Retail xbox to DEBUG xbox

[iBotPeaches]

Retail xbox to DEBUG xbox

Tutorial originally from xbox-HQ, re-written by iBotPeaches of iBotModz.net

 

NOTE: If you don't have a MODCHIP, or don't have a softmod BIOS changer from a TSOP Flash. You NEED an illegal DEBUG BIOS. Such as "Complex BIOS Build 4627" If you don't know what this means, or you don't then I'd recommend logging into #xbins picking up a BIOS and flashing it.

 

The aim of this tutorial is to allow you to convert your normal retail XBox machine into an XBox that can additionally behave as development XBox machine.

• Developing your own XBox software and being able to use full remote debugging facilities
• Screen grabbing and movie grabbing
• Reverse engineering software (for making game trainers, etc)

 

This tutorial is not aimed at beginners, it's assumed the reader (YOU) has a good understanding of computers, consoles, programming and hardware. However, it is reasonably easy to do and plenty of screenshots have been provided so that you can see the outcome of this tutorial

 

 

Disclaimer:

Before proceeding any further let me just say that I will NOT be held responsible for any damage caused to your xbox.. I have written this tutorial to guide all those interested in Xbox Homebrew Development on the easiest way to get programming with your xbox.. I have used this tutorial many times and works perfectly.

 

Important:

You should already know how to flash your xbox modchip before proceeding with this tutorial.. You will be required to flash your modchip with a DEBUG BIOS before the DEBUG DASHBOARD will function.. I don't even own a modchip that supports multiple banks i only have a 49LF020 home brew mod so i just use the PHOENIX BIOS LOADER to load whatever bios i like on start up.

 

Chapter 1: Backing up your retail xbox files

 

The first thing that needs to be done is a full backup of your xbox hard drive.. We do this just in case you make a mistake during the installation procedue and need to rollback because of an error.. Don't worry its not that hard.. Ive done it several times on my xbox and it works flawlessly..

 

FTP into your xbox and backup your (C and E Drive, or F if you carry any system files there.) on your xbox.. Backup the xbox partitions to your pc hdd. You want to make sure you have a BACKUP of your files, because if you accidentally overwrite one wrong, theres no way to get the files, because xbox modding is very tiny so make sure you have a backup on a disc or something.

 

Chapter 2: Installing the PC development applications:

 

(For this part, if you want to keep it safe try downloading via torrent (Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 .net Enterprise Architect))

 

# First step will be to install Visual Studio.NET.. You don't have to install the whole .NET application if you don't want to either.. The files we will be needing are Visual C and everything under the Visual C folder in the setup options. If you are unsure just leave the default settings alone..

 

# You DO NOT need to Install MSDN at all unless you want to use it specifically.. MSDN is the Microsoft Developers Network Help Files, Samples etc and are not required to compile xbox applications..

 

# Install the XBox SDK.. Run "XDKSetup5849.exe" from the latest XBOX SDK 5849 release..

(Please do not ask me or anyone else where to get SDK files from, given the amount of information out there on the net you should be able to figure this much out for yourself.)

 

# Once the "XDKSetup5849.exe" installation has completed start up Visual Studio.Net and you should see the XBOX icon.

 

 

# Once you have seen the Splash Screen with the Xbox Logo just close Visual Studio again.

 

 

Chapter 3: Extract the required files from the XDKRecovery tool

 

# Install WinRAR (latest version) available from http://www.winrar.com and start the application.

 

# In WinRAR go to the location that you have your XBOX SDK installation files to (i.e. the place that had xdksetup5849.exe in it) and right click (open w/ winrar) XDKRecovery5849.exe. Now you should be able to browse the files in here from the winrar window.

 

# Using WinRAR, extract all the files somewhere, e.g. C:\extractedxboxfiles, overwrite all files in destination folder (there are different versions of the same file in the XDKRecovery5849.exe file).

 

 

Chapter 4: Installing XDK files to your XBox:

 

# Now we need to add some files from the extracted XDK files to your current XBox backup folder (e.g. copy the following files from "C:extractedxboxfiles" to "C:My XBox")

 

Source (e.g. C:extractedxboxfiles) Destination (e.g. C:My XBox)

Files to copy / Notes

XDASH C:/ xshell.xbe only
XDASHdata C:/data All files, recursive
XDASHimages C:/images All files, recursive
XDASHmedia C:/media All files, recursive
XDASHsounds C:/sounds All files, recursive
XDKSAMPLES C:/XDKSAMPLES All files, recursive
XBOX E:/ dashboard.xbx and xbdm.dll
DEVKIT E:/DEVKIT All files, recursive
TDATA E:/TDATA All files, recursive

 

Now recursively upload all the files from your current XBox backup folder (C:My XBox) to the XBox itself.

 

After you've done it, your folder structure should look something like this:

 

 

Ok, that's everything installed on the xbox, now if you were to just reboot you wouldn't see anything different!!!

 

That's because the debug bios isn't being used yet. Debug bioses look for "E:/dashboard.xbx" when you turn your machine on rather then the default "C:/xboxdash.xbe".

 

Turn your machine of and switch your modchip over to use the debug bios that you installed earlier, then turn it back on, you should now be looking at the XDK Launcher application, follow on-screen prompts until you're looking at the main screen of it:

 

 

Note the IP address is displayed on the screen shot above, this tells us that DHCP is working still.

 

Chapter 5: Setting up your pc ready to debug

 

From the start menu, fire up All Programs/Microsoft Xbox SDK/Setup Microsoft Windows Explorer Shell Extension for Xbox

 

Run through the wizard until it completes.

 

On your desktop you should see an "Xbox Neighborhood" icon:

 

 

Double click, then select "Add Box" and type in the IP address of your XBox (on my example above, i would have typed in 192.168.0.68), when it asks if you want to use this as the default XBox, select "Yes" and continue.

 

Please Note: If you are having problems connecting to your debug xbox try turning off your firewall until you get it working then you can go back and reconfigure your firewall later.

 

Your window should now look similar to this:

If you right click the XBox and select properties from the menu you get a dialog box which also has these options.

 

If you want to screen capture, click "Capture" and a screen shot should be captured, the images are stores in your "My Pictures" folder (e.g. C:Documents and Settings/User/My Documents/My Pictures") (or you can use "xbcapture" from the command line)

 

There could be thousands of different mistakes you made along the way, so please just make a help topic here, and I will try and help you out.

Edited August 5, 2010 by iBotPeaches
fixed images.

[SotG Caboose]

I will be definatly using this post, thank you peaches.

[blueapplemonster]

I saw you working on that yesterday, it looks pretty cool!

The tutorial seems very useful too!

[Lewie4]

I saw you working on that yesterday, it looks pretty cool!

The tutorial seems very useful too!

 

 

wow thats cool. Could you put a custom.xex here or not?

[iBotPeaches]

Its for normal xbox (Xbox 1) to clarify. Not 360, but yeah I just use pre-made modified ones.

[Lewie4]

Its for normal xbox (Xbox 1) to clarify. Not 360, but yeah I just use pre-made modified ones.

 

 

oh is there anyway to do it on the 360?

[iBotPeaches]

Nope lol. I think were decades away from debugging a retail 360.

[.MeLo♥]

Nope lol. I think were decades away from debugging a retail 360.

 

Which is unfotunent because 360 has far too many bugs

 

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