PhatHack DMS Tools Running The Hack Wizard
Hack Mode
The Hack Mode allows you to perform the hack process using an original PhatNoise DMS, or if you already have a hacked box, to upgrade the hack using any existing DMS.
The hack process allows you to hack your PhatBox / Kenwood Keg so that you can add your own disk to the DMS cartridge thus giving you the freedom to have a disk of any size and increasing your storage capacity infinitely.
To run the hack, do the following:
a) Insert an Original PhatNoise DMS cartridge into the DMS cradle.
b) Start the DMS Hack Tools
c) Click on the ‘Run Hack Wizard’ button on the LEFT side of the toolbar to switch to Hack Mode. Note: The currently selected option should appear with a border around it, the button you are being asked to click has a picture of a PhatBox to the left of the text ‘Run Hack Wizard’
d) Select your DMS from the device list by dropping down and selecting from the dropdown labelled ‘Select destination DMS for hack’.
e) Click on the ‘Run Hack Wizard’ button in the centre of the toolbar. Note: The button you are being asked to click has a picture of cogs with a green ‘Play’ button to the left of the text ‘Run Hack Wizard’
f) Follow the on-screen instructions, or read through the detailed instructions on the Hack Wizard starting on the next page!
Detailed Instructions for the Hack Wizard
The hack wizard will appear as follows:
The first screen on the wizard is the welcome screen, which will give you a brief overview of what the wizard will do.
Click on the next button in the bottom right corner of the wizard screen.
You may see the ‘Verifying DMS’ screen. Wait patiently
The wizard is collating information about your system in order to determine where it needs to apply the patch. It is also determining if the DMS cartridge inserted into the cradle is a PhatNoise ®™ original.
Chances are that you won’t actually get to see this screen, but in case you do [or just so that you don’t feel left out] here’s what it should look like:
Take care not to attach or remove any other USB devices which windows see as storage devices, or this process might get confused. Valid DMS is attached
If you do not see this screen, you have probably already run the wizard on the DMS in the cradle and you will be ready to verify if the patch worked on your PhatBox/Keg. Move to Step 11.
A note on DMS detection
During the beta it was discovered that a number of different disks were used by PhatNoise in the DMS cartridges. The application has not been updated to contain a definitive list of the original disks. Therefore in many cases the error will NOT detect the disk as being an original. HOWEVER, in either case the wizard will allow you to continue!
If a valid DMS is detected, click on ‘Next’.
If a valid DMS is detected by the wizard you will now be on Stage 3 of 8 and you will see the screen as shown on the following page.
If you do not see this screen, then click on the ‘Cancel’ button in the bottom right corner of the screen, insert another DMS, wait a few seconds and then go back to step 2.
If you are certain you DO have an original DMS attached, then as the screen shows, click on ‘Next’.
You may see the ‘Backup DMS Screen’. Wait patiently
The screen above may flash up for a brief second, and will be immediately followed with 1 or 2 ‘DOS’ type windows. The wizard is making a backup of your DMS boot sector should anything go drastically wrong one day. The backup is made to a sub-directory under the location:
My Documents\PhatHack Media Manager\DMS Backups\DMS Boot\
It is not required for the patch to work, but is provided purely as a ‘safety net’ for you should you ever need it sometime in the future.
Windows Vista Users
This process does NOT run under Windows Vista at the time of writing due to the elevated security requirements within the operating system. You will therefore be given an appropriate warning when the backup execution fails, and you should make a MANUAL back of the DMS.
This can be done by doing the following:
[Thanks to ButchHandy for this information]
• To run the backup part of the Hack Tool, you will have to run it manually, BUT you will need to start a DOS prompt with elevated (Administrator) privileges.
You do this by RIGHT clicking on the "Command Prompt" icon and when the menu pops up, selecting "Run as administrator".
When you are in administrator mode for DOS, the title bar for the window will say "Administrator: Command Prompt".
• In the ‘Command Prompt’ window, change to the directory where the Hack Tools are installed, namely, where the dd.exe program is located. Generally this will be:
C:\Program Files\PhatHack\PhatHack DMS Tools\DMS_Utils
To do this, type the following command:
Cd C:\Program Files\PhatHack\PhatHack DMS Tools\DMS_Utils
• Open the PhatHack DMS Tools log file called ‘PhatHack_Wizard_Log.txt’ located in
C:\Users\<Your username>\Documents\PhatHack Media Manager\Logs
• Scroll through the log file and locate the text:
Created argument string of
Copy the text after the ‘:’ at the end of the word ‘of’ by selecting the relevant text and going to ‘Edit’, ‘Copy’.
