Flashing firmware on a Mac for LibreDrive

[MKV Maker]

Thank you for your response. I spent another few hours reading and researching all of this and I now at least understand what is going on and it does seem like electronics makers are getting increasingly hostile to their customers.

Hostile is an understatement. They have been cruel to their customers. It is analogous to how HP treat their customers. HP, LG, and Pioneer all use the failure of an excuse of security. Nothing can be farther from the truth. It is all about control of a product they made but do not own. Ultimately they cannot control what is not in their possession.

[Goddess_Germanika]

I hope my last question.

Someone mentioned my code should look something like this

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/Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS/makemkvcon f -d '/IOBDServices/5CDB4FF9' -f /tmp/sdf.bin rawflash enc -i /tmp/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS60-1.02-NM00600-212005081014

When I looked in The everything you need download I found the line directly above. The one at the end of the full script "NM001002118" I found in the Old Folder, so I am assuming for older drives? The one in the HL-DT-ST folder has "NM00600-2120"

so my script should be

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/Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS/makemkvcon f -d '/IOBDServices/5CDB4FF9' -f /tmp/sdf.bin rawflash enc -i /tmp/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS60-1.02-NM00600-212005081014.bin

This means this script expects to find encrypted ROM and it will downgrade it to an unencrypted 1.02 which will Read UHD Blu-ray, have I got this right?

Thank you for your advice and patience.

[MKV Maker]

The copy I used [and saved for future] is labelled HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936. Apparently there are three versions of 1.02 although I am not sure what the differences are amongst mine and those.

[Goddess_Germanika]

This worked and seems to have already made the drive better! Discs that failed multiple times ripped successfully. They seem to rip faster as well.

I'll see how we do with UHD then put this software in the buy column. I assume Preferences open up after I buy.

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/Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS/makemkvcon f -d '/IOBDServices/5CDB4FF9' -f /tmp/sdf.bin rawflash enc -i /tmp/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin

Does anyone know if I can open the .bin files so I can see how they are written? I am an accountant but studying coding. I'd love to see how firmware like this is written.

Thank you all (Y'all if yer from Texas)

[MKV Maker]

Does anyone know if I can open the .bin files so I can see how they are written? I am an accountant but studying coding. I'd love to see how firmware like this is written.

You may be able to disassemble it although I know not how. Perhaps GDB disassembles .bin files. If it were a UNIX executable then I know GDB can do it. Perhaps a tool like IDA Pro can open or disassemble .bin files in a way that they are understandable.

[samuel698]

I am on Mac OS can someone please tell me how to unlock this blu-ray drive so It can read UHD here is a screenshot from make mkv any help in the for of videos and instruction links is awesome thanks again

[Billycar11]

I am on Mac OS can someone please tell me how to unlock this blu-ray drive so It can read UHD here is a screenshot from make mkv any help in the for of videos and instruction links is awesome thanks again

There is no screenshot use imgur or similar

[samuel698]

here it is sorry I hope this works https://imgur.com/a/lRDctTv

[Billycar11]

here it is sorry I hope this works https://imgur.com/a/lRDctTv

nah to old get a different drive i recommend a pioneer with old fw see below for details

[bachelorbob]

I am on Mac OS can someone please tell me how to unlock this blu-ray drive so It can read UHD here is a screenshot from make mkv any help in the for of videos and instruction links is awesome thanks again

Read https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic ... 3&start=17

[ARMiller]

Hello all,

I have a question regarding the ASUS BW-16D1HT that I want to run on an Imac from 2010 with macOS High Sierra.

I would like to rip 4K UHDs and then store them on my NAS. I'm completely new to this and don't know much about computers.
I have already looked up several information and discovered that the ASUS should run on the iMac. But how to do that is a mystery to me. All flash software is Windows based and therefore not suitable for the Mac. Isn't there an easier way to get the ASUS running on an iMAC? I'm assuming I'm not the only one who has this.

