INSTALLATION.md

Installation

OpenXenium installation is much like every other Xbox LPC memory addon; however if you build your own OpenXenium; the flash memory and the CPLD is blank so it won't initally boot anything (Xbox will FRAG). To program the CPLD see the Firmware page. The easiest way to program the flash memory with XeniumOS is to use xenium-tools with a Original Xbox console and hotswap from a working modchip to complete the first write.

The target user is expected to understand the installation of a modchip already to boot the xenium-tools homebrew application. There is already many guides online. One such guide is the Aladdin-XT-installation-Guide which has the same principles as OpenXenium.

For a version 1.6 Xbox you are required to rebuild the LPC because the necessary PCB traces were removed by Microsoft in this revision. This can be achieved by using single core 30AWG wire manually rejoining all the points with solder, or using a community made LPC Rebuild board. The latter being the recommended option for a beginner. OpenXenium pulses LFRAME for a 1.6 to prevent it being permanently forced to ground, therefore the LFRAME point can be connected to the D0 point on the OpenXenium PCB instead of ground. In this case the 1.6 pad should be bridged to D0 on the OpenXenium PCB. See install tips below.

Programming XeniumOS to OpenXenium

1. Boot your Xbox using another bootable modchip and transfer xenium-tools.xbe to your xbox. You must boot the Xbox using another modchip. Booting from the onboard TSOP will prevent xenium-tools from working.
2. Transfer over a xenium 2MB raw flash.bin or XeniumOS 2.3.1 recovery.bin (v2.3.1 only) to the xenium-tools directory. flash.bin is full Xenium flash memory dump obtained from a Genuine Xenium device using xenium-tools (Menu option START+X). This is the recommended file to use as it contains the recovery sector which allows the recovery feature to work on an OpenXenium.
3. Open xenium-tools.xbe. The main menu looks like this
   
4. At the main menu, carefully remove the current modchip and replace it with an OpenXenium. Hotswapping is not ideal and so great care should be taken to not drop anything into the Xbox and triple checking pin header alignment before commiting to pushing it onto the header.
5. Press the BACK button to confirm that xenium-tools can now detect your OpenXenium. Also press A to toggle the RGB LED. This provides some confidence that the unit is functional. If this doesn't work, confirm you have programmed the CPLD with the OpenXenium firmware and you have installed it correctly on the header.
6. Press START+B or START+Y to program flash.bin or recovery.bin respectively to the OpenXenium.
7. On completion is should look like something like this
   

OpenXenium Installation Tips

1. The following steps assume you have an assembled OpenXenium with XeniumOS already programmed to the flash memory. The LPC header is most probably already soldered by now/1.6 LPC rebuilt if needed but here is some OpenXenium specific tips.
2. OpenXenium has two extra header pins that purely bring the SDA and SCL pins up to the PCB for easier installation of a spi2par2019 or access to the SMBus data lines. These are completely optional, just be mindful of the pin alignment when you install the OpenXenium onto the header though.
   
3. For a non v1.6 Xbox connect the Xbox motherboard D0 point to the OpenXenium's D0 pad. If you connect the motherboard D0 to ground directly the Boot From TSOP feature in XeniumOS will not work.
4. For a 1.6 Xbox connect the MCPX LFRAME to the OpenXenium's D0 pad, then bridge the OpenXenium D0 pad to the nearby 1.6 solder pad on the OpenXenium PCB as per the silk screen markings.
   You can keep LFRAME connected to ground if you wish, but it is generally accepted to not be a good long term solution.