Linux How To: Flash ASUS-BW-16D1HT

[ciaduck]

It took me too long to figure this out, so to save the next poor soul from an hour of searching, here is everything in one place.

Warning: This process is incompatible with Asus BW-16D1HT drives manufactured prior to 2015. The model number is the same, so take note of the date. To ensure your drive is compatible, run MakeMKV and check the drive before attempting firmware flashing.

1) You need the SDF file, you can find it in your MakeMKV data folder. This is set up in The MakeMKV Prefences, and is ~/.MakeMKV by default.

~/.MakeMKV/_private_data.tar has SDF files from using MakeMKV to open disks. Use the GUI to open a disk, to ensure there is at least one SDF. While you're at it, validate that the drive is compatible and versions are correct, etc.

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# List data in tar archive
tar -tvf ~/.MakeMKV/_private_data.tar 

# Extract Specific SDF file
tar -xvf ~/.MakeMKV/_private_data.tar sdf_000000??.bin

2) You need the LibreDrive Firmware to flash to the drive. You can download it here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=19113#p71880

3) MakeMKVcon contains sdftool built into it's command line. You can use this to flash the drive, but read the help options carefully. Using MakeMKV 1.15.1, the following commands worked for me.

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sudo makemkvcon f --help
sudo makemkvcon f -f sdf_00000076.bin -d /dev/sr0 rawflash -i ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin

The trick here was noticing that the command was "rawflash" and not "flash".

I'm using Ubuntu 18.04, but this should be transient to any Linux.

My version of sdftool is:

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$ sudo makemkvcon f --version
LibDriveIo/SdfTool version: 2.01

Cheers!

[AffSeda]

Might want to edit that post and put a warning at the top for people using 1.x (< 2015) drives not to do this before someone searches, finds this as the top result, and blindly does it.

[MrPickle]

ciaduck, many, many thanks for posting. I've just tried your script on Debian Buster and can confirm it worked!

>makemkvcon f -f sdf_00000078.bin -d /dev/sr0 rawflash -i ./Downloads/mk-firmware-pack-20200415/MK/ASUS/BW-16D1HT/ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin

Reading input file ./Downloads/mk-firmware-pack-20200415/MK/ASUS/BW-16D1HT/ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
Current Drive ID: ASUS_BW-16D1HT_3.10_XXX_XXX
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

[ciaduck]

Might want to edit that post and put a warning at the top for people using 1.x (< 2015) drives not to do this before someone searches, finds this as the top result, and blindly does it.

Good point. I'll add it when I can. My edits still need mod approval. So it takes a while to update the post.

Hopefully people read and understand what they are doing before they run code. I understand the reality is that some people just say YOLO, and run stuff blindly. Updating firmware, microcode, or BIOS this attitude is a recipe for disaster.

Do you know if the drive model numbers are the same on pre-2015 Asus drives? I was under the impression they were different.

[AffSeda]

Do you know if the drive model numbers are the same on pre-2015 Asus drives? I was under the impression they were different.

Same model; ASUS BW-16D1HT. People have to look at the date of the drive and/or the metal indent pattern on the drive case (seems to be platform specific) and/or just check the platform in MakeMKV before proceeding.

[yorick]

Thank you! This worked well on Ubuntu 20.04 and MakeMKV 1.15.2. One wrinkle: No SDF file in _private_data.tar, not even after opening a disc. I downloaded it from https://www.makemkv.com/sdf.bin and that worked great.

Edit: The instructions also worked for cross-flashing a UH12NS40 (that had been crossflashed to Asus 3.01) to WH16NS60 MK 1.03, over USB.

[ubuntu_joe]

I was getting a bunch of errors that the tool couldn't find my .bin file as seen below, even with the files set up as 777

sudo makemkvcon f -f sdf_0000007f.bin -d /dev/sr0 rawflash -i ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin
Input file not found -- ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin
Internal error 0x83000001

I ran it w/o sudo and it found the file and I got a handshake error below:

makemkvcon f -v -f sdf_0000007f.bin -d /dev/sr0 rawflash enc -i ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin
Loaded SDF.bin version 0x7f

Reading input file ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
Sending image in encrypted format
Current Drive ID: ASUS_BW-16D1HT_3.10_211901041014_KLM21252118
Desktop drive handshake failed with error=0x40000001, trying slim drive handshake...
DEBUG: Code 4280127493 at dw|GL&h^ZC,QM-c,P7p%U=3B)s oHO}.:121264924

Command produced error code 0x8f1d9005

Handshake error was caused by not running with sudo, so I changed the owner and group of the Asus bin file to root. This got me to the next error:

sudo makemkvcon f -f sdf_0000007f.bin -d /dev/sr0 rawflash -i ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin
Unable to load sdf.bin
Internal error 0xffffffff

So I changed owner and group to root for the sdf file and voila, it worked!

sudo makemkvcon f -f sdf_0000007f.bin -d /dev/sr0 rawflash -i ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin

Reading input file ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
Current Drive ID: ASUS_BW-16D1HT_3.10_211901041014_KLM21252118
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

Kudos to the original post for providing the instructions. Sharing my experience here as there are not any productive threads talking about the error codes I experienced and so I posted here where they could be found and help get past them. Might have been obvious to some, but wasn't so obvious to me initially.

[theSilence]

I have my first UHD ready to rip. Instructions are laid out nicely. I just have one question. In this step

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# Extract Specific SDF file
tar -xvf ~/.MakeMKV/_private_data.tar sdf_000000??.bin

how do I know what bin to pick?

