Attempting to flash in macOS

[AngryPrimate]

Yes, I know macOS is not as well supported as, say, Windows. No, I am not afraid of using bash. I've searched and searched, attempted, adapted, cussed, searched more, and now I'm kinda stuck.

I'm using macOS Mojave 10.14.6, on a 2019 iMac. The drive is a recently purchased Archgon MD-8107-U3 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008M ... UTF8&psc=1). MakeMKV will work with the drive reading older BR discs, but newer discs I've tried have all failed.

MakeMKV 1.15.0

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Drive Information
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: U100
Serial number: MO4J9UG3409
Firmware date: 2118-10-23 11:29
Bus encryption flags: 1F
Highest AACS version: 68

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible, not yet enabled
Drive platform: MT1959

I downloaded mk-firmware-pack-20200214.

After putting a disc in the drive I found that it mounts on /dev/rdisk3, so the command line goes like so

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[/Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS]$ ./makemkvcon f -d /dev/rdisk3 rawflash main -i ~/Desktop/mk-firmware-pack-20200214/mk/HL-DT-ST/BU40N-U/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-U101-MM01201-211711301153.bin

Reading input file /Users/bullmore/Desktop/mk-firmware-pack-20200214/mk/HL-DT-ST/BU40N-U/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-U101-MM01201-211711301153.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
There is a disc in drive, please remove it and try again

Command produced error code 0x8f056103

Righto. Pop the disc out.

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[/Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS]$ ./makemkvcon f -d /dev/rdisk3 rawflash main -i ~/Desktop/mk-firmware-pack-20200214/mk/HL-DT-ST/BU40N-U/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-U101-MM01201-211711301153.bin
Drive "/dev/rdisk3" not found

So, i can't flash while the drive has a disc, but the second the disk is ejected the drive is no longer mounted.

Any help would be appreciated.

thx

[Billycar11]

mac is dumb lol

[spl147]

The firmware flashers are windows based

[SamuriHL]

The flashing tool built into MakeMKV is not limited to Windows.

[spl147]

The flashing tool built into MakeMKV is not limited to Windows.

Was not aware makemkv had a flashing tool

[SamuriHL]

That's what they're trying to use on Mac.

See here for details:

https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic ... 19&t=21278

[BlueMac77]

Great to know MakeMKV has a built-in flashing tool. This app keeps getting better and better.

[bilbo_b]

Hi everyone,

I followed several forum posts yesterday on MacOS 10.15.4 to get the sdftool working.

The final problem with flashing I have not found a way to overcome:

the drive is /dev/rdisk4 as long as a medium is in the drive. As soon as it is ejected the device file "/dev/rdisk4" no longer exists.

Flashing requires the medium to be ejected. I can still --list the drive, but not rawflash it.

Has anyone been successful to flash on MacOS and if so, how did you solve the drive specification problem?

Cheers,
bilbo_b

[SamuriHL]

No one has solved that issue yet that I'm aware of. Mac is... not friendly. Lol you may have to find an alternative flashing method.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[MacOS]

Succesfully flashed a BH16NS55 v1.03 to v1.04 via an USB to ATA/ATAPI bridge on a Mac mini running Mac OS 10.10.5 with makemkvcon 1.15.1.
Used "HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS55-1.04-NM01701-211901041342.bin" from mk-firmware-pack-20200415 and the sdf.bin from _private_data.tar.

List the drive:

makemkvcon f -l

Found 1 drives(s)
00: IOBDServices:b3e6d70b0c5a731b:HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH16NS55 1.03

Flash the drive:

sudo makemkvcon f -d 'IOBDServices:b3e6d70b0c5a731b:HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH16NS55 1.03' -f sdf_0000006d.bin rawflash main -i HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS55-1.04-NM01701-211901041342.bin

[Coopervid]

I'm not a Mac user but I think this is worth a "sticky".

