Reviving old PC with Bluray drive

[gonzus]

I have an old Dell PC from 2008, which has the only Bluray drive in this house that is still working. I installed / upgraded an up-to-date copy of Ubuntu on the PC, and then installed MakeMKV (from a PPA).

This is the information I get when running some MakeMKV commands:

$ makemkvcon f --version
LibDriveIo/SdfTool version: 2.6

$ makemkvcon f -v -l
Found 1 drives(s)
00: dev_21:1, /dev/sr0, /dev/sr0
HL-DT-ST_DVDRWBD_GBC-H20N_C102_20080122123456_K1885TG2149

$ makemkvcon f -d /dev/sr0 help --info
SDF.bin version: 0x0098

Drive Tool SDF present

Drive Specific SDF not present

Identification SDF present

[Identification SDF] Embedded Info Strings:
8000:LibreDrive Information

8013:Status
:Possible, might be supported in future, but not likely soon

8001:Drive platform
:RS1013

8003:Firmware version
:C102-


[Identification SDF] Drive autodetect string:
hldtst-rs:Copyright (c) 2006,2007,Hitachi-LG Data Storage,Inc. :C102-:C102-01 BDDVDRW GGC-H20N:-

Since I have not touched a BR disc in ages, and assuming the drive is still functional (I'm going to run some tests as soon as I lay my hands on a BR disc), I have some questions for this forum:

1. Should I update the firmware for this drive, or (provided it works) should I leave it alone? Are there any risks involved in doing such an update? Is this C102 version something precious -- would I be a fool to try to update it?
2. Does updating the firmware automatically implies that LibreDrive will be supported on this drive? Is having support for LibreDrive a prerrequisite for ripping UHD discs? Is that all that is needed to rip UHD discs?
3. Is it possible to update the firmware directly from Linux? This post viewtopic.php?t=25866 points to a driver download page and a Win32 free tool called MediaCodeSpeedEdit -- can I do something similar directly on Linux?
4. BTW, that page contains 3 versions of the firmware, with confusing names / dates: 1.02 is oldest (Jan 2008, ZIP file), then 1.07 (Feb 2008, EXE file) and 1.03 (Jul 2008, ZIP file) -- what gives? Were I to update the firmware, should I go to 1.03 or 1.07?

Thanks in advance for any help / pointers.

[dcoke22]

1. Should I update the firmware for this drive, or (provided it works) should I leave it alone? Are there any risks involved in doing such an update? Is this C102 version something precious -- would I be a fool to try to update it?
2. Does updating the firmware automatically implies that LibreDrive will be supported on this drive? Is having support for LibreDrive a prerrequisite for ripping UHD discs? Is that all that is needed to rip UHD discs?
3. Is it possible to update the firmware directly from Linux? This post viewtopic.php?t=25866 points to a driver download page and a Win32 free tool called MediaCodeSpeedEdit -- can I do something similar directly on Linux?
4. BTW, that page contains 3 versions of the firmware, with confusing names / dates: 1.02 is oldest (Jan 2008, ZIP file), then 1.07 (Feb 2008, EXE file) and 1.03 (Jul 2008, ZIP file) -- what gives? Were I to update the firmware, should I go to 1.03 or 1.07?

Thanks in advance for any help / pointers.

1. If the drive works, I wouldn't try updating the firmware.
2. The drive is too old to support UHD. And yes, having support for LibreDrive is required to rip UHDs.
3. If you needed to flash a drive in Linux, follow the instructions in Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide
4. I think that post is talking about cross-flashing a drive to gain support for ripping HD-DVDs.

[gonzus]

If the drive works, I wouldn't try updating the firmware.
...
The drive is too old to support UHD. And yes, having support for LibreDrive is required to rip UHDs.

I suspected as much, on both accounts. I was able to rip my copy of Reservoir Dogs, so I'm just going to use the drive as-is.

Thanks for the quick response.