• Switch to the Command Prompt window and type ‘dd’ and press space. DO NOT PRESS ENTER.
• Next click on the ‘Close’ icon, located at the top left of the window, ONCE and from the popup menu choose ‘Edit’ and then ‘Paste’.
The text you selected above should now be pasted into the window.
• Now press ENTER. Your backup will now be performed.
You may see the ‘Applying Patch Files’ screen. Wait patiently.
Once the DMS boot binary is created the Wizard will automatically move to the next stage of backing up/copying over the files associated with the hack.
Every time you run the Wizard to apply patches to a DMS, a backup directory is created for you on your PC. The backups are made to the subdirectory as illustrated in Step 7.
As with Step 7, you may not get to see this screen because it works pretty fast. So here’s what it looks like.
The DMS Patch is Complete!
Providing nothing bad happens during step 8, you’ll now be on Step 6 of 8.
Your DMS is now ready to be inserted into the Phatbox/Kenwood Keg so that the hack can be performed on the box itself.
DO NOT FORGET TO EJECT THE DMS CARTRIDGE BEFORE REMOVING FROM THE CRADLE.
If you do not intend to update your PhatBox now, simply close the Wizard. You may also close the DMS Hack Tools program.
Don’t worry, once you have updated your Phatbox/Kenwood Keg when you return to the wizard when you click on ‘Next’ at the Welcome screen you will be brought right back to the ‘DMS Patch Applied’ screen!
Updating your Phatbox/Kenwood Keg Insert the DMS into the PhatBox and turn your stereo ON, selecting the Phatbox/Keg as your music source. At this point, your stereo should act as if your PhatBox/Keg is playing music, although you shouldn't hear any sound. This is normal. Leave the system on until you hear the "hack complete" announcement, or 10 minutes elapse without the announcement. During the hack process, your PhatBox will reboot itself several times. The general rule of thumb would be that it’s possible the PhatBox will reboot once for every hack it applies. There are currently 11 hacks that the hack process runs on your box, so expect it to reboot 11 times! Each time a reboot occurs, and your headunit switches to a different source, please switch back to the PhatBox so that it can run the next hack. When the hack is complete announcement, or you have waited a ridiculous time with no announcement, turn off your stereo and remove the DMS from the Phatbox. Not hacked? Sometimes the hack may not run first time, and in others you may need to disconnect the head unit. If the hack doesn’t run first time, then try this process: 1) With your engine off, make sure there is no DMS in the PhatBox and then disconnect the cable from the back of the PhatBox and wait a couple of minutes. 2) Re-connect the cable 3) Insert the DMS into the PhatBox 4) Turn your ignition to power up the Head Unit 5) Use the Head Unit to select the PhatBox
If this hasn't kicked it into gear, just take a look at the lights on the PhatBox - make sure we don't have solid green, and at there is at least some activity.
If necessary, repeat the above waiting until all the lights on have gone out on the PhatBox/Kenwood Keg before removing the DMS. Verifying the Patch Status? Click on ‘Next’.
Once you have updated the Phatbox/Keg, re-insert the DMS cartridge into the cradle and re-start the wizard.
If you are restarting the wizard, at the welcome screen click on ‘Next’ and you will then be taken straight to the ‘DMS Patch Applied’ screen as illustrated in Step 9.
Click on ‘Next’ again and you may be lucky enough to see the ‘Verify Patch State’ screen as shown below:
This processing is parsing the patch log files and collating critical information to verify if the patch worked.
Patch Complete
If everything worked out okay, then you will be at Stage 8 of 8. You should see a screen similar to:
Congratulations, your box is now patched and you can enjoy the freedom of any size disk that you care to install.
This screen is showing the status of each of the individual patches applied to your Phatbox/Keg.
If the patch process failed you should see a similar screen.
Patch Failed or errors occurred along the way?
We can’t unfortunately guarantee that the patch will work for everyone, and in some cases it may not work first time around. Indeed on occasion the Wizard itself may not be able to complete part of the DMS update because of unexpected problems.
If an error occurs along any of the 8 stages of the wizard, you will see a wizard error screen that will look just like any of the other stages in the wizard.
If the Phatbox/Keg patches themselves fail, after Step 11 you will see a ‘Patch Failed’ screen similar to the one in step 12 above.
