Successful Home v3.2 soft-modded xbox Native G: install

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dikdust
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Post by dikdust »

stvmac11 wrote:I tried it and when when I type "pico /bin/native" it says that pico isn't a command, I can't modify the file to do native install on G? :roll:
Use nano instead of pico ;)
dixbox 1.3 hd maxtor 160gb with cooler master linux gentoox and ude softmod
nobspangle
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Post by nobspangle »

The program is really nano anyway, Shallax just aliases pico to nano (well nano -w to be exact).
If you keep an open mind, will your brain fall out?
dikdust
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Post by dikdust »

Anyway I can't still mount f: partition :P. Look above posts
dixbox 1.3 hd maxtor 160gb with cooler master linux gentoox and ude softmod
Chinny
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Post by Chinny »

Your fatx header probably got zero'd out. You'll have to hex edit your hard drive to get your f drive back.

(1) Emerge a hexeditor
(2) dd if=/dev/hda50 of=/headerdata bs=512 count=1
(3) hexedit /headerdata
(4) change the volume id (it should be the second 4 bits) to something else, I changed mine from 0e to 0f
(4a) depeding upon whether or not your f drive was formatted with 32k clusters or 16k clusters, you will have to change the third set of bits from 20 to 40
(5) save and exit
(6) dd if=/headerdata of=/dev/hda seek=15657985 bs=512 count=1

and you should have your hda55 back files in tact.
dikdust
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Post by dikdust »

Uhm Above All Thanks for the answers

I have this situation

00000000 46 41 54 58 00 DD 84 11 20 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 FATX.... .......

my hd is a maxtor 160gb with f: of 137 and the rest of g:

tryed

00000000 46 41 54 58 0A DD 84 11 20 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 FATX.... .......

00000000 46 41 54 58 0A DD 84 11 40 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 FATX.... .......

00000000 46 41 54 58 0F DD 84 11 20 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 FATX.... .......

00000000 46 41 54 58 0F DD 84 11 40 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 FATX.... .......

00000000 46 41 54 58 00 DD 84 11 40 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 FATX.... .......

and the result was
dixbox root # mount /dev/hda55 /mnt/fatx/temp/hda55/
/dev/hda55 looks like swapspace - not mounted

also with the other partition no success ...

Is the right direction I can continue trying ? I have a backup of f: but I don't want lose g: :D
dixbox 1.3 hd maxtor 160gb with cooler master linux gentoox and ude softmod
cory1492
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Post by cory1492 »

I have finally decided to try to "shrink" my partition with xbpartition (see info farther back in thread to see a link to info on this tool). Here is some handy info I found about on disk partition table support:
from Team executer forum
Supported BIOS's

Current BIOS's which can read the partition table from disk are X2 4976.02,x2 4977, Evox D6, Evox M7 and Evox M8. These BIOS's need to be patched with XBtool or EVtool for LBA48 support before they can read the partition table.

Team X-ecuter has announced that they will support on-disk partition tables in their future releases.
(I have an x3 which resets custom partitions with each reset with the config live bios from teamXecuter)
Xbox + X3 + 80GB Maxtor + Gentoox Home 3.2
No loopbacks, and I still have my F drive for xbox apps!
cory1492
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Native install on last 10GB of F drive SUCCESS! (I think)

Post by cory1492 »

Heres what I did to give linux a native install on a (about) 10 gig space of its own with an 80GB Hard Drive and a couple of other handy tools (including my X3)

Backup drive F - JUST IN CASE, as mine got formatted I assume I missed something important

1. burned the Gentoox Home 3.2 Cd
2. Modified Evox M8+ bios (with EVox tool_1.0.9) to have 48bit support enabled - and other personalizations
NOTE: I used the option "partition 6 takes the rest of the drive" and made sure ignore HDD partition table was unchecked --> see http://www.xbox-scene.org to get info on where to find these (search for xbins)
3. Flashed modded M8+ and the gentoox loader to banks on the X3 chip and set the DIPs to the M8 bios
4. Used Auto Installer Deluxe 1.0 to boot into its dash
5. Under Tools, I ran xbpartition and completely erased the non-default partitions (6 was the only one)
6. I enabled partition 6 and sized it up until there was around 10GB of free space
7. I enabled partition 7 and sized it up until there was no free space.
8. Wrote down the Hex code of the start of the 7th partition (G) - which happened to be 07ee8ad0
9. I searched with google for a hex to decimal converter and converted the above number - converts to 133073616
10. Using the instructions posted above, I launched Gentoox off the cd and used Putty to ssh into the xbox
NOTE: At any point that it asks you to format the drive say NO! Do not reset once started!
11. ctrl-c breaks the script allowing access to the command line
12. typed "vi /etc/gentooxinstaller"
NOTE: vi is a text editor, see http://www.chem.brown.edu/instructions/vi.html#chng for list of commands
13. using the commands I pattern searched for start=1565
14. when I found the right spots I replaced the default start=15657985 with start=133073616
15. I then replaced the default seek=15657985 with seek=133073616
16. Exit vi once editing is done with ":wq"
17. Ran the install script with "sh /etc/gentooxinstaller"
NOTE: DO NOT RESTART - this is very very important
18. When asked, do not to format, and install as a native install
19. the rest is pretty much automated from here on out, it take about 3/4 to 1.5hrs to install
20. now, when I want to launch Gentoox, I just switch to the Gentoox loader that is on my X3 and plug in my mouse and keyboard. When I want to play games, I just use the M8+ bios :)

