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GAF's Xbox360 Homebrew & Exploit Thread

itxaka

Defeatist
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Any help is appreciated. Comments, writing, pictures, news, questions, whatever you think is useful and can be better. I know it sounds technical and complicated, but with just a bit of soldering skills anybody can solder 7 points!

Thanks to eol, xbox-scene and a lot of unknown people for the photos and diagrams.

This topic is Dragona approved, so before you start shouting "Pirates!" think again. Thanks.


News.png


18/02/2010 - SDL libraries released

18/02/2010 - OpenJazz360 released
bout:
Jazz Jackrabbit is a platform game produced by Epic MegaGames. The game features six episodes; each episode consists of three worlds, with two levels and a boss level. Jazz has a life bar; when enemies shoot or come in contact with him, he loses health that must be replenished by collecting carrots. If his health falls to zero, Jazz turns to ash and the level restarts from the last checkpoint. Also, instead of jumping on enemies Jazz must shoot his enemies with a blue gun he always carries. A variety of different bullet types can be found in the game and do varying amounts of damage.




Exploit.png


What is this "exploit"?

Is basically a XELL (Xenon Linux Loader) wrote on the header of the nand that reboots the console with the newest dashboard and applies some patches while doing it, thus removing limitations of the kernel like using any HDD or launching homebrew (Unsigned .xex). This in conjunction with the jtag, that allows the modified nand to run, is the exploit.

Is it for beginners?

Yes. There is only one difficult step and that is soldering, but even with basic soldering skills you will be able to do it.

What are the prerequisites?

Dashboard equal or less than 7371; Manufacturing date earlier than 16/06/09 ; Lot 924.
For consoles that came back from the repair centre, the repair date has to be earlier than 16/06/09.

How do I know my Xbox dashboard version?

System configuration -> System Info ->"Dashboard:". If it is 2.0.7371.0 or lower you are in!

Which console version do I have?

Check the power connector on the console:

Placam.jpg




Would I be able to keep playing on LIVE?

NO. Your console will be banned for sure. This is why I recommend seeking out a second hand console just for this purpose.

Vocabulary

Keyvault: Kind of like the console key.
Config: The console configuration like the network MAC and such.
Nand: Where the dashboard is stored.
J-tag: The hardware exploit. Makes the console ignore anything wrong with the nand, thus being able to launch the XBR (rebooter)


Installation.png


Tutorial with Xellous, the quickest method available to flash your nand!

Go to the wiki to check the full installation.

Or check a really good tutorial at Xbox-Scene

Dashboards.png


FreestyleX

FTP Support. (Slow at moment)
List XBOX 360, XBOX Live, Application and Emulators, and launch them.
Support for artwork for each title, including boxart, screenshots and icon.
Use pc to download artwork to xbox either via usb drive or ftp.
Browse games by genre.
Favourite games support.
Fullscreen screenshot viewer.
Fully skinable.
Uses indexer to allow you to download artwork, and edit the metadata with
each game.
Customizable overscan so you can set the dash to display all its information
even when other launchers cant.
Source code released too.

Xexmenu

- Gametitle extraction from NXEART if possible (toggle)
- Games with more than just one XEX will show up multiple times
* Embedded FTP Server to transfer your stuff directly from your computer
- Use xbox:xbox@ip:21
* Use FTP to read/write/delete your onboard flash
- Only user flash/flash is able to do that!
* Support for all found XEX files. Not just default.xex (toggle)
* Shows the content of any GAMES folder on any device
- Use GAMES, APPLICATIONS, EMULATORS for auto discovery menu on each device
* Switch between games/apps/emus in the discovery menu using RB/LB
* Auto scale skins for most resolutions (toggle)
* Different help screens for each menu
* Use DPad to switch between devices while browsing files
* Xbox1 compatibility partition support (if exists)
- Xbox1 partition known as "HddX"
* Alphanumeric listing for files
* No more XEX auto patching when copying DVDs
* Manual XEX patching for freeBOOT users
* Configuration menu

Menu Kiosk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFnaJuF-Ucc
Modification of one of the old Kiosk disc used to carry demos and with the old "blades" dashboard. Unfortunately the project is abandoned but the few images/videos around show that it was very promising for people that miss the old dashboard.