If the error has occurred in the DMS Hack Wizard, then please follow the link below and create a new forum thread to tell us about the problem.
http://forum.phathack.com/index.php/topic,1291.0.html
If the Wizard has told you that the Patch has failed then please follow the link below and create a new forum thread to tell us about the problem.
http://forum.phathack.com/index.php/board,6.0.html
In either case you should copy the contents of the error screen and paste it into the body of your post.
To do this, simply click anywhere on the text and you will find that the text has a border. Once the border is visible simply select all the text, right click with your mouse and the choose ‘Copy’. You will then be able to paste the text into the forum post.
The wizard also makes a comprehensive log of most things that it is doing, it would be beneficial to attach this to your post. The log can be found in:
My Documents\PhatHack Media Manager\Logs\PhatHack_Wizard_Log.txt
New DMS Mode
The New DMS Mode allows you to perform one of two operations:
1) Partition and create a new DMS and load it up with specified firmware. 2) Update a DMS with newer/older firmware.
The New DMS Mode is usually used AFTER hacking your PhatBox and is provided so that you can partition your new disk and make it usable with the PhatNoise software and your PhatBox.
Creating a DMS with Partitioning
To Partition and Create a New DMS, do the following:
a) Insert your new PhatNoise DMS cartridge into the DMS cradle.
b) Start the DMS Hack Tools
c) Click on the ‘Create New DMS’ button on the LEFT side of the toolbar to switch to Hack Mode. Note: The currently selected option should appear with a border around it, the button you are being asked to click has a picture of a DMS cartridge to the left of the text ‘Create New DMS’
d) Select your DMS from the device list by dropping down and selecting from the dropdown labelled ‘Select destination DMS for hack’.
e) Select the firmware to load onto the DMS from the list by dropping down and selecting from the dropdown labelled ‘Select DMS firmware’.
f) If you select any ‘Kenwood’ based firmware the option ‘Install SSA/VIOT’ will become enabled. Kenwood Head Units have the ability to provide additional search modes by Artist, Album and Genre. Checking this option will install the hacked version of the plugins to enable this new functionality.
g) If the PhatBox you have was previously using a version of firmware for a different manufacturer than the version you have selected, you should check the option ‘Reflash box with firmware’. This will ensure the firmware is correctly updated on the phatbox.
h) Click on the ‘Create New DMS’ button in the centre of the toolbar.
Note: The button you are being asked to click has a picture of cogs with a green ‘Play’ button to the left of the text ‘Create New DMS’
That’s it! The DMS Hack Tools will then go through the following processes:
Wiping your disk clean!
As it says, the DMS you selected will be wiped clean. The existing partitions are wiped and new partitions created.
Formatting DMS (PhtSys)
This shouldn’t take long to do just a few seconds, and it’s doing a full format of the 100MB partition that will become the PhtSys partition.
Formatting DMS (PhtDta)
This part of the process will take a little longer, and is variable dependant on the size of the disk. This is a full format of the remaining space on the disk, so expect this to take a little while!
Downloading Firmware Updates
This part of the process goes out to the internet and retrieves the firmware files in the same way that the PhatNoise software does, if the PhatNoise site is up and running. It will download up to 4 zip files. If the PhatNoise site is not running, it will use the PhatHack downloads site to obtain the firmware.
Firmware Extraction
This part of the process takes the 4 ZIP files and creates your new DMS in the way that only we know how!
Oh okay then, we’ll come clean!
It detects how big the disk is, and if necessary ensures you have the correct version of the operating system for the PhatBox to recognise your disk. It then places some other key system files onto the disk so that your PhatBox doesn’t get confused before extracting the remaining firmware files onto the disk.
Finally it will copy some custom files onto the disk.
Done
Your new DMS is ready to roll! At the time of writing it doesn’t have any playlists once it is ready – but you should be able to start up the PhatNoise Media Manager software and start loading it up with your music!
Updating a DMS with newer/older firmware
To update a DMS with newer/older firmware do the following:
a) Insert your new PhatNoise DMS cartridge into the DMS cradle.
b) Start the DMS Hack Tools
c) Click on the ‘Create New DMS’ button on the LEFT side of the toolbar to switch to Hack Mode. Note: The currently selected option should appear with a border around it, the button you are being asked to click has a picture of a DMS cartridge to the left of the text ‘Create New DMS’
d) Select your DMS from the device list by dropping down and selecting from the dropdown labelled ‘Select destination DMS for hack’.
e) Select the firmware to load onto the DMS from the list by dropping down and selecting from the dropdown labelled ‘Select DMS firmware’.
f) If you want to upgrade the firmware for an ORIGINAL DMS to be used in a NON-HACKED Phatbox/Kenwood Keg then ensure the option ‘Install non-hacked firmware’ is checked. [This will automatically check the option ‘Reflash box with firmware’]
g) If you select any ‘Kenwood’ based firmware the option ‘Install SSA/VIOT’ will become enabled. Kenwood Head Units have the ability to provide additional search modes by Artist, Album and Genre. Checking this option will install the hacked version of the plugins to enable this new functionality.