If anyone can help me with information or explain an easy way to get this done I would be very grateful.

[bachelorbob]

I have a question regarding the ASUS BW-16D1HT that I want to run on an Imac from 2010 with macOS High Sierra.

I would strongly suggest mentally working from the other end first, which I did not.

I spent too much time and $ getting a 4K/UHD drive into an external enclosure, getting the drive flashed so that it could extract ISO images of 4K discs, adding those ISOs to the 4TB internal SSD (upgrade) in my 2012 MacBook Pro, getting a 4K compliant mini-Display Port-to-HDMI adapter and 4K HDMI cable, only to learn that the MBP could not stream the video signal fast enough to watch any 4K film.

I forget where I read the specs, but any Mac newer than about 2016 can export 4K video, but your 2010 iMac will definitely not be doing so, no matter how fast your NAS, HD/SSD, or CPU are. The video port is the bottleneck.

My ultimate solution was to simply purchase a 4K/UHD player which, with my 7.1-channel sound bar and 4K TV, completely separates my computer from my film watching.

[ARMiller]

I don't intend to watch ripped movies on my iMac.

I probably didn't write it down properly:
I intend to rip my 4K UHD movies with the ASUS BW-16D1HT using the MakeMKV program on my 2010 iMac with macOS High Sierra. I then watch the ripped films on my NAS in my own Home Cinema with an R_volution 8K media player.

So the ASUS needs to be flashed to work on my iMac. All flashing firmware that can be found on the MakeMKV website is only suitable for Windows. I can't imagine I'm the only one with this problem? Is there no one who can explain to me how I can solve this problem?

[Billycar11]

I don't intend to watch ripped movies on my iMac.

I probably didn't write it down properly:
I intend to rip my 4K UHD movies with the ASUS BW-16D1HT using the MakeMKV program on my 2010 iMac with macOS High Sierra. I then watch the ripped films on my NAS in my own Home Cinema with an R_volution 8K media player.

So the ASUS needs to be flashed to work on my iMac. All flashing firmware that can be found on the MakeMKV website is only suitable for Windows. I can't imagine I'm the only one with this problem? Is there no one who can explain to me how I can solve this problem?

you have to use the scary terminal commands on mac

[segfaulted]

You gotta terminal indeed. The process should be relatively painless if everything's in place. Instructions should also work on Linux.

Find the right firmware bin file for your drive from either mike's firmware pack or marty's all-you-need pack ... and for convenience's sake, copy the bin file to your home folder. In my example, I'm going to flash BU40N 1.04 on my drive.

I will also assume MakeMKV is installed to /Applications on the Mac. If it's somewhere else, change that accordingly in step 1 for your system.

Open a Terminal on your mac and run these commands. There's a screenshot below if you need a visual aid.

STEP 1

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alias sdftool=/Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS/sdftool

This will make it easier to simply run sdftool by name instead of typing in the full path every time.

STEP 2

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sdftool -l

This shows a list of the drives that were detected along with their device IDs. The device ID on Mac is random, so don't just copy-paste the one I'm showing. In my example, my device ID shows up as /IOBDServices/27FE1BA4 which will be used in the next step.

STEP 3

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sdftool -d [your device ID] rawflash main,enc -i [name of firmware bin file]

This command will start the reflash process. Fill in the correct device ID (from step 2) and firmware filename for your drive.

STEP 4

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yes

If the command in step 3 is accepted, you will need to confirm that you're ready to reflash the firmware. Type in yes and press enter to begin flashing. The process should take less than a minute.

STEP 5

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sdftool -l

This is a repeat of step 2 to check if the firmware actually got updated.
In my example screen, you may notice my drive now shows version 1.04, where it used to be 1.00 in step 2.

Basically, make sure your version number matches the one found on the firmware filename. If it did not, the drive probably rejected the reflash and will require some extra bits in step 3.

That should be it. See if the drive takes UHD discs after a reflash.