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
LBA48 and Partition Table Options
DVD Drive Check Option
Boot Options
BFM Packer
BFM Flag Option
File Sizing
"Config\More Configs" Folder
Notes
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.

***** LBA48 Warning *****

If you choose the partitioning option "Partition 6 Takes Rest of the Drive", and if your drive is greater than 137GB and has a partition 6, data corruption will result. Only use this option if you plan on reformatting partition 6.

**********

LBA48 support was implemented by Paul Bartholomew (oz_paulb). Enabling this option breaks the 137GB limit on hard drive space.

The drop down menu contains 4 options:

• Use Standard Partition Table
• Partition 6 Takes Rest of the Drive
• Partition 6 Takes up to 137GB / Partition 7 Takes Rest
• Partition 6 Takes up to 137GB / No Partition 7

These options are only defaults. If a partition table exists on the hard drive, then it will override these options.

Setting the Ignore Hard Drive Partition Table option will cause the kernel partition table to override the hard drive table.

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

The color options will remain enabled even on unsupported kernels or when no kernel is loaded. This is intentional. It allows the making of color presets without having to load a kernel.

• 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 and LBA48 support.
• 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.

1.0.8b7

• LBA48 not fully tested! Use this at your own risk!
• The kernel ID engine rewritten. It should be much more precise, but please report unrecognized or misrecognized kernels.
• X scale patcher removed. There was an issue with the X scale patch which could cause some BIOSes to hang. It may be added back later if anyone wants it.
• Tested BFM versions of all BIOSes, but not fully tested with all possible options.

1.0.8b6

• Paul Bartholomew's LBA48 and partition table patches.
• 4978.03 support added (dropped other two 4978 BIOSes, since they hang some machines).
• Fixed crash in general dash patching function.
• Changed the way colors are patched so rounding errors don't happen when the colors aren't changed.
• Miscellaneous cosmetic changes.

1.0.8b5

• 4978 patcher should be fully functional now. Don't test it if you can't recover, but if you can I'd love to here some feed back.

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.