[NBLUG/talk] Xbox version compatibility issues

[A.C.]

Greetings,

As Jeff mentioned, I did a softmod live during Tuesday's presentation 
using  ldot's UDE / UXE softmod (more information on this particular mod 
can be found at http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=227528 
and I have notes on installing it in my presentation, now located at 
http://nblug.org/presentations/linuxonxbox/linuxonxbox.html).

During the presentation, the normal dashboard did not come up as 
expected (although the "open tray state" backup dashboard worked fine).  
Here's why that happened: I used the initial arbitrary code exploit 
(i.e. selecting "Run Linux" inside of Mech Assault) and then copied 
files to the Xbox in advance so the wait time during the presentation 
would be shorter.  I also performed the hard drive backup procedure to 
save time (the ldots tool makes a tar.gz backup of the entire C: drive 
which takes about 3 minutes to do, so I performed that action ahead of 
time).  In my effort to make the softmodding demonstration as close as 
possible to what you'd see if you were doing this from scratch, I 
deleted the ldots savegame package from the hard drive so I could 
demonstrate copying the savegame over from the memory unit.

This last move was my folly - I didn't realize that as part of the 
backup process that I performed, additional files were saved in the same 
savegame location as the ldots package.  By deleting that savegame I 
subsequently removed those files, with the result that the softmod 
installer found the backup .tar.gz file but didn't notice that other 
files had been removed.  Because a version 1.6 Xbox was used in the 
demonstration, we were unable to see what was on the screen, so any 
warning messages wouldn't have been visible.  One thing that I was able 
to (unintentionally) demonstrate during the presentation was the backup 
dashboard, which  I was later able to use to restore the Xbox to an 
unmodded state and perform the softmod again from scratch, with much 
better results.

A verison 1.6 Xbox is fully supported by this softmod (I've used this 
softmod on about 25 Xbox units, with about a third of them v1.6 units), 
but I still highly suggest purchasing an older used unit instead. New 
Xbox units always come with games that cost more than if you bought the 
game separately (they increase the cost of the bundle by $30 for a $19 
game).  The best Xbox version to get is probably the v1.4 version with 
the Samsung drive.

Thanks for the question, and let me know if you're curious about 
anything else,

A.C.
******


Jeff Coffler wrote:
> Hi Allan,
>  
> I've noticed that any new Xbox is pretty much version v1.6 and 
> beyond.  Also, in looking, I found this link:
>  
> http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/114/62/
>  
> From this, djb found that hacks work reliably with v1.6 and beyond.
>  
> So, with that in mind: Do you think the failure, during your 
> presentation, to mod a new Xbox was due to v1.6, or something else?  
> Were you ever able to determine why the mod process failed on that Xbox?
>  
> I'd like to know that v1.6 (and beyond) is indeed "safe" before buying 
> one for this purpose ...
>  
>     Thanks!
>  
>     -- Jeff
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