cvt
04-05-2006, 11:06 PM
Below is hopefully everything you would want to know about the current state of hacking involved with the xbox 360.
If you don;t care, don't waste your time reading it.
I've written it in the simplest terms possble so is understandable by most people.
.
Since theres a few owners out here.. and a couple people have been being quite mislead by the news appearing around the web, I'll straighten a few things, starting from the oldest.
.
Kiosk dvd gave no hope, it was never coded to be locked to origional media, to make it simple, lets say it had no media flag, which is in layman terms ok, but it actually had CR data to allow dvd-r everything as normal was signed.
The DVD Firmware.. this was massive.. putting it simply, it was a modified firmware that when it received the data saying it was a burnt dvd it sent on to the system that it wasnt. this is VERY oversimplified, but how it worked..
because of the way it worked, it excpects everything to be perfect, a burn never is, therefore the ISO must be manually crafted before being burnt to work. so this DOES work, with a lot of work, but it doed.
The nastiest part of this, is the only known way of successfully reading and writing the flash is by unsoldering the FLASH, programming it, then putting it back on.. This firmware is not released anywhere, not in the scene, or publically, the person (The Specilist) who got it to work, has not distributed it. Everything to do it yourself is available IF you can understand it, there are a few that have copied his work, but are standing by the same rules.
There are some teams claiming they can read and write without removal of flash, reading it true, writing is still something there working on.
The Swap Trick.
This works if you have a correctly manually crafted burnt DVD, and swap the origional with the copy of the identical game... pointless.
Are the Pi and Radian releases needed with all the padded data?... Noone knows, but right now, they are good for nothing.
Theres that tool for playing with dvd rom keys... its exactly that.. for the keys, not the massive part of the puzzle xbox-scene tried to make it sound, it allows the movement from 1 xbox360 to another, or replacing the dvdrom drive.. nothing else. and never will be anything else
Changing of HDD's?? ... is impossible.. atleast as of now, they are locked, and are being worked on. The best they have acheived is through flashing managed to make a hdd work, but only as 20 gig, because of the way its locked in, then hashed everywhere.. kind of invalidates changing hdd's so don;t get any hopes up there.
overall.
Unsigned code (homebrew) - Not even a glimpse of light seen yet, this console is locked down tight.
Games from other reigions - As above
Backups of games - Done with unreleased dvd firmware, VERY timesome, risky process even if it was released, then manually crafted iso's.. someone might leak this.. but until they work out how to flash it without removing teh fpga don't even consider it.
There is currently only 1 little bit of hope showing for ANYTHING to be released this year, and thats by a team calling themselves devil360. I have no inside information from these guys unfortunately, but from those I am, noone knows exactly who they are, but its beleived they are the guys that were supposed to release GCLoader.. which turned out to be vaporware.. but they have released working hacks before, so there not a complete loss.. infact, there the only hope of seeing anything this year the way things are going.
The only things that are working is mods..
ie.. plugging HDD -> computer to copy files
plugging DVDROM -> PC
a few other nothings.. and I'm working on a mouse/keyboard to work in FPS games.
expect some more serious mods, but as for hacks... don;t hold you breath, infact as said by a fair few guys.. "maybe we'll get homebrew running".. this console really is secured well, so all those people going "haha, M$, they'll be hacked before release" are totally wrong....unfortunately.
The adaptors, a quick google will find where there purchasable, but unless your a hacker, there pointless.
Datel have a nifty HDD-> PC which is actually usable to more than just the hacker tho.
The kbd/mouse I am working on, I excpected to have working by the end the weekend X was on.. as I had the mouse almost right then, apart from overflows, but the loss of my PC means I still sitting stagnent with no way to debug and I am going backwards without it.. I have the simulated kbd and mouse working perfect, but the ps/2 protocol is giving me headaches.. but once I get my PC back.. things will change..
This, as the firmware hack won't be released publically, the schematics, and photo's/video will be.. the HEX may become availble at a later date, but at the moment I am working with a guy from paradox on the ps/2 decoder, and the code is copywrited, so until I fully rewrite it myself, don't expect to be making your own.. but all things will come together soon.
Anyone with any questions, or heard something you want to find out if its fact or fiction just ask..
xbox-scene are ok for seeing news, but they do post a lot of nothings,and there forums are NOT professionals, there just normal people pretending they understand, or programmers thinking they understand hacking, so don't take anything said on the forum to be gospel.