[mike admin]

Found 1 drives(s)
00: IOBDServices:b3e6d70b0c5a731b:HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH16NS55 1.03

There should been another line printed below this one, a so-called "drive id". It also can be used in place of drive name, and is somewhat easier to use on Mac.

[mike admin]

Has anyone been successful to flash on MacOS and if so, how did you solve the drive specification problem?

Second line, see previous reply.

[o-ver]

Big Thanks to MacOS (and a deep, deep bow to mike admin!) I successfully flashed my slim device Buffalo (manufactur. date: 2019.10.30 from https://conrad.de in MacOS High Sierra with Libre Drive enabled Firmware HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-BN12-0M01001-211905141415.bin.

Before I got this new slim Buffalo, I tried devices from ASUS and Verbatim (all slim). The Buffalo with LibreDrive Firmware rips my Test BD with 4.2 - 4.6x vs. the 1.8 - 2.0x with ASUS and Verbatim. Really satisfying!

It took quiet some time to understand sdftool and SDF.bin and fiddle with all aspects of command line, drives and flashing in MacOS.

What I did:

• Put the right firmware in home directory

• Extraction of sdf_0000006d.bin to my home directory

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  cp /Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/Resources/appdata.tar ~
  tar -xvf appdata.tar sdf_0000006d.bin

• Gathering name of device (as User MacOS showed us). In my case there is a good old internal RPC1 (thx2 XVI!) DVD Apple SuperDrive in first order, the second one is the Buffalo

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  /Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS/makemkvcon f -l
  00: IODVDServices:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:MATSHITA DVD-R   UJ-8A8 HA13
    MATSHITA_DVD-R___UJ-8A8_HA13_K83
  
  01: IOBDServices:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:BUFFALO Optical Drive BN12
    BUFFALO_Optical_Drive_BN12_211905141415_MO1J93A2324

• Now, Flashing...
  Sending flash image to drive took a few seconds, programming flash was about 30 sec

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  /Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS/makemkvcon f -d 'IOBDServices:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:BUFFALO Optical Drive BN12' -f sdf_0000006d.bin rawflash main -i HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-BN12-0M01001-211905141415.bin
  
  Reading input file HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-BN12-0M01001-211905141415.bin
  Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
  Ready to write drive flash memory.
  Type "yes" to continue, "no" to abort
  yes
  Operation started: Sending flash image to drive
   100% Operation finished                                
  Operation started: Programming flash
   100% Operation finished                                
  Done successfully

Unfortunately, I was not able to figure out, how to flash the drive with the "drive-id". I tried it several times but to no avail.

PLEASE continue your amazing work and contributions (mike admin and all of you out there) & please users register makemkv, so this thing goes on!

o-ver

[dash16]

I'm attempting this myself with a WH14NS40 1.04 and running into an error code. Got the drive info OK:

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/Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS/makemkvcon f -l
Found 1 drives(s)
00: IOBDServices:5a20491132828c1b:HL-DT-ST BD-RE  WH14NS40 1.04
  HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__WH14NS40_1.04_211901041351_KL4K35B4627

Extracted sdf_0000006d.bin to my home directory, copied over the MK firmware for my drive to ~ as well and executed the command:

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/Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS/makemkvcon f -d 'IOBDServices:5a20491132828c1b:HL-DT-ST BD-RE  WH14NS40 1.04' -f sdf_0000006d.bin rawflash main -i HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH14NS40-NS50-1.04-NM01201-211901041351.bin

Reading input file HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH14NS40-NS50-1.04-NM01201-211901041351.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----

Write flags NG 00/00/00

Command produced error code 0x8f000000

I've got the drive connected via a VanTec CB-ST00U3, which apparently won't work for firmware flashing in Windows but I figured I'd try my luck in macOS, not really understanding why some adapters work for flashing while others don't. Is there something wrong with my syntax, or should I try a different adapter? I'm considering lugging out an old PC and getting that up and running for a direct SATA connection to the drive simply to firmware flash, but before I tear apart my garage looking for all that mess I figured I'd see if I'm missing something dumb first.