[Release] XBlast OS v0.2Beta

Hello there,

I always wanted to be one of those guys who releases something cool during the holidays. I remember the Xbox had some cool stuff released during the holidays in its prime years.

Well now it's my turn! I've worked really hard to bring you this today but here it is:
XBlast OS 0.2 Beta; available in XBE and BIOS BIN format.
Download Here!

To those of you who don't know what this is: It's a Xbox program/BIOS that enables you to do lots of useful stuff. It's also the embedded OS for the upcoming XBlast Lite modchip.

Here's a short list of what is new:
-No more separate files for 1.6b. Binary is universally compatible across all Xbox revisions.
-Flash BIOS/OS updates via browser(netFlash) now works.
-Mirror BIOS image to fill flash bank(No need to manually resize BIOS files).
-128MB RAM tester now test by chip instead of by banks. It can pinpoint which one of the 4 chip is not properly soldered or faulty.
-Emergency Unlock HDD. Will try 4 most common master passwords(mainly "TEAMASSEMBLY" AND "XBOXSCENE") if conventionnal unlock doesn't work. Only attempted when selecting Unlock HDD option in advanced settings.
-Enter custom network settings and use those instead of DHCP(only useful in netFlash for now, DNS1/2 don't do nothing).
-EEProm rescue. Completely rewrite EEPROM content with generic image. They're the same eeprom images as in flashBios_303-unauthorized but the proper image will be automatically selected depending on your Xbox revision.
-Edit MAC address(useful if you rescue EEProm on several Xboxes and hook them to your network)
-Load OS settings from a text file. Automatically load when launched from XBE and no XBlast Mod is detected(to fetch settings from). Can be manually loaded from specified option in "Tools" sections.

As always, to save any changes made to the EEPROM and/or XBlast Settings(only in Bios Bin format), you must either boot a Bios bank or select menu items to reboot or shutdown the Xbox. Powering Off the Xbox with the power button or by pulling the cord will not commit the changes for those. HDD operations (like change lock state, format) are done on the fly.

Settings file must be placed at "C:\XBlast\xblast.cfg"
Use the sample file included in this release and modify it from there. For softmod users, make sure to put the file on your *REAL* C: drive.

As it is still a work in progress, it is possible to witness bugs. In order to avoid any possibility of occurence please consider the following advices:
-In Xblast.cfg file, do not put comments (marked with "#" prefix) on the same line as a setting entry.
-Again in xblast.cfg, do not leave empty setting parameters(like "fanspeed=" without a value). Remove or comment them.
-If you're unsure of an OS setting or EEPROM change, just press the power button to power OFF the console. Changes will not be commit.

So have fun with it and I hope it'll be useful!

 

Hi Benny

Well mate - this is such a cool Christmas present - thank you very much indeed!

It is great that we get a settings file now for until we get the XBlast chip - nice one. And the universal binary compatibility AND no more Bios resizing - more yumminess.

Hopefully I will have a chance to have a play with it at the weekend - should have got rid of this house-full of freeloading in-laws by then

Once again, thanks for all the hard work you have put in on this for us all - very much appreciated.

Best regards, Mark

 

Very excited to try this. I'm planning to attempt a 128MB upgrade soon and this is just the push I need.

 

Looks nice when i start it over the ".xbe" file. But when i start it flashed over my smartxx v3 nothing will happens. My Setup 1.4 XBOX 128MB+1GHz Cpu+DX IDE / SATA Adapter (good quiet Apple 500GB 2,5" HDD).
I Put the cfg file in C:\XBlast folder.
Can you help me out Benny?

 

bennydiamond, I haven't gone to sleep yesterday and was playing with your Xblast OS Good job!
I've flashed it to SmartXX V2 and works fine.

 

must i flash it as a bios file or as a smartxx os update? i don't understand why it will not work.

 

Just flash it as a bios file, then select it from boot menu. It will work even without HDD and DVD.