If you don;t care, don't waste your time reading it.
I've written it in the simplest terms possble so is understandable by most people.
.
Since theres a few owners out here.. and a couple people have been being quite mislead by the news appearing around the web, I'll straighten a few things, starting from the oldest.
.
Kiosk dvd gave no hope, it was never coded to be locked to origional media, to make it simple, lets say it had no media flag, which is in layman terms ok, but it actually had CR data to allow dvd-r everything as normal was signed.
The DVD Firmware.. this was massive.. putting it simply, it was a modified firmware that when it received the data saying it was a burnt dvd it sent on to the system that it wasnt. this is VERY oversimplified, but how it worked..
because of the way it worked, it excpects everything to be perfect, a burn never is, therefore the ISO must be manually crafted before being burnt to work. so this DOES work, with a lot of work, but it doed.
The nastiest part of this, is the only known way of successfully reading and writing the flash is by unsoldering the FLASH, programming it, then putting it back on.. This firmware is not released anywhere, not in the scene, or publically, the person (The Specilist) who got it to work, has not distributed it. Everything to do it yourself is available IF you can understand it, there are a few that have copied his work, but are standing by the same rules.
There are some teams claiming they can read and write without removal of flash, reading it true, writing is still something there working on.
The Swap Trick.
This works if you have a correctly manually crafted burnt DVD, and swap the origional with the copy of the identical game... pointless.
Are the Pi and Radian releases needed with all the padded data?... Noone knows, but right now, they are good for nothing.
Theres that tool for playing with dvd rom keys... its exactly that.. for the keys, not the massive part of the puzzle xbox-scene tried to make it sound, it allows the movement from 1 xbox360 to another, or replacing the dvdrom drive.. nothing else. and never will be anything else
Changing of HDD's?? ... is impossible.. atleast as of now, they are locked, and are being worked on. The best they have acheived is through flashing managed to make a hdd work, but only as 20 gig, because of the way its locked in, then hashed everywhere.. kind of invalidates changing hdd's so don;t get any hopes up there.
overall.
Unsigned code (homebrew) - Not even a glimpse of light seen yet, this console is locked down tight.
Games from other reigions - As above
Backups of games - Done with unreleased dvd firmware, VERY timesome, risky process even if it was released, then manually crafted iso's.. someone might leak this.. but until they work out how to flash it without removing teh fpga don't even consider it.
There is currently only 1 little bit of hope showing for ANYTHING to be released this year, and thats by a team calling themselves devil360. I have no inside information from these guys unfortunately, but from those I am, noone knows exactly who they are, but its beleived they are the guys that were supposed to release GCLoader.. which turned out to be vaporware.. but they have released working hacks before, so there not a complete loss.. infact, there the only hope of seeing anything this year the way things are going.
The only things that are working is mods..
ie.. plugging HDD -> computer to copy files
plugging DVDROM -> PC
a few other nothings.. and I'm working on a mouse/keyboard to work in FPS games.
expect some more serious mods, but as for hacks... don;t hold you breath, infact as said by a fair few guys.. "maybe we'll get homebrew running".. this console really is secured well, so all those people going "haha, M$, they'll be hacked before release" are totally wrong....unfortunately.
The adaptors, a quick google will find where there purchasable, but unless your a hacker, there pointless.
Datel have a nifty HDD-> PC which is actually usable to more than just the hacker tho.
The kbd/mouse I am working on, I excpected to have working by the end the weekend X was on.. as I had the mouse almost right then, apart from overflows, but the loss of my PC means I still sitting stagnent with no way to debug and I am going backwards without it.. I have the simulated kbd and mouse working perfect, but the ps/2 protocol is giving me headaches.. but once I get my PC back.. things will change..
This, as the firmware hack won't be released publically, the schematics, and photo's/video will be.. the HEX may become availble at a later date, but at the moment I am working with a guy from paradox on the ps/2 decoder, and the code is copywrited, so until I fully rewrite it myself, don't expect to be making your own.. but all things will come together soon.
Anyone with any questions, or heard something you want to find out if its fact or fiction just ask..
xbox-scene are ok for seeing news, but they do post a lot of nothings,and there forums are NOT professionals, there just normal people pretending they understand, or programmers thinking they understand hacking, so don't take anything said on the forum to be gospel.