IngeniouX

Features:
* Interface with tab system for navigate trough main function
* Listing of downloaded content (WIP...)
* FTP server
* Image viewer
* Text viewer
* Listing of extracted game :
1. Show icon of the game (manually extract with Y -> "Extraire l'icone")
2. Show preview of the game (manually extract with Y -> "Extraire preview")
3. Extract full HD picture of the game directly in Wallpaper folder (Y -> "Extraire l'image HD")
* File browser :
1. Dual browse view
2. Move/Copy/Delete/Create (Multi-selection like unleashX on the work eg. you press X, that select the current, and go to next entry)
3. File property (WIP...)
4. Extract of DVD with Y (WIP...)
5. Archives handling (tar, tar.gz, zip in extract/compress, rar in extract, WIP...)
6. Contextual menu handle all of this functionnality. You can also define a folder as a game folder by selecting "Definir comme dossier à scanner" in browser.


Otherutils.png


XM360
Unlocker of XBLA games. Useful to move your XBLA games to your second internet-less console. Also contains a XBLA and DLC collection database to know which games and DLC do you have exported on .csv files, list of ignored games and much more.

Flash360
An utility to flash your nand directly from the console. Forget about having the nandumper installed after the first flash!

Quickboot

QuickBoot allows you to build "short cut" LIVE containers that will allow you to launch applications directly from NXE.

The three main advantages of this are:
* Saves time by loading the application directly, rather than having to use XexLoader to browse the file tree and find the executable.
* Bypasses the 4GB size limit on live containers as you're not actually storing the application data in the live container, merely making a shortcut to it.
* Allows you to load applications off of external hard drives etc. straight from NXE.

NXE2GOD
Sick of changing DVDs even when you have installed your games to the HDD?
NXE2GOD is an application for homebrew 360s that will convert NXE installed games to Games on Demand.

FanSpeedFlasher
App to set the fans of the console at a fixed speed. Overheating problem? Fix the fans at 100% to avoid the dreaded 3RL!

libSDLx360 V0.01

SDL Library for Xbox 360 Consoles

I've had this code for quite some time but its good enough to release. This code is based off the original libSDLx code I wrote for the Xbox over 6 years ago.

The original DX8 audio/video calls were replaced by DX9 stuff and XAudio2 code to work with the Xbox 360.

This is just the source code to build the libraries. No binaries are included so its 100% legal!

Usage
=====

Archive contains 3 folders:

- libSDLx360 contains main SDL project source code
- SDL_ttf360 is SDL TTF project source code
- SDLTest is a sample project showing a simple test of SDL

Basic SDL functionality is up. Graphics/audio/threads/filesystem/joysticks are all in and working nicely.

TODO
====

- Lots of optimizations
- Mouse/Keyboard/cdrom code is not written (yet)
- SDL Mixer doesnt exist (yet)

Help
====

Any source code patches people have will be helpful. Im especially looking into DX9 rendering optimizations and improvements to the software blitter code. Thanks

Greets
======

Greets to the scene.

Download here
===========

http://www.sendspace.com/file/hoy0f1
 
This is going to be a great resource for when I get into homebrew for my 360. If this is going to be anything like the Wii thread then this will be great.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
I'm not really interested in doing this to my console since I like Live and obviously I have no interest in any of the more nefarious purposes.

However, I notice that XBLA games have apparently been hacked and JTag'd 360s can play copied/pirated XBLA games. In order for this to be possible, it must be possible to dump XBLA games, which is what I'm interested in. I want to back up my XBLA and Xbox Indies purchases onto my PC in a way that in the future, if a 360 emulator comes out, I can play them and so that if anything gets yanked off the marketplace and isn't redownloadable, I don't lose my content.

So, given that I have an unhacked 360 with a legit 120 gig hard drive (and don't intend on hacking my 360 in any way at any time), how do I back up my XBLA games onto a PC? Is there some special software to decrypt them? How do I hook up the hard drive to the PC?
 

Dogenzaka

Banned
This looks really cool. Unfortunately I wouldn't try it because I only have 1 360 (still under warranty) and don't want it banned.

But anyone else who does do this, let us know how it goes.
 

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
Stumpokapow said:
possible to dump XBLA games

Simply connect your HDD (take it apart from the cradle, it's just a standard 2.5" sata hdd), and browse the files with xplorer360.

Hopefully they release a downgrader, as my 360 is too new.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
alr1ghtstart said:
Simply connect your HDD (take it apart from the cradle, it's just a standard 2.5" sata hdd), and browse the files with xplorer360.

Is it really that easy? It's guaranteed that if I copy the files right off the hard drive like that, they'll be playable later and won't need additional decryption or anything? Cool.
 
Stumpokapow said:
Is there some special software to decrypt them? How do I hook up the hard drive to the PC?