[Billycar11]

I have my first UHD ready to rip. Instructions are laid out nicely. I just have one question. In this step

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# Extract Specific SDF file
tar -xvf ~/.MakeMKV/_private_data.tar sdf_000000??.bin

how do I know what bin to pick?

the newest one

[theSilence]

That worked. For others. I download sdf.bin from here: https://makemkv.com/sdf.bin, even though it was already in my .MakeMKV . Next step was to figure out the drive

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~/.MakeMKV$ makemkvcon f -l
Found 2 drives(s)
00: dev_21:8, /dev/sr1, /dev/sr1
  ASUS_BW-16D1HT_3.10_211901041014_KL6L1J85050

01: dev_21:7, /dev/sr0, /dev/sr0
  ASUS_DRW-24B1ST___j_1.11_LBD0CL007882

then

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~/.MakeMKV$ makemkvcon f -d dev_21:8 -f sdf.bin rawflash -i /mk-firmware-pack-20200720/MK/ASUS/BW-16D1HT/ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin 

So I assume it picked the latest one from sdf.bin. Thanks for the help @Billycar11

[kubuntufan01]

The current version is different but I can confirm this works. If you simply right clicked the /home/user/.MakeMKV/_private_data.tar file and tried to extract the sdf file you're going to get errors. Follow the instructions above using the tar command to extract the sdf file.

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#Get root
Sudo -i 
[sudo] password for user:
root@Node-11:~# cd /home/user/
root@Node-11:/home/user# makemkvcon f -v -f sdf_00000096.bin -d /dev/sr0 rawflash enc -i ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin
Loaded SDF.bin version 0x96

Reading input file ASUS-BW-16D1HT-3.10-WM01601-211901041014.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
Sending image in encrypted format
Current Drive ID: ASUS_BW-16D1HT_3.10_211901041014_KLZL9PA3508
Ready to write drive flash memory.
Type "yest" 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

Command produced 0 file(s)

root@Node-11:/home/user#

[kubuntufan01]

The forum can confuse you and you can make fatal errors that brick your drive! The post are from a few years back and MakeMKV and SDF.bin version has changed. Simply copying and pasting code isn't going to do. You need to understand what you're doing.

The tar ~ tvf command isn't going to tell you the sdf.bin version (You need to know this.)

Instead make sure to show hidden files in your home directory.

Go into the /home/user/.MakeMKV directory and locate the "_private_data.tar" file

Right click it and open it with Ark. Do NOT extract it using Ark. (I found that it will corrupt the file somehow. I don't know why but it does.)

Now it should be at the bottom of the archive. In my case it was "sdf_00000096.bin".

Go back to the begining of this thread.

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"# Extract specific sdf file" >>>> and replace it with the correct sdf filename.

Otherwise everything is pretty much the same.

[dennis__]

I followed these steps and got a "Done Successfully" message. However my firmware does not appear to have changed.

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dennis@office~/.MakeMKV$ tar -tvf _private_data.tar 

... numerous hkd*.bin files
-rw-r--r-- 0/0          390012 1969-12-31 16:00 sdf_00000065.bin

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dennis@office:~/.MakeMKV$ tar -xvf _private_data.tar sdf_00000065.bin 
dennis@office:~/.MakeMKV$ cp ~/Desktop/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin .
dennis@office:~/.MakeMKV$ ls
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin  screen.conf       update.conf
_private_data.tar                                      sdf_00000065.bin

Both files now available for makemkvcon

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dennis@office:~$ makemkvcon f --list
Found 1 drives(s)
00: dev_21:2, /dev/sr0, /dev/sr0
  HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__WH14NS40_1.05_212005061444_KLBNAHI5756

OK, I have version 1.05 currently.

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dennis@office:~/.MakeMKV$ makemkvcon f --version
LibDriveIo/SdfTool version: 2.01
dennis@office:~/.MakeMKV$ sudo makemkvcon f -f sdf_00000065.bin -d /dev/sr0 rawflash -i HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin 
[sudo] password for dennis: 

Reading input file HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin
Flashing flags = 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

Seems to have worked. It even spent a few moments doing some work and showing a progress percentage.

But...

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dennis@office:~$ makemkvcon f --list
Found 1 drives(s)
00: dev_21:2, /dev/sr0, /dev/sr0
  HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__WH14NS40_1.05_212005061444_KLBNAHI5756

Still has the old fw? Loaded a dvd and started makemkv GUI...

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Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/sr0
Current profile: DVD-ROM
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE WH14NS40
Revision: 1.05
Serial number: 
Firmware date: 2120-05-06 14:44
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 75

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible (with patched firmware)
Drive platform: MT1959
Harware support: Yes
Firmware support: No
Firmware type: Original (patched version available)
Firmware version: 1.05
DVD all regions: Possible (with patched firmware)
BD raw data read: Possible (with patched firmware)
BD raw metadata read: Possible (with patched firmware)

Could someone let me know what I did wrong? Ubuntu 20.04 if that matters. Thanks.

[d00zah]

...
Could someone let me know what I did wrong? Ubuntu 20.04 if that matters. Thanks.

V1.05 is encrypted. You need to add 'enc' to the command line.

[dennis__]

V1.05 is encrypted. You need to add 'enc' to the command line.

I have tried adding enc after the rawflash parameter like I read in a post above -

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sudo makemkvcon f -f sdf_00000065.bin -d /dev/sr0 rawflash enc -i HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin 
[sudo] password for dennis: 

Parameter 'enc' not recognized

Command produced error code 0x8f1e0005

Then I tried it in a few other spots with a similar error or "Unknown command".

I hate to ask for you to spell it out for me but could you tell me exactly how to inform makekvon that the existing fw is encrypted?