Xbox hard drive in PC

Bitwaba · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 34

I'm trying to do a softmod on my Xbox without purchasing any additional hardware. The Xbox is like 3 years old, so i dont mind taking it apart.

Everywhere i've looked in the net gives guides for softmod without taking the xbox apart which is
cool except for the fact that i'm a broke college kid who doesnt have any money to buy a thumbdrive or xbox mem card.

Which brings me to my problem:
I followed the xbox-linux wiki on how to do the hotswap:
http://www.xbox-linux.org/Hard_Disk_Hotswap_HOWTO

i was able to get the xbox-sources gentoo kernel running on my pc with the FATX module installed

the drive shows up in booting, but when i try to mount it with:

chunderbunny · Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 6:06 pm Post subject:

Are you sure the drive is showing up as /dev/hdb and not /dev/hdc? Devices on the secondary IDE channel are usually labelled hdc and hdd. Also, you might need to mount an actual partition on the disk, try mounting hdc1.

Secondly, what happens if you don't specify a filesystem type when trying to mount the disk?

If that fails, try running cfdisk (or fdisk if you know what you are doing) to see if Linux can at least read the partition information on the drive.

Voorhees51 · Guru Joined: 05 Nov 2003 Posts: 358

you could also try

Bitwaba · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 34

Yes, i am sure it is /dev/hdb . i have it connected to the same ide cable as my gentoo drive which is /dev/hda. My cdrom is the master on the second ide channel and it is /dev/hdc.
I also tried mounting everything from /dev/hdb1 through /dev/hdb15. But since the only entry labeled hdb* in /dev was "hdb" itself, i figured that it was the only reasonable thing to mount.
If i do not specify a filesystem type, i get the same error as with "-t fatx"

as the hotswap HOWTO says, the drive will show up as a hard drive with an unreadable partition table. I will try out fdisk when i get home, but i'm thinking it wont work.

Thanks

chunderbunny · Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 8:12 pm Post subject:

I think the output from dmesg would be helpful here, if it spits out errors from not being able to read the partition table then we know that the disk has not been unlocked by the time you plug it into the PC.

Edit: I just had a thought, the drive might be configured to only work as a master device. Try unplugging your CD drive and connecting the Xbox drive to the secondary IDE channel instead.

Bitwaba · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 34

the kernel says manytimes during boot that the partition table can not be read.

I always thought that i was getting the drive unlocked, but I guess this would be the only reasonable explination in this situation. I just didnt think it possible because the guide says

Nate_S · Guru Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 414

The stock xbox hard drive has no partition table (it is "assumed" by the xbox kernel.) I believe that the partitions show up as /dev/hdx51, through /dev/hdx55 and so on (at least they do on mine.) You might look for Xboxhdm, a livecd containing an xbox enabled kernel, as well as all the hard drive locking and unlocking tools you'll need.

-Nate

Bitwaba · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 34

thanky much,

sounds like a useful disk

safeness · Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 3:05 am Post subject:

Is it possible to install xbox-sources and just build the fatx module for use with another kernel? I'm intrigued by the increased transfer speed, but don't want to use xbox-sources on my non-xbox desktop.

Voorhees51 · Guru Joined: 05 Nov 2003 Posts: 358

I don't think that it would work, because the module would be compiled with the aspects related to the x-box sources, not nessicarily build the same as another set of kernel source.

It would be like compiling a 64bit kernel module for the AMD64 and wanting it to work on an x86. Or like compiling the module with the xbox-sources and wanting it to run on a SPARC chip or somthing. The architectures are different and it probably will not work.

thats just my look on it.

safeness · Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 6:17 am Post subject:

The xbox is just a p3 and my desktop is a p4, so it's not that different. I do see your point about the different sources having different aspects though. Anyways, I was thinking that it would be super sweet if there was an ebuild for just the fatx kernel module much like the ones for emu10k1 or ati-drivers, etc. How would one start a project like this?

johntramp · Guru Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Posts: 457 Location: New Zealand

Bitwaba,

Nate_S · Guru Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 414

you should be able to patch your kernel with the fatx driver from xbox-linux.org and compile that.

Headrush · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 7:31 pm Post subject:

A picked up some cheap Apple mod chips for $12.

Save yourself the trouble and scrounge up the money. Works much easier than the trouble of doing a soft mod.
I found the soft mod method too troublesome, (it does work though), and too easy for users to mess up after. Then it's a hassle fixing.

Or borrow a flash drive from someone, it's only needed for a minute, and flash the onboard TSOP. It's a simple solder job even for new solders and works perfect with no cost. :-)

That's how I do all older XBOXs now.

safeness · Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 7:23 am Post subject:

In my experience, doing a softmod is MUCH easier than doing a mod chip install. All you have to do is create 2 jumpers on the xbox mobo and then load a hacked game save which lets you install a dashboard and flash your bios. If you're going to go with a cheapmod anyways, just save the money and use an exploit to flash your bios. That's been my experience at least, so YMMV.

rounz · n00b Joined: 11 Dec 2004 Posts: 26 Location: england

sebv · Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:28 am Post subject:

you can install a temporarly patched kernel for xbox on your PC there is no problem if it run on x86 arch, i do this and it work fine. I remove this kernel after flash the Xbox.

You can't access to hd partition simply,so i made a backup of this partition on my PC (with dd) and i mount them with loop option to modifie them (you need a pathed kernel for xbox) and i put them on xbox-hdd and it work fine, you have the commands to backup partitions here : http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Hard_Disk_Backup_HOWTO
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