No there isn't decryption software yet. A homebrewed 360 ignores all the checks and just plays the games. And use a transfer kit to hook up your HD to your computer. I've been backing up my saves for quite a while just as a double backup for my memory card. Came in handy once or twice.
 

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
Stumpokapow said:
Is it really that easy? It's guaranteed that if I copy the files right off the hard drive like that, they'll be playable later and won't need additional decryption or anything? Cool.

well it should still stay digitally signed to your box, so yes. If you want it to use it on a different box, I think you need to strip the DRM or whatnot.
 

itxaka

Defeatist
ReXXXSoprano said:
No there isn't decryption software yet. A homebrewed 360 ignores all the checks and just plays the games. And use a transfer kit to hook up your HD to your computer. I've been backing up my saves for quite a while just as a double backup for my memory card. Came in handy once or twice.


Actually it doesn't in case of DLC/XBLA. I had a hard time transferring my Fallout 3 DLC from one console to the other as is locked and I had to poke around with an hex editor after checking some manuals. For XBLA is more automated but it still has to be unlocked.

Thankfully I don't have 350k DLC/games like speevy :p


I thought microsoft bans homebrewed consoles?

Yep, that is why I recommend getting a second hand console. Even better if it's a banned console (not from this last batch!) in order to get it cheap.
 

Firestorm

Member
God if I could run games off my HDD (no disc) without a fear of a Live ban I'd pay whatever batshit crazy price Microsoft would want me to pay for their largest hard drive.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
Firestorm said:
God if I could run games off my HDD (no disc) without a fear of a Live ban I'd pay whatever batshit crazy price Microsoft would want me to pay for their largest hard drive.

So true
 

bee

Member
never heard of NXE2GOD before, that allows you to install games to the hdd and play without the disc yeah? pretty much worth it for that alone to stop the jumbo jet soundalike drive from spinning up
 

MMaRsu

Banned
I actually have an old Xbox 360 lying around, and the discdrive is broken on it. It can't read anything at ALL. Not using that, might see if I can use it for this :eek:. So it's possible to back up your owned Xbox 360 games to iso's, and then play them on a 360 with homebrew on it? I'm not good with any of this stuff, so I don't really know how it all works.

I'm talking pure hypothetical here.
 

itxaka

Defeatist
bee said:
never heard of NXE2GOD before, that allows you to install games to the hdd and play without the disc yeah? pretty much worth it for that alone to stop the jumbo jet soundalike drive from spinning up


That plus the Fan Speed Patcher in order to put the fans at the best sound/cooler console ratio makes it a bliss to play on old consoles. Plus the exploit allows to put whatever HDD you want on the 360 so you can store all your games on the HDD without paying the MS accessory tax.


I actually have an old Xbox 360 lying around, and the discdrive is broken on it. It can't read anything at ALL. Not using that, might see if I can use it for this :eek:. So it's possible to back up your owned Xbox 360 games to iso's, and then play them on a 360 with homebrew on it? I'm not good with any of this stuff, so I don't really know how it all works.

I'm talking pure hypothetical here.

Not possible without a DVD drive. You need to read the 360 games and there is no other way of doing it than reading them from an original Xbox drive.
 

Manp

Member
did the XBReboot thing on my second 360 a couple of weeks ago.
it certainly works and it allows to do some cool stuff (running things from HD and even external HDs. the ability to upgrade the internal HD to whatever size you like is also interesting) but the lack of an XBMC like app is keeping my interest at minimum.

once the fun of getting the mod working (soldering wires, flashing the rom, etc.) went away i barely touched the modded console.
the interesting part for me was really just getting the thing to work...

693se1.jpg
kstj7.jpg


(sorry for the crappy iPhone pics)

:)
 

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
Is there much else I can do then load games off the HDD without my disk? I mean, I can do all sorts of cool things with Wii Homebrew, like use my Wii Fit board as a digital scale.
 
MMaRsu said:
I actually have an old Xbox 360 lying around, and the discdrive is broken on it. It can't read anything at ALL. Not using that, might see if I can use it for this :eek:. So it's possible to back up your owned Xbox 360 games to iso's, and then play them on a 360 with homebrew on it? I'm not good with any of this stuff, so I don't really know how it all works.

I'm talking pure hypothetical here.


You would need to install the game as normal (disc in drive), then as far as I can tell, it would convert the installed game to be read as a game-on-demand format, where the disc isn't needed.
 

Gowans

Member
It's tempting to get a ebay banned 360 just for a media centre with this.

XBMC would be awesome, any .MKV support yet?
 

