Easy Linux cross-flash guide

[science-nerd]

Heya guys,
I wanted to provide a step by step guide for each command with detailed explanations.

To keep it short: Linux needs v1.17.7 to flash drives, the SDFtool GUI is not available and the two-step flash and recovery procedure for cross-flashing BP55EB40 to BP60NB10 is not intuitive with CLI. This guide is specific for this drive, but I will emphasize which steps would differ for a single step flash process.

However, it was troublesome building makemkv v1.17.7 with too new depdencies on Arch based Distros (CachyOS in my case), so I eventually found the post by rjflory viewtopic.php?f=3&t=40767 on how to use the older version in conjunction with the newer makemkv GUI program. The old version will be run entirely in the terminal just to flash the drives.

My BP55EB40 drive was manufactured in November 2024 and had the SVC code EB52 on the bottom of the drive. Check before attempting firmware flashing.

Preparation

Before install, make sure the sg kernel module is running so the drive is recognized:

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sudo modprobe sg
sudo bash -c 'echo sg > /etc/modules-load.d/sg.conf'

To start, install the newest makemkv version your distro supports. In the case of Arch based ones, it is available through the arch user repository (AUR) and chaotic-aur. To install use either yay or paru pacman wrappers:

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paru -S makemkv

For other distros refer to their respective makemkv installation guides, this should be the only difference to the rest of the guide.

This will also install SDFtool's newest version alongside it. Test it out:

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sdftool --version

This should give you an output like

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LibDriveIo/SdfTool version: 2.6

Next, open the latest version of MakeMKV you just installed to register the (beta) license and check your drive if it is LibreDrive capable.

Afterwards the firmware for flashing is required, the link is found in the SDFtool Flasher viewtopic.php?f=16&t=22896 guide:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/bpl3pz2b ... 9.zip/file

We need to download the standalone binary of makemkv v1.17.7 in order to have working flashing capabilities on Linux. The command will place it in your home folder:

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wget https://makemkv.com/download/old/makemkv-bin-1.17.7.tar.gz

Unpack the archive with the tar command:

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tar -xzf makemkv-bin-1.17.7.tar.gz

This will unpack into the directory makemkv-bin-1.17.7. Now we need to enable the executable bit to run it:

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chmod +x makemkv-bin-1.17.7/bin/amd64/makemkvcon

Now we can check if everything is working, assuming your drive is /dev/sr0:

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./makemkv-bin-1.17.7/bin/amd64/makemkvcon f -v -d /dev/sr0 help all

This should print applicable commands and flags. If not or it takes indefinitely, something went wrong.
Please confirm before proceeding.

Single step, normal flash process

The SDFtool GUI provides an example for the two step process by flashing a BP50NB40 drive with firmware BP50NB40 (NB50) 1.03-MK first, then using Recovery for cross-flashing BP60NB10 1.00-MK as seen in the GIF below UPDATE - 21/12/2021: viewtopic.php?t=22896

If your drive only requires a single flash step, this step will be identical. Make sure to select the correct firmware to flash for your respective drive!

The command has the general structure to select the drive device, flags and firmware:

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./makemkv-bin-1.17.7/bin/amd64/makemkvcon f -v -d /Path/To/Device rawflash FLAGS -i /Path/To/Firmware

The flag enc is required for encrypted firmwares (reference the Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide viewtopic.php?f=16&t=19634 if your desired firmware is encrypted) and the slim flag is needed for thin external USB drives.

DO NOT use slim flag for large Desktop drive firmware on external USB drives and DO NOT forget to include slim for the thin, external USB drives.

Flashing thick Desktop drive firmware to thin external drives and vice versa WILL brick your drive!
You have been warned.

Unpack your Firmware somewhere and now the flash can take place. The following command assumes your drive to be /dev/sr0. Change accordingly. Double check paths and devices, the flasher will ask if you wish to continue.

This is the only and last opportunity to cancel if something in the command was wrong.

The full command to flash the BP55EB40 drive with firmware BP55EB40 (NB50) 1.03-MK unpacked inside the Downloads folder is given as an example below.

Adjust the firmware file to your respective matching drive from the above mentioned SDFtool Flasher guide and Ultimate UHD drive flashing guide.

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 ./makemkv-bin-1.17.7/bin/amd64/makemkvcon f -d /dev/sr0 rawflash enc slim -i Downloads/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP55EB40-NB50-1.03-NM00800-212005070924.bin

Second step, Recovery cross-flash

After successful first flash, we basically repeat the same for the cross-flash with some different flags. The BP60NB10 1.00-MK firmware is not encrypted, hence enc is not needed and per 4k UHD guide recommendations, full will be added:

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./makemkv-bin-1.17.7/bin/amd64/makemkvcon f -d /dev/sr0 -f sdf.bin rawflash slim full -i Downloads/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BP60NB10-1.00-NM00200-211711211720.bin

After you are done, open your latest makemkv GUI program and enjoy your (cross-)flashed drive!