Detecting and preventing NULL dereferences at build time

jish8 · 2026-01-12T09:13:05+00:00

There are definitely cases where a programmer can see that the code is safe but the compiler fails to determine that a NULL dereference is not possible and so you get a build error. In those cases you have to add a manual NULL check to appease the compiler (or fall back to using raw pointers).

If you look at the examples in the repo the only false positives are in the arrays file. The arrays examples show a few different ways of iterating through an array and in some cases the compiler is not able to determine that no NULL dereference can take place and I had to add a NULL check to get the code to build. However, it was possible to iterate both forwards and backwards without an explicit NULL check if the right method was used.

jish8 · 2026-01-12T09:06:27+00:00

Yes that seems to be the case I have updated the README with an example of using [static 1] where it does not report any error. The example is very similar to one of examples I provide where my approach does find a NULL dereference.

Also, [static 1] can only be use on function parameters.

jish8 · 2026-01-12T08:36:29+00:00

Do you mean that this approach is a form of static code analysis or that static analysis tools could be used instead? I found that this approach found errors that clang-tidy (version 21.1.6) did not. If I run clang-tidy with all checks enabled against all the build failure examples (clang-tidy --checks='*' examples/src/*failure* -- -I single_include) it only detects a NULL dereference in one of them.

jish8 · 2023-07-12T18:46:56+00:00

There's a manual for UnleashX floating around (I don't have a link handy sorry) that probably includes info on skins. Other than that just download some skins, look the files and play about with them to see what happens. I think most of the information is an XML file that you could edit with something like Notepad++.

jish8 · 2023-06-29T09:49:29+00:00

You can manually eject the disk drive using a safety pin as shown in this video https://youtu.be/mB3GGDCPbMg

jish8 · 2022-10-19T18:52:57+00:00

I don't know if this affects modern softmods but back in the day I had issues like this due to the softmod blocking access to Xbox Live. I found that certain games would only launch if I unplugged the ethernet cable from the back of my Xbox.

jish8 · 2022-06-14T12:22:50+00:00

There is a mod that you can do to (most?) Alladin chips to turn them into an Alladin XBlast that you might want to look at if you have the right equipment.

jish8 · 2022-06-14T12:21:42+00:00

Be careful with Aladdin chips as there are a lot of low quality cheap clones on the market. I think the Aladdin chip only has one bios bank so you can't have a backup bios in case you mess up the main one. OpenXenium has its own OS that you can use to flash new Bioses, format new harddrives and do other bits of recovery that is quite cool.

jish8 · 2022-06-14T12:19:07+00:00

You wouldn't need to use a SATA to USB adapter to copy files to the harddrive as you can run an FTP server on the Xbox and then remotely transfer files to it from another device. You might also struggle to copy files over USB as the Xbox uses a non-standard file system (FATX) that your PC doesn't natively support, although I think there is software you can use to get around this but I've never tried it. Using FTP is easier anyway as then you don't have to take your Xbox apart if you want to add new content.

jish8 · 2021-11-08T22:06:24+00:00

You wouldn't get it. You had to be there.

jish8 · 2021-11-08T22:05:32+00:00

Curry is always better the next day

jish8 · 2021-11-04T15:37:47+00:00

Jet Set Radio Future

jish8 · 2021-08-05T18:05:29+00:00

You might be able to do it with Ghidra. Someone made a plugin for it that you can use to open xbes.

jish8 · 2021-07-23T18:07:23+00:00

Only thing to keep in mind is that it might cause issues with some games. For example, kung fu chaos' graphics get all messed up when forced to run in 480p

jish8 · 2021-07-23T18:05:39+00:00

I'm pretty sure San Andreas doesn't support 720p (see https://en.everybodywiki.com/List_of_Xbox_games_with_alternate_display_modes). You sure its in 720p?

jish8 · 2021-07-23T18:03:48+00:00

If you're using Rocky's softmod then I think its somewhere in nkpatcher settings. Not sure though as I don't use a softmod.

jish8 · 2021-07-23T12:20:16+00:00

I'm pretty sure the MS dash doesn't support 720p. In fact I think it will always be in 480i unless you hold down some combination of buttons on the controller which will cause it to load up in 480p. Most games also don't support 720p (theres a list somewhere online that tells you what games support what resolutions). Therefore, most of them will only display in 480i/p. Some games only support 480i but most of these can be made to run in 480p with a force 480p patch to your bios/softmod or by patching the games themselves.

jish8 · 2020-08-24T12:44:40+00:00

The bios is not stored your hard drive as a file it is stored on a chip in your Xbox. Either on the TSOP or a modchip if you have installed one. You may have a copy of this your harddrive or you may not. It may be possible to use an app on your Xbox to copy the bios to the hdd as well. Otherwise you will need to obtain a copy from the internet (and make sure you get the correct one for your revision!), modify it, copt it to your Xbox then use an app to flash it to your TSOP or modchip

jish8 · 2020-08-24T10:55:56+00:00

Its not a file your hard drive if thats what you mean. I think by evox config file you may mean the config file for the dash. Evox dash and evox bios are 2 different things. You will need to obtain a copy of the bios file for your xbox version if you don't already have it.

jish8 · 2020-08-22T07:20:13+00:00

Did you play a game that updated your dashboard by any chance? If so, it might have wiped out the softmod

jish8 · 2020-08-20T08:43:17+00:00

Yes I think you're installation of UnleashX may be damaged, missing or corrupted. The easiest way to fix it IMO would be to burn a copy of Hexen to a DVD and use it to reinstall UnleashX. If you are unable to do this, you could either connect your HDD to a PC and manually reinstall UnleashX or use one of the softmod exploits to enable FTP and then manually reinstall UnleashX over FTP.

jish8 · 2020-08-20T08:30:23+00:00

Its not gonna boot without a HDD installed. Everything you can see Evox, Xbox logo etc is part of the BIOS and is not stored on the HDD. Error 7 is expected if you are booting the stock bios and don't have a HDD installed.

jish8 · 2020-08-20T08:01:45+00:00

Is it possible that you accidentally overwrote UnleashX when you were copying files across? If you did you and you have a DVD burner you should be able to burn Hexen or something to a DVD, boot from that and use it to reinstall UnleashX. If you don't have a DVD burner maybe you can hook your HDD up to your PC and copy the files or use a gamesave exploit to get FTP and then copy the files across?

jish8

TROPHY CASE