Simple region-free Xbox mod?

Correct. You'll find it's very simple BIOS. The colours you can easily make default, and it won't even change the Microsoft logo.

Basically you can remove the softmod with AID I think, or just remove the soft by the uninstall menu from UnleashX or whatever dash you have in the apps menu. As the BIOS will now be controlling whatever you throw at it.

Just make sure you disable the EvoX shield in the EVTool and it will look completely stock.

 

Cool! So the process is still basically the same as in the guide Pikkon linked to? Only this time we're completing it then uninstalling the custom dash? And the BIOS needs to be customized before flashing it 'cuz otherwise it'll change the colors of the boot logo?

 

The guide will be the same yes, instead what we're doing here is using the M8+ BIOS, and removing softmod.

Yep BIOS will be customized first, but you can also do this later since you can boot backups anyhow. You shouldn't have any trouble though. If you flash the TSOP correctly, all fixes can be done. If you ever run into trouble just let me know.

 

Exactly. I just don't get why we're even talking about BIOSes and TSOP. By any stretch I can think of, it's excessive for region free.
Again my softmod doesn't change the boot logo animation.

 

I might be misunderstanding things, but it's the "custom dashboard" part that's putting me off. Would this be a fully custom dashboard ala EVOX? Or would it look just like the original? I realize that flashing the TSOP might be overkill for a simple requirement, but if that's what needs to be done to make the console region free while keeping the original look and feel of the stock console, I don't mind.

 

Once you TSOP, you can revert it back to completely stock but able to boot region free.

 

Work with me here, I don't know the ins and outs of Xbox.

What about patching the MS dash to remove its region lock? Why couldn't that be done on a softmod?

 

That's the goal here, and it seems like TSOP flashing is the only way to go about it. Obviously, many people would do this with full customization in mind, but eh, region free is all I need

What Lum said would indeed be a very clean solution, (sorta like the dreamcast and Saturn region-free bios mods) but I assume there's a reason why no ones done it?

 

If you went the softmod route, you'd have to dual-boot which would mean press EJECT to power up. Instead of power which, would boot a custom dash.

 

That's silly! The power button should be used to power on the console! And the eject button I guess, since it can't very well eject when turned off. Yeah, assuming there's no hacked bios that's simply the original with region locking removed, it seems like a TSOP flash, followed by restoring the stock boot screen and dash will be the best way to get a region free xbox that looks and behaves like a stock console.

 

It serves a purpose. Eject is disable, power is enable.

 

Hmm. Clearly I'll have to do more research on why that's the case. I just assumed the dash was stored on the hard drive, making it patchable.

 

The dash is stored on the hard disk, but the region is on the EEPROM. The dash grabs data from the EEPROM, such as region. Which is why when you change the region to NTSC-M/J from a PAL EEPROM you'll get HDAV options in the dash.

 

Not really what I meant. We know custom dashes play imports with a softmod. I've tested it.
Why couldn't the MS dash be hacked to do the same?

 

Well, obviously this serves a handy purpose for customization and homebrew, but I'm talking more from a "just using it as a stock game console" point of view ;p

I'd have to imagine MS would have intentionally made this a very difficult task. If you could get around to region lock
by modifying files on the hard drive, this woukd probably result in a quick and easy mod where you connect the HDD to your pc and upload a patched version of the dashboard. But that's just my rather uneducated guess, itd be aweeome
if possible!

 

I just answered your question.

 

Then I've terribly overlooked something. I'm just not getting what prevents hacking the MS dash once softmodded, to use a similar method of loading imports as custom dashes do.

Unless the relevant code is too obfuscated to modify.

 

You'd need the source code to modify the dash. The only dashboard that was using code from the MSDASH/patching was the tHc dash.

The dash talks to the EEPROM, unlike the scratch made dashes which just patches the xbe when you rip them.

 

Oh, okay. Thanks.

 

Why couldn't Fireaza just use a softmod that loads evoxdash.xbe, then put a slightly-tweaked copy of xboxdash.xbe there? Just have a backup copy of the fonts file with a different name, and hack the second dashboard copy to use it.