It worked! And native installs are much faster, and use a bit less memory than the regular install.

Now, I just need to fill up my F drive to be sure it doesnt spill itself over the end.
Final NOTE - xbpartition no longer recognizes the G drive I made, and says the F drive is the origional full size(about 70GB), but all the dashboards dont see the extra space, which should be fine as long as you dont change the partition table....or launch from a bios that doesnt support the on disk partition table (which includes the current Xecutor Live Bios)

off topic: Shallax, I hope you get well soon :( ; if you even see this.
dikdust
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Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:12 pm

Post by dikdust »

Chinny wrote:Your fatx header probably got zero'd out. You'll have to hex edit your hard drive to get your f drive back.
[...]

Solved in the same old way: backupped f:, re format f: from evox et voilà f: is now usable in gentoox

/dev/hda55 121G 0 121G 0% /mnt/fatx/f
dixbox 1.3 hd maxtor 160gb with cooler master linux gentoox and ude softmod
elsandalos
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Post by elsandalos »

cory1492 - can i just ask if you xbox is running ok after you did your custom install? That's just what i want to do :?

cheers

EL.
Kali
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Post by Kali »

cory1492 from gentoox do you have problem to read the content of /mnt/fatx/f ?
cory1492
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Post by cory1492 »

It appears to be working great, after a few days and some magic updates its still chugging along :)

Note: like I mentioned above - there are very few bios that currently support it and booting to any of the others will reset the partition table info.(unfortunately this includes the latest X3 bios, and Im heading over there to gripe in a minute)

As far as I have been able to test it, it does not run over the partition from F drive to corrupt the native install.

As to reading from F, well - I havent bothered to do that (yet) because now my Linux partition is large enough to accomodate whatever I want to put there - but I will see if I can get it to mount correctly after I figure out why my recent kernel update is giving me a garbage screen ( Im playing around with Virtual desktop space and probably f'd it up myself)
Xbox + X3 + 80GB Maxtor + Gentoox Home 3.2
No loopbacks, and I still have my F drive for xbox apps!
elsandalos
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Re: Native install on last 10GB of F drive SUCCESS! (I think

Post by elsandalos »

cory1492 wrote:xbpartition no longer recognizes the G drive I made, and says the F drive is the origional full size(about 70GB),
hmm, not sure why this is the case, and it might be worrying from the point of view of F running over into G when it's full. If xbpartitioner doesn't see it, then surely the bios won't, and therefore neither will any xbox apps. (although you say that this isn't the case?).

Shame it's not easier to do a native G install. Must be quite a common request.

El.
cory1492
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Post by cory1492 »

the partition table on the disk contains the custom partition I made, when linux took over the partition I assume it "customized" the partition table to allow for the reiserfs to be located there for the "native" install on the "g" drive (which by the way I technically dont have since the drive is only 80gigs)

As far as my testing goes, all dashboards that I have tried (avalaunch, UIX, Unleash X, Evox) and the other tools (boxplorer and such) see the drive as only having the size I put on it.

Must be a change in the partition table info by linux that makes xbpartition no longer see the last partition that I made. Copying files onto F drive has not overflowed the native install - as long as I am using a dash/bios that supports on disk partition tables I expect this will stay like that, and I did try overfilling the partition but ftp will not let me exceed disk capacity (which is at around 55 gigs as I put the partition to).

Fixed the problem I was having earlier, turns out running xbvset over ssh solved that little mixup ;)
Xbox + X3 + 80GB Maxtor + Gentoox Home 3.2
No loopbacks, and I still have my F drive for xbox apps!
elsandalos
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Post by elsandalos »

sounds like you've got it all sorted :)

nice one

El.
Chinny
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Post by Chinny »

The problem is that both xbpartitioner and fdisk write to the same area of the hard drive. The easiest way to solve the bug would be to grab the source for xbpartitioner and evtool/xbtool and change the sector that the bios checks for xbox parition table.

Really not too hard, just a hassle. However, I haven't yet found the source for evtool, and I'm not too clear on which sector is a good place.
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