In the short time between the first usable exploit for Xbox 360 consoles and today, we've already seen a lot of great achievements by people like tmbinc, Cpasjuste, and others. A few hours ago, a new shader exploit using the King Kong game was announced which will allow people to load XeLL and subsequently, any Linux distro without needing a serial connection with a PC.

This patch will modify the King Kong ISO to include a modified shader which will trigger the exploit. Once triggered, the exploit code will automatically eject the King Kong DVD. Just insert Cpasjuste's modified version of the Gentoo minimal LiveCD. Wait for a few seconds and it should boot right into a minimal Gentoo environment. While its only command line mode for now, you should expect a user-friendly distro like Ubuntu to be released after the necessary patches are applied.

In short, these are the things you will need:

• An Xbox 360 with an older kernel (4532 or 4548). Anything above that will not be affected by the exploit.
• A hacked DVDROM drive in the Xbox 360 so that burnt discs can be run.
• An ISO of the game King Kong (dumped by yourself hopefully, we don't encourage the use of warez)
• An ISO of the Gentoo minimal LiveCD (gentoo-xenon-minimal-2006.1.iso)
• The patcher to patch the King Kong ISO.

All in all, these things will make sure that you have a usable Linux environment on your Xbox 360. Finally, I'd personally like to thank everyone involved in this effort to make it what it is today (Felix "tmbinc" Domke, Cpasjuste, stonersmurf, xorloser and the whole free60.org team), we love you!

Anyways, here's the links for the relevant stuff. If something is considered illegal, it won't be hosted on our servers. Same goes with stuff which is in the grey area concerning its legality. As for the Gentoo ISO, we feel that we should link directly to sourceforge since the ISO will be updated quite frequently.

Download Link: King Kong Shader exploit for XeLL
Download Link: Gentoo Linux Xenon minimal LiveCD (Sourceforge Link. Click on gentoo-xenon-minimal-2006.1.iso on that page to download)
Link: King Kong Shader Exploit for the XELL Loader readme
Link: Gentoo Linux Xenon minimal-2006.1 readme

Schtrom360Xtract, the one-step Xbox 360 and Xbox game disc back-up app, has been updated by Schtrom. Schtrom360Xtract v3.1 isn't only convenient (it's one-step , you can't go lower than that!) but it's also fast. Extraction speed on SH-D162C for Xbox 360 discs has been clocked at 10 minutes.

The changelog for Schtrom360Xtract v3.1 includes:

• Sector mapping implemented for Xbox1
• Xtreme v4.0 and later new unlock command supported for ms28
• Added support for SH-D163A
• Shows SH-D162C and SH-D163A only if the drive responds to the get drive feature cdb
• Checks for disc in drive on extraction
• The region code of an image or game.iso can now be checked
• Extracts files from an image file with the new XDVDFS XTR tool

The app is meant for making backups of your game discs. Be sure you are the owner of the discs. Otherwise you will be committing piracy and may end up walking the "legal plank." If you know what we mean. Please check the readme file for all the technical details and info you need to run this app on your machine.

Download: [Schtrom360Xtract v3.1]

Bring out the confetti. Kreon has just released the first all-in-one PC DVD-ROM drive with full XBox 360 back-up capabilities, and booting full image and SS extraction functions, while still maintaining all the basic functions of the DVD-ROM drive. Yes, this is the XBox 360 enabled alternative FW for the Samsung SH-D162C drive follow up. Welcome v0.80.

It's not v1.00 yet because he's still working on hardware correct timing of response types 5 & 7. He says that his research reveals that all current games uses the same timing scheme. This makes faked timing possible. So he's added a "jitter" function that will make the fixed values vary a little bit, effectively making any attempt by Microsoft to detect a specific timer pattern for copied games impossible.

If you're having any problems due to incorrect extraction of the SS, you'll need to provide him with some necessary information like the name of the game you're working on, a copy of the failing SS as well as a copy of a working SS extracted from a TS-H943 or a GDR-3120L.

Save some of your thanks to FlexyZ. If he hadn't let kreon borrow, destroy and repair his TS-H943, we'd still be in the Dark Ages.

The full article awaits after the jump!

Have you ever heard something too good to be true, that for a moment your synapses ceased to function and left you having a nosebleed?  Case in point, Commodore4eva's Xtreme Firmware 3.3 for TS-H943's tagline, "World's First Dual Speed, Media Stealth, One Firmware, Xbox 360 backup and extraction firmware modification!"

Just be aware that what follows the introduction has been proven to give people nosebleeds because of sheer delight. Version 3.2 had improved media speed patch, forced full speed on all media types while this time around it has Dual Read Speed mode (Quite/Slow Read mode for backups activated via any Xbox 360/Xbox 1 Original game disk.)

Technical details
------------------------

Default backup Read Speed is same as original game disks 12x. When Original Game disk is booted, all subsequent backup loading will be at Quiet/Slow Read mode, Original Game disks are unaffected. Turn console off/on to reset back to Default backup read speed (12x). Quiet/Slow Read Speed is for quiet operation and/or cheap DVD+R DL media.

Read more after the jump!

Commodore4eva has released the world's first "Media Stealth One Firmware Only Xbox 360 backup and extraction firmware modification", also known as Xtreme Firmware v3.1 for Toshiba-Samsung TS-H943. What it does is play as original back-up copies of games on the Xbox 360. The firmware works using raw/unmodified dumps, patching (security sector on ISO and DVD drive key on firmware), and DVD + DL (double layers) recordable discs.