(This option is not available for non-hacked firmware updates)
h) If the PhatBox you have was previously using a version of firmware for a different manufacturer than the version you have selected, you should check the option ‘Reflash box with firmware’. This will ensure the firmware is correctly updated on the phatbox.
i) Click on the ‘Update Firmware’ button in the centre of the toolbar.
That’s it! The DMS Hack Tools will then go through the following processes:
Downloading Firmware Updates
This part of the process goes out to the internet and retrieves the firmware files in the same way that the PhatNoise software does, if the PhatNoise site is up and running. It will download up to 4 zip files. If the PhatNoise site is not running, it will use the PhatHack downloads site to obtain the firmware.
Firmware Extraction
This part of the process takes the 4 ZIP files and creates your new DMS in the way that only we know how!
Oh okay then, we’ll come clean!
It detects how big the disk is, and if necessary ensures you have the correct version of the operating system for the PhatBox to recognise your disk. It then places some other key system files onto the disk so that your PhatBox doesn’t get confused before extracting the remaining firmware files onto the disk.
Finally it will copy some custom files onto the disk.
Done
Your new DMS is ready to roll! At the time of writing it doesn’t have any playlists once it is ready – but you should be able to start up the PhatNoise Media Manager software and start loading it up with your music!
New DMS Gone Bad?
Like the Hack Wizard, the new DMS tool might not work for everyone. It may stop working, it may give errors or it may just go into a sulk and ignore your every plea to work.
If this is the case we may be able to use logs generated by the New DMS Mode to find out the cause of your problems. You can find the logs here:
My Documents\PhatHack Media Manager\Logs\ PhatHack_NewDMS_Log.txt
If you can’t get the tools to work, let us know here http://forum.phathack.com/index.php/board,6.0.html , and we’ll do our best to assist anyway we can.
Backup DMS Mode
The Backup DMS Mode can be used to perform backups of key parts of the DMS system should you ever need to recover from a failed disk. We’ve yet to complete the restore side of this, which is why things may change last minute!
Anyway to use the Backup Mode as it is:
a) Insert your PhatNoise DMS cartridge into the DMS cradle.
b) Start the DMS Hack Tools
c) Click on the ‘Run Hack Wizard’ button on the LEFT side of the toolbar to switch to Hack Mode. Note: The currently selected option should appear with a border around it, the button you are being asked to click has a picture of a PhatBox to the left of the text ‘Run Hack Wizard’
d) Select your DMS from the device list by dropping down and selecting from the dropdown labelled ‘Select destination DMS for hack’.
e) Click on the ‘DMS Backup’ icon on the right side of the toolbar and the backup DMS screen will appear as shown:
f) Enter a name for the backup and select at least one of the options under the backup name. The options are:
i) Drive signature – Backup the first 1024 bytes of the DMS ii) System files – Backup key files from PhtSys iii) Plugins – Backup the plugins folder from the DMS iv) TTS Announcement Files – Backup the static announcement files from the DMS
g) Click on ‘Backup Now’
Your backup files will then be created. These files are simply a number of files with odd extensions, but are just ZIP files containing the original files.
You can manually restore the files onto your DMS by renaming the backup files with a ZIP extension and then extracting the zips to the right place on the DMS.
Troubleshooting and Frequently Asked Questions
Problem: I get an error message about ‘dbnull’ on start-up.
Solution/Answer: The tools use WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) to obtain information about storage devices attached to the system. This error appeared on one machine during the beta tests and although a possible patch was issue it was not confirmed if this problem has gone away.
To work around the problem, remove any un-necessary USB devices and restart the application. If you are still not able to work around the problem, please let us know and we’ll use you as a guinea pig to try and nail it once and for all.
UPDATED SOLUTION:
This should no longer occur. This issue has now been replicated and has been addressed accordingly.
