboard to allow TSOP flashing. The latter proved particularly difficult given my eyesight.

With the freezing issue I've experienced, what might cause it? Corrupted gamesaves? Does the version of XBox Dashboard have an impact? I know the version of MechAssault matters - and I've verified (according to the docs I'm using) that my version is the correct one. I just want to understand why my XBox freezes at this point when I've watched others (via Youtube) perform the task effortlessly.

Anyway, thanks for the help!

[Chett]

Hi,
I`m unsure as to what the cause of your xbox freezing could be, but as you mention, it could be corrupt game saves, it could also be an older font based exploit and its dashboard version specific, it may be due to having a previous live updated MechAssault game save on your hard drive or even your clock/date wrong.
Anyway, check your PMs, i sent you a download location for my MechFlasher - I`ve tested it, it works 100% so hopefully you`ll have better luck with this one.

Edit: If you run the flasher and get any error 09 00 messages its your soldering at fault, re-check your points and run the flasher again.

[rebulous]

Using the MechFlasher that Chett emailed me, I was able to flash my XBox with the Cromwell bios. The previous savegames I had attempted to use with MechAssault all would freeze my XBox upon loading. This includes the savegame available from the Codejunkies/Action Replay site. In addition, I took Chett's advice and used Xplorer360 to put the MechFlasher image onto my XBox MU. Thanks Chett for the excellent help!

Once I got my XBox booting Cromwell, I downloaded a couple of Linux distros from xbox-linux.org - xebian and gentoox(home) - and burned them to DVDs. I tried booting from the xebian DVD first.

First lesson learned. My XBox is connected to my HD-TV via component video. After the initial Linux boot messages, my screen went black even though the XBox ring of light continued to flash a triad of pretty colours (having never run Linux on an XBox before, I didn't know what the colour sequences signified). I then tried gentoox and got the same result. It occurred to me that maybe the default Linux screen configuration didn't support HD-TV. So I dug out the old A/V cable and connected my XBox to a standard TV. Booted up xebian again and I had a nice display (well, as nice a display as standard TV can provide) showing me fluxbox. Now to figure out how to configure Linux to use HD-TV.

Now on to installing Linux. I thought I would try gentoox(home) first for a HD install. The install got to about 25% of decompressing the image, and then crashed. Bummer. I thought maybe I had a duff DVD burn. So I downloaded gentoox(home) again and burned it to DVD. Same result. Error decompressing the image at about 25%. So I tried xebian next. A flawless install. I now have Linux running from the WD80 GB HD that I swapped for the Seagate 10 GB HB. I'll give the Media Centre gentoox a go I think. I have no experience with either distro, having only ever installed ubuntu on my PC. My goal is to resurrect my XBox as a media streamer. My house is wired for Ethernet, so I'm not too concerned about trying to get a wi-fi dongle working (though I might try it as a project).

And to make things a bit easier, I had modded a USB cable to connect to my XBox. This allows me to use my Belkin wireless keyboard/mouse via USB dongle.

Thanks again Chett for the expert help!

[Chett]

No problem ..... With regards to your PM on the removal of Cromwell, you need the `EurAsia pro generic flash disc` - that will boot if you are flashed with a hacked MS bios or with the Linux Cromwell bios, it loads raincoat and will flash all TSOPs.
If you`re stuck for choices as to what bios to flash the x2 5035 or iND-BiOS 5003 are probably the best of the bunch.