XBtool is under ongoing developement. Bugs can and will happen. If you plan to use XBtool to modifiy a BIOS then be fully aware that you are responsible for what happens. It is entirely possible that a bug in some patch code, a bug in your flashing software, a power outage, a random gamma ray, or the detonation of an electromagnetic pulse weapon could render your Xbox dead. If you have no way to recover from a bad flash then seriously consider whether the risk is acceptable to you.

Use this software at your own risk!

About XBtool
About the DVD Drive Check Option
About the Boot Options
About the BFM Packer
About the BFM Flag Option
About File Sizing
About the " Config\More Configs" Folder
Things to Do
Things to Watch Out For
Bug Reports
Thanks
History

XBtool Unpacks, Packs, and Patches XBOX BIOS/Kernel Files.

You'll need to supply your own RC4 key for encrypted BIOSes. If you are working with a BIOS which works with both the original xbox and the newer revisions then you don't need an RC4 key--use the included "Multi.ini" as-is.

Unchecking this box will disable the DVD drive check so that the Xbox will boot with no DVD drive installed. This might be useful if your DVD drive is dead. This patch is built-in to later x2 kernels.

Back-slashes can be used for dashes in subfolders.

X2 BIOSes have 3 partion options and XBtool pools the space for the dash strings. The kernel will try to laod the xbe's in top to bottom order. The total space available for dash names depends on how many dash options are used. There are a total 129 bytes available. However, each dash option needs 29 bytes for the partition info plus a null terminator. If you make one option blank you'll gain that extra 30 bytes for the total dash name pool. There is, of course, a minimum requirement of one boot partition/dash, so the longest dash name available would be 99 characters. The first dash option must not be blank.

Evox has two boot partition/dash choices. The second dash name can be 18 characters long. Dash strings cannot be pooled in Evox because the strings are not in contigous space.

If you plan to use this feature, please read the following section in its entirety.

Packs kernels so that they can be used with the Phoenix loader. I believe they should work using the debug BFM function also, but I haven't tested this. This option is only for conversion of a non-BFM BIOS. You should leave the box unchecked if the BIOS is already BFM.

Conversion may not work with all BIOSes. I have tested x2 4977, Evox D.6, and TATX successfully. Complex 4627 Debug 1.03 failed to load using the Phoenix loader. It might simply be a matter of finding the correct reainder and 2bl images.

In order to enable this feature you'll need to place a config file and two image files named "bfm_remainder.img" and "bfm_2bl.img" in the "Config\BFM\" folder. You can get the image files by unpacking a BFM BIOS and renaming its 2bl and remainder images. The config file should be a debug config named bfm.ini and should contain an RC4 key--preferably a debug RC4 key. The remainder image used should be big enough to accomodate your kernel. Debugs are natively 512k, for example.

The BFM option is only for packing/saving BIOS files. It has no effect when opening or unpacking. If the BFM packing option is selected then the config file chosen under BIOS Type is ignored (when saving/packing).

This toggles the boot from media flag in the kernel. Checking the box means the saved kernel will not display the Xbox logo screen when booting from media. Don't set the BFM flag for BIOS files intended for flashing to a modchip or the TSOP. The BFM flag option is intended for toggling the flag in kernels already packed in a BFM package. The Convert to BFM function ignores this setting and will instead ask if you'd like to set the flag before packing the BIOS.

When saving a file the resulting BIOS file will be saved to the size selected in the XBtool dialog or to the minimum size for the currently opened BIOS, whichever is larger. When using the size button, BIOS files are not opened but blindly cut or mirrored to the selected size. No minimum size checking is done when the size button is used. All debugs that I am aware of must not be sized to smaller than 512k. Some BFMs must be 1MB.

This folder contains some useful config files. You will need to enter the proper RC4 key and copy them to the Config folder to use them.

The format for the RC4 key line in the config file is like so:
RC4_key=0x00 0x01 0x02 0x03 0x04 0x05 0x06 0x07 0x08 0x09 0x0A 0x0B 0x0C 0x0D 0x0E 0x0F

• Better documentation.
• Some docs for developers.