Problem: I get a warning about the DMS backup failing
Solution/Answer: Apparently only an issue under Vista, the tools launch an external process ‘dd.exe’ to perform a backup of the first 1024 bytes of your DMS disk. This operation can be performed manually, but is not essential to the hack process. There is a possibility the command line call being used is incorrect. Check the log files for the section relating to the DMS backup. The command line being used will be logged. Try dropping into a DOS shell and running the command line as specified in the log file. If it works, great! If not, let us know the error being returned and we might be able to resolve the problem or tell you how to fix the command to get it to work.
Problem: After the ‘Hack Applied’ stage, the hack fails in my car because I cannot get the PhatBox to start Solution/Answer: The hack itself can sometimes take a number of goes to actually run. Re-read the section in this documentation entitled ‘Not hacked? ‘ You’ll find it on Page 11. There’s more on the next page…..
Problem: After the ‘Hack Applied’ stage, the hack fails in my car because I cannot get the PhatBox to start (it’s not the above)
Solution/Answer: Again only a problem with one user on Vista x86, in some cases the tools fail to generate a correct SIG file for Exec.INI. Investigations into this problem are on-going and hopefully we’ll have the answer one day! There is a work around though:
1) Browse to: http://www.phathack.com/plsign.cgi 2) Click on ‘Browse’ and browse to your PhtSys partition 3) Select the file ‘exec.ini’ and click on ‘Submit’ 4) When prompted click on ‘Save’ and save the file on to your PhtSys partition as ‘exec.sig’
(Note: this filename case sensitive!)
5) Re-insert the DMS into the PhatBox.
- UPDATE ***
The signature generation code ported to Windows (exactly as was) appears to have bugs in it. This problem should now no longer occur.
Problem: My box is hacked, and I’ve created a new DMS and loaded it with songs. But the PhatBox won’t load/use the DMS
Solution/Answer: Really? Are you sure? This one came up from the same user twice where it was discovered that the non-LBA version of the file ‘linux’ was being placed on the DMS. This should no longer occur but if for some reason it does, try copying the non-LBA version of the file ‘linux’ onto the DMS. There’s a copy in the DMS_Utils directory of the application.
Question: Can we have the hack wizard displayed in language <some language>
Solution/Answer: Yes, sort of. The hack wizard runs from a configuration file found here:
<Installation Path>\PhatHack\PhatHack DMS Hack Wizard
called:
WizardConfig.INI
Simply replace the English text in this file, with the text in your language – and please feel free to submit it to the PhatHack forums!
Question: Can we have the Create New DMS process displayed in language <some language>
Solution/Answer: Not at this time.
Question: I have files encoded with more recent versions of the WMA codec. Will they work on the new DMS?
Solution/Answer: The ‘Create New DMS’ process includes updated versions of the WMA player for the PhatBox. Try it out and see. If you are aware of newer versions still, simply replace the relevant files in the DMS_Utils directory of the application and run the ‘Create New DMS’ process again.
(Note: Windows XP Users only, Vista users will have to wait for an update and the MSI installers validate the files deployed at setup time and will recover non-original files)
Problem: I can’t start the DMS Hack Tools! Solution/Answer: The tools require that you have at least the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 installed on your PC. You may need to download this if prompted to by the application installer, or it may need re-installing.
Problem: I cannot use PhatNoise Media/Music Manager after creating a new DMS
Solution/Answer: Actually I suffer from this one, and seem to be the only one! I think something is missing from the new DMS that the software seems to think should be present.
There is a workaround available (untested), where you can use an older version of PhatNoise MUSIC Manager (v1.86) which will create whatever is missing allowing you then to use later versions of Music/Media Manager with no further problems.
- UPDATE ***
We believe this issue to be resolved. It would appear PhatNoise Media Manager is reliant on knowing which version of firmware you have installed on your PhatBox. This is the presence of the file ‘CurrentSetup.xml’. When the tools download firmware files from the PhatNoise site, you should have no problems.
If downloading from the PhatHack site there may be problems.
But soon you’ll be able to ditch PhatNoise Media/Music Manager and use PhatHack Media Manager instead!
Check out the latest progress here:
http://forum.phathack.com/index.php/board,4.0.html
(Note: You must be a registered PhatHack user to access this area)
Problem: When I start PhatNoise Media/Music manager and try to install plugins it tells me that the ‘Current version of firmware is not supported’
Solution/Answer: this is possibly due to a file that was not being created in earlier versions of the tools not being present. This file is ‘CurrentSetup.xml’. The latest versions of the tools should now be creating this file and we are waiting for you to confirm that the problem has indeed gone away!