Changelog
---------------------------
Added Booktype overwrite patch (bitsetting to DVD ROM no longer required)
Added Media speed patch (drive treats backup same as original)
Fixed DVD Movie backup/Xbox 1 backup read bug.
Stealth Media implemented into firmware. Backups now appear exactly as original disk regardless of which disk check command used by Xbox 360
Enable0800 mode supports extraction of raw PFI (Physical Format Information) and raw DMI (Disk Manufacturing Information)
Support for loading of extracted PFI and DMI from disk
Non-Stealth Backups automatically enhanced with embedded PFI for Xbox 360 and Xbox 1
Included new Video.ISO for Xbox 360 and Xbox 1 backups, now the same as originals
Security placeholders/bad sectors for 360 backups are outside both valid psn ranges so they cannot be read/checked by 360 host
Extraction part of firmware enabled with Enable0800 DVD. ISO included.
In Enable0800 mode, allows drive to function natively under Windows without any hardware conversion/adaptors
Boots all Xtreme Xbox 360 backups
Boots all Xtreme Xbox 1 backups
Boots all Xbox 360 originals
Boots all Xbox 1 originals on Xbox 360
Use on Xbox Live at own risk

Find out more about the technical details and other must-know of Xtreme Firmware TS-H943 Xbox 360 by clicking here.

  

Team Underdog has released the installation diagram for their NME-360 Ltd. Edition Modchip for Samsung drives. (Note: The black arrows indicate zoom. The red arrows arrows are alternative points. Only solder one wire to either a yellow point or a red point.)

Along with the diagram, Team Underdog developed the NME aSSociat0r - an easy-to-use tool for creating an NME 360 compatible ISO.

The NME-360 aSSociator prepares a clean ISO or converts an Xtreme ISO to make it bootable with your NME-360 modded Xbox360 by adding the security sector to the correct offset. Please read the directions in the readme file before you install this application. Once you have installed the NME aSSociat0r do the following steps:

• Select the ISO file
• Select the SS file
• Press "CREATE"

The NME-360 compatible ISO will be created in 2 seconds. The NME-360 aSSociat0r can also convert Xtreme Images to NME-360 compatible images with a single press of a button.

Download: [NME aSSociat0r]

It's been a while since we last heard from Commodore4eva's Xtreme Firmware for the TSH-H943. But now he has broken his silence and gave Toshiba-Samsung drives owners something to cheer about, with the release of Xtreme Firmware 3.0 for TS-H943 Xbox 360. I mean who wouldn't be thrilled, when the release comes with a tagline like this: "World first Media Stealth One Firmware Only Xbox 360 backup and extraction firmware modification!"

Before we go into the details, he would like to send his warmest thanks to to everyone who helped him with this project, either thru physical aid, or constructive comments thru various forums.

Features:

Stealth Media implemented into firmware. Backups now appear exactly as original disk regardless of which disk check command used by Xbox 360
Enable0800 mode supports extraction of raw PFI (Physical Format Information) and raw DMI (Disk Manufacturing Information)
Support for loading of extracted PFI and DMI from disk
Non-Stealth Backups automatically enhanced with embedded PFI for Xbox 360 and Xbox 1
Included new Video.iso for Xbox 360 and Xbox 1 backups, now the same as originals

Extraction part of firmware enabled with Enable0800 DVD. ISO included. Burn to DVD+R dual layer disk.
In Enable0800 mode, allows drive to function natively under Windows without any hardware conversion/adaptors
Boots all Xtreme Xbox 360 backups
Boots all Xtreme Xbox 1 backups
Boots all Xbox 360 originals
Boots all Xbox 1 originals on Xbox 360
Use on Xbox Live at own risk

The full article awaits after the jump!

Only a few days after the release of Helldoc's Xbox 360 SS Merger v1.3, an update has again been released; Helldoc has just updated it to the v1.4. So just what are new, fixed, and/or improved with this version? Well here's the changelog:

- Iso type autodetection has been really improved.
- Iso type detection is now automatic when you select an iso.
- Iso type detection will tell you how the detection has been made (blanked video partion found, original video partion found, etc...)
- md5 of current iso's ss is displayed+ md5 of ss file.
- ss file is now validated to minimize user error.
- I made some change to the gui but nothing major.
- added merge in the file menu.

Notes: Instructions are still the same. If you have no inkling on what to do, click here.

Download: [HellDoc's XBOX 360 SS Merger v1.4]

HellDoc has just released an updated version of his WxRipper ISO file and security sector merger for 360 raw dumps with an added ISO type autodetection feature and an ISO splitter to extract video partition, game partition and ss sector from an ISO file.

According to the developer, the ISO detection works with untouched image. The ISO type though will be wrongly detected as extreme if you rip with WxRipper and then apply Security Sector. If you want to ensure that you have the video partition already, you should mount the ISO file with Deamon tools or alcohol. This should allow you to play the video.

Here are instructions from developer HellDoc on how to merge ss:

1 - Make sure you have .Net Framework 2 installed.

2 - Browse for the iso.

3 - Hit Detect.

4 - Make sure detected settings are right by looking at the selected layer break file. (Xbox Iso or Xbox 360 iso)

(If the iso was made using the xtreme way, there no way to detect if its xbox or xbox 360 so you must specify it)

5 - Browse for the Security Sector file

6 - If its an original xbox iso, click the xbox button, it will set the ss offset and choose xbox layer break file.

7 - Hit Merge and Create Layer break file

8 - Burn the .dvd file that was created with cd/dvd.

9 - Give your feedback

10 - Donate via paypal to helldoc AT gmail D0t com so i can buy a 360 ( no, i don't even have one... i sometime have access to one with an hitachi drive... )

How to use iso splitter :

1 - select your iso file (Must be a complete iso with video partition).

2 - hit xbox 360 or xbox depending on your iso.

3 - select what you want to extract

(Extraction the game partion will create a xtreme type of iso)

4 - Hit split and wait.

 

Download [XBox 360 SS Merger 1.3]