MMaRsu

Banned
SuperAwesome said:
You would need to install the game as normal (disc in drive), then as far as I can tell, it would convert the installed game to be read as a game-on-demand format, where the disc isn't needed.

But I'm reading here that this supports external HDD's? Is it not possible to put the iso on the HDD and then playing that on the 360? Or am I not understanding this :p.
 
This is news to be because I never knew the 360 homebrew stuff had come this far, was still thinking that the dvd tray hacks were the only "homebrew" possible.

How long ago was the 360 finally cracked open?
 

itxaka

Defeatist
Gowans007 said:
It's tempting to get a ebay banned 360 just for a media centre with this.

XBMC would be awesome, any .MKV support yet?


There is a guy porting libavcodec to the 360, so if things go well in the near future it will be able to play everything.

So sad that the XBMC guys don't want anything to do with the 360.. :_(


Is there much else I can do then load games off the HDD without my disk? I mean, I can do all sorts of cool things with Wii Homebrew, like use my Wii Fit board as a digital scale.

Not yet really, the scene kind of started not long ago, but in the last weeks they have been working really hard.

OpenJazz was actually released today!
 
MMaRsu said:
But I'm reading here that this supports external HDD's? Is it not possible to put the iso on the HDD and then playing that on the 360? Or am I not understanding this :p.


It seems like you'd still have to install the game to the 360 hard drive, then you could start moving things around.

Either way, a working disc drive would be required.

It reads working SATA (I believe) and external USB hard drives.

Edit: I think you can use that XeXMenu or whatever to rip it straight to any of the hard drives you have in the console if you don't want to use NXEtoGOD
 

Manp

Member
SuperAwesome said:
You would need to install the game as normal (disc in drive), then as far as I can tell, it would convert the installed game to be read as a game-on-demand format, where the disc isn't needed.

the sad part is you don't really need to install the game from disc...

that's the point imho, the "scene" is still focused on getting "those other things" to work.
as of now the homebrew scene is really not that interesting to me.

yeah, i would really love an XBMC port :lol

:)
 

Chesskid1

Banned
i'll mod my xbox 360 when they have a sick home media interface like XBMC working on it, for i can use it to play all my movies in some slick interface. that's the main thing i'm waitin on before i mod my xbox. otherwise i'll use my ps3's not so slick interface till it comes.
 

eznark

Banned
I had my original xbox modded and it was fucking awesome. Sadly the power source fried. I've been meaning to pick up a used 360 for the same purposes.

Question, can a modded 360 play Netflix? I have no idea if Microsoft only checks via games or if they figure it out in some other way?
 

ConfusedMan09

Neo Member
Yep, the 360 homebrew scene is really starting to get somewhere. Did the Jtag hack a couple of months ago, and loving it. Got myself a separate live console though.

XEXMenu guys have been real quite lately, but in that time freestyle dash has definitely given them a run for their money. Also its open source :D
 
It's great and all, but how hard is it to find a usable 360 for this? Basically, you need either -

1) a system that was banned over 8 months ago

2) a system that hasn't gone online in 8 months

or

3) a system that's been sitting in a warehouse or store shelf for 8 months
 
Ah balls - just read through the wiki and it doesn't look particularly easy. Anyone know anyone in the hombrew scene in the UK / Ireland who sells models ready exploited?
 

ConfusedMan09

Neo Member
Investigation Team Go! said:
It's great and all, but how hard is it to find a usable 360 for this? Basically, you need either -

1) a system that was banned over 8 months ago

2) a system that hasn't gone online in 8 months

or

3) a system that's been sitting in a warehouse or store shelf for 8 months

To be honest, not that hard. I found a January 09 Xbox on eBay for £130. My tactic was to message almost every ebay listing regarding used xbox's, asking the seller to check the dashboard version. Got 6 or 7 hits. Its crude, but it works. You'd be surprised how many people just don't ever play on their 360, then just end up selling it.
 

itxaka

Defeatist
ConfusedMan09 said:
Well, you do have to patch a single file to get rid of the region lock. Super simple, and takes 10 seconds :D
I thougth that the Xbrebooter latest versión just ignored any checks done to the games?
 
Firestorm said:
Why bother with an XBMC port? Just grab an Acer Revo and run XBMC on that.


Did they port XBMC to X86 or are you referring to Boxee? Cause Boxee still has a ways to go before it is as nice as the XBMC interface. On top of that, the Windows port seems to be very buggy. I've been very disappointed with it so far but they keep pushing out new betas so maybe it will get there.
 
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