• Never use a new XBtool executable with older DLLs.
• Check the history section to see that the config file keys XBtool expects haven't been changed if you have your own configs.
• If something didn't happen the way you expected, check the log file.
• Be careful with the boot options. They are the only options for which user error can make your Xbox not boot.
• If you don't like frequent updates, feel free to ignore XBtool releases and it will be just like no update happened at all.

I need good feedback if anyone suspects a bug. Bug reports like, "Sometimes xbtool makes bad bioses," are not helpful. If you suspect XBtool made a bad BIOS, reload that BIOS into XBtool and see if it reads ok. Then note the settings and include them in your report. If possible, try to see if the bug is repeatable. I may ask to see a bad BIOS file, but please don't send any unless I ask.

• Paul Bartholomew for xbflash.
• Superfro for his BIOS mods.
• k3rn3l and MomDad for ideas, info and other support.
• SantMat for his ultra-smooth no-animation, no-DVD-check, and LED color patches.
• Team Phoenix for info and other support.
• Pixel8

XBtool is very much a collaborative effort. Without these people, it would, at best, be much less functional than it is, and, at worst, nonexistent.

1.0.8b4

• Fixed a crashing bug in 4976 and 4977 dash name patchers.
  

1.0.8b3

• Fixed a 4978 patcher bug that could allow patching with dash names which were too long (that would be very bad).
• More display bug fixes.
  

1.0.8b2

• Miscellaneous display fixes.
• Fixed 4978 dash name patching (actually patches the embedded FTPd app).
• Removed x2 4976 support, which was broken anyway (4976.02 still supported, but will probably be dropped soon).

1.0.8b1

• Warning: major code changes. Use only if you can recover from a bad flash.
• Major rewrite of the patch engine for the purpose of easier maintence and code sharing.
• Added experimental x2 4978 support.
• Miscellaneous changes to the front end code related to above changes.

1.0.5

• Remainder.img files are now written out to their minimum possible size instead of having mulitple mirrored images.
• No longer errors when selected ROM size is too small--just writes the ROM file out at the minimum size and issues a warning to the log file.
• Boot flag toggle.
• Unsupported patch options for the loaded BIOS are automatically disabled.
• XBpatch: can return supported patch options for a given BIOS type.
• XBpatch: added a rudimentary 5558 patch function.

1.0.4b1

• Packs\unpacks 5455 and 5558 debug (intended for BFM use only). Kludge note: the 2bl is patched when the BIOS is patched. (Thanks koitsu, myria, ed/gimli, Phoenix, nghtshd, et al.)
• New config key so old configs will need to be updated/replaced.
• Added some config info to log file output.
• Logfiles go to stdout if the logfile can't be opened.
• Added some info to the boot flag patching dialog (BTW, thanks to Iriez for the idea to make boot flag patching optional).
• Fixed crash when loading the current bios preset with no BIOS loaded.
• Fixed logfile typo.

1.0.2

• Detect target ROM size smaller than native remainder.img size.
• Ask if boot flags should be patched so kernel can remain identical to retail kernel if need be.
• 1.0.2 sources released.
• Bug: XBtool can crash when choosing the current BIOS preset. Fixed in upcoming version.

1.0.1

• Fixed Evox D6 patcher.
• If you used the D6 patcher from a previous version and get a hang on a black screen press the eject button and the Xbox should boot.

1.0.1b5

• Fixed 4976 patcher as per changes in 1.0.1b4

1.0.1b4

• Removed kernel expansion due to conflict with IGR (reverted back to name pooling).
• Added pack as BFM option.
• Fixed crash which could occur if the wrong config was used.

1.0.1b3

• Removed dash name pooling and just moved dash names by expanding the kernel size.
• x2 Dash names can now be up to 128 characters each.
• Dash file/folder name length checking.
• Not thoroughly tested (use at your own risk).

1.0.1b2

• Fixed: crash when loading an x2 4976* BIOS.

1.0.1b1

• Dash names are pooled in X2 (see readme or die a horrible death).