 

does not work by me, ther is only a blue screen with the title from the bios...

 

That's weird. I do not have a SmartXX V3 so I cannot replicate the issue.

Have you tried removing/renaming xblast.cfg file?
Have you tried booting from BIOS when your SmartXX V3 is installed on a motherboard with stock 733MHz CPU?

 

Same Problem on a 1.6 XBOX.

 

Is it the same HDD and DVD drive you used in your 1GHz Xbox?
What's your HDD by the way, is it Sata?

Can you upload a picture of the screen I asked you a couple of days ago.

 

No there aren't the same. DVD Drive is both Samsung XBOX DVD DRIVE, The Hdd's are both SATA one is Apple 500GB 2,5" and the other is a WD 20EARX 3,5". I have test a couple of Sata Adapters ( i have many here) none of them are working with this bios. When i start one of the xbox with this bios the only thing i can see on both is a blinky led (red/orange). The blue XBlast OS Screen Comes but nothing happens.

I will take a screenshot at evening. At the moment i'm chronically ill, the medicine is take me down....

 

Strange since this morning, after a moment of waiting. It works. Curious!!!

 

Yes, I suspect it has to with the HDD initialization. Maybe partition table an FATX partitions detection at boot. I made that happen so XBlast will detect a new, never formatted HDD an propose to set it up. Of course this happens everytime you boot, even if your HDD is all set up. So it fetches a few sectors at init, what no other cromwell-based BIOSes do. I suspect the SATA-IDE adapters do not like to receive READ_SECTOR commands so early in their boot process...

How much time in seconds does it usually take to cold boot a hacked BIOS(not that long I bet but I have to ask)?

Does SmartXX OS and Gentoox Loader takes a long time to boot too(from cold boot of course)?

 

Yes benny that can be. A cold boot to xbmc with x2_5035_old_512k, takes around 52,68 seconds. It might be a problem with the slow apple hdd (5400rpm) 2,5".
Gentoox Loader takes approximately 64 seconds to boot in XDSL.
With your Bios i think it can be a problem with the cfg file, when i load it over ftp to the xbox, i have seen that my program (cyberduck) has changed the access privileges.
I have edit a new one and change the permissions manuallly over terminal.
Since them it runs.

 

Was v0.1Beta booting faster? If so that could be the cfg.

Could you upload the cfg files with problematic permissions and the same with fixed permissions. I'd like to see the difference between the 2.

 

I can not upload it because it has the permissions --------- or in octal 000. I can not copy it but i can kill it via terminal after i had correct them. the right permission on my xbox are rwxr-xr-x (755), i think. This is because my ini file from x2_bios are having the same permissions.

Edit: not 755 are right 644 are the right permissions.

 

It's weird to be talking file permission when the cfg file is hosted on FATX file system. Unix permissions are not relevant there as FATX is derivative of FAT and does not support Unix permissions. That's why your Cyberduck FTP client sees 000 permissions for every files/folders. Your issue might be a combination of FTP server-client. Have you tried accessing your HDD via FTP with various dashboards? Have you tried using a more "conventionnal" FTP client like FileZilla or FlashFXP?

FATX uses same File attributes as on regular FAT/FAT32 partitions but I don't recall seeing those taken into account in FATX fs driver of cromwell when reading data. Even so, there is no attribute that would disable read support. Still I'll have a look in it.

 

This my be true,that the file are not readable or so. I don't understand it. Yes normally for bigger files i use Filezilla. But for smaller files Cyberduck (great drag&drop under mac) is my first opinion. I have tested another Version since i upload it (on my old machine was mavericks, now i have yosemite). The cfg file i now use, is the same i upload before. Bizzarely that file works, too. I'm very Confused yet...

 

Personally I would do all trial runs / first time testing of this on a PATA drive, take the SATA adapter out of the equation, then once its running to your liking, try the SATA adapter again and see if your problems come back.