Making a Debug XDK the Easy Way (v0.1)
So you want to make a retail XBox into an XDK Debug
So you want to make a retail XBox into an XDK Debug, but don't want to switch bios banks, don't have a chip with 512k+ capacity, don't want to mess up your Evox/other dash, and still want to be able to play backups and retail games? Easy!
This method will allow you to run the XDK Dashboard alongside your regular dash, with no interference or side-effects, no need to flash your bios or switch banks, and is launchable directly from Evox/your favourite dash.
WARNING: ***BACK UP YOUR C: DRIVE JUST TO BE SAFE BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS***
What you'll need:
- A modded XBox (either chipped or soft-modded with your preferred exploit)
- XDK Debug Dashboard 4627 or higher (Complex 4627 Debug Dash was used in this example)
- Phoenix Bios Loader v1.3 or higher
- Bert and Ernie .xtf files (required by Phoenix Bios Loader)
- Debug RC4 Key
- A 1MB Bootable-From-Media (BFM) version of the Complex 4627 Debug Bios (5558 BFM, and others work too)
- A backup copy of your original xboxdash.xbe file
Optional (if you want to actually DO something, other than just running the XDK Dash):
- Visual Studio .NET with VC++7 installed (or Visual C++ 6)
- XBox XDK build 5344 or higher
Installing the Phoenix Bios Loader:
Unrar/unzip the Phoenix Bios Loader onto your PC drive, and open up the boot.cfg file in notepad. Edit the Romfile line, changing "xboxrom.bin" to match the name of your BFM Bios .bin file. Replace the blank RC4Key line with the real Debug RC4 Key. Comment out one of the EEPROMKey lines using # (which one depends on whether your XBox is a v1.0 or v1.1), and change the LEDSequence to whatever you prefer the led colors to be. Finally, change the "Debug false" line to "Debug true". Save the file and close it.
FTP into your XBox and copy over to your root C:, the following files:
- bert.xtf and ernie.xtf (leave them named as this)
- boot.cfg
- default.xbe (from Phoenix Bios Loader)
- phoenix.raw
- your chosen 1MB BFM Bios .bin file
- rename your original xboxdash.xbe file to "retailxboxdash.xbe"
Creating a menu item to Launch XDK Dash from your Dashboard:
Edit your evox.ini or the config file for your preferred dashboard and add in a menu item line for launching the XDK Dash (in this case it was in evox.ini):
Item "XDK Debug Dash", "C:\default.xbe"
Now also in evox.ini, change the pointer to the msdash at the top to "retailxboxdash.xbe", so that you can still launch your normal XBox Dash.
Re-save your evox.ini/dash config file and FTP it back over to your XBox.
Installing the XDK Debug Dashboard:
Unpack the 4627 or higher XDK Dashboard to a directory on your PC, ie. D:\xdkdash\. FTP into your XBox again and copy everything in D:\xdkdash\C\ to your XBox C: root, and everything from D:\xdkdash\E\ to your XBox E: root. *Note: You'll notice that many of the files are the same as the ones already in your C: root from your original MS Dash. You may choose to overwrite all of these files, but, as stated in a previous tutorial, there are only two files of the duplicates that actually need to be replaced: Memory2.xip and default.xip.
Testing it all out:
Reboot your XBox, and once your dashboard loads up, you should now have a menu item for "XDK Debug Dash". Select that, your screen should flicker for a moment as the Phoenix Bios Loader loads the BFM bios into memory, and then the XDK Dash should appear on screen. It will ask you to enter a name for your box, and then you can change other options such as IP address, etc. by hitting X to go into the options menu (it is set to DHCP by default).
If you have the XDK installed on your computer, you'll now be able to access your XBox through the network neighborhood/XBox Explorer, take video captures, and screenshots.
If you want any other items (games/apps/emus) to appear in the XDK Dash menu items list, you must place them under the devkit folder on your E: drive.
To get back to your regular dash (Evox/other), power off/on your XBox, and you'll be back to normal. Backups and Retail games will still boot as normal! w00t!
Optionally Installing Visual Studio and XDK:
Now to really do anything useful with the XDK Dash, you'll of course want to install the other items:
- Install Visual Studio .NET to your computer. Remember that you need VC++.
- Install XDK to your computer.
- Make sure you have enough HDD space, because together they take up around 2.5GB.
Thanks to BenJeremy, TwinSSen, and Anonymous for their previous tutorials on this subject, and to JB for working with me through the nitty gritty of it to get it all working.
